Putin has reversed all the liberalizing reforms carried out by his predecessor.

Putin needs to terrorize his own elite. He is more afraid of those in his own surroundings than any protests; there are people there who are at least as critical as I am because they see up close that the system doesn't work. He wants to silence them.

I'm only sort of a politician.

In Russia an authoritarian leader is running the country. You can't fight Putin with elections because he controls them. That's why demonstrations are the most effective approach. Unfortunately Russia has sunk to this primitive level.

No opposition politician has ever taken responsibility for his or her election failures.

Everyone needs to understand that my work addresses existing problems, and one of the crucial problems in Russia today is corruption.

I've always seen my campaigns against corruption as political work of a purer form than what opposition leaders usually do. All they do is hold roundtables and release political statements, which is all well and good. But there are concrete things that need to get done in order to achieve the basic goal of every opposition politician.