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Vladimir Khomyakov, co-chairman of the movement “Peoples Council”
We are all elderly people and remember what went on in the early 90s.
We remember that falsifications of elections didn’t start yesterday.
We remember how the current constitution was adopted in 1993.
There are some reasons to believe that it wasn’t adopted according to the laws of that time.
In 1996 difficult elections took place, when Boris Yeltsin, who had a 5% rating, won.
However, those people who supported all these things that time,
are today trying to stand for fair elections and so on.
They are devoted Yeltsinists, who are always here.
19 years later they’ve remembered that our constitution is not legitimate.
So whatever the results of the elections will be,
they would say that the elected president is not legitimate either.
Neither is the parliament legitimate.
And the privatization of the 1990s is not legitimate, including all capital gained during privatization.
So our Western “frenemies” have a serious reason for arresting accounts.
They widely implement this method in order to destabilize various countries in the world.
As for the political situation, the pointlessness of the protests is incredible.
Bolotnaya Square has gathered people who are against unfair elections.
There are ethnic nationalists among them, who declare that they stand for the interests of Russian peoples,
but they participate in protests on the side of liberals,
who stand for the global project of liquidation of any ethnic identity and ethnic statehood.
There are “leftists” who fight for social justice.
Do they really think that Mr. Nemtsov, Mr. Kasyanov and other liberals are supporters of social justice?
It is naive.
What is it: a chaos in minds or a political chaos?
Destruction starts in minds.
This is the point.
The destruction didn't start yesterday, but 20 years ago, when on the wave of rejecting the communist past,
a project of an absolutely different civilization was imposed on us,
it has different origins, culture and values.
The biggest tragedy of our contemporary history is the coming to power of people
who had a different mentality.
They began changing the rules of playing the game in the country, according to foreign values.
People of a different mentality became prosperous in the country.
A Russian person found himself in a devastating position.
This was the biggest tragedy.
Many things, and the people who come to demonstrations are against them now,
are consequences of the global destruction of minds.
Corruption didn’t start yesterday.
Privatization was full of corruption.
Social injustice was established initially in the early 90s.
Today we suffer from the consequences of the process.
I treat the authorities critically,
but the biggest point of criticism is that they continue to play according to those rules of the game.
The main target for stabilization of the country is returning Russia to its own path,
to the path of Russian civilization and Orthodox values,
I mean the origin of the values that became pan-national for our country.
This is the point that can lead to peace between the government and the people.
Everything is illegitimate today in the minds of the population.
People think that the government is illegitimate, as they are not represented in government.
People consider property illegitimate,
as many talented people couldn’t find their place in the life of the country.
People consider social relations illegitimate, as they see there injustice.
I think if these problems are settled, there would be far fewer grounds for protests.
Vsevolod Chaplin, priest
I will speak about the position of the Church on the pre-election processes in the country.
This position was defined many years ago, in the early 1990s, and we have never changed it.
The statement “politics without church” sounds artificial.
The Church is not only priests.
All we who are Orthodox are the Church.
The Church participates in the life of society in different ways.
Orthodox politicians, sportsmen, scientists, journalists, writers and so on are the Church.
They all have different political views and support various political parties and movements.
More and more of them base their political views on Orthodox moral principles.
I hope this process will progress.
As for the position of the top authorities of the Church on the pre-election process,
the clergy cannot be members of political parties.
Clergy cannot campaign for or against any political party or candidate.
Of course our Patriarch didn’t call to vote for some candidate.
However, priests and hierarchs have the right to state their views on developments in the country,
meet representatives of the government and the opposition.
The fact that the clergy doesn’t campaign for political forces doesn’t mean that it has no voting rights.
Very powerful forces in the world try to separate Russia,
thinking they have made certain decisions and the vector of their activity,
which contradicts the possibility of defining the historic fate of our people by ourselves.
Vladimir Medinsky, writer
For many years I couldn’t answer the question: for the sake of what is the Russian Federation living?
What’s the point? Probably, for being the football vice-champions of Europe.
As our previous greatest achievement was fourth place in the European Cup.
It was useful, because people remembered at last the order of colors in the Russian flag.
What’s next?
We are already the world champions in holding various world championships.
But what’s the aim of the state?
During its history Russia has always been a country which has solved some macro-problem:
the Third Rome, the Dardanelles, the unity of the Orthodox, global communist happiness,
protecting the world from Napoleon or Hitler.
And people were ready to suffer in favour of this macro-problem.
Today you undergo difficulties, but tomorrow our children and grandchildren will live better.
It is a natural parental instinct.
And what is the point in our lives today?
However, the activity of the government in 2011 brought me hope that we have a new macro-problem.
Let’s not be shy to name it.
This macro-problem has to be settled by a future president of Russia.
It is the reconstruction of a great country.
Our country was founded as a market for 300 million people.
Our enterprises were built so 300 million people could buy their products.
The whole economic model was based on it.
With the dissolution of the country we not only tore apart its morality,
but also deprived it of its economic sense.
In 2011 the government of Putin achieved EurAzEC, the Customs Union,
the common labor market with Kazakhstan and Belarus.
There is a tendency towards integration.
In a few years we have gone down the route which the EU had gone down for 30 years.
That’s the target for the next 6 years.
Nikita Mikhalkov, director
I think our discussion leads to the necessity of appraising the events which happened 20 years ago,
when in one movement a great country was destroyed.
It was done by Yeltsin’s team.
This analysis is necessary.
If you want to know how to cure, you should know where your disease comes from.
We discuss our points of view on possibilities for withdrawing the country from the situation
it has found itself in.
I wouldn’t threaten people that everything is awful, it is not true.
As for those who speak from tribunes, these people should be grateful for the regime
under which they are living and which they are criticizing.
Great tensions are interesting to those who have place to go to,
while great Russia is interesting to those who want to live here.
We want to live here.
That’s why we gather to define how we should live.
But the question “How should we live?” has never been number one in Russia.
Much more important question is “Why should we live?”
Answering it, we could find the answer to the first question.