The original post was published on 12/02/2013 at navalny.livejournal.com
As we all know, "United Russia" is very concerned with ethics issues.
Recently, this wonderful party even proposed adopting a "State Duma Deputy Ethics Code" so that the peoples of Russia would love and respect deputies even more, and also in order to rein in those deputies who like to attend rallies and shout and call people names.
Here are some excerpts from this astonishing document.
Read it, feel pride in your people's representatives:
Well, and my favorite part:
As you understand, United Russia could entrust the right to draft and introduce such a document only to the most honest, decent, and ethical State Duma deputy.
It could not be otherwise: suppose they had it introduced by just anyone, and then it turned out that this person was not sensitive and not ethical. That would be awkward. Look, Zheleznyak was already fighting foreign influence and demanding the universal introduction of matryoshka dolls and kulebyakas, and then it turned out that his children live and study abroad.
So there you have it. A deputy exemplary in his ethics was found.
This is Vladimir Pekhtin. A wonderful ethical member of United Russia. I would even say that he is professionally ethical, since he even heads the Duma ethics committee. This is the kind of committee that issues proposals on which State Duma deputies should be deprived of the floor and which should be thrown out. For some reason, they deprive anyone at all of the floor and throw anyone out, just not United Russia members. But that is not surprising: they are better when it comes to ethics.
There are some malicious individuals who spread slander about Vladimir Alekseyevich Pekhtin. They called him a "golden pretzel," shouted about some undeclared land plots. They wrote unethically about palaces and "family nests." They even came up with a nasty word about him, "pekhting"—meaning that such an ungrateful and unethical reaction was provoked by his honest work on the committee.
Vladimir Alekseyevich did not even bother to react to all this nastiness. Why respond to every rude streetcar boor? It was not for nothing that he was born in Leningrad. He did not enter into stupid discussions, but turned away and went off down the curb.
Well, any doubts that Deputy Pekhtin is a very exemplary statesman and one of the best representatives of his party will disappear if you familiarize yourself with his biography on the beloved party's website. In which he is no small fry, but a member of the bureau of the Supreme Council.
The list of awards alone takes up a whole paragraph:
(Why I underlined the thanks from the FSB, I'll explain later)
And this is still not enough for you to believe in Deputy Pekhtin's impeccable ethics? Do you keep repeating like parrots about the "Party of Crooks and Thieves"?
All right then, how about this argument:
On November 1, 2007, Alexey Pekhtin (the son of Vladimir Pekhtin) buys apartments in Miami Beach (Florida) in the elite residential complex Flamingo South Beach.
The document confirming the purchase is here. The address of the building is 1500 Bay Rd, Miami Beach, FL, and here it is on Google Maps. The price of the home is not specified in the document, but it is easy to calculate. In the upper right part it says "DEED DOC TAX" — a fee which for Miami is calculated based on a rate of $0.6 (for the rest of Florida $0.7) for every $100 of the property's value.
After some simple arithmetic, the amount comes to $540,900; additional confirmation can be found here (the "Sales History" block).
Here are photos of the building where the apartments are located.
Beautiful? Very! That is precisely why, when on August 4 Deputy from United Russia Pekhtin registered half of this wonderful apartment in Miami in his name, he did not mention it in any of his declarations.
Link to Google Docs That would have been a blatant act of unethical behavior! Just imagine: voters from Arkhangelsk Oblast and, forgive me Lord, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, find out that their elected representative is buying real estate in Miami? And not for nothing, according to Pekhtin himself:
If there is anything in Arkhangelsk Oblast called "Flamingo South Beach," then I am not sure it looks as beautiful as it does in the photographs. So the ethical Pekhtin thought so too, and therefore hid the purchase.
So the Miami real estate would have remained hidden, if not for those jerks—the Americans! No wonder Pekhtin fought them and actively voted for the "foreign agents law." Those bastards keep all ownership information open to the public! Not ethical, oh so not ethical. Vladimir Pekhtin continues to own half of this apartment to this day; we can find confirmation of this in the record obtained on February 3.
Link to Google Docs
To obtain the same record, go to http://gisweb.miamidade.gov/PropertySearch/ and enter the surname Pekhtin in the search form.
But even after this merciful act, deputy and United Russia member Pekhtin did not stop, and continued to ethically spare the feelings of his voters and all Russian citizens, 17 million of whom live below the poverty line.
On April 4, 2012, the Pekhtins jointly bought apartments in the elite residential complex 1500 Ocean Drive (the same Miami Beach, Florida). The cost is calculated according to the same principle as for the previous apartment and amounts to $1,275,000; confirmation can be seen here. The address of the house is 1500 OCEAN DR, Miami Beach, FL, and here it is on Google Maps.
Link to Google Docs
For this act, Vladimir Pekhtin deserves genuine praise and a firm manly handshake from his colleagues in "United Russia". You really ought to pat him on the shoulder and say, "Well done, man! You protect our Russian people from being upset".
It is frightening even to imagine what would happen to the average Russian if he were asked to answer the questions from the website of this шикарный residential complex:
Do you dream of living in a luxurious home directly on the warm, blue waters of the Atlantic?
Do you love the excitement and allure of an historic and diverse city? How about walking not driving, to the theater, ballet, museums, movies, nightlife and world-class fine dining?
Too good to be true? Pinch yourself…you’ve discovered 1500 Ocean Drive! http://www.1500oceandrive.com/ Do you dream of living in a luxurious home next to the azure and warm Atlantic Ocean?
Hostile winds began to blow. They started calling them "golden pretzels". The ethical and prudent Vladimir Pekhtin decided to cover his tracks, and on December 28, 2012, he gifted his share to his son.
Link to Google Docs
At this point, skeptics have probably already thought of saying, "Waaait a minute! Is this really Pekhtin? There are plenty of Pekhtins around."
Perhaps we are praising the ethical standards of our deputy Pekhtin for nothing, and all this ethical behavior belongs to some other Pekhtin.
Let's compare:
This is our Pekhtin, our very own. An ethical deputy.
And that's not all yet. The public records of these nasty Americans, so disliked by Vladimir Pekhtin and his party, allow us to do something unethical and find out:
On September 2, 2005, Alexey Pekhtin and Danil Gubskiy (friends with Vladimir Pekhtin on Facebook) bought a plot of land in Ormond Beach (Volusia County, Florida) from James Hetfield for $120,000.
On July 27, 2006, they received a permit to build a single-family house
On January 26, 2007, Danil Gubskiy sells his share to Alexey Pekhtin, who becomes the sole owner.
On February 6, 2008, Alexey Pekhtin receives a permit to build a swimming pool
On August 8, 2008, Alexey Pekhtin transfers half of the plot and the house to his father
On November 4, 2008, the Pekhtins receive a permit to build a roof over the pool. This is what the Pekhtins' property looks like. The boundaries of the plot are marked with a red line.
The value of the house built by the Pekhtins and other structures on this property is estimated at $290,213. In total, they invested more than $410,000 in this house alone.
The address of the house is 443 Juniper Ln, Ormond Beach, FL, here it is on Google Maps. Vladimir Pekhtin continues to own half of the land and the house to this day; the other half is formally owned by his son.
Let us ask ourselves: how many residents of Arkhangelsk Oblast, which Pekhtin represents as a deputy, have received permission to build a swimming pool and a roof over it?
I'm afraid very few. Residents of Arkhangelsk Oblast get punched in the face by each other, not permits to build a swimming pool.
Is it ethical, in that case, to reproach Vladimir Pekhtin and his son for striving to leave for a place where people get permits for a swimming pool rather than punches in the face?
For the sake of completeness (and perhaps someone knows this person) 8.5 months after buying the first land plot, on May 17, 2006, Alexey Pekhtin buys a second plot in Ormond Beach directly adjacent to the first one from Andrew Hodja for $80,000. At that moment, both plots were undeveloped.
Just 5 months later, on October 30, 2006, Alexey Pekhtin sells the plot to a certain Ali (Ulanu) Aliev. Aliev still owns it to this day. It was not possible to establish who Aliev is; it is known that his wife's name is Svetlana Klycheva.
Today Aliev's house looks like this:
(hooray! the pool is back!)
All the documents I refer to are publicly available on the internet and can easily be found in Florida's public records.
To search for documents on the apartments, they are located in Miami Beach) follow the link http://www2.miami-dadeclerk.com/public-records/Search.aspx and enter the surname "Pekhtin" in "*Party Name (Public, John Q)". To obtain electronic records for these properties, go to http://gisweb.miamidade.gov/PropertySearch/ and enter the surname "Pekhtin" in the search form.
To search for documents on the land and houses, they are located in Ormond) follow the link http://www.clerk.org/or/or_inq/search_results.jsp?&inqType=9&fullName= and specify the names "Pekhtin", "Aliev" in the search form. To obtain summary information on the properties, go to http://webserver.vcgov.org/Name_search.html and enter the names listed above. The cadastral map can be obtained by clicking the "MapIT" button. It can be exported to Google Earth.
Summary
So, Vladimir Pekhtin together with his son currently own apartments in Miami Beach worth $540,900 and $1,275,000, as well as a plot with a house and swimming pool in Florida that cost them more than $400,000. The total value of the property exceeds $2 million. By the way, Pekhtin Jr., together with his wife, own another house in Florida; you can find information about it on your own.
Over the entire time, deputy Pekhtin declared a large income only once: 39 million rubles in 2006.
Considering that our hero has been working as a deputy since 1999, eats, drinks, and dresses himself, cannot engage in business, and at the same time owns a large amount of real estate inside the country, this amount clearly looks insufficient.
Where did it come from? Well, like everything in "United Russia" — it somehow formed on its own. And poking into other people's affairs with unnecessary questions is unethical. Learn from Pekhtin.
Nevertheless, since I am not a deputy, and the Pekhtin commission cannot expel me from the Duma, I will ask the questions. First, an informal one, to the director of the FSB, who, as we remember, awarded Pekhtin with a commendation:
- but when a member of another country's parliament and one of the leaders of the ruling party makes multimillion-dollar deals involving elite real estate that he does not declare, using money of unclear origin, do you think this would interest the CIA and other various intelligence agencies? Isn't this practically an ideal opportunity for recruitment?
I doubt there will be an answer, because the director of the FSB himself is quite ethically occupied with placing his children in state corporations, effectively receiving kickbacks through their surprisingly large salaries .
Well, now the formal questions, to which we are eager to receive answers:
To Prosecutor General Chaika — to instruct the Prosecutor General's Office staff to verify the facts, issue an order to eliminate violations of current legislation, and address State Duma Chairman Naryshkin with the aim of instructing the commission monitoring the accuracy of information on income and property submitted by deputies to conduct the appropriate check of Pekhtin's declarations .
To State Duma Chairman Naryshkin — to instruct the commission on parliamentary ethics to verify the facts stated in the application, recommend that the State Duma propose that Pekhtin make a public apology for violations of parliamentary ethics rules, disseminate information in the media about the fact of the violation, deprive the State Duma deputy of the right to speak at chamber sessions, and take other measures .
(my favorite) To the chairman of the "United Russia" party, Dmitry Medvedev — regarding Pekhtin's expulsion from the party for violating precisely those rules that Medvedev introduced . I am very much awaiting a response to this request.
To the presidium of the general council of "United Russia" — also regarding expulsion from the party.
To the leader of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Vasilyev — regarding expulsion from the faction .
By the way, today Putin introduced a bill stating that officials will not be allowed to have foreign bank accounts. Questions for the stumper: from which account did Pekhtin pay for the real estate in the USA, did he notify the Central Bank about this account, and how much money is still in this account? Judging by the declarations, Pekhtin kept ethically silent about his accounts abroad as well.
That's the story about questions of ethics.
As usual, I urge everyone to commit an unethical act. You understand, Channel One will not tell us about United Russia member Pekhtin's secret real estate. And "Komsomolskaya Pravda" will not write about it either.
Therefore, I ask you to help spread this information on the internet, everywhere possible.
According to our good tradition, we made a black-and-white DMP leaflet that will look simply wonderful in your apartment building entrance and bring the light of truth to your neighbors:
You can download the leaflet in a convenient format from this wonderful site http://pekhtin.mashina.org/
Don't be lazy, print it out and put it up. In one apartment building entrance, 5-10 people will read it. That's already good. In any crowded place outside, 100-200 people will see it — that's excellent.
Everything in the world should be balanced. If Pekhtin is so ethical, then we will not be ethical.
PS Many thanks to the wonderful user ](http://doct-z.livejournal.com/profile) [doct_z for sending us the tip. Our gratitude goes to KS member and employee of our anti-corruption foundation Georgy Alburov, who developed the topic.
We want to continue investigating Pekhtin's real estate in terms of taxation, as there is a clear feeling that he has fudged something. If an expert in the taxation of real estate transactions in Florida is found, we would be very grateful for the help. Write to fbk@fbk.info If there is information about similarly modest and ethical actions by other state officials, write to us too.
PPS Leaflets and links. Don't forget. Read it — share it with a friend. It's important. http://pekhtin.mashina.org/
Update. Wonderful. JUST A WONDERFUL response from Pekhtin. He was clearly aiming for the classics.
Vladimir Pekhtin: «I practically have no real estate abroad»
Vladimir Pekhtin said that Navalny is lying. — I don't know what he found there and what he writes, and I have nothing more to comment on. And my son really did study there (in the USA), he has the relevant documents.
— Does your son still live in the USA?
— No, here in Russia.
— And does your son have real estate in America?
— I think he has something, he studied there after all, and his wife is there. Now she lives together with him in Russia.
— So your son owns some real estate in the USA, but you do not?
— No-no, definitely not.
— So the facts published by Alexei Navalny do not correspond to reality?
— I don't know what he published there, I haven't seen it.
— But if Navalny claims that you own real estate in the USA, and you say you do not, then accordingly, he is lying?
— Apparently, yes.
— In this connection, will you defend your honor and dignity?
— First I need to see what he wrote there.
— Tell me, in principle, do you have any real estate abroad?
— Well, practically nothing.
— Practically? So yes or no?