Storm brews over Russian plane in Seychelles
A top Russian anti-corruption activist has accused military officials of holidaying in Seychelles using public funds.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accused top Russian officials of flying to Seychelles aboard a military plane in early May for holiday purposes. Writing on his website – navalny.com – the staunch government critic says that a plane belonging to the Russian Ministry of Defence (MOD) was photographed parked at the international airport at Anse des Genęts on 5 May. He alleges that generals used it to go big-game fishing at the expense of the Russian taxpayers, but the Russian Embassy denies the claim, stating that it was actually a commercial flight with no officials on board.
The photograph, showing a Russian military jet with tail number RA-85155, was first submitted by an anonymous reader to Russian news site Znak. It was eventually picked up by Navalny, whose website focuses on investigations into corruption. He says the reader who sent it in questioned why a military visit would be scheduled for May - a month packed with national holidays such as Victory Day, which celebrates the surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II and is usually marked by gatherings, drinking – and fishing. Getting his press attaché on the case, the group contacted the editors of Znak to verify the reliability of the photographer, and asked an aviation fanatic by the name of Ruslan Levief, to identify the plane.
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