"In the report on the results of the Accounts Chamber's work, Chairman Sergei Stepashin put the damages at 3 billion 450 million rubles, about $115 million at the time," Beshmelnitsyn says. "So if there are any insinuations about 4 billion dollars, that cannot be in the Accounts Chamber's materials for one simple reason: we do not deal in dollars." "There is a serious attempt to mislead, first and foremost, the journalistic community. Because this is one form of competitive struggle. The markets our oil companies are entering today in Southeast Asia are already occupied. So in this case I do not rule out that someone commissioned this," the auditor added. Right, got it. The Kremlin PR people scratched their heads and decided to switch the defensive messaging from "Navalny is running a paid smear campaign against Vainshtok" to "Navalny is working for dark forces trying to stop Russia from breaking into Southeast Asian markets". Now we're waiting for the next masterpiece: *acting on orders from Berezovsky and Brzezinski, Navalny murdered Litvinenko, beat up Kashin, and is now slandering the honest people at Transneft and in the Government. *As for the substance, here's my comment: This is not "blogger Navalny expressed an opinion on LiveJournal," but rather "Transneft itself stated it in its official documents."
These aren't my calculations. I understand as little about design and survey work as Auditor Beshmelnitsyn understands about auditing. Maybe even less. But if I see a report signed by ten specialists, I consider it credible. At least until I see another report. So I don't understand why the damages are 3.5 billion rubles, about $117 million at the time, if 10 billion rubles, about $335 million, were skimmed off just in design and survey work alone. 2. I repeat: I published the documents I had. The Accounts Chamber classified all of its documents. And as proof that it is right, it shows us Auditor Beshmelnitsyn's large face on TV. Mmm... not the most convincing argument. Especially if you look at his biography. The man has spent his whole life doing party work. 3. Okay. Let's start with 3.5 billion rubles. The Accounts Chamber considers that direct damage. The fact has been established. The audit took place in 2008. Now, almost three years later, I want to see criminal cases, formal charges, and so on. And not against some Uncle Petya on an excavator, but against the actual senior Transneft officials who organized all this. Yet even over this "mere" 3.5 billion rubles, I don't see much urgency. 4. The Accounts Chamber is twisting and turning like a snake on a frying pan. It's disgusting. On Monday we're filing a complaint about it with the Prosecutor General's Office. There is every reason to believe that the Accounts Chamber, having received political instructions from, uh... unknown persons, took a number of steps to conceal serious crimes committed by senior Transneft officials (and apparently still being committed to this day). The Prosecutor General's Office must verify whether the primary documentation matches the final report. It must check on what grounds all the papers were classified, and so on. It's not only the people who break into other people's apartments who go to prison, but also the ones who stand lookout.