Zelensky vs. Poroshenko, Navalny Is Afraid of a Magician, Ingushetia: “We Don’t Want Dogs”

[music]

Good evening. It's 8 p.m. in Moscow, which

means we're live with the program

Russia of the Future, and I'm Alexei Navalny.

Or today, I'm a "criminal debt collector," as

Anton Tsvetkov called me.

He's this guy who heads the expert

council on security and relations

between citizens and law enforcement.

If you walk into a police station,

you'll most likely see his

face on a notice board. He heads various

public commissions

that supposedly oversee

law enforcement agencies, but in reality

they help law enforcement

torment people. So that's who called me a

criminal debt collector. We are living

in a new era — a new era of the internet — because

this is the first episode

to air after the law on

insulting the authorities actually came into force, and

last week and this week

we witnessed a truly astonishing,

spectacular show of how this law was

applied for the first time. There was a big

competition — everyone, naturally,

wanted to insult the authorities first

so that this absurd law could be tested

on them. But the Prosecutor General's Office

and Roskomnadzor (Russia's media and internet regulator) simply

exceeded all our expectations.

The absurdity and sheer nonsense of it all make it very

interesting to see what happens next,

because what has happened now is

remarkable. In Yaroslavl, there is

a regional police building, and it has

columns. On one of those columns, someone

went and wrote

— well, I can't really reproduce it here,

let's put it this way, and I won't put it up on

the big screen — you'll understand it yourselves. It's like

"Putin is a leader," but rhyming — except not

"leader"; it's an obscene word instead.

It's not good, it's bad to write things like that,

I don't support that sort of thing, but someone

thought otherwise and wrote it on the building. And you might think,

well, what does the law on insulting

the authorities — which regulates the media and the internet —

have to do with graffiti on a wall? But no:

the local media

naturally ran headlines saying some

guy hadn't just cursed out Putin,

he had written it

on a police building. Here's a larger

image. Naturally, they started

looking for him because he had defaced the

police building. So the police,

clearly for reasons of prestige alone,

began searching for the man. The local

media wrote: here is the man who

insulted Putin; this person is being sought.

After that, the Prosecutor General's Office —

apparently, based on that phrase,

they search the internet for it constantly,

googling it all the time — found all

the articles saying that police were looking for the person

who had left the obscene inscription, and

demanded that they be blocked. In fact,

yes, there is a notice from

Roskomnadzor — a letter to Roskomnadzor — here

you can see it now,

which it sent out to all those

Yaroslavl media outlets that had simply

done their job and reported the police statement:

we are looking for the offender. It's absurd.

No — delete these materials, because they

insult President Putin. Because these

materials — I mean, you understand how

this works: someone actually writes on

a wall, then the police look for the person who

wrote on the wall, the media report that

the police are looking for them, and then Roskomnadzor says

delete it all — it's prohibited information

that somehow insults someone — and everyone, of course,

started laughing very loudly,

because it's nonsense. At every single

stage of what happened, there was

nonsense. But the most utterly absurd part

was that it was specifically the

Prosecutor General's Office — the Prosecutor General's Office,

the highest body,

people with huge salaries and official

cars, sitting in the building on Malaya Dmitrovka

in Moscow — sitting there and searching for what Yaroslavl media

had written and exactly how Putin had been

insulted by something sprayed from an aerosol can.

After a while, Roskomnadzor, which people had started

laughing at, began saying

something like: well, we've been given

new powers, and we're testing how

these new powers work.

Guys, the law was passed, you understand? They passed

a special law.

It was discussed at length, and during

the discussion of this law, everyone said

it was complete nonsense.

But first they pass the law, and then

they work out the mechanism for how to

prevent and

promptly stop the spread of unlawful

information.

Unlawful information — is that

"Putin is a [obscenity]" on a wall, or is the unlawful

information the report that the

police are looking for the person who wrote it? It's unclear. But

nevertheless, there really were

letters, and indeed a very real

blocking of completely innocent

Yaroslavl media outlets. That, of course, tells us

that the Russian

internet really is entering a new era. Soon, all kinds of strange things

will start happening here.

Fortunately, YouTube isn't being blocked yet, so here

I will be able to

insult

as much as I want — for now. Though in truth, my

blog is always under threat of being

They blocked it several times, well then.

Still, let's talk about Ukraine and

the Ukrainian elections. As regular

viewers of the program know, I

don't like discussing Ukrainian

politics and do so reluctantly, for several reasons.

Second, we shouldn't meddle in their affairs; we should

leave them alone.

Second, the endless forcing of

Ukraine into the political agenda

in Russia

works only for Putin and no one else.

No one else. Putin has shoved Ukraine into everything for us.

There was a very funny clip

on the Navalny LIVE channel where they measured all

those propaganda channels to see

at what second in a talk show the word

"Ukraine" was mentioned. I mean, immediately after that

it pops up—nothing but that. But Ukraine isn't

really being discussed, so as a matter of principle I never

discuss Ukraine. But still,

right now very

very interesting things are happening there. The elections themselves are

very interesting. Ukraine is not

Russia.

And I see comments from viewers like

"So what, Russians,

are you jealous?" Yes, of course we are. It's very

interesting to watch this, very

interesting to follow

this confrontation. And of course,

everyone who lives in Russia and wants

normal politics would like

to have the same here too. Just imagine:

we don't know who will be

the president of Ukraine. Imagine that—we don't

know who will win the debates.

We didn't know what would happen in the first round, and we

don't know what will happen in the second round.

And that's very interesting. I've received

a huge number of questions

about what I think of Zelensky

getting so many votes in the first round,

Poroshenko getting fewer, and if

the president changes and Poroshenko actually

loses this election—what do I think,

do I consider it sensational, and so on

and so forth. But if that happens—though

it's not a done deal yet, guys—you need to understand very clearly

that there is nothing sensational

about what is happening now. First of all,

this is a Ukrainian political tradition. In

Belarus and Russia, and in all the other

countries of the former USSR,

the political tradition is that once a person

gets into the chair, you can't knock them out of it. In

Ukraine, everything is completely different—there it's the opposite.

No one even manages to stay for two terms.

Let's remember who has been president

of Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet

Union. First there was Leonid Kuchma,

then—sorry, please—

Leonid Kravchuk.

Kuchma came later; Kravchuk was first.

Naturally, sorry—after the Soviet

Union, then Kuchma, then Viktor Yushchenko,

then Yanukovych, and now

Poroshenko. And among them, the only one who

—as for Poroshenko, we don't know yet, but—

the only one who stayed for two terms

was Kuchma. All the others were swept away. Why?

Well, because—that's just how it is.

It's a kind of Ukrainian political

environment

where, when someone enters politics and

gets involved, does something there—I

am not saying that's bad; in fact,

maybe it's actually quite good.

First of all,

everyone immediately starts going after them viciously,

just tearing them apart with their teeth, and

of course,

if Zelensky becomes president,

the exact same thing will happen to him.

Remember, Poroshenko won with such ratings,

everyone was absolutely jubilant, but

the political tradition there is such that

Poroshenko gradually—and he himself is to blame for many

things—but still, the entire

rest of the establishment attacked him, and they

left nothing of him.

They tore him to pieces there. If

Zelensky wins, it seems to me—I'm almost

sure—the same thing will happen to him

fairly quickly as well. But the main thing,

why, in Ukraine, as

it seems to me—and again, I don't want

to come across

as some kind of armchair political analyst from

Vladimir Solovyov's talk show (a well-known Russian TV host),

telling you what's happening in Ukraine. I'm

just stating my opinion and I

don't claim to be deeply

versed in Ukrainian politics. The chart

you are about to see is

the main explanation for why they try

as quickly as possible

to replace any president. Ukraine is

a democratic country with

democratic traditions; power changes there. But if

you look at these

charts in the tweet, the lower yellow line is

Ukraine, and all the other lines—the world, Russia,

Poland—

they are rising in terms of GDP per capita. So

since 1992, no matter who changed, no matter what people

came to power, no matter what grand

reforms were announced,

absolutely nothing happens there from the standpoint

of the economy, from the standpoint

of economic development—it's a failure,

an endless failure. The world is growing,

Russia is growing too, despite everything.

Of course, this may look

as if I'm once again singing

Putin's praises—no, this is still

connected to oil prices,

but Ukraine probably looks the worst.

of any republic of the former Soviet

Union, from the standpoint of the economy, from the standpoint

of democracy, as we have seen, fine

but, strictly speaking, the population there, well,

has been, so to speak, in a rage for

many years now. Well, 1992 ended a long time ago

everywhere, but in some places they did better

and in others worse, building some kind of

capitalism

more or less decent, as in the Baltics

or indecent, as in Russia, but there is

economic growth, and at certain

brief periods people—but in Russia this

happened from 2000 to 2006, when the population

increased its real incomes

and per capita GDP grew. In Ukraine, this did not

happen

In this sense, Ukraine is controlled

by oligarchs even more than Russia is

The corruption there is hard even to imagine

for those who live in Russia, but

corruption in Ukraine is even greater than in

Russia

The population is furious; it keeps changing politicians

constantly, and now we are seeing

another very interesting round. I’m not

going to say whom I supported, although of course

I do have my personal sympathies

I very much enjoy watching Poroshenko

and I very much enjoy watching Zelensky

I greatly appreciate both sets of supporters

although they are, of course, irreconcilable opponents

It is very interesting to watch how they

support their respective candidate

This is a clash of two completely, well,

different systems and different formats, so to speak

Zelensky is leveraging the image of a

new kind of person—indeed, probably

the first well-known politician of this kind who

is seeking the highest office and who, at the same time,

was never a member of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), was not

some Komsomol activist (member of the Soviet youth organization)—he is entirely new

Poroshenko, in response, is leveraging the image

of a serious man, the type who says: I am a serious person

and you are who exactly—a clown, blah blah, all those

name-calling lines

whereas I am the commander-in-chief, and you are nobody knows who

and

Probably many of you have seen these videos

but I would still like to show them, because

this remote duel between them

which is tied to the challenge to debate

quite perfectly, it seems to me,

captures the very formats in which

Zelensky and Poroshenko are now confronting each other

Zelensky and Poroshenko

You know, for Poroshenko probably

the only chance to turn the situation around

is to challenge Zelensky to

a debate, and at the debate

to crush him. There is such an opinion that

Zelensky is this cheerful

guy, very photogenic, he had a

TV show, a TV channel, but in a

face-off with a real opponent

and without some teleprompter in his ear, he will not

be able to say anything. We will see whether or

not that is true, but a certain number of people

think so, and Poroshenko, leveraging

that idea, was insistently calling on Zelensky

to debate, and yesterday, to the jubilation

of all his supporters, he released a rather

dashing video. Let us watch it

Both videos will be in Ukrainian

but in any case, I think you will probably

understand about 60 percent, so we can

watch them. Let us first watch

Zelensky’s

, that I, Petro Poroshenko, am calling you to

a debate—not online, but for a real meeting

... [inaudible/transcribed unclearly] ...

I accept. However, on my

terms: at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium

the debate must take place before the people

of Ukraine

All channels must have the right to broadcast

the debate, and journalists must also have

the right to be present. Both candidates must

undergo medical testing

and clearly prove to the public that I am not

an alcoholic

or a drug addict. Ukraine needs a healthy

president. I give you 24 hours

to think it over. A debate is not with

someone who must publicly account for

being a puppet of the Kremlin or of Kolomoisky

for calling Ukrainians ‘Little Russians’ and cattle

not with a clown, but with a candidate for president

of Ukraine. Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, I give you 24

hours

to think

This is very characteristic: we just watched

this video in the studio once again, and here

there is a young woman sitting here, Olya, the editor

of the program, and she says: oh, great. Well,

because in terms of format and everything

else, the video really does look

quite slick. I was following it yesterday, and I saw that

Zelensky’s opponents

grew a bit discouraged because

it looked like one of those things where, on

the one hand, Zelensky agrees to

the debate, but on the other hand the format he proposes

and the rhetoric in general, like

let us get tested for drugs

and alcohol

is rather insulting, naturally

Poroshenko, you agree to the debate in

such a way that you are, in effect,

also refusing the debate. And of course everyone

was waiting to see what Poroshenko would say, since he

had come out using precisely—or not even using, but simply embodying

not so much exploiting as, in principle,

a different image, an entirely different

format of politician. It was no accident that two or

three times during his response

he used the words ‘I am the commander-in-chief’; for

him, that is the main and very important

All right, now let’s take a look at Poroshenko.

We trimmed it a little because

it was a full two minutes long, so that there would be

equal time for Zelensky and

Poroshenko, even on our program.

We took one minute from each. Now let’s hear Petro

Poroshenko and how he reacted to this video late in the evening.

reacted to this video.

[music]

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych, I’m glad... and you...

I want to... they accepted...

the proposal to hold a debate.

A campaign is not a circus act.

It is a matter of national significance for the country and the nation.

and for achieving results quietly.

Here, even if you are the president and

the commander-in-chief,

that alone does not mean you are worthy of becoming

president and supreme

commander-in-chief. That means setting

aside any

personal ambitions and seeing Ukraine’s goals clearly.

Yes, Ukraine’s interests on the international stage.

Debates are a serious discussion about

Ukraine’s development strategy, its movement

along its historical path, and its priorities.

Ukraine is not just a backdrop; it entrusts

The rules for debates are laid out

in the law on presidential elections.

Read it.

And here we can see very clearly, well,

that these positions have really been laid bare.

On one side, some guys are saying:

“We’re fundamentally new, and to hell with

all the old ones — we’ll rebuild everything

from scratch.” Others tell them:

“You’re not actually new at all, and you

can’t handle serious issues, can’t be

commander-in-chief, can’t manage international

policy, and so on.” It’s fascinating to watch.

It really is. In that sense, I can honestly say

that I envy

the people in a country where

these genuinely very

interesting and fierce

political debates are taking place. As for everything else,

I don’t envy them one bit, despite the fact

that Ukraine is a wonderful country and I have

a huge number of

relatives living there. At the end of this discussion,

I just want to say one thing: yes, I

would very much like this

chart I showed — let’s

look at it again — after the results of

these elections, whether Zelensky

wins or Poroshenko wins, for Ukraine

to finally find its footing and start growing,

and not give Putin any reason

to keep poking the Russian opposition with it,

saying, “Look here,

the Ukrainians keep changing and changing

their leaders, they’ve developed democracy there, and still

the chart

for GDP per capita is down at the bottom — they’re growing worse than anyone.”

So, better to rally

around me, Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich,

and I’ll make your chart look

like this. Replace me, and you’ll end up

like Ukraine.”

I would really like Ukraine

to finally make a breakthrough and prove

that its economy can grow. And at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), we honestly have

at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), to be honest,

our own stake in this too, because we

exposed several oligarchs who

have various energy assets in

Ukraine, and we hoped that now, well,

since no one in Russia is going to fight corruption,

at least in Ukraine something would happen — but

nothing happened, absolutely nothing.

We wrote letters, sent documents,

and Russian oligarchs still, without

any problem, simply put on the payroll and

effectively maintain the entire Ukrainian

law enforcement system. I don’t know

whether Poroshenko can deal with this.

I don’t know whether

Zelensky can deal with it either, but for FBK it would of course be very

good if mentions of

Ukraine in the Russian political

agenda worked against Putin, rather than

serving as fodder for all that riffraff,

that disgusting crowd from Russian television channels,

to finally shut up about Ukraine

because Ukraine would be a successful

example. I really hope so.

If anyone in Ukraine is watching me, please go

to the polls and vote for whoever

you like. Let everything

turn out well.

Peace and love. Now let’s move on

to another very important election

that got little attention in Russia, but for

Russia it is much more important than

the Ukrainian one, because the country is much

more similar to Russia. In Turkey,

elections took place, and what happened there is truly

an astonishing thing.

You know that in Turkey, in power is

Erdoğan, a genuinely authoritarian leader,

much more

hardline than Putin. There, thousands of

journalists are in prison,

activists are in prison, and so on and so forth.

But amazingly, elections are still held there.

And that same Sunday,

simultaneously with the elections in Ukraine,

elections were taking place in many places there,

including mayoral elections in the country’s six largest

Turkish cities. For Erdoğan,

these elections were absolutely

crucial. In fact, that is how he

described them: as a

referendum on trust in him.

These were fundamentally important elections of national,

indeed state-level significance, and he

lost five of the six cities. In some

places — for example, in Istanbul —

in Erdogan’s hometown, and this is what was happening there

absolutely incredible things. Now I

I apologize if I pronounce

it incorrectly

the names of these remarkable Turkish

politicians incorrectly. Erdogan’s candidate there was

a guy named Binali Yildirim

and the opposition put forward a guy named Imam

oglu, and this Yildirim, together with

Erdogan, literally campaigned there in

every courtyard

So you have to understand that Erdogan didn’t just

support him — he campaigned alongside him

spoke in the streets, basically

traveled everywhere with him, and what’s more

the night before, there were banners hanging everywhere

with Yildirim on them, and

his photo on the banners

and Erdogan saying, “Brothers forever, support

him.” And then overnight

those banners were replaced with

thank-you ones: “Thank you, residents

of Istanbul, for choosing this great

Yildirim, with whom Erdogan together

will lead us into a bright future.” But he lost

and he lost by 0.3 percent. And this is

the crucial thing, why I want to

show you this image

where everything is written very unclearly

but apart from Yildirim and Imamoglu, you can

make it out

and most importantly, try to make out

the three bottom lines here, you see

the next candidate got 1 percent

the next one got 0.36, and then

0.32. What is that? That, guys, is smart

voting. That’s what smart

voting looks like, when the entire opposition said:

there are different candidates

we have lots of disagreements, but

the only way to beat Erdogan

is simply to unite around

one candidate

There wasn’t 100 percent unity, of course

there were still three other candidates, and they

were spoilers — well, not exactly spoilers, more like

they had some supporters — but in the end

people agreed: let’s all

vote for Imamoglu together, and not for the others

and that’s what they did with the help of

smart voting. And now Istanbul

has its own mayor. The same thing

happened in Ankara, the same thing happened

in Antalya, the same thing happened in Izmir

and that is genuinely great. That’s exactly

why I push so hard for this smart

voting and constantly urge you

to take part in it. We’ll see it in

Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in 20 other

federal subjects (regions) of Russia

The opposition still won’t come to an agreement, so

if you hear people again —

political analysts, or just someone writing

on Instagram, I don’t know, on Telegram, wherever

saying, “Why hasn’t the opposition united?”

“The opposition has to come to an agreement” —

you should just immediately

say to that person, I don’t know: “You’re an idiot. It can’t

happen.” The Communists will still

put forward their own candidates

in every district

Yabloko will still put forward its own

candidates in every district

because the Presidential Administration will

make them do it. A Just Russia will do it too

and so on and so on and so on

They will never allow it, even

if Zyuganov, Yavlinsky, I, and someone else

wanted to nominate a single candidate. But

I mean, I have no problem supporting

other parties sometimes, but even if

hypothetically

they reached an agreement, they wouldn’t allow me to

do it. Never. So you and I have to

agree that in such-and-such

district of Moscow we choose our own Imamoglu. Sure, I may not

like him, maybe there are some

other candidates, maybe he

says something wrong, maybe he’s for parking fees or

against them, maybe he has some attitude toward

Stalin, or something else, or Crimea

or Ukraine, etc., etc. But still, we

have to choose one, and once

we’ve chosen, we have to vote for him

and only for him. That way we can push United

Russia back. It happened in

Turkey, it can happen in Russia, it

must happen in Russia, because

there is no other way. Putin is

a pretty cunning guy. Looking at what

is happening in Ukraine, looking at what

is happening in Turkey, he understands

that the main thing is not to let people onto the ballot. But look:

Erdogan let them in — and lost. In Ukraine, everyone

can participate in the new election, and

that means Poroshenko is now in a difficult position

Putin’s strategy is to keep decent

candidates off the ballot, so decent

candidates — our candidates — won’t be there at all

or there will be very, very few of them, and you and I

will vote for the candidate

who will do the maximum damage to United

Russia. That’s our strategy. Remember that

it works brilliantly. And as for

the so-called Putin elections, today

a really excellent report highlighted this

The Golos movement did something very simple

You remember that during the

presidential election they installed

video cameras everywhere, and Putin and his

disgustingly dishonest Ella Pamfilova

told us, “Well, cameras at polling stations

are the guarantee that the election will be

fair.” And today Golos summed up the results

of quite a large piece of work. In

Karachay-Cherkessia

sorry, in Kabardino-Balkaria, in a

small republic, they simply went ahead and

They looked there,

at 84 out of 354 polling stations, so it's quite a

representative sample, and they

simply went there and counted heads,

how many people took part and what

the election looked like in Kabardino-Balkaria (a republic in Russia’s North Caucasus).

Let's take a minute to look at the verification.

[music]

After this, you need to pray.

I just can't show any more of it, because

he's already bringing over the next stack.

These wonderful people are right there in the frame,

standing directly under the camera and stuffing those

ballots in. And if you go

to the Central Election Commission website and open the section

for the 2018 presidential election, you'll see

that turnout in Kabardino-Balkaria was

92 percent. And we had launched

the voters' strike, and we were all

told, "Well, Navalny, your strike didn't

work, all that was nonsense.

People showed up — they showed up all across the country,

despite your pathetic attempts

to organize a voters' strike." Well,

the real turnout there was 35 percent, which means

these people stuffed 60 percent of the ballots

into the boxes at every polling station — they stuffed

900 ballots, 900 ballots. I mean, that's

an absolutely astonishing thing in

a tiny little republic.

They stuffed in tens of thousands of votes. Just

imagine how many they stuffed in, then,

in larger regions — in Tatarstan,

in Bashkortostan, across the rest of the North

Caucasus. That's Putin's "choice."

Does this contradict what I said about

still going out and taking part in the vote? No,

it doesn't, because observers

still need to be sent, because

still, when we come and

vote, you can no longer stuff ballots for

those who actually came and voted. They don't

stuff ballots on behalf of people who showed up — they do it for

those who didn't come. So we show up and take part — that's the main thing.

Since we've started talking with you about

this,

the Caucasus, we need to talk

about Ingushetia, because it's the main thing

happening in Russian politics right now.

A lot of people think that's not true, because

they think it's some nonsense, far away from

Moscow, and that everything important only happens in

Moscow. No — the main thing right now

is happening in the Republic of Ingushetia, because

it's no longer just a confrontation there

between the people — in fact, the entire people,

in that tiny republic, whose entire population

of Ingushetia is 500,000 people, rallies of 10,000

people are taking place — but now there is already

a confrontation within

the police forces themselves. So once again, let's

recall what's happening there: mass

protests against part of

Ingushetia being handed over to Chechnya.

Specifically, to Ramzan Kadyrov. Everyone understands

that there is some kind of financial interest there,

apparently related to oil, and

no one understands why their land was

taken away and handed over — not sold, not

exchanged, no benefits were given

to the people — it was simply taken.

Yevkurov, the head of Ingushetia, simply made

a deal with Kadyrov: they just cut off

a piece and gave it away, and

everyone is supposed to accept it. And there

mass protests are taking place there, and they already

have their own demands,

purely opposition and democratic ones:

fair elections, direct voting,

the resignation of the government, the resignation of Yevkurov.

In other words, this is an absolutely normal

opposition democratic rally with

completely justified demands,

which is supported by

the entire republic. And what is happening in

Ingushetia right now is basically a copy

of what was happening in

Moscow in 2011–2012, and

in the previous program I said, I pointed out,

that what happened there in Ingushetia wasn't yet the same

— and now it has started happening.

It's a completely classic deception that

illustrates once again that not a single

word from this government

can be trusted, especially when it comes

to rallies and everything else.

Last time I showed you videos — I won't

repeat them — where people were throwing

chairs at the police and so on.

The police couldn't do anything, and

people were told, "Guys, it's all fine, you

did great, now let's all disperse

and on the 5th, without conflict and without

any trouble, on April 5 we'll allow you to hold

a new big rally, right here, really

we'll come to a very good agreement, no police,

no one will come after anyone, everything will be according to plan.

Let's do it like brothers, you know, like

"I give you my word, my man's word, my brother's word,"

and so on. They persuaded them, and of course

they deceived them, because as soon as the people left,

the local authorities immediately said, "Oh, well, the authorities

in Ingushetia aren't approving it. Sorry, brother,

we can't authorize it." And you've already gone home, right?

That's it — we can't approve it. First of all,

they withdrew the approval, and

now everyone who comes to this rally

on April 5 will end up

being treated as violators of the law.

That's the first thing. And the second is that as soon as people left

the square, all across

Ingushetia, what they call

"Urals" (Russian heavy-duty trucks) without license plates started driving around.

That is, police officers, most often without

any identifying insignia,

began visiting the apartments of the organizers of these

rallies and conducting searches in

their own peculiar manner, of course, and these

People will be detained and arrested, but these...

Let’s just look at what this kind of...

search really looks more like a

military operation.

[music]

You have to admit, this looks like

a somewhat excessive measure against

those who had announced they would hold a rally there.

And in fact,

they are detaining elderly people who were

the main organizers of this rally, but

who are more like its spiritual

spiritual inspirers, so to speak, people who

command enormous respect. Well,

for example, Akhmet was arrested for 10 days,

Barakhoyev.

Let’s take a look. Here he is simply at this

rally—I found a video of him from the rally.

There he is calling on people not to commit any

unlawful acts. So, an Ingush

elder, 31 seconds.

This is what he was doing—the reason he was arrested.

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

[inaudible] as they say.

No unlawful acts—he was speaking, that’s all.

for quite a while. [inaudible]

Those listening to our program are probably surprised right now.

They’re watching this and...

But for them, I should say that there are

Russian subtitles there, and this is

an elder—you can see he is genuinely an elderly

man, and they slapped him with 10 damn days.

Bastards. And after all, in the Caucasus,

they always make a point of emphasizing

this respect for elders—it is elevated to

an absolute. And that is

truly a wonderful

Caucasian tradition. Nevertheless,

Yevkurov’s authorities were so frightened that

they are now

hunting down these elderly people and jailing them for 10

days. But in fact, the rally now...

They say, well, but they were throwing

chairs at police officers. Yes, they were—but

they only started throwing things after

the police began dispersing the rally

by force. Basically, what does

an Ingush rally look like? Let’s

watch—37 seconds. It looks nothing like

what a rally in Moscow, for example, looks like.

But it can hardly be said that this is some kind of

aggressive event—an Ingush rally.

For 37 seconds.

[music]

What is this—extremists storming

the government building, Wahhabis ready

to blow something up? No, sitting there are

some respectable-looking old men

talking among themselves. They came,

set down some chairs, very politely. I really

like this rally. People are saying:

“Yevkurov, you are acting wrongly. You

gave away our territory. Please come

and explain to us why this happened. Cancel

your decision. We are residents of this

country; we have lived in this region for many years.”

They came with little chairs, set them down,

sat there and waited—and they had to be dispersed?

And Yevkurov, justifying his actions in

arresting these people and breaking up the rally,

says: well, in Chechnya they would have

simply shot them. If I were Ramzan

Kadyrov, I would have shot 10,000 people altogether.

So be glad that I did not

shoot anyone. If you think I’m

exaggerating, I’ll show you now.

Yevkurov, 36 seconds. There will also be

Russian subtitles there too—listen to what he

says. He says:

[speech in local language]

[speech continues]

[speech continues]

And 35,000 people are watching this live.

And the main thing, the most important thing

happening in Ingushetia right now is

a confrontation already between police officers.

Something extraordinary happened there,

really extraordinary. You know, in Moscow they really

love shouting, “The police are with the people,” but

of course they are never with the people at all.

These people may sympathize with you,

but when they drag you into a police van,

they’ll definitely say something like, “Well, Alexei,

of course we’re on your side, but you

understand how the system works. So now we’ll

take you to court, and then

we’ll take you to a cell, and then, however many times

necessary, we’ll detain you again.” Basically,

for the first time in Russian history, on a mass scale,

police officers did not simply refuse to carry out

an unlawful order—they were in fact

acting in accordance with the law, because

a police officer has no right to carry out

an unlawful order. They did not merely

refuse.

They came out—a whole patrol police unit

came out and physically shielded the protesters

who at that moment were supposed to be

dispersed by officers

specially brought in from other

regions. Let’s see what it

looked like.

[music]

[applause]

[music]

[applause]

[music]

[applause]

[music]

You can see these rather solemn captions during the video.

I certainly didn’t make them—

they were made by the local...

They post it on Telegram channels and somehow manage

to share this news despite the fact that in

Ingushetia the internet is being shut down. But overall,

I completely agree with these slogans

and I believe that these police officers

acted quite heroically and

of course they should be supported. They are the very

real heroes in this situation.

They simply acted sensibly. Our

fathers and grandfathers are sitting in the square on chairs,

putting forward entirely legitimate

demands, and then OMON riot police, temporarily assigned

from other regions, arrive and disperse these

people. And frankly, that should not

be happening.

These are unlawful actions. The local police

acted absolutely correctly by taking

this side. And there have been further developments there,

too: those temporarily assigned forces, and

the National Guard (Rosgvardiya), and so on, they arrive.

But of course, many of them are probably

watching me now. I think many of them are in Ingushetia

and many are watching in general, and they

might say: “Why are you coming after us,

Navalny? They loaded me up in Rostov or

Krasnodar and sent me here,”

and yes, of course they loaded you up and brought you here,

but that does not mean you should carry out a criminal

order. Fine, and tomorrow they load you up

in Rostov, bring you somewhere, and tell you to shoot at these

people—so what, you have to shoot?

Will you say, “Well, I was just following orders,” and then

next they’ll say, “Let’s execute them and eat them,”

or, I don’t know, “Let’s rape them all or kill them all”?

Do you have to carry out that order too?

Why should you carry out this order?

So that Kadyrov and Yevkurov can make

even more money? No, you should not. That is why

criminal orders must not be obeyed.

It is understandable that it is, well, frightening somehow not to

carry one out. But these police officers

in Ingushetia refused to do it. The report

that has been circulating online—I looked at it

in various places, and despite the fact that

the Ingushetia Interior Ministry said that all this

was not true, I

spoke with different people and

checked specialized online communities, and I am

absolutely convinced it is genuine. Let’s

look at this report. It says the following:

one of the local police officers

writes a report to his superior and says

that he refused to carry out your order regarding

the accommodation of temporarily assigned

officers because he does not want to accommodate

“dogs.” You know, well, that is to say,

whether or not this was widespread, of course in

Ingushetia they still housed all of them there,

and all these people were fired, but nevertheless

the police officers, let’s put it plainly,

did not

speak approvingly, to say the least, about

their colleagues who came from another

region. I think that, of course, for those who came

from Rostov, Krasnodar, I don’t

know, Moscow, or wherever else,

it is rather unpleasant that their colleagues from

Ingushetia are calling them dogs

because they are “just following orders.” But

this is really a reason for all

law enforcement officers to think about

what the hell they are doing there, what for,

and whose interests they are ultimately protecting.

But what is happening now—the arrests

of elderly people, elders,

religious figures, the dispersal, and they promised

a rally and then deceived people over the rally—who

needs this? Is this in the people’s interest? But if

people keep shrugging their shoulders and saying,

“Well, we’re just following orders,” then

nothing good will ever come of it for us.

That is why I fully support

those people who are now speaking out in

Ingushetia. They are absolutely on the side of truth. I believe that

the local authorities, the authorities around Yevkurov,

are behaving simply

disgustingly and are disgracing the Ingush nation.

I see that I have a whole bunch of

questions here about Prigozhin’s thugs

who are following and harassing FBK staff

and whether they are still doing it, and so on. Putin’s

chef.

Yevgeny Prigozhin will apparently be the hero

of my program on a regular basis for quite a long

time, the way it used to be with Zolotov (former head of Russia’s National Guard),

remember? For several episodes in a row

I was forced to discuss Zolotov or

Peskov, and now this very same Putin’s chef,

because we at

FBK, I mean, are among the few

who are really pushing this issue. Unfortunately,

journalists in Russia are not always

competent and do not always even understand what

needs to be talked about. They open the business

press and discuss some nonsense, while here

you have a man who is actually getting contracts worth

130 billion rubles (about $1.4 billion USD),

and given the margins in this

business of supplying food to

schools not only in Moscow but across the whole

country, he is pulling 60

billion rubles (about $650 million USD) out of it in cash.

That is an enormous business,

bigger than what some

banks earn,

and bigger than a significant share of oil companies.

It is a massive business, and this business

became so profitable because it

supplies low-quality products and

poisons these children. And by the way, this is

not just my claim, because after

we stirred up this whole

huge uproar, Sobyanin

kept silent and silent, but he can no longer ignore it.

Under pressure from parents, several

schools where children were poisoned have filed lawsuits

against the company Moscow Schoolchild

owned by Prigozhin, and there is already a court...

the decision that—well, let's take a look, yes

they add vitamins to the drink

tap water, but would you want

your child to be served that way—just

to have someone turn on the tap and dilute some kind of bur

dubai tap-water slop

with tap water and give it to your

child as a so-called vitamin drink? They don't

use any disposable

gloves and so on and so forth. These are

court rulings under which the companies

Mosca—Prigozhin-linked companies, including Moskovsky Shkolnik

Moskovsky Shkolnik has already been fined

several million rubles, and we will

keep pressing him, and we will—yes, that's it—

yes, we will try to punish him, we will try

to get him, because he's a crook

he is, of course, terribly afraid that he

will lose these contracts, terribly afraid

of the activity that Lyubov Sobol (Russian opposition lawyer and activist) has revived

our Lyubov Sobol, who actually

is pursuing her lawsuit against

Prigozhin quite effectively. It's effective—you can tell

why, because she—well, she launched

a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the parents

of the affected children, and now those

parents are being followed around and intimidated

in fact, literally

they're met near the school, intimidated, and

already being offered up to a million

rubles if you withdraw your lawsuit

so of course we support the idea that

Prigozhin should pay a million rubles

to each of them through the court process, that is

he should pay compensation to these people, but

in any case, at least now he is

because he got scared of Sobol's lawsuit and is ready

to pay a million rubles, and that in itself

is already great. But in retaliation, basically

he's trying to make life difficult for us there, you

see, our headquarters right now is basically

full of some idiots downstairs in our

foundation

who are constantly hanging around, they

meet me near my home, follow me near my home

they don't do anything special

they just constantly film me on their mobile

phones. I step outside here to smoke

or have lunch with someone, I'm sitting there and then

two people come up, stand next to me

turn on their mobile phones and start

filming. It's annoying, of course, but you understand

that all of this is being done deliberately so that

—well, let's take a look—our

guys from the headquarters also again

filmed these idiots too, what they

look like

we've got a machine all day—how to order online

to leave so they can bring the bill or something

maybe

work

there are such—

excuse me, do you have waiters here?

and this person apparently just thinks that

this is specifically some kind of place where things are just

wafting around

he's waiting to be served—maybe you could

then explain to him that we are not a

restaurant

there isn't

matrix at home, don't they?

[music]

I mean, it looks as if this is us

harassing some person, but actually

it's just our lawyers who come up to them

from time to time, because there are

several people sitting there with nothing

to do, at a table in armchairs, waiting

for me or Sobol to go somewhere so that

they can run after us with those phones

well

it's irritating, but okay, we understand that the goal

is important and good, so it's fine, we'll

put up with it. As for—quite a lot of people

are asking about the so-called exposé that

Prigozhin released this week. We

understood that something like this would happen

when the parents of the affected children

started telling us they were being offered

a million rubles each; one person was offered 5

million rubles if he would wreck

this class-action lawsuit that

Sobol and FBK (Anti-Corruption Foundation) are pursuing

but we understood that they would still manage to buy off

someone, and indeed a very

funny moment happened: this same Natalia

Shilova, who worked at the company

Moskovsky Shkolnik, whom I just told you about

—the one I said had been fined in

court for unsanitary conditions—she, I don't know whether she

was planted from the start, or whether they

bought her off or intimidated her, but she released

a very funny 'exposé' video where

she said that

she did it because we promised

to pay for the child's treatment. All those

stories about unsanitary conditions were made up by me personally

personally; I came up to her and patted her on the

shoulder at especially successful moments, and I

laughed. That address—well, that statement there

is about five minutes long, it's online

on the internet

I'll show you one minute of it—you may have seen

one of the clips where she talks about

spoiled food in kindergartens

and schools

I was brought in for the first interview

they started asking me what kind of work I did

what I was talking about, and then in

May 2017, well, as I recall

I was invited again

and at that moment, unfortunately, the key

prepared text there was all so seemingly

in order, because what I was saying contained

a lot of speculation

various inaccuracies. There was also such a

moment when during filming he came up to me

and patted me on the shoulder, saying that

all that stuff

the most important thing, not some boring swamp of nonsense

there was so much pomp and grandstanding going on

it emerged that it was in 2002, during the war

will become president, and my campaign staff will get

ministerial posts

they were going around saying that everyone who goes with me

will live well — complete nonsense, absurd babble

some kind of

and yet this idiot came up with it — she’ll tell you more

and he laughed, saying that when it comes out, it will get a lot of

views. I was wrong once

by believing

by trusting Navalny and Sobol and all these people

both socially, together

don’t believe these opposition figures, Navalny

Sobol and all the rest, but it’s rather

funny

especially considering that, of course, we have

all the original recordings, and I have nothing to do with

this woman — in fact, I’ve never seen her in my life

never seen her; if there was any correspondence, but most importantly

the main thing is that now we no longer need to argue with anyone

because there are court rulings

that proved that this very

Moscow school caterer encourages complete

unsanitary conditions in the production of food for

for Moscow schoolchildren, for Moscow schoolchildren

so there’s really nothing to argue about here

people are weak, of course, when

you offer 1 million rubles or 5 million rubles

well, not everyone will be able to resist

I think, nevertheless, that

this lawsuit will hold up; they won’t be able to bribe

everyone, and the people who remain in the

class-action suit we are pursuing, they

will receive whatever compensation

they are entitled to by law through the courts. So

overall, I urge you to support us in this

just struggle, and in particular to support Sobol herself

support her — she is running now in the

election, so let her become a deputy and

tear them all apart from a deputy’s

position. Go register on the website

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev

greeted a robot. When I saw this

video, I thought: my God, how badly I want

to show it on my program. There’s a lot there

that rather nasty TV company

owns it, although strictly speaking, if

it’s footage from a public place, still

nevertheless, I’m going to play for you now how Dmitry

Anatolyevich Medvedev talks to

a robot in Perm

and all of this is being presented as the magnificent

achievements of Russian technology

at a high-tech technopark

and what you are about to see now

reflects the achievements of high technology

under the leadership of Medvedev and Putin. You’ll

see me in the corner so that

later they don’t throw us out over this video

high technology, Medvedev-style

[music]

[music]

at the previous meeting, I and the consultant

with the administrator only this year’s course

wrote about politics

[music]

it seems to me that this robot and Medvedev

are a perfect match, and really they ought to

become friends, and they could go together

to government meetings — Medvedev and

his robot friend. You could call him something like

Alisher, for example, or some

other nice name like that

really, they are very similar, and it seems to me

they possess roughly the same level of

intellectual development. In general, the fact that

the Russian authorities keep

coming up with these robots and

showing them off — you remember Rogozin’s

robot Fyodor — it was some kind of

contraption that literally had

a padded jacket put on it, and then somewhere here there was

attached some kind of stick, an antenna for Wi‑Fi

made in Korea, and this

was presented as a super combat

high-tech

robot Fyodor, who was even riding on a

motorcycle, taped to it with electrical tape. I mean

it’s really not clear why they, like

maniacs, keep trying to do this with

robots, but I do have one explanation

and it is that Medvedev, Putin,

Rogozin, and all the rest of that gang

watch YouTube just like we do

and just like us they

admire these really cool

robots made by the company

Boston Dynamics, which are just

truly absolutely astonishing

there, if they’re in the form of a dog, you see

they jump, they run, they

carry loads, and of course we would all like

to have the same technologies in Russia; we all

dream of that too. But in the end

Russia really is a country

of remarkable engineers, mathematicians, and

physicists. We want robots like that, but

we can’t make them; instead we have

Fyodor in a padded jacket, and this

funny little thing they showed in Perm

that taps a key with a little hammer

and they write that the Russian robot can

play musical instruments. But

that’s not even the funniest part, though it’s already

not really funny, and

it perfectly shows the essence of things

what happened next with Medvedev’s robot visit

because after that Medvedev

after meeting the robot, went to a

clinic

but at the clinic he didn’t really want to

meet with people very much, so

this is just classic: when people

came to Polyclinic No. 2 in the city of

Perm, they were not allowed in — simply not let in

Because Medvedev came to visit, that's why.

You can see these people now, right here.

A local press correspondent came over and...

Some elderly women came to the...

clinic, because up until the moment of...

the arrival, it wasn't clear that...

Medvedev would be coming to this outpatient clinic.

Someone may have realized it, but the elderly women didn't know—they weren't...

warned.

So they went to the clinic, arrived there, and...

it was closed, they weren't being let in, and all those...

people who were being treated there were thrown out onto the...

street. Those who had come were also kept outside...

because you couldn't visit the...

clinic because Dmitry Medvedev had arrived.

Well, he probably told...

the head of the clinic that he had just...

met a cool robot...

that played a musical instrument for him.

But that's still not all.

Because the real news, the thing local media wrote about, was...

the local media's actual big story was, damn it...

an absolutely insane—pardon my language—sensation of 2019:

in a city of over a million people...

the administrative center of the region...

a recipient region that earns a lot of...

money, an oil-rich region, and so...

to Polyclinic No. 2...

they delivered toilet paper. And this actually...

started being covered by the local media because...

it was something...

that had never happened before at this...

Perm clinic.

If you think I'm lying right now...

or exaggerating—no, I'm not, because...

the local Health Ministry, even sensing...

the absurdity in these media reports...

about how toilet paper had finally been delivered, they...

issued a clarification: guys, yes, we did deliver it...

but actually, in general, we aren't even...

required to supply toilet paper to the...

clinic, because patients very often...

take it home with them. I mean, this is just...

I don't even know what to call it, you know?

At the same time, they're putting on this...

robot clown show, and whatever else...

about high-tech parks and innovation...

and at the same time they're issuing...

clarifications saying that no, toilet paper...

won't be supplied to the clinic because...

well, because people carry it off with them...

and it gets expensive, you see.

It's too costly for us.

Buying toilet paper is too expensive, so we won't.

And somehow all of this is happening...

in the same place, with the very same...

officials. Perm officials, generally speaking...

really outdid themselves. But I'm not...

surprised. I basically never stop being...

amazed by this strange...

toilet paper situation at the Perm...

clinic, because I read an absolutely...

astonishing quote from the deputy minister of...

health in the Komi Republic (a federal subject of Russia), who simply...

said, you know, pensioners often...

check into hospitals because they're just...

parasites.

I'm quoting here, yes, from the local media, if...

you want: 90 percent go into hospital...

to get a break from housework and...

eat for free...

saving money on groceries. That's what's called...

being a parasite. And for that we're supposed to...

spend millions in budget funds?

Listen, even if that were true—well...

if people have nothing to eat and they can...

only get a meal in a hospital where, once again...

there's no toilet paper—then maybe...

maybe money should actually be allocated there instead of...

being spent on some robot that...

the whole country is laughing at. But it should be acknowledged that...

the Health Ministry did apologize for...

that quote from the speech. But this still...

shows the mindset of our officials.

They just look with irritation at...

these sick, elderly, poor people while...

at the same time raising the retirement age for them.

"Look at these parasites lying around in hospitals..."

"Come on, get up—we raised it for you by...

five years—or three years—now get up and go...

to work." That's their real position.

And with this government, we...

will never achieve anything, because...

they really...

they really do think this way. And not only the authorities, by the way.

By the way, despite the fact that...

my program has already been going for an hour...

I still want to say a few words about my...

dispute with the creators of Meduza (an independent Russian media outlet), whom...

I think very highly of, but they...

truly shocked me to the core...

by publishing a huge article saying...

that our proposal on trade unions—that...

public-sector workers should stand up for...

themselves and demand higher...

wages. If you're a nurse being paid 12,000 rubles a month...

(about $130; roughly 1,100 rubles = $12 at a simplified rate), then go fight to be paid 25,000...

they said that was harmful. In their article, they...

literally wrote, in so many words...

that Navalny's proposal on...

trade unions and wage increases...

would harm healthcare, culture, and...

education. Those were the exact...

words.

Well, I'm not even going to argue...

with Meduza on the substance, because...

their substantive proposal...

was basically this:

if we have the graphic now, I can even...

show you what, according to them, needs to be done so that...

public-sector workers can earn much...

more. In short: wait until there's more money in the budget...

and try to change...

the system that doesn't link wages to...

performance. I mean, this is...

an editorial piece, an explanatory article from...

Meduza. The assumption is that the smartest...

people at that outlet offered this to everyone.

Public-sector workers should wait until there is more money in the budget.

And they supposedly don't know that in the

Russian budget there is actually plenty of money.

Russia's budget is running a surplus, meaning we

are spending less money than we take in.

Right now there are several trillion rubles

available, which could also be directed

toward these needs, not to mention

the war in Syria, aid to Kyrgyzstan, contracts

with Rotenberg and that damn "Putin's chef" (a reference to Yevgeny Prigozhin).

They get billions.

There is enough budget money, but Meduza

tells us that still, for now,

we have to wait. And I'm speaking about this so passionately

because this is not just some stupid

editor at Meduza.

It's not just some illiterate person who should be fired, but

this is, in a sense,

a way of thinking that, unfortunately, is fairly common

among a large segment of those who are considered

the "advanced" public: residents of Moscow

or other big cities, who basically

believe that demanding higher wages

or asking for a bigger salary right now

is something only certain people can do—

people in creative professions, people who, you know,

know English,

people who read Meduza—they are

the advanced ones. And these

workers, nurses, doctors, and teachers over there—

who even knows what they are. Right now I'm showing you

—well, not here, I already showed it on the program with

sound, I won't play it again—this is a nurse

from Bataysk, in the Rostov region, and she

was earning

less than the subsistence minimum. And the mindset

of these

authors of articles like the one published in Meduza

is exactly this:

it's your own fault. What, are you stupid or something?

If you stayed a nurse in Bataysk,

who forced you to? You could have

gotten a job at Meduza

and gone to Riga, and then, well, if

you move to a big city and drink coffee from a

paper cup,

and work in some creative profession, and

get a higher education, only

then do you become a person who

is worthy of demanding a raise

in wages. Otherwise, that's

your problem—you are [__] and cattle, and of course

you don't get to raise your salary. No, we must

wait until there is

enough money in the budget. We'll spend it on everything else first,

and if there's anything left over, then we'll

throw a little extra your way, nurse. So what?

You're earning 12,000 rubles yourself? It's your own fault, your

work must first be evaluated for effectiveness.

Your work efficiency—before

you say anything,

"Guys, I'm earning below the subsistence minimum,"

you first have to prove your effectiveness.

And this—this is what we are going to burn out

with a hot iron. And they say, "Oh, you're

picking a fight with Meduza, why attack

journalists?"

Yes, I will fight against this mindset, because

when many people who got lucky in

life, who have a decent education, and who

are active enough, who had

good parents or something else that allowed them

to work, say, at Meduza or at some

bank or on the stock exchange or somewhere else—they

think that everyone else is, well,

second-class people, and

that their poverty is explained by their stupidity.

No, that's not true. Their poverty is explained by

the appalling way our country is governed.

Their poverty is explained by corruption. Their

poverty is explained by the fact that Putin has been

in power for 20 years—that is what explains their

poverty. Maybe they simply didn't get lucky in

life. Maybe they had parents who were

alcoholics, and they didn't get much schooling, well

and in the end, not everyone wants to or should

be a Meduza journalist. Some people want

to be a nurse in Bataysk. Why the hell

should they have to go around begging

and pleading with Meduza correspondents

for the right to speak out in favor of

higher wages? No one is saying

let's pay them $5,000 tomorrow,

but when a person says,

"I'm earning 8,000; I'd like to be earning 18,000 or 25,000,"

the person who says that somehow supposedly has no

right to it—that, at a minimum, makes someone a very

bad person. Moving on to

the Moscow bohemia,

and this so-called advanced public—it's very

interesting, because right now they have

gotten involved in this confrontation. 39,000

people are watching the live stream—a huge

thank you, I'm very glad that so many people

have started watching the program lately.

So, our Moscow bohemia has

in a remarkable way started a war in

Yekaterinburg. A fascinating confrontation is happening there;

please keep an eye on it.

At first glance it seems completely

local. That is, there, as usual in

Yekaterinburg, there is some endless

process going on. There are local oligarchs there, these

brazen, pushy guys who decided

—Pushkin mostly represents them, so to speak—

that they wanted to build a monument to themselves in

the city of Yekaterinburg, and to build

somewhere in the central, in the central

part of the city, a huge church. And for

that, they first wanted to seize the pond there,

and now they want the square, which

the townspeople love, where they walk, where

there really once were some

buildings—there may even have been a church there too.

It was demolished, but that was many years

ago. But now they want to, essentially,

restore all of that by effectively taking away

the square, because it's a monument, and we

monument

to the governor, and for that they’ve already simply

brought in the heavy cavalry

they’re actually bringing in some

Moscow celebrities to a prayer service

and a prayer vigil, as you can see now

Alexei Chadov came there, came there

Sergey Bezrukov—well-known actors, all of them

and others like them, all these

wonderful members of the creative intelligentsia

who, if you pay them, will go anywhere

they’ll show up and, with such stony

solemn faces, will stand there

crossing themselves, attending the prayer service, making deep bows to the ground

There are lots of photos of how they

were flown in on a private jet, these

oligarchs—well, this whole crowd

was brought there

Why? Because they are being

set against the local residents: what

can the locals do, the ones whose

public square is being taken away? They hold

some event once a week called “Hug the

Square” — a whole crowd comes

and stands there hugging this square, and now

right now in Yekaterinburg

all this has long gone beyond the framework of

a simple standoff: they want to take away the square, they want

to build a church—this is now plainly

a confrontation between hardcore obscurantism

and normal people. And these obscurantists

have basically already declared that everyone who

wants to defend the square is some kind of spawn

of hell and offspring of Satan

Let’s take a look—some kind of people

who should be—well, they have no right, they should be

shipped off beyond the Arctic Circle

There’s this political commentator, a frequent

guest on these pathetic TV talk shows, Sergey Mikheyev

Let’s listen to what he says about

the activists

who are defending the Yekaterinburg square

It’s no surprise that usually among

these activists there are huge numbers of

people carrying all sorts of vices

including every possible kind of

perversion. I’d like to say to those perverts

let’s move all your clubs

somewhere beyond the Arctic Circle

No one will forbid you from going there

but beyond the Arctic Circle—go there, beyond

the Arctic Circle, out in the tundra, put all

your gay clubs, all your nightlife venues

there and go there—just imagine if someone said

what an uproar would be raised over that

The Yeltsin Center should be moved too, to Novaya

Zemlya (a remote Russian Arctic archipelago)

Anyone who truly loves Yeltsin and

democracy shouldn’t think it’s beneath them to go to

Novaya Zemlya

That would be the right thing—let’s

put the question that way, and I’ll see what kind of howling

comes from their side

Well, great—so it’s that easy just to say that you

everyone in Yekaterinburg who wants the square

to remain is just a pervert

or something

You and all your gay clubs—if you need

gay clubs, we’ll build them for you beyond the Arctic

Circle

go off to your gay clubs, and again

it’s amazing

that this whole half-baked Moscow bohemia

is taking part in it there—Sergey

Bezrukov

Well, when people wrote to him on Instagram saying

hey, what are you doing, you came here for what

money, to Yekaterinburg to pray there?

so keep quiet and don’t show off—well

he burst out with comments like: “Come to your senses!”

You are without God’s light…” all in caps lock

“Your cathedral won’t hurt you, you fools in

Yekaterinburg

don’t you understand that you have a heavenly

patroness? Have you lost your minds?” And you

can find this comment on Sergey

Bezrukov’s Instagram. And, you see, this

means he’s shouting, “You’re perverts,” while

also saying, “Come to your senses.” If Mikheyev

and Sergey Bezrukov

if they’ve really decided to fight against gay

clubs, gay parades, perverts, against

people they don’t like, then

maybe they should stage a raid on

Moscow theaters or something, well

let Sergey Bezrukov come out together with

this Mikheyev and the rest of them

the church-builders, and go to all the Moscow

actors and say the same thing: let’s

send everyone here who’s a little different

off beyond the Arctic Circle, and there you can

dance around there, put on your

leggings and dance—we’ll see how

you like it. I’d really very much

like to see Sergey

Bezrukov in that situation. But again

it’s remarkable how neatly merge together

this sellout artistic bohemia

and these so-called super-patriots and

conservatives. It’s very interesting to watch

this. In Yekaterinburg, on the 7th

there will be another rally

in defense of this square—April 7 at 4:00 p.m.

Please go there, because

again, this has become something bigger; it’s no longer

just that—with these ghouls

and corrupt hypocrites, we really do need to

fight. This has long since ceased to be

a question about a church. If someone wants

to settle the church issue, then hold a

referendum—no problem, hold one

If the defenders of the square lose, then

they must submit to the majority. If

those who want to build the church lose, they must

submit to the majority in the city of

Yekaterinburg

I’ve been there—let’s be honest, there’s

plenty of space there to build another one

Just one church, that's all—and when these oligarchs

this oligarchic crookery

stops trying to seize the best

site in order to build themselves

a monument, then there won't be a problem.

There's plenty of room there to build

10 or even 20 churches. But these—well,

these wonderful Sergey Bezrukov types

are leading us to where, you know, what's happening

what's happening right now in Kurgan.

Whew, I've already gone 15 minutes

over time, but I still want to show you

a great clip about how

the Russian economy and innovation are developing. In

Kurgan, they're holding a master class.

Guess what kind of master class it is.

Robotics?

A master class in, I don't know, modern

medicine? A master class in any kind of

new technology, in programming?

No. The Kurgan Region needs

a master class in collecting fallen wood.

They're explaining to residents how to properly

comply with the rules

and gather fallen branches. Forty seconds—

please watch, and you'll know it too.

You'll know this too.

[music]

which is detached from the root... a downpour, but

[music]

there are also these protruding ones

already there... together with schoolchildren, they also

shouldn't take those.

You can't take blockheads like these either.

[music]

Don't you dare take uprooted stumps or standing deadwood.

Please, take only ones like these.

How did we even get to this? The Kurgan Region...

that's my sore point.

I was supposed to go to the Kurgan Region twice

to speak there, and never once managed

to make it. It's one of the most neglected

regions in Russia—nothing happens there

at all. And there they are, gathering some

bewildered men together with a police officer

and saying, well, this is how we're going to

explain to our people: you can't take this deadwood, you need

a different kind, that is.

Regulation, sure. But it's just...

it certainly looks, of course, it looks

astonishing that in Russia, in 2019,

you have to explain to people who

need firewood—why do they need

fallen wood? To heat their homes

with firewood. Come on, guys—don't take standing deadwood,

don't take uprooted trees either, take something

else. Now I'm finally going to reveal to you

the secret of this inscription: 'I love magic.'

Because, well, this is serious stuff. I don't

want to get on the wrong side of a magician

when they're in a temper, because first of all,

I read this week that

the Ministry of Defense, in its official

publication, told us that

there are 'meta-contact' technologies,

that they've actually trained dolphins

and turned them into combat dolphins,

that nonverbal interrogations exist, and soon

the Ministry of Defense's special psychics

will be able to see right through a captured

enemy—what kind of person he is,

what his strengths and weaknesses are, whether he'd agree

to be recruited by them.

And by force of thought—this is an official journal—

the Ministry of Defense tells us that

by force of thought you can disrupt

computer programs, burn crystals

in generators, and so on and so on. So

it's really something, and I realized that

you don't joke about magic, first of all. But I also realized

that this could affect me

directly, because I crossed

one magician—or witch, or whatever the right word is.

A male magician, I guess.

I don't want to joke about

that, because actually

in the city of St. Petersburg there is a mage.

Her name is Emma Rayman. This is Emma Rayman.

You can see her now in this magical

persona, but in fact she also has a

political one. She's running—see: Emma

Rayman, your person, your deputy.

She wants to run in the election from the Yabloko party.

How wonderful. I would welcome Emma

Rayman, but these

disgraceful people from Yabloko refused

to nominate her. Do you know why?

Because they said, well,

Navalny will find out about it and make

funny videos, and people will laugh at us on

the internet. So what does that mean? You didn't

let Emma Rayman run, and now I'm the one

left holding the bag. And to close our program, I want to show you

a video by Emma

Rayman, sorceress and mage,

after watching which I completely lost any

desire to cross her. And I want

to say officially that I absolutely do not

object

if the Yabloko party nominates her for election,

and if she becomes a deputy and uses

her magic and sorcery for the benefit

of the people of St. Petersburg, I will not laugh at it

and I will not make funny videos about it.

Take your children away from the screens. One

minute of mage Emma

Rayman.

[music]

And then at the end she lifts up a piece of cardboard and

there's a portrait of Grigory Yavlinsky (founder of the Yabloko party).

I hope Emma Rayman runs from

Yabloko, and first of all, Emma, cast a spell on

these people, please. See you

next Thursday. Thanks for watching.

Bye, everyone.

[music]