"Why don't they sit with me?" Interview with Navalny FT

Oppositionist Alexei Navalny believes that in the coming years the Russian opposition has a chance to win the elections over United Russia, since the popularity of President Vladimir Putin is falling. “No one wants to vote for them ( candidates from the authorities. - RS ),” he said in an interview with Financial Times.

At the same time, Navalny believes that the Kremlin will increase the pressure on the opposition: "They cannot afford to have an opposition in any form, because they will lose it." As an example, the politician brought the tactics of “smart voting” in the elections in Moscow, with the help of which - as Navalny claims - almost half of the places in the Moscow City Duma went to the opposition candidates.

In an interview, the political biography of Navalny was retold, including it is noted that from nationalist rhetoric in the early 2010s he moved to more left-wing positions.

• Navalny commented on the Moscow business, open after protests in Moscow in the summer of this year. According to Navalny, the tactics of the authorities - to throw ordinary people into prison and leave the opposition leaders at large in order to try to undermine confidence in them.
• Navalny also commented on Russian intervention in the elections in the Western countries. According to him, the Kremlin managed to create a narrative about his omnipotence: "It is enough to spend 500 thousand dollars on Facebook advertising, and for several years the establishment of a large Western country will only talk about intervention, although its genuine effects are ridiculous."
• According to Navalny, he became the most popular opposition politician not because he "pushed the elbows of others, but, on the contrary, because few seek to be at the head of the protest. "Why don't my critics sit with me?" - Navalny asked a rhetorical question, referring to his many administrative arrests.
• The interview was held in the Moscow Fudkort. At the next table was a man whom Navalny described as a “Prigozhinsky troll” who constantly holds the opposition under supervision, shoots him on video and photographs. The opposition claims that people hired by businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, the so -called Putin's cook, are following him almost around the clock.