Translated material
The Federation Council has not received information about Senator Malkin’s Israeli citizenship
Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, head of the commission for verifying the accuracy of senators’ information on income and property, Yuri Vorobyov, denied information that appeared in the media that the Russian Senate has documents proving the dual citizenship of the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs Vitaly Malkin .
“I, as the head of the commission, do not have such data. And media reports on this matter with reference to me as the head of this commission do not correspond to reality. I did not give any comments on this matter to any media,” Vorobiev told Interfax regarding the publication , which appeared on Monday in the Izvestia newspaper.
Commission member Vyacheslav Novikov, in turn, said that the senators had not yet gathered for a meeting on the issue of Malkin’s citizenship.
“There are regulatory procedures within which our commission works. After a request was received from the chairman of the upper house Valentina Matvienko, a working group should be created from members of our commission, which will be instructed to send requests to the competent authorities regarding publications in the media on about Mr. Malkin,” he explained.
The scandal surrounding Vitaly Malkin began after Alexei Navalny announced on March 14 that he had received documents from the Canadian authorities regarding Malkin , according to which the senator owns a real estate business in Canada. In addition, the documents indicate that in 2007, Malkin asked for a residence permit in Canada, but the Canadian authorities refused him, suspecting him of criminal activities, including money laundering. In addition, Navalny, having studied the senator’s application for a residence permit, found out that Malkin has Israeli citizenship and a middle name - Avikhur Ben Bar.
Later, the media and bloggers also found out that Malkin owns property in Corsica and New York and two companies in Luxembourg.
On March 19, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper submitted an official request to the Federation Council of the Russian Federation demanding that they check information about the presence of dual citizenship of Senator Vitaly Malkin. MK noted that they decided to submit this request after they refused to consider a similar document from Alexei Navalny, citing the fact that the request should be submitted not from a private individual, but from an organization.
Vitaly Malkin has been a member of the Federation Council since 2004 and today holds the post of Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs. According to his 2011 income statement, Malkin is the richest senator. He also owns real estate in Italy. At the beginning of March 2013, the Izvestia newspaper wrote that Malkin was going to leave the Federation Council due to the ban on officials owning real estate abroad.