These days, politics isn’t fashionable — lifestyle is, right?
So let me write about lifestyle then — we’ve had this case sitting around for a long time, just never had the right occasion to publish it. But then Medvedev came out with his “There’s no money, but hang in there, and keep your spirits up”, and I thought: now I’ll write it.
This example of lifestyle fits Russian reality perfectly, where a pensioner is told to be patient and wait for her longed-for 4% indexation — her pension will rise from 8,000 to 8,320 rubles. A whole new life.
That’s a popular piece of advice from officials to the public these days: hang on, we need to defeat the external enemy, and then we’ll finally live well.
So, on to the “there’s no money, but hang in there” version of lifestyle:
This is a brand-new Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB worth 40 million rubles. It tears through Moscow over the speed limit, carrying some lucky man — one of life’s masters.
A person like that definitely won’t be saying “there’s no money.” He certainly won’t be cutting back. A Rolls-Royce is a statement even by Moscow standards, where everyone is obsessed with expensive cars. It’s wealth screaming out loud.
Interested in finding out who’s shouting about his wealth? ... I knew it — you do love counting other people’s money. Let’s take a look:
Oh, Zarechye-4.
Good Lord, it’s the Rolls-Royce of Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov!
The “ZARECHYE 4” non-commercial partnership for the operation of residential buildings and landscaping of adjacent grounds. The same company also owns Shuvalov’s famous country estate outside Moscow (which used to be a state residence for Suslov, Chernenko, and Gromyko — senior Soviet officials).
The founder of “Zarechye-4”, which owns both the palace and the Rolls-Royce, is Sova Real Estate LLC, whose director is Olga Shuvalova, Igor Shuvalov’s wife.
You probably remember Sova Real Estate LLC — it’s the very company that owns Shuvalov’s legendary London apartment in the former MI6 headquarters building.
So as you can see, it’s not at all difficult to prove that the family of a state official is riding around Moscow in this luxury car:
I’d bet that Shuvalov came up with his famous line about how we Russians need to tighten our belts while sitting in the back seat of his Rolls-Royce. He saw a hunched-over old woman through the window, felt sorry for her, and jotted this down in his notebook: And we will endure any hardship inside the country — consume less food, less electricity, I don’t know, other things we’ve all grown used to.
Igor Ivanovich has long presented himself as a rich man, so his property holdings no longer surprise us. He has castles in Russia and Austria, enormous apartments in London and Dubai, lots of land, and plenty of other assets. Everywhere he invents elaborate schemes: he keeps nothing in his personal name, registers everything to legal entities, and then rents it from himself. And always on short-term one-year leases. He does this with the London apartment, the Austrian castle, and the Moscow country house.
And with the Phantom, he suddenly got shy too. He didn’t list it in his disclosure. He registered the Jaguar in his own name, the ZIL limousine too, and before that his old declarations included a whole bunch of Mercedes cars.
But he decided to hide the Rolls-Royce. People are stupid, envious, petty, after all. They’d get the wrong idea. They wouldn’t grasp that you can be a great patriot, urge everyone to save on electricity, and still buy yourself a 40-million-ruble car. So he registered the car to a legal entity, avoiding disclosure.
What’s interesting is that, judging by our observations, Shuvalov’s Rolls-Royce was bought in late 2014 or in 2015 — at the height of war and sanctions. By then Russians had already been told to tighten their belts almost to the last notch, while Igor Ivanovich shelled out 40 million for a sweet ride. That’s a full year’s pension for more than 400 Russians.
So that’s a story about lifestyle, about money, and about how we’re all supposed to hang in there.
I can’t imagine not just a developed country, but even an African one, where a government official buys a Rolls-Royce. Here, 20.3 million people are officially classified as poor. What, your Jaguar isn’t enough? The official Mercedes or BMW limousine doesn’t cut it?
Why the hell, excuse my language, a Rolls-Royce? And not just any Rolls-Royce, but an EWB — the extended-wheelbase version. This is exactly what people mean by “they’ve gone mad from excess.”
I wrote in detail here about the origins of official Shuvalov’s wealth. It wasn’t only the ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) — serious American business media also accused him of taking bribes from Abramovich and Usmanov. Money must be burning a hole in his pocket. That’s probably the explanation.
An official’s job is hard, the nerves are stretched to the limit. The man just couldn’t take it anymore, snapped, and bought a Rolls-Royce. Ever have that moment when you can’t hold out any longer, walk to the fridge at night, and start stuffing yourself with everything in sight? Same thing here — only instead of sausage, it was a Rolls-Royce. Don’t judge him too harshly.
Anyway, sorry for the obvious conclusion, but Russia is ruled by bloated thieves, liars, and hypocrites. Shuvalov and his ostentatious wealth are a perfect example.
It is every person’s duty to fight this regime, even if only with words — forward this post to anyone who still believes in the virtues of Putinism and babbles on about officials’ patriotism.
If you know anything about Shuvalov’s assets and dealings, be sure to write to us via Black Box.
If you think we do useful work, then support the ACF financially.
And well, hang in there — have a good mood.