Irina Guseva: trip to Italy was paid from personal finances of delegates from Volgograd Region

A trip to Italy of Volgograd officials was informal and was not paid from the budget. This was stated by the administration of the Volgograd Region. However, bloggers and members of the Regional Duma doubt that the trip was paid from personal finances of the delegates.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the fact of the trip of the delegation of the Volgograd Region to Italy, which celebrated on that days the Catholic Easter and declared a day off, was reported in his blog by Russian journalist Andrei Malgin, who currently resides in the Italian Tuscany. After that, the blogger Alexei Navalny appealed to the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) and the Prosecutor's Office, demanding to find sources of funding for the trip of deputies of the Volgograd Regional Duma to Italy.

"MPs and Sergey Bozhenov, the head of the Region, who is currently in short-term vacation, have visited Italy at the invitation of Ferdinando Kamoirano, Consular Correspondent of Italy to Russia, and a group of Italian entrepreneurs, intending to establish economic relations in the field of agriculture between the Volgograd Region and Tuscany, which is considered to be one of the most developed agricultural regions of Italy," states the message on the website of the administration of the Volgograd Region.

According to Irina Guseva, Chairperson of the Regional Duma on social policy, all members of the delegation paid the visit costs from their own finances, and nothing was paid from the budget.

"They made individual payments through the Savings Bank, signed special agreement with the airline, and duly completed all papers," she emphasized.

Cost of trip per person amounted to about 70,000 roubles, the "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" quotes Irina Guseva as saying.

"The Governor and his entourage did not plan to meet any local officials, and that was impossible: they all went away to celebrate Easter holiday. However, once we, using our modest efforts, raised uproar in the blogosphere around that travelling corporate party, yesterday several members of the delegation were brought by bus to the agro-tourist farm to see cultivation of capers. The Volgograd official media have already called this trip "an exchange of experience". Besides, it was decided to leave some tourists at the Grand Hotel Tamerici & Principe Hotel till April 17, so that they could enrich the formal part of staying with at least something important," writes in his blog the journalist Andrei Malygin, who resides in Italy.

According to him, the photographer, who went to the airport in Pisa to make photographs of the moment of sending Governor Bozhenov home, found out that, actually, the charter flight of the air company "AK-BARS" No. 09 431 took home the guests of the Governor of the Volgograd Region; however, Sergey Bozhenov was not among them. "Bozhenov left in the morning, by HIS OWN PLANE AIRCRAFT! And he arrived in the same manner a little bit later than the entire group," reported in his blog Andrei Malgin.

"The trip to Italy of the group of the Volgograd deputies and members of the Volgograd regional government was of private business nature, and nothing was spent from the budget, and there are confirming documents," the "Interfax" quotes Sergey Bozhenov, Governor of the Volgograd Region, as saying.

According to Sergey Bozhenov, during their trip, the Volgograd officials visited a number of Italian companies, which would result in a framework agreement with the Italian side on the establishment of pig farm in the Volgograd Region.

Sergey Popov, the deputy of the Regional Duma from the "Spravedlivaya Rossiya" (Fair Russia), who took part in an informal visit of the delegation of the Volgograd Region to Italy, has noted that during the trip they had reached a number of agreements on the promotion of the Volgograd Region as a brand.

"We were taken to the canning and wine factories, and we reached certain agreements. If at least one of those agreements is implemented, it will be just fine for the region," explained Sergey Popov.

Besides, according to Sergey Popov, on the last day of their visit, the deputies passed a series of trainings and tests that allowed all members of the delegation coming together and feeling part of a team, the "V1" reports.

"And the last thing I would like to say: the Governor flew together with us, and from Volgograd he flew to Germany, to Baden-Baden, and the very aircraft was not of business class and was very uncomfortable. As far as the birthday of Sergey Bozhenov is concerned, actually, on April 8, during the trainings we just approached him and expressed our best wishes. There were no loud celebrations on that occasion," stated Sergey Popov.

"In recent days, I have talked to a lot of people, from pioneers to pensioners," told Mikhail Tarantsov, the member of the CPRF (the Communist Party of the Russian Federation) faction in the Regional Duma, to Tatiana Filimonova, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "No one believes that the visit was paid from the personal finances of the officials. Only a charter costs 80,000-90,000 US dollars. Absence of official information is perceived by people, who barely make ends meet, as a challenge and a demonstration of disrespect."