Here it says “Russian Federation.” And there it says “Russian Federation.” And here again: “Russian Federation.” No, I’m not pointing at a world map and somehow always landing on one-seventh of the Earth’s landmass. I’m just going through documents for the luxury real estate owned by the family of Russia’s new prime minister.
He was appointed just 12 days ago, but even in that short time quite a few journalistic investigations have come out about properties belonging to the Mishustin family. There’s just one problem: in all the registry extracts now, instead of “Mishustin,” it says “Russian Federation.”
So first of all, we cannot say with 100% certainty that these assets belong to the prime minister’s family.
And second, it makes the most important thing difficult: tracing the ownership structure and how it changed over time. In other words, roughly speaking, figuring out who sold what to whom and identifying the participants in the corruption chain.
Fortunately, you have the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) (and yes, you do, because you keep us going), where the people working are anything but naive. We never saw Mishustin as an “effective minister”; we always knew what he was — corrupt. That’s why since 2015 we have been carefully collecting all these little registry extracts, and now we are pleased to tell you that the Mishustin family owns nearly 3 billion rubles’ worth of real estate. That this property was gifted by a “businessman” involved in fraudulent VAT refund schemes. What fancy license plates Mishustin’s sister has on her car. And how restaurateur Arkady Novikov “laundered” apartments gifted to Mishustin’s children when they came of age.
Let’s start with the house on Rublyovka (the elite residential area west of Moscow). I won’t even bother adding links — everyone has already written about this Mishustin asset. It is the oldest one, so information about it survived in old databases with real names still attached, rather than the code name “Russian Federation.”
But seeing it once is better than hearing about it, right? Especially since not a single photograph of this place had been published until now.
Here are the 2.6 hectares of land and the six houses on it (2,745 square meters in total). As you can see, this is not just a dacha — it’s a full-blown family estate.
The only “official” statement by Mishustin on this property — and not a very official one at that — appeared in the tame newspaper Kommersant, disguised as a column by the “journalist” Butrin. Here it is:
Alright then. He says he bought it in 2000 using income from the International Computer Club. Shall we check?
First of all, what business income? By that point, Mishustin had already spent two years as a tax service official. When exactly was he running a business — in the evenings? And if we are talking about savings, I’m sure that for most Russians who remember 1998, the idea that Mishustin had any savings at all would inspire nothing but skepticism.
But that is not even the main point. The main point is that he is lying. In 2000, Mishustin bought only this plot:
One-fifth the size of what now makes up his dacha.
His estate consists of three separate parts acquired gradually over time. I’ll go through each of them in detail, with the history and the registry extracts. Because now Rosreestr (Russia’s state property registry) has classified everything, and no proper documents remain publicly accessible. Let them stay here, for the record.
1. The first plot, which we have already discussed, was bought by Mishustin in 2000. In 2004, the official transferred it to his underage children — Alexei and Alexander. One was five years old, the other four. Both sons still own this property today, but there is no longer any need to declare it — the children have reached adulthood.
However, if Mishustin himself were ever suddenly spotted on this property, he would be in trouble. The official has never once declared it as being “in his use.” Given that Mishustin’s children studied in Switzerland and until recently did not live in Russia, the dacha was presumably standing empty. But more likely, you’ll agree, Mishustin was simply violating the law outright.
We have put the unredacted registry extracts for the plots and houses into a special folder.
2. The second plot. The parents’ one. This 7,875-square-meter plot is now registered to Luiza Mishustina, the prime minister’s mother. It was not bought in 2000 at all, but 12 years later, in 2012. Originally, the owner was his father, Vladimir Mishustin, and then it passed by inheritance to his wife.
Could pensioners in their seventies have bought nearly a hectare of land on Rublyovka? No. Obviously, the plot was paid for by Mishustin himself, while serving as a state official.
The seller of the plot was no random person either. From 2000 to 2012, the land belonged to Gennady Bukayev, Mishustin’s former boss and close friend — a former Russian minister for taxes and levies. Bukayev is now the CEO of Rosneftegaz.
A folder with the unredacted registry extracts for these plots.
3. And now the third plot, the most interesting one. It currently belongs to Mishustin’s sister, Natalia Stenina.
She consolidated it from 10 plots, most of which she received in 2009. So once again, not 2000 at all — amazing! Of the 12,000 square meters, 9,000 were gifted to her by a certain Alexander Udodov. Along with the plots came houses measuring 741 and 147 square meters.
And here we need to pause and talk in detail about the donor. He is such a singular and specific character that, in any normal world, he and Mishustin should have absolutely nothing in common. They should hardly be comfortable being in the same city. But no — they are friends. Close enough that Udodov gifts the prime minister’s own sister real estate worth several million dollars.
You can stop reading right now and just google Udodov yourself. He really is some kind of half-gangster who got rich in the early 2000s through fraudulent VAT refund schemes. Exactly when Mishustin was working there as deputy minister.
Here is Kommersant — the very same newspaper now singing hymns to Mishustin the conservative investor — calling Udodov, back in 2011, one of the organizers of the theft of 2 billion rubles from the tax service. Citing investigators, it wrote about searches of his home, about how he hid from the investigation. It also wrote openly about his ties to Mishustin:
Question: does it seem suspicious to you that a man profiting from fraudulent tax schemes is friends with the head of the tax service? Exactly. It seems suspicious to us too. But not to Putin, not to the FSB, not to the Investigative Committee, not to the prosecutor’s office, and not to whoever supposedly vetted Mishustin before his appointments. Everything is apparently just fine.
And their close friendship did not remain back in the late 1990s. No — to this day, Udodov remains a key figure in the story of how the prime minister and his family became rich.
Here are Mishustin and Udodov playing hockey together.
Traveling together to tournaments in Switzerland.
Here he is in 2010 at the International Computer Festival in Sochi, Mikhail Mishustin’s pet project, as an honored guest.
And here he is there again in 2014.
And that is only a small part of their ties — only what can be illustrated with photographs. There is much more. For example, during the brief period when Mishustin worked in business, Udodov was right there as his managing director.
In both practical and legal terms, they became so intertwined that their assets have to be separated with a surgical scalpel. Otherwise, it becomes impossible to tell where the prime minister and his family end and where the “businessman” begins — a man who can hardly be called anything but a gangster.
We need to step away from Udodov for just a second — we’ll come back to him very soon. Because we are not done yet with the prime minister’s sister, Natalia Stenina.
Judging by the register of legal entities, she is not especially occupied with anything. Her job is to be the sister of a man who has a lot of money but cannot register anything in his own name because he cannot explain where that money came from. She, not Mishustin himself, is the official founder of the Sportima hockey club, where the official plays — along with his buddy Udodov.
According to the documents, she is the founder of the organization that restored a church on Rublyovka. Interestingly, it was not Mishustin’s sister who was awarded the Order of the Patriarchal Builder, but Mishustin himself.
You probably noticed that in the two screenshots above, Udodov appears alongside Natalia Stenina as a founder. There is also a third foundation — for Mercy, Education, and Sport. That one is especially good. It brings together Udodov and his wife, Bokarev, the owner of Transmashholding, and Vitaly Kachur. Also an absolutely ideal person to be connected with the country’s top tax official. He is a convicted smuggler who served five years for bribing deputy Voronenkov and became notorious for all sorts of tax fraud schemes.
So, Mishustin’s sister acts as his nominee owner. And these services are obviously well paid. Natalia Stenina spends a lot of time in Switzerland, where she visits her daughter and Mishustin’s children, who studied at one of the most expensive schools in the world near Lausanne. Tuition there costs more than $100,000 per person per year.
Natalia enjoys herself, travels, and drives expensive cars with privileged license plates.
And Natalia also owns real estate worth... 1.6 billion rubles.
The first 730 million rubles is the part of the Rublyovka dacha we have already looked at. But she does not live there. That is the prime minister’s dacha; she has one of her own.
This is the ultra-elite Agalarov Estate development. It has everything — a golf club, a helipad, a pond with boats, restaurants, a spa, bowling. Every amenity for millionaire residents. And for the new prime minister’s sister. In 2014, she bought a 2,500-square-meter plot here with a 925-square-meter house on it. Property like this in the development costs 400 million rubles.
You can easily find photos from this development on the children’s social media. And while we are looking at photos, take a look at the profile of Mikhail, Natalia Stenina’s son.
First, here is what the profile looks like now, and then what it looked like a couple of weeks ago. It listed his workplace as Afora Development. That is Alexander Udodov’s company. Helping out here too.
Besides this splendid house, Natalia Stenina has an apartment in the ultra-elite Knightsbridge Private Park residential complex. 170 square meters. 200 million rubles.
A few days ago, the BBC Russian Service reported on it, but they were only able to confirm the information informally. Because once again — it is classified. But we have this registry extract too, and we can now document with 100% certainty that it really is the property of Prime Minister Mishustin’s own sister.
The scrubbed-clean Rosreestr is especially infuriating. Fine, the prime minister — they classified data on his property for some supposed state reason. But why hide his sister? Because in doing so, the state itself is admitting the truth. It is obvious that this apartment was bought by Mishustin, with corrupt money.
And now a small bonus. Another plot of land along the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye highway, gifted to the prime minister’s sister by that same strange businessman Udodov. 25 sotkas (0.25 hectares). It costs 30 million rubles. Just a small present. By the standards of the other gifts to the Mishustin family, it is basically a souvenir. Of course, this plot too has already been classified. But not from you, dear viewers. Your donations are not wasted. ACF recorded everything in advance.
You may calculate that we have found 1.36 billion rubles in Stenina’s assets, while I announced 1.6 billion. But I did not miscalculate. We just need to move from the elite districts outside Moscow into the very center of the city — to Tverskoy Boulevard. To a place that for many years was known to every Muscovite as the restaurant Nedalny Vostok.
The building is currently being renovated. A new restaurant is opening, and it was even reported that the famous Simachev Bar would move here.
It was always assumed that Nedalny Vostok belonged to restaurateur Novikov — incidentally, a former member of the Supreme Council of United Russia — but in reality, this legendary mid-2000s establishment belonged to Novikov only by half all this time. The other 50 percent was split equally between our familiar figures: Mishustin’s businessman Udodov and Mishustin’s sister Natalia Stenina.
The media wrote about this fact, and it is not hard to find. It jumps right out if you look at the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. But the most interesting part here is another legal entity, Garantia LLC, located in the same building. It belongs to the same people in the same shares.
Garantia LLC owns this entire building on Tverskoy Boulevard. 2,200 square meters. It is very, very expensive. One billion rubles. So, formally speaking, this reveals at least another 250 million rubles within the prime minister’s family.
An unexpected and profitable friendship. Restaurateur Novikov runs a joint business with the family of the country’s top tax official. He receives an honorary post — member of the Public Council under Russia’s Tax Service.
But the friendship between Mishustin and Novikov does not end here on Tverskoy Boulevard.
Here in Khamovniki, another 400 million rubles belonging to the Mishustin family is hidden away.
This residential complex is located near Frunzenskaya Embankment, literally 300 meters from the Moskva River, with Neskuchny Garden on the other side. We are talking about the entire fifth floor of one of the buildings in the image above — who do you think it belongs to? That’s right, the Russian Federation. Here is a current registry extract for one of the apartments. Everything is classified. But we obtained the documents earlier, and we know that this was bought for Prime Minister Mishustin’s Russian-Swiss children.
And the purchase scheme is simply magnificent — a classic of corruption. Two apartments, each 180 square meters. Each worth 180 million rubles.
Both originally belonged to Alexander Udodov through his company ISTKOM. Mishustin apparently wanted these apartments for his children. But of course the children of the tax minister could not be seen receiving apartments from a tax fraudster.
So on May 4, 2018, restaurateur Novikov buys them. Four months later, he sells one apartment to Alexei Mishustin. Then he waits. Because if the second apartment were transferred to Alexander Mishustin, a student in Switzerland, it would have had to appear in his minister father’s declaration. So Novikov waits another five months and sells the apartment to Alexander Mishustin as soon as he turns 18.
And then dad can say: “I know nothing about it. Some apartments. My children are adults.”
We do not know at what price Novikov transferred the apartments to Mishustin’s children. We assume it was far below market value. But even if it was at market price, neither Alexei nor Alexander Mishustin had anything close to the money needed to buy them. They had only just turned 18.
Mishustin, more than anyone, knows that from any tax inspector’s point of view this is called a “criminal sham transaction.” A corruption classic. The minister’s children are growing up? Let’s buy them luxury apartments. The minister will be pleased, and then we will be pleased too. And now Mishustin is prime minister, and the apartments have been classified altogether. Apartments? What apartments? What Novikov? What Udodov? What corruption? We know nothing of the sort.
Let’s first sum up the financial side of this.
Here is Mishustin’s latest declaration. A declaration filed so that ordinary Russians can go to a website and see what kind of official he is and what he owns. What do we see?
NO-THING. Not a single square meter of property. If not for his wife’s income, you might think, “Oh, our poor prime minister, he has absolutely nothing, he gave everything to Russia.”
And what is the reality?
A total of 2.82 billion rubles. There are also some “old” apartments, garages, and other minor items, so we can safely round it up to 3 billion. The family of an official who spent 22 years in public service owns 3 billion rubles in real estate alone.
So there is your answer to the question of what can be expected from the new prime minister and what he does best.
Besides everything I have described, there is also Mishustin’s wife in this video, who over recent years has officially received 800 million rubles in income. And nobody knows anything about any business of hers. Where do these millions come from? Well, obviously from the same place the children’s apartments came from.
Mishustin has spent 20 years in public service. And he is a billionaire.
And it is astonishing how he himself, the state, and Putin — because of course this cannot be happening without his knowledge — hide his billions from us. In other words, the state’s task is not to determine the source of Mishustin’s wealth, but to conceal that wealth from us. Because they understand that its sources are corrupt. And they are perfectly fine with that.
Just think about it: what right do they have to erase from the state property registry data not only about themselves, but also about their children, sisters, and parents? No one would allow you to do that. And yet this is exactly what is happening.
*- Vladimir Vladimirovich, it has come out that Mishustin is a thief, and every newspaper is going to write about it. What should we do? Well, help Mishustin hide everything so the newspapers won’t write about it.* That, in the terminology of propagandist Solovyov, is an “absolutely brilliant government.”
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Thanks to the excellent journalist Sergey Yezhov for his contribution to this investigation.