I’ve received a great many emails with links to media reports saying that a criminal case has finally been opened in the Daimler matter. Thanks to everyone who wrote, and even more thanks to those who took part in the campaign on this case and then worked in a specially created Google Group. Back then, we organized around 1,500 complaints in a single week. I am convinced that our efforts were one of the most important factors in the decision to open the case. That said, I want to point out that this news did not come as a surprise to me at all. As far back as the beginning of October, I already had this piece of paper:
As you can see, the cases were opened as early as September 27. So a proper investigation has already been underway for a little over a month and a half. I admit I decided to hold back the information and see how the investigators themselves would announce it, and in general how briskly the case would move. I’d be glad to be wrong, but it seems the case is not moving particularly briskly. Advice from an amateur will probably irritate the staff of the SKP (the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor’s Office), but let me note that the decisive task at this stage is to identify the beneficial owners of the offshore companies to which the bribes were transferred, and also to trace all related payments. With enough determination, this could have been done during the preliminary inquiry. And once a formal case has been opened, with Interpol involved and so on, it really doesn’t look like rocket science. So right now, what should be reported to the “concerned public” (quote) is not the opening of the case, but the first results of the investigation. A month. Even if behind each offshore company there is a complicated chain—say, Cyprus set up a BVI company, and that BVI company set up a Cayman entity (which I doubt, because the bribes were taken quite openly)—another month should be enough to firmly establish the names of the specific officers from the FSO, MVD, Ministry of Defense, and so on, who withdrew cash from the accounts, stuffed it into plastic bags, and placed it in safe-deposit boxes. Dear SKP. If you are really investigating this case, then we expect presents from you no later than New Year’s.