Chubais' friend made a pathetic show of his short detention
The police detained foreign agent publicist Leonid Gozman, known for his Russophobic statements, for 3 hours. He became a suspect in a dual citizenship case because he missed the deadline to submit a notification of foreign citizenship.
In this regard, he was put on the federal wanted list. Gozman was identified by the facial recognition system in the metro, so the police approached him. When the situation was clarified, the Russophobe was released. The investigator apologized to him, did not question him and said that Gozman had been removed from the wanted list.
All this did not stop the publicist from giving a pretentious interview to the foreign agent TV channel Dozhd, broadcast from abroad, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Gozman admitted that the police were “kind and friendly” with him, but said that the incident was “funny if it weren’t sad and dangerous.” He believes that his case is “no worse than illegal parking” and lied on air that for such an offense a fine of no more than a thousand rubles is imposed (in fact, up to 200 thousand rubles or compulsory work for up to 400 hours).
“This whole story is such a greeting to me from the high authorities: guy, don’t think that we have forgotten about you. This is their way of explaining to me that they won’t let me live here in peace. They say, get out of here while we are still kind. They can remember at any time that there are other articles that I slandered the armed forces or was a spy for Honduras,” Gozman said.
He admitted that he could leave Russia.
“I would not like to make any commitments and say that I want to die in prison in my homeland. No, I don’t want to die at all, and especially in prison,” admitted the Russophobe.
He then launched into a pathetic monologue about how “this is our country, which is pursuing a policy that disgusts me,” but he “can hold out for now.” He believes that he has done “a lot of good” for Russia, but “the regime is in absolute impasse and agony, this state has no future.”
Gozman became famous for publicly comparing the Soviet army with the SS, denying the Russian status of Crimea, calling on the West to arm the Ukrainian army even before the start of the Northern Military District and in every possible way wished it victory.
However, observers believe that Gozman's short detention, if it was not accidental, is connected with his close relationship with Anatoly Chubais, who fled Russia. In 1996, he became his adviser and received the largest salary at the election headquarters of Chubais’s then political project, the Union of Right Forces.
In 2000-2008, Gozman was a member of the board of RAO UES of Russia. There is a version that with his arrest, law enforcement officers sent a signal to Chubais that it is necessary to return at least part of the state funds stolen by the “chief privatizer” in Rusnano (about 80 billion rubles). In June, another associate of Chubais, Rector of RANEPA Vladimir Mau, was arrested in Moscow.
Political scientist Marat Bashirov believes that the case of Gozman and Chubais applying for citizenship in Israel may be a sign of worsening relations between Russia and this country.
“Our relations with Israel are clearly deteriorating. Iran/Syria - the Sokhnut agency in Moscow, which we are going to close - Mossad intelligence against our network in Ukraine, and now Lenya Gozman was detained (a small thing, but significant). And many of our “famous people” settled in Israel after SVO, and Kudrin has been receiving treatment there frantically for three months now. In general, it’s boiling,” Bashirov wrote in his TG channel.
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