Popular Politics newspaper 2.

POPULAR POLITICS

Exclusive of this issue: A Kremlin official’s country estate has granite garden beds. Read on p. 2

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SERDYUKOV WAS LET GO, NAVALNY WAS ARRESTED

How the authorities really fight corruption

10 things about Ukraine that weren’t mentioned on TV

How to turn a cop into Uncle Styopa (a beloved giant policeman from Russian children’s literature)

Putin’s friends were banned from entering America

Volodin’s granite garden beds

The Anti-Corruption Foundation obtained exclusive images of the country estate of Vyacheslav Volodin, deputy head of the presidential administration. They show that he owns a luxurious three-story mansion and grows vegetables in beds that appear to be finished in marble or granite. Volodin has provided no explanation of where the money for such a lavish lifestyle came from.

It became known in November 2013 that Vyacheslav Volodin had a luxurious country estate. At that time, Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation published information about the official’s real estate. The organization also filmed it using a paraglider. The photographs show that the official’s estate includes a three-story house, an artificial pond the size of a football field, a helipad, and a tennis court.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation has obtained two close-up photographs of Volodin’s mansion. It is a three-story building with columns in a pseudo-classical style. According to the documents, the house has an area of 744.2 sq. m. Nearby are greenhouses and garden beds finished with dark decorative stone. It looks like granite or dark marble. In the background, an annex is visible—either a guest house or quarters for staff and security.

The estimated value of the estate is about 150 million rubles, many times higher than the official’s declared annual income in recent years. The Foundation sent an inquiry to the Kremlin’s anti-corruption department. Its head, Oleg Plokhoi, replied that in 2008–2009 Volodin earned 591 million rubles from the sale of shares. Volodin has been a civil servant since 1990 and, officially, has not been involved in business since then. Popular Politics was unable to establish where he got shares in fuel-and-energy companies worth hundreds of millions of rubles.

Volodin declared the house and only 43% of the land he uses. Oleg Plokhoi said that the plot would only have to be declared starting next year. At the same time, according to satellite maps, the estate and the fence around the entire plot had already appeared in 2011. This is a violation of the law, but no measures have been taken against the official to this day. PP

Looks like a bathhouse or a guest house

A building for staff and security, or another guest house

The official’s garden beds are lined with stone—apparently either marble or granite

Most likely a greenhouse for exotic plants (visible inside)

Vyacheslav Volodin’s country estate is no less luxurious than the mansions of some Hollywood stars

Photo: ACF, Vedomosti/FOTOMEDIA (1)

A United Russia deputy hid an estate in France

Alexander Babakov is one of the poorest State Duma deputies, judging by his income declaration. He lives in an official apartment and earned only 2 million rubles in 2012. In reality, he owns a $15 million estate in France and an apartment in Paris.

The property owned by the family of the United Russia deputy covers almost 11 hectares and is located 37 km from Versailles. The grounds include a three-story house, staff quarters, and a tennis court. The market value of the estate is about $15 million. The Babakov family also owns an apartment in Paris not far from the Eiffel Tower.

How to punish an official

Dealing with officials’ and deputies’ foreign real estate is easy enough. All it takes is an investigation into officials’ spending when it exceeds their official earnings. That is how it is done in developed countries, and such an inquiry can end in prison or removal from office. Below are five striking examples

1. JÉRÔME CAHUZAC, former French budget minister

For more than 20 years, he failed to declare an account in a Swiss bank. After the first reports, he denied everything and sued the journalists. Later, the politician admitted that his account held €600,000. Cahuzac was charged with tax evasion and money laundering. He resigned.

2. CHRISTIAN WULFF, former president of Germany

He took a €500,000 loan from the wife of his friend, millionaire Egon Geerkens. Wulff concealed this fact from the country’s parliament. In addition, the politician’s friend, film producer David Groenewold, paid €753 for his hotel stay and restaurant dinner. The German public saw this as a bribe, and Wulff had to resign.

3. RITA CRUNDWELL, former comptroller and treasurer of Dixon, USA

The official was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison for embezzling nearly $53 million. She stole money from the budget of the small city of Dixon, Illinois, for almost 22 years. The trigger for the investigation was her lavish lifestyle—she owned three houses and a horse-breeding farm.

4. JACQUI SMITH, former UK home secretary

She received about £116,000 from the budget as reimbursement for renting an apartment where her sister actually lived. She also hired her own husband as her assistant on a salary of £40,000 a year. This became widely known to the public, and Jacqui Smith had to resign.

5. LEE SANG-DEUK, former member of parliament and elder brother of the South Korean president

The politician was arrested in July 2012 on charges of taking about $650,000 in bribes from two Korean banks. Lee Sang-deuk helped the financiers avoid audits and fines. The court sentenced Lee Sang-deuk to two years in prison and a fine equal to the amount of the bribes he received.

Zhirinovsky’s son found to own an apartment in Dubai

State Duma deputy Igor Lebedev of the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), son of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, was found to own a luxury apartment in Dubai. The politician bought it for 86 million rubles but did not declare it. Earlier, Zhirinovsky had proposed banning all officials from owning property and holding bank accounts abroad. His son did not object.

Jailed for fighting corruption

Russia’s fight against bribery is peculiar. Alexei Navalny, who investigates corruption among officials, was given a five-year suspended sentence in one fabricated case and placed under house arrest in another. The authorities fear independent investigations, because then they would have to jail the real crooks.

More than a year ago, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was dismissed in scandal. His ministry was found to have losses from embezzlement totaling 3 billion rubles. It seemed that a real fight against corruption had begun. “There will be no mercy for anyone; everything will be seen through to the end,” Vladimir Putin promised in December 2012. In February 2014, during the Olympics, Serdyukov was amnestied and fully cleared of responsibility.

The authorities treat those who fight corruption differently. Lawyer and politician Alexei Navalny has been investigating theft at state-owned enterprises for five years. In 2010, he published documents about the theft of 120 billion rubles during construction of the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean pipeline. A month later he founded RosPil, a project that canceled corrupt state procurement contracts worth billions of rubles.

Turning a cop into Uncle Styopa (a famous kind-hearted Soviet children’s police character)

The Interior Ministry reform failed. Only 35% of Russian citizens consider the police fair. This is one of the worst figures in Europe. In the Czech Republic and Poland, for example—countries of the former Eastern Bloc—the figure is nearly twice as high. Their experience shows that successful police reform requires only political will.

At the end of 1992, Jan Ruml, a former dissident and author of underground newspapers, became the Czech interior minister. At the time, the country’s police operated on the principle that every citizen was a potential enemy of the state. They opened letters, conducted unchecked surveillance of citizens, and arrested “enemies of the state.” Jan Ruml knew from the inside how the repressive system worked. During the Velvet Revolution, his father was in prison. Ruml’s first step was to dismiss officers who had fabricated political cases. In all, the Czech police force was renewed by 50% over eight years of reform.

The new minister also created public commissions to oversee the ministry’s work. They reported police crimes directly to the ministry. To fight corruption, Ruml created separate units answerable only to him. All this produced results. According to a 2010 European study, 65% of Czechs considered their police fair.

Their own can get away with anything

In Russia, harsh punishment is reserved only for ordinary citizens. The authorities have no complaints about high-ranking villains. They can easily receive suspended sentences for rape, torture, or stealing billions of rubles.

IGOR PROVKIN, former member of the Federation Council — Raped a student, received a four-year suspended sentence

On the night of July 1, 2010, 24-year-old Marina was returning from a restaurant where she had celebrated her university graduation. Igor Provkin, former senator from Kalmykia, offered her a ride in his Lexus, but on the way he stopped the car, beat her, and raped her. In court, he explained his actions as “stress from the birth of a child.” The court sentenced Provkin to four years suspended.

IVAN MAKOVKIN, official — Caused 980 million rubles in damage to the budget, received a five-year suspended sentence

ANNA SHAVENKOVA, consultant — Strangled one girl and maimed another. Received 2.5 years in an open penal colony, with the sentence deferred for 14 years

10 things about Ukraine they don’t talk about on TV

At the residence of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, they found a golden loaf of bread, a ship, and a zoo; the country’s former prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka, was afraid of demons; former prime minister Mykola Azarov, like a true patriot, moved to Austria. These and other facts about Ukrainian politicians that the main national TV channels do not report.

Yanukovych’s Museum of Corruption

Yanukovych lived in a 620 sq m house with a zoo, a golf course, a helipad, and a restaurant ship. In Yanukovych’s mansion, they found a collection of several dozen vintage cars worth millions of dollars. Gifts to the former president included a medal bearing his portrait, Ukrainian banknotes made of gold and silver, barrels of cognac, and even a 2 kg gold loaf worth more than 3 million rubles. There are now plans to turn the residence into a museum of corruption.

The Russian authorities supported Yanukovych

At a press conference on March 4, Vladimir Putin said that corruption in Ukraine had reached levels Russia could only dream of. The president also added that he “understands the people of the Maidan” (the pro-European protest movement in Kyiv). None of this had previously stopped Putin from working closely with Yanukovych. For example, in December 2013, Russia announced it would provide Ukraine with $15 billion. The special relationship between Putin and Yanukovych is also suggested by a gift found at Mezhyhirya — a replica of a Sochi Olympic medal. It was accompanied by a card reading: “His Excellency Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, President of Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general lived in gold and feared demons

Viktor Pshonka fled the country at the same time as Yanukovych. After that, his house was opened to the public. The former prosecutor general’s mansion contained a unique collection of edged weapons and awards, gilded sculptures and vases, Fabergé eggs, paintings and icons throughout the house, and even saints’ relics. In one room, opposite a portrait of Pshonka, there was an icon depicting demons, whom, according to locals, he was terrified of.

A record of bribes and enemies

Yanukovych was in a great hurry when he left the country. He and his associates did not even have time to destroy their personal archive of documents. At first they tried to burn the papers, but when they realized they would not make it in time, they threw them into a pond next to the former president’s house. There they were discovered by the first visitors to the residence in Mezhyhirya.

It turned out that Yanukovych kept records of expenses for buying off officials. For example, in an expense estimate for Kyiv real estate there is an entry reading “Bribe to Prosecutor General Pshona 20” for 32,000 hryvnias (about 93,000 rubles). There is also a receipt for $12 million in cash received by a citizen identified as A.S. Khalyavin. Who he is and what the money was for remains to be выяснено.

Ukraine’s prime minister fled to Austria

Mykola Azarov opposed signing an agreement with Europe and frightened his fellow citizens with horror stories about life in Europe. After resigning, he moved to Austria. There, the son of the former prime minister owns a luxury mansion in one of Vienna’s prestigious districts. According to European Parliament member Rebecca Harms, Mykola Azarov holds Austrian citizenship. The former official himself denied this information.

Yanukovych’s sons were multimillionaires

The business of Viktor Yanukovych’s elder son took off sharply immediately after his father was elected. By the end of 2013, Oleksandr Yanukovych’s fortune was estimated at $500 million, according to Forbes. He owned the All-Ukrainian Bank of Development, which in 2013 alone received government contracts worth more than $100 million.

In addition, according to media reports, Oleksandr Yanukovych controlled MAKO Holding, which includes Ukrainian energy and construction companies.

Yanukovych’s son’s friend became a billionaire at 27

Ukrainian businessman Serhiy Kurchenko owned a gas company with turnover of $10 billion, the Odesa Oil Refinery, and the Metalist football club (Kharkiv). He had achieved this success by the age of 27. According to Ukrainian media, the secret of the young man’s wealth was his friendship with Oleksandr Yanukovych, the son of Ukraine’s former president. Kurchenko’s fortune was estimated at $2.4 billion.

Yanukovych’s son was placed under house arrest

Kharkiv’s mayor was placed under house arrest. Hennadiy Kernes, the mayor of Kharkiv and a member of the Party of Regions, is a figure with an unusual life story. In 1992, he was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. In 2008, several criminal cases were opened against the future mayor at once. He was accused of involvement in drug trafficking in the region, inflicting bodily harm on lawmaker Oleh Medvedev, and embezzling about 7 million rubles from the Kharkiv city budget.

Putin’s friends were punished

“I hope these sanctions are a recognition of my service to Russia” — Arkady Rotenberg (March 22, 2014, quoted by Interfax)

“The largest individual shareholder of Bank Rossiya, and also the personal banker of senior Russian officials, including Putin. A close adviser to President Putin, he is described as one of the president’s ‘cashiers’” — Yuri Kovalchuk (U.S. Department of the Treasury, March 20)

“I fully support the idea of education, restoring patriotism, restoring the concepts of ‘national values,’ ‘spiritual values,’ and ‘national or state interests’” — Vladimir Yakunin (August 6, 2012, at a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society)

ARKADY ROTENBERG, Putin’s judo partner — AN OLD FRIEND OF PUTIN’S, he trained in the same judo club with him as a child. Today, companies owned by Arkady Rotenberg and his brother Boris receive contracts to build roads, bridges, and gas pipelines. According to Forbes, the businessmen are the largest recipients of state contracts in Russia. For example, in Olympic Sochi they built facilities worth more than 227 billion rubles. The businessmen also own SMP Bank and the Dynamo football club. The Rotenberg brothers’ combined fortune is $4.7 billion.

YURY KOVALCHUK, Putin’s friend and head of Bank Rossiya — MAJOR SHAREHOLDER and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya. A longtime friend of Vladimir Putin, they have both been members of the Ozero cooperative (a dacha cooperative near St. Petersburg) since 1996. The bank owns large stakes in Channel One, REN TV, Channel Five, STS, and the newspaper Izvestia. Kovalchuk’s fortune is estimated at $1.1 billion. The United States imposed sanctions not only on the businessman himself, but also on his bank. After that, the Visa and Mastercard payment systems blocked Bank Rossiya’s cards. Vladimir Putin ordered that the bank be supported at the state’s expense.

VLADIMIR YAKUNIN, head of Russian Railways — THE U.S. TREASURY, in explaining the sanctions, called Yakunin one of Putin’s closest confidants. The head of Russian Railways is another dacha owner from the Ozero cooperative. He leads a lavish lifestyle even by the standards of a state corporation chief and spends his time at a 14-hectare estate in the Moscow region. Inside there is a 1,400-square-meter sauna, a prayer room, and a special fur storage room. Patriot Yakunin’s children live abroad. His elder son Andrei lives in a London mansion worth £4.5 million, while the younger son owns an apartment in an upscale district of Geneva, Switzerland.

Photo © RIA Novosti, ITAR-TASS, Vedomosti/FOTOMEDIA, PhotoXPress

Editorial email: gazeta@navalny.ru

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