Remember the story about Senator Fetisov’s miracle apartment the size of ten sotkas (about 1,000 square meters)? With the help of The New Times magazine (many thanks to them), we sent an inquiry to the Federation Council, and were astonished to learn that, apparently, the Federation Council has no questions for Fetisov: The Federation Council commission overseeing asset declarations reviewed the property of Senator Vyacheslav Fetisov, whose wife was found by opposition politician Alexei Navalny to own an undeclared apartment in central Moscow. “Fetisov provided exhaustive explanations regarding this situation. We have no further questions for him on this matter,” the commission told Interfax. The agency report does not say exactly how Vyacheslav Fetisov explained the fact that for two years in a row he failed to list his wife’s 1,000-square-meter apartment in his declaration. It is also unknown how Fetisov explained the source of funds used to purchase the property. http://lenta.ru/news/2013/10/15/fetisov/ The reply to our inquiry is absolutely hilarious.
Let’s sort this out. We were told that Fetisov owns two apartments in this building, and that he told the commission he has no undeclared real estate. On that basis, we were politely but firmly asked not to trouble them any further. Senator Fetisov did indeed have two apartments in the building, and they were listed in his declaration:
1. Moscow, 1st Zachatievsky Lane, building 10, apartment 12, area 289.2 sq. m.
2. Moscow, 1st Zachatievsky Lane, building 10, apartment 12a, area 382.4 sq. m.
But the ownership rights to them are no longer registered, which means their floor space was merged. That very 1,051.9 sq. m. apartment was assembled in 2011 from these two, among other units. I say among other units because an attentive reader will notice that the apartment’s area exceeds the combined area of those two by 380.3 sq. m. Of course, the scale and grandeur of our “servants of the people” are such that they don’t bother with trifles like nearly 400 square meters in the best part of central Moscow. But we are small, down-to-earth people, so we may be forgiven for noticing. Since 2011, Fetisov should not have been declaring these two apartments; he should have declared one large one. The excuse that “he declared it, just in parts” does not work, because the missing 380.3 sq. m. is not listed anywhere. We are delighted that the Federation Council commission hasno further questions on this matter. The commission is simply made up of very polite and trusting people—they take him at his word, and are too shy to ask unnecessary questions.* * As for us, we’re not shy, so we still have questions. After all, the market value of these 380 mysterious square meters is quite substantial—about $10 million. What if they were simply misplaced? That would be a shame. The ACF (Anti-Corruption Foundation) would like to help Senator Fetisov locate such valuable real estate, and to that end we have sent a new inquiry to the Federation Council with all the supporting documents attached. We will publish the reply.