1/ Disgraced Russian warblogger Roman Alekhin, who has been accused of fraud and money laundering, says that he is being set up by unknown parties and has pleaded his innocence despite a seemingly damning video showing him discussing embezzlement of aid donations. ⬇️ 
2/ Alekhin was caught on video discussing how to divert $600,000 of a $2.4 million donation and boasting of his own importance and connections with the Russian military. The story has been covered widely in the Russian media.
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1965458331663040785
3/ Alekhin now says that the video was recorded without his knowledge during a meeting in Kursk on 1 July with "representatives of a businessman" who wanted to make a large donation to "humanitarian aid" collections for Russia's front-line troops in Ukraine.
4/ The video was first published by the 112 Telegram channel, which appears to have close connections with the Russian security forces and is often the first to publish videos of interrogations and detentions. State-owned media channels subsequently publicised the video.
5/ Alekhin says that his volunteers received a call from representatives of “businessman [Alexander] Galitsky ,” who “is providing powerful assistance to the front.” They asked if they could make the donation through Alekhin's Blagodeteli foundation, his vehicle for fundraising.
6/ At the same time, he says, the representatives proposed to transfer 100 million rubles ($1.17 million) per month through the foundation with two-thirds of it being spent on medical equipment purchased through Galitsky's companies, at below-market prices.
7/ The remaining third would be used at the foundation's initiative, to purchase radios or other equipment for the army. Alekhin says that he was told that he would receive 10% less goods than were stated in the documents.
8/ He claims that he thought that this was intended to allow "the entrepreneur... to write off part of the goods from his company" and did not think that they were trying to "cheat" him. He says that he was working out ways to formalise the scheme, but was unsure of its legality.
9/ "Whoever wants to help the army is welcome. And how they will personally formalise the schemes, I don't care," he says. He claims that he was not intending to keep any of the donations for himself but was thinking only of the army.
10/ According to Alekhin, the 'representatives' also contacted other volunteer fundraisers to discuss the scheme. (The warblogger 'Two Majors' has said that other fundraisers were contacted but "harshly rebuffed" the approach.)
11/ He says that after the 112 channel published its story, Izvestia journalists burst into his office to demand an explanation. He claims that he could not imagine that the interest in the fund was fake.
12/ Alekhin denies any wrongdoing on his part and claims: "It is already clear that Alexander is not who he claims to be. And that he has nothing to do with helping the front lines."
13/ "People like him do not record conversations on hidden cameras and edit them into videos with the intention of exposing something, immediately releasing them across a network of channels that the volunteer community finds so distasteful.
14/ "But now that you have read this text in addition to watching the edited video, do you understand how it works? When the goal is to discredit someone, the video is edited in such a way as to evoke an emotion that no one will bother to rationalise.
15/ "After all, it is much easier to generate clickbait headlines that another military correspondent in the video agrees to grab 50 million intended for aid to the Special Military Operation (SVO)."
16/ While he has not (yet) been arrested, the Russian news agency TASS reports that according to law enforcement sources, "an investigation is being conducted against Alekhin in connection with possible fraud in aid to SVO fighters."
17/ The Kursk Region Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has told RBC that an investigation has been launched into the claims against Alekhin and, based on the results, "a decision will be made in accordance with the procedure established by law." /end
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