It’s nice to own an apartment in Moscow, isn’t it?
One way or another, that thought has crossed the mind of just about everyone in our country. Everyone wants an apartment in Moscow, especially in the city center. After all, even if you don’t want to live there yourself, you can rent it out and live comfortably off that income without working at all.
But very few people can afford a purchase like that. Actually, “very few” hardly covers it. To buy an apartment in the center of the capital, you need tens of millions of rubles. In a country where the average monthly salary is 43,000 rubles, buying a large, comfortable apartment in central Moscow is about as realistic as flying to Mars.
But believe it or not, there turns out to be a way to become a Moscow landlord without having tens of millions of rubles in the bank. No need to save, cut back, or put money aside—you can just live your life, and then suddenly, boom, an apartment falls into your lap. “Hoooow?” you’re probably already shouting. “Tell us, hoooow?!” I will. You just need to work at Moscow City Hall, be a government official, and, of course, love Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin very much. And don’t forget to say so in public.
Let me get straight to the point. We found a huge nest of officials living together in one building, having moved there at almost the same time. This is no ordinary building—it has an extraordinary history, which I’ll describe in detail. And naturally, the residents are no ordinary people either: officials of every kind and rank, though mostly from Moscow City Hall.
And that might have been one thing. But this building was constructed with our money. On paper, it was municipal housing for people entitled to social benefits and those on the public housing waiting list. In reality, it’s a luxury residential complex on the embankment in central Moscow, complete with all the trimmings: underground parking, a gated территория, huge apartments, security guards, concierges, and so on.
Let’s start with a brief historical detour.
At the end of the 19th century, this site was occupied by rental apartment buildings and the manufacturing facilities of the merchant Bakhrushin.
He built up and populated the entire block all the way to the parallel Sadovnicheskaya Street. Another building once stood where this yellow corner building is now. It had an unusual architectural feature: an internal spiral staircase at the corner of the house with asymmetrical windows. That made the building highly recognizable—it was often photographed and filmed.
Here it is in photographs from 1935, in the prewar Stalin era.
Here it is in 1959—during the Khrushchev Thaw.
Here it is in the 1970s.
Here’s a photo from the wild 1990s—and it’s still standing there just fine.
And even in 2005, the famous staircase is still there, and the building even seems to still be occupied. You can see curtains in the windows.
In short, this building outlived the tsar and the empire. It survived the revolution, Lenin, Stalin, both world wars, and it made it through perestroika and the 1990s. A historic building, cultural heritage in the fullest sense. It should have been cherished, celebrated, and shown off on guided tours. But today, as you can see for yourself, it’s gone. The Bakhrushin apartment house survived many things—but not Putin’s Russia.
Throughout the 2000s, the corner building on Sadovnicheskaya Embankment was in terrible condition. The ordinary residents had long since been relocated, and at various times the place was inhabited by either homeless people or migrant laborers. Despite its deplorable state, in 2009 it was still decided that the building should be preserved and renovated.
And literally a week after that decision—what a coincidence—a whole section collapsed on Sadovnicheskaya Embankment. In that building there.
As is perfectly clear from the old photographs, it wasn’t even the neighboring building, but one building over.
Three workers died under the rubble, the story was widely covered in the media, and the very next morning Vladimir Resin, head of Moscow’s urban development complex, was already at the scene. He is now a United Russia lawmaker and an aide to Patriarch Kirill (head of the Russian Orthodox Church). He is also the father of Leonid Slutsky, the notoriously repulsive lawmaker accused of harassing female journalists.
And here, as they say, watch closely. The collapse happened in one place, but they demolished the entire block. Including the famous corner building.
Everyone noticed this simple trick. Back then, every TV channel was airing reports that would be unimaginable today: they are destroying our cultural heritage.
But the Moscow authorities assured everyone that everything would be fine. Yes, the whole block was being demolished; yes, it could not be restored; but we would build an exact replica. And best of all—for BENEFIT RECIPIENTS and PEOPLE ON THE HOUSING WAITING LIST.
The Moscow authorities told us with complete confidence: there would be 10,000 square meters of housing here for those who needed it—for example, people being relocated from dilapidated housing. And in this Moscow government decree, you can see the stated purpose clearly: for benefit recipients and “young families.”
At that point, you could have stopped and said: well, what’s done is done. Stupid officials demolished a historic block—nothing can be done about it now. But at least people on the waiting list would get housing. At least residents of unsafe buildings in this very central district wouldn’t be shipped off to Yuzhnoye Butovo, but would be able to stay in their own neighborhood.
But of course, none of that happened. The building was demolished, and an improvised parking lot appeared in its place. That was probably the last time benefit recipients ever set foot on this site.
In 2015, the Moscow government began building a new house on the vacant lot at its own expense. The pace of construction was staggering. Just look at the sign: from scratch to full completion in 14 months.
And by the beginning of 2018, the apartments in the brand-new gleaming building were already ready to be assigned. Young families and people on the waiting list were practically packed and ready to move—but for nothing. Just look at the location. The views, the setting. One square meter in this neighborhood costs half a million rubles.
And Sergei Sobyanin faces a difficult choice. He could give the apartments to people on the waiting list, as promised. After all, a historic building was torn down here precisely for their sake. Or, if not, then as should be done with city property, these apartments could be sold at auction for a lot of money and the budget could be replenished. And then, for example, that money could be used to buy medicine for pensioners.
But why sell them when you can give them away for free—or almost free—to those most in need. The most vulnerable of all.
Let’s look at those sixth-floor windows with the picturesque view of the embankment. Somewhere there is a beautiful 135-square-meter apartment. A place like that costs around 70 million rubles, and objectively only a very wealthy person could afford to buy it.
But when you work in Moscow City Hall, run by shameless crooks, miracles happen. The apartment goes to the 7-year-old son of Moscow Culture Minister Alexander Kibovsky.
Volodya Kibovsky, born in 2012, is both a responsible first-grader and a property owner, and the apartment is even listed in his father’s financial disclosure.
But all right—maybe the minister and his family had nowhere to live? Not at all. From the same disclosure, we can see that they already have a 174-square-meter apartment. Which they also, believe it or not, bought from the city of Moscow.
It is located in the elite residential complex “Kupecheskaya Usadba,” very nearby in Zamoskvorechye, less than a 15-minute walk away. Its market value is at least 150 million rubles.
Let’s move on to the next lucky benefit recipient and waiting-list applicant. Apartment No. 53, 141 square meters, market value 75 million rubles. The owner is Artur Keskinov.
Back under Luzhkov, he headed the city’s housing and utilities department. Under Sobyanin, he became the man in charge of major building repairs. He is the head of the Moscow Capital Repairs Fund for apartment buildings. The person responsible for every tile, every garbage chute cover, and every patch of cracked plaster in our building entrances. No doubt it’s a dirty job, but it seems to pay well. A year before this subsidized purchase, Keskinov’s son bought an almost 200-square-meter apartment on Malaya Pirogovskaya Street. That’s 145 million rubles.
The official’s wife also has another 165 square meters next door in an elite club-style building. That’s about 120 million rubles. And on top of that, you and I are handing this family another 141 square meters in the center.
Settled neatly between the apartments of Kibovsky and Keskinov are three more Moscow City Hall officials. Each of them has a 147-square-meter apartment.
Yuliana Knyazhevskaya — Chair of the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning.
Apartment No. 64 belongs to Oleg Antosenko — the head of Mosgosstroynadzor, Moscow’s construction oversight authority.
And their neighbor in Apartment 61, Mr. Mikhail Klenin, is the head of the Moscow City Property Valuation Department.
Never heard of people like that? Neither had I. But Sobyanin had, and so here it is: “golden” Moscow real estate that could be sold tomorrow and turn its owner into a dollar millionaire.
In fact, 12 of the 24 occupied apartments in this building belong to employees of Sobyanin’s City Hall. It’s impossible not to notice that the overwhelming majority of them, with one or two exceptions, are directly connected to construction and city property. In other words, their departments either built this building, or sold it, or demolished the previous historic one.
Let’s go through all of them right now. Sorry for the endless lists of names and meaningless job titles, but I want you to know every one of them by name. That matters.
Emelyanov Alexei Alexandrovich — Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage. Apartment: almost 180 square meters. He has worked in the department since 1990. This is the department that did not recognize the Bakhrushin house that once stood on this site as cultural heritage. His new apartment is worth 90 million rubles.
Sabina Shakhmuradova — Head of the Department for Coordinating Land Management Projects and District Operations within the Moscow City Property Department. But you won’t find her in the Rosreestr property registry anymore. A month after “buying” the 180-square-meter apartment, she transferred it to her mother, who has a different surname.
And if this woman’s job title is obscure but at least real—you can google it—then her neighbor, Ilnur Diyarov, is a complete mystery. He worked as an aide to the economy minister of the Republic of Tatarstan. On the Moscow City Hall website, there is not a word about him. But in an article about development in Dubki Park, he somehow appears as “an aide to Construction Minister Khusnullin.” He too has 180 square meters.
Next. A 144-square-meter apartment. The owner is Natalia Kuznetsova. She is deputy head of the office coordinating the activities of Moscow’s Urban Development and Construction Complex. Just so you understand: there is Sobyanin. He has a deputy, Khusnullin. Khusnullin has a deputy. And SHE is the deputy to THAT deputy. And you and I are giving her an apartment worth 70 million rubles.
Moving on. A 144-square-meter apartment, Ekaterina Logacheva. Deputy head of the Moscow Department for Territorial Executive Authorities. She became an official in 2017. In 2018, an apartment in this building appeared in her name.
Maxim Stepanov, born in 1989—not even 30 years old yet. He works as deputy head of the Moscow Department of Urban Development Policy. In his entire life, he could have saved maybe 5 million rubles at most. But he has an apartment worth 50 million.
Here is another owner, not much older. Boris Bulai. He is the deputy press secretary to Sobyanin. And fine, I won’t even comment on how absurd that job title is, but in 2012 the Presidential Property Management Department had already allocated him an apartment in an elite residential complex on Starovolynskaya Street.
That 131-square-meter apartment, with a market value of at least 80 million rubles, was officially “transferred” to him by the Russian Federation, as confirmed by the registry extract.
And it hasn’t gone anywhere. So please explain to me: what is he doing here too, in this building?
So there you have them: Sobyanin’s 12 friends I wanted to introduce you to. Every single case is outrageous in its brazenness and injustice. But believe me, that is far from all.
Before we move on to the other neighbors, we need to address the giant elephant in the room. Namely: how exactly did these apartments end up in the hands of Moscow officials? Where did each of them get 70 to 90 million rubles for this real estate?
Of course they don’t have those millions. The apartments were sold to them at completely different prices—so heavily discounted that they might as well have been gifts.
You understand that state property cannot be sold, transferred, or gifted without paperwork. There has to be a document.
For example, this one, from which we learned that TV fabulist Vladimir Solovyov received an apartment from the Moscow government at far below market value. Formally, he bought it. In practice, the city handed him a huge amount of money.
In this case, everything is totally classified. Databases, archives, phone calls, requests—nothing. There is not a single accessible document explaining why these people received apartments from the city, or, if they bought them, at what price. We understand that this secrecy exists because the apartments were effectively stolen from the city—through sales at laughably low prices.
And purely through analysis, we can prove that none of these officials could have bought them at market price. We took the financial disclosures of all these Sobyanin lackeys—fortunately they are available for many years back—and simply estimated how much they could have saved over recent years. The result surprised even us. Almost none of them could even theoretically have had more than 6 to 7 million rubles in their accounts.
Then we found another resident of this building who helped us refine the calculations. It is Olga Timofeyeva. She is a vice speaker of the State Duma and co-chair of the All-Russia People’s Front, known for its “tough anti-corruption fight.”
Her income has been known since 2012. More importantly, before the last election in 2016 she published a special campaign disclosure listing the balances in her bank accounts.
Look above. In September 2016, she had… 226,000 rubles in her VTB account. And exactly two years later, she “buys” a 140-square-meter apartment in the building on Sadovnicheskaya. Her income over those two years was 9 million rubles. Let’s assume she lived frugally and saved half of it—4.5 million. That is all she had, MAXIMUM, to buy an apartment with a market value of 70 million. And never mind that—even the cadastral value of the apartment, which is heavily understated, is still 40 million.
We have no doubt that Sobyanin was “selling” these apartments for one-tenth of their cadastral value, or something close to that.
Need it even be said that in this part of Moscow, 5 million rubles won’t buy you even a room. A parking space at best.
And now to our special guest. The only non-official in the entire building. She has nothing to talk about with her neighbors in the elevator—they have different jobs, different lives. Although no, there is one thing they can talk about: their love for Sergei Semyonovich Sobyanin (and about how much Moscow has supposedly improved).
We understood that they were paid for fawning over the thieves at City Hall, but we had no idea it was on this scale.
So who is it that grabbed a 177-square-meter apartment on the fifth floor?
Larisa Guzeeva—the famous host of the TV show *Let’s Get Married* and a star of Soviet cinema—who so sincerely and honestly told us what a wonderful man Sergei Semyonovich is. And as for those who don’t like Sobyanin, Guzeeva told them to pack their things and leave. Great. I’d have liked the post, but for some reason she deleted it.
Larisa Guzeeva praises Sobyanin. Sobyanin rewards her with an apartment in the center at one-tenth of the price. Which means that you and I subsidized the very far from poor Larisa Andreyevna by some 80 million rubles. Why? Who decided this? What law says we are supposed to pay for apartments for wealthy TV hosts?
I even decided to call Larisa Guzeeva to ask how that happened.
Larisa Andreyevna, please forgive me for bothering you.
But the people who paid for your and your neighbors’ luxurious elite apartments also have a right to know why. If this is payment for Instagram posts and videos supporting Sobyanin, then Sobyanin should pay you himself.
I understand you are probably tired of reading this by now, but I think it is necessary to list the rest of the residents of this building by name as well. Let the country know its “benefit recipients” and “people on the waiting list.” Its “orphans” and “fire victims.”
Igor Diveykin — Head of Administration of the State Duma, former chief of security for Volodin. Registry extract.
Dmitry Pristanskov — former head of Rosimushchestvo (the Federal Agency for State Property Management). He resigned in December 2018 for blatantly corrupt reasons and received an apartment AFTER that. 132 square meters.
Yevgeny Shkolov — former Putin aide on personnel matters. Received an apartment of 150 square meters and resigned four months later. Does this strengthen the Shkolov faction or weaken it? Let us know in the comments.
Andrei Krustkaln — head inspector in a department of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation. Fights corruption under Kudrin’s supervision. 136 square meters.
Ilya Trunin — Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian Federation. 134 square meters.
Naib Nagumanov — head of the FSB directorate for Arkhangelsk Region. It was in his FSB building that an anarchist blew himself up. 136 square meters in Moscow, for some reason, and not in Arkhangelsk.
Elena Yakovleva — Director of the Department of Budget Policy in the Sphere of Public Administration, the Judicial System, and the Civil Service. 146 square meters.
Fyodor Malyshev — Adviser in the Expert Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation. 136 square meters.
Pavel Baryshev — Deputy Minister at EMERCOM (the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations). 135 square meters.
Viktoria Abramchenko — head of Rosreestr, with the rank of deputy minister of economic development.
She is responsible for destroying Russia’s real estate records system. All those cryptic registry entries, “individuals,” and “Russian Federation” labels instead of the surnames Chemezov, Sechin, and Rogozin—that falls under her jurisdiction.
She and her staff manually alter data and conceal the true property holdings of corrupt officials. 150 square meters in central Moscow is the reward for that.
An important thing everyone needs to understand and remember: in Putin’s Russia, the question “what is an official’s salary?” is meaningless. On paper, maybe he earns 4 million rubles a year. But then through a scheme like this he grabs an 80-million-ruble apartment. In addition to his salary, he effectively receives 20 years’ worth of annual income at once.
You will scrape by on a tiny pension, while these people have picked up two or three apartments each in public service. Rent one of them out—in a building like this—for 300,000 rubles a month, and that’s it: a pension for life.
But I have good news. Right now, you have a chance to say: I do not want to pay for your luxury apartments. And to say it in a way that both Sobyanin and Putin will hear. On September 8, regional elections will be held. They will also take place in Moscow, where thanks to United Russia, tricks like this are possible. In Moscow, in St. Petersburg, and everywhere else, we need to go to the polls and make sure that as few United Russia candidates as possible get elected. For that to work, we need to coordinate and vote the same way. Otherwise the votes will be split, and United Russia will win. That is why we created the Smart Voting website. Register, and we will tell you whom to vote for in order to upset the United Russia candidate.
Tell them you no longer wish to buy apartments for them.