Navalny Presses for Inquiry Into Putin Deputy

New York Times

Aleksei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent anticorruption activist, added to the pressure on the Russian government to investigate allegations of what he called corrupt financial practices by a senior deputy to Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

The accusations against the deputy, Igor I. Shuvalov, were initially brought to the attention of Russian prosecutors months ago, but on Friday, Mr. Navalny publicly posted the documents that form the basis of the allegations on his Web site.

At issue in the case is not their authenticity – a Moscow law firm has already confirmed they are real – but whether what is described violated laws or might be considered unacceptable, even in Russia’s political system.

Mr. Navalny said he still did not expect law enforcement to act against such a senior official. He said the publication was intended to reinforce the opposition’s message that corruption is pervasive in the Russian government.

“This is not a case of somebody in Siberia stealing pipes,” Mr. Navalny said. “It occurred within the oligarchy that lives abroad and with a Western-oriented official. It will be remembered. Now, every time the fight against corruption comes up, so will Shuvalov’s name.”

“We certainly will do all we can to make sure that happens,” he added.

Mr. Shuvalov has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

“I always declared my income and the income of my family with extraordinary care,” Mr. Shuvalov said, according to the Russian Information Agency. “I unswervingly followed the rules and principles of conflict of interest. For a lawyer, this is sacred.”

That a government official would earn millions in side business deals hardly raises eyebrows in Russia. What makes the case remarkable is Mr. Shuvalov’s role as the face of the Russian government for Western nations.

Mr. Shuvalov, 45, served as Russia’s representative to the Group of 8 industrialized nations before becoming a deputy prime minister in 2008. He is the most senior liberal in the government.

The documents describe how a company affiliated with Roman Abramovich, an investor in oil and steel companies, transferred $50 million to a British Virgin Islands trust held in the name of Mr. Shuvalov’s wife in 2004.

Though Mr. Shuvalov was already in government at the time of the payment, a spokesman for Mr. Abramovich said it was for options Mr. Shuvalov had received in shares of the Sibneft oil company in exchange for legal services before becoming a government employee in 1997.

The trust, called Sevenkey, then lent most of that sum – $49.5 million – to the offshore investment holding of another Russian businessman, Alisher Usmanov, according to the documents.

The loan agreement was later amended to allow Sevenkey to share in the profits from one of Mr. Usmanov’s steel industry deals, the purchase of a British mill called Corus. In total, Mr. Usmanov’s company returned $119 million to the trust.

Representatives of Mr. Usmanov and Mr. Shuvalov have not disputed this characterization, but said the transaction was legal, violated no Russian laws and did not pose a conflict of interest.

Mr. Shuvalov’s former law firm confirmed the documents’ authenticity this week, but said they were stolen. The firm said they were taken and then released by one of its lawyers, Pavel Ivlev, who fled Russia for the United States in 2005 amid a crackdown on legal professionals representing Yukos Oil.

In Washington, a Congressional staff member familiar with the case said documents relating to Mr. Shuvalov’s transactions were supplied to the Department of Justice last July. After the details were published in Barron’s in December, the staff member forwarded the material to various Congressional oversight committees, anticorruption activists in Russia, the United States Embassy in Moscow and the Department of Justice unit that enforces the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the American law criminalizing the payment of bribes to foreign officials. The United Kingdom has a similar statue.

“If people were trying to cover this up, or hoped that it would die a quiet death, I wanted them to know that there were people on the Hill who thought it warranted a closer look,” said the staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

In government, Mr. Shuvalov has consistently argued in favor of liberalizing rules for business to improve Russia’s economy. On multiple occasions, he participated in decisions that directly affected the profits of the businesses operated by Mr. Usmanov and Mr. Abramovich, but denied offering any favors. займы на карту без отказа микрозаймы онлайн female wrestling https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php займ онлайн на карту без отказа