Yes, I still haven’t had time to write about this strange case against me, and the questions keep coming. M***oscow. February 8. INTERFAX.RU — The central office of Russia’s Investigative Committee canceled the decision not to open a case against blogger Alexei Navalny. *** I myself know very little. Like any politically commissioned case, it lives a life of its own, separate from me, until a certain point. I learn about every development, just like you do, from the press and from public statements by the Investigative Committee’s talking head. Here’s what I do know: the case was invented by crooks from VTB, who hired cops to make it happen. At the very least, the press reports about it (which is how I learned it existed) appeared on the exact day of VTB’s general shareholders’ meeting, where we were actively raising the issue of the "drilling rigs case" back then, it all ended with a couple of planted media stories. It was obvious to everyone that the case was stitched together so clumsily that no one even summoned me anywhere. almost a year later, and two weeks after the publication of the "Transneft report", anonymous police crooks leak to news agencies that "the Interior Ministry is investigating suspicious activity by Navalny," without any details whatsoever. another week later, the VTB-invented case is reincarnated, but this time clearly with some serious extra "heating up" this time, the details also emerge: w*hile serving as an adviser to the governor of Kirov Region, Navalny forced the regional enterprise "Kirovles" to sign a contract that caused the company losses of 1 million rubles. *Since even the bold minds at Transneft can’t claim that I, like, stole that million, the case is being pursued under Article 165 — Causing property damage in the absence of signs of theft It’s an interesting article — it is mainly used against train conductors who let fare-dodgers ride. But under Part 3, it carries up to five years.
It turns out the entire case is built on the testimony of the company’s director, whose dismissal I had been pushing for over many months, and his daughter, who worked under him as commercial director. The company’s total losses exceed 200 million rubles, and yet, according to these mysterious policemen, I am responsible for one of those millions, while the other 199 million are of no concern to anyone. I write about this in more detail here. 6. The owner of the company (the regional government) and all Kirov officials are quite surprised by this turn of events, because they never had any complaints against me, whereas there have long been unsuccessful attempts to open a case against the crook who filed the complaint against me — attempts the police have ignored. 7. at the time, I thought this whole scheme was meant to scare me and force me to stay in the States, where I was studying then, which of course would have seriously hindered the investigation into the case. But if you’re afraid of crooks, you can’t investigate Transneft; I don’t give a damn about their hit job, and I came back. 8. For two months, nothing happened. Then — a couple of weeks ago — I had my first and so far only direct contact with this case. An investigator from Kirov called me, said he wanted to question me, and did exactly that after coming to Moscow. 9. the investigator did not say much about where all this had come from; he simply said that "the materials came from above, and the whole thing looks strange." That the materials had come "from above" was obvious even without him saying so — from the case file materials I was supposed to be shown. 10. The investigator went back to Kirov and the next day issued a decision refusing to open a case. 11. And then, just two days later, through none other than Markin, the official spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee,
it was announced that the "refusal decision" had been canceled and the case was being taken "upstairs" for a more thorough investigation. A highly significant event for me, because in the course of my work I have sent law enforcement dozens of complaints about thefts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, yet NOT ONCE have I been honored with TV investigator Markin appearing on screen for my sake in his shoulder boards, stripes, epaulettes, and aiguillettes. Funny, isn’t it? All the cases I investigate involving hundreds of millions and billions tend to get pushed downward and are never discussed on television. But the case against me, over 1 million rubles, is briskly traveling upward and receiving active commentary from the leadership of the Investigative Committee. So what can I say about that. I have not the slightest doubt that the Transneft people who stole $4 billion have truly outstanding abilities when it comes to "motivating" crooked investigators. For the kind of money Transneft pays, Investigative Committee investigators would open a case even against the poet Pushkin, on charges of illegal use of sideburns, and TV investigator Markin would dance the kamarinskaya (a traditional Russian folk dance) in front of the camera. The Transneft crooks have clearly decided to "settle all questions" as quickly as possible, which is why, without much embarrassment, they are now, among other things, firing everyone who had anything to do with the "Transneft report": The company first decided to get rid of the people who conducted the investigation in 2008 and were mentioned in the audit reports submitted to the Accounts Chamber. Attentive observers have long noticed the obvious existence of a media campaign in support of Transneft, including "placements in blogs." This is entirely expected and normal. I was ready for it, and I certainly am not about to clutch my heart over it. Still less am I going to stop the investigation. After all, we never expected them to come in and confess. These thieves consider themselves the masters of the country and, in a certain sense, they are. But only temporarily. And most importantly, I want to remind the thieves at Transneft and their corrupt men in uniform that I have very powerful international support behind me. If anyone doubts that, here is your proof:
A message from Liberty Island was relayed by bocharik and eu_shestakov