Russian Central Election Commission Publicly Roasted Grudinin and the CPRF (Ruslan Ostashko)

 Translated by Scott Humor, subtitled by Leo

 

 

The Central Election Commission of Russia (CEC) refused all attempts by the Communist Party to bring a former Presidential candidate, Pavel Grudinin, into the Duma. The CEC did this by adhering to the letter of the law they themselves implemented.

The Communist Party has long been called the “Commercial Party of Russia” by the social media. And witnessing the efforts of the CPRF longtime leader Gennady Zyuganov pushing a typical oligarch Grudinin into the Duma, it is difficult to disagree with this notion.

After the CEC responded to the tenacity of the head of the “Commercial Party” with a well-reasoned denial of his candidacy, the paid activists and Runet trolls raised hell on the social networks claiming that “the authorities are afraid of Grudinin,” and that they are throwing a wrench in his, otherwise, well-oiled wheel.

Social media activists in this case are not very smart or quick-witted, otherwise they would have watched the CEC video of this very meeting. But I didn’t get lazy, so I watched it and decided to share with you a few fragments.

Here is a speech of one of the members of the Commission debating whether a person who had foreign bank accounts during the registration period can receive the mandate of a state Duma deputy.

*Clip starts*

Please, provide us…http://cikrf.ru/vid/archive/meeting/42441/ Please, provide us with a statute of the law, on the Status of a Member of the Federation Council and a Deputy of the State Duma.

http://council.gov.ru/en/structure/council/status/member_law/

Document on screen

Article 4. Early termination of the powers of a member of the Federation Council and a deputy of the State Duma

1. The powers of a member of the Federation Council and a deputy of the State Duma shall be terminated early in the following cases:

Please, pay special attention to the last sentence. “termination… upon…

B. 3) the establishment of cases involving the opening (existence) of accounts (deposits) and the storage of cash and valuables in foreign banks located outside the territory of the Russian Federation and the ownership and/or use of foreign financial instruments: with respect to a member of the Federation Council –

I underline this point…”at the time of the consideration by the legislative (representative) state body of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation of the member’s nomination for the conferral of the powers of a member of the Federation Council or a corresponding nomination for the position of the highest official of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

End of document

I emphasize that the powers of a member of the State Duma or the Federation Council shall be terminated early in the following cases:

If during the period when he [Grudinin] was registered as one of the candidates for the election of deputes of the State Duma, I underline this, in the period of his registration as a candidate, it was established that his accounts weren’t closed, and had ready cash storing in foreign banks located outside of Russia. He also used other financial instruments.

Not right now, as he’s working as a deputy. But back then, when he was registering as a candidate.

I also want to remind you one phrase, with your permission I will read it: ‘We are fighting against corruption, our campaign which has been around for almost 10 years, we’re fighting against the transfer of our wealth abroad, and in this context this law is highly important. Furthermore, the Western influence on our government managerial structures has also be considered. Partially, this problem is solved by this very important law. I repeat, this law is, undoubtedly, anti-corruption measure. In addition, if our ministers, State Duma deputies have their money here, in Russian banks, it means that our economic situation is stable. But, this is also a precedent. We’re probably for the first time introducing limitations not on the ordinary citizens of Russia, not for the country as a whole, but for ourselves nevertheless,’ End quote.

I had just quoted the statement made by the member of the CPRF Anatoly Lokot. The CPRF fraction of the Duma voted for this law almost unanimously, with only one member of the fraction voting against it. This law is not about our future, but about our past. That every one our actions leaves a footprint, and if a candidate left those footprints, this law allows us to revisit them.”

*End of clip*

I can’t find a word for this beautiful performance other than “well done.” Do you imagine the humor of this situation? There is a party that has an audacity to call itself a “Communist Party.” To somehow justify this name, the party actively supports the bill to ban foreign accounts for State Duma deputies.

But here comes a moment of truth: the party registers themselves a candidate that’s an oligarch, who at the time of registration, owned bank accounts abroad. In addition, he lied publicly that he didn’t own anything. And now these “damned” CEC officials are forced to point out this fact and evidence to these so-called Communists. Showing the evidence makes it not unfounded.

*Clip starts*

“Now, let’s revisit the question if there was anything in the past that prevent this candidate from becoming a deputy? Please, show the first [screenshot] slide. When the Prosecutor General office made a request to the Duma deputy to resign, we received this information, including the letter of one of those who were against appointment of Pavel Grudinin. The letter from the Prosecutor General official wasn’t directed to us, so it wasn’t a document for us to act upon. We forwarded their letter to the Federal Tax Authorities. I have to remind you that Pavel Grudinin during the period of his registration made the following statement (on the screen) to the CEC: I don’t own any foreign accounts, I don’t own any foreign properties, and in general I am pure as an angel.

Next slide, please. The CEC don’t have it’s own mechanism to investigate the potential candidates and their claims, so the CEC registered Pavel Grudinin as a candidate. After the Federal Tax Authorities conducted their own investigation, we received the following information.

Next slide, please. (8 seconds of no response.) Are you pausing it on purpose? (In the background) – Well yeah, it [computer freeze] doesn’t want to participate. It’s alright, it’ll work around itself.

We received the information about these nine foreign bank accounts… Please, continue the slide. A part of them were closed on August 19, 2016, so significantly past the time when he wrote the statement [of not having financial assets abroad], while others stayed opened till January 5, 2018. Question. Should we forget about the law that was adopted unanimously by the State Duma that any deputy violating this abroad banks law will be immediately chased away [fired] from the Duma?

Next slide, please. If we right now make a decision to allow Grudinin to receive a mandate of the Duma deputy, you would have to sack him the following day. Apart from this, it turns out that with this company [BONTRO LTD], Pavel Nikolayevich never provided any information about the company registered in Belize. (Information received from the Belize tax authorities.) Not during the time of the State Duma elections, neither when he was a candidate in the 2018 presidential election. And this company, until December 31, 2017, was 100% under his ownership. Grudinin has never filed any trust declarations with the Russian Tax Authorities. It’s possible that he still owns this company. Are we also going to pretend that it’s not there and purposely miss it?”

http://cikrf.ru/vid/archive/meeting/42441/

*End of clip*

Checkmate to a fake comrade from the “Commercial party.” No, I understand, of course, that you are used to oscillate with the general political line, which is a backbreaking even for a snake. But with Grudinin the CPRF publicly disgraced itself, when they registered this plantation owner as their candidate.

Quoting journalist Alexander Rogers, who wrote lucidly about what constitutes a so-called “Lenin Sovkhoz”:

“Pavel Nikolayevich Grudinin officially owns 42.87% of shares of JSC ‘Lenin State Farm’. The Belizean offshore company BONTRO Ltd., owned by HIM, owns 99% of the shares of LLC Universal Financial Company, which owns another 20% of the shares of the state farm. Thus, Grudinin alone owns 62.87% of shares of JSC ‘Lenin State Farm’. His relatives and friends own another 36.13% of the shares. Together it is 99% of shares of the ‘state farm’. In this connection, I have a logical question: what about ‘everything for the people’ and ‘people’s enterprise’? To those very people, the ‘Communist’ Grudinin left as much as a whole 1%? The breadwinner! The benefactor! A father!”

https://alexandr-rogers.livejournal.com/1129958.html

Yes, yes. Bontro Ltd. is the same company which ownership by Grudinin was discovered by the CEC only after the tax authorities’ investigation.

And now this person who lied about even the so-called “collective farm,” and about his foreign bank accounts, fake Communists are trying to get him into the State Duma, in violation of the law they themselves supported

Who said this is the theater of absurdity? These are the realities of modern sort of-Communism. From which the Communism is a privately owned brand.

If the CEC somehow broke the law having refused to transfer of the Duma mandate to Grudinin, then let the Left instead of complaining on the Internet, to go and prove this in court. Actually, the Commission told them this openly.

*Clip starts*

“The CEC works in the legal framework and not in some fantasy world. We don’t have the luxury to fantasize, because any of our decisions can be challenged in court, that’s why we are trying not make mistakes even in minor issues. If you doubt the fairness of our decision, you can go to court. The CEC for the past few years has not lost even one lawsuit. Not one.”

http://cikrf.ru/vid/archive/meeting/42441/

*End of Clip*

 

However, they may even decide to sue. Because they are already in such a degree of madness that any option is possible. But they will get defeated again. That is, they will simply begin to publicly smear what they have done in their pants in the situation with Grudinin on their heads.

The Communist Party of Russia has long needed to rename themselves the “Koprofazhsky Party of Russia.” As for the successors of Zyuganov, call the actor who played Pakhom in the legendary “The Green Elephant” (1999 film).

 

From the translator

To get an idea what kind of property is the Lenin Sovhoz in Moscow 99% owned by Grudinin and his family, watch this video. Two medieval castle looking buildings are kindergartens.

And photos on their Instagram

Inside 548 School. Unlike public schools in the US, schools in Russia are combined with elementary, middle and high school students studying in the same building.