Budgets are growing, and so is the level of paid placements. Today, Nezavisimaya Gazeta published a remarkable piece titled A New Azef? It’s not hard to guess that the “new Azef” (a reference to Yevno Azef, a notorious double agent in late Imperial Russia) is me. The accusations, however, are quite original. I have no idea why they chose this bizarre angle, but it turns out that I was the one who destroyed the Other Russia coalition: ***It was, apparently, entirely different things that played the fatal role in the collapse of “Other Russia” — things many people have already forgotten altogether. ** *Obviously, I did it together with Belkovsky, on Berezovsky’s orders: ***The goal was for Navalny and Belkovsky to seize control of “Other Russia,” naturally in the interests of the disgraced oligarch. ** *Strange that they didn’t mention the fairly obvious connection between me, Berezovsky, Shamil Basayev, and Yevsyukov. The shocking investigation concludes, quite predictably, as follows: So who is Alexei Navalny, known for his uncompromising struggle against the authorities and state corporations, really working for? Why would he — a fighter against the “bloody regime” — suddenly need to destroy the opposition movement, the very stronghold of his fellow activists? One could search for the answer to this question for a long time, but then on the Internet — more precisely, in the LiveJournal blogging platform — a mysterious blogger called Anti-Navalny appeared, who seems to have made it his mission to answer this and many other questions. I’ll admit honestly: I once attended an Other Russia conference. I sat in the back row, cheerfully chatting with Taratuta (who at the time worked for Kommersant) and the future Moldovan revolutionary natmorar (who was then Other Russia’s press secretary). Ah, if only we had known back then that we were destroying Other Russia... By the way, a question for the audience: does Nezavisimaya Gazeta still belong to Remchukov? And why does he need any of this? As for the substance of it, here’s what I have to say: Dear crooks at VTB, You published your piece, so I’ll publish mine. You kept shouting that the investigation into how you stole $150 million from the bank had been closed, and you were sending around the relevant paperwork.
No, it’s still ongoing. You can keep placing your nonsense even on Channel One. Regards, Navalny