This is how the master of Russia lives

Who does Russia exist for? We are on

the home stretch before the elections.

I decided not to think small, and to show you

this particular man here today.

There will be penthouses and Mercedeses.

Watch until the end — this is the main story

about our homeland. Our hero is from Moscow, but

wherever you live, there is someone just like him

working in the same field. He is

the embodiment of Putin's system of power. Putin is

the president of people like him, and he, in turn,

is the base and support of Putin's rule.

Unsinkable, omnipresent — a pillar, a foundation made of

reinforced concrete, a universal soldier of the regime.

He is exactly the person I saved for

these final days before the election,

so I could simply shout to you: look, go

and vote using Smart Voting, otherwise we

will never, ever get rid of him and

his clones. The deputy in charge of housing and utilities

and urban improvement — he's everywhere, in

the region, in the city, in the settlement, in the village, and

everywhere.

Out of this black hole of leaking

pipes, crooked curbs, shutoffs of

hot water, and rising utility rates, they

somehow manage to create for themselves a magnificent,

luxurious life. Magnificent is not

an exaggeration. The master of Russia is Pyotr

Pavlovich Biryukov, a typical official of the

"tough, competent manager" type. He has spent his whole life

in public service. Mayors changed, presidents changed, the country changed,

but he always worked for

the state: under Promyslov, Saykin, Gavriil

Popov, Yuri Luzhkov, Sergei Sobyanin — from the USSR

to democracy, from democracy to United

Russia — Pyotr Pavlovich Biryukov kept going and

always passionately supported whatever power was in place.

I am giving you only

hard facts about his family, based on

documents. But you decide for yourselves whether

you want the masters of our country to be

Pyotr Biryukov's family. Meduza previously wrote about the giant

penthouses in the city center belonging

to the Biryukov family, as did the outlet

Meduza. This is an elite district of Moscow.

The price per square meter is 1 million

100 thousand rubles. In this building, apartments are owned by

well, excuse me,

TV journalist Dmitry Kiselyov. The residential

complex was advertised by supermodel Naomi

Campbell, and it is called Tsvetnoy

Boulevard,

But enough talk — let's take a look at it.

Is it really that luxurious? I

want to see. Let's go to Tsvetnoy

Boulevard,

This is the very center of Moscow: the circus on Tsvetnoy

Boulevard,

the Boulevard Ring, and Trubnaya Square, which became especially

well known this summer.

This is where meetings were held between

unregistered candidates for the

Moscow City Duma and voters. A reminder of that is

the lone police transport van standing here.

We turn and see

a grand glass building. This is

the Legend of Tsvetnoy complex.

The lower floors house offices, while the

upper floors contain 113 apartments spread across three

towers. Moving closer, we see the section where

the Biryukovs' super-penthouse is located.

It occupies the top two

floors, the 14th and 15th. On the

14th floor, which consists of 5

apartments, four belong to Biryukov's daughter,

Irina.

On the 15th floor, all five apartments

are divided between Biryukov's son

Alexander and his wife Ekaterina.

This penthouse consists of 9 apartments.

Its total area is 1,608 square meters, and its market

value is 1 billion 769

million rubles — almost 2

billion rubles. The family of Sobyanin's deputy,

who has spent his whole life in public service.

Not bad, right? But this is only the beginning. After

Tsvetnoy Boulevard, let's head to

an even more expensive place: Patriarch's

Ponds.

Here, in Germanskiy Lane, is located

Pyotr Biryukov's only officially declared apartment.

Its area is 173

square meters, and he owns it

jointly with his wife, Antonida

Alexandrovna. The apartment is now worth 146

million rubles. Let's add that to the total

value of the Biryukovs' real estate.

The apartment is on the fourth floor, but

Pyotr Pavlovich wouldn't be himself

if he hadn't added another apartment

in the same building.

A two-level apartment occupies the 5th

floor and the attic directly above Pyotr

Biryukov,

This apartment belongs

to his daughter Irina and grandson Nikita. He received

a share in this apartment at the age of 6.

An apartment like this, with an area of 330 square meters, is worth

now

275 million rubles. And the same grandson of Pyotr

Biryukov,

Nikita, at the age of 19, bought a 307-square-meter

apartment in the ultra-elite residential complex

Sytinsky — at 2 million rubles per

square meter. Families of

billionaires live here, for example Vladimir Gruzdev

and Vladimir Potanin.

But their apartments, by the way, are far

more modest than housing that would suit

the needs of a Moscow official's grandson.

There was nothing suitable here, because the maximum

apartment size there was only 223

square meters, and to live in such a

ridiculously small space by Biryukov standards, they had to

combine two apartments into one. The value

of Nikita Biryukov's home is now 616

million rubles. And this is the officially declared

the salary of his grandfather, the chief

Moscow municipal manager, over a hundred years you

have surely gotten confused and tired, but that’s okay

it’s hard for the Biryukovs not to get confused in

their own apartments too, so you’ll manage

I very much doubt that. Let’s head

just another 500 meters from the apartment

of grandson Nikita, and we find his mother’s apartment

Irina’s—that is, the daughter of our Pyotr Polcha

Leontyevsky Lane, inside the Boulevard Ring

an apartment with an area of 230.6 square meters

purchased in 2008

its value now is roughly 44 million rubles

and this is the 13th apartment of the family

Belkovs—nothing but hundreds

of square meters and hundreds of millions

it feels like we’re doing a story about

an oligarch, not a Moscow

official. You could argue that

some

Abramovich (Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire) doesn’t even come close to having this much

real estate in Moscow

and so far we’ve only talked about

the property of the official’s daughter and grandson

but Buryakov also has a son

Alexander

his square meters are in the residential complex

House on Smolenskaya Embankment. From the windows

of this building there is a stunning view

of the Moscow River

Alexander Petrovich Biryukov bought in 2008

an apartment here with an area of 203

square meters. The value of this 14

apartment

is 285 million rubles. Whew, well

it seems we’ve gone through all the children of our

deputy mayor, counted everything up

we can relax and think it all over, or

is it still too early? I hate to disappoint you, but it’s much too early

because our official also has a

brother

and the brother has a daughter, and that daughter—that is,

the deputy mayor’s niece

also has a luxurious set of apartments in the residential

complex

Imperial House on Yakimanka. The description says

it is a club-style building

with only 65 apartments, from which

there are impressive views of

the Moscow River, the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior

and Sparrow Hills

here, two apartments are owned by Biryukova

Angelika Alexeevna, the deputy mayor’s niece

an apartment on the fifth and sixth floors with a total

area of 513 square meters is now worth

635 million rubles

rubles. And then there’s another apartment, modest by

this family’s standards: a 150-square-meter apartment

owned by Angelika on Nozologicheskaya Street

its value is only 52 million rubles

rubles. That makes 17 apartments in total. Now we are definitely done with

the apartment descriptions

we’ll leave the Belkov family’s cars and their

grand country estate for last

but for now let me tell you about this

interesting legal entity, OOO Vento (LLC Vento). This

single company alone won tenders worth 316

million rubles from various Moscow

agencies to provide them with

special equipment, trucks, and tractors. And

it belongs, just a moment, to Biryukova

Ekaterina Vladimirovna

and Biryukova Irina Petrovna—that is,

the daughter and the wife of Pyotr Biryukov’s son

for this company we found a 516-square-meter office

in one of the Moscow City skyscrapers

an office like that is worth 263 million

rubles, adding to our tally. And

it is with this company that our

journey into the amazing world of the Belkov family’s cars

begins. Everything comes from open sources, everything

registered to OOO Vento

we found 2 Toyota Land Cruisers

2 Mercedes-Benz vehicles, 2

Porsche Cayennes, and a Range Rover

a G-Wagen, and 2 BMW X6s

for a total of 92 million rubles. Now for

the cars of the family members—those were registered to the company

registered that way. We also found

daughter Irina: a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Range

Rover, and a BMW 750. The son’s wife, Ekaterina:

a Mercedes-Benz CL 63 AMG, 11 million

rubles. Grandson Nikita:

a Lexus and a Mercedes-Benz, 14 million

rubles. The brother’s wife, Nina Fyodorovna:

a Mercedes-Benz S500 and a BMW 740Li

15 million rubles. Niece Angelika:

an LX 570, a Lexus, and a Toyota Land Cruiser

and a BMW X6. In total, we found in the Belkov family

22 cars worth 176

million rubles

it’s scary even to imagine how much we didn’t

find. This is the most expensive vehicle fleet that

we have seen. We had apartments, we had cars

what else are we missing for a major

municipal manager? I’ll say it again

that’s right, a country estate—and you’re going to like it

we look at the registry extract: 50 land plots

with a total area of more than 10 hectares (about 24.7 acres)

we look at the satellite maps first

strange

we see an industrial zone, really some kind of

industrial area of unclear purpose

how could this possibly look like a country estate?

it looks more like warehouses or printing facilities

but our investigations team pulled itself together

and flew out to film it. I don’t know how

to describe this to you—such a scale of

economic activity

we have never seen. Better see for yourselves

here is Pyotr Biryukov’s super-dacha from a height of

several hundred meters

the total area is more than 10 hectares, everything

is registered to the children. Look closely at the plot

and it becomes clear to you that what we have there is not

really—everything looks like some kind of out-of-control

urban planning

simulator, like the game SimCity, only here

what’s scattered around there isn’t just a few houses

there’s loading equipment of unclear purpose

sitting right next to neat

lawns; there’s a playground, and nearby cows

tethered to stakes, trampling circles into the ground

some white dots in the pond

geese, but for some reason they’re next to a tennis

court. None of this makes any sense—let’s

take a closer look. In front of us is a real

farm: on the left are bird enclosures, and a little

farther on there are some other animals too

and in general, every one-story building

you see is being used to breed some kind of

livestock

let’s fly a little farther and we find an actual

pond, with something swimming in it

we look closer and see geese and ducks everywhere

and not just on the pond—on the shore of the pond

they’re all over the place, hundreds of them if not thousands, and

they all live right here nearby

next to Pyotr Biryukov. Why does he need them, what does he do with them

all—give them to colleagues, probably? Let’s fly

past the bird houses and farther on we see

stables

next to them is a dirt paddock for exercising

the horses; nearby there’s construction equipment, and to the

left another area for horses

it’s much bigger. We turn around and

see garden beds, greenhouses, a tennis court, and

a neat little pasture for cows. As you can see,

Biryukov’s milk is home-produced too

let’s speed up and fly on. We’re over the

enclosures again; you can see people walking nearby, and

once again there’s construction equipment standing there

nearby the two-story houses begin

they’re apparently meant for the staff

but where is the actual manor house?

In fact, there are several of them; one is farther

to the left

its area is 1,800 square meters, and here’s

another one with neat lawns

paths, a fountain, and an alpine rock garden

there’s even a golf cart there for comfortable

travel around the property

the house has an area of 1,500 square meters. We

estimate the value of this enormous

farm estate with luxurious

homes at 1 billion rubles

Why did I call Biryukov a symbol and

master of Russia? His dacha is simply

a model example of the mentality of a Putin-era

official: steal everything, drag everything behind

your own fence, give every relative

a little house, wall yourself off, put

chests of gold in the basement, and in the yard have

serfs (peasants bound to an estate) and outbuildings

for the хозяйство (household estate)

keep cows and geese and drink your own fresh

milk, with no chemicals in it at all

strained through cheesecloth

not a speck of dirt, nothing at all. And

the most wonderful part is that everything, from the geese to the

Mercedeses, was paid for by us through our utility rates

in the monthly housing and utilities bill

they might as well spell it out: 17 kopecks from

every Muscovite for a goose, 1 ruble 30 kopecks

for fuel for the vehicle fleet, and 2.5

rubles for maintaining the penthouse

and those of you who don’t live in Moscow, don’t laugh

at us

you’re paying in exactly the same way, just to your own

Pyotr Palych (a familiar form of Pyotr Pavlovich)

because thanks to Putin and United Russia

there’s a Pyotr Palych like that everywhere

Look, based on open sources, we

counted in official Biryukov’s family

apartments and offices worth 4.3 billion rubles

cars worth 176 million, and dachas worth

1 billion—for a total of 5.5

billion rubles, and everyone knows about it

the Interior Ministry, the Investigative Committee, the FSB, Sobyanin, Putin—Biryukov isn’t

hiding it. He gets an official’s salary and

lives openly like a billionaire because

they’re all like that

and we have to fight all of them because they

will never let go of us. At whose expense

else would they feed their geese? On September 8

we have a great chance to tell both Putin

and Biryukov and United Russia that we are not

going to pay for all of this

that’s why we propose Smart

Voting. Through it, all at once

across the whole country, we tell all

United Russia candidates: why don’t you just

get lost

not a single vote for you. We’ll vote for anyone

at all, just not for you. This is our

common signal: we do not

trust you. You have failed at everything and stolen everything

if you like, this is a kind of

electoral uprising against Putin’s

party and its Petrov regiments (a sarcastic reference to its rank and file). One day

the whole country will simply go and vote against

United Russia. On September 8, we will take

the first step toward that. The more of us there are,

the better and more noticeable the result will be

Smart Voting—bring as

many people there as possible: everyone you know,

your relatives and friends. Well, if you don’t want to,

then of course keep voluntarily

feeding the geese of the all-Russian Pyotr Palych

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