We all expected more from "pekhiting". Just about every thief from United Russia has some kind of undeclared property and, generally speaking, lives far beyond their means (as in the case of Yarovaya). The explanation is simple: that’s exactly why they join "United Russia" — so they can steal with impunity. That is the rational model of behavior for a crook in our country: in any confusing situation, immediately join "United Russia" and declare that Putin should be president for life. So why is "pekhiting" (by which we mean publicly dismantling exposed crooks) not happening regularly, even though property belonging to the Party of Crooks and Thieves keeps turning up about once a week now? Here are the main reasons as I see them: After the initial panic over Pekhtin, the Kremlin riffraff got together and developed a clear media strategy: A TOTAL BLACKOUT ON FEDERAL TV CHANNELS. Neither in the case of Turchak’s villa in Nice, nor in Isaev’s "small modest hotel in Germany", did we see coverage not only from Channel One, but not even the usual mockery from NTV and the like. Bootlicking mass-circulation papers like Komsomolskaya Pravda also shut their mouths. And we, unfortunately, are still too lazy and inert to build online campaigning on a scale comparable to TV reach. Though technically it is entirely possible; as is well known, Yandex’s daily audience is larger than Channel One’s daily audience. So once again I refer everyone to my post about the usefulness of likes, and I suggest everyone remember: The main problem with pekhiting in Russia is you personally. Because you’re too lazy. Formalization. Lots of people can dig up information, and practically everyone is ready to dash off posts and articles, but almost no one sends formal complaints or demands. Basically only our Anti-Corruption Foundation and a couple of other people do. Of course, with our courts and prosecutors, you get nowhere fast, but still, expecting the owner of Miami real estate to rush to surrender his mandate when no one has even filed a complaint against him and it’s all been limited to online publications — that’s naive. Unfortunately, under our laws, undeclared real estate owned by a public official is not even a crime. I mean, we can talk all we want about why that is. About how the issue is not the letter of the law, but the fact that the head of the State Duma anti-corruption committee cannot be living in a $3 million apartment bought with money from who-knows-where, etc. That’s all true. Nevertheless, for example, it is impossible even in theory to open a criminal case here. However. There are also cases where "pekhiting" ought to happen automatically and without delay. Obviously, on orders from Putin’s crooks, the courts and prosecutors can issue any decision they like, but some of those decisions would amount to something very close to treason. That’s what the rest of this is about. As part of that very formalization, we’ve been quietly digging through information on the hidden real estate of these "servants of the people" that has appeared in the media but, unfortunately, had no consequences for the test subjects. At one point our attention turned to the Federation Council, specifically to "Senator" Vitaly Malkin.
http://www.council.gov.ru/staff/members/functionary1630311.html This lively gentleman, who quite obviously bought himself a Senate seat from that same "United Russia," lists the address of his public office as Sukhe-Bator Street in Ulan-Ude, but his real activity surfaces in entirely different parts of the planet. Sükhbaatar’s foot never set foot there. For example, Malkin is demanding $600,000 from a New York design firm over a poor renovation of his apartment. The apartment, as you can imagine, is not in Ulan-Ude. Try finding any trace of that apartment in Senator Malkin’s asset declaration. You won’t. We were unable to obtain formal proof of the Manhattan apartment, so we turned... once again not to Ulan-Ude, but to Canada. There, according to media and blog reports, Malkin owned an entire apartment building. This time we succeeded (many thanks for the help to Alla Kadysh, a journalist living in Canada): Here it is, the little house:
Anyone can repeat our request to the archives of Canada’s Federal Court and establish a rock-solid legal fact: From 1994 to 2011, Malkin owned 111 commercial office condominiums through his Canadian company, Ontario Limited. In the declaration Malkin filed in 2011, there is not a word about either the company or the property in Canada.
(A request by Malkin’s lawyer to the Canadian embassy in Moscow for an entry visa, citing Malkin’s real estate holdings as justification.) The condominiums themselves are commercial offices that brought in steady income for Senator Vitaly Borisovich while he was supposedly hard at work on Sukhe-Bator Street in Ulan-Ude. Documents for one of the 111 identical condominiums, according to the Canadian real estate site (http://geowarehouse.ca):
We need to pause here, because we can already picture the face of "journalist" and "TV host" "Vladimir" "Solovyov," who would defend our Malkin in roughly this style: Your evidence of undeclared property only goes up to 2011, and it’s now 2013. Therefore Malkin is an honest senator and a patriot, while you’re rocking the boat and twisting the facts. Even my gastric balloon is laughing at such evidence. Have you even been to Ulan-Ude? Malkin has — he wasn’t afraid. You know nothing about life! You scoundrel! OK then. To convince "journalist" Vladimir Solovyov and his gastric balloon, here is one more document. Because surely you can’t be a senator and run a business at the same time? Exactly. We know that from the case of Gennady Gudkov Sr. Now let Senator Malkin speak for himself:
Here is how he describes himself to the Canadian court. A very upstanding man. I sit in the Federal Assembly. I run a business. And not just a businessman, but also a responsible citizen and taxpayer (in Canada). Here is the information he submitted to the Canadian authorities in his business immigration application — an application for permanent residence in Canada (this application is also part of case no. IMM-528-08 in Canada’s Federal Court; link above):
"On February 21, 1994, I founded the company 1069180 Ontario Limited. From that time on, I was an employee of and the driving force behind the corporation. Using this company, I purchased a commercial office building located at 18 Wynford Drive, Toronto, Ontario, [Canada]. At the time I purchased the building, it was completely vacant and had debts owed to the City of Toronto treasury. Over the last four years, my company has managed to lease more than 50% of the building, approximately 130,000 square feet (about 12,080 square meters), and I now have rental income of 800,000 Canadian dollars and pay 500,000 Canadian dollars in taxes." (The full immigration application: part 1: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B24DjQ62ulmsYnhXQWUyTWNvQ0k/edit?usp=sharing part 2: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B24DjQ62ulmsWUFHdmhKcFNQb0U/edit?usp=sharing An extract from the real estate agents’ website confirming that the condominiums were being rented out (http://www.torontomls.net/Login.asp; any licensed agent can order the extract):
And do you know why these documents ended up in a Canadian court, allowing us to confirm that Senator Malkin had undeclared foreign real estate and was illegally engaged in business? Because this high-ranking Russian senator is barred from entering Canada on suspicion of ties to criminal groups. And he sued over it (unsuccessfully). Most recently in 2009. Here are Malkin’s full court testimonies from 2007, from which we learn that, alas, Senator Malkin is not much of a patriot after all. He was trying to get as far away from Sukhe-Bator Street as possible by seeking permanent residence in Canada. It sounds wild, but such is the harsh truth of life and of the current Russian authorities: a guy can sit in the Federation Council while applying for residence in another country. Then again, our Investigative Committee is headed by a gangster with a Czech residence permit, and nobody seems to mind. Here is a copy of the official 2009 refusal to grant Malkin a visa to enter Canada (also from the case file): "The enclosed evidence indicates that through your membershop in and association wiht organizations, including «Abalone Investments Ltd.» and «Rossiyski Kredit Bank», you may be inadmissible under the above quoted section. As the evidence demonstrates, these organizations are known to have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity, including money laundering. Translated into plain language, that means: listen, Malkin. You are connected to criminal activity, including money laundering, so you are unfit to enter Canada — though apparently you are still fit to sit in the Federation Council and write laws for Russian citizens.
Here is the court ruling. Those who know "American" (i.e., English) will find paragraphs 10 and 14 especially interesting. So. But that’s still not all — now we move on to the final act of this Mirliton ballet (a Russian expression meaning the final dramatic twist). In fact, we could have started with this, but then everything else would have made less sense. The point is that Senator Malkin has no right to be a member of the Federation Council. He should be expelled from it immediately, today. And his senatorship should be annulled retroactively from the start. Because "Senator" Malkin holds citizenship of another country.
Israel. As you can see, he even took a different name in Israel: Avihur Ben Bar. I don’t know what it means. Probably "very honest." Malkin’s two sons also hold Israeli citizenship:
(which, for God’s sake, we have no issue with) These are all scans of the first pages of the immigration application from the materials of the case heard in Canada’s Federal Court. Anyone can verify it. Also from the case materials — a letter from Vitaly Malkin’s lawyer, Joseph R. Young:
"Please be advised that Mr. Malkine is divorced and he is of Israel citizenship. Upon reviewing the IMM8 I apologize for the mistake with regards to his citizenship. Please be so kind as to include enclosed documents with the original file and to please note the present citizenship and marital status of the above-noted applicant. I thank you in advance for your anticipated co-operation and apologize for any inconvenience which this may have caused. We hereby inform you that Mr. Malkin is divorced and holds Israeli citizenship. Upon reviewing the IMM8, I apologize for the mistake regarding his citizenship. Please include the enclosed documents with the original file and, if possible, note the current citizenship and marital status of the above-mentioned applicant. I thank you in advance for your cooperation and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused." In Israel itself, we even managed to find a document in which Malkin notified the local Interior Ministry of his place of residence:
The certificate states that Avihor Ben-Bar (father’s name: Boris) last submitted the listed address to the Interior Ministry as his place of residence. Address: 87 Hayarkon Street, Apt. 1033, Tel Aviv. He ceased living there on August 23, 2007. Issued on March 10, 2013. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure about this document. It may even be hanging upside down. It was translated for us by Katz, maxkatz — thanks to him for that — but you know Katz. He’ll sell us all, buy us all, and then sell us again. Only at a higher price. Maybe it’s just an ad for gefilte fish. Be that as it may. The fact is this: since 2004, a holder of dual Russian and Israeli citizenship has been sitting in the Federation Council, which is directly and explicitly prohibited. (http://base.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc;base=LAW;n=133798, Article 4, Part 1) If Lyubov Sobol, who handled this case at our Anti-Corruption Foundation, uncovered this in two weeks, then what exactly is the FSB doing over there? Malkin is a senator and a member of the international affairs committee; he surely has security clearance. Final part. The social and political one. Just look at this Malkin.
Well then, let him go off to Israel or Canada. What’s the problem? Especially since he has long felt this way: "We all did our bit to shake the Soviet system, myself included... I always wished victory and success to Thatcher in Britain, Reagan in the U.S., Begin in Israel... It was probably a projection of my anti-patriotic attitude — and not only mine — toward our world’s first socialist state. We all rejoiced whenever something broke down in the USSR. I always rooted against Soviet athletes, always" But this hypocritical swine, who once "shook the Soviet system," the moment he became part of the nomenklatura in today’s quasi-Soviet system, immediately rushed to tighten, ban, restrict, we will not allow it, and so on. He didn’t like the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), but he likes "United Russia" just fine. They are the ones who made him a senator. So he has no intention whatsoever of giving up his role as a "people’s deputy of the Supreme Soviet" in the 21st century. This Malkin is the very same scoundrel who came to Washington as part of a delegation of similar "senators" and talked there about "Magnitsky’s alcoholism" and claimed that "Magnitsky did not expose any theft, but committed it himself." That mercenary skin went there to spread his lies in Russia’s name, but only so he would NOT LOSE HIS CONDOMINIUMS IN CANADA AND HIS APARTMENT IN MANHATTAN. So he could keep getting in. So his visa wouldn’t be taken away. He doesn’t give a damn that a man was tortured and killed. That the people who tortured and killed him were the same ones who first stole 5.3 billion rubles from the state budget (about 5.3 billion RUB). All these "senators" and "deputies" from United Russia have only one fear — that their little hotels in Germany might be taken away. That they might be forbidden from visiting their daughters studying in Switzerland. And Malkin was one of those who introduced that infamous "law of scoundrels" (the Russian ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children). What does he care about the suffering of a three-year-old girl with AIDS, whom no one in Russia will ever adopt? He deprived her of the chance to spend at least part of her life not sleeping on a mattress so revolting it would make any adult sick on sight. To United Russia’s Malkins, that doesn’t matter. They have a house in Italy, a house in the U.S., a business in Canada. Their mattresses are just fine. Let Malkin go to Canada or Israel and do politics there. Let him run for office there and propose the same initiatives he votes for so enthusiastically here: restricting rallies, curtailing voting rights. I’d like to see how quickly he’d be kicked all the way from the Dead Sea to Lake Ontario. But no — the Malkins of United Russia want to restrict voting rights here, while investing the money skimmed from these "little people" with restricted rights over there. In short. Here are our appeals: To the prosecutor’s office, demanding that it "instruct subordinate staff to conduct a prosecutorial review of the circumstances described above with respect to V.B. Malkin, and to apply all possible prosecutorial measures should the facts set out above be confirmed" https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oLlTZqGvezqpnC3Cg0Y1yLZON_3jWlNj9tFHEH8gLsw/edit?usp=sharing To the Chair** of the Federation Council, with the demand to "verify the above facts, requesting documents from Canada’s Federal Court and the competent authorities of Israel if necessary; if the above facts are confirmed, put the question of the early termination of the powers of V.B. Malkin, member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, to a vote in the Federation Council, and also vote ‘for’ the termination of the said member’s powers; declare Malkin’s membership in the Federation Council invalid from the moment he acquired citizenship of the foreign state of Israel, and also declare invalid Malkin’s votes in the Federation Council from the moment he acquired citizenship of the foreign state of Israel; transfer the materials of the internal review under this complaint to law enforcement and financial oversight bodies for examination as to whether Malkin’s actions contain elements of crimes or other offenses." https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LtrG6Asb0vReaCzc7p75MwsyGZUaaCqw5dv_RWC0lko/edit?usp=sharing To the People’s Khural (parliament) of the Republic of Buryatia with the demand to "verify the above facts, requesting documents from Canada’s Federal Court and the competent authorities of Israel if necessary; if the above facts are confirmed, put the question of the early termination of the powers of V.B. Malkin, member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from the Republic of Buryatia, to a vote in the People’s Khural of the Republic of Buryatia, and also vote ‘for’ the termination of the said member’s powers; transfer the materials of the internal review under this complaint to law enforcement and financial oversight bodies for examination as to whether Malkin’s actions contain elements of crimes or other offenses." https://docs.google.com/document/d/10FPOXe61Rzk0dsMLrBhiVLdE1QgcNRPCcNQI9MKwtNM/edit?usp=sharing To the FSB of Russia wi**th the demand to "instruct subordinate staff to conduct a review of the circumstances described above with respect to V.B. Malkin and, if the stated facts are confirmed, transfer the review materials to the bodies authorized to initiate criminal cases." https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KD_sR9SlXC5Vv8m8X86x0kTxrpKzy4lqxPnyXckTXXo/edit Now I suggest everyone sit back and watch the fascinating performance entitled "The Convulsions of the Executive Branch, the Federation Council, and the United Russia Party." Let them try to hush this up and keep a foreign citizen (and illegal businessman) in the Federation Council. Once again: we demand that his senatorship be annulled from the outset. Along with all of his votes. No "he quietly resigned of his own accord because he had long planned to." Not accept a resignation — expel him. And hold both him and those who appointed him accountable (or sold him the Senate seat, to put it more accurately). Let "United Russia," which pushed him into the Senate, also tell us about its political responsibility and patriotism. As usual, I’d be grateful to everyone who helps spread this information. Let people see the true face of this many-faced, many-passported government.