Today, the Presnensky District Court in Moscow is holding a hearing that matters to everyone. The Progress Party is demanding that the Russian government be compelled to disclose information about the incomes of the heads of state corporations.
As you may recall, these figures—above all Sechin and Yakunin—categorically refuse to disclose their incomes, and they are not at all bothered by the fact that their income is our expense. After all, they are paid by state corporations owned by taxpayers.
The Progress Party (we filed specifically on behalf of the party because it has that legal right) repeatedly appealed to the Russian government to enforce its own resolution and require these “public servants” to disclose the information. Nothing happened. Now, in court, we are demanding that the government’s inaction be declared unlawful and that it be ordered to respond to our request.
Consideration of this lawsuit on the merits has been postponed repeatedly under various pretexts, but today it should finally happen.
In a sense, paradoxical as it may seem, we and the government are on the same side, because after we began this work they issued a new resolution under which neither Sechin nor Yakunin can possibly wriggle out of publishing their income (Yakunin was outraged and even threatened to resign). But the problem is that Rosneft, Russian Railways, and the others are simply telling the government to get lost and doing nothing.
We’ll see how it ends today, but we’re going to keep pushing this issue all the way through for as long as we can.