Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny posts video claiming top Russian official vacationed with tycoon
Navalny claims Prikhodko and Deripaska sailed together on Deripaska’s luxury yacht off the coast of Norway in 2016
A video published online by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny alleging that an influential Russian deputy prime minister enjoyed lavish hospitality from a billionaire tycoon went viral on Friday, receiving more than 2 million views.
The video includes footage that Navalny said was shot by a woman who has written a book about seducing oligarchs.
Navalny, who has been barred from running against President Vladimir Putin in next month’s election, said the video appears to show Putin’s former top foreign policy adviser Sergey Prikhodko vacationing on the yacht of 50-year-old Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium magnate. Both Deripaska and Prikhodko, who rarely makes comments to the media, denied the allegations.
“The political loser has once again tried to organise a provocation,” Prikhodko said in a statement to business newspaper RBC.
He said he should respond to the accusations “like a man, but we will stay within the legal framework”.
A spokesman for Deripaska’s Basic Element industrial group said the allegations “have no relation to reality”.