Having always been mildly curious about the topic, I decided to use my nonexistent financial and legal expertise to find out how much money Navalny's "anti-corruption foundation" makes and just what it is they spend it on - and it has been one extraordinary journey! 🧵
As a starting point, I figured I'd take a look at their official website - which while kind enough to list every payment method humanity ever managed to create as available to give them money - makes absolutely sure not to provide any kind of financial reports on that money (very much a standard when it comes to transparent NGOs and not-for-profit websites).
What the website does do, somewhere down below in a corner, with a font size possibly chosen out of a sincere desire to blind their inquisitive enemies, is mention a NY employer identification number (85-0774334).
The good news is that if one is sufficiently determined to navigate through the NY GOV website, you can use the EIN to finally dig up some financial statements.
The bad news is that Navalny's "anti-corruption foundation", fighting so very hard against the lack of institutional corruption and lack of transparency, last published any sort of financial info back in 2022, which, apart from being ironic - also looks solidly legal.
As per their last report, about 80% of their funds ($1.4 million out of approximately $1.8 million) were spent as "grant distributions", with every single cent of those "grants" being transferred to, as I am sure you all guessed it, an obscure Lithuanian NGO named POSTERUM.
The POSTERUM website looks like exactly what you'd imagine so much money can buy and has all elements needed to dispel any idea that this might be a money laundering operation or some sort of scam - it has exactly one page, a malfunctioning generic widget, some 3 lines about them promoting transparency in Russia and a crypto wallet for donations.
The crypto wallet listed on the website does indeed match the one Navalny's "anti-corruption foundation" uses and is linked to both their official website as well as merch shop, because of course they have a merch shop. Additionally, Volkov once promoted it on Twitter.
As of 2024, POSTERUM (which at one point purchased one of Leonid Volkov's companies) has 10 employees (all paid with around $4000), apparently deals with "YouTube content" and has a remarkable tax-free profit for a non-profit, about $4.5 million which just so happens to vanish into the void as soon as being made.
Upon checking the company's physical address in Lithuanian public registries, the exact same flat appears to be the HQ of so many NGOs and companies that I've become convinced this is the very center of Lithuanian economy.
Obviously, all the companies are owned by some slight variations of the very same Lithuanian name, Lapinskas, weirdly similar to Lapinskiene (Irene), which just so happens to be the head of the European branch of Navalny's foundation (also having this exact same place as HQ).
While I am no financial expert, as I've mentioned in the beginning, I think there's enough here even for a layman to see that something is not quite right here.
To whichever government or figure planning to give money, endorsement and a public platform to Volkov, Navalnaya, Pevchikh: maybe it is worth having just one deeper look into their financials beforehand.
While I am no financial expert, as I've mentioned in the beginning, I think there's enough here even for a layman to see that something is not quite right.
To whichever government or figure planning to give money, endorsement and a public platform to Volkov, Navalnaya, Pevchikh: maybe it is worth having just one deeper look into their financials beforehand.
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