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Alexey Navalny (Photo: REUTERS / Shamil Zhumatov)
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has opened a criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny for “large-scale fraud”.
This was reported by the UK press service.
The department said that «for the needs of various non-profit organizations ”, including the Anti-Corruption Fund, the Media Support Fund for the Fifth Season of the Year, the Fund for the Organization and Coordination of the Protection of the Rights of Citizens, the Citizens ‘Legal Support Fund, the Fund for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights STAB, more than 588 million rubles were collected from individuals as donations.
The committee claims that Navalny, being the de facto head of these organizations, acting together with other people, allegedly spent more than 356 million rubles of this amount «for personal purposes ”, although the funds were used exclusively for foundation purposes.
The department said Navalny allegedly bought personal property, material values with this money and paid for expenses, including recreation abroad.
«Therefore, funds collected from citizens were stolen, ”the committee said.
Investigative actions are now underway.
Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, has already reacted to the start of the case.
«Do you remember Alexey saying many times that as a result of his failed poisoning, a case would be brought against him and the FBK? As they say, ChTD, ”he wrote.
According to the results of a joint investigation by Bellingcat and The Insider, in which Navalny himself was involved, the key role in his poisoning was played by employees of a special unit of the Institute of Forensic Sciences of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
The special operation was carried out by a group of at least eight people who had been following the opponent since 2017.
Investigators also found that the poisoning of the FBK founder in Tomsk might not have been the first.
A few days after the publication of the investigation, the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, during a press conference admitted the surveillance of Navalny, but said that if the special services of the Russian Federation wanted to kill him, they would.
The main critic of the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, was poisoned in Russia on August 20 with a nerve agent from the Novichok group. In 2018, former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with the same substance in Salisbury, UK.
The findings of Novichok’s poisoning were confirmed by three independent laboratories in Germany, France and Sweden.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also found traces of the Novichok group in the analyzes of the Russian opponent.
Alexei Navalny felt bad on board the Tomsk-Moscow plane on August 20. The ocean liner made an emergency landing at Omsk airport, from where the opponent was transferred to a local emergency hospital in a coma.
Two days later, the politician was evacuated to the Berlin Charite clinic. Several weeks after the poisoning, Navalny’s condition improved and he was disconnected from the ventilator.
A month after the poisoning, Navalny was discharged from the hospital, he is in rehabilitation in Germany.
