I don’t write very often these days, because the idiotic Investigative Committee is eating up a huge amount of time, which in turn makes life easier for a lot of crooks we’ve had less time to deal with. A couple of things: Today I ran into at the Investigative Committee the formidable participant in the “mass” “riots,” Baronova. She is reviewing the case materials in the “Bolotnaya case” (the criminal case over the Bolotnaya Square protest in Moscow), in which she is charged as a defendant. She shared some shocking evidence from the latest volume of the case file. Navalny’s Twitter is run by Navalny himself.
Also read Novaya Gazeta’s investigation into how the international company Yves Rocher is taking part in the fabrication of a political criminal case. Judging by the documents available to the editors, it was specifically on the basis of a complaint filed by Bruno Leproux, CEO of the Russian division of the world-famous cosmetics company — Yves Rocher Vostok LLC — that the “postal” criminal case was opened against Alexei Navalny and his younger brother Oleg. However, given the speed of the “paperwork” (from the registration of the complaint to the order separating the case into a distinct proceeding, plus reports on all three federal TV channels, only four days passed), one may assume that the management of Yves Rocher Vostok LLC was “asked” by employees of the Russian Investigative Committee to file the complaint. And the company could not bring itself to refuse. Bruno Leproux’s complaint addressed to Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, was registered with the Main Investigative Directorate on Monday, December 10, 2012, at 3:25 p.m. That same day, the head of the directorate, Major General A.V. Shchukin, instructed Major A.O. Pishchulin, an investigator for especially important cases, to conduct a preliminary inquiry under Articles 144–145 of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code. Pishchulin conducted the inquiry and submitted to General Shchukin a “Report on the Discovery of Indications of a Crime.” The report is dated that same December 10. On that very day, having coordinated his actions with General Shchukin, Major Pishchulin issued a “Resolution on Separating Materials of the Criminal Case into an Independent Proceeding”. http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/56599.html It’s still hard to say whether Yves Rocher was set up or intimidated, but their behavior is astonishing. After a visit from the FSB (Russia’s security service) to their office, they dashed off some strange statement along the lines of “please investigate,” and now that they realize things are getting serious, they’ve gone completely silent. They refuse to comment on anything. They do not want to explain why they suddenly wrote to the Investigative Committee asking it to examine a contract under which services had been provided to them for three years. So far, all their statements amount to: “we comment on nothing. we just sell cosmetics to Russian women and make them beautiful.” If you use their cosmetics, remember that you are giving money to people willing to take part in any dirty trick or frame-up, so long as their boss’s buddy leaves them alone. After my post, the Moscow Region BTI canceled its fraudulent procurement order.
The fact that they canceled it is good. But at the same time, it is a perfect example of how the no-risk scheme of hiding a procurement through Latin letters or an obscure title works. If it works, they get their kickback. If it doesn’t work and RosPil (Navalny’s anti-corruption procurement watchdog) — or someone else — notices it, they simply cancel the order and lose nothing. No punishments, no investigations, no sanctions. Very convenient. If RosPil’s proposals for combating these tricks are adopted, the situation will change dramatically for the better. By the way, the bill prepared on the basis of these proposals was submitted to the State Duma yesterday (many thanks to Dima Gudkov).