In the published excerpt, former head of Alexei Navalny’s Moscow campaign headquarters Oleg Stepanov asks on X whether the broadcast featuring Boris Nemtsov was labeled as commercial, whether any “money went into the budget,” under what accounting line it might have been recorded, and whether there could have been “any irregularities.”
The interviewee replies that the broadcast was not marked as commercial because, he says, it was not commercial at all. He describes it as a standard interview and adds that other guests had appeared on air in the same format, including Alexei Navalny. He also cites President Jacques Chirac, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and President Bill Clinton as examples.
The interviewee is then reminded of Nemtsov’s correspondence with Leonid Volkov, which mentioned a sum of 400,000 rubles, and is asked what exactly Nemtsov was paying for in that case.
“On the eve of the Spring march, Boris called me and asked me to stop by. I came over; we were friends and addressed each other informally. He said: I need airtime before the march to urge people to come.”
According to the interviewee, he replied that he would check when there was a free slot on air. He then contacted Ksenia Larina and Vitaly Dymarsky and proposed inviting Nemtsov. He explains that at Echo of Moscow, the editor-in-chief did not issue such orders but rather made proposals. He says there were no objections.
Then, according to this account, Nemtsov asked not only for the broadcast itself but also for a banner on Echo’s website and promotional audio spots. That, the speaker says, explains the specific amount mentioned in the correspondence discussed in the excerpt.