Representatives of Alisher Usmanov doubted the competence and visual acuity of Alexei Navalny

Representatives of the press service of the co-owner of the USM holding Alisher Usmanov, in a conversation with RNS, accused Alexei Navalny of incompetence regarding the conclusions about the deal for the businessman to purchase a plot on Rublyovka, which Usmanov himself called an “exchange.”

“Mr. Navalny really likes to publish beautiful pictures and topographical photographs, but he reads documents very inattentively,” the press service stated. “Once again he shows his incompetence and tendency to lie, or maybe just vision problems.”

Representatives of the businessman added that the 12-hectare plot in question belonged to the East Invest Group, with which the Sotsgosproekt fund had an agreement on joint development. They were going to build a cottage community there for sale; Sotsgosproekt was supposed to finance the deal. “Hence the presence of several stages and several parties in that transaction. If Mr. Navalny has other “discoveries,” he will have an excellent opportunity to present them in court,” USM representatives added .

On March 2, Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation published a large investigation into the elite real estate of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whose foundation allegedly received a “palace on Rublyovka” as a gift from Usmanov. In an interview with Vedomosti, Usmanov said that he gave the Sotsgosproekt foundation to a classmate of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Ilya Eliseev, a plot with an estate in the village of Znamenskoye near Moscow, and in return allegedly received 12 hectares of the foundation’s land next to his house.

Alexey Navalny in his blog called Usmanov’s explanations about the “exchange of plots” a lie and added that, according to Rosreestr, the businessman bought the plot from two private companies: Lesnoy Dom LLC and East West Group LLC.