Latvia perceives and assesses the accusations voiced in the video created by the team of Alexei Navalny, who died in prison, in which they claim Latvian law enforcers may have accepted bribes from former representative of the management of Russian oil company Yukos Leonid Nevzlin in exchange for repressive actions against Kremlin’s opposition very seriously, said Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
He said he has not seen the video in question, but he does know about its contents. “I can tell you that there are certain facts in [the film], but they are absolutely not related to this event. Completely different activities carried out in the framework of criminal proceedings, and an inspection has been carried out there, there is nothing to do with this,” said the minister.
So far, according to Kozlovskis, the creators of the video have “put together a cocktail” of various facts in an attempt to play some game. As a result, the accusations addressed against Latvian law enforcers seem false at first glance. Nevertheless, this information will be studied in more detail. Once results are available, relevant information will be reported to residents.
As reported, a video released last week by Navalny’s associates claims that they have received Nevzlin’s correspondence, which details that in March 2024, he organized an attack on Leonid Volkov. On top of that activities in question had allegedly involved employees of Latvian law enforcement institutions.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) has also found out from Nevzlin’s correspondence that he was involved in organising the attack on the director of the foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, in Geneva, and the wife of economist Maxim Mironov, Alexandra Petrachkova, in Argentina.
The video also contains allegations that Nevzlin, along with co-conspirator Anatoly Blinov, by bribery, has succeeded in bringing a criminal case against the former FBK CEO Vladimir Ashurkov in Latvia.
In their correspondence, the two also discussed the Riga prosecutors, who were supposedly helping them. The FBK claims that it did not believe it, but Ashurkov himself told them that in March he was called to the police in London as a witness, where they were interrogated by Latvian police investigators and a prosecutor of a Riga district together with British police officers.
The press secretary of the Latvian Prosecutor’s Office, Aiga Eiduka, confirmed to LETA that the Prosecutor’s Office is aware of the documentary available in the public space, which claims, among other things, that
the team of the former co-owner of “Yukos” Mikhail Khodorkovsky bribed Latvian police officers and prosecutors in order to initiate criminal proceedings against Russian opposition.
The prosecution office will not comment on the claims made in the video until a full evaluation has been performed.
The Public Relations Department of the State Police (VP) told LETA that the VP are informed about the video and the statements made therein, which also concern the police. “We categorically reject the allegations of alleged police corruption. While the competent authorities carry out the assessment, the State Police will refrain from further comment,” the police stated.
The prosecution office and State Police did not comment on the claims as to whether or not Latvian law enforcers were present during Ashurkov’s interrogation in Britain.
According to the head of the International FBK Maria Pevchiha, an offer to tell about the attack on Volkov was sent to the general postal address of the foundation. In a conversation with Pevchuk, the source of this information appeared as Andrejs Matus. The FBK calls him a “case handler” (in Russian criminal slang – [решала] reshala), or a person with ties to the authorities, who can solve various problems with the help of bribes.
According to Matus, for the last three years he has been working for Khodorkovsky. Nevzlin was Vice-President of Yukos, and Khodorkovsky calls him one of his closest associates and friends.
Matus handed Nevzlin’s correspondence with Volkov and Zhdanov during a personal meeting in Montenegro. FBK asked project journalist Mikhail Maglov and investigative journalist Khristo Grozev for help in checking correspondence. After studying the correspondence and comparing it with publicly available information, they confirmed its authenticity.
The correspondence also contains video footage of the attacks on Zhdanov and Petrachkova, which have not been published anywhere until now.
Nevzlin has corresponded with a person whose data coincides with that of lawyer Anatoly Blinov, according to the journalists and FBK. According to the publication of investigative journalism “Agenstvo”, Blinov was a member of the board of Gazprom Media, once defended the journalist Sergei Dorenko and now lives in Poland. In a conversation with FBK, Matus called Blinov “our man in Riga”. It was Nevzlin who gave him instructions to organize an attack on Volkov, according to FBK.
The original plan, according to the correspondence uncovered by FBK, was to kidnap Volkov in Lithuania, bring him to Russia and hand him over to the Federal Security Service (FSB) there. In the e-mails that Blinov sent to Nevzlin in October 2023, he calls Volkov a “parcel”, says he is carrying out surveillance, and proposes a “corridor” to take Volkov out of Riga by sea. For this plan, Blinov asks Nevzlin 12 000 euros to “rent two ships plus fuel in the region and Riga” and pay for work. However, this plan was never executed for unkown reasons.
Then in November, when Volkov flew to the United States, Blinov sent his man after him. He wrote to Nevzlin, “Minimum task – conflict, minor bodily injury and deprivation of personal documents, maximum – wheelchair”. Nevzlin asked if the chair would interfere with the “delivery of the parcel”, but then agreed to the “permanent chair” option. In the end, the attackers did not find the right moment for the attack in New York and continued to follow Volkov when he returned to Vilnius.
On the 12th of March, Leonid Volkov was attacked near his home in Vilnius. When the politician arrived there in his car, an unknown person attacked him, sprayed tear gas and began to hit Volkov with a hammer. After the attack, the politician was taken to the hospital with a fractured arm and several bruises to his leg.
However, Nevzlin, as Andrejs Matus told Volkov and Ivan Zhdanov himself during the meeting that he was dissatisfied that Volkov was not beaten hard enough. According to Matus, Nevzlin had to pay USD 250 000 for the attack, of which USD 150 000 was for the attackers. However, according to Matus, the money was not paid. Afterwards, Blinov and Nevzlin began to make mutual claims against each other. As a result, Nevzlin asked Matus to take away the phones used to organize Volkov’s assault from Blinov and his assistants. Matus did this and handed them over to FBK.
FBK and journalists claim that in addition to beating Volkov, Nevzlin was also involved in the attack on Ivan Zhdanov in Geneva in June 2023 and the attack on economist Maxim Mironov’s wife Aleksandra Petrachkova in Argentina on the 1st of September, 2023. According to correspondence, the attack on Petrachkova was caused by statements made by Mironov, in which he criticised Nevzlin and Khodorkovsky.
Navalny’s associates admit that Matus’ motives are still unclear to them. After meeting with Volkov and Zhdanov, he promised that he would also send them the correspondence with Nevzlin, among other things. However, Matus then stopped contacting them. “He quickly realised that it would not be possible to sell all these materials to us – we just don’t have as much money as he wants,” FBK writes. The Nevzlin correspondence was published on the 6th of September by the Russian propaganda mouthpiece, the RT television channel, which claimed to have received it from a “source of opposition” living in exile in Lithuania. RT’s contact claimed that Blinov handed over the correspondence to him “for fear of his life” because Nevzlin’s people threatened him.
Nevzlin, in a conversation with FBK, denied his involvement in any attacks. “I did not order [the kidnapping] of Volkov, I did not order [the attack] on Mironov, I did not order any corridors,” FBK quotes him as saying. Nevzlin has told the Sota channel on Telegram app that he has nothing to do with the attacks on these people and promised to comment in detail later when he gets acquainted with the materials.
FBK was not able to contact Khodorkovsky to get his comment.
Khodorkovsky said after the FBK investigation was released that he was not aware of any information about the attacks on Volkov, Zhdanov and Petrackov “outside of what has been published in open sources”. “As for the allegations against Leonid Nevzlin made on the basis of the information published by “Russia Today”, two assumptions can be made. Either it’s true or Leonid Nevzlin is insane. Or it’s an FSB provocation and a fake that cost a lot of money,” Khodorkovsky writes. According to him, Maria Pevchuk “confidently chooses the first version”, while he himself “for perfectly understandable reasons” leans towards the second. However, Khodorkovsky added that he is “ready to accept the results of investigations of law enforcement agencies and courts of democratic countries”, even if they do not coincide with his version.