07.03.2018, Perm.
Ivan Kolpakov, head editor of opposition news website Meduza said that Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation receives money even from corrupt officials, Rossa Primavera News Agency reported on March 6th.
He made these statements during his meeting with residents of the Russian city of Perm on March 5th. Discussing corruption and the activity of Alexey Navalny, Kolpakov said, in particular, “I know people who pay money to Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and are corrupt at the same time.”
But Meduza head editor evaluated these facts positively, “I think that a person, who started to pay money to Anti-Corruption Foundation, but continues to be corrupt, understands that what he does is wrong. He starts to experience a civilizational schism. And it is very important.”
Kolpakov confessed that previously he also violated the anti-corruption law and took part in corruption schemes. But now Kolpakov repents and regrets that earlier no one explained to him that it was bad.
Oleg Deripaska’s representative called Alexey Navalny’s and his Anti-Corruption Foundation’s accusations a “targeted campaign”. In 2011, 14035 e-mails being attributed to Alexey Navalny were made public in the Internet. The correspondence showed that Navalny was offered $50,000 for publications against Oleg Deripaska. These publications were made in 2010. It is also interesting that the executive director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation is Vladimir Ashurkov, former director of Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group Consortium. In his article called “Opposition as a business project” Ashurkov explains the benefits of business’ and opposition movement’s cooperation, “Considering the collective project on supporting the opposition movement as a five-year investment, and having hypothetical joint investments of $200-300 million, the aggregate effect for entrepreneurial and administrative strata will be tens of billions, it will bring profit one can never achieve through business projects.”
Meduza is a popular social and political news website publishing news in the Russian language. Its headquarters are located in Latvia. Meduza is in opposition to the current Russian authorities. The website was created back in 2014 by the former editor of Lenta.ru news website Galina Timchenko. In January 2016, Ivan Kolpakov became the new chief editor of Meduza news website.
Editorial comment
Kolpakov’s statements show once again that different economic and political actors order and use investigations and attacks of Navalny’s structure as an instrument of economic and political war. At the same time, the people who order these corruption-combatting actions are involved in corruption schemes.
Source: Rossa Primavera news agency
