Information on cooperation of head of the Murmansk branch of Parnas Andrey Kapitonov with the regional Federal Security Service (FSB) and financing of his election campaign was published on his «7x7» blog in the morning of February 18. Kapitonov himself is unavailable for comments, his phone is off, he doesn't respond to messages on social networks.
In the post written on behalf of Kapitonov it is stated that at the beginning of 2016 he started to cooperate with the FSB of the Murmansk region: "According to the plan of the operation, I had to join Parnas, to head regional office in the Murmansk region, and then to proceed with the collection and verification of information. I agreed, and from that moment became the official agent of the FSB under the name Knyaz'. I performed the task. I revealed no illegal actions in the party Parnas".
Then, as the text says, in April 2016 he was informed that "the central apparatus of the FSB in Moscow have developed / agreed on another operation against the party Parnas". Kapitonov had to register as a candidate for the State Duma from the Parnas of the Murmansk region and go to Norway, which come into contact with the Norwegian intelligence service: "In this guise, I had to go to Norway, to come into contact with the PST (Norwegian intelligence service), to receive their funding, and then (before the elections to the State Duma) to give interview to the central TV channels that Parnas was funded by the intelligence service of the country – a member of NATO. As a bonus I was promised employment in some large company (such as Gazprom)".
After that, according to the author of the text, the FSB began to allocate money for the election campaign, but he did not perform a task: "When I went to Norway to establish contact with the PST, I failed it on purpose. The operation was disrupted, Parnas took part in elections! The FSB suspected something and stopped cooperation with me".
Parnas Deputy Chairman Konstantin Merzlikin told «7x7» that the party received a letter from Kapitonov with a similar statement, but they were not able to contact him.
Known Murmansk civil activist Irina Paykachyova confirmed that Kapitonov was seen in January in Murmansk at various public events several times.
