Half of Moscow’s Luxury Suburb Linked to Russia’s Elite (1 Viewer)

[Rogue Valley]

Half of Moscow’s Luxury Suburb Linked to Russia’s Elite – Proekt

Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway, or simply Rublevka, is the most expensive place to live in the country.

800 Kremlin functionaries, governors and mayors own an estimated $20.75 billion in properties along the Rublevka corridor.

2/6/20
Nearly half the landowners in Moscow’s luxury suburb of Rublyovka are linked to Russia’s ruling elite, the Proekt news website has said in a massive investigation published Thursday. Altogether, it said the 800 Kremlin functionaries, governors and mayors own an estimated 1.3 trillion rubles ($20.75 billion) in properties dotting the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway in western Moscow. “That’s almost two Moscow region budgets,” Proekt wrote. Proekt listed 800 Rublyovka landowners, including 600 “who are affiliated with the bureaucracy,” out of more than 4,000 real estate owners it said it had identified. Among the more high-profile officials named in the report is President Vladimir Putin’s new prime minister and subject of recent media investigations, former tax chief Mikhail Mishustin. Proekt estimates the current value of the Mishustin family’s property at 455 million rubles ($7.2 million).

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly owns land worth 266 million rubles ($4.2 million). His alleged property has previously featured in one of anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny’s investigations. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is said to own a 215-million-ruble ($3.4 million) property in Rublyovka, according to Proekt. Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, reportedly owns land valued at 66 million rubles. Proekt notes that the properties’ current values far exceed the officials’ annual salaries.

Putin's governing siloviki hide much of their corruption profits in valuable properties. They usually put such properties in the name of their wives or family members to avoid listing such properties on their asset declarations. Another dodge is to list the owner as the "State of Russia" which is easily accomplished by paying off the proper land commissioner.

Related: ШОССЕ В НИКУДА: Путеводитель по Рублевке, главной дороге России (Russian language / Highway To Nowhere: Guide to Rublevka, the main road of Russia)
[at the bottom of this page is a list of property owners in Rublyovka and their job description or their relationship to the real owner]