Alexey Navalny will file a lawsuit against VGTRK after the TV company’s story, in which the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation was called “a paid agent of Browder.” Navalny will also seek to initiate criminal proceedings

Founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)

Alexey Navalny will file a lawsuit for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation against the Rossiya 1 TV channel. As the politician wrote on his website, the reason for the trial was a story shown on the TV channel on the evening of April 10.

“We use it [the film] to once again talk about the fact that television propagandists do not speak a single word of the truth. That is, my last name is Navalny - you can’t argue with the truth here, and everything else is not just a lie, but direct deliberate slander,” Navalny noted.

He clarified that the lawsuit will be filed not only against Russia 1, but also against the presenter Dmitry Kiselev, in whose program the story was shown, and against the “authors of the investigation.” Navalny promised that he would seek to initiate a criminal case under the article “slander” (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code).

FBK representative Kira Yarmysh, in a conversation with RBC, clarified that the fund’s lawyers have not yet decided whether they will file an appeal with the Investigative Committee or with the Magistrates’ Court.

A representative of VGTRK, in a conversation with RBC, refused to comment on Navalny’s statement. Kiselev did not answer RBC's call.

On the evening of April 10, the Rossiya 1 TV channel, on the air of the Vesti Nedeli program, announced a film by Evgeny Popov , in which Navalny is described as a paid agent of Hermitage Capital founder William Browder. The film will be shown in full on April 13.

In a fragment of the film, which will be shown in full on Wednesday, it is alleged that thanks to the former head of Boris Berezovsky's security service, Sergei Sokolov, mail servers were taken to Russia, which CIA curators allegedly recommended to their agents. On the servers, according to Sokolov, there is also correspondence between Alexei Navalny and William Browder.

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The film tells that in 2007, agent Solomon, who, according to VGTRK, is Browder associated with the British intelligence services, began collaborating with Navalny, who received the pseudonym Fried as part of Operation Trembling to undermine the constitutional order in Russia. The operation was allegedly developed by the CIA back in 1986.

It is alleged that it was Browder who persuaded Navalny to engage in “greenmail”, “to become a hero of minority shareholders and make reputational capital for himself.” To begin with, the head of Hermitage Capital allegedly provided Navalny with materials on VTB. The oppositionist, according to the authors of the story, received the money (100 million rubles) through Vladimir Ashurkov, with whom Browder introduced him. The money was transferred, among other things, through the Moscow Helsinki Group.

It is also alleged that the head of Hermitage Capital asked Navalny to spread information about the arrest of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Allegedly, the cessation of any medical assistance to Magnitsky (who eventually died in the hospital of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center) was organized through an agent of the British intelligence services.

In 2010, judging by the story of the Rossiya 1 TV channel, Navalny received $300 thousand for a program to support the “Magnitsky list” for the sake of “undermining citizens’ trust in the judicial and law enforcement system.”

Navalny knows Browder in absentia, Yarmysh told RBC. According to her, they never communicated on Skype, but corresponded a couple of times by email. “Alexey was interested in the experience of his (Browder. - RBC ) ships with Gazprom,” explained the press secretary.

Navalny never had any monetary relations with Browder. “Alexey helped promote their “Untouchables” campaign, they sent their videos, he posted them, like everyone else, but even then Alexey didn’t even communicate with Browder himself, but with his lawyer Vadim Kleiner,” added Yarmysh.

Vladimir Ashurkov, who also appears in the story, told RBC that he met Browder in 2007 in London “at some investment conference.” “The first time we had a meaningful conversation was in 2012, when I was in London for a few days,” he noted. At that time, they “spoke in general terms about the fight against corruption in Russia” and what opportunities there were to draw the attention of the British authorities to cases of corruption related to Russia, Ashurkov recalled. “He (Browder. - RBC ) gave some advice, but we never coordinated our activities, since he was and remains focused on the situation related to Sergei Magnitsky, and we were interested in a wider range of issues in the fight against corruption,” - explained RBC's interlocutor.

Ashurkov never had any monetary relations with Browder, he emphasized. Since Ashurkov had to stay in London in 2014, they have seen each other several times at events organized by Hermitage, such as the Sergei Magnitsky Prize ceremony, he added.

Why Alexei Navalny is respected by minority shareholders

VTB

A scandal involving the purchase of 30 Chinese drilling rigs by VTB's leasing subsidiary broke out in 2009. Then Navalny wrote in his blog that VTB did not buy the installations directly from the Chinese for $300 million, but purchased the equipment with a 50% premium from the Cypriot intermediary Klasseter Limited, which received the difference from the deal - $150 million. As for leasing , then, according to Navalny, instead of organizing it directly from VTB to the drilling companies, another leasing company was included in it - Well Drilling Corporation. The oppositionist believes that because of this, the difference between leasing and subleasing payments amounted to another 1.5 billion rubles. in year.

Transneft

In 2010, Navalny published scans of documents containing information about thefts during the construction of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline system, implemented by Transneft. The total amount of stolen funds, according to Navalny, amounted to more than 120 billion rubles. The documents, as the oppositionist claimed, were obtained as a result of an internal audit of the construction of the ESPO by Transneft experts. The subsequent audit of the Accounts Chamber did not reveal billions of dollars in thefts, after which Navalny accused the head of the Accounts Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, of concealing thefts amounting to more than $4 billion.

Russian Railways

In the spring of 2014, Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) released an investigation alleging that Russian Railways sells electronic tickets through companies affiliated with President Yakunin. FBK noted that the mobile application service is provided by UFS LLC. According to the fund, in just one year of operation, the application was downloaded 800 thousand times and 90 thousand tickets were purchased through it. Taking into account the average commission of 554 rubles, UFS LLC earned almost 50 million rubles from this application. According to FBK, almost every train ticket sold on the Internet in addition to the Russian Railways website is sold through the Federal Tax Service and with the same commission. The UFS denied any connection with Yakunin.

Navalny will sue Kiselev and Rossiya 1