Transneft chief Nikolai Tokarev compared Alexei Navalny to a village idiot who "runs around all day repeating what he was taught, for next to nothing." At the same time, Tokarev opposes publishing the full Accounts Chamber report on abuses within the company. And then there’s the wonderful headline Interfax came up with: "Transneft, the idiot, and the kopecks." Made me laugh. You can watch the Vesti-24 segment itself here: On the Vesti website, here. The part about me starts at 4:04, and the fiery bit about the idiot (if you can’t be bothered watching the whole thing) starts at 9:20. Overall, Tokarev’s performance is a perfect specimen from the series: "We’ll steal, carve everything up, and blame it all on the Enemies of Russia." It’s got everything thrown in together: environmentalists paid by foreign ambassadors; villains from the Energy Ministry; endless inspections that keep the company from working, and so on. In other words, if Tokarev is to be believed, the Enemies of Russia control literally everything — from environmentalists and the Energy Ministry to the media and law enforcement agencies. Amazingly, either Tokarev simply has no idea what he’s talking about, or he has deliberately kicked his Dark Lord — Vladimir Putin — for the second time. We all remember perfectly well that Putin personally ordered the ESPO pipeline route changed (400 km / 250 miles farther north) for environmental reasons. He personally drew arrows on the map. There were plenty of triumphant TV reports about it in the state media, along with a small propaganda campaign: "Vladimir Vladimirovich is the environmentalists’ best friend." And now a terrible truth has been revealed to us. It turns out Putin was merely a puppet of the Enemies of Russia and may even have been taking money from foreign ambassadors. Nikolai Tokarev paints us an unflattering picture: D*uring the presentation of credentials, the ambassadors wink at Putin. Putin, like a classic traffic cop, says: weeeell... I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you, ambassadors... this is a serious matter.... Then the ambassadors wrap bundles of dollars inside the credentials and hand them over to Putin. Putin studies the credentials for a long time with great seriousness, discreetly counting the money, then, staring at the ceiling, stuffs the cash into his pockets. He returns the credentials without the money and snaps a salute to the ambassadors, saying: all right then.... but don’t let it happen again. no more of that. don’t break the rules. * Life is hard for Nikolai Tokarev. Enemies everywhere. His one consolation is that a Swiss bank account brightens the difficult routine. He’ll be able to buy his granddaughters some modest little gifts — a football club, say, or a skyscraper. As for the substance of Tokarev’s tirades, all I can do is repeat for the hundred-millionth time: Fine, Navalny has been exposed. He’s a village idiot. Now let Transneft take its own report and explain every single point in it.
They themselves wrote "damage and unjustified cost inflation," so let them explain who caused the damage, how, where the money is, and who was punished. I’m fine with it. I can live with being the idiot. Just give the money back.