It is no secret that the so-called “non-systemic” opposition in the Russian Federation carries out its activities in the “protest for the sake of protest” format not for the benefit of the people, but only for its own material well-being. As they say, you don’t have to look far for an example. “Top blogger” Alexey Navalny has long lived according to the patterns of a money-grubber and elevates to the absolute the rule “a thread from the world, a bare shirt.”
Instead of threads - donations from small supporters with the collective image of “hamsters”, and instead of a shirt - idle pastime for themselves and their family members abroad. Alexei Navalny is used to living luxuriously, eating lobster, lounging on sunny beaches, riding camels in Egypt and cruising the surface of roads in expensive sports cars. For him, protest is nothing more than a way to earn a comfortable life: this will become more than obvious later in the text.
The oppositionist is accustomed to calling on his supporters to take illegal actions for any reason. He is not satisfied with anything that is happening in Russia: projecting his Russophobic rhetoric onto the minds of fragile youth, he deliberately “throws” people into the midst of provocative actions, not caring at all about their future fate.
One gets the impression that Alexey Navalny is not able to realize that he is exposing people to colossal danger. Imagine a procession of an uncontrollable crowd: anything can start - stampedes, robberies, fights and pogroms. The level of terrorist threat during such “events” increases many times over – a potential criminal can easily avoid the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies by hiding in a crowd of troublemakers.
It is noteworthy that Alexei Navalny is used to attending agreed rallies with members of his family. This is nothing more than PR in the “look, I’m a family man like you” format. The oppositionist, along with his wife and son, appeared at sanctioned protests against renovation in Moscow, at a march in memory of Boris Nemtsov, as well as a rally against the blocking of the Telegram messenger.
But as soon as the danger of being hit by a “democratizer” for his illegal activities begins to hover in the air (we are talking about unauthorized rallies), Alexei Navalny orders his relatives to stay at home or even takes them abroad. At the same time, the “top blogger” himself likes to purposefully surrender to the authorities at the very beginning of illegal protest actions: they say, he took people out onto the street, now they can “stay in a pre-trial detention center” for 30 days, and the gullible “hamsters” will exactly during this time “throw in” money for a new a trip with my family to the USA.
Most of all, in this situation, I feel sorry for the “weak minds” - the youth of the Russian Federation, who succumbed to the provocations of the oppositionist. Schoolchildren go to rallies in the notorious impulse of “protest for the sake of protest” and do not realize the sad consequences of their illegal activities. Do you think they will be defended in the future by supporters of Alexei Navalny? Hardly: young “rebels” are taken to police stations and handed over to their parents; in the worst case, they are subjected to administrative and criminal prosecution.
But the “top blogger” doesn’t care at all about this: the more detainees, the more hype in the liberal media. And the more hype there is in the liberal media, the more royalties from “concerned” people can be “cut off.” Moreover, in such a beautiful autumn season, when my daughter needs to provide a wonderful holiday away from the passions of the metropolis. While dad is hanging out in a pre-trial detention center, young Daria Navalnaya is having fun in the vastness of the Estonian camp “Kamchatka”, the cost of a trip to which, according to the most minimal estimates, is 125 thousand rubles for 12 days.
Quite cynical even for a hardened Russophobe: while their children are enjoying life in elite vacation spots in Europe, ordinary schoolchildren, who believed in the populist insinuations of Alexei Navalny, are “moving off” to camps of a completely different kind - where the sky is checkered and there are prospects for further becoming a worthy citizen of society a bold cross is drawn.
What about Alexey Navalny? But he doesn’t care: while his own family is “packed”, it’s somehow out of hand to advocate for the protection of young people who are completely indifferent to him. The cries of mothers and the grinding of teeth of fathers dissatisfied with the fate of their children do not reach the tanned ears of the oppositionist - you continue to drag money, you will not lose money. In the meantime, we will plan another vacation abroad, just don’t stop protesting.
The oppositionist published incriminating evidence against the deputy secretary of the general council of United Russia, Sergei Zheleznyak. Navalny claims that despite the patriotic statements of one of the leaders of the party in power, he sent his children to study abroad. Mr. Zheleznyak commented on this information to the presenter Alexey Korneev.
According to Navalny, the daughter of United Russia member Ekaterina Zheleznyak is in a Swiss school, where tuition costs about 2.5 million rubles. The deputy’s eldest daughter, Anastasia, writes the oppositionist, entered Queen Mary, University of London. In addition, Navalny notes that the deputy himself owns expensive cars and luxury real estate.
“Zheleznyak comes up with the most reactionary laws, his pathetic statements that we must cultivate patriotism from a young age. They wrote to me quite a long time ago that Zheleznyak shouts the most, and his children study abroad, and in elite educational institutions, – Alexei Navalny said in an interview with Kommersant FM. – We just decided to check this and used absolutely open information that is located on the website of the Swiss school - the American-Swiss University - and on the website of the British school where Zheleznyak’s second daughter is studying. "Open sources have made it possible to establish that Mr. Zheleznyak sent his children to study abroad, while he pays about 30% more for their education per year than his official annual income."
–– As I understand it, you have already read the post and have already managed to respond to Alexei Navalny via Facebook?
–– State your main points, if possible, briefly.
–– This is an obvious provocation. Because if Alexey wanted to figure it out and find the truth, he would simply examine the declarations that we submit and see that at the moment when I came to the State Duma and left the business, I received all the payments due to me.
It was several tens of millions of rubles. Based on this money, I live, raise, and teach my children. So, there is no problem here. All the cars and motorcycles were purchased during the same period of time before working in the Duma, so Navalny, as they say, heard the ringing, but does not know where it is.
– Alexey Navalny also accuses you, so to speak, of hypocrisy. That is, you actively, on the one hand, defend the ideas of patriotic education and training in Russia, but you yourself sent your daughters to study abroad, or, as I understand from Facebook, they themselves expressed a desire to study there?
–– This is another distortion. Let me explain it. Because I have always said that we need to act in the interests of our country. I never said that you need to lock everyone up and not let anyone in. Here I would divide this situation into two. First, in my opinion, it is unacceptable for officials to have accounts abroad or any property interests there. Therefore, I have neither property nor accounts abroad. I pay for my children’s education from Russia. The ruble has long been a convertible currency, and there are no problems with payments.
If we talk about education, I myself studied in Switzerland, interned in Japan and Europe, I consider this a plus, not a minus. The more educated people we have working in the country, the better.
– Sergey, is the figure indicated by Navalny correct for children’s education fees? Say how much.
–– You know, no, of course, there are a lot of distortions both in the cost of cars and in the cost of training. I wrote about this in my blog: if we take all of Navalny’s fabrications at face value, without analyzing them, then even in this sense I have enough declared funds for which I paid taxes in order to afford them all.
–– Sergey, you write on Facebook that you have never advocated for bad education or serfdom, thereby indirectly admitting that education in Russia is bad.
-- This is wrong.
- How can it be wrong? This follows from your words.
– This is not so, I’ll explain. The fact is that in the exact sciences, I believe that education in Russia is still the best in the world. Maybe even in Massachusetts they provide a good education in the exact sciences. But our chemistry school and higher education in physics, mathematics, and chemistry are one of the best, and perhaps even the best, in the world.
As for the humanities, especially those related to language and the study of world culture, here, yes, there is something to work on. It so happens that I myself speak several languages, and my daughters have several languages that they speak fluently. Therefore, it would be a sin not to use it. At the same time, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, let’s say, before graduating from high school, the eldest daughters studied in Moscow and received a decent education. I believe that in Moscow there are many very high-quality schools, many excellent teachers, and there is no need to run somewhere in search of a better life.
– It’s just that when you write about serfdom, it turns out that there is some kind of strange contradiction – with one hand you reserve the right to decide the fate of orphans, leaving them in Russia and not allowing them to go to America, and with the other hand you write about that they never advocated serfdom. But what is this if not serfdom?
–– And here you are wrong.
–– Why?
–– Because we demand from the American side access to those children who are adopted in the States, the opportunity to protect their rights if rights are violated, including in court, and punishment for those criminals who caused the injuries or deaths of our children.
If we are talking about the protection of human rights, then probably the most sensitive element of the entire human rights system is the protection of the rights of the child. If we are denied the opportunity to know how adopted children in the United States are doing, citing the fact that the agreement was signed at the federal level and does not comply with individual state laws, and are deprived of control by our diplomatic authorities and our public organizations that provide support and child protection, this is unacceptable. In order to normalize relations here, changes need to be made. This requires the good will of the American side.
How to deliberately and quickly drive away voters
Political technology is not an absolute craft. And it depends on the context and discourse. You cannot use American technology in Russia, and Russian technology is useless in America. And every person who has ever tried to apply something in his political practice knows this from his own experience.
And what does this experience tell us? This experience tells us that Russian voters do not like ostentatious wealth. A textbook example here is the election video of the SPS party, filmed in 2003. Boris Nemtsov, Anatoly Chubais and Irina Khakamada are flying in a business jet, sitting in white leather chairs and discussing the fate of Russia. Just one video led to disaster: the party's technologists quarreled, the headquarters collapsed, the party lost the elections and was never able to recover. Every Russian political strategist remembers this story and will tell it to you if you wake him up at night and ask him what not to do in the elections.
The second postulate, known to every Russian technologist, says: there is a right-wing liberal electorate, but it does not decide the elections. Therefore, any Russian right-wing liberal party always ended any of its campaigns with the pension issue - that is, with an approach to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And after flying on a business jet in white leather seats, you won’t go to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. They won't understand you.
Now, armed with this basic knowledge, let's look at Alexei Navalny. The man who, according to him, is going to become president. The other day, observers interested in the campaign could see how Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov opened a headquarters in Sochi via Skype and... from Cyprus. Where he, according to him, was “on FBK business.” The next day, observers learned that Alexei Navalny himself and his wife flew to Paris. On the weekend. And although Mr. Volkov said that these were slander and that candidate Navalny was in Moscow and was working with documents, the ubiquitous Life provided the public with video recordings of both the departure and arrival of the tribune.
When a man takes his woman to Paris for a weekend, this evokes every approval from me as a man. I respect Navalny for taking his wife to a romantic place.
But in the current context and discourse, Alexey Navalny is not just a man. He is a presidential candidate, although unofficial, but named. Can a presidential candidate in a country whose population has lost 20 percent of its real income over the past 30 months take his wife to Paris for the weekend? Let us remember about the SPS business jet and about the electorate that we will ultimately have to reach. And who has never been to Paris at all.
It’s me, mind you, who hasn’t asked anything about money yet. But we do not know about any declared sources of income for the Navalny family, except for the Anti-Corruption Fund. And everything looks exactly as you thought - that Volkov went to Cyprus, and Navalny went to Paris with FBK money. The other day Navalny reported to all of us about the effective use of them. And in front of me too - after all, I once donated 500 rubles to him. Just to later wonder where they spent it. Now I know where they were spent - on Paris. No, as a man, I am not at all against the fact that Navalny used my 500 rubles to take his wife to drink champagne and eat oysters. But why then tell us about some other people’s corruption? After all, this is who she is.
However, let's move on to the most interesting part. Mr. Navalny’s wife, the beautiful Yulia, is not at all sitting in the kitchen waiting for her husband to take her to Paris for the day. No, she also travels. And a few days before Paris, she took her children... to the United States of America. Where they will learn English in a children's language camp.
Well, it is necessary to study English, and every parent decides for themselves where their children will do this. But what does this look like from the perspective of a potential voter? Here's how: a Russian presidential candidate takes his children to study in the United States at a time when the United States is introducing harsh and unfair sanctions against Russia. Of course, I understand that the trip was planned long before any sanctions. But if it had been canceled due to sanctions, it would have greatly increased Navalny’s voter base. Why wasn't this done? I'll explain it to you a little lower.
Navalny told us many times about unscrupulous Russian officials whose children study abroad. He told us about their crazy, ostentatious spending. And he promised that when he comes to power, everything will be different.
But personally, I cannot afford to take my wife to Paris for the weekend. It's expensive for me. Although I work very hard. And when Navalny manages to arouse my sincere anger towards officials who send their children abroad, I immediately see that he himself sends his children abroad. So what is the difference, Alexey? Why should I vote for you if you are no different from those you are against?
And now, as I promised, I will explain. Of course, Navalny and Volkov are not fools, and everyone understands this as well as I do. They just... are not going to participate in the elections. They understand that they will not be registered. They understand that even if they are registered, they still won’t win, because it’s simply impossible. And if this is so, then there is no point in flirting with a large electorate. You just need to continue to deceive your small, nuclear electorate, adherents who can’t even grow grass - they will still continue to believe in the divine essence of the tribune. And they will continue to give money. Which, in fact, is what is required of them.
Therefore, headquarters will, of course, continue to open. And people will continue to bring money. And then the Central Election Commission will finally refuse registration and you can only throw up your hands: alas, we tried...
And then the volunteers will shrug their shoulders and go their separate ways. And millions will remain.
How to deliberately and quickly drive away voters
Political technology is not an absolute craft. And it depends on the context and discourse. You cannot use American technology in Russia, and Russian technology is useless in America. And every person who has ever tried to apply something in his political practice knows this from his own experience.
And what does this experience tell us? This experience tells us that Russian voters do not like ostentatious wealth. A textbook example here is the election video of the SPS party, filmed in 2003. Boris Nemtsov, Anatoly Chubais and Irina Khakamada are flying in a business jet, sitting in white leather chairs and discussing the fate of Russia. Just one video led to disaster: the party's technologists quarreled, the headquarters collapsed, the party lost the elections and was never able to recover. Every Russian political strategist remembers this story and will tell it to you if you wake him up at night and ask him what not to do in the elections.
The second postulate, known to every Russian technologist, says: there is a right-wing liberal electorate, but it does not decide the elections. Therefore, any Russian right-wing liberal party always ended any of its campaigns with the pension issue - that is, with an approach to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And after flying on a business jet in white leather seats, you won’t go to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. They won't understand you.
Now, armed with this basic knowledge, let's look at Alexei Navalny. The man who, according to him, is going to become president. The other day, observers interested in the campaign could see how Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov opened a headquarters in Sochi via Skype and... from Cyprus. Where he, according to him, was “on FBK business.” The next day, observers learned that Alexei Navalny himself and his wife flew to Paris. On the weekend. And although Mr. Volkov said that these were slander and that candidate Navalny was in Moscow and was working with documents, the ubiquitous Life provided the public with video recordings of both the departure and arrival of the tribune.
When a man takes his woman to Paris for a weekend, this evokes every approval from me as a man. I respect Navalny for taking his wife to a romantic place.
But in the current context and discourse, Alexey Navalny is not just a man. He is a presidential candidate, although unofficial, but named. Can a presidential candidate in a country whose population has lost 20 percent of its real income over the past 30 months take his wife to Paris for the weekend? Let us remember about the SPS business jet and about the electorate that we will ultimately have to reach. And who has never been to Paris at all.
It’s me, mind you, who hasn’t asked anything about money yet. But we do not know about any declared sources of income for the Navalny family, except for the Anti-Corruption Fund. And everything looks exactly as you thought - that Volkov went to Cyprus, and Navalny went to Paris with FBK money. The other day Navalny reported to all of us about the effective use of them. And in front of me too - after all, I once donated 500 rubles to him. Just to later wonder where they spent it. Now I know where they were spent - on Paris. No, as a man, I am not at all against the fact that Navalny used my 500 rubles to take his wife to drink champagne and eat oysters. But why then tell us about some other people’s corruption? After all, this is who she is.
However, let's move on to the most interesting part. Mr. Navalny’s wife, the beautiful Yulia, is not at all sitting in the kitchen waiting for her husband to take her to Paris for the day. No, she also travels. And a few days before Paris, she took her children... to the United States of America. Where they will learn English in a children's language camp.
Well, it is necessary to study English, and every parent decides for themselves where their children will do this. But what does this look like from the perspective of a potential voter? Here's how: a Russian presidential candidate takes his children to study in the United States at a time when the United States is introducing harsh and unfair sanctions against Russia. Of course, I understand that the trip was planned long before any sanctions. But if it had been canceled due to sanctions, it would have greatly increased Navalny’s voter base. Why wasn't this done? I'll explain it to you a little lower.
Navalny told us many times about unscrupulous Russian officials whose children study abroad. He told us about their crazy, ostentatious spending. And he promised that when he comes to power, everything will be different.
But personally, I cannot afford to take my wife to Paris for the weekend. It's expensive for me. Although I work very hard. And when Navalny manages to arouse my sincere anger towards officials who send their children abroad, I immediately see that he himself sends his children abroad. So what is the difference, Alexey? Why should I vote for you if you are no different from those you are against?
And now, as I promised, I will explain. Of course, Navalny and Volkov are not fools, and everyone understands this as well as I do. They just... are not going to participate in the elections. They understand that they will not be registered. They understand that even if they are registered, they still will not win, because it is simply impossible. And if this is so, then there is no point in flirting with a large electorate. You just need to continue to deceive your small, nuclear electorate, adherents who can’t even grow grass - they will still continue to believe in the divine essence of the tribune. And they will continue to give money. Which, in fact, is what is required of them.
Therefore, headquarters will, of course, continue to open. And people will continue to bring money. And then the Central Election Commission will finally refuse registration and you can only throw up your hands: alas, we tried...
And then the volunteers will shrug their shoulders and go their separate ways. And millions will remain.
The Administration of the President of Russia is asking Russian officials, deputies and employees of state corporations to return relatives who live abroad to their homeland, sources told Znak. “Snob” collected stories of the children of Sergei Lavrov, Elena Mizulina, Dmitry Peskov and other prominent government figures who lived or still live abroad for a long time.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov
Peskov’s eldest daughter, 18-year-old Elizaveta, has been studying in France almost all her life. “From the age of 9, we began sending our daughter to study at a boarding school in France, where she subsequently studied for several years.<…>After graduating from school, Lisa decided that she wanted to live and study in Russia, she entered the ISAA (Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University), but a year later she realized that she missed France, with which she had too much connected, and where there was a lot left childhood friends. She returned to Paris and entered business school at the luxury marketing department,” Ekaterina Peskova, Peskov’s ex-wife and Elizabeth’s mother, said in one of her interviews.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
Ekaterina Vinokurova (nee Lavrova) graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in political science. After this, Lavrov’s daughter studied economics in London. In recent years, Ekaterina has been living in Moscow and heading the Russian branch of the Christies auction house, the world leader in sales of works of art.
Senator from the Omsk region Elena Mizulina
The senator's son Nikolai, having received a diploma from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, studied at the Universities of Bern and Oxford. He married Spanish citizen Patricia Gonzalez and lives with her and their two children in Brussels. Nikolay is a partner in the Mayer Brown law firm, which defends the rights of the LGBT community.
Leader of the LDPR party Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his son, State Duma deputy Igor Lebedev
Lebedev's children and, accordingly, Zhirinovsky's grandchildren studied at an American school in Switzerland (The American School In Switzerland), to which their parents made substantial donations. So, in the winter of 2014, the Lebedevs sent the school 60 thousand Swiss crowns (about $6,784).
According to the official version, Zhirinovsky’s grandchildren received secondary education at a boarding school at Moscow State University. In 2014, they were exposed by blogger Giorgi Jakhaia. “Zhirik, who so waters the West with everything he can, really sent his grandchildren to the American School. Well, at least they’ll come out normal,” wrote on his Facebook, posting a screenshot of a page confirming the statement from the school’s official website and links to pages with information about sponsors.
Assistant to the President of Russia Andrei Fursenko
The son of the former head of the Ministry of Education and Science, Alexander, received his education abroad: a bachelor's degree from New York University in 2001 and a second degree from Stanford Law School in 2005. Since then he has been practicing law in the states of California, Illinois and New York.
State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Fetisov (United Russia faction)
Anastasia, the 25-year-old daughter of Vyacheslav Fetisov, a senator from the Primorsky Territory until recently, and a former famous hockey player, entered graduate school at the New York University School of Cinematography in May 2016 and is preparing to become a director. “I will miss Moscow madly, but I have been striving for this since my third year. I look forward to opening the second chapter of my life in New York - now as a graduate student at New York University! wrote she's on her Facebook.
Anastasia was born in the USA. When she was 12 years old, the Fetisov family returned to Russia. At that time, Anastasia did not yet know how to read or write in Russian.
State Duma Deputy Sergei Zheleznyak (United Russia faction)
In 2012, the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Alexei Navalny, reported that the politician’s 3 daughters were studying abroad. Thus, Ekaterina, one of the deputy’s daughters, was at that time studying at an American school in Switzerland together with Zhirinovsky’s grandchildren (her education, according to Navalny’s calculations, cost Zheleznyak 21.8 million rubles), and the other, Anastasia, was studying at Queen Mary University in London (Zheleznyaki paid 1.9 million rubles over 3 years). Their sister Elizaveta, Navalny believes, also studied in London, but the oppositionist failed to establish an educational institution. All photographs and posts on social networks that Navalny referred to have already been deleted and were preserved only on his blog.
