RUSSIAN OPPOSITION-NAVALNY
(SCHIFRIN/FANNIN) PBS NHWE JULY 15, 2017
(PKG)
(NATSOT PROTEST CHANTS.
BANNER: “No to renovation”)
(VO-PROTESTERS WALKING TOWARD
CAMERA, CHANTING)
This is the season of
Russia’s discontent.
(NATSOT PROTEST CHANTS)
(VO PROTESTERS)
Under President Vladimir
Putin there’s been a tacit agreement that people enjoy their lives and stay out
of politics. Now, many Russians are deciding that bargain’s no longer worth it.
(SOT ALEXEY
KOTOREV -- RUSSIAN, WITH TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
Until recently,
people were thinking politics were somewhere far away. But now people
understand politics hit close to home.
(VO KOTOROV AND GROUP)
38-year-old Alexey Kotorov
and his neighbors had considered themselves apolitical. But they launched these
protests when the City of Moscow planned to evict them from their apartments to
knock them down and build high rises.
(NATSOT POLICE)
(VO POLICE AT PROTEST)
As always, police presence
was strong. But some Russians’ fear of their state seems to be fading, and
faith in themselves, rising.
(SOT ALEXEY
KOTOREV -- RUSSIAN, WITH TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
We can change
things if we stay together. We need to stay active. It’s very important right
now to recreate civil society. For the last five years, civil society has
almost disappeared.
(NATSOT OUTSIDE OF APARTMENT
BUILDING)
(VO VAHIS APARTMENT COMPLEX)
In the 1960s, the former
Soviet Union built Kotorev’s apartment complex as inexpensive housing…
(NATSOT)
NICK: So this is your home?
ALEXEY: This is my home.
...for people like him to
have their own space.
(VO-NICK GETTING TOUR FROM
VAHIS)
Inside, it’s nice…
(VO-VIEW OF RIVER FROM HIS
BEDROOM)
...with a view of the Moscow
River. Kotorev accuses local officials of wanting to seize valuable land to get
rich.
(SOT ALEXEY
KOTOREV -- RUSSIAN, WITH TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
Now’s a very
important moment. The people are starting to unite to show the government their
point of view.
(NATSOT NAVALNY SHAKING
HANDS)
(VO-NAVALNY AT POLITICAL
EVENT, SURROUNDED BY YOUNG PEOPLE, THIRD EVENT)
The man most responsible for
creating that unity is Alexei Navalny.
(NATSOT NAVALNY RALLY)
(VO-NAVALNY AT POLITICAL
EVENT, SURROUNDED BY YOUNG PEOPLE, THIRD EVENT)
The 41-year-old lawyer is the
country’s most prominent opposition politician…on a crusade against corruption.
He calls the ruling United Russia party, “the party of crooks and thieves.”
(NATPOP-RUSSIAN MUSIC ON
YOUTUBE MEDVEDEV VIDEO)
(VO-YOUTUBE MEDVEDEV VIDEO)
In March, he posted an
hour-long YouTube expose about mansions, yachts, and land that he says were
corruptly acquired by Putin’s Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev.
(SOT ALEXI NAVALNY FROM
YOUTUBE -- RUSSIAN, TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
Medvedev can steal so much
and so openly because Putin does the same, but on a greater scale. The system
is so rotten, there’s nothing healthy left.
(VO NAVALNY -- FILE VIDEO]
Navalny’s been fighting Putin
for six years. In 2011, he sparked massive protests ahead of a parliamentary
election he called rigged.
(SOT ALEXEI NAVALNY/APTV --
RUSSIAN, TRANSLATION VOICEOVER) February 25,
2012
It's very simple: Power to
the people.
Two years later, he ran
unsuccessfully for Moscow mayor against the Putin-backed incumbent.
(NATSOT FROM APTN VIDEO TBD)
(VO YOUTUBE MEDVEDEV VIDEO)
Today, by using YouTube,
Navalny circumvents state-run media and maintains a huge following. This video
has 23 million views.
(SOT ALEXI NAVALNY FROM
YOUTUBE -- RUSSIAN TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
This is our country, and
these swindlers are stealing our money. Everyone should fight however he can.
(NATSOT MARCH 26
PROTEST/APTN)
Tens of thousands of people
answered his call to protest the government. On March 26th…
(VO JUNE 12 PROTEST)
…and June 12th, Russians
launched the largest unsanctioned protests in a quarter century.
(NATSOT PROTEST)
They were held in 185 cities.
Nearly all the protesters were young and motivated to speak out by
corruption.
(NATSOT RUSSIAN CHANT)
“Putin’s a thief,” they
chanted.
(NATSOT – RUSSIAN CHANT CROWD
HANDS INTERLINKED)
“Police, join the people,”
they say. “Don’t serve the government of monsters.”
(NATSOT JUNE 12 POLICE
BEATING PROTESTORS UP/APTN)
Police declined their
invitation...and arrested 17-hundred protesters across the country, including
Navalny.
(VO FILE STILLS NAVALNY,
OLEGIN COURT)
He was sentenced to 25 days
in jail for organizing an unsanctioned rally. He was also arrested and jailed
in March. And back in 2014, he was convicted of a felony -- defrauding clients
of a shipping company he helped his brother, Oleg, start. Oleg remains in
prison. Alexei calls his brother a hostage and the charges fabricated. But his
conviction means, legally, he can’t run for office.
(NATSOT NAVALNY INTRODUCED)
That hasn’t stopped him from
campaigning for next year’s presidential election.
(SOT ALEXI NAVALNY --
TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
We do not owe the government
anything. it is the government who owes us. They build an authoritarian regime
that doesn’t give us anything back.
(VO-NAVALNY ON THE STUMP)
His rallies are unusual in a
country where retail campaigning is almost unheard of. The crowds are young,
and he talks like them.
(SOT ALEXI NAVALNY --
RUSSIAN, TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
They think we have no right
to ask questions, that we have to shut up and listen. They tell us, [BLEEP]
you and we have to say, oh, ok, we’re very sorry. But no, we have gathered here
to say we’re going to ask these questions and we’ll obtain the answers.
(SOT KIRIL KOZLOVSKY /
NAVALNY SUPPORTER, ENGLISH WITH SUBTITLES)
His anti-corruption message
resonates with me. And I think that he’s a very charismatic politician.
(VO KIRIL AND NAVALNY TAKING
A PICTURE)
23-year-old Kiril Kozlovsky
-- and anyone in the crowd who wanted one -- got a photo with Navalny.
Kozlovksy promptly posted it to his profile on VK, Russia’s equivalent of
Facebook.
(VO 1990S FOOD LINES FILE
STILLS /AP)
Koslovsky acknowledges Putin
has brought relative prosperity to Russia. He’s not even old enough to remember the political
and economic chaos that Putin ended when he came to power in 1999.
(INTERVIEW)
NICK: What would you say to
your parents or grandparents or uncles or aunts who say, “Look, things were a
lot worse economically for us before President Putin?”
KIRIL KOZLOVSKY / NAVALNY
SUPPORTER (ENGLISH)
In the 18 years that have
passed he and his team could have done a lot more to help the situation, a lot
more to make it better. And he didn’t. So, he’s to blame for this.
(NATSOT DRONE VIDEO)
(VO DRONE VIDEO ON EDGE OF
TOWN)
In Cheboksary, 375 miles east
of Moscow, the local government made sure no one in the city center would rent
space to the Navalny campaign. His gatherings often take place on the edge of
towns, like at this apartment complex.
Semyon Kochkin is the local
campaign manager.
(SOT SEMYON KOCHKIN / NAVALNY
CAMPAIGN MGR, CHEBOKSARY, TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
We were rejected by all the
landlords, by all the hotels, even the international hotels. Even construction
fields rejected us.
(VO KOCHKIN AND NICK TWO
SHOT)
Kochkin says he’s been
targeted personally. Last year on VK, he posted a clip from comedian John
Oliver’s HBO program, “Last Week Tonight.”
(NATSOT HBO CLIP W/ISIS FLAG SQUEEZEBACK -- FROM
HBO / Last Week Tonight)
OLIVER: “Scamming ISIS is the
best thing anyone did on Earth this week!”
(VO JOHN OLIVER CLIPS
CONTINUES)
The video shows banned ISIS
symbols, and Kochkin was arrested for extremism. He took a selfie in the back
the police car. He accuses the government of exploiting anti-terrorism laws to
silence Navalny’s campaign.
(SOT SEMYON KOCHKIN --
TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
We are constantly fighting
with the authorities, and it’s always one-sided. Because when it comes to
election season, they make it impossible.
(NATSOT ANDRE PLAYING THE
VIOLIN)
(VO ANDREI OUTSIDE NAVALNY
EVENT)
Local police also targeted
35-year-old Andrei Usipov. He’s the local orchestra’s first violin.
(NATSOT ANDREI AT PROTEST)
(VO ANDREI AT PROTEST)
On March 26th, he joined the
Navalny protest…
(VO ANDREI BEING ARRESTED BY
POLICE IN APRIL)
And a week later, police
interrupted a rehearsal to take him to jail. I asked him if he thought he’d be
arrested for protesting if Navalny were President.
(SOT ANDREI USIPOV / NAVALNY
SUPPORTER -- TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
I am absolutely certain this
would not happen, because under Alexei Navalny, the country will be more open.
Alexei is for transparency, and only with transparency can we overpower
corruption.
Arrests are only one way the
Russian establishment pushes back. State TV portrays Navalny’s protests as an
existential threat to Russia’s stability. Listen to what the country’s most
popular anchor said last month:
(SOT DIMITRY KISELYOV /
RUSSIA ONE, TRANSLATION VOICEOVER) June 18
They use people to provoke
the crowd and make the situation spiral out of control, achieving chaos. First
in one square in one city, and then they plunge the entire country into poverty
and—I’m afraid to say—civil war.
(VO ANTI-NAVALNY HITLER VIDEO
SQUEEZEBACK)
Government-run high schools
force students to watch a video comparing Navalny to Hitler…accusing him of
being a fascist and trying to undermine the state.
(VO VIDEO OF STUDENTS
DEBATING TEACHERS)
But for the first time in a
generation, young people are rejecting the government’s talking points. In a
classroom 2000 miles from Moscow, students posted a video of themselves
challenging a government-funded school teacher, who called Navalny’s supporters
freaks, and defended corruption.
[Teacher:]
If there is no corruption in a state, it means that nobody needs this
state.
[Student:] So you mean you like it when they steal from you?
[Teacher:] So? People steal everywhere.
[Student:] But it is not normal.
//
[Teacher:]
Every student should mind his own business.
[Student:]
And a lecturer should mind his own business.
(NATSOT NAVALNY WITH COSSACKS
-- APTN)
The pressure on Navalny
himself is sometimes physical. Last year, members of the pro-government
Cossacks doused Navalny with milk…
(NATSOT PUNCH)
...and beat up his staff.
(VO NAVALNY GETTING ATTACKED
-- RUSSIAN TV)
In April, a state TV channel
showed an assailant after he sprayed Navalny with green dye and chemicals.
(VO NAVALNY PHOTO -- SOURCE:
NAVALNY TWITTER ACCOUNT)
Navalny’s right eye needed
surgery. Navalny accused the Kremlin of organizing the attack.
(SOT ALEXEI NAVALNY YOU TUBE
-- TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
Even if I look like this,
does that mean that we will accept money’s been stolen and used to buy yachts?
I don’t think so.
Navalny’s poll numbers remain
low, but he’s changing public opinion. 2/3rds of Russians now
identify corruption as the country’s number one problem.
(VO-PUTIN CALL-IN SHOW,
DANIEL PRILEPA QUESTION)
President Putin avoids
responding to Navalny substantively. But the Navalny effect means at a town
hall in Moscow, where questions are usually screened in advance, this teenager
dared to ask Putin about corrupt officials undermining the public’s faith in
government.
(DANILA PRILEPA --
TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
How are you planning to solve
this problem?
(SOT VLADIMIR PUTIN)
Putin responded:
(TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
You read your question. Did
you prepare it yourself, or did someone put you up to it?
(DANILA PRILEPA --
TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
Life prepared me for this
question.
(Audience claps)
(VO NAVALNY, COCKROACH VIDEO,
UKRAINE/SYRIA STILLS/AP, PRESS GAGGLE)
While he’s inspired the
younger generation, some fellow Putin opponents criticize Navalny for being a
nativist. Six years ago, he released videos comparing immigrants who work in
Russia to cockroaches. Navalny stands by the videos and says he wants to
appeal to nationalists. Which is why he rarely criticizes Putin’s muscular and
popular foreign policy in Ukraine and Syria. Navalny turns down interview
requests -- including ours -- and tries to keep the focus on corruption.
(NICK @ PRESS GAGGLE)
You save your harshest
criticism of the President for his domestic policy, obviously not his foreign
policy. In fact you don’t talk very much about his foreign policy. Is that
because you agree with most of it?
(SOT ALEXEI NAVALNY --
TRANSLATION VOICEOVER)
I don’t talk a lot about
foreign policy, because // here everyone is interested in wages, income, and
bad roads.
(V -NAVALNY CAMPAIGNING, THEN
PROTESTERS)
He tries to feed populism to
an audience that’s hungry. He highlights government corruption to people who
feel they have nothing to lose. And he’s trying to convince a generation, and
perhaps the country, that politics requires participation.
###
|
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER THIRD |
|
1 |
00:00 |
(NO TO RENOVATION) |
|
2 |
01:24 |
ALEXEY KOTOREV Moscow Resident |
|
3 |
02:18 |
FEBRUARY 25, 2012 |
|
4 |
03:50 |
ALEXEI NAVALNY Opposition Politician |
|
5 |
04:55 |
KIRIL KOZLOVSKY Navalny Supporter |
|
6 |
05:37 |
HBO/LAST WEEK TONIGHT |
|
7 |
05:55 |
SEMYON KOCHKIN Chuvashia Region Navalny Campaign Mgr. |
|
8 |
06:26 |
ANDREI USIPOV Navalny Supporter |
|
9 |
06:53 |
JUNE 18 |
|
10 |
07:29 |
TEACHER: If there is no corruption in a state, it
means that nobody needs this state. |
|
11 |
07:35 |
STUDENT: So you mean you like it when they steal
from you? |
|
12 |
07:37 |
TEACHER: So?
People steal everywhere. |
|
13 |
07:39 |
STUDENT: But it is not normal. |
|
14 |
07:41 |
TEACHER: Every student should mind his own business. |
|
15 |
07:43 |
STUDENT: And a lecturer should mind his own
business! |
|
16 |
09:36 |
NICK SCHIFRIN Special Correspondent |
|
17 |
09:42 |
ALEXEI NAVALNY Opposition Politician |