Although Russia's main opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, has been jailed for a long time, his people continue to publish embarrassing details about President Vladimir Putin's administration.
This time the person at the center of the investigation published by Navalny's staff is Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
According to the findings of the investigation, Lavrov is accompanied on his official travels by an acquaintance, with whom he has "a very long and close relationship," and her family members.
The associate, Svetlana Polyakova by name, does not work in the Russian Foreign Ministry, which does not prevent her from joining all the minister's official visits, and attaching her mother, daughter and niece to the entourage on Lavrov's ministry plane.
At the same time, Polyakova and her family make regular use of the private jets of the Russian oligarch Oleg Dripska, staying in hotels and fancy villas belonging to him and spending time on his yachts.
In return for this use, the study's editors state, the Russian foreign minister actually acts as a lobbyist for the oligarch and performs various actions, taking advantage of his position, to advance his various affairs.
Among other things, Lavrov personally approached American lobbyists and asked them to help Deripaska obtain U.S. citizenship. On other occasions he acted against personal sanctions imposed by the U.S. authorities on Deripaska, and worked with the Guinean and Jamaican authorities on matters important to the oligarchic business. .
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The investigation into Lavrov joins a long line of reports that have revealed the luxury lives of senior Russian officials, led by President Putin, and their secret lovers.
Navalny's activities to expose this type of corruption phenomenon made him the number one enemy of the authorities, and according to estimates, led to his prosecution and imprisonment.
The publicity about Lavrov, who has so far enjoyed a relatively clean image of a respected professional, is expected to exacerbate Kremlin's hostility towards Navalny.
This is because it comes at a particularly sensitive time, in the days when Russia is holding the general election for the Duma, the Russian parliament, with Foreign Minister Lavrov leading the list of "United Russia" - the ruling party and President Putin's main political backer.
