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Russian Protest Leader Navalny Charged in New Probe

Russian protest leader and virulent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Thursday investigators had slapped him with fresh charges of fraud and money laundering in a new probe that also involved his brother.

"Fraud on an especially large scale and laundering. I criminally founded a firm that offered services," Navalny sarcastically wrote on his Twitter account, moments before Russia's powerful Investigative Committee announced the charges on its website.

"Alexei and Oleg Navalny have been charged with fraud and money laundering," the investigators said in their statement.

The charges, part of the second major investigation launched against Navalny, came after the charismatic lawyer and protest leader was detained on Saturday at an unsanctioned opposition rally against President Vladimir Putin.

The Investigative Committee announced on December 14 ahead of the rally that it had opened a new probe into Navalny and his brother.

The two "embezzled 55 million rubles ($1.8 million, 1.3 million euros) from a trading company" and transferred some of the money to another firm they owned to launder the funds, it said.

The Investigative Committee, a powerful agency equivalent to the American FBI, already had one financial case open against Navalny, who came to fame with a website exposing official corruption.

In the other case, he is accused of causing a loss of 16 million rubles to the budget of Kirov region when he advised regional officials in a timber deal.

Navalny is also a witness in a probe into an opposition rally on May 6, one day before Putin was inaugurated for his third Kremlin term. The protest ended with clashes between demonstrators and police and hundreds of detentions.

Navalny's apartment and office has been searched in the probe and he regularly goes in for questioning.

Navalny wrote on Monday that he had signed an undertaking not to leave Moscow during the latest investigation. He signed a similar agreement in July as part of the probe into the timber deal, but which also allowed him to visit the region surrounding Moscow.

His brother Oleg has not been involved in any public political activities.

Investigators have charged Oleg Navalny with carrying out the crimes while working in a subsidiary of Russian Post, a company closely affiliated with the government.

Investigators allege that Oleg Navalny used "deception" and his position at Russia's postal service monopoly to convince a trading company to sign an agreement for cargo shipping services with a firm created by Alexei Navalny.

The shipping services were to be provided "at deliberately inflated prices", investigators said, alleging that the firm had another company actually carry out the contract from August 2008 to May 2011.

Source: Agence France Presse


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