Translated by Ollie Richardson

12:03:32
26/04/2017

life.ru

Structures under the control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky through Free Access One, z.ú., registered in the Czech Republic, spent in 2015 in support of oppositional projects, including — Alexei Navalny, about 16,355,000 Czech korunas, which is about 40 million rubles at the rate at that time.

As it follows from the financial statement (available at the disposal of Life) in Czech, the company is controlled by the offshore trust of the Davos Trust Company Limited located on the British Virgin Islands. It is necessary to note that the CEO of the trust of Davos is Mark Hudson Kelvin, he also simultaneously heads the trusts Corbiere Private Office Limited and MBK IP UK Limited under the control of Khodorkovsky.

The Czech firm Free Access One holds different events directed at drawing attention to the problem of the protection of human rights in the Russian Federation, and also drawing attention of the general public and implementation of political support for their protection. In Russia the organization cooperates with scientists, journalists, politicians, artists, and young activists by means of teleconferences, debates, panel discussions, documentary videos, training online and offline using video formats of new media when holding public campaigns.

Appearing in particular among the main projects designated in the financial report for 2015 is the support of the Institute of the Modern Russia (IMR) of Pavel Khodorkovsky, whose mission consists of supporting democratic, social, and economic development of Russia.

Also, the Czech structures of Mikhail Khodorkovsky support “Open election” — the electoral project of “Open Russia”. Moreover, the report also mentions a project affiliated with one of the pro-Western leaders of the Russian non-systemic opposition Alexei Navalny.

It is worth noting the fact that the company Free Access One, z.ú. is specified as a source of income of the candidate from PARNAS at the State Duma elections in 2016 Mikhail Schneider, which confirms the fact of financing a row of oppositional candidates by Khodorkovsky at State Duma elections of the current convocation.

Last week in the media with reference to the blogger Oleg Lurye it was reported that Navalny received $60,000 from the structures connected to Khodorkovsky. According to Lurye, the Estonian non-profit organization MTÜ Free Access HR, connected to Khodorkovsky, transferred this money to the closest associate of Navalny and the head of his campaign headquarters Leonid Volkov. Lurye published a copy of the contract dated 2015 between the Estonian MTÜ Free Access HR and Volkov on carrying out two pieces of research on the subject “Structures of Modern Russian Society”, the cost of each of which is $30,000.

Experts note that the revealed facts of Navalny receiving financing from Khodorkovsky’s structures contrasts with the opinions circulating in the oppositional environment concerning the tense relations between the two politicians, each of which applies for leadership in the ranks of non-systemic opposition.

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