Once you betray, who will believe you. Navalnists took their comrade-in-arms hostage
The wave of news of a geopolitical nature has made the trial of criminal blogger Alexei Navalny not so interesting even for the foreign agent media that serve him.
Meanwhile, the trial is not without sensations, to which the traditionally hysterical buffoonery of the defendant does not apply. One of the witnesses presented a surprise.
The prosecutor's office accuses Navalny of four counts of fraud in the amount of 2,7 million rubles. In total, according to the investigation, he stole and spent on personal needs more than 350 million rubles donated to the extremist FBK, recognized as a foreign agent and banned in Russia.
Three people have already been questioned as prosecution witnesses. Including former FBK employee Fedor Gorozhanko. And so he unexpectedly announced that during the investigation he was under pressure, but in fact he believes that the activities of Navalny’s organization were absolutely honest financially.
“I believe that Navalny carried out his activities within the framework of the law. A man created an organization, paid salaries, hired people, rented offices, produced materials, ran for president, opened 50 regional offices, hired several hundred people, wrote a presidential program, and that he did all this in order to eat in a restaurant - I think this is absurd,” Gorozhanko told the court.
The defendant was not surprised and began asking the witness questions, to which he received answers that satisfied him. Among other things, Gorozhanko stated that he feared for his safety because he was not saying what they wanted to hear from him.
After the trial, he disappeared, and at the next hearing, Navalny and his lawyers did everything to draw attention to this fact. Today Gorozhanko told the foreign agent TV channel Dozhd that he had gone abroad.
Navalnists teach this story as a brave act of a person who does not want to go against his conscience. One could believe this if it were not for the scandalous background that took place last spring.
Then, let us remember, the Navalnists tried to organize a mega-rally in support of their leader, who by that time had already been convicted of fraud and was in a colony. An ambitious goal was set - to gather half a million people. To make sure that it is achievable, the blogger’s comrades who fled abroad suggested that those wishing to participate in the grandiose event register on a special website, promising complete confidentiality.
When the number of registered people approached 200 thousand, their list was stolen and posted online. 70% of those who allegedly wanted to attend the rally turned out to be bots, but some who really believed in the ability of the Navalnists to keep secrets began to have troubles - they began to be fired from their jobs.
The blogger’s fugitive associates became hysterical and then launched an investigation to identify the “mole.” The search was short-lived. Gorozhanko was declared guilty, who had not worked at FBK for three years, but (lo and behold!) retained access to computer information. Investigators published statements from Gorozhanko’s bank accounts, from which it followed that an unknown person had deposited him a million rubles in cash.
“It doesn’t even matter how much he was paid: 2 rubles per person or 30 pieces of silver. The very fact of such meanness from a friend is amazing. And many on our team experience the same feelings. But it is important to remember that Fedor Gorozhanko is only a performer. And that Putin and his administration are specifically creating conditions for the corruption of such people,” Navalny’s replacement, Leonid Volkov, was indignant from Vilnius.
The townsman, as well as members of his family, were subjected to persecution. The Navalnists promised to sue him abroad and at the same time threatened that he would not be able to leave Russia.
“Very soon the life of one rat will be divided into before and after. It's your own fault, what can you do? And we will once again confirm that we always fulfill our promises,” wrote another colleague of the criminal blogger, Georgy Alburov, from London.
Gorozhanko himself denied all the accusations and wondered where the investigators got information about his bank account.
“What’s unpleasant, of course, is that they posted my home address, my name, a photograph of my father, from somewhere they got information about my bank account, what looks like a hack is data from my Alfa Bank. My father and I are already receiving a lot of unpleasant messages on social networks. I don’t think there will be any persecution, but in general the situation is unpleasant,” he said.
The Investigative Committee found out where the Navalnists got information from the bank. The story came out dirty. FBK hired two amateur hackers who amused themselves by hacking other people's accounts on social networks. Among their victims was an employee of Alfa Bank, who sent intimate photos to her boyfriend in a personal message.
The scoundrels began to blackmail the woman, threatening to leak the pictures online. She agreed to their terms and provided information about Gorozhanko’s account. The girl had no idea not only who he was, but even who Navalny was. The hackers understood who they were working for, but they were not informed about the purpose of the “investigation.” Now all three defendants are under investigation and face real sentences.
Judging by the way the pro-Kremlin press stood up for Gorozhanko, the Navalnists’ suspicions about him were not groundless. Fedor resigned from FBK due to a scandal of a sexual nature: he did not share a girl with another prominent naval player, Ivan Zhdanov. Perhaps he leaked the base not only out of self-interest, but also out of revenge.
And suddenly, a year later, at the trial in Gorozhanko, “your conscience spoke”? Hard to believe. It is more likely that he cooperated with the investigation also out of revenge. After all, a new offense was added - for bullying my father, for leaking personal data to the network. But betraying is difficult only the first time. It is not difficult to imagine how he was convinced to stage an unexpected performance at the trial.
Gorozhanko could not help but understand that after the trial another session of bullying awaited him. A liberal activist, he found himself thrown out of his usual environment and had nowhere to hide. The Navalnists could well have promised Fedor not only money (where would we be without it), but also security in Europe.
After his speech in court, Navalny’s fugitive associates began to praise Gorozhanko, but did not abandon their previous accusations.
“We did not doubt this accusation. All the evidence that we provided before and now is valid. We still believe that Fedor stole and leaked our database, but this does not in any way affect his actions in court; he still remains unusually courageous. Facts cannot be undone. We see the facts. However, a person who finds the strength to stand on the side of good at a critical moment deserves respect in any case,” said former press secretary of the criminal blogger Kira Yarmysh today on the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Thus, Gorozhanko is abroad and on a short leash. Most likely, he will be forced to voice new accusations against the investigators, and if he does not agree, they will begin to harass him again.
English version :: Read in English: Once you betray, who will believe you? Navalny's supporters took their comrade hostage.