Perm official admits to financing Putin’s campaign through charity foundation
In January 2024, a court in Perm sentenced Elena Lobanova to four years in a penal colony for embezzling 67 million rubles from the accounts of the charity foundation "Cooperation XXI Century," which had been established by the authorities. She submitted her appeal to the Perm Krai Court in April 2024.
According to Lobanova, the foundation's money was used to pay agitators and political consultants. However, the court documents did not specify which campaign benefited from these expenditures.
Elena Naidenova, the former head of the foundation, asserted that "Moscow did not allocate funds to the United Russia party, and the governor had to wriggle his way out of this situation as best he could." Naidenova, also a defendant in the case, fled Russia before the verdict was delivered.
The Golos movement noted that donations from the "Cooperation XXI Century" foundation were not reflected in the financial records of Putin’s campaign account. According to the organization’s co-chair, Stanislav Andreichuk, this raises doubts about the results of the 2018 presidential election.