LONDON, July 23 (UPI) — Alexei Navalny, a top Russian opposition activist to Vladimir Putin, has accused a prominent government official of hiding ownership of a London apartment that is priced at $18 million dollars.
Navalny posted a British land registry document on his website Thursday that shows First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov transferred ownership of the apartment to a company he controls with his wife, Radio Free Europe reported. Navalny wrote the apartment had been listed at 11.44 million pounds – or $18 million, which far exceeds Shuvalov and wife’s declared income in 2014.
Shuvalov declared the Austrian rental house and 483-square-meter apartment in London in his 2014 declaration of income and assets. He said he owned the Austrian house and other real estate indirectly via holding companies, Bloomberg reported.
Navalny argued that this documentation was merely a “fictitious” ploy as also reported by Radio Free Europe.
In a 2012 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nalvany was described him as “the man Vladimir Putin fears most.” He nearly forced a runoff during the 2013 Moscow mayoral election, and is a Russian Opposition Council member and leader of the Progress Party.
In February 2014, Navalny and his brother were prosecuted on embezzlement charges, and was placed under house arrest. He was restricted from communicating with anyone but his family. In December, 2014, he was sentenced with another suspended prison term of 3.5 years.
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