The process is underway

The case of theft from the Kirovles company continues to be considered, for which Alexey Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov are accused of theft. On April 24, the court, having rejected the defense’s requests to extend the period for familiarization with the case, to return the case to the prosecutor’s office, and to challenge the judge, listened to the representative of the injured party - the head of the department of state property of the Kirov region, Pavel Smertin. He argued that supervising Kirovles was not part of Navalny’s job responsibilities when he worked for the regional governor Nikita Belykh as an adviser on a voluntary basis, writes Moskovsky Komsomolets. The agreement on the supply of products from Kirovles to the Vyatka Forestry Company (Officerov’s company) was, according to Smertin, unprofitable. However, Smertin admitted that this supposedly unfavorable agreement was never disputed by anyone and no preferences were expressed regarding timber prices. In any case, Smertin knows nothing about this.

On April 25, the court interrogates the head of Kirovles, Vyacheslav Opalev, who has already been suspended for four years in this case - he made a deal with the investigation. The investigation believes that in 2009, Navalny convinced Opalev to enter into a deliberately unprofitable contract with Ofitserov’s company. Opalev testified against Navalny and stated that the contract between Kirovles and the Vyatka Forestry Company was obviously unprofitable for the enterprise. When asked by the defense about the details of the contract and the circumstances of its conclusion, Opalev basically said that he did not remember the circumstances, but confirmed the protocol.

Navalny said that Opalev gave false testimony.