I don’t know why the esteemed and dear Alexei Alexeyevich Venediktov is doing this, but it’s not the first time. So I’m publishing a detailed response and even recorded a short video reply:
For anyone who missed it, a furious argument broke out on Twitter this weekend.
Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of my favorite radio station, Echo of Moscow (a well-known independent Russian radio station), threw all his energy into rescuing Shuvalov and his corgis.
You’d think: how can anyone be making excuses for Shuvalov now? In the space of a month, we found his hidden Rolls-Royce, a palace-like apartment on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, three apartments in the Kosygin House, and a private jet he uses to fly his dogs around.
In one month. Using only open sources.
And yet Alexei Alexeyevich carried out what he, for some reason, calls an “investigation.” In reality, this “investigation” amounted to either Shuvalov himself or Shuvalov’s lawyers handing him documents for the plane, some invoices, and an ironclad legal opinion saying that “everything is legal.” Armed with this modest arsenal, Alexei Alexeyevich rushed into battle.
First he talked about it in detail on air. Then he published a blog post on the website. And finally, he spent the entire weekend on Twitter defending our honest deputy prime minister.
In just one day alone, he wrote 388 tweets about what a fine man Shuvalov is!
So, let’s examine the joint A. Venediktov / I. Shuvalov version of events.
At first, the plane belonged to Shuvalov himself. For a long time—several years. Then Shuvalov gives the plane to his twenty-year-old son, and immediately after that officially starts paying his son every time he uses the plane himself. He goes on a business trip—he pays his son. His wife flies to their country house in Salzburg—he pays his son. The corgis fly to a prestigious international show to “defend Russia’s honor”—little Shuvalov junior has to be paid too. He’ll issue an invoice. Venediktov has seen the invoice.
Here are father and son, the Shuvalovs. In photographs they look like affectionate relatives, but in reality they are parties to a business relationship. According to Venediktov, they have signed a contract for air transport services. (Wow.)
Aside from this wonderful arrangement with his son, we already knew everything—but let’s put it on the record.
As for this story about gifting it to the son and then renting it back, let me once again say plainly: this is utter nonsense and an insult to taxpayers, voters, and all Russians. A brazen mockery.
A disgusting paper trick which, on top of everything else, qualifies as a “sham transaction,” with one purpose only: under no circumstances ever to admit that you own a private jet. There’s nothing more to say here—moving on.
In our investigation, we put forward two possibilities: either Shuvalov bought it for 52 million, or he rents it at market rates. We even calculated how much it costs him.
In either case, the plane was not declared. If he owns it, it should appear on the list of vehicles (it does not); if he rents it, it should be listed as “in use.”
Here are the facts:
And despite all this, Venediktov—and therefore Shuvalov himself—claims that the plane is not in the official’s use.
Alexei Alexeyevich pretends not to understand:
He compares it to Uber. As if Shuvalov orders this plane for each flight the way you’d order a taxi.
LIKE UBER! Only a very special kind of Uber. One that you first bought yourself, then gave to your son, and now officially book and pay your son to ride in.
The funniest part is that, in trying to justify Shuvalov, Venediktov gave us a fair amount of valuable information and seriously exposed the deputy prime minister.
For example, it turns out the Shuvalovs bought the plane in 2009. From official documents, we had seen that the owner had not changed since 2011, and we thought the deal had happened then. We also thought maybe it had been registered to lawyers, or to a trust, or arranged in some other clever way. But Venediktov came to our aid and said that an offshore company owned 50/50 by the Shuvalovs bought the plane in 2009. Well then, 2009 it is. Venediktov has seen the documents.
Thank you very much, Alexei Alexeyevich. Now we can state that Shuvalov broke the law for five years. The plane should have been included in his declarations in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
And it’s good that there will be no argument about this, because Venediktov personally confirmed the need for such a declaration in the Supreme Court.
For concealing this information, Shuvalov should have been dismissed in 2010. Then again in 2011. And so on—five times in a row, Shuvalov should have been removed from office. If not for Alexei Alexeyevich’s defense of him, we would not have been able to write that with such confidence.
This whole situation gives me an unpleasant sense of déjà vu. We’ve seen all this before, we’ve all read it before, and we’ve already made every joke there is to make about it. I wrote about a similar situation exactly a year ago. Remember?
It really is like some bad joke.
Alexei Alexeyevich, why are you doing all this?
In conclusion, I would like to stress once again: from a legal standpoint, what Shuvalov is doing with the plane qualifies as “use.” Even if there are a million individual invoices, it is still use, and it must be declared.
Shuvalov broke the law from 2009 to 2013 by failing to declare the plane as his property. From 2013 to 2016, he has been breaking it by failing to declare the plane as being in his use. Shuvalov must be removed from office. As one radio editor-in-chief likes to say in such cases: Dont act.