The oppositionist published incriminating evidence against the deputy secretary of the general council of United Russia, Sergei Zheleznyak. Navalny claims that despite the patriotic statements of one of the leaders of the party in power, he sent his children to study abroad. Mr. Zheleznyak commented on this information to the presenter Alexey Korneev.
According to Navalny, the daughter of United Russia member Ekaterina Zheleznyak is in a Swiss school, where tuition costs about 2.5 million rubles. The deputy’s eldest daughter, Anastasia, writes the oppositionist, entered Queen Mary, University of London. In addition, Navalny notes that the deputy himself owns expensive cars and luxury real estate.
“Zheleznyak comes up with the most reactionary laws, his pretentious statements that we must cultivate patriotism from a young age. They wrote to me quite a long time ago that Zheleznyak shouts the most, and his children study abroad, and in elite educational institutions, Alexey Navalny said in an interview with Kommersant FM. –– We just decided to check it out and used absolutely open information, which is located both on the website of a Swiss school - the American-Swiss University - and on the website of the British school where Zheleznyak’s second daughter studies. Absolutely open sources made it possible to establish that Mr. Zheleznyak sent his children to study abroad, while he pays about 30% more for their education per year than his official annual income."
–– As I understand it, you have already read the post and have already managed to respond to Alexei Navalny via Facebook?
–– State your main points, if possible, briefly.
–– This is an obvious provocation. Because if Alexey wanted to figure it out and find the truth, he would simply examine the declarations that we submit and see that at the moment when I came to the State Duma and left the business, I received all the payments due to me.
It was several tens of millions of rubles. Based on this money, I live, raise, and teach my children. So, there is no problem here. All the cars and motorcycles were purchased during the same period of time before working in the Duma, so Navalny, as they say, heard the ringing, but does not know where it is.
– Alexey Navalny also accuses you, so to speak, of hypocrisy. That is, you actively, on the one hand, defend ideas patriotic education and studying in Russia, but they themselves sent their daughters to study abroad, or, as I understand from Facebook, they themselves expressed a desire to study there?
–– This is another distortion. Let me explain it. Because I have always said that we need to act in the interests of our country. I never said that you need to lock everyone up and not let anyone in. Here I would divide this situation into two. First, in my opinion, it is unacceptable for officials to have accounts abroad or any property interests there. Therefore, I have neither property nor accounts abroad. I pay for my children’s education from Russia. The ruble has long been a convertible currency, and there are no problems with payments.
If we talk about education, I myself studied in Switzerland, interned in Japan and Europe, I consider this a plus, not a minus. The more there will be educated people who will work in our country, so much the better.
– Sergey, is the figure indicated by Navalny correct for children’s education fees? Say how much.
–– You know, no, of course, there are a lot of distortions in both the cost of cars and the cost of training. I wrote about this in my blog: if we take all of Navalny’s fabrications at face value, without analyzing them, then even in this sense I have enough declared funds for which I paid taxes in order to afford them all.
–– Sergey, you write on Facebook that you have never advocated for bad education or serfdom, thereby indirectly admitting that education in Russia is bad.
-- This is wrong.
- How can it be wrong? This follows from your words.
– This is not so, I’ll explain. The point is that according to exact sciences, I believe that education in Russia is still the best in the world. Maybe even in Massachusetts they provide a good education in the exact sciences. But we have both a chemistry school and higher education in physics, mathematics, chemistry one of the best, and perhaps even the best in the world.
As for the humanities, especially those related to language and the study of world culture, here, yes, there is something to work on. It so happens that I myself speak several languages, and my daughters have several languages that they speak fluently. Therefore, it would be a sin not to use it. At the same time, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, let’s say, before graduating from high school, the eldest daughters studied in Moscow and received a decent education. I believe that in Moscow there are many very high-quality schools, many excellent teachers, and there is no need to run somewhere in search of a better life.
– It’s just that when you write about serfdom, it turns out that there is some kind of strange contradiction - with one hand you reserve the right to decide the fate of orphans, leaving them in Russia and not allowing them to go to America, and with the other hand you write about that they never advocated serfdom. But what is this if not serfdom?
–– And here you are wrong.
- Why?
– Because we demand from the American side access to those children who are adopted in the States, the opportunity to protect their rights if their rights are violated, including in court, and punishment for those criminals who caused the injury or death of our children.
If we are talking about the protection of human rights, then probably the most sensitive element of the entire human rights system is the protection of the rights of the child. If we are denied the opportunity to know how adopted children in the United States are doing, citing that the agreement is signed at the federal level and does not comply with individual state laws, and are deprived of control by our diplomatic authorities and our public organizations that provide support and child protection, this is unacceptable. In order to normalize relations here, changes need to be made. This requires the good will of the American side.
Alexey Navalny is a well-known Russian public and political figure leading a public fight against corruption. He is considered a symbol of the Russian non-systemic opposition. He is the author of the highest-rated political blog on LiveJournal and the head of the RosPil project, aimed at combating abuses in public procurement. The biography of Alexei Navalny is full of scandals and criminal cases in which he was the main defendant in major thefts and fraud. The attitude of the population towards the activist and oppositionist Navalny is ambiguous - some consider him a brilliant fighter for truth and justice, others, on the contrary, see him as an ordinary populist who, with his expressed attitude against government agencies and political parties, is trying to deceive the people.
early years
Navalny Alexey Anatolyevich was born on June 4, 1976 in the military town of Butyn, located in the Moscow region. His parents, Anatoly Ivanovich and Lyudmila Ivanovna, were ordinary people who, at the time of democratic changes, managed to become businessmen, owners of the Kobyakovsky wicker weaving factory. According to Alexey himself, his ancestry is closely connected with Ukraine, since it was in this country that a significant part of his relatives lived. In the future, voters and users of social networks will more than once ask Alexey Anatolyevich about his position on Ukraine, asking for his opinion on the events that occurred in the neighboring state at the end of 2013 - beginning of 2014. In his blog on LiveJournal, Navalny will present in detail his own conclusions and vision changes in Kyiv.
School years The future non-system oppositionist was held in the military village of Kalininets, where he graduated from high school in 1993, after which he moved to the Russian capital. In Moscow, Navalny immediately entered the Peoples' Friendship University at the Faculty of Law. In 1998, having received a law degree, the young lawyer decided to expand his professional base, and to accomplish this task he became a student at the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation. Simultaneously with his studies in finance and credit, Alexey worked as a lawyer at Aeroflot Bank and the development company ST Group.
Having received a diploma in financier, Navalny did not stop there and completed a 6-month course of study at Yale University under the Yale World Fellows grant program, where he managed to get on the recommendations of Sergei Guriev and Evgenia Albats, “venerable” Russian oppositionists, whose opinion was then very much listened in America.
Career and business
Alexei Navalny’s working career started back in his student years, but was exclusively business-oriented. Over the course of several years, he became the founder of a dozen enterprises with “zero” income, which he sold very successfully after a short period of activity. This fact already interested critics who suspected the future oppositionist of fraud and organizing fraud.
In 2008, Alexey Navalny began to become interested in “investment activism” and began buying small stakes in the companies Transneft, Surgutneft, Gazpromneft, Rosneft, VTB and Sberbank. Having become a full shareholder, he began to demand the publication of information about the activities of the management of these structures, on which the income of shareholders depended. Then he called the Gazprom company his main opponent and was even able to get a criminal case initiated against one of the managers of a large corporation.
Along with the business, the income from which allowed the young lawyer to live comfortably, Navalny was actively involved in political activities.
Policy
His start in politics was the democratic party "Yabloko", in which he held leading positions until 2007, thanks to the support of his associates, and.
After being expelled from Yabloko, Navalny co-founded the national democratic movement “People” and became an active participant in the radical “Russian March” march.
In 2009, Alexey Navalny was elected as a freelance adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, and headed the non-profit organization “Initiative Support Fund” of the head of the Kirov regional state administration.
Alexey Navalny often criticizes not only current officials, but also those who were already in leading positions in the public administration system. In particular, television viewers remembered the discussion between the oppositionist and the reformer of the 90s on the “Direct Conversation” program, hosted by. In the studio of the Dozhd TV channel, questions were raised not only about the activities of the state corporation Rusnano, whose general director is Chubais, but also in general the problems of financing this company and Russian science were discussed.
Gradually, Alexey Anatolyevich becomes one of the leaders of the opposition in Russia, and after the murder, it was Navalny who was considered the main critic of the authorities within the country. Navalny himself blames the Russian top leadership for the murder of his political ally and friend. According to him, there was a “terrorist attack that did not achieve its goal.”
Moscow mayoral elections
Soon his plans included the goal of becoming the mayor of Moscow, and in 2013 he was registered with the Moscow City Election Commission as a candidate, but he failed to win the elections - Alexei Navalny received 27% of the votes, which did not give him the right to take the high post of the capital's mayor.
The election results, of course, did not satisfy the headquarters of the non-systemic oppositionist, and the very next day after their announcement he organized a rally in Moscow on Chistoprudny Boulevard in order to demonstrate disagreement with the announced voting results. After the rally, he led an unauthorized march to the Central Election Commission of Russia, during which he was detained by police and received 15 days of administrative arrest.
At that time, he had already created his own anti-corruption Internet projects “RosPil”, “RosYama” and “RosVybory”, and also registered the “Anti-Corruption Foundation”, which, in his opinion, should have created his image of an uncompromising anti-corruption official and made positive hero in the eyes of the population. But to achieve such status for Navalny for a long time did not succeed, as many criminal cases with his participation began to come to light.
Arrest and criminal cases
The criminal prosecution of Alexei Navalny started in 2011, when he was convicted of crime, namely causing property damage by deception. Based on the results of the investigation, the well-known non-system oppositionist was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2013, but the day after the verdict, Alexey Anatolyevich was released on his own recognizance. Then both Russians and international society condemned Navalny’s sentence, considering it politically motivated. Even Russian President expressed his attitude towards the verdict, calling it “strange.” After reviewing the case, the court changed the punishment and changed it to a suspended sentence.
Navalny’s second high-profile criminal case was the trial of the Yves Rocher company, in which he, along with his brother Oleg, was accused of large-scale theft and money laundering of a French company. As a result, the court sentenced Alexey Anatolyevich to 3.5 years probation, and his brother received a real sentence of the same amount. The brothers-accomplices were also fined 4.8 million rubles.
The Kirovles case is another high-profile criminal proceeding against Navalny. The consideration of the case on the facts of possible damage to the Kirov state enterprise “Kirovles” will drag on for years.
Despite this, Navalny remains a leader for many Russians, especially Muscovites. Many consider the figure to be a people's political leader, and his activities are called useful for Russian society and the economy. In 2012, according to Time magazine, he became the only Russian to be included in the TOP 100 most influential people peace.
Navalny Foundation
In 2011, Alexey Navalny created the non-profit organization “Foundation for the Fight against Corruption,” which would later become a very large-scale structure in Russia. The new structural formation unites all of Navalny’s projects, and the public figure himself refuses various kinds of anonymous donations.
The founders of the new fund were able to gain enormous experience in public and transparent fundraising by organizing financing for the RosPil project. Using the Yandex.Money payment system, the fund attracts a significant amount of funds to ensure normal functioning. In addition, professional lawyers and economists are also actively involved in the work of the organization, who carefully try to identify illegal schemes in the public procurement system.
The management of the fund has taken a detailed approach to developing a strategy for its actions in various areas, and the main task of the structure is to organize local situations in which the state apparatus will feel pressure from the public. According to the creators, such a unit can become a real alternative current system public administration. The founders of the foundation themselves have repeatedly argued that the activities of such a structure cannot be considered an attack on the Russian state itself, because participants in the process of forming a system of power are interested in the stability and durability of all branches of the state apparatus, and total pressure on officials will contribute to positive internal transformations throughout the country.
Alexey Navalny in the office of the Anti-Corruption Foundation The issue of financing the fund has always been of interest not only to government officials, but also to other prominent public figures, as well as ordinary citizens. According to the organization’s leaders, a transparent system for raising funds was created, within which it was possible to use $300 thousand for the annual budget. Navalny himself has repeatedly argued that initially the fund needed mass support, because it was the receipt of funds from absolutely different categories citizens allows you to confirm the honesty and openness of the organization.
It was the financing of the structure that interested ordinary Russians the most. Who is behind him? Soon, many Russian voters began asking a similar question, trying to find out more about Navalny's activities. In Russia itself, representatives of some political forces openly call Alexey an “American spy,” and the foundation is accused of attracting funds from abroad.
The Investigative Committee conducted a search at the office of the Anti-Corruption Foundation The foundation will soon present several investigative films. One of the first films that caused a public outcry in Russia was the investigative documentary film “The Seagull.” The filmmakers presented a new investigation into the business and criminal connections of the sons of the Prosecutor General of Russia. Other anti-corruption revelations followed.
Navalny himself also fueled interest in the fund’s activities with his publications on the microblogging service Twitter. In particular, one of the posts that the asset manager of the Deputy Prime Minister purchased an entire floor in one of the elite high-rise buildings caused a storm of indignation among members of the public. The oppositionist demanded an investigation into this matter.
Alexey Navalny now
In March 2017 in many regions Russian Federation Unauthorized rallies took place. Thousands of citizens who gathered in the squares major cities countries, demanded an investigation into corruption in the highest echelons of power.
The reason for mass protests was a film by the Navalny Foundation about the property of the Russian Prime Minister. Many Russians were clearly shocked by the information provided by the investigation, which revealed that one of the country's top officials is the owner of a “secret empire” that was created through complex corruption schemes. According to Navalny, Medvedev allegedly manages huge funds and assets, and the official’s inner circle controls the flow of funds into the accounts of organizations. It is assumed that tens of billions of rubles were consistently transferred to the accounts of such structures. Such incriminating evidence excited the Russian public.
Some deputies also supported the citizens' indignation. In particular, representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation demanded the creation of an investigative commission that could conduct a transparent investigation and also check all materials.
Navalny commented on his desire to participate in the elections with the desire of people who, he believes, are already massively supporting his anti-corruption program. According to the opposition figure, he is obliged to participate in the elections because he carries political representation for these people.
Navalny’s political career was not without incidents. On March 19, 2017, at one of the protests, which was organized against an increase in tariffs for housing and communal services, the politician was pelted with eggs in Novosibirsk. Still, this did not stop the oppositionist from meeting people and listening to their problems.
Personal life
The personal life of Alexei Navalny against the backdrop of his scandalous career is not particularly remarkable. In 1999, while on vacation in Turkey, he met his future wife Julia, whose holiday romance ended in marriage. For 15 years now she has been creating for him reliable rear home and makes peace with everyone " side effects» political activity your spouse.
Navalny's friends and associates believe that he has a strong and wonderful family, in which they are raising two children - Daria and Zakhar. The spouses themselves say that at home there is a complete delineation of spheres of influence: Julia supports her husband’s political views, but does not give advice on work, and he does not interfere in the household and raising children.
Navalny’s family lives in the Maryino district of Moscow region in an ordinary panel house in an “economy class” apartment with an area of about 80 square meters. Also, the Russian oppositionist owns Hyundai and VAZ-21083 cars, and his wife owns a Ford car. According to official data, Navalny’s income in 2012 amounted to 9 million rubles, which became known during his election campaign for the post of mayor of Moscow.
A remarkable fact is that Alexei Navalny’s height is 189 centimeters. This allows us to classify the political and public figure as one of the highest representatives of Russian politics.
How to deliberately and quickly drive away voters
Political technology is not an absolute craft. And it depends on the context and discourse. You cannot use American technology in Russia, and Russian technology is useless in America. And every person who has ever tried to apply something in his political practice knows this from his own experience.
And what does this experience tell us? This experience tells us that Russian voters do not like ostentatious wealth. A textbook example here is the election video of the SPS party, filmed in 2003. Boris Nemtsov, Anatoly Chubais and Irina Khakamada are flying in a business jet, sitting in white leather chairs and discussing the fate of Russia. Just one video led to disaster: the party's technologists quarreled, the headquarters collapsed, the party lost the elections and was never able to recover. Every Russian political strategist remembers this story and will tell it to you if you wake him up at night and ask him what not to do in the elections.
The second postulate, known to every Russian technologist, says: there is a right-wing liberal electorate, but it does not decide the elections. Therefore, any Russian right-wing liberal party always ended any of its campaigns with the pension issue - that is, with an approach to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And after flying on a business jet in white leather seats, you won’t go to the electorate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. They won't understand you.
Now, armed with this basic knowledge, let's look at Alexei Navalny. The man who, according to him, is going to become president. The other day, observers interested in the campaign could see how Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov opened a headquarters in Sochi via Skype and... from Cyprus. Where he, according to him, was “on FBK business.” The next day, observers learned that Alexei Navalny himself and his wife flew to Paris. On the weekend. And although Mr. Volkov said that these were slander and that candidate Navalny was in Moscow and was working with documents, the ubiquitous Life provided the public with video recordings of both the departure and arrival of the tribune.
When a man takes his woman to Paris for a weekend, this evokes every approval from me as a man. I respect Navalny for taking his wife to a romantic place.
But in the current context and discourse, Alexey Navalny is not just a man. He is a presidential candidate, although unofficial, but named. Can a presidential candidate in a country whose population has lost 20 percent of its real income over the past 30 months take his wife to Paris for the weekend? Let us remember about the SPS business jet and about the electorate that we will ultimately have to reach. And who has never been to Paris at all.
It’s me, mind you, who hasn’t asked anything about money yet. But we do not know about any declared sources of income for the Navalny family, except for the Anti-Corruption Fund. And everything looks exactly as you thought - that Volkov went to Cyprus, and Navalny went to Paris with FBK money. The other day Navalny reported to all of us about the effective use of them. And in front of me too - after all, I once donated 500 rubles to him. Just to later wonder where they spent it. Now I know where they were spent - on Paris. No, as a man, I am not at all against the fact that Navalny used my 500 rubles to take his wife to drink champagne and eat oysters. But why then tell us about some other people’s corruption? After all, this is who she is.
However, let's move on to the most interesting part. Mr. Navalny’s wife, the beautiful Yulia, is not at all sitting in the kitchen waiting for her husband to take her to Paris for the day. No, she also travels. And a few days before Paris, she took her children... to the United States of America. Where will they study English language at a children's language camp.
Well, you need to study English, and every parent decides for themselves where their children will do it. But what does this look like from the perspective of a potential voter? Here's how: a Russian presidential candidate takes his children to study in the United States at a time when the United States is introducing harsh and unfair sanctions against Russia. Of course, I understand that the trip was planned long before any sanctions. But if it had been canceled due to sanctions, it would have greatly increased Navalny’s voter base. Why wasn't this done? I'll explain it to you below.
Navalny told us many times about unscrupulous Russian officials whose children study abroad. He told us about their crazy, ostentatious spending. And he promised that when he comes to power, everything will be different.
But personally, I cannot afford to take my wife to Paris for the weekend. It's expensive for me. Although I work very hard. And when Navalny manages to arouse my sincere anger towards officials who send their children abroad, I immediately see that he himself sends his children abroad. So what is the difference, Alexey? Why should I vote for you if you are no different from those you are against?
And now, as I promised, I will explain. Of course, Navalny and Volkov are not fools, and everyone understands this as well as I do. They just... are not going to participate in the elections. They understand that they will not be registered. They understand that even if they are registered, they still won’t win, because it’s simply impossible. And if this is so, then there is no point in flirting with a large electorate. You just need to continue to deceive your small, nuclear electorate, adherents who can’t even grow grass - they will still continue to believe in the divine essence of the tribune. And they will continue to give money. Which, in fact, is what is required of them.
Therefore, headquarters will, of course, continue to open. And people will continue to bring money. And then the Central Election Commission will finally refuse registration and you can only throw up your hands: alas, we tried...
And then the volunteers will shrug their shoulders and go their separate ways. And millions will remain.
Alexey Anatolyevich Navalny- a public figure, politician, positions himself as an investment activist involved in investigations of corruption in Russia, the creator of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, and the author of a popular blog on LiveJournal. In 2013, Alexei Navalny lost to Sergei Sobyanin in the Moscow mayoral elections. In December 2016, he announced that he was going to participate in the 2018 Russian presidential elections, building his election campaign on the same corruption investigations like the film about Dmitry Medvedev “He’s Not Your Dimon.”
early years and the education of Alexei Navalny
Alexey Navalny was born on June 4, 1976 in the military town of Butyn, Odintsovo district, Moscow region.
As Alexey Anatolyevich himself likes to tell, his family comes from Ukraine. Most of the relatives live in the Kyiv region and Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky. He himself feels partly Ukrainian.
Navalny's father Anatoly Ivanovich Navalny, was born and graduated from school in Zalesye (formerly Chernobyl district, now Ivankovsky district, Kyiv region). Navalny Sr. graduated from the Kiev Military School of Communications. After graduating from college, he began serving in the Moscow region.
Navalny's mother - Lyudmila Ivanovna Navalnaya, originally from Zelenograd, Moscow region, studied at the Moscow Institute of Management named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, worked as a laboratory assistant at the Zelenograd Research Institute of Microdevices. Currently, Navalny Alexey’s parents are co-owners of the Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory.
Grandfather - Ivan Tarasovich Navalny was a carpenter. Alexey's grandmother - Tatyana Danilovna. The old people worked all their lives on the local collective farm in Zalesye. Little Alyosha spent every summer until 1986 (before the Chernobyl accident) in their village.
As the son of a career military man, Alexey changed several schools. In this regard, he confidently asserted that “military children do not have childhood friends, because military children move around all the time.”
Navalny’s idol both in childhood and to this day - Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps Alexey learned to fight from his hero, because he said that at school only high school students could defeat him.
After graduating from Alabinsk secondary school in 1993, Alexei Navalny entered the law faculty of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, from which he graduated in 1998. In 1999 he entered the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation (specialty “Securities and Exchange Business”) and graduated in 2001.
Work and business of Alexei Navalny
While still at university, Alexei Navalny began his business career. In 1997, an enterprising young man founded Nesna LLC (hairdressing services). True, Alexey soon sold the company. But in the same year, Navalny registered Allekt LLC. Navalny worked as deputy director for legal issues in this company, and at the same time got a job in the ST-group development company. He worked on real estate issues, currency control and antitrust legislation (1998−1999). For some time he worked at Aeroflot Bank. While working in business structures, Alexei Navalny encountered both violations of the law and corruption.
Alexey Navalny has a share in the family business Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC (in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region). He has 25% of the authorized capital, the remaining shares are owned by his relatives.
Entrepreneurship flowed from the young Navalny. Together with friends Faculty of Law RUDN University Alexey opened the company “N. N. Securities". Alexey Navalny had a 35% stake in this company and worked as its chief accountant. "N. N. Securities was engaged in trading securities on the exchange. The young entrepreneur himself said that he became interested in playing on the stock exchange. Irrepressible passion led to the fact that Alexey Navalny lost (as he said) “the little money” that he had, and the company went bankrupt.
In 2001, the cheerful Alexey Anatolyevich co-founded Euro-Asian Transport Systems LLC, which made money from cargo transportation.
Politics and social activities of Alexei Navalny
Back in 2000, Alexey became a member of the Yabloko party and even its Federal Political Council. And from 2004 to 2007 he became the head of the regional branch of the Yabloko Republican Democratic Party. But in December 2007 he was expelled from the party with the wording “for causing political damage to the party, in particular, for nationalist activities.”
Alexey Navalny in the Yabloko party (Photo: navalny.com)
Since 2006, Alexey Navalny has been the founder of various projects and public organizations, such as “Political Debates”, “Union of Minority Shareholders”, “Committee for the Protection of Muscovites”, “Police with the People”. Together with Maria Gaidar And Natalia Morar organized the Youth Movement “YES!” He increased his recognition by being the host of the “Urban Planning Chronicles” program on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, and was also the chief editor of the “Fight Club” program on TVC.
In 2009, Navalny Alexey, as a freelance adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, worked with former leader"Union of Right Forces" Nikita Belykh, subsequently arrested on charges of corruption (receiving a bribe on an especially large scale).
Alexey Anatolyevich became interested in the Yale University program (“Yale World Fellows”). Every year, about fifteen gifted people from different countries are selected through this program. Garry Kasparov, Evgenia Albats, Sergey Guriev And Oleg Tsyvinsky, considering Navalny Alexey very promising for study global problems international understanding, gave him a recommendation. In 2010, Alexey completed the required six-month course. According to the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, “Mr. Navalny is a political “product” manufactured in US laboratories for the next pogrom of Russia.”
In 2013, Alexey Anatolyevich Navalny competed with Sergei Sobyanin in the elections for the mayor of Moscow. Took second place. At the same time, Alexey headed the Central Council of the political association “Party of Progress”.
Moscow mayoral candidate A. Navalny met with voters (Photo: Mikhail Metzel/TASS)
And finally, Alexey Navalny took the presidential path in 2016. On the Dozhd TV channel, he announced his participation in the Russian presidential elections, which will take place in 2018.
On December 25, 2017, the Central Election Commission refused to register Alexei Navalny due to his lack of passive voting rights due to an outstanding conviction for a serious crime. In turn, the oppositionist threatened the authorities with a voter strike and an appeal to the Constitutional Court, SP previously wrote. However, the 2018 elections took place without Navalny.
Alexey Navalny and the fight against corruption in Russia
Alexey Navalny's political activities rely on the fight against corruption in the country. Since 2008, he has been immersed in investigations of what he believes are corruption cases. He exposed violations in various funds, published articles about the investigation of corruption cases in Russia. In his blog, which Navalny maintains on LiveJournal, he discusses and gives advice on how to effectively fight corruption. According to media reports, in 2008, Alexey Anatolyevich acquired shares in almost all major Russian companies, then, as a minority shareholder, accused the top management of companies of numerous abuses; by filing lawsuits, Navalny tried to increase the transparency of the companies’ activities.
In 2010, Alexey Navalny created the non-profit public project RosPil, with the help of which he fought elements of corruption in public procurement. As part of the project, site users reported corruption, experts conducted assessments, and project lawyers wrote complaints to regulatory authorities, demanding the abolition of corrupt purchases.
Realizing that the fight against corruption works well in politics and responds to public demand, Alexei Navalny continued his investigations. In 2011, Navalny created the non-profit organization Anti-Corruption Foundation, which united previous anti-corruption projects. The Anti-Corruption Foundation includes coordinators of Navalny’s projects “RosPil”, “RosYama”, “RosVybory”, “Good Machine of Truth”, “RosZhKH”.
An important part of the activities of the Anti-Corruption Foundation has become documentaries dedicated to investigations of the Navalny Foundation. In December 2015, Alexei Navalny posted the film “The Seagull” on the Internet, in which the Anti-Corruption Foundation shared its investigation into the activities of his sons and colleagues Attorney General RF Yuri Chaika. The film aroused great interest and received a special prize at the Artdocfest festival that same month. Yuri Chaika called Navalny's investigation ordered and deceitful. The Swiss Prosecutor General's Office, responding to a complaint from the Anti-Corruption Foundation, did not find any evidence of corruption in relation to Artem Chaika.
Navalny’s second high-profile film was “ He's not Dimon for you", released in March 2017. The film by the Anti-Corruption Foundation says that the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev allegedly owns multi-billion dollar real estate, heads a multi-level corruption scheme, using charities and various organizations. Navalny's film about Medvedev also attracted great interest, gaining more than 2.5 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours alone. Prime Minister's Press Secretary Natalya Timakova called Navalny’s film a propaganda attack, and Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the FBK investigation, noted that “these are not the first examples of the creativity of this famous convicted citizen.”
At the same time, a group of deputies State Duma The Russian Federation from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation proposed to the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption to conduct a check of the information from the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Alexey Navalny in the FBK office (Photo: fbk.info)
It was under the pretext of a lack of reaction to the investigation of Navalny’s foundation that Alexey Anatolyevich managed to bring many people to rallies at the end of March in a number of Russian cities. On March 26 in Moscow, according to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 7,000-8,000 people gathered on Tverskaya Street. According to media reports, about 1,000 activists were detained, including Navalny himself, who was then fined 20 thousand rubles for organizing an unauthorized mass rally in the center of the capital and arrested for 15 days under Art. 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO RF) for disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer.
Criminal cases of Alexei Navalny
Navalny acted as a witness in a number of criminal, administrative, civil and arbitration cases. But he is also an accused and defendant, for example, in the famous “Kirovles Case”. Alexey Navalny was accused of being an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region, in May-September 2009, in collusion with the director of the Vyatka Forestry Company, Pyotr Ofitserov, and the general director of Kirovles, Vyacheslav Opalev, who organized the theft of more than 10 thousand cubic meters of timber worth over 16 million rubles . Alexey Anatolyevich was sentenced in 2013 by the Kirov Regional Court to 5 years, later the term was replaced by a suspended sentence. In 2016, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned this verdict “taking into account the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which found a violation of the right to a fair trial in the investigation documents.” On February 8, 2017, the Leninsky District Court of Kirov re-sentenced Navalny and his partner Pyotr Ofitserov to 5 and 4 years of suspended imprisonment.
On June 15, the Kirovles company filed a claim with the court to recover 16 million rubles in compensation from Alexei Navalny, Pyotr Ofitserov and Vyacheslav Opalev in the case of theft of funds. In July, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow made a decision according to which they must pay the Kirovles company 2.1 million rubles. Thus, the court satisfied Kirovles’ claim against Navalny only partially.
Alexey and Oleg Navalny, accused of embezzlement from the Yves Rocher cosmetics company (Photo: Artem Korotaev/TASS)
In the Yves Rocher case, Alexei Navalny was accused along with his brother Oleg. The company accused the Navalnys of fraud and money laundering. On December 30, 2014, Navalny was again sentenced to 3.5 years probation.
In May 2017, news that the famous businessman Alisher Usmanov filed a lawsuit against FBK for the protection of honor and dignity caused a great stir. In addition, in a special video message, Usmanov responded to accusations against him from Alexei Navalny; in the first 24 hours alone, the video was watched by over 6 million people on all social networks. In his second address, Usmanov again criticized his opponent, comparing Navalny to Bulgakov’s hero Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov.
On May 15, 2018, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow sentenced Navalny to 30 days of arrest for disobeying the police at a protest rally that took place on May 5 in Moscow and was not coordinated with the authorities.
In June 2018, the Simonovsky Court of Moscow extended the probationary period of opposition politician Alexei Navalny for another year in the Kirovles case, obliging him to report to the Federal Penitentiary Service four times a month.
"SP" reported that on the morning of October 14, Navalny was released after 50 days of arrest.
On October 15, Alexey Navalny announced that he had become a defendant in a criminal case initiated under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: “Slander combined with accusing a person of committing a serious or especially serious crime.”
According to him, the plaintiff in this case is an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pavel Karpov, from whom the Anti-Corruption Foundation, headed by Navalny, discovered “elite real estate, luxury cars, etc., and in quantities that are in no way accessible to an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs even with the highest salary."
"Duel" with Zolotov
After Alexey Navalny published an investigation on his website entitled “Rosgvardia Potatoes,” which alleged that the Russian Guard was purchasing food at inflated prices, the head of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov, recorded a video message in response to Navalny’s accusations. The head of the Russian Guard challenged the politician to a duel and promised to turn him into a chop in just a few minutes. General Zolotov also called Navalny “an opposition pug, an American test tube product, a clone and a puppet.” According to Zolotov, the politician has been given the task of throwing mud at everyone in order to destabilize the situation in the country.
On October 18, Free Press reported that Alexey Navalny responded to the challenge of the head of the Russian Guard, Zolotov, to a duel, reserving the right to choose the weapon and place of the fight.
“I accept your challenge, and, as expected, I choose a place and a weapon. Our duel will take place in the form of debates live on Channel One or any other federal channel,” he said on air on his YouTube channel.
Viktor Zolotov, in turn, recalled that he invited Navalny not to a debate, but to a competition of a different kind, but promised to answer the oppositionist, although he does not yet know in what format
Political views of Alexei Navalny
Alexey Navalny positions himself as a national democrat. At the same time, he denies the label of nationalist that has been attached to him. Although earlier Aleksey Anatolyevich noted that nationalism “should become the core of the political system of Russia,” he was a participant in the nationalist “Russian March” processions, and spoke out against migrants who go to Russia with their “very unique values.”
In his election program, Navalny Alexey continues to focus on government corruption and the fight against bureaucracy. The first point of his program is the introduction of a large one-time tax for oligarchs, which will compensate for the injustice of privatization. It also offers complete tax, regulation and reporting exemption for individual entrepreneurs, radical de-bureaucratization of housing construction, which will reduce housing prices, and other things that tempt the voter.
Alexey Navalny with his wife and children (Photo: navalny.com)
Family of Alexei Navalny
Alexey Navalny is married to Yulia Borisovna Navalnaya(Abrosimova). Has a daughter, Daria (2001), and a son, Zakhar (2008).
Brother - Oleg Anatolyevich Navalny. He worked as Deputy Director of the Automated Sorting Centers company until May 2013, a branch of Russian Post, First Deputy Director of the EMS Russian Post Express Delivery campaign.
As befits a politician, Alexei Navalny is very active on social networks, posting his photos on Instagram, retweeting on Twitter, and posting on Facebook. Navalny does not miss the chance to promote himself, so in August he responded to a request from one of the portals, which announced an award among users for a video with a politician. As a result, Alexei Navalny and his wife filmed a video of a walk around the city and sent it to journalists. According to the politician, he was paid only 10 thousand rubles, as reported in the news. Alexey Navalny said that he was waiting for the remaining amount, otherwise he would go to court. And the politician promised to transfer the money received to his election fund.
Navalny’s PR is not always successful; for example, a photo posted on Instagram at the end of August in which Alexey enthusiastically eats noodles with the caption “I love doshik” caused a wave of parodies and photoshopped images on the Internet. The phrase “Navalny eats doshirak” has become a meme, the politician’s photo is attached to a variety of historical characters, however, it is not clear whether such a stir is beneficial to the oppositionist himself.
M No one in Russia knows what Alexei Navalny is like. A failed politician engaged in Internet investigations for the amusement of the liberal public. None of Navalny's investigations have ever been confirmed, but that doesn't stop him. He continues to release his endless “sensational revelations”, baselessly accusing and humiliating respected famous people who have done a lot of good things for their country, but in some ways crossed the path of Navalny or his customers.
Psychologically, he acts carefully and simply, pitting some citizens against others. And in order to be more accessible and increase his ratings, Navalny maintains a video blog, designed for a completely unsophisticated audience from 14 to 20 years old. They are quite easy to manipulate: no one double-checks the lies of the newly minted video blogger for accuracy. However, Alexey pretends that his investigations are serious and painstaking work. In fact, everything is different, becauseNavalny is a pervert of facts.
As evidence here we can cite the “case” of United Russia deputy Sergei Zheleznyak and his daughters. The blogger's latest attacks are again directed at him. The deputy was one of the authors of the law on censorship on the Internet and foreign agents; he actively advocated the adoption of a law under which protesters could be fined up to 300 thousand rubles. Without a doubt this is what happened main reason Navalny's first investigation in 2012 against Zheleznyak.
But the main accusation then was not these facts, but the fact that the deputy owned expensive cars and two apartments allegedly purchased with budget funds. Navalny, having made his accusation, as usual, “on the knee,” did not bother to check the true facts. Sergei Zheleznyak came to the Duma from the position of managing director of the News Outdoor company, where his work was decently paid. And it was with this money that all expensive purchases were made.
Realizing that the investigation did not give the expected public outcry, Navalny accused the deputy of the fact that his children are not studying in Russia and this« extremely unpatriotic» . Yes, and very expensive. But Alexey Navalny didn’t reveal anything new to anyone here either.Zheleznyak, in response to Navalny’s accusation, attached a photo of a tax return, from which it follows that in 2007 he earned about one hundred million rubles. And in addition, he explained to him what true patriotism is: “Patriotism does not consist in walking in bast shoes, weaving a vine, listening only to the balalaika and buying, with tears in your eyes, low-quality goods produced in the neighborhood. True patriotism lies in realizing oneself in the country and for the good of the country.”
Sergei Zheleznyak also spoke in detail about the education of his daughters: “I don’t see anything bad or unpatriotic in this, they will get an education, come home, and be useful to the country in the capacity in which they want.” By the way, he also noted the fact that if they and he are deprived of the right to enter the countries where they are currently studying, it will be unpleasant, but he will survive, and his daughters will return and finish their studies here.”
I am absolutely sure that Navalny’s main task in this story was only to create next dirty “information noise”. And dragging children into this scandal is generally prohibited.
The deputy himself wrote in his account in Facebook : “To Navalny: If you constantly feel like everything around you stinks, think about it, maybe you are the reason? Alexey prepared very inattentively, or rather deliberately sloppily, for the outpouring of “compromising evidence” about me and my children. He and his team didn’t find anything illegal or obscene against me, so Alexey decided to start distorting and cheating with publicly available data.”
This is the first time that Alexei Navalny received a personal response from a person against whom the blogger launched his latest persecution, because Navalny’s main goal is to denigrate a socially respected person on the Internet, creating another dirty, informational hype around it. But it didn't work out.And now this story has repeated itself.
Navalny decided to “attack” Zheleznyak again, accusing him of the fact that “his daughters never returned” to Russia, citing as evidence links to strange accounts of Anastasia (one of his daughters) on Facebook and LinkedIn. Agree, a very surprising accusation in itself. The daughters have grown up since then, one of them married a Scot, and it is quite clear that she has been making decisions on her own for a long time. Here's how he instantly reacted to the current ridiculous accusations
