I wrote a letter to Vyugin. Prompted by my court case with him. I long for reconciliation. To Oleg Vyugin, Independent Member of the Board of Directors of Transneft, recipient of the award “For Personal Contribution to Increasing Stock Market Transparency,” holder of the Golden Diploma. From Alexei Navalny, minority shareholder of Transneft Dear Oleg Vyacheslavovich, Throughout all the years of your professional and public activity, beginning in 1993, you have been described as a highly skilled professional and a principled, honest man. I am confident that such descriptions are not mere flattering formalities, but the result of your genuine achievements. That is precisely why I was sincerely pleased when Oleg Vyugin, recipient of the national award of Russia’s Financial Press Club in the category “For Personal Contribution to Increasing the Transparency of the Domestic Stock Market,” joined the Board of Directors of Transneft as an independent director. I admit that I had hoped that, as an independent director who, within the scope of his authority, protects the rights and legitimate interests of all shareholders, you would become my ally in the struggle for openness at this company, whose multi-billion-dollar “charitable” spending greatly troubles both me and many other minority shareholders of Transneft. We all assumed that you would be troubled along with us, but then, having overcome that discomfort, would take all necessary measures to improve the efficiency with which the company’s shareholder capital is used. I cannot speak for the entire Russian stock market, but surely you would agree that disclosing exactly what “charitable purposes” more than half a billion dollars was spent on would be a significant step toward “increasing transparency” at Transneft itself. Yet you did not respond in any way to the official appeals sent to you asking that you raise this issue before the company’s Board of Directors. When I was forced to go to court in order to ask more insistently that you answer my letters, you did not appear at the hearing. Instead, you sent no fewer than three (!) lawyers, who were apparently supposed to convince the court that independent director O. Vyugin has the right to ignore requests from the company’s minority shareholders, who are seeking to exercise their lawful right to obtain necessary information. Frankly, your position leaves me bewildered. It creates the impression that the need to answer uncomfortable questions about this “charity” troubles you far more than the fact of it itself. I still hope to find in you not an opponent but an ally, and therefore I am once again addressing you with two formal requests: 1*. To raise before the Board of Directors of Transneft the issue of publishing all information related to the company’s charitable activities over the past three years. 2. To respond to this appeal in the prescribed manner. The next court hearing, in which you are the defendant and I am the plaintiff, will take place on December 25. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your decision to ignore appeals from minority shareholders and that on that day we will be able to announce the termination of the case on the grounds of reconciliation between the parties. Several years ago, commenting on the tragic murder of Andrei Kozlov, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, you noted that in Italy, for example, the real fight against the mafia and corruption began “when people appeared who said to themselves: ‘I am being threatened, my work is dangerous, but I will do what my conscience tells me.’” I completely agree with you and believe that now is exactly the time to do what conscience demands.