A Russian opposition figure’s American vacation: Cruise around in a red Chrysler, chow down on lobster! Komsomolskaya Pravda has obtained exclusive photos of Navalny on holiday!
“Hmm...” I thought when I read that headline. It’s not hard to get photos of my “American vacation” — I spent a week in the States, met with my client Pavel Ivlev, whose interests I have represented for many years, and stopped by Yale to see old friends from the university. There are lots of Russians everywhere, and every other person takes a picture with me and posts it on social media.
But a red Chrysler?! And LOBSTER?!
Then comes this wonderful passage:
The author of this masterpiece is Roman Golovanov.
Okay. Obviously, the FSB guys supplied ticket information for this planted little article — that’s what they always do. They included in the “tour” the cities and countries I had to pass through in order to make it to Ofitserov’s funeral.
But one thing is still unclear: LOBSTER? I wouldn’t say no to eating one, and America is a good place for that — they’re inexpensive here: a huge one costs about $30 in a restaurant. But I don’t think I’d had one on this trip.
I should add that I had only read the text of the piece that was sent to me. The photos weren’t visible. Naturally, I became very curious to see these “exclusive photos obtained by Komsomolskaya Pravda.” So I went to the site and took a look. And what do I see:
Sorry, but these are not “exclusive photos of Navalny on vacation obtained by Komsomolskaya Pravda.”
These are, damn it, MY OWN photos from nine years ago, some of which were taken from my email, which has been floating around publicly on a bunch of websites for years. All of these photos have been published a million times. And some were simply taken straight from my blog.
For example, for this “exclusive photo obtained by Komsomolskaya Pravda,”
there is a matching one:
You can go and read my post about our trip to California in 2009.
The photo with the lobster is from that trip too. The internet makes the world transparent — you can even go and check how much it cost at that restaurant. $36.
So yes, it’s obvious they lie in every word. It’s obvious that Komsomolskaya Pravda is staffed by crooks and scum. But, damn it, taking my own nine-year-old photos and passing them off as an “obtained vacation exclusive” — that’s a new high. Or rather, a new low.
And let me note once again: I have never received a single kopeck from the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation); I don’t even work there. I am the founder of the foundation. In 2009, when these photos were taken, the foundation did not even exist yet. And now I myself send donations there every month, just like all the wonderful people whose support keeps the foundation going.
All my income is completely official, paid by bank transfer, and I report it.
Three weeks ago, by the way, the Russian government paid me compensation — more than 4 million rubles (roughly tens of thousands of U.S. dollars) — for the fabricated Yves Rocher case and unlawful criminal prosecution. You could buy quite a lot of lobster with that money. But I think I’ll spend it on something more useful. In particular, on fighting the crooks and thieves served by Komsomolskaya Pravda’s “journalists.”
And the rest of you can once again see for yourselves: if, with all this surveillance, these searches, these seizures, and life under the Kremlin’s constant watch, they still have nothing to pin on me except a nine-year-old photo of me with a lobster, then a donation to the ACF is the best investment you can possibly make.
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