Navalny denies funding corruption accusations

Alexei Navalny, who had hoped to be elected Moscow mayor in September, is under investigation by Russian prosecutors concerning his campaign funding, after Kremlin supporters alleged that he was receiving illegal donations from foreigners.

Navalny, who is a trenchant critic of Vladimir Putin, has denied the funding claims, stressing that donations to his campaign were all checked by the authorities.

The general prosecutor's office stated that it had found evidence of foreign donations for Navalny's election campaign, which it had passed on to the interior ministry, so that a criminal case could be opened. Russian law bans foreigners from funding Russian election campaigns.

Suspicions about his funding were raised by nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky - whose Liberal Democratic Party generally backs Kremlin policies in parliament - and by the pro-Putin United Russia party.

It is alleged that Navalny received donations from internet addresses in 46 countries, including the US, the UK, Finland, Switzerland and Canada.

The internet giant Yandex, which handles the contributions, said that Russian citizens could make perfectly legal payments while on holiday overseas.

On his LiveJournal blog on 12 August, Navalny said that "all payments come into a Sberbank bank account. All payments are checked by the Moscow City Electoral Commission.

"If they tell us that the payment is illegal, that the name, date of birth or citizenship is not stated - we return the money. That's it."

Last month Navalny, 37, was convicted and given a five-year jail term for embezzlement, though he was freed from custody pending an appeal.

The trial and jail term have been criticised by the US, EU and human rights groups as politically motivated.

Navalny is standing for election against the incumbent Moscow mayor and Putin supporter Sergei Sobyanin.

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