Фром зе дип оф май харт))
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Нашисткие тролли и прокремлевские журналисты организовали "пенную вечеринку" в духе Кургиняна. Второй день пускают пену изо рта по поводу конференции в сенате США, организованную Пашей Ходорковским и его Institute of Modern Russia.
Я с удовольствием согласился выступить, хотя не говорю свободно по-английски. Но пришлось!
Про посещение российских детей, усыновленных американцами, и мою рабочую поездку в США напишу отдельно большой пост.
Итак, Хиариз май спич фром зе дип оф май харт. С 39-й минуты.
Далее примерная расшифровка того, что я сказал (если кто переведет на русский, тому за это ничего не будет)))
I apologize for my English. It's not perfect at all, 'cause I had no practice for a long time. I'm glad to be here for the fourth time. But for the first time as politician. In 90-th I used to play for the junior national Russian basketball team with Andrei Kirilenko, NBA star right now.
This weekend I visited several American families who had adopted orphans from Russia. So I'm very grateful to them as well as to other families for taking care of our children.
I was asked to say a few words about the political situation in Russia. This year, our country celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Constitution, that came into force after the constitutional crisis in 1993, when army tanks shelled the parliament building.
In fact, the Constitution gave unlimited authority to the president. The Parliament turned into a second-sort power. At the same time the average $16 price per barrel of oil didn’t let Yeltsin solve social problems and in that economical situation he didn't manage to establish control over the court, the media and members of the State Duma. That’s why It was a short time of a real political competition in elections of all level in Russia.
After Putin had come to power Russia became unbelievably lucky in it’s oil prices. Black rain falls helped Putin to become the most popular politician and use the Constitution to establish an authoritarian state with tightly organized central powers.
The president controls the parliament, regions, the court system, television, bureaucracy and the security services, as well as oil and gas.
But there is a good news about Russia.
At the same time the technological revolution has happened in Russia. Internet population in our country has increased in the last 2 years. Statistics say that 45 million people (one third of Russians) use the internet daily. This audience is increasing by 10% - 12% every year.
So the percentage of our federal TV audience falls dramatically. By the way in our country we are used to call our state television a “zombie-box” or an “idiot-box”, because it totally manipulates public opinion.
Therefore a middle-class appeared in Russia, or a “city-class”, “urban-class” as we call it: people share independent information in the net, donate funds on different helpful and effective social programs (which is supposed to be done by the government), organize meetings and protests and etc.
That’s why the Internet became the most important platform helping people to share information and create independent public opinion (in the full meaning of this word). For the first time in our history the audience of russian search system Yandex outnumbered ratings of the most popular TV channel (Channel 1).
The middle-class uprising created new demand for changes, for global renewal: people want to participate in domestic politics; they want to see new faces and new parties. And when Medvedev and Putin again just switched their places and parliamentary elections were totally forged, protest moods immediately started to rise. During the last year and a half Russian citizens usually take part in mass protests with thousands other citizens. At the moment they happen mostly in Moscow and other big cities. But nevertheless people of all the regions can also take to the streets very soon trying to solve their social problems.
As a result of Internet-revolution our citizens are nowadays divided on so called “TV-citizens”, who get information only from TV-news, and “net-citizens” who mostly do not watch TV at all and get all the news from the Internet. More and more people use Twitter, Facebook and other Russian popular social networks. Therefore we have a serious split in political beliefs among Russians. Our authorities understand that they won’t be able to get on well with the middle-class, because they do not want to carry out any political reform (which can limit their power). That’s why they count on the conservative part of the population, on “TV-citizens”.
The regime has launched massive crackdown against middle-class in order to stop the protests and prevent people from taking to the streets. Dozens of false criminal cases were initiated against innocent people just for their participation in mass street protest on May 6th, 2012.
Protest leaders nowadays are being suppressed by the security services and law enforcement. Navalny has already been accused in 4 criminal cases, all absolutely fabricated. He is restricted to leave Moscow region according to Investigation Comity decision; Udaltcov is under house arrest right now; Gennady Gudkov, ex-deputy, has been expelled from State Duma without trial and investigation, which is definitely grave violation of the Constitution. Both Supreme and Constitutional Courts refused to recognize this violation. In fact they approved it to be legal.
State Duma turned into a rubber-stamp parliament, “mad printer” as we call it. It passes harsh anti-constitutional laws enforcing punishment for protest activity. The regime does everything to frighten citizens and make them being afraid of taking to the streets.
But as we may see repressive methods of Putin and his minions can not stop the protesters but provoke a serious conflict with middle class as well as with the West. It creates an important breakup within elite, because our elite is deeply integrated into the world community. All those bureaucrats and deputies bought up real estate in the United States and Europe. Their children study here; here they keep their capital and assets. Trying to change it Putin prohibits keeping money and having estate in foreign countries for bureaucrats. But it only accelerates the breakup within the Putin’s team.
Internet also helps russian citizens to expose officials, keeping their capital abroad as well as to spread this information among millions of Russians. In such a situation the regime is forced to get rid of its own servants, as it has already happened with a few pro-Kremlin members of State Duma, with ex-defense minister Serdyukov and etc.
I came here not at all to complain about the situation in my country, I'm not so pessimistic about the future. I believe that new generation will have managed to change the system and build a real democracy in Russia. I'm here to say that millions of Russians stand for strengthening relations with US and Europe aimed at the protection of national interests of our countries.
I think we could take a bit more moderate and farsighted approach towards relations between Russia and America. Let me explain (it might be interesting for you).
What happens often in our bilateral relations? Russian authorities don't want to carry out any political reforms, violate human rights, forge elections. America criticizes Putin blindly. He takes it too close and launches anti-American information campaign in Russia.
And state propaganda always uses it to discredit opposition. We are always being set forth as traitors, State Department agents sent to destroy our motherland from within. Just because we also criticize our corrupted system and government. For instance I was still in Russia when I had heard information spread by federal mass media that Dmitry Gudkov was going to the USA in order to sell some secrets and take new instructions. Our state propaganda used to frighten TV-citizens with the image of the enemy .
I suppose that it would be much better if american authorities instead of criticizing Putin supported his declared fight against corruption and money laundering through foreign countries. In all his interviews he emphasizes the importance of fighting corruption.
I think russian people would be very grateful if all of us use Putin’s own words and declarations and help him punish the bribe takers of all levels by providing information on their accounts in foreign banks, their assets and capitals.
Even the Swiss banks nowadays say that privacy is their credo, but they DO NOT protect criminals.
In this regard I support the Magnitsky-Act since it prohibits Russian swindlers to enter the United States. That criminals stole our people’s money, killed the lawyer, who exposed them, and after all of that they successfully spend that money through the offshore zones and buy up real estate all over the world. Our totally corrupted system did not bring them to justice. That's why It is supposed to be pro-russian act.
According to polls, more than 40% of Russians approve the Magnitsky-act. And there is no doubt that russian citizens would support measures on helping them to expose our swindlers, keeping money in US.
I think that it would be the best approach which from the one hand may show that new generation of Russian politicians act only according to Russian interests; and from the other hand it will clearly demonstrate that the United States help our citizens fighting our own corrupt officials.
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