A correspondent for the news agency “Politics Today” visited a tavern where the cream of protest is discussing the future of Russia. And I found out what was bothering bohemia.

The father of nations Stalin, the leader of the proletariat Lenin, the “demon of revolution” Trotsky and the gravedigger of capitalism Marx look from the walls. Unlike the heroes of the films, Navalny’s elite circle is not going to hide in huts. Unlike the revolutionaries of the past, they come from wealthy families.

Meeting point

"Would you like to join? There is one place...” , advised a man with Navalny posters in the Rokossovsky Boulevard metro area and did not give the address of the blogger’s headquarters.

Bar near the China Town metro station.

A friend told the poster about the establishment. I wasn't there myself. It's difficult to get there. Only the “cool guys” gather there.

“Close to the internal workings of the headquarters”, - the volunteer warned.

The young man spoke spiritually about the upper circles that were inaccessible to him, unobtrusively demonstrating his Omega watches. The brand name shimmered in gold letters on the flaking dial.

How to get

It’s really not easy to get into an establishment in the capital. There are strict security guards at the entrance. People of two categories are allowed inside: those whose names are on the list, and those who undergo face control, also known as a dress code.

The Politics Today correspondent chose the third path. One of the girls, whose name was on the list of VIP guests, helped us into the bar. She introduced the journalist as her friend and led him along.

Inside

Complying with the dress code is a delicate matter, but not in this case. The main criterion at the entrance is the presence of the brand, not taste. Young people from wealthy families wear trendy clothes here.

The area is replete with familiar names from Dolche & Gabbana to Chanel. Out of embarrassment for one’s own appearance one has to, as they say, lower one’s eyes, but this does not help. The bar's regulars walk from table to table in Balenciaga (56,300 rubles) and Alexander Mqueen (82,300 rubles) sneakers, and the fair sex wear elegant pumps from Jimmy Choo (72,400 rubles) and Dior.

Prices

The next obstacle on the way to a “closed society” is the menu. The prices are not communist: cocktails are served in cut glasses for 500 rubles. On the non-alcoholic drinks page - espresso for 380 rubles.

However, the atmosphere itself is friendly. Noticing the correspondent’s confusion, the bartender decided to support him and treated him to coffee at the establishment’s expense. At a table nearby there was a bored interlocutor. Not from Navalny's elite headquarters. The headquarters itself meets in the “secret room”.

Chamber of Secrets

This is a separate room. It is also used for banquets or small celebrations. Bohemians from the opposition are not looking for reasons to celebrate. Behind closed doors, they are frequent guests.

Inside the room there are two tables, bookshelves with the works of Marx and Engels. The interior is decorated with a “Be Prepared” pennant, a pioneer bugle and a red canvas with a hammer and sickle on it. Most often, groups of 5 to 15 people come here.

Salt of the earth

Representatives of golden youth gather for meetings. First and second year students from wealthy families. Schoolchildren, no less spoiled with pocket money, sometimes follow them.

Meetings at “headquarters” resemble a party for adult children, rather than meetings of political activists. During the evening, one table can spend from 40 to 70 thousand rubles. They have no problems with money.

What are they talking about

“Young rebels” spend their evenings drinking expensive alcohol, the degree of which is increased by conversations about the “fate of Russia.”

“All conversations are very clumsy. Some complex bill? Why understand it if you can immediately say that our government is the worst in the world. Here Navalny keeps up with the next release on YouTube,”– the interlocutor told the journalist.

They talk about volunteers and Navalny’s most prominent activists who are detained on the streets. Sympathy for supporters and abstract plans for their “salvation” remain just words. Visitors prefer to watch rallies and other illegal events indirectly, from their feeds on social networks.

“Watching TV is not in fashion these days, reading books is too lazy, and I’m already stuck in my studies. They have to cover half the sessions from their pocket money, so they can buy a new Ipnone only a month after release, and not immediately. And watching videos on the Internet where they are directly addressed with an appeal about the “terrifying situation in the country” is very fashionable. For them, this is the ambience of high society conversations. It’s great and not difficult at all,”– he explained.

Relationship with staff

The main thing that reveals the high position of parents is the lordly manners of their children. They are used to being waited on everywhere, the interlocutor says:

“Children of rich parents, who are covered from all sides, are just starting to go on strike. Against what is the question. They have everything. Perhaps this is where the problem lies. Melancholy eats away. Youth is romance, 20-year-old young people have always been, are and will be driven by revolutionary sentiments.”

The waiters do not share the views of the young people, but visitors are welcome - they don’t skimp.

“It is clear that they treat the Navalnovites condescendingly and even with a degree of hostility. Majors irritate them with their arrogance, idleness, and narrow-mindedness. Although still, they cannot help but rejoice at their visits. Such companies leave a lot of money, and if you’re lucky, even tea,”– he remarked.

The average tea in Moscow is 10 percent of the bill. What comes out of the table is five to seven thousand rubles.

End of the feast

Conversations about Russia's troubles continue until the morning, teenagers drink a lot. By morning, official cars come to pick them up, some call a personal driver, others leave in a luxury taxi. Sometimes Navalny's supporters are unable to leave the bar on their own and have to be carried out. The staff helps drivers with this. Experienced drivers leave waiters additional bonuses for silence.

“This is the key to the safety of families: the prodigal son disgraces his father, and his adventures remain behind the tightly closed doors of the bar. In the morning everyone forgets about it,”– the interlocutor stated.

Navalny’s last rally in greater Moscow was small. In the crowds from which the correspondent watched the protest, there were ordinary guys. The most expensive shoes that met the eye were Vans sneakers for an eighth-grader.

The teenagers did not understand what was happening around them and in the crush they injured each other. They were taken away from the rally by paddy wagons, also in some ways official vehicles.

On the morning of September 24, a service bus took away the spiritual leader of the “bar protest” from the doors of the special detention center. Alexey Navalny served 30 days of administrative arrest for repeated organization of an unauthorized event in January 2018 in the center of Moscow.

The blogger was taken to the Danilovsky police station, where he was charged with yet another uncoordinated protest. This will be discussed again today or tomorrow evening at a meeting of Navalny’s “elite headquarters”.

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” Alexei Navalny has long lived by the patterns of a money-grubber and makes the rule “from the world a thread to a bare shirt” into an absolute.

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 Alexey 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 just 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.

Alexey Navalny is a well-known Russian public and political figure leading a public fight against corruption. He is considered a symbol of the Russian non-systemic opposition. He is the author of the highest-rated political blog on LiveJournal and the head of the RosPil project, aimed at combating abuses in public procurement. The biography of Alexei Navalny is full of scandals and criminal cases in which he was the main defendant in major thefts and fraud. The attitude of the population towards the activist and oppositionist Navalny is ambiguous - some consider him a brilliant fighter for truth and justice, others, on the contrary, see him as an ordinary populist who, with his expressed attitude against government agencies and political parties, is trying to deceive the people.

early years

Navalny Alexey Anatolyevich was born on June 4, 1976 in the military town of Butyn, located in the Moscow region. His parents, Anatoly Ivanovich and Lyudmila Ivanovna, were ordinary people who, at the time of democratic changes, managed to become businessmen, owners of the Kobyakovsky wicker weaving factory. According to Alexey himself, his ancestry is closely connected with Ukraine, since it was in this country that a significant part of his relatives lived. In the future, voters and users of social networks will more than once ask Alexey Anatolyevich about his position on Ukraine, asking for his opinion on the events that occurred in the neighboring state at the end of 2013 - beginning of 2014. In his blog on LiveJournal, Navalny will present in detail his own conclusions and vision changes in Kyiv.

The future non-system oppositionist spent his school years in the military village of Kalininets, where he graduated from high school in 1993, after which he moved to the Russian capital. In Moscow, Navalny immediately entered the Peoples' Friendship University at the Faculty of Law. In 1998, having received a law degree, the young lawyer decided to expand his professional base, and to accomplish this task he became a student at the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. Simultaneously with his studies in finance and credit, Alexey worked as a lawyer at Aeroflot Bank and the development company ST Group.

Having received a diploma in financier, Navalny did not stop there and completed a 6-month course of study at Yale University under the Yale World Fellows grant program, where he managed to get on the recommendations of Sergei Guriev and Evgenia Albats, “venerable” Russian oppositionists, whose opinion was then very much listened in America.

Career and business

Alexei Navalny’s working career started back in his student years, but was exclusively business-oriented. Over the course of several years, he became the founder of a dozen enterprises with “zero” income, which he sold very successfully after a short period of activity. This fact already interested critics who suspected the future oppositionist of fraud and organizing fraud.

In 2008, Alexei Navalny began to become interested in “investment activism” and began buying small stakes in the companies Transneft, Surgutneft, Gazpromneft, Rosneft, VTB and Sberbank. Having become a full shareholder, he began to demand the publication of information about the activities of the management of these structures, on which the income of shareholders depended. Then he called the Gazprom company his main opponent and was even able to get a criminal case initiated against one of the managers of a large corporation.

Along with the business, the income from which allowed the young lawyer to live comfortably, Navalny was actively involved in political activities.

Policy

His start in politics was the democratic party "Yabloko", in which he held leading positions until 2007, thanks to the support of his associates, and.

After being expelled from Yabloko, Navalny co-founded the national democratic movement “People” and became an active participant in the radical “Russian March” march.

In 2009, Alexey Navalny was elected as a freelance adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, and headed the non-profit organization “Initiative Support Fund” of the head of the Kirov regional state administration.

Alexei Navalny often criticizes not only current officials, but also those who were already in leading positions in the public administration system. In particular, television viewers remembered the discussion between the oppositionist and the reformer of the 90s on the “Direct Conversation” program, hosted by. In the studio of the Dozhd TV channel, questions were raised not only about the activities of the state corporation Rusnano, whose general director is Chubais, but also in general the problems of financing this company and Russian science were discussed.

Gradually, Alexey Anatolyevich becomes one of the leaders of the opposition in Russia, and after the murder, it was Navalny who was considered the main critic of the authorities within the country. Navalny himself blames the Russian top leadership for the murder of his political ally and friend. According to him, there was a “terrorist attack that did not achieve its goal.”

Moscow mayoral elections

Soon his plans included the goal of becoming the mayor of Moscow, and in 2013 he was registered with the Moscow City Election Commission as a candidate, but he failed to win the elections - Alexei Navalny received 27% of the votes, which did not give him the right to take the high post of the capital's mayor.

The election results, of course, did not satisfy the headquarters of the non-systemic oppositionist, and the very next day after their announcement he organized a rally in Moscow on Chistoprudny Boulevard in order to demonstrate disagreement with the announced voting results. After the rally, he led an unauthorized march to the Central Election Commission of Russia, during which he was detained by police and received 15 days of administrative arrest.

At that time, he had already created his own anti-corruption Internet projects “RosPil”, “RosYama” and “RosVybory”, and also registered the “Anti-Corruption Foundation”, which, in his opinion, should have created the image of an uncompromising anti-corruption official for him and made him a positive hero in the eyes of the population. But Navalny was unable to achieve this status for a long time, as many criminal cases involving his participation began to come to light.

Arrest and criminal cases

The criminal prosecution of Alexei Navalny started in 2011, when he was convicted of crime, namely causing property damage by deception. Based on the results of the investigation, the well-known non-system oppositionist was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2013, but the day after the verdict, Alexey Anatolyevich was released on his own recognizance. Then both Russians and international society condemned Navalny’s sentence, considering it politically motivated. Even the Russian president expressed his attitude towards the verdict, calling it “strange.” After reviewing the case, the court changed the punishment and changed it to a suspended sentence.

Navalny’s second high-profile criminal case was the trial of the Yves Rocher company, in which he, along with his brother Oleg, was accused of large-scale theft and money laundering of a French company. As a result, the court sentenced Alexey Anatolyevich to 3.5 years probation, and his brother received a real sentence of the same amount. The brothers-accomplices were also fined 4.8 million rubles.

The Kirovles case is another high-profile criminal proceeding against Navalny. The consideration of the case on the facts of possible damage to the Kirov state enterprise “Kirovles” will drag on for years.

Despite this, Navalny remains a leader for many Russians, especially Muscovites. Many consider the figure to be a people's political leader, and his activities are called useful for Russian society and the economy. In 2012, according to Time magazine, he became the only Russian to be included in the TOP 100 most influential people in the world.

Navalny Foundation

In 2011, Alexey Navalny created the non-profit organization “Fund for Fighting Corruption”, which would later become a very large-scale structure in Russia. The new structural formation unites all of Navalny’s projects, and the public figure himself refuses various kinds of anonymous donations.

The founders of the new fund were able to gain enormous experience in public and transparent fundraising by organizing financing for the RosPil project. Using the Yandex.Money payment system, the fund attracts a significant amount of funds to ensure normal functioning. In addition, professional lawyers and economists are also actively involved in the work of the organization, who carefully try to identify illegal schemes in the public procurement system.

The management of the fund has taken a detailed approach to developing a strategy for its actions in various areas, and the main task of the structure is to organize local situations in which the state apparatus will feel pressure from the public. According to the creators, such a unit can become a real alternative to the current public administration system. The founders of the foundation themselves have repeatedly argued that the activities of such a structure cannot be considered an attack on the Russian state itself, because participants in the process of forming a system of power are interested in the stability and durability of all branches of the state apparatus, and total pressure on officials will contribute to positive internal transformations throughout the country.

The issue of financing the fund has always been of interest not only to government officials, but also to other prominent public figures, as well as ordinary citizens. According to the leaders of the organization, a transparent system for raising funds was created, within which it was possible to use $300 thousand for the annual budget. Navalny himself has repeatedly argued that initially the fund needed mass support, because it is the receipt of funds from completely different categories of citizens that allows us to confirm the honesty and openness of the organization.

It was the financing of the structure that interested ordinary Russians the most. Who is behind him? Soon, many Russian voters began asking a similar question, trying to find out more about Navalny's activities. In Russia itself, representatives of some political forces openly call Alexey an “American spy,” and the foundation is accused of attracting funds from abroad.

The foundation will soon present several investigative films. One of the first films that caused a public outcry in Russia was the investigative documentary film “The Seagull.” The filmmakers presented a new investigation into the business and criminal connections of the sons of the Russian Prosecutor General. Other anti-corruption revelations followed.

Navalny himself also fueled interest in the fund’s activities with his publications on the microblogging service Twitter. In particular, one of the posts that the asset manager of the Deputy Prime Minister purchased an entire floor in one of the elite high-rise buildings caused a storm of indignation among members of the public. The oppositionist demanded an investigation into this matter.

Alexey Navalny now

In March 2017, unauthorized rallies took place in many regions of the Russian Federation. Thousands of citizens who gathered in the squares of the country's major cities demanded an investigation into corruption in the highest echelons of power.

The reason for mass protests was a film by the Navalny Foundation about the property of the Russian Prime Minister. Many Russians were clearly shocked by the information provided by the investigation, which revealed that one of the country's top officials is the owner of a “secret empire” that was created through complex corruption schemes. According to Navalny, Medvedev allegedly manages huge funds and assets, and the official’s inner circle controls the flow of funds into the accounts of organizations. It is assumed that tens of billions of rubles were consistently transferred to the accounts of such structures. Such incriminating evidence excited the Russian public.

Some deputies also supported the citizens' indignation. In particular, representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation demanded the creation of an investigative commission that could conduct a transparent investigation and also check all materials.

Navalny commented on his desire to participate in the elections with the desire of people who, he believes, are already massively supporting his anti-corruption program. According to the opposition figure, he is obliged to participate in the elections because he carries political representation for these people.

Navalny’s political career was not without incidents. On March 19, 2017, at one of the protests, which was organized against an increase in tariffs for housing and communal services, the politician was pelted with eggs in Novosibirsk. Still, this did not stop the oppositionist from meeting people and listening to their problems.

Personal life

The personal life of Alexei Navalny against the backdrop of his scandalous career is not particularly remarkable. In 1999, while on vacation in Turkey, he met his future wife Julia, a holiday romance with whom ended in marriage. For 15 years now, she has been creating a reliable home base for him and putting up with all the “side effects” of her husband’s political activities.

Navalny's friends and associates believe that he has a strong and wonderful family, in which they are raising two children - Daria and Zakhar. The spouses themselves say that at home there is a complete delineation of spheres of influence: Julia supports her husband’s political views, but does not give advice on work, and he does not interfere in the household and raising children.

Navalny’s family lives in the Maryino district of Moscow region in an ordinary panel house in an “economy class” apartment with an area of ​​about 80 square meters. Also, the Russian oppositionist owns Hyundai and VAZ-21083 cars, and his wife owns a Ford car. According to official data, Navalny’s income in 2012 amounted to 9 million rubles, which became known during his election campaign for the post of mayor of Moscow.

A remarkable fact is that Alexei Navalny’s height is 189 centimeters. This allows us to classify the political and public figure as one of the highest representatives of Russian politics.

In which he accused State Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Zheleznyak of “deceit” and “hypocrisy.” The blogger consistently cites the deputy’s statements about patriotism and illustrates them with photographs from the life of his daughters studying in elite educational institutions abroad.

Navalny begins by saying that there are several reasons to “hate” Zheleznyak: he is one of the initiators of the law on Internet censorship, he also has a legislative background on the law “on foreign agents,” and he is a co-author of amendments to the law on rallies.

Using the example of Zheleznyak, Navalny comes to the conclusion that United Russia members do not connect the future of their children with Russia. The deputy sent three of his four daughters to study abroad - to London and Switzerland.

The blogger is outraged that this fact does not prevent the deputy from making the following statements: “It is very important that value guidelines, love for the Motherland, and patriotism are formed from childhood and are an integral part of the process of educating and becoming a citizen”; or “You can’t be a patriot for several hours a day. If you are a citizen of your country, you must connect all your actions with it.”

Navalny posted the results of his investigation on his blog. The oppositionist refers to the official website of a Swiss school “for elite children”, where one of the deputy’s daughters, Ekaterina Zheleznyak, studies. Under the link, Alexey Navalny publishes a photo from the site, which depicts the students’ crafts. Under one of them there is a signature: “Ekaterina Zheleznyak.” The oppositionist also names the cost of schooling: 2.4 million rubles.

The deputy’s eldest daughter, Anastasia, writes Navalny, also studied at a Swiss school, after which she entered a university in London. Navalny publishes a screenshot of Anastasia’s page on the social network Facebook, where Queen Mary University of London is indicated in the “education” column. According to the oppositionist, studying at this university costs 630 thousand rubles per year.

Navalny’s third daughter Elizaveta did not escape Navalny’s attention either. He provided a link to the girl’s VKontakte page, where she publishes photographs with the caption “A few views of London and more.” The oppositionist also quotes Elizabeth’s post: “Hello, dear London! Goodbye good old Moscow! I will try to never give up and regret anything) Sincere thanks.”

Then the oppositionist moves on to the deputy himself, describing his property. “Judging by his declaration, he is the owner of a very beautiful, rare Chrysler Prowler car. The first concept Chrysler Prowler appeared at the New York Auto Show in 1993. The cars are assembled by hand. More than 11 thousand wealthy American collectors purchased this car for their collections. The latest and most unique Chrysler Prowler, specially created in a single copy for the public historical organization National Multiple Sclerosis Society, was sold at the New York branch of the world famous Christie's auction for $175,000. Patriotic!” — the oppositionist wrote, referring to his income statement.

According to Navalny, deputy Zheleznyak also owns a Lexus RX 350 worth 2.8 million rubles and two apartments with a total area of ​​437.6 square meters. m.

At the end of the recording, Alexey Navalny summarizes everything written, stating that Zheleznyak’s official income is 3.5 million rubles. According to the oppositionist, the deputy pays 4.3 million rubles annually for his daughters’ education.

Navalny reminds the deputy of the ban on Americans adopting Russian children, contained in the Russian response to the “Magnitsky list,” which Zheleznyak supported. “He himself sent three children abroad, but he will stand up as a barrier so that some unfortunate three-year-old autistic person, lying in dirty diapers and with prospects of only having a nursing home at the age of 18, is taken abroad,” the blogger is indignant.

A few hours later Sergei Zheleznyak commented on Navalny’s “compromising evidence” on his Facebook page.

Accusing the oppositionist of “pouring a bucket of slop on him and his children,” the deputy asks his opponent: “If you constantly feel like there is a stink around you, think about it, maybe you are the reason?”

“He and his team didn’t find anything illegal or obscene against me, so Alexey decided to engage in distortion and fraud with publicly available data,” is how Zheleznyak assessed Navalny’s research.

Next, the deputy unfolded evidence of the groundlessness of the reproaches addressed to him. He recalled that he came to the Duma from the position of managing director of the large company News Outdoor, where his work “paid quite decently,” and received a severance pay of several tens of millions of rubles, on which he paid taxes.

“Therefore, all of Alexei’s controversial and inaccurate fabrications, even if taken on faith, were within my means. Therefore, all the indignation about my property and funds for the education of my children is groundless. I was never a swindler or a thief and never got dirty with bribes and cuts,” Zheleznyak noted.

Before explaining why his children study abroad, he emphasized that “he has always advocated the development of modern education here in Russia, dialogue and cooperation with leading universities in the world, grants for talented children from families experiencing financial difficulties, allowing them to receive the right education where it is best given.”

Responding to accusations of hypocrisy, Zheleznyak said that it is necessary to “distinguish real patriotism from leavened patriotism.”

He doesn’t see anything unpatriotic about his daughters studying abroad. “They will get an education, come home and be useful to the country in the capacity in which they want,” Zheleznyak wrote.

United Russia expanded its understanding of patriotism: “Patriotism does not mean walking in bast shoes, weaving vines, listening only to the balalaika and buying, with tears in your eyes, low-quality goods produced in the neighborhood. True patriotism lies in realizing oneself in the country and for the good of the country. If there is a high-quality Russian product, and there are many of them, there is no need to buy a foreign analogue for budget funds!”

Zheleznyak noted that he is not afraid of being included in the “Magnitsky list.”

“I’m not eager to go there and I’m not shaking for foreign treasures. I’ve been to many countries in my life, everywhere there are a lot of problems, but we need to put things in order here, in our Motherland. No one will do this for us; it is naive to rely on overseas uncles; no one has canceled international competition. As for my daughters, if my right to enter the countries where they study is deprived, it will be unpleasant, but we will survive. They will return and complete their studies here,” the deputy concluded.

Summing up the current “information noise” raised by Navalny, Zheleznyak wished him that “no scumbag would ever use his children, trying to do him harm.”