MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The information contained in the report of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) about the business of the family of Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika is not new and evokes no interest, as it is about Chaika’s adult children, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
According to him, the Kremlin has seen numerous media reports that spelled out the essence of the ACF material. "I can say that this information was available to us since the summer, we got familiarised with it in June. Other people were figuring as the authors of the materials then," Peskov said.
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"And, actually, even then the information was not interesting to us, because the materials refer not to the prosecutor general, but to his adult sons who conduct business independently," the Kremlin official said.
Asked by TASS to specify, Peskov said that Chaika, as all high-ranking officials, is required by law to annually submit declarations about his income and property. "Chaika, like all of us, civil servants, every year submits in accordance with the established procedure declarations, which, the same as declarations of all of us, are thoroughly checked by anti-corruption agencies, therefore we have no reason to doubt that all the law requirements on declaring incomes will be complied with also next year," the presidential press secretary said.
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly that in addition to declaring by officials of their incomes, major spending and real estate ownership, the state and municipal officials will now also "have to disclose information about the contracts they plan to conclude with companies of their relatives, friends, and close persons."
The website of the Anti-Corruption Foundation published on December 1 a report claiming that it has exposed a number of "grey" financial schemes allegedly organised by the Chaika family members.
The prosecutor general has dismissed all the allegations as false and promised to announce who sponsored the investigation.