Retrial of the “Kirovles Case.” Court video recording. Hearing 12. Part 2

I ask everyone

to stand

please, goodbye

the defense wishes to proceed to

the examination and presentation of evidence

and wishes to begin with the examination of the written

case materials. Thus, pursuant to Article 274

the defense proposes examining the following

evidence. Volume

2, page of the case file

26–29, accountant's memorandum

appendices to the contract. Volume 3, section 21

income certificates of OLK employees for

2009

year. Volume... excuse me, I have one copy

it is mine. Volume... case file

24–26, ruling on the appointment of

a documentary

audit. Volume 27... additional

letter. Volume 5, case file 28–39, report

of examination

of the document. Volume 7, case file 1, request to

the Department of State

Property of the Kirov Region

Volume 7, case file 2, response to

the request. Volume 14, case file 116

notification. Volume 14, pages 128–129

ruling to file a motion

for the conduct of a search in

the bank. Volume 14, case file 130–131, ruling

authorizing the conduct of the search

Volume 14, case file 132–136, record of

the search. Volume 17, case file

59–60, ruling appointing

a forensic financial and economic

expert examination

Volume 17, case file 70–79, expert opinion

No. 6D/2012 dated March 6, 2012

Volume 23, case file 44–45

minimum price of forestry products, Nurss

forestry enterprise, 2008–2009

year. Volume 24

page 111, price of the Belaya Kholunitsa forestry enterprise

branch of KOGU Kirovles for that period

of time. Volume 25, case file 33–34, minimum

price of the Orlov forestry enterprise for the same period

of time. Volume 25, case file 33–34

Orlov forestry enterprise, minimum price for the same

period

of time. Volume 26, case file

59, letter from VLK to K... Gubki Fle

Volume 26, case file 60, letter from Gubki Rafs to

the address of

VLK. Volume 26, case file 61

–77 and case file pages 82–

86, this is correspondence between

regarding performance of contract No. 01/29 dated

April 15, 2009

Volume 26, case file 87, agreement on

termination of the contract

Volume 26, case file pages 89–90, report of

short delivery. Volume 27, case file

91. Volume 26, case file... yes

also from

short delivery. Volume 27, case file pages 114

–117. These are copies of payment orders

which were submitted by Ofitserov and

the investigation, concerning the transfer of funds

to Gubki RFS under the supply contract

Volume 33, case file

57, this is a payment transfer dated

February 18, 2013, concerning the transfer

of funds from VLK to KAGO ROF

Les

Volume 33, case file

58, Ofitserov's request to the bankruptcy trustee of

Ko Gubke Rakh Les

Volume 33, pages

of the case file

59–60

61, 63, 64

65, 66

67, 68, 69, 70

decision of the Commercial Court (arbitrazh court) regarding

the relations between OLK and Kogotki

Fres. Volume 33, case file page, case file pages

178–183, attorney's request

Volume 33, case file pages 184–

241, this is a specialist's opinion

No. 3S-13/d 529 dated May 20, 2013

with appendix

Next, regarding personal background

of Ofitserov. Next, documents regarding the personal background

of Ofitserov. Volume 34, case file 90

character reference. Volume 34, case file 31

attorney's

request on page 31. And the previous one was on page

90. Kristi

90, on case file page 90 in Volume 34

character reference for Pyotr

Yuryevich Ofitserov in Volume 34 on page

31 of the case file — this is the attorney's

request in Volume 34 from case file page

32–65 — this is the response to the attorney's

request. That is all.

May I clarify: Volume

17? Volume 17, case file pages 70–79, expert opinion

of the expert — was that your position on the part of

the side? This is an agreed position on

everything. Yes, we support the agreed position

on the documents that we want to read into the record

we do not object to the examination of the specified

documents, except, that is,

the financial expert opinion

since it was already examined

at

well, just a second, we will clarify

because according to our notes, we do not have it

we do not have the financial expert opinion

Just a second, we’ll clarify that now.

Right now.

Please уточни December 23.

All right, let’s... maybe I’ll go get the volumes.

Yes, take a look—I’ll check the notes. Yes, and then...

I... I do not rule out that it...

was examined, if it was examined.

Indeed, in that part we then will not...

write it down; I also have it noted that...

examined... Ah, well then.

Excellent. Then the motion to...

Any objections? No objections, then...

the motion to admit these pieces of evidence...

is granted. A 10-minute recess for...

just...

with.

[music]

After all, I’m from that generation, and you are too,

from the generation when Radio Liberty (the Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Voice

of America—all of that was jammed, blocked out, and

we lived in a building on Petra Montin Street.

Above us lived my childhood friend Sasha

Boyarintsev, a very good boy; we grew up together,

and then he went to work at

the station that did the jamming there in Baku, near the stadium.

That was the service that

jammed foreign radio stations. So then,

picture it: the Baku heat,

summer, our...

courtyard corridor, like an Italian courtyard,

bare to the waist, next to him

a pot of compote,

and beside him a Spidola radio set—he’s trying to catch something on it.

And Sasha is running off to the evening shift, and

Yulik shouts to him across the yard: “Sasha, from 9

p.m., don’t jam anything, I’m going to listen to Voice

of America.”

And so at 9 p.m., contrary to all

the usual rules of the genre, in the city of Baku...

Well, there you have the difference.

From 9 until... while he was listening to Voice of America,

there wasn’t a crackle or a squeal. And at 10 o’clock

it started up again perfectly.

[music]

as

is.

TV channel.

What beauty.

said—didn’t say, really.

I ask everyone

to rise.

Please. And all of it in one box at once—

no, no need.

Excuse me...

I’m sorry to interrupt you,

a telegram was received for you. This morning I...

shall read it out now.

Reading it out: received by telephone, number 833

3248 9656, from Judge Yuri ... of the Moscow District Court,

Zhitnikov Yuri ..., who reported

that the criminal case on the charges against Dadayev

and others... February 2017.

I already know. Well, I didn’t have it in

Yes, please.

Volume of the case.

242 — these are Korolev’s performance results for the first

half of 2009, prepared

by the deputy general director.

Bastrygin was questioned as a

witness by the court.

At the court hearing: in the first quarter of 2009,

the enterprise recorded losses on its balance sheet.

Permission was obtained for installment payments

until the end of 2009. For the first half of the year,

the company’s revenue amounted to 61%

of the planned amount—340 million rubles (about 340 million RUB)—which

is 77% of the revenue for the corresponding

period of the previous year. Cash receipts

in the amount of 287 million rubles (about 287 million RUB)

amounted to 51% of planned income and 51%

of the actual figure. Due to falling

demand for products and declining market

prices, for the first time in many years the plan was not fulfilled

for product sales, and

accordingly, the planned

expected

income was not received. As a result, the enterprise’s

accounts receivable grew to 120 million rubles (about 120 million RUB),

including debts owed by buyers and

customers, which represented an increase of 64% over

the debt level at the beginning

of the year. Next, volume 2, case file

2629, an explanatory note to

the financial statements,

from which it follows that the enterprise

has both accounts receivable and accounts payable,

and

their

growth is observed. It is also stated here that the lack of

raw materials and timber products

led to an absence of sales, as a result of which

the financial result of current

operations amounted to

minus 38,621,000 rubles (about 38.6 million RUB).

[applause]

Next, case volume 7072, contract No. 0/2009.

Between KAGU and...

OLK; it contains sections on the subject of the contract,

quality requirements, the procedure for

implementation, acceptance...

goods, the procedure for settlements...

the obligations of the parties, force majeure

circumstances, additional conditions, and

final

provisions—a standard contract.

Popova. Volume 2, case file pages 70

-130, 73

-130: this is an appendix to supply contract

No. 0129, which sets out in detail the

terms

of delivery, shipping standards,

as well as the conditions for acceptance of the goods and the terms of its

payment.

Next, volume three.

So, in the third case file...

Oh, this is the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax

Service for the city of Kirov replying.

the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation

of the Investigative Directorate for Kirov Region

the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the city of Kirov

in response to your request regarding Vyatskaya Lesnaya

Company, hereby sends a copy of

personal accounts and income information in

Form 2 regarding the company's employees, and copies of

the balance sheet declaration for 2009, pages

of the case file 2–18 in Volume Three, certificates of

income of OLC employees for 2009

as well as income certificates for the employees

of VLK: Tayana Vlana

ma

ni Borisovich, Ofitserov P. Yu., Yukhina Elena

Dmitrievna, Ovsyanikova Elena

Alexandrovna, Vakhrushev Mikhail Viktorovich

ka, Evgeny Alexandrovich, Kapustina Elena

Romanovna

Potapenko, Makarova Lyubov

Sergeyevna

accounting records and the amount of personal income tax paid

at the rate of

13%

hereinafter, Volume

[music]

Volume of the case file

2426, order appointing

a documentary audit dated March 17, 2011

was issued by the senior investigator for

particularly important cases of the First Investigative

Department of the Investigative Directorate

of the Investigative Committee of the Russian

Federation for the Primorsky Federal

District, Colonel of Justice Yuldashev, based on

the inspection materials registered

on 21.02.21; the inspection was conducted with respect to

Navalny and Ofitserov, director of

Vyatskaya Lesnaya

Company

to whom the expert of the criminalistics department

of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Kirov Region

was asked to resolve the following question:

What were the sources of funds credited to

the settlement account of OLC during the period from April 15 of that year to

September of that year?

What were the directions

of expenditure of funds from

the settlement account of OLC? Were funds transferred from

funds from the set-

tlement account? The materials include accounting documents

of OLC and statements of transactions on OLC's account

held with Vyatka-Bank CB OJSC, as well as

inspection materials in three

volumes. Volume 5 of the case file

27. Thus, the deputy head

of the criminalistics department, Captain of Justice

Chernov, replies

to investigator Minikh

No. 4/21 dated

5.4.21 regarding the inspection materials in

relation to Alexei Navalny

Anatolyevich and Pyotr Ofitserov

Yuryevich. Volume of the case file 28–29, report

on document examination No. 4D/2011 dated

April 5

2011, based on the previously announced

order appointing an examination of

documents. The examination

addresses questions analogous to those set out in

the order. It specifies what materials

were submitted for the inspection

and they are analogous to the materials that

are listed in the order. Next comes the

research section; we move on to the section

of conclusions. On the first question, for the period from April 15

of that year to September 1 of that year, into

the settlement account there were incoming funds

in the total amount of 950,353 rubles, including from

the following sources: from counterparties

— buyers of timber products — in the total

amount of 16,901.83 rubles and 55 kopecks. It states: from

which specific counterparties? Namely: Les

Garant, Domy Stroitel, KMDK, Vlada, sole proprietor

Podgornov, Sovspil, Vel Tork Company, CJSC

Krasny Yakor, Match Factory Pobeda

OJSC Volga, LLC Krymskiye Zori, OJSC MTSBK, LLC

Borges, OJSC Ufimskie Spichki, sole proprietor Proskurin

CJSC PChP, LLC Ostrov, LLC Lestrans, LLC Divine

OJSC

AS. On the second question, for the period from the 15th

of April 2009 to September 1

2009, from the settlement account of VLK

funds were debited in the total amount of

14.

985,517 rubles and 5 kopecks, including by

the following expenditure categories: payment to

KOGUP Kirovles for timber products and

rail freight charges under contract No.

01/29 dated April 15, 2009, in the amount of

12,105,191 rubles and 2 kopecks, as well as payment

to suppliers for services and inventory

items in the total amount of

796,256 rubles and 93 kopecks. It specifies and lists

the list of suppliers and

the grounds for payment for services, as well as their

list. Tax and customs payments

were also paid by VLK in the amount of

329,237 rubles and 65 kopecks for shipped

timber products to counterparties

by the consignee; cash funds into

the cash desk for payment of wages and

business needs in the amount of

48,530 rubles; wage payments using

payment cards under

the agreement in the amount of 20,799 rubles; as well as

payment for bank services in the amount of 10.42

rubles; refunds to buyers in the amount of 981

rubles. This refers to buyers

of timber products, accordingly, which

were evidently under-delivered by the supplier

— these are LLC Ostrov, sole proprietor Proskurin, and

Vel Tork Company — as well as reimbursement for

expenses under an advance report, and also

for

delivery. The expert indicates that

the transfer of funds from the account

of OLC to Alexei Navalny

Anatolyevich for the period from April 15, 2009

from [year] through September 2009, not

established. Volume

So, that means volume [unclear], case file [unclear]. This is a request

made by an investigator for especially important cases

of the department for the investigation of especially important

cases of the Main Investigative Directorate of Russia, Justice Major by the name of

Akhmetov requests from the director

of the Department of State

Property of Kirov Region

Arzamasov, a request with the following content:

At the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, an inquiry is being conducted in accordance with

Articles 144–145 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation regarding the signing

of an agreement between KOGUP Kirovles and LLC VLK in

relation to Navalny and Ofitserov. In connection with the above,

I ask you to inform us

whether any audits or inspections were conducted

of the financial and business activities

of KOGUP Kirovles in 2009 and 2010, and if

such audits or inspections were

carried out, I ask you to provide their

certified

copies. Volume [unclear], case file 2 — this is a response to

the request. So, the response to the request of April 14

2011, signed by the acting director

of the Department of State

Property of Kirov Region, one

Oparin, addressed to Investigator

Akhmetov, states as follows: in

connection with your request, we report

the following. In accordance with Article 10

of the Law of Kirov Region dated

June 10, 2008 No. 287-ZO on the procedure for managing

and disposing of state property

of Kirov

Region, the annual review of the results of

financial and business activities

of KOGUP Kirovles, approval of the accounting

statements, as well as the exercise of control over

financial and business activities

is within the authority of the body

of the regional executive branch with sectoral

competence, that is, the Department of Forestry

Management. Inspections

of the financial and business activities

of KOGUP Kirovles by the Department

of State Property of Kirov

Region were not conducted. This concerns, so to speak,

the questioning of auditor Zagoskina and the allegedly

conducted review by her at the instruction of

Mr.

Arzamastsev.

Next, Volume 14.

Volume 14, case file page 128.

129. Oh no, sorry. Well yes, let's do it this way.

Volume 14, pages 128–129.

This is a motion to initiate [unclear]

proceedings for a search in a bank or other credit

institution, dated September 19, issued

by the investigator for especially important cases

of Russia, Akhmetov.

He resolved to petition the Basmanny District Court

of the city of Moscow for authorization to conduct a

search

at the above-mentioned address for the purpose of seizure of

documents,

cash funds received from the activities

of LLC [unclear], KOGUP Kirovles, draft notes, and

also other items and documents

relevant to the criminal case

located in an individual bank

safe-deposit box rented

by Alexei Navalny

Anatolyevich.

Next, Volume 14, case file pages 130–131, the ruling

of the judge of the Basmanny District Court of the city

of Moscow, dated September 21 [year unclear], on

authorizing the search, on the basis of

which the court ruled to authorize

the conduct of a search in the safe-deposit box at

the address: Moscow, Bolshaya

Polyanka Street, building 39, for the purpose of locating and seizing

documents relating to the activities of LLC VLK,

cash funds received from

the activities of LLC VLK and KOGUP Kirovles,

draft notes, as well as other items

and documents relevant to

the criminal case, located in

an individual bank safe-deposit box

rented by Navalny

Alexei Anatolyevich, case file pages 132

136.

This is the search record itself

dated September 26, 2012, at [unclear] Bank, for

the purpose of locating, as already indicated

earlier, documents

relating to Anatolyevich; it was

opened, and nothing was found inside the box

discovered. And the same Volume 14, case file

116: that is, the investigator of [unclear] under the Internal Affairs Directorate for

Kirov Region, Captain of Justice [Stov/unclear],

notification

to the deputy [unclear] of Kirov Regi

within the framework of criminal case

number

14003. The notification reads as follows:

I hereby notify you that

on January 12, 2011, by me, on the basis of your

statement concerning abuses by

the management of Kirovles, which entailed

economic damage to the enterprise and the regional budget,

a criminal case was opened, number

14003, against the general director

of KOGUP Kirovles, Opalev, on suspicion of

an offense предусмотренного by Part

1 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, abuse

of authority, while also explaining to you

that if you disagree with the decision

taken, you have the right to appeal it

to the head of the investigative body, to

the prosecutor's office, or to a court on the basis of and in

the manner established by Chapter 16 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.

Next, Volume

17 — oh, Volume 17, we've already decided not to use it.

Yes, sorry, now I need Volume 23.

The next box. It's just that Volume 17, we already

agreed that the prosecutor had already read out

the conclusion

of the expert examination. And this is the ruling, this is

Appointment. Yes, you have read it out. So yes, that's all.

I agree, you have everything. Yes, now let's move on to the next one.

the next folder.

[applause]

Please, Volume 23.

[music]

So, Volume 23, case file pages

44–45. So, the minimum price for timber

products for the Kiknur forestry enterprise branch

of Kirovles for 2008 and 2009.

Agreed by the general director

of Kirovles and approved by the director

of the Kiknur forestry enterprise accordingly.

The Kirovles branch. So, on page

44 of the case file, the minimum prices for timber

products for 2008 are contained; on page 45, for

2009.

It is perfectly obvious that

under the stated prices for timber products

they did not change significantly, with the

exception of prices for round firewood and for

softwood pulpwood, spruce, which changed in 2009

in the direction of an increase by 300

rubles. Next, Volume 24.

Case file pages 118–119.

So, here we see the minimum

prices for timber

products of the Beysky forestry enterprise.

Approved, agreed by the general director

and approved by the director

of the corresponding forestry enterprise. Turning to

these prices, we see that compared with

2008, in 2009 there was a decrease

in minimum prices for a number of items, for example

first-category softwood logs,

softwood sawlogs of first, second,

and third grade.

Volume 25.

Case file pages

[music]

33–34. These are the minimum prices for finished

products, agreed upon and approved

and approved by the director

of the Orlovsky forestry enterprise, a branch of KOGUP Kirovles

(a state regional unitary enterprise). Turning to the contents of these

documents, we see that in 2009

there was a decrease in minimum prices

agreed upon for timber products

of the Orlovsky forestry enterprise branch of KOGUP Kirovles.

[music]

The prices were

reduced by no less than 300

rubles in 2009 compared

with 2008. Next, Volume 26.

[music]

So, Volume 26, case file pages

59. Now we will read out

the correspondence between OOO VLK and Kirovles.

So, a letter to the general director

of KOGUP Kirovles, Opalev, from the general

director of OOO VLK, Ofitserov, according to

which OOO VLK, under supply contract

No. 02/2009, requests shipment to ZAO

Astrakhan Sea Port in June

2009 of sawn timber in

accordance with the technical requirements

according to Appendix No. C, and also

to inform them of the date

of shipment. Case file page

60. And the general director of Kirovles,

Ms. Bastrygina, replies to the general

director of OOO VLK,

Ofitserov. In response to the previously read letter, she

states

that the appendix provides for

the quantity of a specific size

of sawn timber in one specific volume.

According to the appendix, an order was placed

for the specification.

In the exact volume of any of the

sizes presented, the specification

is being worked on. On the basis of these

documents, we inform you that

the proposed division of the total volume

of edged sawn timber by volume into

specifically stated dimensions is impossible.

We additionally inform you that

under the production technology, achieving

the exact volume of a specific size is not always

possible. Now, moving on

to the shipment request under Appendix No. C

to the contract. Next, the general director of Kirovles,

case file page 61, Opalev, from the general

director of OOO VLK, Ofitserov. So, this is

a letter stating that OOO VLK requests, under the

supply contract, shipment also to

ZAO Astrakhan Sea Port of

sawn timber as well, in

the following assortment. Requirements are set out

for the packaging of the sawn timber, and

there is a request to inform them of the date

of shipment. Also, a letter on case file page 61

from Mr. Opalev to the general

director of OOO VLK.

In this letter, Mr. Ofitserov

— Ofitserov —

expresses dissatisfaction that on the part of

KOGUP Kirovles there has been improper

performance of obligations under the

contract, since the shipment

of timber products to ZAO Astrakhan

Sea Port

under request No. 7 dated June 1, 2009—the goods

were not

delivered. Case file page

63. To the general director of KOGUP Kirovles

Opalev, from the general director of OOO VLK,

Ofitserov. On the basis of this letter, OOO

VLK, under the supply contract, requests

shipment to OAO Match Factory

Pobeda of one railcar, in accordance

with the technical requirements according to the appendix.

Please inform us of the shipment date.

64. A letter to KOGUP Kirovles from OOO VLK.

Also, OOO VLK requests shipment to

Match Factory Pobeda and additionally notifies

them of the time frame for fulfilling

the request. Case file.

65. The general director of Gubke, Opolev, from

A. Ofitserov is once again notified

by Vcheni Olev that he needs to

ship match raw materials to the Pobeda match factory

in accordance with the appendix to the supply contract in

for the third time, Ofitserov notifies Toplivo about

the deadlines

for delivery. Case file sheet.

66. The general director of OVLK, addressed to the general

director of KOGUP

Kirovles, states

that Ofitserov notifies Kobro Les about

the need to ship

to

the consignee, Branch KSK-415, in

the city of Novorossiysk, in accordance with the technical

requirements, specifying what assortment

of products and in what volume must

be shipped to this

consignee. Case file sheet.

67. From Gerek Ofitserov to

the address of Olev

during delivery for sole proprietor Podgor

consignee: Branch K-415

Novorossiysk. According to the specification, there was

shipped timber products

not in the volume indicated in

the order

Ofitserov notifies

Opalev that he improperly

performed his obligations

According to clause 46 of the contract, he has an incomplete

duty

to compensate

for losses. Further on.

68. The general director

Olev Olev

responds

to Ofitserov that KOGU Kiros carried out

shipment of sawn timber to 415 in

the city of Novoro-

in accordance with the technical conditions and instructions of OAO

Russian Railways, and also explains why

the short delivery of timber products occurred

further in the same volume, case file.

69. Ofitserov informs

Opalev that in

view of the indicators for loading practice

of products into a railcar,

the quantity of edged timber

amounts to 7,783

m, therefore VLK does not consider the arguments

set out in the letter to be sufficient justification for

the short delivery of timber products

for failure to perform the obligations set out

in clause 46 of the contract

for supply. Further, case file 70.

to the address of Ufimskie Spichki

it specifies exactly what assortment of timber

products must be shipped and in what

volume; the deadlines for fulfilling

the order are also stipulated. Case file sheet.

71. From the general director of OLK, Ofitserov, to

the general director of Kirovles, Opolev

also, under the supply contract, VLK requests

shipment to Ufimskie Spichki. The document

specifies the assortment and its quantity; it also

for the second time, Ofitserov notifies Toplivo

of the deadlines for fulfillment

of the order. Case file sheet.

72. The general director of OLK, Ofitserov,

sends to the general director

of KOGUP

Olev a claim in connection with the fact that

there was a short delivery to OOO

Krymskie

Zori. Case file sheet.

73. The general director of OOO VLK, Ofitserov,

notifies the general director of KOGUP

Kirovles, Opalev,

that it is necessary to optimize

the supply of edged timber for OOO

Krymskie Zori, and reminds Ofitserov

of the quality in which

the timber products must be supplied, and what the conditions

of shipment are; they request that these conditions

meet all requirements

set out in Appendix No. 18 dated 1

June 2009

further.

74. Ofitserov sends to Opolev

a letter according to which

to the address

a representative is being sent for evaluation

of the timber products

the company asks that it be taken into account that if

all costs

related to the short delivery of timber are incurred by Les

and the delay in delivery of timber products

Les

case file.

75. Shipping order to ZAO Prich

prom, specifying

the assortment and delivery terms, as well as

the deadline for fulfilling the order. Case file.

76

And Ofitserov sends to Olev

a letter

regarding the impossibility of shipping railcar

freight at Balabanovo station, Moscow Region

to the address of ZAO ChPM for August 2009

and also reminds Topolev that

the July order for the supply of timber

products to ZAO

ChPM was not

fulfilled. Case file 77.

Also, Ofitserov sends—or rather, Opalev sends

to Ofitserov a letter stating

that it is impossible to ship

timber products to ZAO Prom and requests

that performance of this contract be temporarily

suspended. The letter is dated 16 July

2009

Further, Volume 26, case file sheets 82–86.

Continuation of the correspondence between Ofitserov

and Opolev within the framework of performance of Contract No.

01.29 regarding the short delivery of timber products, and on

case file sheet 82 there is a letter dated 22 July

in 2009, addressed to Opolev from Dene

from OOO VLK Director Ofitserov, according to which

under the supply contract, VLK requests

that timber products be shipped to Nodus in July 2009

timber products

and notifies of the time frame for fulfilling the order

under the supplementary

agreement. On July 31, 2009, Opalev

also replies

to Ofitserov with a letter of the following

content, referring to the agreement that on

Wednesday, July 29, 2009,

a meeting had been planned between representatives of VKO

and the forestry company KOGUP Kirovles

regarding the presentation of a batch

of sawn timber from KOGUP Kirovles for shipment

to the consignee of the buyer, OLK. According

to Appendix No. 35 of July 2009 to

the supply contract, the representatives of OLK

did not appear at the meeting. This fact is regarded

by management as a refusal of the specified

batch, and due to the strained financial

situation, this batch of materials

will be sold in the

near future. Letter No. 10 dated July 31

of that year, addressed to the General Director

of KOGUP Kirovles, Opalev, from the General

Director of OLK, Ofitserov, in which

Ofitserov expresses hope for

long-term, mutually beneficial

cooperation, while also making

a complaint that the company does not

consider the arguments set out in the letter

sufficient to blame it for the failed meeting

to inspect the edged sawn timber

intended

for shipment

VLK had been

misinformed regarding the route and

place

of the meeting concerning the shipment of timber

materials to the address of

the company

85. Opalev addresses a letter to the General

Director of OLK

Ofitserov. Opalev asks to increase

the number of vehicles for the delivery of pulpwood

species

for the pulp and paper mill. Further on

86. The General Director of KOGUP, Opalev, sends

a letter to the General Director of OLK

Ofitserov and notifies him that due to

the lack of raw materials, KOGUP Kirovles does not have

the ability to carry out shipment

of timber products in August, given

that the July shipment plan to OAO

Mari Pulp and Paper Mill will not be fulfilled in full

due to OOO VLK providing

an insufficient number of vehicles. This

concerns the bearing of transportation costs

Here we can clearly see that Opalev

asks Ofitserov to increase the number

of vehicles so that the shipment

could be carried out

further, volume 26 of the case file

87. Agreement on termination of the contract dated

September 1, 2009

between KOGUP Kirovles and OOO VLK. In

this agreement

the parties agreed to terminate Contract No. 0129

dated April 15, 2009, effective September 1

2009

and it is specifically stated that termination of the contract

is not grounds for releasing

either party from performing obligations

that arose during the term of the contract

thus, pages

of the case file

88–90. Here we have an underdelivery report dated

August 13, 2009, according to which

Kirovles failed to fulfill its obligations for

the supply of products to the counterparties of

OOO VLK, and

the underdelivery. The timber company

informs KOGUP

Kirovles of its desire to perform

the contract on the part of KOGUP Kirovles and

to recover from KOGUP Kirovles a penalty in the total

amount of

33,980 rubles

On page 91 of the case file there is also

Supply Report No. 2 dated August 13

2009, which states that there was

improper performance on the part of KOGUP Kirovles

of obligations under

the supply contract, and there was

an underdelivery to OAO Mari Pulp and Paper Mill

as well as to Krymskie Zori and Ufimskie Spichki

signed by both parties. The underdelivery report

underdelivery report No. 2

No. 2

further, volume

27, pages 114–1

of the case file

111–187 — these are copies of payment

orders for transfers from OOO

VLK of funds to Kirovles

under the timber supply contract

Copies of these payment orders were

attached by Ofitserov to the record

of questioning

dated January 18, 2013

Thus, these payment orders

confirm the fact of settlements and

the transfer of funds for

timber products

Also, in a number of payment orders

it is stated that

payment is being made for the railway tariff under

the supply contract for timber products delivered to

the consignee, a counterparty of OOO

VLK, and that payment is also being made directly for

the timber products themselves, which were

delivered to the consignee

the counterparty of

VLK. Further, volume 33

Volume 33 of the case file

57. This is the original payment order for

358000 8812

rubles from OLK to the address of

KOBS, payment purpose: debt

in favor of

Volume 33, case file

58 — this is Officerov's request addressed to

the bankruptcy trustee of KOGUP

Kiros, dated April 26, 2013

year; that is, Officerov

notifies the bankruptcy

trustee of the existence of debt

on the part of OOO VLK to KOGUP Keles and

requests that bank details be provided

to which OOO VLK can make

payment. Officerov notes that a letter

containing a similar request had been

sent to KOGUP Kirovles on April 12

2013. No reply to it had been received as of

the present time, therefore

Officerov was forced to make the above

request again. I note that

no reply to this letter was received by Officerov either

received. Next

case file sheet

59–60. This is a copy of the decision of the Arbitration Court

of the Kirov Region, dated October 18, 2012

in the claim by KOGUP

Kirovles against OOO VLK for recovery of funds

representing debt for delivered goods

satisfaction of the claims of the Kirov

Regional State Unitary

Enterprise KOGUP Kirovles was denied

also, from KOGUP Kirovles there was collected

the state duty into the revenue of

the federal

budget. The decision states as follows

between the parties

a supply contract dated

April 15, 2009, was concluded

the decision also states that proper

evidence of transfer of

the goods to the defendant, OLK, was not presented in the case materials

On this basis, the court

denied the stated

claims

61–63. November 2, 2012

The Kirov Regional State

Unitary Enterprise KOGUP Kirovles

filed claims against VLK

for recovery of debt under the contract dated

April 15, 2009, No.

01/29. The Arbitration Court ruled

to deny the claims of Kirovles

against VLK for

recovery of funds under the contract

also, from the Kirov Regional

State Unitary Enterprise

Kirovles, a state duty in the amount of 2,000

rubles was collected. The decision also states that

the basis for applying to the court was

supply contract No.

01/29. The plaintiff, naturally, insists that

the defendant did not fully pay the plaintiff for the delivered

goods. But since the plaintiff did not provide

documentary confirmation enabling

payment to be made

the Arbitration Court denied the

claims

case file sheet

64–65. Decision of the Arbitration Court of the Kirov

Region dated February 26, 2013

also, in the claim of KOGUP Kirovles against OOO

VLK for

recovery of debt under the contract dated

April 15, 2009, No.

01/29. According to this decision

the Arbitration Court ruled to recover from OOO VLK

in favor of KOGUP Kirovles

74,778 rubles under the contract

of supply. Next, case file sheet

66. Also, the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Kirov

Region dated September 25

year: plaintiff KOGUP, defendant OOO VLK, on

recovery of funds and enforcement of

supply contract No. 01/29 dated

April 15, 2009. The claims

of KOGUP Kirovles

were granted. Next, case file sheet 67

ruling of the Arbitration Court of the Kirov

Region in the claim of KOGUP Kirovles against OOO

VLK: KOGUP Kirovles's statement of claim was

returned due to

failure to comply with procedural requirements

established by Articles 125–126 of the Arbitration

Procedure Code of the Russian

Federation. Case file sheet

sheet

68–69. Also, the decision of the Arbitration Court

of the Kirov Region dated December 24, 2012

again in the claim of KOGUP Kirovles against OOO

VLK

for recovery of funds under supply contract

No.

01/29 dated April 15, 2009. The claims

of KOGUP Kirovles were

granted. Next, case file sheet 70. In this

same volume, the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Kirov

Region dated November 25, 2010, in the claim

of Kirovles against OOO VLK for recovery of debt

under contract 029 dated April 15, 2009

the claims were also

granted

Now, one second — Volume 33, case file sheets 178–183

this is an attorney's

request, an attorney's request dated April 25

2013, No.

56. Attorneys of the Moscow City Bar (Moscow Bar Association), Davydova and Mikhailova,

address the director of OOO Expert

Consulting Firm Ekskon

and ask for an expert opinion on

the following questions. First: what was the market

value of the forest products indicated

in the documents submitted with this request

in April, May, June, July

August, and September 2009, and also

the attorneys ask that the level

of deviation of prices for forest products

indicated in the submitted documents from

market prices in response to this request

Attached are copies of documents from

the materials of the criminal case against

Navalny and Ofitserov; this is a copy of

the supply agreement dated April 15, 2009

from Volume 2, case file pages 70–72, as well as

the appendix to the supply agreement, which

was also read out by the defense, and from Volume 2

starting from case file page

73 and

ending at

130, as well as copies of delivery invoices; they

were read out by the prosecution; this is Volume

Eight, Volume

Nine

and Volume Nine almost in its entirety

up to case file page 127

Further,

the specialist’s opinion is read out

No.

592, case file pages

184

to 214. This opinion was obtained

by the defense of Navalny and Ofitserov upon

requesting a specialist’s opinion

from Marina Vasilievna Kolobova, who has

a higher

technical education, specialty:

knitwear production technology

qualification: engineer; Moscow

Institute, 1989;

higher economic education

specialty: economics and management at

an enterprise; qualification: economist

manager; Vyatka State

University, 2004; professional

retraining in the specialization of valuation

of enterprise/business value

qualification: appraiser; Moscow

International Institute of Econometrics,

Informatics, Finance and Law, 2005;

professional retraining in

the field of forensic economic examination

in the specialty of forensic examination of

the valuation of intellectual

property and tangible assets

Institute of Law, Economics and Forensic

Examination under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 2008

certified by the self-regulatory

organization of appraisers, the all-Russian

public

organization called the Russian

Society of Real Estate Appraisers; registration number

the certificate and date

of issue are indicated here

The expert also holds

membership in the all-Russian public

organization, the Russian Society

of Appraisers; work experience since

1982; work experience in an institution

conducting examinations since 2001; experience

in valuation work since 2002; experience as an

appraiser: 7

years; serves as deputy director

with the performance of functional

duties

of an appraiser

The defense submitted

documents for

the examination; the expert opinion

sets out the methods used

in conducting the

examination, what documents were

received, and what was examined

And according to

the opinion based on statistical

data from the territorial office of the

Federal State Statistics

Service for Kirov Region

the average monthly prices at which KOGU

Kirovles sold timber products

to OLK, in particular commercial timber, were

significantly higher than the average monthly prices at

which the same timber was sold

by other producers in Kirov

Region

The difference

according to the opinion amounted to 541 rubles 5

kopecks per

cubic meter, which is

79.6% in April 2009; 585 rubles per

cubic meter

— 105.6% for May 2009; 14.8

rubles per cubic meter in 2009

1,398.7 rubles per cubic meter

— 24.9% for July 2009. It also follows from the

opinion that

OLK purchased, in the period from April to July

2009, from KOGU Kirovles, commercial

timber in the amount of

7,644.3 cubic meters, which constitutes

more than 70% of the total volume of purchased

products at a price significantly

exceeding the average market price

for comparable products that

was charged by other producers

in Kirov Region during that period, according to

data from the Federal

State Statistics Service for Kirov

Region. In addition,

the opinion contains the conclusion that LLC

OLK purchased timber products from KOGU Kirov

les not at deliberately understated prices

but

at market prices, which, moreover,

for certain product groups

listed in this opinion

substantially exceeded the then-current

average market prices

of producers in Kirov Region

And all diplomas

and certificates attached to this opinion

confirm the qualifications of the specialist

conducting

who prepared this opinion, item

thirty-four

[music]

Your Honor, I misspoke — item 34.

The character reference for Ofitserov, it

is located in the case file.

Page 30. The handwriting is somewhat difficult to make out.

Unfortunately, no.

And a positive character reference for

Pyotr Yuryevich Ofitserov from the Russian

United Democratic Party

Yabloko (a Russian liberal political party), that is.

The chairman states

that Ofitserov is

distinguished by friendliness and

goodwill toward all citizens. His

distinguishing trait is a commitment

to observing rules and laws. He is

characterized by such qualities as gentleness

and modesty. He takes a particularly active stance

only in cases of extreme

injustice regarding the rights of

citizens. He tends to avoid conflicts

and is a supporter of peaceful

civilized dialogue as a means

of resolving conflicts. Pyotr's colleagues

note his calm temperament,

intelligence, and high

professionalism. He is the father of many children.

A father.

Signed by the party chairman

Mitrokhin.

Case file volume 34, page 31 — this is

a lawyer's

request addressed to the chief physician of the Central District Hospital

of Baryatino District, Valentina Kuzmich

Leonidovna. This is my request as attorney

Davydova; I am requesting Ofitserov's consent,

and copies of his medical history

and copies of his medical

records. Volume 34, page 32, in the same volume —

this is the response to the lawyer's request.

Accordingly, here the chief physician

of the aforementioned

hospital sends me a copy

of outpatient medical records for patient Ofitserov

and indicates

that he has been under a doctor's care since

1992, and his

diagnosis is listed. Next, the case file pages

33 to 65 contain a certified copy of the outpatient

medical record of patient Pyotr Yuryevich Ofitserov, and

also indicate that Pyotr

Yuryevich Ofitserov was regularly monitored by

the relevant specialist physician in connection with

his chronic illness.

Agreed.

Finished. Also, also, Your

Honor, I do not need that volume anymore.

I also ask that the following be added to the case materials:

a copy of the birth certificate

of Ofitserov's youngest son, Ofitserov's

Nikita Petrovich, born June 2, 2014.

This is

a copy. There is also Ofitserov's wife's passport, where he

is entered there as her child; we can

present it to the court for

inspection. You have it? Yes, yes, he is

listed there. Please include it.

The passport has the child's birth entry on it...

[inaudible]

Yes, no, with... [inaudible]

Any objection to admitting this

document? Does anyone have one? No.

I have none. Admit it.

Next, the defense is ready to proceed to the questioning

of our defendants. We will begin with Navalny

Alexei Anatolyevich. After Navalny,

Ofitserov will testify.

Ah.

[music]

...that generation. Yes, and you are of the generation when

Radio Liberty, Voice of America, the BBC were

jammed, drowned out, and we lived in a house

on Petra Montina Street, and above us lived my

childhood friend Sasha Boyarintsev, a very

good boy; we grew up together.

And then he started working at that...

the jammer, there by the stadium. That was

the service that

jammed foreign radio stations, and so

So, picture this:

the Baku heat,

summer.

In

the corridor of an Italian-style courtyard, bare to the

waist, next to him

a pot of compote, to the left a newspaper,

in front of him a Spidola radio, and he is trying to

pick something up on the Spidola, and

shouts, "They're not jamming it! I'm getting Voice

of America!"

He listens, and then at 9 p.m., contrary to all

the rules of the genre, in the city of Baku

it starts crackling again. That's the peculiarity of Baku

life: from 9 until... while Yulik listened to Voice

of America and

all that rasping and squealing, and then at 10 o'clock

it was wonderful again.

[music]

At...

Oof.

...there, that place is cursed — you stand there

and immediately... I can't remember, I'm unable to answer

because I don't understand your question. It's a terrible

place; not a single person has yet managed

to speak normally there.

During the trial.

No... no...

[inaudible]

[inaudible]

No.

On...

And what choice do you have?

...ce?

That's just how it is.

Everyone...

Amazingly, sitting here... yes, sit here.

The twelfth

time.

Of course not. You need...

Today is simply the first time.

today

no

well

I

No, well...

I mean, because

I am, but with...

what

I ask everyone to rise.

if there is no water

[music]

Are you ready to testify? I am ready. And what...

can you say on the substance of the matter

of the charges brought against you

regarding the substance of the charges brought

against me. I want to repeat the main point:

that this

accusation is absolutely false, completely

fabricated

and politically motivated. These

political motives

are obvious, and they are not just obvious, and I

do not merely believe so—they have also been proven

many times over. Your Honor, I would like to draw

attention to the fact that yesterday the prosecutor's office

wanted to add to the case file

various administrative arrests of mine, and

I asked that this be postponed until a decision

on exclusion was made. I hereby inform the court that

you can look at the website of the European Court

of Human Rights and see that in all seven cases I

won, received compensation, and in all

cases it was established that my rights

were violated, starting with the right to liberty and

ending with the right to a fair

trial. Therefore I

draw your attention to this and ask that it be entered into

the record that the court cannot

ignore the most important thing, which

the European Court also drew attention to:

the political motives behind this case. The court

avoided this the first time, unfortunately, as

it seems to me, and you are again avoiding an analysis

of this case. Next, as for

the actual substance

of this

process: I really was an adviser

to the governor of Kirov Region

on a voluntary basis. Not once in my life, not

for a single day, was I ever a government official. And

in particular here in Kirov Region

voluntarily

When Belykh was appointed governor at the

beginning of 2009, he formed

some kind of

his own team of voluntary advisers

because by that point, well, I was already

fairly well known for

analyzing the situation inside companies with

state ownership, under state

management; I dealt with corporate

disputes and litigated as a minority

shareholder, and so on. And he invited me

so that I could help him understand

what was going on here with

state property. And not a single person

working in Kirov

Region

or following politics had

any doubts about my

status, because my

arrival here was discussed quite widely

in the local

press, because my political

position was already fairly

well known at that point. It is rare for a person with

political views like

mine to advise a governor, so it attracted

attention. Everyone knew perfectly well who I was,

why I was here, and that I had no

formal status. So, Belykh as well

when we arrived here, he

held various meetings. This was

the crisis year of 2009

and a huge number of enterprises were not

paying wages. Everyone was running around clutching their

heads—horror, horror, everything

was falling apart. One of the main, main

ongoing headaches

for the region was the enterprise Kirovles,

which employed nearly 4,000 people, and

it was discussed at every meeting, including

because they simply did not have

the money to pay wages

and were taking out short-term loans from Sberbank

in order to pay salaries

As you know—and the representatives

of the prosecution

know this very well—at that time as well

the prosecutor's office had been instructed

to open criminal cases against those

enterprises that delayed wage

payments, and every governor

had such important performance

indicators as the payment of wages.

That is why Kirovles was discussed

endlessly; no one understood what was happening to it,

and one of Belykh's instructions

was for me to figure out what was going on with

the enterprise and provide some

objective data to the new team on this

I

was present at...

conducted by the deputy

...and at all the other meetings, right away

it was possible to establish—these documents

showed enormous

losses, enormous debt of more than 200

million

rubles, and it was

literally

for months persuading them, and at some point he

managed to convince them. Yes, he managed

to do it—he managed to convince the management that

the enterprise could still be saved, because

they

were saying that yes, of course, we have losses of

200 million rubles, but we have huge inventories

Inventory worth 100 million rubles, and we can sell it.

We can sell the timber, everything will be fine for us, and on top of that we have

a huge amount of accounts receivable.

On paper, it really was around 200

million rubles, and now they’ll settle those receivables for us.

We’ll sell our logs, and everything will

be wonderful. So let’s

immediately get involved in

the lease again, and over the course of just

a few months, everyone really thought that

Kirovles could be saved. I

analyzed its condition and studied

the documents that were brought, among others,

to the governor and to the deputy governor,

and I was probably the first to find out—well,

I worked on it more than anyone else—that nothing there

could be saved.

It was impossible. All of it was a lie: there were no

inventory reserves, and the accounts receivable

were not being paid off by anyone, and the

enterprise—well, it wasn’t even a question of needing to

bankrupt it; that would simply be its

natural outcome. It would go bankrupt, and

it did go bankrupt, after I had already

left here—several years after I

had gone—and that had absolutely nothing to do

with Ofitserov at all, absolutely nothing. It was

just parallel work during which

I

kept hearing: show us the figures for your

work.

They said: there’s nothing, nothing at all, help

us.

We have to save the enterprise.

At the same time, I found out—not only I, since this information simply could not be

hidden—that inside Kirovles there had effectively

been created

this kind of scheme.

They set it up on the territory of

Kirovles completely free of charge, and bought

it fairly expensive equipment

because they were specifically engaged in

planning forest plots; that is

expensive equipment, paid for at Kirovles’s expense, and so

on and so forth. So once all this

came to light, the question was no longer whether

It was perfectly obvious that he simply

deserved criminal prosecution. From the

very beginning I said that this was exactly how it needed to

be dealt with. It is absolutely impossible when

people simply set up a company with the same

name, placed it inside a

state organization, and then with themselves

also signed a contract for 35 million

rubles. It’s absurd.

And later, that was exactly what was used

against me, because this criminal

case was opened, among other reasons, at my insistence

against Opalev. And then,

when for political reasons, which I will

return to later, they needed something against me,

they had to quickly cobble together some kind of case, and the valiant

FSB officers (Russia’s security service) took Oleg by the arm

and said: we’ll close your case, the one in which

you’re guaranteed to go to prison—there all the

evidence was there: his son worked at that

company, his accountant was among its founders.

Much to my

regret, he had read Governor

Belykh’s appeals online. When Governor Belykh

had just arrived here, he wrote posts like

“Rebuild the Kirov Region.” This is

publicly available information online. You can

easily find it from 2009: “Come here,

all entrepreneurs, and we will make this the best

region for business.” So

I met with them. Opalev says that

he saw me having lunch with Ofitserov. Yes, I

spent whole days having lunch with various

businesspeople. They were coming to Belykh

in droves, and I had lunch with most of

them because I had to, and they all wanted to

say: tell us what’s going on with the timber sector. I

told him what was going on with the timber sector.

I introduced him to an official responsible for housing and utilities,

I met with an official responsible for housing and utilities. So

I was doing the kind of work that is, in

fact, called attracting

investment, and everyone on the governor’s team

does that. So, Ofitserov had read those

kinds of

posts, came here, and quite

officially came to see me in the

Government building. By the way, I’d point out

that I did not have my own office. I was

serving on a voluntary basis. There was

a special office there called

the adviser’s office; advisers

coming and going used it,

and I used it too. He came and said

that he would like to engage here in trading

activities, specifically in timber

business. And since before that, at every

meeting, we had been discussing saving

Kirovles, and Opalev was saying: help us with

sales—everyone cried out: excellent, Ofitserov,

that’s a very good idea, we all

really like it. We have this

enterprise, Kirovles, and it has huge

inventory reserves worth 100 million rubles. If you can

help move that inventory,

everyone will simply be

grateful to you and award you a medal for

services to the Fatherland, second class. And so

Ofitserov went off to Kirovles entirely

on his own, got to know them,

signed a contract, and there

did whatever he wanted with them

himself. I did not put any pressure on anyone,

but in fact that follows

from the wiretap materials, from

all the documents, from my correspondence with

Ofitserov by email—it directly

follows that no one gave any

instructions, and no one exerted any

pressure on anyone. We have

only one person who says that

there was pressure, and that is

And he claims my connection to Ofitserov is

proven by the fact that he saw me

having lunch with him, that’s all. And then, indeed,

when I was fighting with this KirovLes case/company,

I insisted that I be given

information from Ofitserov, because it was extremely important to me

since KirovLes was saying, “We have large

inventory reserves, we have an excellent

enterprise,” while Ofitserov was providing

alternative information saying that

there were no inventory reserves at all, because

as was read out today, for every

other letter of his saying, “Sell me

timber,” they replied, “We cannot

sell you timber.” Well, that’s

a very basic thing that was happening

that happens at all giant

enterprises that are poorly managed:

they simply wrote inventory into stock reserves. That is,

on paper they had products worth

rubles, and Ofitserov was exactly the person

who went around these forestry enterprises and came to the

government and said: there are no

reserves worth 100 million rubles, there’s nothing. There are only

directors who, for cash,

sell the products to whomever they

want, that’s all. Of course, he complained

like many other entrepreneurs did,

he complained and got angry that no one there

was establishing any

cooperation with him, that they weren’t selling. Well,

he really did start this trading operation there

and got a minimal volume of 16 million rubles. This

was never discussed at any

meeting because these volumes were simply tiny,

16 million rubles. But at the very least

Ofitserov told us for certain that from these

people it was difficult even to get

any product worth 16 million. This is an important episode,

just so you understand

why Ofitserov’s information, among other things,

was very important.

When he convinced everyone that he really needed

help selling the products, Ofi-

they sent him there, and he convinced Belykh (Nikita Belykh, then governor of Kirov Region) of this too.

He specially traveled to Perm Krai, to the city of

Likan,

to an enterprise that

was headed by

a guy who had worked with him before.

The director of the enterprise himself went there because

they were supposedly buying 50 a year from KirovLes

in pulpwood, and there they were shaking hands

and celebrating, and some notes were written

about what a great governor he was, how the timber industry, for someone,

had reduced a quota, opened a quota for ROF, and then

— surprise — ROF couldn’t

deliver anything. He told fairy tales: “We’ll

flood you right now with our wonderful

Kirov pulpwood,” and then it turned out that

they couldn’t deliver anything. Well, that’s

partly why this letter came about, because

by then something had to be done, and Belykh

was demanding it. He comes to me and says, “I’ve

arranged 50,000 of pulpwood, so go then,

go around Kirov Region and look for this

pulpwood, because otherwise I’ll look like an idiot — we

can’t do anything.”

We couldn’t deliver anything, and in the end no one

delivered anything anyway. Belykh looked

like a fool, nothing worked out, KirovLes

remained as it was, and I gave up and stopped dealing with them.

Then, a few months later,

I realized that nothing at all was going to work out, and

after being there just under a year, I went back

to Moscow, and then went abroad to study.

After I published a report

on

corruption in the

construction of the Eastern

Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline,

our wonderful Investigative Committee

and this whole gang, which, let me remind you,

stole $4 billion from the construction

of that pipeline, instead of

opening criminal cases there, started

shouting that Navalny himself was somehow

the bad guy. That was when the first vague

statements started appearing in the press about

how, well, he himself had something to hide,

and now we’ll find out what he had going on there in

Kirov Region.

I returned, and after

a year some investigators came to me,

questioned me several times; the case

was opened, then closed, then

opened again, closed again, and then

I received a document saying the case had been closed

finally, and that I had the right to

rehabilitation and to

— excuse me — an apology from the prosecutor’s office,

which I never received. And I didn’t receive it

for a very simple reason: because

Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin took

a journalist from *Novaya Gazeta* into the woods, where he threatened

to tear his head off. And the *Novaya Gazeta* journalist

did not file a crime report.

But since this was a case of

dishonest prosecution, I filed a complaint.

I published it and said that I believed

the chairman of the Investigative Committee

should be held criminally liable.

After that, three days later, Bastrykin staged

his famous online tantrum — you

can look it up — where he hauled up

the head of the Investigative Committee for Kirov

Region and shouted at him, “Do you have

some Navalny there? You’re

closing the case against him?” The case was taken away from

the local chief

investigative directorate.

[music]

In the Investigative Committee group there were, I think, 10

investigators for especially important cases.

The FSB provided operational support. They carried out on me

a million

searches, starting with the bank and a bank

safe-deposit box and ending with searches at my relatives’ homes.

They confiscated everything from me everywhere, including from my parents.

all the electronic devices there were.

Several times, and they found nothing related to

Kirovles.

Nothing at all. But they needed some kind of case. And then, you know,

it was 2011, and you know what the political events were like then.

What did Kirovles have to do with any of that?

After I called on everyone to take part

in unauthorized protests, within a week

they opened criminal cases

not only against me, but against my

relatives as well. The timber case was the first to get this far.

It was obvious that this whole case

had no substance.

And here is the essence of the case. It is very simple:

I allegedly forced someone to sell something at a reduced price.

At a reduced price? No, you know perfectly well

that this is not true, and that is why I will not give in.

There are simply payment records showing that

Ofitserov paid for it. And now

you were just reading out the arbitration court rulings,

just five minutes ago, showing that Kirovles

sued him, and very often

Kirovles was denied; sometimes

the claims were upheld, sometimes denied, because

he bought timber for 14.5 million rubles and sold

it for 16 million, paid taxes, paid

salaries, and that was it. I have absolutely nothing

to do with any of this.

There is no evidence, neither direct nor indirect,

that I received even a kopeck from this, or

that I planned to receive a kopeck. But look

at the beginning of this

indictment: “With criminal intent, he created a group...”

registered a company...

Well, is there even a single

piece of evidence that I created some

company or had anything at all

to do with it? No one has ever been able to

prove that. There is not a single fact in the wiretaps,

nothing at all.

They needed me then only so that

I would simply stop exposing them,

stop conducting

investigations. Then, at the next stage,

they needed it in order to say:

“All right, this so-called anti-corruption

fighter stole all the timber in Kirov (a Russian region), and

for several years in a row, all television channels

broadcast that I was not an anti-corruption fighter

at all.”

And after I unexpectedly received, for the Kremlin, a high result

in the Moscow mayoral election,

they simply passed a law under which

convicted persons cannot take part

in elections. That is why I was

convicted, in a very remarkable way, truly.

You remember,

don’t you, how the prosecutor first demanded

that I be imprisoned for eight years, then they gave me five years,

and then—bang—the very next day

the prosecutor’s office came out demanding that I

be released immediately from custody. Once again,

thank you very much, I was very glad, very glad, although

there were an awful lot of

mosquitoes there.

But you must agree, everything that happened around

the Kirovles case was, at the very least, highly

unusual in Russian legal practice. This simply

had never happened before, to anyone. And it

also shows the political motives, and from the very beginning we

said that the case should be overturned.

It was overturned, but now what?

Now they would all have to admit that I was

right from the very beginning.

That is impossible. They would have to admit that I

have the right to run in elections. That is impossible

for them to do. So there is yet another case, and once again you

refuse to let us question defense witnesses,

once again we do not receive documents

from the timber self-regulatory organization, and once again I am saying from this

podium what I have said before.

[music]

I have no more

questions. Does the court have any questions overall?

Good Lord, more specifically, regarding

the circumstances of 2009. First question: how long

have you

known Ofitserov? I have known him for quite a long time.

Since perhaps 2006 or 2007.

He was a member of the Yabloko party (a Russian liberal political party).

As was just read out from

his biographical note, I was also

a member of the party. We belonged to different

organizational branches, but I

of course knew him by sight.

From your explanation, it follows that when the governor

of Kirov Region in 2009 instructed you

to look into the financial situation

that had developed at the enterprise, correct?

Please clarify: did you independently

request any information from

that enterprise regarding its

operations? I made requests myself. Opalev

came to see me himself, asked for the meeting himself,

because he understood that all of this would

be shut down fairly

soon. Mostly the documents were requested by

the regional administration, and I read them. I repeat, I did not

have a large number of formal

powers, but nevertheless I also

said, “Provide this document.” Sometimes they

sent it, sometimes they did not.

Do you remember the information that

was not

all there?

What interested me first and foremost was

this:

the basic financial indicators—

profit, losses, balances,

the enterprise’s debts, and, of course, the issue of lease payments.

As Opalev showed here,

Kirovles had 2 million cubic meters of forest under lease; it

was the largest lessee of the forest fund

in Kirov Region and in fact was

something of a monopolist, and it either did or did not distribute

timber to these workers in

the districts. And because it simply

He was subleasing it, roughly speaking, in 2008.

And in 2009, after that, the crisis hit very hard.

That is how it turned out, and therefore

and one of the main disputes around

Kirovles was whether to leave it those 2 million

cubic meters of timber or distribute them to small

business owners. So this, this particular

part I studied much more closely than

everyday, practical

policy as such. More precisely, this is the point:

At that time, in 2009, there was already

debt in terms of payments.

I think so. As far as you remember, were the specified

issues discussed at meetings?

Endlessly, endlessly discussed, because

as I already said, they had nothing with which

to pay for

payment, and they could not pay for

this timber. I mean, the enterprise

was deeply unprofitable—200 million rubles in losses (about a very large regional-scale loss at the time).

It was the most unprofitable enterprise in

the Kirov Region, and on top of that

it was state-owned, so of course

it was discussed endlessly.

Can you now recall who

took part in these

meetings? The entire government of the Kirov Region

was discussing it; it was discussed at

government meetings. The deputy governor

organized weekly meetings

on this topic, plus meetings at a lower

level in the forestry department. Well,

that is,

there were a large number of different

meetings, very frequent, and

working groups were constantly being set up

specifically on the problems of the enterprise, and on

the lease issue, I

remember—were any decisions made

or were any

solutions developed to get out of the situation?

As for whether there were any, as for devel-

what continued to be done—in the end, they

were not developed.

At least not while I was dealing with it,

because there were completely different

approaches. That is, I proposed acknowledging

the real situation and bankrupting Kirovles,

which is what ultimately had to be done. But Kirovles itself

naturally said there was no need

to bankrupt us. Leave us 2 million cubic meters of timber and do not

touch us.

That was one of the reasons why I

left, because no decisions

were being made. The state apparatus, as you

know, effectively does not work.

There is a problem, everyone holds 33 meetings,

and nobody decides anything.

In your explanations and testimony, you said that

that

Ofitserov, at the invitation of the governor

of the Kirov Region, arrived directly in

Kirov and, on an official visit, came to see you at

the administration, quite officially. That is,

he called and asked, “May I come?” That can be considered

official, why not. Please clarify your answer:

who exactly informed him about

the existence of such an enterprise?

I think he found out himself about

the existence of the enterprise, about Kirovles,

because Belykh (Nikita Belykh, then governor of the Kirov Region) wrote, as far as I

remember, in his posts that there was

such an enterprise as Kirovles, and he even

publicly looked for people who would buy

its products. It was, well, fairly widely

covered. Besides, as I understand it,

he did not simply

wake up one morning and decide to come here

to trade timber; he must have studied this

situation somehow.

So, as for the fact that he publicly

looked for

buyers for the products—do you mean Belykh, or do you mean that

Ofitserov publicly looked? No, it was

Belykh who publicly looked; Belykh publicly

looked for potential buyers, and Ofitserov

could have learned about Kirovles, including from

Belykh’s posts.

Did you personally visit the enterprise on your own?

Well,

I remember that the first time I went there was with

Chechko, when we were being introduced to

the enterprise. After that I went there

on my own as well, including when

there was this conflict—I was trying to get everyone to

come out there; I went there, as they themselves have stated here, and

I was given no documents.

Not very often, though. I was there

in Kirovles maybe three or four

times in total, of which I think maybe one

time

Again, I repeat: everyone knows that I was

an unpaid public adviser, and in

general I could not really order anyone around.

As I already said, they did not

listen to me either. So whenever I

went, I was always in the company of other people.

Do you now remember

during what period these visits

to Kirovles took place in 2009?

The first time I went there, I think,

was when we were being introduced to

the enterprise. I think it was winter. I went

there with Chechko.

Besides you and Chechko, was anyone else there? Well,

of course, there was some kind of delegation there. Well,

again, that is how things are arranged with officials:

you cannot just show up; a whole lot of

people arrive, they are all shown around,

everything is presented to them, they are served tea, and so on.

Did Kirovles, as far as you know,

have problems with

selling its products?

It did.

Enormous problems. In fact, they barely had any products to begin with,

and there was essentially a sales problem as well.

What was Kirovles, again? It was 36 to 38 leskhozes (state forestry enterprises)

that had always been leskhozes, throughout the Soviet period.

in the Soviet Union, and later under the Russian Federation

they decided to merge them

this enterprise, well, all of that

was merged

and there is a huge amount of timber there—2 million cubic meters, as I already

said, they harvest some part of it

they leased some of it out. And when 2009 came

there was a crisis, and throughout Kirov Oblast (a region in Russia)

there were enormous problems with sales

and in Kirov

did you have any proposals for

getting out of the situation that had arisen

I proposed centralizing it

constantly, but I proposed two things. First,

that Kirovles should try to sell on

an exchange; ideally, some kind of exchange-based

trading platform, or something like it, should be created here, and

incidentally, I think last week

or the week before, the current governor

has now done this—they announced that there would be

some timber sold on an exchange. It only took

4 years

Well, and of course when I realized that

Kirovles

was selling its products through 38

forestry enterprises and had no right to do so, yes

they told fairy tales about how they supposedly could

without forming a legal entity, without an account, without

a seal, trade—they could not do that

everyone turned a blind eye to it because they needed

to say

that this was illegal

business activity. I said they had to

sell centrally, the way it is supposed to be done

under the law, because otherwise

the prosecutor's office will come and all of you

will be punished

basically, everyone at the meetings—meaning

this was discussed at meetings

It was always a major risk that

38 branches were systematically violating

the law; everyone always understood that

there would be an investigation and they would look for someone to blame

therefore everyone said it was necessary

to centralize it; they needed to sell not for

cash but by bank transfer. Well, they in turn

said that they could not

for various reasons, that it was more convenient this way, and so on

the issue in question was raised

directly at all the meetings

that were devoted to Kirovles; Opalev

was present and discussed the issue

Opalev several

times with me, I think, yes, I think. Well, when I asked him

why they were not selling

centrally, this was discussed, and I told

him that it was necessary to create an exchange

platform. In his testimony he says that

he equated this idea of mine about an

exchange platform with VLK, but that in itself

is absurd, because it is impossible

to create any kind of exchange platform on the basis of VLK

because it requires

licensed trading operations, and so on

That is,

these are two completely different

[music]

ideas

when Ofitserov probably came at some point and

simply complained that they were not

getting

any cooperation, that

the governor had invited people to trade timber

then I probably would have

found out. Were you aware how it had been created

VLK? Vernalterov said that he had not simply

said so—he was quite proud of it, because

in accordance with the governor's appeal

he had not used a Moscow company

instead, he registered a company here

in order to pay taxes here; he hired

local people here and paid them

salaries, and tried to put this

idea—which turned out to be utopian—into practice

in practice. That is, he did exactly everything

Belykh had called for online: come to

us in Kirov Oblast (a region in Russia), register

your business here so that you pay taxes

here, create jobs here, and we will

provide assistance. So he did that

and is still helping to this day, while

he was made to look like a fool. Exactly like that

on

trial—please remember, at the present time

that

the problem was that they had

no product, that none of those

famous 100 million on the books was actually in stock

and Kirovles was unable to ship anything and

was refusing to sell it, although at the same time

at a lower price, simply for

cash. That was the part that interested me

because I demanded that Kirovles

sell transparently, by bank transfer, because

the revenues of Kirov Oblast depend on it, including

the budget, yes, of a state-owned

enterprise. They were selling for cash, and

that is why they refused to sell to someone

not just Ofitserov; in fact, quite

a lot of others. Wherever I

went, whatever region I went to

[music]

[music]

the spirit of justice is being tested

the spirit of justice is breaking through, sometimes

it breaks through

maybe still—how many more minutes? Well

20 minutes at least, yes

all right

now

as usual, somehow, something

do something

so that, well, as usual

mo

thank you

maybe just

[music]

[music]

Tell me, what are you taking photos for? You’re...

...with radio—then Alexei digitizes it and...

puts it on...

the radio broadcast. Alexei on... I was there when...

they were detaining people at yet another rally (public protest)...

another one. When you... Tanya’s phone...

was simply stolen.

[music]

...editorial office.

I don’t know what it is—they announced...

a technical break.

...

radio—he does photos too. I’m for Radio Moscow, and...

and you are...?

Andrei said that...

I...

Well, I’ll ask, but I won’t answer anything...

...acted within the framework of...

the Criminal Procedure Code, and then—now and tomorrow...

Well, if they say they need time...

to prepare, and they directly postpone...

they say... how much do they...

[music]

there, with...

afterward, it can be turned on.

Friend—Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty), who are you? Yes, and you’re live...

broadcasting, and...

they—no, no, their delay is shorter than yours...

than yours. They have, they have, they have 38 seconds, which I...

measured three times today, and yours...

is kind of... and yours is something around...

15 to 20.

There, it starts...

to increase. Theirs is consistently...

40, consistently.

No, no, that’s it, I’m already done.

The question is the same as I already...

with...

what remains—they may...

take longer than opening...

just those...

I’ll return it—she opened it.

[music]

I’m not even...

sure Alexander I slept here, specifically...

when he was killed.

I glanced at that plaque—there were...

both Alexander I and Alexander II here, it’s just...

Alexander II at that time had not yet...

been... they can’t, they can’t...

Alexander—well yes, it says there in...

parentheses, like “the future emperor,” and...

so technically he wasn’t yet. No...

of course, still, it wasn’t... he pressed into...

the ranks under the tsar...

...provided that...

that the little ones by the cage, they from that...

time...

from that period.

Even Natalia N... was here.

[music]

[music]

[music]

About... are you sure...

you’re a specialist? Well, first, who is that...

because second, to take...

[music]

and this is...

not a very healthy atmosphere in the press...

place—don’t you really feel it or what?

Don’t you feel the pressure? See, I also...

said several times that I don’t remember.

Can I with you...

will you do...

what are you...

doing—a live broadcast?

Please tell everyone...

please, I ask...

everyone, when everyone...

was standing. Your Honor, are you finding with us...

we discussed...

this issue... As an example...

as an example, everyone...

it was quite convenient to say, “Why don’t you...

then sell to the enterprise that came to you...”

that came to you.” Another important thing I...

mentioned—actually answering this question, you...

asked whether any decisions had been made.

One of the reasons why no...

decisions were made regarding this was...

the audit. We had a working...

group. This working group decided...

to instruct Navalny to organize...

a tender...

to select an auditor for Kirovles. Because...

first of all, they were hiding everything, and...

it became clear they had produced some kind of...

completely...

bogus audit opinion saying that...

Ofitserov was to blame for everything, and with...

an unclear terms of reference. It became clear that what was needed...

was a truly independent audit...

inspection, and here we listened to...

my wonderful intercepted conversation with...

...you see...

the so-called Big Four companies—these are...

major auditing firms—and we asked...

them to take part in the tender and...

for one of them to conduct a proper, solid...

audit of Kirovles so that we...

would finally have objective data about...

what was happening at this enterprise. But...

this tender was never held; it...

never took place. That was one of the...

reasons why I said I would no longer...

deal with Kirovles, because...

if you don’t conduct audits, if everything...

is consistently rejected...

then there is no goal of getting to the bottom of it, and it will...

go bankrupt. And it did—it was like that in everything...

...right...

As for the court hearing, there followed...

written...

information.

By whom exactly was this...

inspection initiated, and in connection with...

what?

It is known it was initiated when I...

to squeeze out the project they had

set up for themselves

at the enterprise. Well, it had already turned

in a sense into a kind of war between that

part of the Kirov Region government

which believed that Kirovles needed to be

broken up, and I was probably, well, I don't

know, its main representative there, and that part

of the government—well, a small part of Kirovles itself—

which believed that they should not be

broken up and should be left alone

left with a million cubic meters of timber, and so on

and so they carried out this inspection, well, and

the written conclusion—they couldn't even

call it an audit opinion

—saying that, basically, all of the enterprise's troubles

at the enterprise

had been caused by VLK. And that is exactly why I

wrote about it. I took all the documents, didn't spare the effort,

sat down and reviewed everything myself, calculated everything myself

and saw

that VLK accounted for 3% of the timber turnover

and that this conclusion was, of course,

an absolute fabrication. That's what my note was about

please write that down

he told me that he had gotten acquainted with Solevoy

and, well, probably when Ozh was complaining that

they were not

selling, I learned that they had between

themselves

a contract. Then several times there was a situation

in which he was saying

that there were no inventories left. That is, when I

was monitoring and checking this, he was one of

the people who informed me about the real

situation, about the fact that they had no products

and about the relations between them. Well,

actually, Opalev even in his own

testimony says that he came to me a couple of times

and I told him something like

"resolve the issue with Ofitserov on your own; this is

your area of responsibility." He handled

things there; I was not aware of certain

specific details, and this, by the way,

again follows directly from the wiretaps

Question: Did you personally take part in

drafting the contract?

Supply

Do you know when and under what

circumstances the contract

between—It is known that

when, under what circumstances? Well, under

circumstances when...

Come on, they were simply making a scene there, and I

accordingly also said that the contract and

that was that. I mean, you can't force them

to sell you timber if they don't have any

so he terminated this contract. It only

was in effect for, what, maybe

a month. I know that afterward they had a long

battle in the courts—well, court proceedings, the usual

sort of process

Did you inform Opalev of information that would

Ofitserov

regarding

the obstruction of product sales to

VLK on the part of

—not only to VLK. This was discussed

at meetings, that Opalev was sabotaging

timber deliveries to VLK; it was cited as

one example, but there were quite a lot

of such enterprises. Again, whichever

district of Kirov Region he went to

Belykh would go there with the people who came

with him, people would inevitably come to him

—various businesspeople—and complain about

Kirovles, because Kirovles controlled all

the timber—those entire 2 million cubic meters—and

it was impossible to get a decent

logging plot without Kirovles's knowledge

so these complaints were constant, from

all the businesspeople, and Ofitserov was by no means

at the forefront. Well, given

as I already said, the small volume involved

The question itself is from the wiretap

The audio recording begins like this

with a phrase from a phone conversation between you and Ofitserov

concerning the trip

what could

I can explain

I can explain that he was trying

somehow, I don't know, to interact

in some unclear, tricky

interaction with an adviser

to get out of this situation. I have just

said that there were two camps

one was in favor of breaking up

Kirovles, and there was some group—Opalev was trying

to create a camp in favor of keeping Kirovles

in place. It simply lost for

objective reasons. So he

was looking for allies for himself. That was the

situation

Kirovles was created by a decision

of the previous deputy governor, Shaleev

they had their own reasons for it

which were in effect in 2008

according to a political decision

of the deputy governor, it existed

Then there arrived

Belykh. Well, the old vice governor resigned

and Opalev lost a kind of

his own—well, not exactly a patron, I don't even

mean a patron in any

negative sense, but rather an official who

supported the idea of this super-

enterprise, the one who had created it. And so

he ran around trying to establish

relationships within the government

Tell us, did you personally, through Ofitserov, for

Opalev, pass along any instructions for the purpose

of carrying out the contract? No, and I

was not interested in any contract at all

between the state unitary enterprise and VLK. What interested me was the fact

that they had no inventory left

Well of course—then why would I

pass through Ofitserov to Opalev

any instructions to Opalev when I

I saw Opalev almost every day.

Ofi

About this correspondence here, he called...

He wrote: since you know that I am a lawyer, can you...

take a look at the contract? If you...

see.

I ignored the request to look at the contract.

Because I did not have the time.

It was clear that you had no connection whatsoever to VK.

But from this same email

correspondence it follows that you were discussing with Ofitserov

financial matters,

marketing policy, the results

of joint

activity. You are misleading

everyone now. For example, what exactly am I discussing?

What is it, for example, that you would say you

mean by marketing policy and

joint activity? There was nothing of the sort.

There was nothing unusual in, for example,

my discussing this. It may be that Ofitserov...

As you could see, he was quite

a sociable person. He liked sending out

emails, and he sent those emails to everyone

indiscriminately. As you can see, I did not

reply to them. Well, what could I do? Well,

that was just the kind of person he was.

Also, he came here at the governor's invitation

and it was extremely important for him

to explain to the governor and the governor's team

that he had come here and that here he was

working as an entrepreneur, that he

had his own enterprise here, right here,

a Kirov-based one, and that he would pay taxes in

Kirov. So he told this not only to me but also to

everyone,

all the officials who had come here,

who worked here, in great detail.

He talked about what exactly he had done here

and that his company was called the Patriotic

Vyatka Timber Company, and that he had hired people

here, and so on and so forth.

So for him it was very

important; he told everyone about it. But I would draw your

attention to the fact that I did not write on this subject. Well,

All right. And from April to September 2009,

how

often, during the period from April

to September, that is, during the period when there was already

this hot phase

of the confrontation regarding the audit

review... he quite often gave his data

for preparing his papers, which Belykh (Nikita Belykh, then governor of Kirov Region)

asked me for. But I would not say that this

happened more often than with other

entrepreneurs. I was one of those

people who came from Moscow with him,

and all the entrepreneurs who came

here at his invitation—almost all of them—

I was constantly calling, having lunch, and

talking with. And not only me—all the other

advisers to the governor, and not only

advisers, but deputy governors and members

of the government as well. That was the essence of

the job. Let us return to the discussion

of the results of the audit review.

Can you explain what exactly was discussed at

that meeting? At which meeting, exactly?

The one where the audit review

was presented.

The results, the written information, the written

information.

Well, now I suppose I have to

say the classic phrase: I cannot recall exactly.

I think there was more than one such meeting.

I was, it seems to me, at least at

two of them. The main meeting was

when the confrontation had already become completely open.

So...

everyone was at odds with one another.

Belykh was there; Opalev had, I think, gone to Chechnya.

I was there, and...

and some other people as well. A meeting with

the governor's participation always implied

minutes being taken. Quite a lot of

the governor's people were there, I think.

Then there were similar meetings.

I requested these written documents.

That was a completely different audit review.

An audit costs money, and funds have to be

allocated. There was a working group at which

a decision was made to assign

Navalny to conduct the audit review.

There were many

meetings. As I already said, Churko had

a weekly meeting on issues concerning the timber

industry, and Kirovles was always discussed there

as item number one. At that meeting, yes, they

presented their report.

I am asking specifically about the meeting where

part took...

Well, I think that

the meeting in question seems to have been a repeat of

that meeting. No, I do not think so. All right, then at

some other meetings where this was discussed,

was Ofi present? I think yes,

Ofitserov was present at some

meetings with RKO when he was in serious

conflict. Naturally, with

Opalev, he was invited to meetings in order

to discuss this, among other things. There is

this conclusion, this official document, and in

that document it is written that this was an unfavorable

contract. This was officially discussed, and

Ofitserov brought his own documents and

showed that there were no unfavorable

contracts. Where Zagoskina was present, there was

a simple format: Zagoskina would say, here is

our conclusion,

the meeting participants would say something,

express their views—that is, a traditional

meeting, the way they are always

conducted. Do you remember who invited Ofi?

Ofitserov was not at that meeting.

You said at one of them—at one of them, I

think Churko's secretaries. Who else could have

invited him? That is how meetings were organized there: he

had assistants, and those assistants would invite people.

They invite [people] to the regional government in...

that

you will take part in a meeting; the minutes are there as well

Therefore, if he was invited

officially, through Secretary Chechko, then he

came

not that his presence was specifically required, no

he did not personally show any interest; why would he need a documen...

with the document, I can explain everything perfectly well

tell it once again; this is

important—Ofitserov and his role in this epi...

there was a major problem: these 2 mil...

cubic meters of timber, forestry operations

possible fires, Kirovles, the project that

was sitting on their sites, non-payment of

wages, procurement of equipment at

inflated prices, and so on. In other words, this was

a huge set of problems, and Ofitserov was

among

them. One last question

for you: were there also entrepreneurs wishing

to carry out

business in the area of products there, on

the territory, specifically in the field of

forest products

among those who do not live there—among those who do live

in Kirov Region

Kirov entrepreneurs approached us

constantly. That Chernik who spoke here

from KMDK was constantly complaining about

Opalev, that he was not supplying products, as I already

said, in every region, in every...

at every regional meeting—not in

every region, but in every district

people would come up and complain about Kirovles

as for those who

wanted to come from Moscow—well, some new

entrepreneurs, others, there were places where

they kept coming constantly. I am not ready right now

to recall the names, but we held all

the meetings on this subject, and other advisers

brought people in—Votinov, the same one, and

when Belykh had, for several months,

a romantic attitude toward

the Kirov forests. Meaning, now

some entrepreneurs will come and

set things right. And at the time when he was writing

posts on this topic, quite a lot of

entrepreneurs were coming from Irkutsk Region

which trades in timber there; for

some period of time they tried

to create even a trading platform somewhere in

Moscow. In other words, a lot of people on this issue

came, and kept coming constantly

of those who later made inquiries

as far as you know, who became

a counterparty? No, as if Kirovles

had nothing. Ofitserov was the only one

who got involved there; he got involved and got nothing

out of it. That is, Kirovles got five...

he simply got—yes, got 5

years for trading

That's all.

Thank you, excellent. This is simply

wonderful. Maybe you could ask me something

ask me—I don't know, like how I profited. And

why don't you ask me the question, Alexei

Anatolyevich, how did you get money out of

these 16 million rubles, where did you put the 16 million rubles

and everything else? No, well, you answered

it. I did answer. But they should be interested

in where it went. If I

stole it by embezzlement, then how exactly did that embezzlement

take place? What—did Ofitserov promise

me money, how did I pressure Opalev? All

the other things that—well, in other words, you

know they did not exist, but you still

put them in the indictment. Okay, not you, I know

perfectly well. In your mind, this

investigator Akhmetov in Moscow

wrote it up, and we—well, damn it, you are still

one system. Ask me about anything. Maybe

you

...worked with...

That's all.

[music]

please, just warn me—this is the kind of place where

I might

forget something

please. According to the...

Please tell us what you can

clarify regarding the charges brought against you

accusing you of committing theft by embezzlement

of Kirovles timber products in the amount of over 16

million rubles, allegedly with the participation of Navalny and

O... Well, I do not admit guilt in this, because

this crime did not occur. Moreover,

more than that, the district court

issued a ruling, and because this

verdict—the previous verdict—was on

similar charges and was overturned because

it was

based on ordinary

commercial

activity. Please tell us about

your relationship with Mr.

Opalev, about the conclusion of the supply contract

between the Kirovles state enterprise and VLK LLC

and the cooperation under that contract

of supply, about the circumstances

of work under the supply contract and its

termination. From the very beginning,

from the very

beginning: at the end of 2008, when throughout the

world the ruthless 2008 financial crisis began to rage

and in Kirov Region

Nikita Belykh was appointed governor,

of course all the channels started

talking about how, in our

country, everything was just great because

at last, in one of the cities, there was

a liberal governor and everything would

be fine, and accordingly Sergeyevich Belykh did not

leave television screens for months. Well,

for several months

And so, well, in the end this

interested me, and I decided to go

and see what was happening in Kirov in

actually

beforehand, with the help of the wonderful

features of the Yandex and Google search engines,

I studied

what the Kirov Region was rich in

and accordingly chose a direction

timber. On a cold February morning, I got off

the Vyatka train and took a taxi near

the railway station and went around

all the enterprises on the list that

I had prepared, involved in wood processing

and timber trading. They were located in different

parts of the city, and some production sites

were out on the way from the airport to Kirov,

that’s where they were. I don’t remember the rest because

I was in a taxi, and for me the city was

the city of Kirov—a new city

and unfamiliar, so I didn’t know my way around it well

at all. And I went to all these

enterprises, talked to people,

asked how things were selling, how everything

was going, how work was progressing, and whether or not it was possible

to get into this business. I spent the whole day on it, and then on the

evening train I went back, that is,

I don’t remember the name of the train

possibly it was a different one. So,

and after some time, in everyday conversation, the train that

I could hardly name—I found out that there was

an enterprise.

And the next time, dressed as

was proper—that is, in a suit,

a shirt,

and tie,

I had breakfast in a coffee shop not far from here, and

it’s closed now, by the way—and then I went to

Kirovles

And at Kirovles, there was a sad-looking

secretary sitting there, and she reacted poorly to

everything around her. I asked her where the commercial

director was; she pointed a finger at the door. I

asked whether I could go in, and she started

to enter; I went in, and Opalev was sitting there.

I introduced myself and said that I was

engaged in timber sales. Opalev was delighted

because, according to him,

Kirovles had no sales; there was

a complete, deep problem, and a feeling of

disappointment and lack of prospects

for the future, because there were no sales, since

there were two contributing factors. Factor

number one was the crisis of 2009,

when sales fell all over the world and

naturally procurement and raw material prices fell as well.

The second factor was the off-season—that is, in winter

any building material sells much worse

than in summer, and accordingly these two

factors led to the fact that they had

virtually no sales at all, that is,

they were very small—practically

nonexistent. Therefore Opalev, with great

enthusiasm,

began discussing how we might cooperate.

He spoke of it as a great enterprise and kept emphasizing

that they had the largest

workforce in the region, that a huge number of people worked there, and so on.

So we talked, and

agreed on cooperation, and I said

that I would come back a little

later, the next

time—not the next day, but for our next meeting I came

again.

He needed time to think. I came back after,

I think, a couple of weeks, and we started

talking again. I came, as before, in

a suit. And basically the main

issue in our cooperation, the one we argued over,

was this: he said, “Give me the money

up front, and then we’ll deliver the timber later,”

closer to summer, because right now it simply

isn’t available anyway. And I said, “Let’s do it

the other way around: first you deliver the timber to me, and then I’ll

pay you once you’ve supplied it.” And that was what we were

trying to agree on. Then he

suggested

during our conversation

someone arrived—

Andrei, I think.

And they were discussing that they were going to travel around the districts

and Opalev suggested that I go along with

them in order to see the great

enterprise for myself.

And considering that I was wearing a suit and

dress shoes, we set off

all across the Kirov Region, as far as

Darovskoye. That is, we went to Lino-

Darovskoye, Sovetsk, Kotelnich, and somewhere

else—we were in one more place too, I think.