Election campaign violations in Chelyabinsk region. Follow-up - 'Municipal scanner'

On September 9, the Anti-Corruption Initiative 'Municipal scanner' received a response to its complaint in regard to the election campaign financing of 'United Russia' party list in Chelyabinsk region.

Yesterday [September 7], the chairman of election commission in Chelyabinsk region I.A. Starostina responded to our petition in regard to illegal financing of election campaign of the party 'United Russia'.

First. The election commission informed that no violations were identified as a result of investigation.  'United Russia' received part of the funding from legitimate sources, the funds from illegal sources were returned.

However, at least in one case, Ms. Starostina was disingenuous. We are talking about the funds donated by the company LLC 'UNIFROST'. We would like to remind that 52% of the company is owned by the holding company Activa Holdings BV, registered in the Netherlands.

Under Paragraph 5 of Part 9 of Article 37 of the Law, if the share (contribution) of foreign entity in the authorised (reserve) capital of Russian companies exceeds 30 per cent by the official publication of Election Day, these companies are not authorised to contribute to election funds.

The holding does not disclose its beneficiaries, though the co-owner of the company is the vice-speaker of Chelyabinsk City Duma Ilya Mitelman - the son of the vice-speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Chelyabinsk region Semen Mitelman.

The election commission responded that the funds donated by 'UNIFROST' were returned. However it was done only on August 28 that is 4 days after the publication of information on funding and, by a strange coincidence, exactly the same day when the chairman of the Fund 'Golos-Ural' Yuri Gourmet addressed the election commission.

Photo: 'Municipal scanner'

It means that for many days, if not weeks, 'United Russia' could benefit from illegally obtained funds transferred to its accounts and, of course, use it for campaigning and cover other campaign expenses.

The fact that the funds were returned, as a result of petition, does not exempt 'United Russia' branch in Chelyabinsk from liability.

Second. Ilya Mitelman with his Dutch friends is still trying to make some donations to 'United Russia'. Maybe he owed them money, maybe it is a payment for future services, nevertheless now he came up with an idea of transferring funds in the name of LLC 'Kotinskaya'. The company is 100% owned by Elijah, but it does not have the authority to make independent decisions and is again owned by... LLC 'Unifrost'!

Thus, LLC 'Unifrost' had to make a decision to transfer funds from the company 'Kotinskaya'; LLC 'Unifrost' is owned by foreign entity. Such a scheme we perceive as an illegal attempt to avoid liability for the violations of election law.

As we disagree with such manipulations and inaction of Chelyabinsk election commission, we have sent to them a respective petition, as well as a copy of it to CEC, moerover we informed trade unions about the illegal funding of 'United Russia', as Chelyabinsk election commission has so far refused to consider it on the merits.

Moreover we insist that in the future a legal entity shoulbe be obliged to indidicate its VAT Identification Number in its reports and to specify not only the reason of paying back the funds, but as well as the contributor and the date of refund, just the same as the date of the contribution made by a legal entity.

The Source: Anti-Corruption Initiative 'Municipal scanner'