It was very amusing yesterday to watch the evolution of the excuses offered by the fine Miami resident, United Russia deputy Pekhtin. In his first interview, apparently in a panic, he delivered what has already become legendary: "I practically have no real estate abroad." Then he said that this property belongs to his son, who wants to leave it to him as an inheritance (what even?). The latest version is this: everything belongs to my son, who has long lived and worked in the United States, and he simply entered my name in some fields while registering the property. As in, we don't know the language very well. So he scribbled something down, and I accidentally ended up the owner of a luxury apartment worth $1.2 million. These things happen. Indeed, in the leadership of United Russia, this seems to happen to every other person all the time. Pekhtin also said about his Miami property: "Navalny needs to be taught a lesson. First we'll find out what assets are registered in his name."
But we have bad news for old man Pekhtin. It is obvious that he chose that country as the place for his peaceful, comfortable retirement and for the future of his children and grandchildren because it is safe there, the courts work, the police work, and there is no United Russia. He simply forgot that there are also such things there as transparency, public accountability, and local self-government (along with everything else that coexists so poorly with parties like United Russia), which allow us to learn that United Russia deputy Pekhtin, who COMPLETELY ACCIDENTALLY ended up in the documents, dutifully carries out his responsibilities as the owner of luxury apartments by signing the necessary paperwork.
In fact, the last time he did this was right before New Year's (strange that he wasn't celebrating it in Arkhangelsk with his voters). He probably signed that by accident too.
In an unconscious state: he arrived in Miami, remembered how much he loves the Motherland, passed out, came to, and found himself with a cast a million-dollar apartment.
Also (thanks for the links people sent us), we can see in the OFFICIAL Miami property registry that United Russia member Vladimir Pekhtin regularly pays property taxes on his real estate:
$4,700 a year for one apartment and $17,000 a year for the second. I'd bet anything that his entire Pekhtin clan has not paid as much property tax in Russia over their whole lives as they pay in a single year in the United States. What is more, we can see that in 2008, deputy Pekhtin (when he was loudly shouting in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, that the presidential term in Russia should be extended to six years because RUSSIA HAS ITS OWN SPECIAL PATH AND AMERICA DOESN'T GET TO TELL US WHAT TO DO) was being pulled away from important state business to be named as a co-defendant in a U.S. court case brought by some builders.
As for Pekhtin's vague references to his 35-year-old son being an "Amurican" entrepreneur, so far we have established two facts: For some reason, the "Amurican" entrepreneur Pekhtin Jr. was receiving a salary from the Russian State Duma, while, according to Pekhtin, permanently living in the United States. Apparently a nice little supplement to his "Amurican" business profits.
The "Amurican" entrepreneur Pekhtin Jr. set up a commercial company in the U.S. On February 7, 2004, Pekhtin, Gubsky (the same man with whom he bought a plot of land in Ormond Beach in 2005), and a certain Gary Roger registered a company called SKAZKA CONSTRUCTION INCORPORATED. By September 16, 2005, the company had already been dissolved (most likely automatically for failure to file an annual report). Here is the confirmation. So far, no other traces of Pekhtin Jr.'s successful business activity have been found. And how are the people who own deputy Pekhtin—the ones for whose well-being he shouts himself hoarse in the State Duma while earning enough on the side for vacations in Miami—reacting to this? President Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that he was unaware of Navalny's materials and does not follow his activities. If convincing materials about undeclared property owned by deputies appear, that would certainly be grounds for an investigation, he assured, but if these are materials bordering on a canard, then no. Medvedev's press secretary Natalya Timakova declined to comment. http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/9021361/deputat_ot_floridy
Interesting—who exactly will decide which materials deserve investigation and which merely border on a canard, or, say, a beaver? Unfortunately, there is a feeling that all materials coming from the Anti-Corruption Foundation are treated as "bordering on a canard," even when they are based on official records from government agencies in different countries. That reminded me of one more request we didn't make yesterday. And we didn't make it because we couldn't. Under our laws, ordinary citizens cannot submit requests to the State Duma asking whether a deputy's property matches his declaration. Officially registered media outlets, however, can. We need a little help here: here is the text of the request (if you don't like it, feel free to revise it). We would be very grateful if the lucky holders of a real media license would file it and send it in under their own name. Let's see what they say. We are also eagerly awaiting new exculpatory comments from deputy Pekhtin. We suggest he consider versions involving body doubles and alien abduction by Martians. PS I can't help sharing some excellent links on the subject: Malgin thoroughly exposes the lies of United Russia member Tretyak, owner of yet another apartment in Miami:
It very much looks like an interesting story awaits us about Margelov, United Russia's chief "foreign policy" man:
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