russian → English transcript

I've thought about it for a long time — after all, Putin isn't a stupid man, I know him.

You even campaigned for him.

Not that I merely campaigned — I voted; I was so thrilled, thinking, well, finally.

What did you like about him?

Well, first of all, he said amazingly correct things, even about Ukraine — you can look back at what he said.

But he said there would never be any war between Russia and Ukraine.

Basically, he said everything I think — he's simply an idol.

I thought, what a man, what a… Of course, it's a shock to me now.

Wait — people say you understand people; how did you not see anything in him?

You saw him there, like me — he presented you with an award.

Well, when he was presenting the award, I already…

I had already seen.

Well yes, I waited for him for three hours and realized that something was wrong.

Just kidding. Be late, Vladimir Vladimirovich, be late.

Just stop all this already; I'm tired of it.

Of course, it was a shock to me, all of it.

But suddenly… I had this thought.

I'm not going to go into how awful it is right now.

Anyway, everyone knows that I'm against the war.

And I believe our country has suffered greatly.

Secondly and thirdly. But first of all, I feel sorry for Ukraine.

Because, you know, it's like something you could explain on your fingers — how to explain it,

that some people don't want to live in communal housing; they want their own apartments.

That makes sense.

And when they say they want independence, that means everything.

No. Well, that's your brother, after all.

My brother was also, you know, independent.

He wanted to be independent. Fine.

I helped him with everything, even though it was simply unbearable.

He'd come and shoot at the ceiling. He was, in some ways, a completely sick man, of course.

Never mind. He even helped my children.

That's how people should act.

They should, above all, talk and trade.

They should smile.

They should think about the future not only of their own children.

That's how I see it.

Then I think, after all, that a person, besides fighting, also kills,

now it's all coming from the other side,

everyone is suffering, everyone…

It's hard to do things right.

There is probably some kind of business involved.

But I don't know anything about that.

How many people are suffering?

And at what point did you realize about him,

that he wasn't the person you'd want to vote for or campaign for?

It really shook me.

I got tense when the Kursk sank.

I thought he'd come running right away.

I thought, oh, poor thing, he'd have to rush out of Sochi now and comfort everyone.

But he didn't come.

You can't imagine how sorry I am that all this is happening.

Then it will all end again.

It'll all be fine, right?

And you can't bring people back anymore.

Broken lives.

Traumatized children.

It's a disaster.

And I still can't say it.

I can't help with anything.

And that kills me, of course, it kills me.

And even an opinion is already a crime now.

Your point of view.

So you can't even say it.

By the way, Galkin is a foreign agent, right?

The funniest thing is.

How could anyone have thought about Galkin,

about me, about the guys who left,

like Makarevich—well, all those foreign agents,

that they pay us for our opinions.

Some foreign agencies,

or whatever they call it.

You know, they pay us,

so that we would speak like this, so that we would think like this.

How could that be?

They instill this in people.

And they actually believe it.