MOSCOW: Russia opened a fraud case into funding of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s campaign for Moscow mayor last year, in what he said was an attempt to intimidate opposition candidates ahead of local city elections.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said yesterday that police were carrying out searches at addresses in Moscow linked to three men it described as “close acquaintances and fellow fighters” of Navalny, who is held under house arrest.
It said city politician Konstantin Yankauskas and entrepreneurs Nikolai Lyaskin and Vladimir Ashurkov were suspected of election law violations and of embezzling funds from Navalny’s mayoral campaign. The men denied the charges, which carry a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.
Yankauskas, who along with Lyaskin is standing for a city parliament seat in September polls, called them “purely political”.
“Again strong, independent candidates are coming under pressure,” Navalny, whose strong showing in last year’s polls was a major upset to Russia’s tightly-controlled political system, wrote on his blog. “It’s a warning to all others.”
The Investigative Committee said 10m roubles ($290,000) that the three had raised from Navalny supporters via the Internet may not have been used for the advertised purpose of funding his election campaign.
“The investigation has reason to suppose that Yankauskas, Lyaskin and Ashurkov stole the collected funds,” it said in a statement, adding that some of the funds had been sent from donors with Internet addresses abroad.
Putin has often criticised foreign funding of political organisations.
Reuters
