POLITICS
The Western sanctions lists are being actively updated with more and more Russian officials, politicians, and security services people; they, however, often register their assets in the name of their relatives, who continue to enjoy their living in NATO countries. The Insider provides several examples of how relatives and friends of the people guilty of unleashing the war against Ukraine continue to live, vacation, conduct business, and own real estate in the West.
«Many of those people are inherently, mentally there, not here with our people, not with Russia. In their opinion, it's a sign of belonging to a higher caste, to a higher race,» Putin once said about the mythical «fifth column,» but it seemed as if he was describing the families of his closest associates. All of Putin's pseudo-patriotic rhetoric and his desire to inculcate hatred towards his opponents cease to work if one simply learns how corruption money provides comfort to the families of Putin's elite in the West.
Sergey Lisovsky
United Russia deputy Sergei Lisovsky, one of the main suspects in the murder of journalist Vladislav Listyev, openly supported the attack on Ukraine («Russia had no other choice») and voted with everyone else in the Duma for the recognition of the DNR and LNR. He is not embarrassed by the fact that his children are citizens of a NATO country.
In his tax declaration, Lisovsky indicated the free use of a 154.5 square meter apartment. According to the extract from the Rosreestr obtained by The Insider, the deputy first bought the apartment at 18 Chapayevsky Lane, Moscow, and then transferred it to his children.
No patronymic is specified for Lisovsky's daughter Anastasia in the document, only her surname and first name appear. Such is the procedure for specifying owners with foreign citizenship. In the case of the United Russia deputy's daughter, it's Estonian citizenship according to the leaked databases of persons with dual citizenship and residence permits.
Anna Minaeva, the deputy's common-law spouse, was born in Tallinn. She also has an Estonian ID, as does Lisovsky's son Maxim. Both of the deputy's children were born in Switzerland.
Alexei Chepa
Alexei Chepa, a Duma deputy from the party Just Russia (Spravedlivaya Rossiya), is a frequent critic of the West and was even a member of a special parliamentary commission to investigate foreign interference in Russia's internal affairs. Like his fellow party members, he supported the attack on Ukraine, although he blamed the war itself on the West, stating that «this war is necessary for America to split friendly nations.» Chepa's children, however, are residents of NATO countries. For example, The Insider found Chepa's son's property in Spain. Daniel Chepa, 25, runs a firm called Leniz Inversiones. The company with a capital of 2.9 million euros manages real estate, i.e. the villa in Marbella shown in the picture below:
According to the extract from the Spanish cadaster, the villa is owned by BETREN INVERSIONES SL. It's the previous name of Chepa's son's company Leniz Inversiones.
While the patriotic deputy's son owns a business and a villa in Spain, his daughter Anastasia is listed as the beneficiary of the British company Aperse Ltd. which sells «luxury clothing and accessories.»
The British registry shows that the deputy's daughter has UK residency. Alexei Chepa himself has been included in the EU and UK sanctions lists, but his children have not yet made those lists.
Today, Chepa is at the cutting edge of the information war with Europe. He «predicts» the collapse of the European Union, advocates the annexation of Ukraine's Kherson region to Russia, and accuses NATO of Russophobia.
Anatoly Vyborny
Anatoly Vyborny, a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, worked for a long time in the military prosecutor's office. He often lobbies in the State Duma on behalf of security agencies. In particular, he promoted a law that would expand the right of police officers to break into private homes. He also initiated repressive measures, such as a 20-fold increase in fines for insulting the authorities.
Vyborny was born in Ukraine, namely in Shepetivka, Khmelnitsky region. He graduated from the Lviv Higher Military Political School, and his brothers still live in Ukraine: his brother Vladimir is in Odessa, and his cousin, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Kondratsky, currently serves in the AFU. This did not prevent Vyborny from literally supporting the fratricidal war. He calls the country where his relatives still live «fascist»:
«Nazis, fascists, and terrorists kill, rape, and burn civilians alive. We called on European and international organizations to respond to human rights violations in Ukraine. But Europe ignored the fascist and nationalist sentiments coming from the Kiev authorities.»
At the same time, the deputy had been hiding a villa in a NATO country, namely Montenegro, and signed the mansion over to his son. In reality, the children of the United Russia deputy could not afford such an expensive real estate abroad.
The Insider found out where Vyborny's sons work and how much they earn. They both work for Sberbank. Alexander earns 367,000 rubles a month before taxes, and Vitaly 112,000.
Montenegro has joined the EU sanctions against the Russian deputies, including Vyborny. If the deputy's children are also added to the list, the family's property in Montenegro could be seized.
Vladimir Resin
The 86-year-old deputy Vladimir Ressin was for many years the vice-mayor of Moscow, in charge of construction, and among other things he was known for wearing a $1 million DeWitt Pressy Grande Complication watch. In the State Duma he was primarily famous for authoring the renovation law (as it turned out later, he was affiliated with the companies who benefited from the reform). Like all the other deputies, he actively supported the attack on Ukraine, and offered the following justification: «Europe deliberately ignores the openly fascist, nationalist sentiments prevalent in Ukraine. The glorification of those 'heroes' who sided with the Third Reich against their own citizens.»
Vladimir Resin's daughter Ekaterina Demidova, a United Russia politician, lives in the Czech Republic. She and her husband own 11 apartments in Prague. Resin's grandson Vladimir Demidov has settled in Israel: he lists an apartment in Tel Aviv as his address.
Alexei Yezubov
After the attack on Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, oligarch Oleg Deripaska declared that the war in Ukraine was «insanity» for which «we will be ashamed before our descendants for a long time to come.» However, the oligarch's uncle, deputy Alexei Yezubov, obediently voted for the recognition of the DNR and LNR, which was act one of the war scenario. Yezubov was not deterred by the fact that his son lived and worked in the West. Yezubov Jr. has Cypriot citizenship, as can be seen from the UK Commercial Register, where he appears as the owner of Terra Services Ltd, a company he received from Deripaska.
Besides London, the son of the United Russia deputy owns real estate and does business in France (SCI Winberg Saint Tropez, Sci le Cordillera, 33 Rue de L'Universite) and in Cyprus (Sparticle Ltd, Dornton Limited). His name also comes up in the list of managers and beneficiaries of companies from Panama (Custodia International Services Corp), Barbuda (Cloud Air Services Ltd), British Virgin Islands (Gilead Enterprises, Rainco Holdings) and Austria (LPG Project Development GmbH).
Andrey Gorokhov
Deputy Andrei Gorokhov supported the attack on Ukraine in quite a standard manner: «Until the last moment, Russia delayed making tough decisions. We kept saying: Ukraine's admission to NATO is a threat to the existence of our country. Russia was not listened to; on the contrary, the arms shipments were accelerated. There was simply no other way out. It was a matter of survival.»
Gorokhov is new to the Duma and is notable primarily for his wealth: before the election, Gorokhov declared an annual income of 7.5 billion rubles, and another 11 billion were in his bank accounts. The politician owns production facilities for Miramistin and other drugs. But the deputy chose to send his children to do business in the hostile West. Dmitry and Evgeny Gorokhov, the deputy's sons, own and manage two companies in Austria: HIGOR and Megainpharm.
Matvienko and other senators
The children of Federation Council members are no slouches either. Senator Alexei Pushkov's daughter Daria Pushkova lives in Italy. She works as director of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Rome.
The daughter of another Federation Council member, Vyacheslav Timchenko, owns a house in the Czech Republic. Earlier, The Insider found out the senator had been hiding his elite mansion in Russia from the tax authorities for years.
The son of the Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko owns an Italian villa. According to The Insider, he also officially appears in Russian databases as a holder of an Italian residence permit.
Federation Council Speaker's daughter-in-law Julia Matvienko in Florence
Alexander Babakov
Alexander Babakov, who had left the Federation Council for the State Duma, recently lost his mansion in France: the real estate near Versailles had been registered in the name of the deputy's children. The French authorities arrested the family property.
The name of 28-year-old Mikhail Babakov also appears in the Paris telephone directory. His address is 11 Rue Jean Nicot.
Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Babakov registered his offshore company AED International Limited in the British Virgin Islands to his daughter Olga, according to the leaked Panama Papers.
Olga indicated a rented apartment in London as her address.
Babakov is known as an intermediary who helped Marine Le Pen's National Front party to obtain Russian funding. He served as Vladimir Putin's special representative for interacting with compatriots' organizations abroad. During his political career, Babakov switched parties several times. He first became a deputy from the party Just Russia (Spravedlivaya Rossiya), then switched to United Russia, later becoming one of the leaders of Zakhar Prilepin's For the Truth party; after it merged with Sergei Mironov's party he was once again elected to the State Duma as a member of the latter.
«Exiled» children of government officials: Lavrov, Mishustin, Siluanov, etc.
A textbook example of anti-Western hypocrisy is Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. His stepdaughter Polina Kovaleva owns an apartment in London, which was purchased for 4.4 million pounds (600 million rubles at the current exchange rate). Lavrov's daughter Yekaterina Lavrova's husband Alexander Vinokurov has Israeli citizenship. Semyon Vinokurov, Lavrov's son-in-law's father, owns an apartment in Geneva.
Prime Minister Mishustin's sons are also connected to Switzerland: they studied at the Institut Le Rosey boarding school. The tuition costs exceed $100,000 a year in that establishment.
According to The Insider, the son of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin flies to Geneva on vacation. Dubai, Ibiza, Cyprus, Greece, Nice, and Stockholm are also popular destinations for the 26-year-old Albert Khusnullin.
Khusnullin's son has many business assets in Tatarstan. The main one is Chistopolye Agro Holding, whose assets are valued at more than a billion rubles. The son of the government official grows grain and is engaged in dairy farming. In general, he simply benefits from rising food prices.
The stepdaughter of Finance Minister Anton Siluanov studied at Kingston University in Great Britain. Daria Belousova's stepfather, a government official who oversaw VTB, got her a job at the state bank with a salary of 1.3 million rubles a month.
The daughter of Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko also studied in London. She received a degree from the Goldsmiths University in the Great Britain.
Chuichenko's Daughter in the UK
Alina Novak, the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, lived in Spain.
She studied at ESADE, a private business school in Barcelona.