This is the end, boys and girls. Russia has finally gotten up off its knees. Everyone remembers that a few months ago Comrade Milov v_milov and Comrade Nemtsov published the report "Putin and Gazprom", which described in considerable detail the schemes used to carve up the country's "national treasure". Some treated the report as a revelation, others skeptically, but it was obvious that these allegations could not simply be ignored. Someone was supposed to look into them. These are not trivial accusations. As a minority shareholder in Gazprom (yeah, right), I was very interested to see the reaction to the report. Obviously, that reaction should have come from Gazprom—the management of the world's third-largest company was being accused (by former government officials!) of theft—and from law enforcement, since fighting corruption is supposedly the mainstream now. But everyone kept silent. As a shareholder, I am not satisfied with silence. One of two things must be established: either Milov and Nemtsov lied and slandered the company, or Gazprom is being run by crooks who should be prosecuted. So I sent a copy of the report to the Prosecutor General's Office and demanded an investigation. I should note that the report was published in the media, so, strictly speaking, the prosecutor's office should have launched an inquiry on its own. But since it did not, here is a direct appeal as well. Let me remind you: Article 144. Procedure for reviewing a report of a crime *2. In the case of a report of a crime disseminated in the mass media, the inquiry shall be conducted, on the prosecutor's instructions, by an investigative body, and on the instructions of the head of an investigative authority, by an investigator. *(Criminal Procedure Code) Today I received a letter. Signed by an assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
So the Prosecutor General's Office is officially stating that it sees no indication of any legal violation in publications about the shady sale of Sibur; the disappearance of 6.4% of Gazprom shares from the company's balance sheet; the dirt-cheap sale of Gazprom-Media; the schemes involving the trader RosUkrEnergo; and so on. The prosecutor's office is not troubled by this information. Nor is it troubled by the Criminal Procedure Code. I understand that the only thing that troubles them is the dressing-down they would get from the National Leader, who is the one authorizing the carve-up of the National Treasure. But they could at least have answered a bit more elegantly. They could have said they had conducted a review and the facts were not confirmed. They could have obtained a written explanation from Gazprom. But no. The Prosecutor General's Office has taken an official position: "Let them carve up Gazprom however they like, and you can be outraged about it however you like. The dogs bark, the wind carries it away, and we stand guard over the interests of those doing the carving." So what is left to do? We are not yet ready for mass executions, so I will use a more accessible mechanism for defending my shareholder rights. I am suing the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation to compel it to investigate the facts set out in the report. I will call Milov and Nemtsov as witnesses. Let them say whether their report contains allegations of crimes. By the way, I also sent similar complaints to Gazprom itself and to the Investigative Committee. The deadlines for their responses have not yet expired. We will wait. To conclude this very long post, I would like to address two people: Vova (not Putin, but Milov), what they are doing is f***ing outrageous! Vova (not Milov, but Putin), what you are doing is f***ing outrageous! And for the especially curious, here is the text of my appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office: To the **Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation ** ** To Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Y. Y. Chaika **?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" / ** ** ** 125993, GSP-3, Russia, Moscow ** ** 15a Bolshaya Dmitrovka St. ** From Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny XXXXX Moscow, XXXXXXXX XXXX Contact telephone XXXXXXX Dear Yuri Yakovlevich, From August 26 to September 11, 2008, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta published installments of the report by B. Nemtsov and V. Milov entitled "Putin and Gazprom." Links to these articles are posted on the official Novaya Gazeta website at the following Internet addresses: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2008/63/00.html http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2008/65/00.html http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2008/67/17.html This report analyzes problems in Russia's fuel and energy sector, primarily using OAO Gazprom as an example. The authors provide numerous examples of inefficient management and questionable transactions leading to the squandering of assets. Moreover, they suggest that the management of OAO Gazprom may be criminal in nature, with enormous sums of money being stolen outright for the personal enrichment of company executives and high-ranking state officials, effectively destroying the country's largest raw-materials monopoly. In support of these statements, the report cites both official state media and Gazprom's official financial reports, as well as publications in the Russian media. These allegations are made by people who, apparently, have a clear understanding of these problems, since they held senior government positions specifically in the energy sector and are experts in economics. Boris Nemtsov served as First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government and Minister of Fuel and Energy in 1997, while Vladimir Milov served as Deputy Energy Minister in 2002. Thus, the report contains numerous allegations of serious economic crimes. In particular, it reports the sale by Gazprom of the petrochemical company Sibur to an unknown Cypriot offshore entity at a substantially undervalued price; the disappearance of 6.4% of Gazprom shares from the company's balance sheet; the dirt-cheap sale of Gazprom-Media, Russia's largest media holding; schemes involving the trader RosUkrEnergo that led to the loss of $1.25 billion in profits; and much more. I, Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny, am one of the shareholders of OAO Gazprom. Therefore, the company's gradual destruction leads not only to enormous losses for the state, but also causes me direct financial damage. As stated in Article 2 of the Federal Law "On the Prosecutor's Office," the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, "for the purpose of ensuring the supremacy of law, the unity and strengthening of legality, the protection of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, as well as the legally protected interests of society and the state, shall exercise: supervision over the observance of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen by federal ministries, state committees, services and other federal executive bodies, representative (legislative) and executive bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local self-government bodies, military administration bodies, control bodies, their officials, as well as governing bodies and heads of commercial and non-commercial organizations." Consequently, it is precisely the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation that can and must examine the information presented in this report in order to determine whether crimes may have been committed. Yuri Yakovlevich, Pursuant to Article 10 of the Federal Law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation," I ask you, in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, to instruct that a full-scale investigation be conducted into the allegations of crimes contained in this report and disseminated by a mass media outlet. Please inform me of the results of the investigation within the time period established by law. Attachment: Brochure "Putin and Gazprom" (independent expert report)