A probe started by the Corruption Prevention Bureau (KNAB) in 2022 has failed to find evidence to support public allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid Latvian politician Ainars Slesers (Latvia First), LETA was told at the anti-corruption bureau.
The KNAB inquiry was concluded without finding evidence of the allegations of a possible unlawful financing of a political party or other violations of the Law on Financing of Political Organizations (Parties), LETA was told at the bureau.
As reported, KNAB started the probe in the fall of 2022.
In the fall of 2022, Constitution Protection Bureau’s (SAB) Director Egils Zviedris said in an interview on Latvian Radio that as he left politics, Slesers had established a logistics and transport company together with Russian Railways. If Slesers was paid while working at this company, that is another matter, but the Constitutional Protection Bureau does not know anything about information reported by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, said Zviedris.
Zviedris said that he trusted Latvian authorities to verify Muratov’s statement. If Muratov has any evidence supporting his claim that Putin has paid Slesers, Zviedris would be grateful if this evidence was handed over to Latvian authorities.
Newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s editor Muratov claimed in a 2022 interview on Youtube channel Solodnikov that Putin had paid money to several western politicians, including Slesers, in the amount of EUR 1.5 million to EUR 2 million annually.
“When Russian President Vladmir Putin laughs at Western values, I understand why he does it. He knows the price of these values. He has many Western politicians working for him,” said Muratov, adding that every day of the war in Ukraine costs Russia EUR 500 million and Europe pays the same amount for energy resources.
According to Muratov, influential Western politicians have been recruited by the Russian state-owned company Rosneft on Putin’s instructions. Among these politicians, he named former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, whom Putin even visited at her wedding, former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Tapani Aho, former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, and former Latvian Transport Minister Slesers who is currently a member of the 14th Saeima.
Information about Slesers’ possible links to Russia emerged as early as February 2022, when Novaya Gazeta named 14 individuals while investigating Russian public joint stock companies’ links to foreign politicians including Slesers.
Source: BNS
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