Author: Ivo Leitāns (LTV “De facto” journalist)
Several persons connected to the Latvian media are mentioned in correspondence between, Anatoly Blinov, currently in custody in Poland on suspicion of organising attacks against several associates of Alexei Navalny, with, presumably, Leonid Nevzlin, a billionaire living in Israel. The conversations range from discussion of interviews of a currently sanctioned billionaire and Latvian citizen Petr Aven, to plans for public attacks on other Nevzlin’s rivals from Russian oligarch circles, LTV programme De Facto reports.
Upon examining the snippets of correspondence obtained from Navalny’s associates in the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation FBK, Latvian Television (LTV) programme De facto concludes that this is not just idle talk. Nevzlin, through Blinov, was the source in publications on the jauns.lv portal, meanwhile the association founded by Leonīds Jākobsons, the head of the kompromat.lv portal, received funding from the Nevzlin Foundation in Lithuania last year, De Facto reports.
Latvian media in the oligarchs’ battles
Maria Pevchikh, spokesperson for FBK, stated in a film about the attack on Navalny’s ally Leonid Volkov that “in addition to actually trying to kill Volkov and destroy Navalny’s team, Nevzlin and Blinov are taking some actions to undermine other oligarchs. They are trying to have Gusinsky stripped of his Spanish citizenship, to publish some kind of compromising information on Aven and Fridman, and to take away some of their shares.
The excerpts from the correspondence obtained by De facto from Navalny’s associates show which players on the Latvian media and socio-political scene were involved in these oligarch battles.
Last August, Blinov sent a link to, presumably, Nevzlin, to an article about the statements from the editor-in-chief of Rīgas Vilņi, and promised to explain more in the evening, as he was “visiting the owner – Pēteris Šmidre”. “The entire Latvian yellow press”, boasts Blinov.
In the evening, the two get in touch, and then Blinov sends Nevzlin a file with the word “Suitaprest” in the title, presumably a presentation, and adds that “the owner of the business is Pēteris Šmidre”.
De facto has verified that “Suitaprest” is a financial service provider registered in Spain that issues loans secured by real estate. Šmidre himself has publicly stated that he is the founder of this holding company.
A day later, Nevzlin presumably forwards a rather critical opinion on “Suitaprest” prepared by someone else. The correspondence about Šmidre’s Spanish business continues in September – it looks like Blinov is trying to persuade Nevzlin to get involved, De Factor continues.
However, the real estate business in Spain is not the only thing that Blinov mentions with regard to the Šmidre family. In mid-August 2023, Blinov tells Nevzlin that he will soon have a meeting “with Šmidre’s wife, who owns all the yellow press in Latvia” – obviously referring to Aija Šmidre, chairwoman of the board of Rīgas Viļņi publishing house.
Blinov asks for and gets confirmation of his version: “It is too early to reveal that Nevzlin is the main interested party in the issue of the Goose and Aven”. Obviously, referring to Vladimir Gusinsky, the former Russian media tycoon who fled the country escaping Putin more than 20 years ago, and Petr Aven, the Latvian billionaire who became a Latvian citizen and was later subjected to international sanctions.
At the beginning of September 2023, these two discuss “Sephardi G”, obviously referring again to Gusinsky, who acquired Spanish citizenship as a Sephardi, i.e. a descendant of Jews expelled from Spain at the end of the 15th century. Nevzlin asks if they had someone who will publish the article in Spain or Latvia “so that it can’t be traced back to us, but so that the article is noticed” – “about the Goose, the FBI and Deripaska”. Oleg Deripaska is yet another sanctioned Russian billionaire oligarch. “We’ve got all of Latin America, Spain and Latvia,” says Blinov.
According to De Facto, a week later, Blinov forwards to Nevzlin his Signal correspondence with Edvīns Rakickis – the head of the news department of jauns.lv portal, part of the publishing house Rīgas Viļņi.
It is apparent that Blinov, who introduces himself as Anatoly, is the first to write to Rakickis, and is writing to him regarding the article, and the two agree to talk on the phone. “The one who writes is a reporter from Latvia,” explains Blinov.
Later, Blinov forwards reports on his contacts with the Latvian reporter to Nevzlin. It can be observed that the two spoke on the phone, but later the journalist promises that “we will try to write about Deripaska too” and that he will try to find the right approach. Blinov says that they did not publish an article about Gusinsky on Friday because there are fewer readers on Fridays, the biggest audience is on Mondays.
On the morning of Monday, the 25th of September, Blinov sends Nevzlin links to the Latvian and Russian versions of the jauns.lv articles with the comment “The foundation has been laid.”
Nevzlin replies that he simply sent the article to Kiselyov – probably referring to Yevgeny Kiselyov, a journalist who emigrated from Russia to Ukraine several years ago. “Reaction: somehow very confusedly presented, difficult to fully understand.” Blinov admits that this is true.
Next, Nevzlin presumably forwards to Blinov a message written by a woman, probably a member of his staff. She laughs that the translation into Russian is terrible, because at the beginning of the text Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, is made out to be a woman. “Right at the beginning. Can we ask to correct that? Influential Russian women Valentina Yumasheva and Dyachenko. After this the rest cannot be trusted.” Later, Nevzlin’s correspondent concludes that everything else is fine, because the problem is not with the translation – “Now I see that it is our text, just a bad mistake in the first sentence.”
An hour later, Blinov forwards the correspondence with Rakickis, where the latter apologises for a strange translator’s error and promises to correct it quickly. “Idiots”, comments Blinov with a smile.
When contacted by De facto, Rakickis confirmed that the correspondence was authentic.
According to him, he does not know how Anatoly, the person he spoke to, got his phone number, but prior to the editorial office received an anonymous e-mail, which was then used in publications.
Later in November, Blinov proposes to join the “Šmidre Group” to start campaigning against Aven and “Borjomi”. Nevzlin is sceptical because “they are not very prominent there”. “It’s just that there are a lot of them and they are read by the members of the Parliament”, says Blinov, who reassures that it won’t cost anything because “they want to be friends, let them earn credibility”.
Nevzlin says that he should check with the executors and asks what they should call Blinov’s friends. They settle on the name “Šmidre Group”.
In December 2023, Blinov forwards to Nevzlin a description of the “The Big Question” (“Lielais jautājums”) project on jauns.tv, which includes the idea of creating a Russian version of the “The Big Question”. It is also mentioned that the editorial team is looking for participants and sponsors for the programme – the estimated cost is around EUR 12 000 per month.
De facto asked Šmidre for comments on the correspondence. When contacted, Pēteris Šmidre said that he does not remember Blinov, and that he had nothing to do with Nevzlin.
“Honestly, I don’t remember. […] If you told me in more detail, I might remember something. […] Well, of course I know who Nevzlin is, but not in any connection with, say, me. I know him roughly like I know Khodorkovsky and Zhirinovsky,” said Šmidre.
When De facto briefed Šmidre on the context in which “Šmidre Group” is mentioned in the correspondence, the businessman got angry:
“Hold on a second, please! Wow, you guys, I get the impression that you want to put something together. […] You read something from some yellow press and now you’re trying to put something together. […] Leave us out of producing your shitty information! Goodbye!”
Šmidre’s wife, Aija Šmidre, chairwoman of the board of the publishing house Rīgas Viļņi, claimed in her written answers to De facto that she does not know Blinov and has never met him.
“The correspondence between these two persons unknown to me contains false information,” Mrs. Šmidre said about Blinov’s allegations to Nevzlin.
The publisher admits, however, that through social events she is acquainted with a Latvian businessman and former police officer Dmitrijs Čeļebijs, who, as De facto knows, is an associate of Blinov. He was also mentioned in the FBK film without disclosing his identity. It was also Čeļebijs who allegedly offered Mrs. Šmidre to provide an anonymous source of information who could supply information of interest to the public.
“I handed this anonymous source over to the editors to contact and do some initial research, which is a normal part of the media’s daily business. As far as I know, the journalist contacted the source and produced an article based on the information that was verifiable. But if Blinov has taken money from Nevzlin for this – I can only say “congratulations”,” said Aija Šmidre.
Mrs. Šmidre also confirmed that the publishing house had a plan to produce a Russian-language programme “The Big Question” (“Lielais Jautājums”) with the support of sponsors. A presentation was prepared and sent to various potential sponsors, including Čeļebijs. However, due to media market conditions and the lack of sponsors, this project was not realised, the publisher explains.
Campaign against Aven
In his correspondence with Blinov back in September 2023, Nevzlin outlines the above-mentioned campaign against Aven and “Borjomi” mineral water. “We are also planning a Latvian language skill duel to strip Aven of his citizenship”, he writes.
A few days later, Nevzlin, presumably, forwards a question from someone: “We have completed a study on Latvia and Lithuania – in both countries the sale of “Borjomi” violates the sanctions imposed. We suggest you throw this to the media, plus add the “Borjomi” issue to the language duel with Aven. We have made test purchases in both Latvia and Lithuania – receipts and photos are on hand.”
At the beginning of October, Nevzlin again, forwards a message probably received from the same source, that everything is confirmed – “they [i.e. the shareholders of the Lithuanian company “IDS Borjomi” Mikhail Fridman and Aven] are breaking the law”. “We are preparing headlines stating that “Borjomi” is sponsoring the war (too loud, but factually and legally indisputable)”, Nevzlin informs about the plans.
In mid-November, Nevzlin informs Blinov that the Latvian guys have asked him to forward a message in which the names of the “Borjomi” campaigners appear for the first time. It mentions that applications have been submitted to the Lithuanian and Latvian prosecutor’s offices for violation of the sanctions regime by “IDS Borjomi Europe”, a company controlled by Aven and Fridman.
In Lithuania, the application was submitted by journalist Leonīds Jākobsons, and in Latvia by Dmitry Savvin, chairman of the board of AREM, the association supporting Russian emigrants.
Both the owner of kompromat.lv, Jākobsons, and Savvin, who has just acquired Latvian citizenship, have confirmed on the social media that there have indeed been such applications.
In total, since autumn last year, four videos addressed to Aven have been posted on Savvin’s Facebook page – both challenging him to a “Latvian language duel” and asking him questions about “Borjomi”.
His videos have indeed received a few “thumbs up” from the members of the Latvian Saeima, such as Juris Viļums and Artūrs Butāns.
“Mr. Aven does not approve of what we do”
De Facto claims that what makes it even more plausible that Nevzlin was informed of Savvin’s activities in advance is the fact that the association “Bonum Publicum”, founded by Savvin and Jākobsons, received a donation of EUR 22 000 last year from the Lithuanian-based “Cooperation for Democracy” foundation. Information on its website shows that the founder of the foundation with EUR 1.7 million turnover last year is Nevzlin.
Savvin, who arrived in Latvia as a politically persecuted refugee before 2015, claims that he is only targeting Aven because he considers him to be a representative of the “Fifth Column” and categorically denies any communication with Nevzlin. Savvin allegedly did not know about the donation to his foundation, because he is only an employee of “Bonum Publicum”, while Jākobsons is the board member, De Factor continues.
He also claims that he does not know who the anonymous donor from Switzerland is, who gave EUR 47 000 to AREM last year. Savvin refuses to look at the correspondence that mentions it.
“It’s all clear to me. It’s all clear! I see that there is an FSB [Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation] provocation, I see that there are Aven’s lobbyists, I see that it is an FSB special operation. I don’t know about Mr. Nevzlin either, but we are waiting for replies from the prosecutor’s office and from the court. When we have the replies, there will be a subject for discussion. At the moment, there is no subject at all.
But I see and I like it very much that Mr. Aven – Hello, privet, Petr! – that Mr. Aven does not approve of what we do”, Dmitry Savvin told De facto.
Leonīds Jākobsons, citing family commitments, did not respond to De facto’s questions – both about the donation from the Nevzlin Foundation and about the fact that Bonum Publicum’s activities coincided with Nevzlin’s disclosed plans.
Both Jākobsons and Savvin, immediately after the release of the FBK film about Nevzlin on Facebook, were quick to call it a provocation ordered by the Russian secret service and/or Aven.
A few days later, Savvin released a trailer for a documentary about Aven called “Hybrid Citizen”, which will also feature drone footage from Klauģu muiža, the real estate owned by Aven through a chain of companies in Madona County of Latvia.
Aven, who still does not give interviews to the Latvian media, allegedly knew that he was being targeted by Nevzlin even before the film was released, De facto reports.
This became known to Aven’s representative Igor Bass from Anatoly Blinov himself, who was a party to the correspondence.
“The man in question called and met me in Latvia in June this year, indicating that he had information not only about Nevzlin’s plans for Volkov, but also about activities that could be directed against Aven over a long period of time. I categorically rejected the offer to buy this kind of information and have ceased all contact with this person”, said Igor Bass, Director of the Petr Aven Charitable Foundation “Generation”.