Russian Opposition Figure Navalny Lodges Complaint Against President Putin

Ivan Zhdanov, a lawyer for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, said that Russian Opposition Figure Alexei Navalny filed a lawsuit, based on allocation of $1.75 billion from the Russian National Wealth Fund to the Russian petrochemical giant Sibur, against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian Opposition Figure Alexei Navalny filed a lawsuit against Russian President Vladimir Putin, a lawyer for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation said Thursday.

The lawsuit is based on allocation of $1.75 billion from the Russian National Wealth Fund to the Russian petrochemical giant Sibur. Kirill Shamalov, a major shareholder of Sibur, is reportedly husband to Katerina Tikhonova, which is alleged Putin's daughter, according to media reports.

"We consider the president's inactivity [in the allocation process] to be illegal, because when the funds were being appropriated, he failed to make his potential conflict of interest known, but [Russian] anti-corruption legislation obliges one to notify, even about a possible conflicts of interest," Ivan Zhdanov told RIA Novosti.

He added that Putin should have delegated the decision on the allocation to the government to avoid any conflicts of interest.

According to the lawsuit, on October 13, 2015, Putin signed a decree on the allocation of $1.75 billion to finance the construction of a petrochemical facility for Sibur.