Team Navalny calls Echo of Moscow editor-in-chief Venediktov corrupt, Venediktov explains

Alexey Venediktov, the former editor-in-chief of the radio station Echo of Moscow, responded to research from Alexey Navalny’s associates at the Anti-Corruption Foundation. The Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Venediktov, among other journalists, of “divvying up the Moscow city budget” via a city-sponsored public works campaign call Moi Raion (My Neighborhood). The Anti-Corruption Foundation says Venediktov received 680 million rubles (almost $9 million) from the Moscow City Administration for the publication Moi Raion magazine.

Venediktov spoke about the project, which focuses on the history of each of Moscow’s 123 districts, to Russian News BBC in April 2020. He has now confirmed that a company he runs did receive 680 million rubles from the city administration, but he says he personally lost money on the project.

The journalist posted on Facebook that he might have profited from the project eventually, however when the Justice Ministry declared him a “foreign agent,” in April 2022, only 112 of the planned 123 issues had come out. He says he and his editorial team then decided to release the remaining 11 issues with their own money, which cost more than any profits he’d seen from project. “I personally didn’t earn a kopek from this project, but I consider it an excellent educational story,” he wrote. “I leave all the insinuations, assumptions, and suppositions to the consciences of those who insinuate, assume, and suppose.”