November 25, 2010
Russian lawyer Alexey Navalny reveals a major corruption scheme in pipeline construction
Last week Russian lawyer Alexey Navalny published at his blog a report based on document evidence that managers of Transneft (Russian oil transportation monopoly) in cooperation with officials embezzled about $ 4 bln using fraud schemes in a major pipeline construction – ESPO. ESPO, or Eastern Siberia -- Pacific Ocean pipeline is the largest pipeline project in the post-soviet Russia. Total length is 4188 km, the project cost is estimated around $17 bln.
As Mr. Navalny comments, in his blog he published some documents which prove multiple violations and corruption. “Now we are preparing to sue the company (Transneft) and trying to launch criminal investigation against the executives. The problem is that the highest Russian officials were involved, so they are doing everything to squelch an investigation”.
The blog post prompted more than 10000 comments and a hot discussion over the internet but was completely ignored by government officials or Transneft representatives.
>>>Watch YouTube video (5 min) made to share information about this fraud. It's in Russian. English and German subtitles are available. Use "cc" (lower right corner) button to activate them.
>>>See the full blog post by Alexey Navalny (available in Russian only)
