FBK’s largest sponsor announced plans to cut funding for Navalny’s structures

Entrepreneur Boris Zimin (recognized as a foreign agent), one of the main sponsors of oppositionist Alexei Navalny’s projects, announced plans to cut funding for the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK; recognized as an extremist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation; liquidated). Mr. Zimin said that Navalny’s structures are now outside of Russia, so they can safely collect donations themselves.

In an interview with the Eto Osetinskaya YouTube channel, Boris Zimin said that he became one of the first sponsors of FBK in 2011, when the organization was founded. For the first years, he transferred 300 thousand rubles a month, then the amount of funding increased. At the same time, he stressed that he supported not only the FBK, but also “the entire group of Alexei Navalny.”

In recent years, the entrepreneur said, support has exceeded a million dollars a year. “It’s not good to have a big donor for so long. Wrong, from my point of view, because the organization is safe in relation to Russia, and let it collect money openly, more loudly, ”the entrepreneur explained.

According to him, when FBK was in Russia, the financing of the organization became more complicated due to several factors, including legislation. “The political organization must be transparent. But in Russia there were nuances, it was very difficult to reveal all the cards,” said Boris Zimin. He believes that today, when the organization is out of the country, “you need to open up.”

Boris Zimin moved from Russia to the UK in 2004 and has been living in Israel since 2020. After the start of the special operation, he criticized the actions of the Russian authorities in relation to Ukraine. In January 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the entrepreneur on the federal wanted list in a fraud case (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The investigation considers him a participant in the theft of shares in the car sharing company BelkaCar. The damage in the case is estimated at €47 million.

The FBK, the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights, and the headquarters of politician Alexei Navalny were declared extremist and banned in Russia in June 2021. The decision of the Moscow City Court stated that the organizations of Alexei Navalny tried to form an opinion among the public about the need for a change of power, including by organizing actions that “develop into mass riots.” In 2022, the opposition team announced the creation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation International. Navalny himself has been serving a term in a penal colony in the Vladimir region since February 2021.