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The Investigative Committee is investigating a criminal case over large-scale embezzlement of Kirovless company property. Together with Aleksey Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov who are accused of the crime, the Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalev is an accomplice to the crime.

During the investigation Opalev pleaded guilty and concluded a pretrial cooperation agreement with the RF Prosecutor General. In this connection the criminal case against Opalev had been severed into a separate lawsuit and forwarded to district court in Kirov which heard it in special order. The court recognized the collected evidence sufficient and found Opalev guilty, passing a more lenient sentence due to the agreement. As for other accomplices in the case, it is on a finishing stage and after all the investigating and procedural operations are completed, it will also be forwarded to court in due order.

As for today’s information on initiating another criminal case and reaction to it of the former leadership of the Union of Right Forces political party, it should be noted that a political party is not a commercial organization, so the law provides for possibility to start criminal proceedings without an appeal from the victim. Investigators have established that the party was funded both by free donations from citizens and legal persons and by funds from the federal budget – 12,042,000 rubles, which the Moscow Directorate of Federal Treasury Ministry of Finance transferred to the account of the party in February 2007 as a government support in accordance with the current legislation. In connection with elimination of the party and the Allekt company, investigators have not found any bookkeeping documentation confirming that the money was spent on advertising. The Central Election Commission did not receive the finance report on spending 100 million rubles on advertising. When the union of Right Forces political party was eliminated no finance documents were taken to archives. Now the investigators are looking into all these circumstances.