What do you see in this photograph? If all you see is a river, summer houses, forest edges, and mushroom clearings, take a closer look. Right there, waaaay over there, in the very center of the photo, you can see the perfect explanation for why the political regime of Toad_on_the_Pipe so fiercely refuses to ratify Article 20 of the UN Convention against Corruption and reacts so painfully to attempts to add an "illicit enrichment" article to the Criminal Code. If these measures were implemented, this photograph would create major problems for certain people in the Kremlin and United Russia. Let me explain in more detail. I’m sure you’ll like this story. This is the village of Leshkovo in the Istra district of Moscow Region. That is exactly where these splendid wealthy palaces stand,
Now for each plot separately, in order, so to speak, of increasing interest. One of them belongs to the "simple miner" and secretary of the general council of the United Russia party, Sergei Neverov.
I already wrote about him in detail (having promised to write about the neighbors too, which I am now doing).
Briefly, Neverov, who loves to portray himself as a "simple miner, a working man," has never been in business, has spent recent years living off our backs in government service, has no significant income, yet somehow managed to acquire a "country plot" worth 92 million rubles, which he registered in the name of his mother-in-law, a 75-year-old pensioner from Novokuznetsk.
When I wrote about his palace on September 4 of this year, Neverov had the nerve to say that he bought and would build all this with "money raised from selling an apartment in Novokuznetsk." From his disclosure, we can see that Neverov really did own a two-room, 67-square-meter apartment in that city. A question for everyone: can we believe for even a second that a 67-square-meter apartment in Novokuznetsk is comparable in value to a huge plot on the banks of the Moscow River and a house probably twice the size of the main Palace of Pioneers in Novokuznetsk? Of course not. We understand that Neverov is a disgusting liar and bribe-taker, like everyone in United Russia. And the mysterious source of his income can be explained by one word only: "corruption." All right then, on to the neighbors. Meet Igor Nikolayevich Rudensky
http://www.duma.gov.ru/structure/deputies/131170/
A prominent United Russia figure and chairman of the State Duma committee on economic policy.
As for economic policy, Deputy Rudensky is doing very, very well.
Plot #1 (2,996 sq. m.) he registered under the country-house partnership "SOSNY" ("Pines") and does not declare it, although he should; plot #2 (8,213 sq. m.) is registered in Rudensky’s own name. The total value of the 11,209 sq. m. of land is about 74 million rubles. And, as we can see, construction of a huge house is underway on the property.
Let’s look at Rudensky’s official income:
• 2006 — 1.2 million rubles
• 2010 — 1.9 million rubles
• 2011 — 1.9 million rubles
• 2012 — 2 million rubles
My God. What a shock. What an astonishing anomaly.
In 2006, Deputy Rudensky earned 1.2 million rubles, and had 198,914 rubles and 23 kopecks in his bank account. He remained a deputy, and then in 2008 bought land for an amount equal to dozens of years of his annual salary at the time.
There is no explanation for where United Russia member Rudensky got the tens of millions of rubles needed to acquire this marvelous estate. Maybe he found buried treasure. Or maybe he’s simply a thief and a bribe-taker. You decide. And who is this inventive fellow who put what looks like a full hockey rink on his property? Or I don’t know, what is it — a circus? a gladiator arena? a rodeo field?
This is Nikolai Ivanovich Ashlapov.
See that stern, strong-willed face of his? There is no doubt that at the moment this photograph was taken, Nikolai Ivanovich was thinking about Russia. He is one of our construction bureaucrats: until recently, head of the federal state enterprise "Spetsstroyengineering under the Federal Agency for Special Construction" (Spetsstroy of Russia); previously head of the federal state enterprise "Main Directorate for the Construction of Roads and Airfields under the Federal Agency for Special Construction"; deputy minister of regional development of Russia; acting governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai; and a deputy of the fourth State Duma. Ashlapov is a member of the United Russia party. And it was Nikolai Ivanovich Ashlapov who oversaw preparations for the APEC summit — the very one remembered for monstrous theft, wild price inflation, useless construction, and facilities that began falling apart almost immediately. Nikolai Ivanovich himself claims that "Construction projects like those for the APEC summit are a recipe for overcoming crisis." One can agree with that if the crisis in question is a personal budget crisis. United Russia member Ashlapov clearly overcame that crisis quite successfully, judging by the size of his country estate. The value of the plot and house comes to roughly 178 million rubles. Apparently, so that the obvious parallels between the inflated cost of projects overseen by United Russia member Ashlapov and the scale of his estate would not be too glaring, Nikolai Ivanovich chose not to declare it in full. The actual property consists of three cadastral plots:
• Plot #1, 11,347 sq. m.
• Plot #2, 750 sq. m., registered to the DNP "SOSNY" ("Pines")
• Plot #3, 237 sq. m., registered to the DNP "SOSNY" ("Pines")
Neither the second nor the third plot appears in the disclosure.
Let’s move on to the next very remarkable neighbor.
Beautiful, isn’t it? You can tell at once that someone with modern ideas about country living lives here. A European lives here.
This is Sergei Eduardovich Prikhodko, deputy prime minister and head of the government staff.
What a serious folder he has there "for signature." Looking at Prikhodko’s "dacha," you realize that skillful use of that folder can bring in excellent profits.
Plot #1 covers 19,817 sq. m., plot #2 8,143 sq. m. Total: 27,960 sq. m., or almost 3 hectares. The first plot was registered as his property in 2011, the second in 2008. Why — we’ll explain below.
Also on the property are a house of 1,580 sq. m. and a bathhouse of 137 sq. m.
Let’s take a closer look at Sergei Eduardovich’s biography:
• In 1986–1987 — attaché, third secretary in the Department of Socialist European Countries of the USSR Foreign Ministry.
• In 1992–1993 — second secretary, first secretary at the Russian Embassy in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic.
• In 1993–1997 — section head, department head, deputy director of a department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
• Since April 9, 1997 — aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
• Since September 14, 1998 — deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.
• Since February 2, 1999 — deputy head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and head of the President’s Foreign Policy Directorate.
• Since March 26, 2004 — aide to the President of the Russian Federation.
• Since May 21, 2012 — first deputy head of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation
• Since May 9, 2013 — acting head of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation.
• Since May 22, 2013 — deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation and head of the Government Staff of the Russian Federation.
He has spent his entire life in government service. You could say he devoted it to us. A servant of the people. Now let’s look at his income:
In 2012 he earned 10.7 million rubles; in 2011, 6.8 million rubles; in 2010, 6.2 million rubles; in 2009, 6.5 million rubles; and in 2008 — the year Prikhodko bought the plot and began construction — 5.3 million rubles. We take out a microscope, look at the income again, and once again find nothing there that would explain the existence of such luxurious real estate.
How much is this plot worth? Not far away, a large plot is for sale at a price of $20,000 per sotka (100 square meters). Let’s even ignore the fact that Prikhodko’s plot is on the riverbank, while the one we are comparing it to is 300 meters away. At 279.6 sotkas, at $20,000 each, that comes to $5.6 million, or 184.5 million rubles. Even if Prikhodko’s income before 2008 never increased and remained 5.3 million rubles a year, then to afford the land alone he would have had to work for 34 years, live on the street, walk everywhere, and eat nothing. And looking at the photograph of "civil servant" Prikhodko, we flatly refuse to believe that he neither drank nor ate for 34 years. And that is without counting the cost of building a 1,500-square-meter house, a huge bathhouse, utilities, and so on.
And, as usual, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) cannot resist putting a cherry on top of its investigation. Today’s cherry is the chief ideologue of United Russia, the man responsible for all domestic policy in the country — Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin, first deputy head of the presidential administration and member of the bureau of United Russia’s supreme council.
I wouldn’t even call this a dacha. It’s more like a "park ensemble." A pond, galleries, all sorts of things. Apparently there’s a bath complex by the pond, so you can leap straight out of the bathhouse shouting, "Oh, how I love Mother Russia," and scare off the white swans rocking a fallen star. And that landing pad with its letter "H" hints that while ordinary suckers sit in traffic jams, their rulers fly around in helicopters. By the most conservative estimate, all this is worth no less than 155 million rubles, and most likely well over 200 million. Let me remind you that Monsieur Volodin has been strictly in government service since 1996. He could not and cannot legally earn enough to buy and maintain such splendor. Obviously, the monthly upkeep alone here is greater than his salary. Let’s look at the disclosures: 2012 — 6.7 million rubles, 2011 — 4 million rubles, 2010 — 6.5 million rubles. True, in 2009 there was a mysterious and astonishing income of 350 million rubles from the sale of shares in an oil-and-fat processing plant, but that only raises more questions about how, when, why, and for how much he bought those shares in the first place. In any case, we can see that "civil servant" Volodin owns property whose upkeep exceeds his official annual income. That apparently worries Volodin himself, which is why he too was too shy to declare the entire land plot.
Plot #2 covers 8,320 sq. m., plot #1 11,105 sq. m. Total: 19,425 sq. m. The second plot is registered to the "SOSNY" country-house noncommercial partnership, which has already been mentioned several times in this post. And it is not in the disclosure. The 8,320 sq. m. plot is there, the 744.2 sq. m. house is there, but the 11,105 sq. m. plot held through the "country-house partnership" and actually used by him is not. Our chief "domestic policy" man lies and cheats in his property disclosure. So what exactly is this "SOSNY" partnership? It seems United Russia member Volodin takes his cues from his senior comrades in everything: they are famous for the Ozero dacha cooperative (a well-known group tied to Putin’s inner circle), whose members effectively became an organized criminal group looting the country and turned into legal billionaires. And these people created their own "Sosny dacha cooperative":
Here are the founders:
Full extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
The idea is simple:
These crafty United Russia crooks came up with a way not to declare plots that belong to them: they created a special "country-house noncommercial partnership" and decided to register part of their land under it. But their cunning plan turned out not to be so cunning after all. The point is that officials must declare not only what is directly owned by an individual, but also what is in their actual use, regardless of who formally owns it — whether a country-house partnership, a mother-in-law, or an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. That, by the way, also explains the different purchase dates for Sergei Prikhodko’s plots: he simply re-registered a plot he already controlled from the "country-house partnership" into his own name.
In addition to the plots where the United Russia members live, the "country-house noncommercial partnership" owns about 100,000 sq. m. of land, including a burial mound dating from the 11th–12th centuries, which is a federally protected heritage site.
At this point I would normally move on to conclusions and moralizing, but while working through this case we noticed something strange. Let’s take another look at the satellite image from two years ago and our recent photograph.
We can see two changes
1. On the left, the United Russia members have acquired another neighbor
2. The fences of Neverov, Rudensky, and Ashlapov now run right up to the river
So who is this new neighbor?
This is Nikolai Sergeyevich Shustenko, president of the Basis group of companies. His business is tied to budget money just as closely as he himself is tied to his dacha neighbors. In just the last couple of years, his companies have won tenders worth more than 5 billion rubles, mostly for urban improvement projects in northern Moscow.
Shustenko bought two plots: one for himself, and another, 23,760 sq. m. in area, for his United Russia neighbors (through Construction of Transport Networks LLC).
Here is the second plot:
From this plot, United Russia member Neverov got 2,140 sq. m. (worth $428,000), United Russia member Rudensky got 4,250 sq. m. (worth $850,000), and United Russia member Ashlapov got 9,600 sq. m. (worth $1,920,000). So we can state the following as fact: Deputy Neverov, Deputy Rudensky, and former deputy Ashlapov received income in kind from businessman Shustenko. He bought the land and transferred it for the use and disposal of these crooks. The crooks took the land, stand on it, and fenced it off. The Anti-Corruption Foundation considers this a bribe paid to senior United Russia figures for unknown services. Possibly for "help" in winning landscaping and urban improvement tenders. If Neverov, Rudensky, and Ashlapov want to prove otherwise, let them produce the documents showing that the land was gifted or sold to them, show that they paid income tax on it (if it was a gift), and explain why the land was not declared. And now for the moral part: I hope you once again understand why the "United Russia" people and the Kremlin are so opposed to introducing "illicit enrichment" into the Criminal Code. If such an article existed, all these miracle dacha owners would end up in the dock, where they would have to explain what money all this was bought with. I hope you all understand how important it is to support the common struggle of all decent people for the ratification of Article 20 of the UN Convention against Corruption and the introduction of this very concept of "illicit enrichment." Now for the practical part: In the course of this investigation, the Anti-Corruption Foundation established the following: 1. Senior civil servant Volodin violated current anti-corruption law and filed a false property disclosure, omitting most of the land plot on which his estate is located. We demand an official investigation and Volodin’s dismissal from public service. Here is our official letter on the matter. 2. United Russia deputies Neverov and Rudensky, as well as former deputy Ashlapov, violated anti-corruption law and provided false information in their property disclosures. We demand official recognition of this fact and the expulsion of these crooks from the State Duma. We expect United Russia to expel these people from the party. We ask the media to submit official inquiries on this matter, since formally we ourselves cannot do so. 3. We accuse deputies Neverov and Rudensky and former deputy Ashlapov of taking a bribe from businessman Shustenko and demand a criminal investigation. Statement. 4. We believe that the property owned by civil servant Prikhodko is nowhere near commensurate with his income, and we demand that he explain the origin of the funds. Now for cooperation and nationwide civic action. We would very much like your help in spreading this information. Citizens of the Russian Federation will surely be curious to look at the dachas of these "servants of the people" and ask with us: "where did the money come from?" We made this wonderful website: http://dacha.fbk.info/
It would be great if you spread the link http://dacha.fbk.info/ everywhere you can. All kinds of non-political blogs and communities are especially useful. This kind of information is interesting to everyone. If you have an account on Odnoklassniki (a Russian social network popular with older users), please post it there too — or ask your parents to — and urge everyone to share the link. Odnoklassniki is a social network with lots of people aged 50+ who use the internet but don’t read LiveJournal or Facebook — let’s try to reach them. And of course Twitter, VK, Facebook, all of that. There is no such thing as a useless link. Every link, retweet, and repost is a jab with a sharp stick at the vile toad. LiveJournal now allows embedded tweets, not just images of them. If you hit "retweet" right here, you’ll be doing a good deed:
We made an online poster that anyone can put on their wall. Please do. As usual, for the most active supporters, we made a poster for offline distribution. Put it up in your apartment building entrance to stir up hatred and hostility toward the social group known as "the brazen United Russia crooks who stole money and built themselves palaces." Journalists and media workers, we understand that not everyone is allowed to publish this kind of information, but it would be great if you at least tried. Thanks in advance to everyone who picks up the sharp stick. http://dacha.fbk.info/ And of course, many thanks to the ACF staff who worked on this investigation. Special thanks to Furious George (he is incredibly cool) and the brave paraglider @BlackKarlsson. If you like what the Anti-Corruption Foundation does, you can support us — the Foundation exists on donations from citizens.