For nearly a whole month, Pension Fund chief Anton Drozdov dodged our questions, “failing to notice” them, about the source of the funds used to purchase his giant seven-room apartment in central Moscow.
What finally helped was an inquiry from *Novaya Gazeta* (an independent Russian newspaper), which he could not legally ignore.
We were pleased to review his response, which boiled down to: “It’s all slander and insinuation; the apartment costs less.”
Let’s break down that response, because it matters. After all, this man heads the Pension Fund of Russia.
“The apartment was purchased before 2009. The apartment was acquired for a sum significantly lower than 240 million rubles,” the Pension Fund’s response says. The agency did not disclose the market value of Drozdov’s apartment in 2009.
That phrase — “did not disclose” — is the key point here. Why didn’t they disclose it?
We can see for ourselves how much apartments like this cost — just look at the listings again.
And most importantly, we know that Anton Drozdov has been a government official for 28 YEARS.
I don’t recall apartments at Patriarch’s Ponds being given away cheaply before 2009. Maybe it was bought in 2008, or 2007, or 2006, or some other year — Drozdov is silent about that too.
Even if it cost half as much — 120 million rubles — we know what positions Drozdov has held since 1986, and we know for certain: OFFICIALS DO NOT EARN SALARIES LIKE THAT.
The fact that Drozdov did not file asset declarations before 2009 explains absolutely nothing and does not relieve him of the obligation to live within his means. Provide the declarations for the years before, during, and after the purchase, and we will gladly review them.
“Comparing the family’s income in the periods after the apartment was purchased with the apartment’s alleged market value in 2014 prices is incorrect, uninformative, and meaningless,” the agency noted.
Once again: this is not about declarations, but about the fact that Drozdov has been a government official for 28 years. Comparing the apartment to average market prices, and adjusting that figure to 2009 prices, is a logical, reasonable, and the most accurate way to assess an official’s assets when the primary source refuses to provide the information. We would be glad if Drozdov publicly stated the value of his seven-room apartment at Patriarch’s Ponds and provided the relevant documents. The public interest demands it.
After all, none of us still understands how a civil servant’s salary, over any number of years, could possibly be enough to buy a luxury 335-square-meter apartment in central Moscow. That contradicts everything we know about apartment prices in Moscow. Either Drozdov has some additional income exceeding 100–150 million rubles, or he obtained the apartment at a below-market price, which is a form of bribery of a public official.
Note that the Pension Fund chief’s response completely sidesteps another of our questions: how, on a salary of 1.7 million rubles a year, Drozdov pays for two children to attend an elite Moscow school costing 1.3 million rubles per year.
Drozdov is simply the perfect example of why we need the law we are collecting signatures for.
The situation is simple:
Here we have some petty little bureaucrat with a salary of 1.7 million rubles a year (of which he spends 1.3 million on his children’s education) and a 335-square-meter apartment in the city center.
We ask him: hey, little bureaucrat, what money did you buy all this with? You’ve been in public service for 28 years!
And the little bureaucrat answers: you’re all lying, dirty fools. Just peddling insinuations. Everything on my end is legal and fine, but I’m not going to explain anything to you.
And he doesn’t explain. And he won’t explain until we force him to. Why on earth would he do it otherwise?
Until we rally millions in support of the #Twenty campaign, until we force the authorities to adopt the bill, all these Anton Drozdovs won’t lift a finger.
Everything depends on us, not on Anton Drozdov. Maybe you too will accuse me of insinuations and lies, but the truth is that the very people who are outraged by illegal enrichment yet are too lazy to vote and unwilling to lift a finger to achieve a common goal — they are the best friends corrupt officials could ask for, and they help them more than United Russia (the Kremlin-backed ruling party) does.