The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating Nevzlingeit, investigative journalist Hristo Grozev told the Delfi portal. According to him, the correspondence between Nevzlin and Blinov contains evidence of corruption not only in Latvia but also in Lithuania and Poland. He suggests that the scandal may soon encompass Central European countries.
According to “Bellingcat’s” lead journalist on Russian issues, Hristo Grozev, in addition to the Polish prosecutor’s office and counterintelligence, as well as Lithuanian police, the U.S. FBI is also involved in the Nevzlingeit investigation. Grozev believes that the investigation will provide compelling evidence that the accusations made by Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) against Nevzlin are true. “When that happens, at least the uncertainty about whether it is true or not will disappear, and possibly more people will begin to understand why Maria Pevchikh and the FBK decided to make such a statement, which was not an easy decision.” It should be noted that Grozev was directly involved in initiating this international scandal, as he was the one who authenticated the correspondence between Leonid Nevzlin and Anatoly Blinov.
Khodorkovsky ready to “deliver packages to prison”
The Nevzlingeit scandal “exploded” on the 13th of September, a day after the FBK released a documentary about an attack on Navalny’s ally Leonid Volkov and its possible instigator. The correspondence published by the FBK between former Russian oligarch, co-owner of the oil giant “Yukos” Leonid Nevzlin, and former Russian lawyer Anatoly Blinov contains evidence that Nevzlin allegedly ordered attacks on three exiled Russian opposition figures — FBK leaders Leonid Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov, and the wife of Russian opposition economist Maxim Mironov, Alexandra Petrachkova.
The attacks took place in Lithuania, Switzerland, and Argentina. Assailants also followed Leonid Volkov in the United States and planned to attack him in New York, but it didn’t work out. This could explain the FBI’s involvement in the investigation. In conducting its investigation, the FBI linked Nevzlin’s actions to public attacks on the FBK by his former “Yukos” partner, ex-Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as well as to the fact that they jointly own funds that finance their political projects.
Nevzlin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky deny the accusations. However, last Thursday, Khodorkovsky stated that while the evidence against Nevzlin seemed credible to him, he didn’t believe it. He also expressed his readiness to “deliver packages to prison” for Nevzlin, Delfi writes.
The “Man from Riga”
The perpetrators — two Polish citizens and one Belarusian citizen — were arrested in Poland a month after the attack on Leonid Volkov (the attack took place in March of this year), and the day after the FBK’s report and the film’s release, the crime’s organizer Anatoly Blinov was arrested. According to Polish prosecutors, a total of eight people are involved in the case.
Anatoly Blinov is referred to as “the man from Riga” by FBK source Andrejs Matuss, who claims Blinov hired enforcers in Poland who attacked Volkov in Vilnius. The film also claims that Nevzlin managed to initiate a criminal case in Latvia against former FBK executive director Vladimir Ashurkov through bribery. This was discussed in the correspondence between Nevzlin and Blinov, which is in FBK’s possession. Ashurkov himself confirmed that in March, while in London, he was summoned as a witness to the police, where, in addition to British police officers, he was interrogated by Latvian police investigators and a prosecutor from a district in Riga.
More detailed results of the FBK investigation can be found on FBK’s website, navalny.com.
False and defamatory information was used
Grozev is convinced that the Nevzlingeit scandal threatens to expand: “There is evidence of corruption in many European countries, including Central Europe and Latvia. There is evidence of media corruption, where, according to the correspondence, the group agreed with media owners to publish false and defamatory information. Similar discussions are taking place concerning Poland and Lithuania. I believe these revelations will lead to even more consequences.”
In the film, FBK representative Maria Pevchikh also claims: “While Nevzlin is essentially trying to kill Volkov and destroy Navalny’s team, he and Blinov are conducting some kind of separate sabotage against other oligarchs. They are trying to revoke Gusinsky’s Spanish citizenship, publish some kind of compromising material on Aven and Fridman, and strip them of certain assets. We leave all this oligarchic squabbling aside. We are not interested in how one oligarch beats another.”
Meanwhile, based on part of the correspondence received by FBK, Latvian TV program “De Facto” reported which players from Latvia’s media and socio-political scene were involved in these oligarchic struggles. From the correspondence, it is clear that Nevzlin is the main interested party regarding “Gusinsky and Aven.” As “De Facto” notes, it is evident that these refer to former Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, who fled the country more than 20 years ago to escape Putin, and billionaire Petr Aven, who obtained Latvian citizenship and was later subjected to international sanctions, now residing in Latvia.
According to the correspondence, Leonid Nevzlin bribed the creator of the website kompromat.lv, Leonids Jakobsons, as well as Russian emigrant nationalist Dmitry Savvin. According to “De Facto,” Jakobsons and Savvin received €22,000 from the Lithuanian fund “Cooperation for Democracy,” which belongs to Nevzlin. The money was transferred as a donation to their company “Bonum Publicum.”
Jakobsons filed a police report in Lithuania against the company “IDS Borjomi Europe” owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch and Latvian citizen Peter Aven, while Savvin did the same in Latvia. Both accused him of violating the sanctions regime. They published their statements on social media.
Savvin and Jakobsons, in a joint statement on the website kompromat.lv, called FBK a “structure that consistently lobbies for the interests of Putin’s oligarchs” and denied any connection with Blinov. They consider the publications against Peter Aven to be “part of a national struggle against pro-Putin elements.”
Meanwhile, Petr Aven has filed a request with the State Police to initiate criminal proceedings against Savvin for knowingly spreading false fabrications and deliberate slander. Lawyer Janis Rozenbergs expressed that, according to his client, it is highly likely that the goal of spreading such false fabrications was to impose political and legal restrictions on Aven, not only in Latvia but also in Europe and other countries.