Moscow. December 30. INTERFAX.RU - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that the information provided by blogger Alexei Navalny, a minority shareholder in Transneft, about alleged abuses in the construction of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline deserves to be investigated. "It needs to be checked if a minority shareholder is dissatisfied with something. Although the minority shareholder's interest is understandable - he is interested in increasing dividends. But it does need to be checked. "Let the prosecutor's office look into it, along with other oversight agencies," Putin told journalists on Wednesday. The prime minister stressed that he himself was not prepared "to speak today for ESPO about how much was spent there - whether more or less." "All of this needs to be checked. Of course we will check," he added. Putin acknowledged that "the line item 'road construction' is always a fairly corruption-prone area, but nothing should be done indiscriminately." "Once we look into it, then conclusions can be drawn and someone can be prosecuted. No one should be let off the hook; everything must be carried through to the end, including a guilty court verdict if there has been an offense or theft. But no one can be accused indiscriminately. We do have a presumption of innocence," the head of government said. ////////// There is no reason for wild celebration. We have seen many cases involving "let them investigate," "I have ordered an investigation," "I have taken it under personal control," and even "we definitely will..." after which absolutely nothing happened. Still, there is some reason for - cautious optimism regarding how freely the police officers and prosecutors will be able to act. Previously, they would practically recoil at the word "Transneft," make alarmed faces, and clutch their heads. They would say, "they won't even let us near the doorstep," and this was even confirmed officially:
from here Maybe now things will move a little faster. - satisfaction at the first results of our joint efforts. Without any television coverage, and with the help of the internet and the remaining decent newspaper and radio journalists, we managed to tell so many people about the schemes at Transneft that it is no longer possible to simply ignore this subject (as is usually done). The label "For Official Use Only" or "Secret" will no longer help. Millions of people know about it. And millions want to know how this ends. Putin was probably not thrilled to have to comment on this. But he did comment. By the way, many thanks to the journalist from the "prime minister's pool" whom I don't know, who dared to ask this question. As in the well-known joke, "he could have slashed him, after all!" (a reference to a Russian joke) I want once again to say a big thank-you to everyone who helped and is helping. I used to try to reply to everyone in the comments, but now that's impossible. The original post has reached the maximum possible number of comments; nothing more can be added there.
So I’m thanking everyone here: thank you. Next year we will continue our merry exercises. PS While I’m at it: The FCPA Blog is writing about our claims against PwC. http://www.fcpablog.com/blog/2010/12/28/moscow-activist-questions-international-auditors.html It’s a blog, but a very influential one, read by everyone who works with the FCPA. I’m writing this so that PricewaterhouseCoopers employees (and KPMG, whom we’ll be dealing with soon), while dancing to Zhanna Friske (a Russian pop singer) and groping rosy-cheeked accounting staffers at the New Year’s corporate party, remember that white-collar crime is still crime.