Russian Investigative Committee launches case against Navalny for large-scale fraud
The Russian Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case for large-scale fraud against opposition figure Alexey Navalny, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, December 29.
According to state investigators, Navalny collected more than 588 million rubles (about $7.9 million) worth of donations on behalf of his non-profit, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and a number of other organizations. Then, “acting with other persons,” he allegedly spent more than 356 million rubles (about $4.8 million) from these funds on “acquiring personal property and material assets, and paying expenses (including vacations abroad).”
“Thus, the funds collected from citizens were stolen,” the Investigative Committee concluded in its statement.
Commenting on the launch of the case, Navalny wrote on Twitter: “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin seems to be simply hysterical.”
Navalny is currently in Germany; he has been there since he was flow to Berlin for treatment after his poisoning in August.
On Monday, December 28, Russia’s prison authorities threatened to file a complaint against Navalny in court for violating probation, demanding that he show up to a parole hearing in Moscow first thing the next day. Navalny’s lawyers warned that the opposition figure could face jail time if the Russian courts overturn his previous sentence in the Yves Rocher case. Navalny’s probation is set to end on December 30.
Read more about Navalny
- Evading oversight The Russian authorities want Navalny back in Moscow for a parole hearing first thing tomorrow morning
- ‘Persecution mania’ How the Kremlin’s spokesman responded to the latest revelations about Navalny’s poisoning
- Indirect confessions We asked lawyers if Navalny’s recording is valid proof that the FSB tried to poison him
- ‘I called my killer and he confessed’ Alexey Navalny says he fooled one of his FSB assassins into detailing the Kremlin’s poisoning operation
Navalny’s poisoning
Alexey Navalny was on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow when he fell violently ill on August 20. The plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was hospitalized in a coma; two days later he was transferred to Germany for treatment. On September 2, German officials confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with a substance from the Novichok group of nerve agents. Navalny was discharged from the hospital on September 23. Russia denies any involvement in the poisoning.
The Yves Rocher case
In 2014, Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg were found guilty of embezzlement and laundering funds stolen from two Russian companies associated with the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher. Oleg Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and Alexey Navalny was given a 3.5-year suspended sentenced. The brothers pleaded not guilty, calling the case politically motivated. In 2017, the European Court of Human Rights declared the verdicts “unjust” and ordered the Russian authorities to pay the Navalny brothers compensation. However, their sentences were never overturned.