Hooray. At last, the anti-corruption campaign has borne its first fruit, and the investigators have finally tracked down the real villains. A criminal case has been opened against Navalny. Li*fe News was informed of this by a well-informed source in law enforcement. This is about the same state enterprise, Kirovles, which allegedly suffered losses of 1.3 million rubles (about $43,000 at the time) because of Navalny. The materials from the inquiry concerning Governor Nikita Belykh’s adviser were sent to the Investigative Committee back in mid-December of last year. Two months later, reports appeared saying that a case had not been opened. However, as Life News found out, the case did in fact come into being. True, it was not opened under the article for “Fraud.” Yes, I can confirm that the Main Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Moscow Bar Association attorney Alexei Navalny on suspicion of committing an offense under Paragraph “b,” Part 3, Article 165 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust in the absence of signs of theft”), Vladimir Markin, official spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee, confirmed in response to a question from Life News. **- And what exactly is Navalny suspected of? According to the investigation, in 2009 Navalny, while serving as an unpaid adviser to the governor of Kirov Region, committed a number of illegal acts that caused especially large-scale damage to the Kirov Region state unitary enterprise Kirovles. More specifically? Presenting himself as an adviser to the governor of Kirov Region, although at that moment he was not one, he misled Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalev about his authority while promising support from the Kirov Region administration,** Vladimir Markin explained. - As a result, Navalny persuaded Opalev to sign a knowingly disadvantageous contract between the state enterprise Kirovles and VLK LLC for the sale of timber products. In fact, I can say that in his actions Navalny used the tactics and methods employed by corporate raiders when taking over enterprises. **Alexei Navalny became well known for his publications exposing corrupt officials. After a series of posts on his LiveJournal page, the attorney launched a special anti-corruption project called RosPil. Part 3 of Article 165 of the Russian Criminal Code, the charge being brought against Navalny, carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison. *I myself don’t really know anything yet. I learned about the opening of the case fifteen minutes ago from a journalist at "Marker". It’s very sweet, of course, that the Investigative Committee passes all its news to the newspaper Zhizn (“Life”), while neglecting such a minor detail as sending me the paperwork myself.
Well, if the mighty bearer of golden stars and official Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin confirms everything, and in such marvelous detail too, then there’s no reason to doubt it. A case has been opened. The hellish rhetoric about "tactics and methods used by corporate raiders" obviously suggests that all further decisions have already been made. Transneft, VTB, and the representatives of the Party of Crooks and Thieves who joined them spent a long time painfully forcing this case into existence. One Two Three To turn a complete fabrication into a real criminal case, they had to push it all the way up to the highest level—the Investigative Committee of Russia. At the Kirov level, they refused to open a case; at the Volga Federal District level, too. As I understand it, there have already been about five such refusals in this matter. The best part is that all my complaints about theft on the scale of billions keep moving downward: Prosecutor General’s Office → Moscow Prosecutor’s Office → Central Administrative District Prosecutor’s Office → some back-alley prosecutor’s office. The fabricated case against me kept moving steadily upward: Kirov Region Investigative Committee → Central Federal District Investigative Committee → Investigative Committee of Russia. I’m very curious whether the Investigative Committee of Russia and its major-case investigators have any other case on their books on the scale of "causing 1.3 million rubles (about $43,000 at the time) in damage without signs of theft." I doubt it. We’ll see how this develops. Obviously, give them a person and they’ll find an article to charge them under (a Russian saying meaning any charge can be manufactured), but even the most Basmanny-style court in the world (a reference to Moscow courts seen as politically compliant) is unlikely to hand down a conviction based on the nonsense some cops slapped together on the fly.
The whole thing is built on the testimony of one guy—Opalev—and his daughter, who worked for him as commercial director. It’s unclear what strings the cops (or the FSB) pulled on his soul to persuade him to file a false denunciation against me, but a criminal case was opened against him several months ago. And, as usual, a separate disclaimer for the petty thieves—people from Transneft, VTB, and other United Russia members: Crooks, none of our investigations, and not the cheerful "Party of Crooks and Thieves" campaign, can be stopped under any circumstances. Don’t get your hopes up. Update: There you go. And they say I’m on the federal TV channels’ "blacklists." As soon as the right kind of news appeared, I was on the air immediately: (video footage from 5–7 years earlier. YABLOKO party office)