Why are our officials so panic-stricken by the ratification of Article 20 of the UN Convention Against Corruption and the introduction into the Russian Criminal Code of an article on “Illicit Enrichment”? Article 20. Illicit enrichment Subject to its constitution and the fundamental principles of its legal system, each State Party shall consider adopting such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as a criminal offense, when committed intentionally, illicit enrichment—that is, a significant increase in the assets of a public official that exceeds his or her lawful income and that he or she cannot reasonably explain. Why are they so unwilling to explain the sources of the money behind the property they own, their bank accounts, and so on? They even drag in the presumption of innocence. In general, they resist however they can. Why? Let’s look at this problem as a whole. From above. From a bird’s-eye view, so to speak. Nine hundred meters from Medvedev’s Gorki-9 residence and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence are two land plots (Yandex Maps), each about 19,000 square meters. The first plot, with a total area of 19,284 square meters (made up of two plots: 2,365 sq. m. and 16,919 sq. m., plus ownership of the house), belongs to Yuriy Leonidovich Vorobyov, the father of acting Moscow Region governor Andrei Vorobyov, and deputy chairman of the Federation Council (Russia’s upper house of parliament) since 2008, appointed there by United Russia.
Yury Vorobyov worked with Sergei Shoigu from the late 1980s onward. They started out together as inspectors at the Krasnoyarsk regional committee of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), then moved to Moscow. In 1991, Shoigu became head of the Rescue Corps, then chairman of the RSFSR State Committee for Emergency Situations, then chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies, and Disaster Relief, and later Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies, and Disaster Relief. In all of these positions, Yury Vorobyov served as Shoigu’s deputy. In 2007 he left EMERCOM (Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations), and since 2008 he has been sitting in the Federation Council.
Adjacent to Vorobyov’s plot is a second one, with an area of 19,329 square meters (2,807 sq. m. and 16,522 sq. m.). It belongs to Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu. Here is what it looks like from satellite imagery:
Staff from the Anti-Corruption Foundation made the effort to go to Vorobyov’s and Shoigu’s dachas (country houses), bringing along a quadcopter with a good camera attached. Here is what we filmed (video version, watch in the highest resolution):
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The two plots share a common fence; here it is from the Moscow River side.
Not bad. Now let’s turn to information on the official incomes of state officials Vorobyov and Shoigu. Income: Vorobyov: 2012 4,093,370.00 rubles http://council.gov.ru/media/property/doc/41d45e42cab56bba5843.doc 2011 2,352,862.00 rubles http://declarator.org/person/1031/ Shoigu: 2010 4,416,060.00 rubles http://declarator.org/person/192/ 2011 4,941,909.56 rubles http://declarator.org/person/192/ 2012 15,379,250.31 rubles http://government.ru/media/files/41d45a40f74a62dc39af.pdf Now let’s look at how much land costs in this area: At the moment, five plots are for sale nearby, priced from 1.18 million to 1.71 million rubles per sotka (100 square meters). Accordingly, a 19,300-square-meter plot (193 sotkas) costs from 227 million to 330 million rubles. Link to these five listings: http://irr.ru/real-estate/out-of-town/lands/search/ab_area=1074614715/currency=RUR/keywords=%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5/ As we can see from the filing, state official Vorobyov has had an income of 6 million rubles over the last two years (and clearly earned less before that), yet somehow managed to register ownership of a plot worth more than 200 million rubles. Perhaps the plot used to cost a little less. But only a little.
After that, he built a splendid large estate on the plot (clearly not 435 square meters, as stated in the filing), a guest house, and various other structures. Landscaping, an artificial pond, and all the rest. I’m no expert and can’t say exactly how much such construction costs, but it clearly does not match his official annual income. So here’s the question: is state official Vorobyov’s anomalous wealth connected to his public service, and to the fact that he also placed his dear son in public office (with Shoigu supposedly handing Moscow Region down to him “by inheritance”)?“
So here’s the question: is state official Vorobyov’s anomalous wealth connected to the fact that his other dear son is a business partner of Vladimir Putin’s crony and Russia’s chief oil trader, Gennady Timchenko?
So here’s the question: why are state official Vorobyov and other wonderful state officials so actively opposed to ratifying Article 20 of the UN Convention Against Corruption? PS We weren’t able to get a closer look at Shoigu’s plot: first, the forest got in the way, and second, he is, after all, the defense minister. It feels a bit awkward flying a quadcopter over to him—what if he thinks it’s an attack and a war has started, with enemy drones buzzing right over his dacha? Please share this information. Let the public get a closer look at how state officials live.