Today is a great day. Together, we’re going to remove a United Russia politician from office. And not just some rank-and-file one, but a big, fat one. The biggest United Russia heavyweight in Moscow is, of course, Sobyanin, but our old acquaintance Andrei Metelsky is no lightweight either. He’s the leader of United Russia in Moscow.
Metelsky is an important figure: even though we found that he has a multibillion-ruble business and extensive real estate in Austria, no one fired him. More than that, both City Hall and the Kremlin intend to make him a deputy again in the election on September 8.
As everyone knows perfectly well, a deputy or a minister—any public official—is prohibited from engaging in business. Strictly prohibited. At one point, Gennady Gudkov was stripped of his parliamentary mandate because he signed some piece of paperwork in a company’s founding documents.
Right now, former minister Abyzov is facing criminal charges because he was engaged in business while serving as a minister. Illegal entrepreneurial activity.
That is precisely why Metelsky put all his property in his mother’s and son’s names—so there would be no formal proof that he was running his business empire.
And Metelsky is probably watching this video right now, smirking and thinking: exactly, formal proof. Anything you present against me, I’ll call a fake. And if you don’t like it, take it to my court. Hahaha.
But we’ve already been to court. And here’s the thing: the evidence showing that United Russia leader Metelsky should be immediately stripped of his mandate is not our evidence. It is the court’s evidence. We obtained it in a Russian court.
A court Metelsky is so fond of.
What we ended up with was less an investigation than a radio drama. But a very interesting and revealing one. It exposes the inner workings and small details of who a United Russia deputy really is.
In the spring of 2015, in his 19th year of public service, Metelsky decided to buy himself a business—specifically, a motorcycle dealership, motorcycle shop, and service center. It is called Alpin and is located in Krylatskoye. It is a real, long-established, official Yamaha dealer. I think many motorcyclists know it.
The previous owners were happy to sell it—the business was not doing very well—and everything would have been perfectly normal if deputy Metelsky had not entered the picture. He was not just both a deputy and a businessman; he also personally involved himself in the tiniest aspects of the business. Metelsky bought the company, and almost immediately a conflict arose during the purchase. The old and new owners fell out over… a forklift. That forklift is what set everything in motion.
The forklift was returned, but as the saying goes, a bad aftertaste remained. Time to explain who that quote came from. It was Vasily Laposhin, the former director and owner of a small stake in the Alpin motorcycle dealership. We took that line from an audio recording of a court hearing held earlier this year. Laposhin is now in a penal colony, sentenced to 3 years and 4 months. And it was Metelsky personally who sent him there.
Here he is, by the way, in January of this year, sitting on a bench outside the courtroom waiting to be called in to testify.
Before we read on and learn a lot more interesting things, let me make one thing clear. We are completely setting aside the substance of the case. Right now, it does not matter to us what the conflict was about, who deceived whom, whether there was fraud, and so on. We are interested in something entirely different.
During this trial, dozens of witnesses were questioned—employees of the motorcycle dealership, from directors to mechanics. And when a witness testifies in court, their words carry a completely different weight than, say, an interview or a social media post. There is criminal liability involved. Everyone is warned. Papers are signed. Lie, and you can end up in prison.
They were discussing a completely different issue—whether there had been fraud or not. But ALONGSIDE that, the court was naturally establishing the context: what happened, who made decisions, who was responsible for what, the dates, meetings, and other details. That is what interests us. Every witness was asked the same question: who was the new owner of the motorcycle dealership, and who was running it.
Let’s see what, for example, a salesperson at this dealership had to say.
Hmm. How strange. Why would a deputy, who is forbidden from engaging in business, gather all the employees and introduce himself as the owner? Maybe HR can explain? Let’s read the transcript of testimony from an employee there.
What an astonishing story. Now let’s hear from the dealership’s economist.
Three people, all under criminal liability for perjury, repeat exactly the same thing word for word. Metelsky is the new owner of the motorcycle dealership, Metelsky makes the decisions and gives the orders. And those decisions are binding. So who is Metelsky, then? A director. A manager. A businessman.
And ABSOLUTELY every employee knew it.
Let me remind you that we pay Metelsky 6 million rubles a year for going to work at the Moscow City Duma. We provide him with official housing and a car with a driver so he can get to his office as quickly as possible and so that nothing distracts him from serving us, the people of Moscow. And where does Metelsky actually go instead? To his illegally acquired motorcycle dealership.
EVERY DAY! And if we really want to fully assess how deeply Metelsky was involved in running his motorcycle business, we need to keep reading the mechanics’ testimony.
Six witnesses. Six people who, independently of one another and under threat of criminal liability, state that Metelsky was the sole owner, the sole manager, the only person making decisions—down to the installation of urinals.
This is such a blatant and unambiguous violation of the law that there is really nothing left to discuss. But for the sake of fairness, let’s give Metelsky a chance to speak. Let’s hear how he explains his connection to the Alpin motorcycle dealership.
It’s all for the boys and girls there, you see? He gathers employees for meetings, oversees repairs, spends hundreds of millions of rubles, and ultimately got the director sent to prison for 3 years—all for the boys and girls who want to take up motorsport.
And for them, he also went several times to negotiate with Yamaha’s management in Russia…
By the way, do you remember Pyotr Sergeyevich Ivanovsky? Ivanovsky is the man to whom Metelsky transferred his business assets (including hotels in Austria). He is also a former deputy of the Moscow City Duma and later became Metelsky’s official aide there.
Formally, Alpin is 100% owned by Ivanovsky:
And as for the question of why Metelsky went to work at the motorcycle center every day instead of the Moscow City Duma, we have an answer to that too:
You might want to take a look at your own disclosure forms, Mr. Metelsky. You do not own any vehicles or equipment. No Yamaha, no anything else. In 10 years, you have not declared a single motorcycle, snowmobile, ATV, or anything else that could be repaired there. You are in court, after all—you should be more careful with your words.
We are filing complaints with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Interior Ministry, the FSB, the Investigative Committee, the Moscow City Duma, and we will even write to United Russia itself.
I do not know how Metelsky could possibly “make this little problem go away.” He would have to open more than 10 criminal cases against people who, without coordinating with one another, supposedly slandered him under oath. The situation for Metelsky is genuinely catastrophic. On the record in court, he himself says that he went several times to Yamaha to deal with the debt of a commercial company. That is business. And business is forbidden for deputy Metelsky, the leader of United Russia in Moscow.
On September 8, there will be a direct confrontation between all of us and Metelsky with his party.
Residents of Izmailovo, Golyanovo, and Metrogorodok will be dealing with Metelsky himself. And everyone else, in their own districts, will be facing people just like him. United Russia politicians.
Don’t just sit on the couch. We have a chance to kick all of them out of office. All we have to do is show up and vote the same way, in line with “Smart Voting.” Register. We will send you the name of the strongest challenger. If even 15% of residents in Izmailovo and Golyanovo come out and vote for that challenger, I guarantee it: Metelsky will no longer be a deputy. He wants to be a businessman? Good riddance. Off you go.
And this can be done in every district, in every city. Smart Voting. If you have already registered yourself, bring a friend. Or your parents. Or your children.
On September 8, there will be a fight with United Russia, and we must win it.
P.S. Watch Russia of the Future tonight at 8:00 p.m.