Alexei Navalny said in his video that the courageous accusers of Leonid Slutsky deserve respect

by Sarah Hurst

For International Women’s Day Alexei Navalny has published a video in which he says that MP Leonid Slutsky not only sexually harasses female journalists, but is also a psychopath who has amassed hundreds of fines for driving dangerously in his luxury cars. Slutsky has been accused in recent days by several journalists, including the BBC’s Farida Rustamova, who recorded his efforts to seduce her on a dictaphone. Slutsky touched her inappropriately and then said, “I don’t feel people up. Well, OK, just a little,” in response to her complaint. Yesterday Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that if journalists feel unsafe they should find another job.

Navalny praised the courage of Slutsky’s accusers and said that his corruption is another reason why he should resign from the State Duma. In 2011 Slutsky declared ownership of a Bentley Continental Flying Spur worth 13 million roubles when his annual income was just under 2 million roubles, Navalny said. In 2016 Slutsky also declared Bentley Bentayga worth 15-22 million roubles. On his salary Slutsky would have to have gone without eating, drinking or spending any money from 2012 to buy that car, Navalny noted.

Close to killing someone

Slutsky also owns a Mercedes S500, in which since June 2017 he has received 825 recorded traffic violations, Navalny said, showing 59 pages of evidence. “Yes, Slutsky travels with a driver, but it’s clear that the driver does the bidding of his boss, a VIP with immunity,” Navalny said. “I don’t understand by what miracle MP Slutsky hasn’t killed anyone yet in his Mercedes, but at least five times each working day he gets extremely close to it.”

Slutsky has also lied about the size of his property in the prestigious Rublevka suburb of Moscow, Navalny said. He declared a house on land totalling 1,200 square metres, but in fact the size is 2,800 square metres, with an additional undeclared hectare of land next to it being leased by Slutsky, Navalny said.

“MP Slutsky is a disgrace. Literally the worst of the worst. We the taxpayers have been paying this scumbag a salary for 19 years, which by the way has been 450,000 roubles a month ($7,905) recently,” Navalny concluded. As for the sexual harassment, Navalny showed a clip of Slutsky saying: “It never happened. No woman has ever complained.”

Meanwhile, even Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said today that she had to reprimand Slutsky once for speaking to her inappropriately, and women have been picketing against Slutsky outside the State Duma. Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov has said that he will not interview Slutsky until the MP apologises to his accusers on air.