The studio still exists, but all that’s left of it are foam-padded walls.
It’s been two months since my last video—it’s hard to film anything when, once a week, “men in black hats” come running in and confiscate everything they can carry away.
We were seriously starting to think we’d just film outside the fences of officials’ dachas and palaces. But then an even more interesting opportunity came up. The filming location for today’s investigation was, quite literally, the apartment of the Moscow city prosecutor. How did we get in there? Magic helped.
Consider this investigation our small contribution to the campaign against the “Moscow Case” (a series of criminal prosecutions tied to protests in Moscow). Prosecutor Denis Popov is one of its key organizers and enforcers. Under his leadership, the prosecutor’s office prepares fabricated indictments. His people demand unthinkably long prison terms for taking part in peaceful rallies—or even just for solo pickets.
The Moscow prosecutor personally initiates lawsuits against opposition figures on behalf of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardiya). He demands millions of rubles and threatens apartment seizures to secure those claims. The Moscow prosecutor’s office plays a crucial role in branding anyone and everyone as “foreign agents.” Any lawlessness you encounter in the capital will be declared lawful by Prosecutor Popov—the man in the white uniform jacket.
And, after all, he is one of the top figures in the country’s law enforcement system. In the security-service hierarchy, the Moscow prosecutor ranks second only to Russia’s Prosecutor General.
And this man is a foreign agent.
A little background on our hero.
Denis Popov is 47 years old. Putin appointed him Moscow prosecutor by personal decree in September of this year, on the recommendation of Prosecutor General Chaika (one of our old favorites). He has been in the system since 2000. Before Moscow, he served as prosecutor of Khakassia and Dagestan.
Take a look at these photos. This is what the prosecutor’s apartment looks like inside.
Want to check out the view?
You’ve probably guessed that these photos were not taken in Moscow or Dagestan. This is Montenegro. But why am I saying this is the Moscow prosecutor’s apartment? Here’s his official asset declaration—there’s no Montenegro in it.
Exactly. There’s no Montenegro in it. Just as there is no mention of Prosecutor Popov’s ex-wife, Irina Feliksovna Popova. She is a key figure in today’s story, because all of the family’s assets are still registered in her name (despite the divorce—we don’t know whether it was genuine or just for show). She was, and remains, the main nominee owner for official Popov.
In 2009, Irina—then still officially married to our prosecutor—single-handedly established a Montenegrin company called Monte Biser.
Why might she have needed that? It’s beyond comprehension. Take a look at the official’s 2009 declaration. His wife was unemployed. The prosecutor himself earned 57,000 rubles a month. That’s 57,000 rubles a month for a family of four living in Moscow. By Moscow standards, that is, frankly, very little. Very.
After utilities, school, kindergarten, gas, and food, the Popovs were unlikely to have had any money left at all.
But that did not stop them, at exactly that time, from buying up an entire portfolio of foreign real estate.
This seaside hotel is registered to the Montenegrin company owned by the prosecutor’s wife. It was there, in one of the apartments that any of you can rent, that we recorded this investigation.
Don’t think this is just some soulless investment. The prosecutor’s whole family regularly spends time there—and clearly enjoys it.
The apartments were actually built for sale—we found plenty of listings for them. But if we understand correctly, they didn’t sell a single one. Everything remained in the prosecutor’s wife’s ownership. The result was a hotel of more than 1,000 square meters, made up of nine apartments. But one point still needs clarification.
Quite recently, in November 2018, a mysterious offshore company from the British Virgin Islands appeared among the firm’s founders alongside Irina Popova. We’ll venture a guess that this is Denis Popov’s own stake.
But that’s not all. Take a look at these lovely houses too.
They’re also in Montenegro, and they also belong to the same company. They are being built at an altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level, right next to the Kolašin ski resort.
Here is the land registry extract; incidentally, there is much more land here—almost a hectare. Originally, they planned to build much more: a full-scale hotel, a spa complex, and a restaurant.
But even what they ended up with is substantial. According to the official financial statements, the total value of the real estate owned by Irina Popova’s Montenegrin company is €3 million.
For the most meticulous among you, let us clarify. If you look up old archived versions of Popova’s company website, you can confirm that listings for the construction and sale of these properties first appeared in 2011. At that point, the couple was definitely still together (his wife appears in the declaration dated 31 December 2011).
In other words, all of these Montenegrin investments were planned and made by the family of a sitting prosecutor, a state official, and a supposed guardian of the law—using money from an unknown source.
And this is only the beginning. If the Popovs acquired a Montenegrin company in 2009, then in 2010 they decided to expand their foreign holdings even further. The unemployed wife of a Moscow district prosecutor bought an apartment in Spain, in Marbella. In this very building.
Here is the registry extract here. You can see the familiar name and the price of the apartment (including the mortgage): €645,000.
But what if it’s a different Irina Popova? It’s a common name, after all—we should check.
You’ve already seen what the building looks like in the photos above. Now let’s look at these photos of the Popov family.
The very same building. And just to be sure, here is Popov’s declaration for the year of the purchase, 2010.
Do you see the Spanish apartment? Neither do I. What I do see is a family income of 60,000 rubles a month—and corruption. That is unquestionably enough for Prosecutor Popov’s immediate dismissal.
And the longer Popov occupied various prosecutor’s offices, the more shameless his corruption became. Assets belonging to him and his wife kept disappearing from the declarations, while their actual property holdings only kept growing.
After all, a prosecutor—whether of Dagestan, Khakassia, or Moscow—can’t live in Marbella all the time. Russians aren’t going to jail themselves. So he had to get a country house outside Moscow. Naturally, on Rublyovka (the elite area west of Moscow).
Why am I so confident this is the prosecutor’s dacha, if it’s not in his declaration? Very simple. The land and buildings are registered to the prosecutor’s mother—79-year-old Lyudmila Mikhailovna Popova.
Could the prosecutor’s father have earned the money? He died quite a while ago, several years back, but perhaps he left an inheritance? Unlikely. Denis Popov’s father was also a state official—and not just any official, but a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
I am absolutely convinced of 79-year-old Lyudmila Mikhailovna Popova’s innocence, so only one explanation remains. The dacha was built by Prosecutor Denis Popov, and he simply put it in his mother’s name to avoid declaring it. What’s more, we know for certain that Prosecutor Popov uses this scheme regularly and quite routinely. And we’re not talking only about major assets like the Spanish townhouse or the Montenegrin hotels. He does the same thing with smaller items too.
Take this example: the Harley-Davidson motorcycle listed in Popov’s declaration is registered to Denis Popov’s mobile phone number.
And from that very same number, Popov pays the parking fees for another vehicle, a Mercedes ML350, registered to his ex-wife of many years.
We found another very unusual asset belonging to Prosecutor Popov’s ex-wife. Why unusual? Because why would a woman who has lived for years with her children in Marbella, Spain, need her own fishing resort in Astrakhan Region? And yet she has one.
It’s a full-fledged holiday complex on the banks of the Volga River. Lots of cottages and cabins, plus a hotel, a restaurant, a tennis court, and a swimming pool. All of it sits on 1.5 hectares of land. And of course, it has everything you could possibly want for year-round fishing. Just like in Montenegro, any of you can stay here: 2,000 rubles, and the cabin is yours.
Out of curiosity, we also visited the official website of this “estate” and found a pleasant surprise there. Among a dozen random tourists posing with fish, we found the most important one of all—with his catch.
To sum up: Illicit enrichment. Failure to declare foreign real estate. At the very least, there is no wriggling out of the Spanish townhouse episode. He can talk about divorcing his wife or come up with any other excuse he likes. It is 100% grounds for dismissal from office.
Will Putin fire him?
Of course not. Prosecutor Popov’s weight and importance within the system will only grow. Putin likes it when his subordinates are thieves. He likes it even more when they are exposed thieves. In those cases, their loyalty increases by 300%.
Our goal is to show this investigation to as many people as possible. And no one but you can help with that. Already now, 38% of citizens believe the “Moscow Case” is unjust and fabricated. If everyone sees the true face of the man who signed the indictment, the share of people who believe the security services will move toward zero. That is very important.
We need support too. The ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) was designated a “foreign agent,” and 30% of citizens believe this nonsense. You can help explain to people what’s really going on if you want to support us. We even made a special website for it: https://delo.fbk.info
So, as always, the word of truth is everything to us. Take it to the people, and it won’t go to waste.