Russian attorney general says anti-corruption activists are marching to the beat of US intelligence and Bill Browder

According to Russian Attorney General Yuri Chaika, a recent investigative report on his son's alleged criminal ties is not the work of Russian civic activists, but of foreign agents. In a letter to the newspaper Kommersant, Chaika accused Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) of taking orders from Browder and the US intelligence community.

FBK does not have the means or the ability to have produced the report and an accompanying documentary film, according to Chaika, who says he is certain that Browder is trying to pressure Russian police into halting their investigation of a company connected to Browder.

“In my opinion, these actions by Browder convincingly demonstrate his fear. He is obviously frightened. He is worried not only for himself, but also for the very influential people that stand behind him,” Chaika told Kommersant.

Navalny has already denied any connection with Browder, saying, “It's clear that, after the death of Berezovsky, the Russian authorities are hard pressed, because they can no longer blame him for everything they don't like. Browder? How exactly do we get William Browder here?” 

“It was immediately clear there was no way the twice-convicted Navalny could have made this expensive and tendentious film about the Russian Attorney General (and this is not just my opinion). To mount an international attack of this magnitude, I'm sorry, is even beyond the abilities of the governments of many countries,” said Chaika.

On December 1, FBK published an investigation into the business affairs of Attorney General Yuri Chaika and his family. Chaika officially responded to the allegations only three days after its publication, saying the investigation appeared to be specially made-to-order, but did not elaborate. In his response published December 14, the attorney general does not directly address any of the accusations made in FBK's investigation.

William Browder is an investor who, until 2006, actively worked in the Russian financial market. He was later denied entry to Russia, and in 2013 Browder was tried in absentia and sentenced to nine years in prison for illegal transactions relating to Gazprom shares.

Browder accuses Russian law enforcement agencies of participating in a scheme to steal state funds and murder his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in prison while being held on charges for assisting Browder. After his death, US Congress created the so-called “Magnitsky List,” which condemns those allegedly responsible for his detention and other human rights violations.

In his letter to Kommersant, Chaika said of Magnitsky that he regrets the “death of the man.” However, as Browder's accountant, Magnitsky was a criminal who implemented schemes to evade paying taxes acting as Browder's accountant, the attorney general added.