Lev: No, it's not related to the explosions, that's clear, yes, directly. It somehow characterizes the background, background, background, yes, background. Yes, absolutely right. Break. Yes.

Interviewer: So, Lev, you were telling a bit about your work in the Duma and about... well, about how you... about your acquaintance with Starovoytova.

Lev: Yes, I knew Galina Vasilyevna Starovoytova very closely in the last years of her life. In the first Duma, I worked with deputy Gleb Yakunin, a priest, also deceased now. And he wasn't elected to the second Duma, he wasn't chosen, although he tried. But Galina Starovoytova was elected from the St. Petersburg district; she's from St. Petersburg herself. And it so happened she had a very good office in the Duma, with a wonderful view of Moscow, glass walls, a corner office, such a... the whole city was beneath us, at the top. I said: 'Galina Vasilyevna, I'm handing over a prime office to you.' She was very happy, and we became friends. And I sat further down with another deputy; I had my own office there literally two steps away from her, in the same corridor. And we communicated very often, drank tea there, and so on. And I saw her for the last time literally a few hours before her murder. She was killed in St. Petersburg in the entrance of her house. But the day before she was in Moscow at a session. After the session already, it was about seven or eight in the evening, we met in the corridor in the Duma, got to talking, and she said: 'Don't tell anyone yet, but I'll tell you that I've made the decision to run for the State Duma... oh, to run, my apologies, to run for the post of president.' And the presidential elections were supposed to be in 2000. This was the end of '98, late autumn of '98. Well, we talked about it a bit, she flew away, and in the morning I come in—it was a Saturday, that was a Friday—on Saturday I come to work, I'm sitting in the office, her assistant Petya runs in and says, all in tears, says that Galina was killed. I think these are related things, because the current president of Russia, he considers personal enemies primarily those who encroach, who even mention it, and who encroach or encroached or might encroach on the position of president. The last in this line is Navalny, because he, like, often made such statements, like 'being the president of Russia...' But Nemtsov, he was in the best times, in the early 90s, Yeltsin called him his successor. And Vladimir Putin considered him a personal enemy. And by his order, he was held for 15 days, well, most likely by his order, that's what Nemtsov himself said, held on the floor in a stone administrative arrest, a former deputy prime minister of Russia, also a governor, a deputy. And Nemtsov is in this line, one of the reasons. That is, you can build such a line. And...

Interviewer: Some other governor...

Lev: Yes, and a person who would hardly have become president, but he's a good person, the governor of the Tomsk region was Nikita Belykh. It was the 90th anniversary, the jubilee of Alekseeva, the human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseeva. We were all there visiting her, and Nikita Belykh was there, the governor of the Tomsk region. He spoke with a congratulation, says: 'The future president of Russia congratulates you,' about himself. He was imprisoned immediately. He's still sitting there.

Interviewer: And what was he imprisoned for?

Lev: Well, formally for an alleged bribe. It's a completely ridiculous story there. He didn't register... he didn't take bribes, that's obvious, he wouldn't have taken them, he was a very, completely honest person. But they planted money on him for some... for some foundation. This foundation transferred this money to a foundation for some help to some sick children, some special kind of foundation. They transferred it allegedly as a donation. And he wanted to transfer it, but he was detained with this money immediately.

Interviewer: Besides this, there are those like, well, Prokhorov, for example, or Sobchak's daughter, who also, well, set themselves up as candidates, but nothing like that happened to them...

Lev: Well, that's a completely different story, because...

Interviewer: Well, I just wanted to ask if you think they are plants themselves or if they just don't represent anything dangerous themselves?

Lev: Both Prokhorov and especially Sobchak, of course, they were delegated there from the Kremlin. Sobchak is generally like his goddaughter, as they call her. There. And the fact that she played a role was obvious to everyone. Although she said everything correctly with beautiful words then about human rights, about freedoms there, integration there, almost... everything was wonderful. But everyone understood that this was a puppet figure, because in society, the majority of voters have a bad attitude towards her. Because of 'Dom-2', there, especially the older generation, elderly people, that 'Dom-2', she had this show, that there was all sorts of permissiveness there, debauchery, all sorts of things like that, and she's all, like, loose, scandals around her constantly, there, some endless husbands, and all that. The people didn't like her. Therefore, she also runs with all these slogans... That is, to discredit the slogans themselves, not just the slogans, the ideas, she was an ideal candidate. Well, and Prokhorov, he was asked. He ran, after all, in order to take votes away from Yavlinsky, to divide... That was the line then, later they abandoned it, the last elections there are no democratic deputies at all. But then, the more the better, it was thought. They ate each other up, and that was it, it ended there. Therefore, Prokhorov, he didn't want to, as far as I know. There, but he... but he is heavily tied up with his business too, he would have had problems if he had refused. And his business is a very useful thing of his sister's, the NLO publishing house. There. Pause.