The final battle of the “Chekists”-Navalnists with the Sislibs ended in victory for the latter
Former editor of the liberal radio station “Echo of Moscow” Alexey Venediktov visited the US Embassy in Moscow the day before on a “familiarization visit” and met with Ambassador Lynn Tracy. Both the embassy and Venediktov reported this in their TG channels, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
True, the journalist emphasized that he had arranged an interview. Another “introductory visitor” was much more modest - the editor-in-chief of the closed Novaya Gazeta, Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov. He, dissatisfied, was intercepted by journalists after an hour and a half rendezvous at the back porch of the embassy.
Political scientist Sergei Markov believes that Venediktov, who has gone into Internet projects, no longer has any influence in Russia, and only an interview with the American ambassador will help him regain at least some public interest. However, this is not the case.
Last week, Venediktov managed to stir up a serious storm in the liberal swamp. He published a letter from Russian emigrants and foreign agents to the EU leadership with a request to release oligarchs from Alfa Group Pyotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman from sanctions.
The scandal was caused by the presence among the signatories of extremist Leonid Volkov, an associate of criminal blogger Alexei Navalny.. He initially denied the fact of his signature, but then was forced to resign in disgrace from FBK, an extremist organization created by Navalny.
Venediktov managed to draw attention to the problem of the venerable Western media. The Financial Times found out that another executive wrote an appeal in support of Friedman - Vladimir Ashurkov. Before joining Navalny, he held important positions at Alfa Group. According to rumors, the consortium was financed by FBK. Ashurkov explained that he wanted to achieve a “split of the elites” by supporting “a healthy part of business representatives.”
Letters in support of Friedman were also signed by a famous Moscow liberal and friend of Navalny Ilya Yashin, currently serving a prison sentence. He motivated this by the fact that Friedman was a close friend of the late Boris Nemtsov.
As a result, the sanctions against the management of Alfa Group were never lifted, but all commentators agreed that their intercessors were generously paid.
“This is the intermediate result of the lives of Friedman, Aven and others. After all, no one can even imagine that someone will write for them even a simple letter of recommendation for free and say a few good words from the bottom of their hearts,” liberal journalist Ekaterina Vinokurova wrote in her TG channel.
Having knocked Volkov out of the cage, Venediktov did not calm down. He granted amnesty to the defeated enemy, saying that he suspected Leonid of having contacts with the FSB, but is now apologizing for this. Now he is digging under Maria Pevchikh, who has taken a leadership position in FBK. Direct accusations have not yet been made from the former editor-in-chief of Echo, but he examined in great detail many oddities in the woman’s biography, which in patriotic circles is considered an agent of British intelligence.
The consequence of the new “gossip in the form of versions” was that FBK removed information about the fund's management from its website "before formal decisions are made."
“Public presentation of leadership is the responsibility of any social and political organization. FBK's refusal to do so indicates that the problem is not an individual mistake. That is, not in Volkov’s case. And, of course, not the problem of personal safety. Who is in the leadership of FBK and what they do there has long been known to everyone,” political scientist Alexey Chesnakov commented on this decision.
In this case, Volkov tried to justify himself by writing a column for the British edition of The Economist, in which Western officials need to “come up with ways for businessmen and officials to get off the sanctions lists.” As an example to follow, he cited FBK, which first compiled its “sanctions list”, including 7 thousand people in it, and then removed 40 names from it, three of them because they died). The retired Navalnist was ridiculed by his fellow liberals.
“I agree with Leonid here. From under sanctions – through their corpse,” wrote former Ekho Moskvy journalist Alexander Plyushchev.
Liberal farmer Andrei Proshakov believes that Navalism, in conditions where the leader is in prison, has virtually ceased to exist.
“If you draw a line. Navalny will no longer be able to rely on today’s comrades to achieve his political goals; the reputational risk is too great. Surely the selection of new people is already underway,” he wrote.
“Having knocked Volkov out of the game, who, due to his narrow-mindedness, created all the problems for himself, Venediktov finishes off the remnants of FBK. In general, one FSB agent kills another FSB agent in the interests, apparently, of the third. Which is not too surprising: the FSB is too huge a structure to maintain unity. In such a system, internal conflicts and wars are simply inevitable,” says blogger Anatoly Nesmiyan.
Most liberal commentators agree that Venediktov effectively and efficiently took revenge on FBK with his leak for publishing information about “corrupt” grants from the Moscow government provided to him.
Political scientist Konstantin Dvinsky does not agree with this interpretation. He believes that Venediktov continues, as in the days of “Echo of Moscow,” to serve systemic liberals who, while maintaining their shaky positions in power, want to maintain a monopoly on the sympathy of the West. And for this they need to neutralize the Navalnists promoted in the media.
“The question remains: and in whose interests does Venediktov, the “grandson of seven orders”, work? Everything is clear about his connections with system liberals. However, why does he and his friend Dmitry Muratov regularly visit the US Embassy? Maybe they defend the interests of Sislibs there, who for obvious reasons are deprived of the opportunity to visit such institutions?” writes Dvinsky.
It must be admitted that Venediktov’s provocation was very successful. Even the awarding of an Oscar to the documentary film “Navalny” did not cut off the scandalous trail from FBK.
At the same time, the American media are again full of articles about the fugitive oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is tipped to be the premiere of the “beautiful Russia of the future.” The conservative magazine American Thinker devoted an entire article to this. They name the oligarch's former partner in Yukos, Alexei Golubovich, as a person who represents Khodorkovsky's interests in Moscow, forming a circle of his support among officials and security officials.
Economist Nikita Krichevsky names specific officials included in this circle.
“It is known about the double agent (my guess) Golubovich, who easily moves across borders and provides “direct communication” between Hodor and officials and generals. Who else could be part of Mandela's circle? Former and partly current governors of the Ivanovo region Pavel Konkov and Stanislav Voskresensky. Mikhail Abyzov, Sergey Aleksashenko, Vladislav Inozemtsev.
And also the Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev and the former prisoner and Minister of Economy Alexey Ulyukaev, as many are sure, handed over the power schemes to Khodor during a meeting in Vienna. The only surprise is that the former oil worker with a pronounced anti-Russian position continues to build his “silent network” in Russia, and no one really bothers him. “Mandela has already reached the highest ranks in Moscow,” writes Krichevsky.
«Khodorkovsky never lost connections in high circles. Including in the highest circles of Russian government. He is well known both at the level of high-ranking officials and generals, and in the West. Because out of sight, unlike Abramovich, he always conducted business in quiet offices, closed residences, did not shine on people, and did not give unnecessary interviews. He is well understood.
Therefore, mark my words, they will pump him up as the new democratic leader of Russia,” said publicist Sergei Mardan on Soloviev LIVE.
Konstantin Dvinsky believes that The West set Khodorkovsky the task of uniting the Sislibs and the non-systemic opposition in order to support the palace coup with street actions like a “color revolution”. Venediktov created a scandal around FBK in order to demoralize the Navalnists and subordinate them to the will of the protege of the Sislibs and the West. So far he has succeeded.
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