Please help us carry out a demonstrative act of retribution, because official arrogance on this issue has gone far beyond all bounds.
Lately, we have all been watching the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament, nicknamed the "rabid printer") churn out insane new laws every single day—laws to tighten, toughen, restrict, and generally idiot-proof everything under the sun.
Ban the internet, jail people for protests, bar them from elections, shut their mouths. Meanwhile, officials have reserved for themselves the right to do almost anything they want. Almost. To throw dust in the public’s eyes, they passed a package of laws on the so-called “nationalization of the elite,” banning foreign bank accounts and shares, imposing restrictions on overseas real estate, and so on.
People often ask us: why have you started spending so much time looking for overseas property and bank accounts? The answer is obvious to us: there is a fairly strict and unambiguous ban in place, and it is being violated on a massive scale. An official who hides a house abroad or an offshore company is not just corrupt in the ordinary, common-sense understanding of the public—under the law, he must be dismissed for concealing information and for a conflict of interest. Finding and exposing such officials is anti-corruption work.
Unfortunately, we can investigate and expose them, but we never see any consequences. We have a huge amount of information about property and bank accounts, but presenting it in the form our “authorities” demand is practically impossible. A bank is not going to hand you a client’s account statement, even if he is a crook three times over.
And so all these Zhirinovskys, Babakovs, and other Zheleznyaks remain comfortably seated in the Duma. No one wants to examine their cases because "the documents look anonymous." When we caught Liksutov with a whole pile of offshore companies, he simply claimed that he had gotten divorced and GIFTED everything to his wife. Obviously it was fake, and the divorce was a sham, but the ACF is not the FSB (Russia’s security service): we cannot conduct operational surveillance, and therefore we cannot prove the divorce was fictitious. Sobyanin and Liksutov just smile, shrug, and carry on with their schemes involving billions of rubles in public transport funds.
It is incredibly infuriating. Really.
That is why the ACF set itself the goal of building a case that would completely and definitively nail a corrupt official. The kind of case that pins him to the wall so he cannot wriggle out of it. No room to maneuver whatsoever. So that if the authorities once again turned a blind eye and refused to dismiss him, it would demonstrate the (already almost) total bankruptcy of Putin’s so-called “nationalization of the elite” and “de-offshorization,” which is already quite clear to us in theory.
We were working on several officials whom we knew for certain were these lying scumbags running businesses under the cover of public service and were 146% founders of numerous offshore companies. We needed to catch at least one of them and—most importantly—obtain official documents.
We did it. Take a look at your old acquaintance and his beaver-fur collar:
Maksim Stanislavovich Liksutov, who combines two jobs:
Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Moscow city government, head of the Department of Transport. A “businessman” and “entrepreneur,” and a shareholder in the Cypriot offshore company INTELLECTICO HOLDINGS LIMITED.
As for point 2, citizen Liksutov has no way out now. As Professor Preobrazhensky said: "what you need is a final and definitive piece of paper. Not paper—armor!" This is exactly that. An officially obtained extract from the Registration Department of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus. Stamps, registration number, the whole lot. You can get one yourself for €10.
Knowing the habits of our bureaucrats, and expecting Sobyanin to say something like, “Welllll, this isn’t written in Russian letters, so we don’t know what it is,” we had an official notarized translation prepared in full compliance with Russian rules:
Thus, the ACF is presenting irrefutable and verifiable evidence that Deputy Mayor Liksutov is deliberately and flagrantly violating Russian laws "On Combating Corruption" and "On the Ban on Holding Foreign Assets." For two years in a row, he has knowingly submitted false and incomplete asset disclosures and has held shares in a foreign company, which is directly and unequivocally prohibited:
The liability for this is equally unambiguous:
Under the law, there can now be no outcome other than Liksutov’s dismissal for loss of trust.
You are probably wondering what kind of company INTELLECTICO HOLDINGS LIMITED is. That ought to be the subject of a very interesting law-enforcement investigation. What we can say for certain is:
The company is active
Some time ago, it was a shareholder in SURPRISE!!! CJSC “Transmashholding”
The very same company that has such a wonderful and mutually beneficial “friendship” with Sobyanin’s city hall and signs multi-billion-ruble transport contracts. Right now, “Transmashholding” is preparing to take part in an unprecedented tender for rail cars worth 0.5 trillion rubles (yes, trillion, not a typo).
Some time ago, Transmashholding’s ownership structure was changed. Liksutov’s company transferred its stake to another offshore entity, and everything was hidden behind such a hellish offshore scheme that we still cannot penetrate it.
So we do not know what exactly Liksutov uses the company “Intellectico” for. Maybe kickbacks are being funneled there, maybe he keeps his secret stake in TMH there, maybe something else. But what we do know for sure is: -__this company exists; - Liksutov is hiding it; - it is connected to the Moscow city government’s biggest contractors.
All of this is a pure conflict of interest and clear corruption, and it seems to me that not only Liksutov but Sobyanin as well is involved. The stakes are simply too high, and Sobyanin is holding on far too tightly to his crooked deputy.
What is the ACF doing?
Under the law, not everyone can demand an official review of foreign asset ownership. The good news is that registered political parties can:
That is why the “Progress Party” is sending an official letter and the original documents to the division of the Presidential Administration authorized to verify such information. You can read the text of the statement here. 2. We are also sending similar statements with notarized copies of the documents to Putin, Sobyanin, and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Can you help us in any way? Yes, you can—and that help is badly needed.
Yes, we have cornered Liksutov with irrefutable evidence, but more people need to know about it, and more people need to demand lawful action alongside us. Let’s do it the old-school way. Go here: https://www.mos.ru/authority/treatments/reception/individuals/. This is the official public reception portal, and they are required to review your electronic appeal and reply to you. Fill in the required fields.
In the field marked "subject of the issue," write: "On M. S. Liksutov’s violation of anti-corruption legislation".
In the field marked "Content of the appeal," write:
"Information has been published on the internet indicating a gross violation by Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Moscow city government M. S. Liksutov of the provisions of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 79-FZ of May 7, 2013, and Article 7.1 of Federal Law No. 273-FZ ‘On Combating Corruption’;
The certificate issued by the Registration Department of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of the Republic of Cyprus on May 6, 2014, states that citizen M. S. Liksutov is a shareholder of INTELLECTICO HOLDINGS LIMITED and the owner of 1,275 ordinary shares in the company.
A review of the information on assets and property-related obligations submitted by citizen M. S. Liksutov and published on the internet shows that M. S. Liksutov knowingly provided the authorized bodies with false and incomplete information about his assets by failing to disclose the shares of INTELLECTICO HOLDINGS LIMITED that he owns.
In accordance with Article 10 of Federal Law No. 79, M. S. Liksutov, for the violations committed, is subject to dismissal (removal from office) from public service and dismissal from his current position due to loss of trust.
In accordance with Article 13.1 of the Federal Law ‘On Combating Corruption,’ citizen M. S. Liksutov is also subject to dismissal (removal from office) for failure to provide accurate information about his assets and property-related obligations, as well as for knowingly providing false and incomplete information, due to loss of trust.
In view of the above, on the basis of Article 7 of Federal Law No. 79-FZ, Article 13.4 of Federal Law No. 273-FZ, and other provisions of current legislation, I demand the following:
Conduct a review of the facts set out above. Take measures for the immediate dismissal (removal from office) of Maksim Stanislavovich Liksutov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Moscow city government and head of the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development. Initiate a review of M. S. Liksutov’s actions for the existence of a conflict of interest and possible corrupt practices.
Send it.
It is very important to us that as many people as possible learn about this exemplary case of finally nailing an official. Without that, our appeal will simply be ignored.
Dear media outlets, please send your own inquiries as well. Under the law, they are required to review media requests concerning assets.
Dear everyone, please do not spare a few seconds—share this link on social media. You may think people will see it on their own, but that is not how it works. If another hundred people share the link on Facebook, another 100,000 people will read it. You can see how the internet is being squeezed and how all ACF resources and mine are being blocked, so please help.
You can retweet it right here:
Dear candidates for the Moscow City Duma, whose election is coming up soon: we will not let this go until you state your position on this issue. This concerns abuse of office, lies, conflicts of interest, and possible corruption involving billions. I urge everyone to decide whether to support—or not support—any given candidate based on that candidate’s clear position on whether a person with offshore holdings can remain in public service. We do not need deputies for whom secret offshore companies are no obstacle to holding office.
The ACF will send letters to all 35 sitting deputies. We call on all candidates to write to Sobyanin and the prosecutor’s office.
This matters: if even evidence like this gets no response from people running for office, then things are truly bad.
One last thing needs to be said. I want to respond in advance to everyone who is about to write something like, "At least Liksutov gets things done," or "He’s the only sane one there." There is nothing worse than that. All our problems come from exactly this attitude. Let’s just close our eyes to this a little, then to that a little. It is always like this with us. We had the indispensable Luzhkov (former mayor of Moscow), who had to be forgiven for everything because he gets things done. Then we had elections for the indispensable Putin: yes, he’s bad, but who else is there?
Crooks are sitting in office everywhere, and above all they stay there because people around them keep saying things like, "Well, never mind—at least he gets things done."
They are all doing the same thing—lining their pockets.
An official who hides offshore companies linked to contractors cannot be good or professional. If we ourselves are willing to accept this standard of public service—"a crook, but a smooth talker"—then we have no right to complain. Just go straight to “United Russia” (the ruling political party), where “being a crook” is the main hiring requirement.
P.S. Thanks to the ACF investigations department for their excellent work, and separately to Zhora A. The Anti-Corruption Foundation exists thanks to donations from private individuals—people like you. If you support what the ACF does, you can support our work with your honestly earned ruble.