Alexei Navalny: Russian Authorities Froze My Bank Accounts
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Tuesday that
Russian authorities have blocked all of his bank accounts as well as those
belonging to his family, including the one his 11-year-old son used to save
money to buy a laptop and the ones his retired parents received their pensions
on.
“I was sitting in my office, looking at some materials for
the next investigation when I received a text message from my wife saying that
all her accounts and credit cards have been blocked,” Navalny described in a
video. “Few minutes later, the same message came from my parents,” he said.
He said that the biggest shock came when his son called him
to say that the bank texted him that his account - a special children account
at which Navalny had over time put 30.000 rubles (US$453) for a new laptop -
has been frozen.
His parents, as he said, were just about to receive their
monthly pensions when their accounts were blocked.
“Navalny kept most of his funds in his bank account, so now
he isn’t sure how he is going to pay his rent or even buy groceries,” the
Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) which is headed by the Kremlin critic said in
statement.
Russian authorities have also frozen the bank accounts of
FBK director Ivan Zhdanov, his wife and elderly parents, according to the FBK.
Besides that, both Navalny and Zhdanov stated that they
checked their accounts online and found that 75.5 million rubles ($1.13
million) were withdrawn - the exact amount that was donated to the foundation
and that the Russian Investigative Committee considers “money obtained by
criminal means.”
Russian authorities launched an investigation into the
foundation’s finances in August last year, suspecting that it laundered one
billion rubles ($15.3 million).
Two months later, Russia’s Ministry of Justice declared FBK
- a “foreign agent,” which forced the anti-graft group to disclose its donors
and objectives. At the same time, authorities raided FBK offices and homes of
its officials nationwide.
“During the past months, hundreds of bank accounts of people
who were at some point related to the foundation or have donated money to it
were blocked as part of the ‘FBK case’ and in an alleged attempt to recover the
‘stolen’ millions,” read the FBK statement.
The foundation also said that the latest move of the Russian
authorities against the leading Kremlin critic coincides with the third
anniversary of the publication of an investigation into the shady businesses of
the former Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, titled “Don’t call him
Dimon.”
The report provoked a public uproar over the misuse of state
funds and unleashed massive protests in Russia in 2017.
At the same time when his bank accounts were frozen, Navalny
was notified that Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has filed a defamation
lawsuit against him.
Deripaska’s lawyer, Alexei Malnikov, confirmed the news to
the Russian News Agency TASS, saying that “Navalny disseminated false
information” when he claimed that Deripaska enjoys illegal state support when
doing business.
He said that his client requests the court to force Navalny
to refute his claim and pay “a symbolic compensation for moral damage in the
amount of 1 ruble.”
Despite the problems, FBK said it will continue its work and
soon publish the result of a large investigation.
Comments
Post a Comment