Blogger Navalny makes public state order on a car worth 8.5 million roubles for Dagestani Finance Ministry

The message about the state order on purchase of a luxury car worth 8.5 million roubles for the Ministry of Finance of Dagestan, which was published in his LiveJournal by the well-known blogger and lawyer Alexei Navalny, caused great resonance in the Internet. According to the latest data, the Dagestani Ministry has refused to buy the expensive foreign-made car.

The application of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Dagestan on delivery of the car model Audi A8L Security B6/D7 with the highest degree of armoured protection and the maximum (initial) contractual price of 8.5 million roubles was placed on the state procurement website on Wednesday, March 2.

According to the application, published on the official website of the Russian Federation for posting information on placing orders, apart from the leather trim of the interior and the steering wheel, the car should have armoured saloon, glazed with polycarbonate cover.

Active Internet users have learnt about the tender from the LiveJournal of the well-known blogger Alexei Navalny, who holds litigation with major Russian companies, where he is a minority shareholder; he has also launched the project "RosPil" to collect information about questionable procurements.

According to Mr Navalny, the car had been intended for the Minister of Finance of Dagestan Abdusamad Gamidov.

"The budget of Dagestan is by 75 percent composed of subsidies from the federal budget (it's official, if you look at the spending as a whole, it'll be much more)," writes Alexei in his blog. "That is, a nice armoured Audi for the Minister of Finance Dagestan is bought altogether by all Russian residents. Personally I don't understand why I should pay for jolly life of Gamidov."

Alexei Navalny expressed his confidence that "most presidents of the world have more modest cars."

The blogger also noted in his post at 3:58 p.m. Moscow time on March 3 that there were no formal grounds to cancel the tender; "in theory, Dagestani bureaucrats may afford to buy even a Bentley."

"It is assumed that such things should be regulated by federal authorities; that is, by the notorious 'vertical'. Let's see what happens," Navalny wrote and invited the readers of the LiveJournal to disseminate this information.

The message in Navalny's blog aroused great resonance in the Internet. By 9:00 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday, the post was commented on by more than 800 readers; at the moment the post has already 1600 comments.

Meanwhile, in the evening on March 3, the website of public procurements posted a notice about refusal from the tender on a super-class car worth 8.5 million roubles for the Minister of Finance of Dagestan Abdusamad Gamidov. The refusal message was published at 9:06 Moscow time, that is, when the scandal was already at full swing, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.

The documents submitted to the website of public procurements explain no reasons for cancelling the tender.

In his turn, the contact person specified in the documentation on placing the order of the Ministry of Finance of Dagestan, Magomed Rabadanov, said in his comments to journalists on the Ministry's application that the initial (maximum) contract price for the Audi A8L was even lower than the average prices on this-level cars.

"Such cars are worth 630,000 euros," the GZT.Ru quotes Mr Rabadanov as saying," which equals up to more than 20 million roubles."