Bribes. Palaces. Airplanes. What the people of Tatarstan were sold out for

We are here with you in a place that, by right,

can be called one of the most

remarkable in Russia. Two peoples live here,

they speak two languages here,

and two religious

faiths coexist peacefully. We are in Kazan, one of the most

beautiful cities in Russia. Everyone who has been here

will agree with us: it really is

a very pleasant place. Well-kept squares,

gardens, parks, and the embankment—here took place

the World Cup; the FIFA World Cup was held here

in football (soccer).

It would seem that if everything is so good, then what

could be the problem? The problem is that behind

this beautiful outward facade

there is a gaping void. The people here

have been deceived and robbed, while the officials who

have seized everything here are ready to do

anything to stay in power.

[music]

[music]

[music]

Here, in this very spot, standing before the camera, there should

have been Alexei Navalny.

Kazan was supposed to be one of the

stops on our trip through Russia’s regions.

On August 20, Alexei was poisoned in Russia.

As we now know, with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok.

But at the time this video was recorded, Alexei

had been in a coma for two weeks, and we

are continuing what we started in his place.

Tatarstan is a place where a real

sultanate, khanate, kingdom—you can call it

whatever you like, but the essence does not change.

For 30 years—longer even than Putin and

Lukashenko—one clan has been in power,

one group of people who, at the expense of

their own people’s well-being, became

the richest people in the country, and perhaps in the world.

To understand how this happened, we

need to go back into the past.

[music]

“Take as much sovereignty as

you can swallow.” This phrase by Boris

Yeltsin, spoken here in Kazan,

is probably known and remembered by every Russian

over the age of 30.

He said it in 1990. In this way,

the future first president of the new

post-Soviet Russia was trying to preserve

a country that was falling apart,

to stop the “parade of sovereignties.”

The authorities in Moscow were taking unprecedented

steps to calm the rebellious regions, and

above all

Tatarstan: take what you want, be

as independent as you can be,

just do not leave the Russian Federation.

And how do you view this talk

about the autonomous republics? We

say: take the share of power yourselves,

take only as much as you yourselves can

handle. Tatarstan wanted sovereignty

and fought for it. The symbol and driving force

of that struggle was a local official from

the agricultural sector, the regional Communist Party secretary,

the future president and “babai,” that is,

the “grandfather” of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev.

Look at the front pages of the local

newspapers in 1991: “Mintimer Shaimiev,”

“The people and parliament of Tatarstan

bless you to defend sovereignty

and freedom for us all. The people of

Tatarstan are behind you.”

“Be courageous, wise, and incorruptible,”

Mintimer.” That same summer of 1991, Shaimiev

was elected president of the Republic of

Tatarstan.

And from that moment began the story of

what was probably the largest-scale usurpation

of power and the most shameless personal

enrichment. The election was uncontested,

meaning there were simply no other

candidates on the ballot.

Shaimiev won with 71

percent. And here is another interesting point: on

that same day, the whole country was also electing

the president of Russia, but at polling stations in

Tatarstan, those ballots simply were not

given to people. That is how Tatarstan chose its own

president.

And it ignored the Russian presidential election, and over

time the tension only increased. In

1992, Tatarstan held a

referendum on independence.

Sixty-one percent of residents voted

for sovereignty.

Half of all voters turned out.

Despite the fact that

Russia’s Constitutional Court declared

the referendum illegal, listen to what

Valery Zorkin said from the podium. To this

day, he remains the chairman

of the Constitutional Court and has just

once again backed Putin, but back in 1992

he was saying terrifying things: “We are on the edge of the abyss.

A Yugoslav scenario.”

“Stop. We are talking about a situation

that could multiply a hundredfold

the Yugoslav tragedy and all the other

hotbeds of civil war that we see

before us. I appeal to

the Supreme Soviet of Tatarstan, I appeal

to you, the people’s deputies: take every

possible measure. We are standing on the edge of the abyss.

Stop.” But the people had voted, and

under the pretext of this referendum,

Tatarstan refused to sign

the federal treaty with Moscow. Tatarstan

demanded special status and a separate

agreement. It was a truly fierce

political struggle. The local authorities

were defending the interests of their people. Besides

Tatarstan, the federal treaty with

Moscow was refused only by

Chechnya.

And

the standoff with the center continued.

For another two years, Shaimiev skillfully kept adding fuel

to the fire, scaring Moscow with Tatar

nationalism and maintaining the impression

that without him, the region would descend into

ethnic conflict. In Tatarstan,

its own constitution is in force,

formally taking precedence over other

laws; sovereignty was declared, and even

its own special

money appeared here—tokens like these, which could

be used for payment alongside rubles. On

the reverse side, right here, is

the answer to the question of what Tatarstan

was fighting so hard for,

or rather what Shaimiev personally was fighting for: oil. In 1994,

Moscow and Kazan signed the most

important treaty on the division of powers

and the mutual delegation

of authority.

It gave Tatarstan the exclusive right

to create its own system of state bodies,

form its own budget, have its own

citizenship, and even take part in

international relations. And most importantly,

it could control its land and resources.

It seemed like this was it—

the long-desired independence. The money was not going

to Moscow, as it did from other regions, but staying

here. Resources—land, mineral wealth, water, oil—

were, quote,

the exclusive heritage and property of the people of

Tatarstan. It sounded like victory—but not so fast.

In 1996, Shaimiev was re-elected

to a second presidential term.

Once again, there was no real alternative in the election, and an utterly

shameless 97 percent of the vote. When asked

whether he would run

again, Shaimiev sighed: why not? It was impossible to imagine

otherwise. Question: will you seek another term?

No, the constitution does not provide for it.

And if the president

violates the constitution, who would stop him? And in

2001, he ran again and

became president for a third time, and

then a fourth, in 2006—though this time without

any election at all, simply at the request of

Putin. Speaking of Putin, Shaimiev had

an excellent relationship with him almost

immediately.

When he first met Putin, then director of the

FSB (Russia’s security service), the two for some reason exchanged

wristwatches. More broadly, Shaimiev stood

at the origins of the United Russia party

and can be considered its father at the

regional level.

Later, he became one of its main patrons.

Shaimiev was Putin’s authorized representative in all

elections. The secret of their wonderful and

cloudless relationship was simple: between

Kazan and Moscow, another

unspoken agreement had been struck. One side—

Tatarstan—delivers sky-high

levels of support for Putin and United Russia,

truly sky-high, almost Chechnya-level (a reference to the republic’s unusually high official election results).

In Putin’s first presidential election,

he received 53 percent nationwide, but here

he got 69. In 2018,

it was 77 across the country, but 82 in Tatarstan—and so it has continued

to this day. In the most recent State Duma

elections, United Russia received

54 percent nationwide, but here in the republic

it got as much as 85. For Putin’s “term reset” (the constitutional change allowing him to run again), nationwide

78 percent voted in favor,

while in Tatarstan, just to be safe, it was over 83.

And the other side of the deal—Putin, that is—

lets the Tatarstan elites steal on a scale

that even the most brazen Moscow

United Russia officials could only dream of: stealing with impunity,

without oversight, in any amounts, and from

anything at all. And the main carte blanche was given to two

families: the beloved “grandfather” Babai (a respectful Tatar nickname for an elder) Shaimiev

and his successor, the current president,

Rustam Minnikhanov. Let’s finally

talk about him too. Here, among a dozen

Tatarstan leaders, we find

the main figure in our investigation.

Here he is: the president of Tatarstan, Rustam

Minnikhanov. Minnikhanov has held this

position for 10 years already, and now, on September 13,

he is planning to be elected to a third

term—that is, for another five years. Minnikhanov

became president in 2010 after

Shaimiev stepped down and

said he wanted to make way for younger

politicians. But did he really make way for younger—or at least

independent—politicians? It is hard to call Minnikhanov

independent. Minnikhanov says

he met Shaimiev back in childhood,

and literally grew up on the lap of the first

president of the republic. Then came

friendship with Shaimiev’s sons, work in

the Tatarstan government,

and finally the honorary transfer of power

in 2010. In short, he was a successor in every sense:

long known, loyal, and devoted.

Shaimiev calls Minnikhanov

a historic figure: “He is a historic

figure, a fateful one.”

And Minnikhanov replies that Shaimiev is an example

and a guide for the younger generation.

An idyll. The system that Shaimiev built in the mid-

1990s was picked up and

improved by Minnikhanov: super-rich elites,

and poor people who, on top of being

poor, are also constantly squeezed.

There is a thing here called

“self-taxation.” In a village or rural settlement,

a referendum is held: do you want,

say, this fence in

the park to be replaced? People vote yes in the referendum,

and then every resident of the village is charged

300, 500, or 1,000 rubles (roughly $3–$11) on a mandatory

basis, per person. And this despite the fact

that people already pay taxes, already pay

for housing and utilities, already pay their utility bills, and then someone

comes to them and says:

“Chip in some more.” Here, the

political field has been completely cleared out; there is almost no

There are no independent media here; lawlessness and

arbitrariness reign. The police here are known above all

for torturing, raping, and

killing people right inside their own precincts. In the

couple of days while we were recording this

video, our film crew was

chased.

Police officers who arrived on the scene threatened us,

confiscated our computers, phones,

and cameras—for some reason from us,

not from the attackers. Our lawyer,

a citizen of Belarus, was illegally

nearly deported from Russia.

I was fined 30,000 rubles (about $330), and

yes, just look: today we are being

subjected to

surveillance. They won’t let us

take a single step.

Why is this happening? Regimes like this are actually

very fragile and require

constant, nonstop protection.

Minnikhanov and United Russia understand that perfectly well.

On September 13, elections will be held—for

the president and for several city

councils, and even a by-election to the State Duma—and

what Tatarstan’s crooks fear most

is that something might go wrong for them in these elections.

So let’s scare them properly.

Vote for anyone except

Minnikhanov.

Sign up for Smart Voting, and

if you live in Kazan or Naberezhnye

Chelny

or Nizhnekamsk, we’ll send you the name

of the candidate you should

vote for in order to throw

United Russia members

out of the municipal council. You can

do that part, and we’ll do the other part

of the job. The point is that this investigation is

not just a story

about the incredible wealth of Tatarstan’s

officials. We caught the sitting

president of Tatarstan, Rustam

Minnikhanov, taking a bribe of nearly 3

billion rubles (about $33 million), and we demand

his immediate dismissal.

[music]

So, from the Kazan Kremlin, we’re heading

straight to the scene of the crime. With you is

Oleg Yemelyanov, head of Alexei Navalny’s Kazan headquarters.

Alexei Navalny.

Hi, Oleg. So, where are we going? We’re

going to

Ostrovsky Street, right in the city center, to see

a local landmark. It is

both the symbol and the operational center of Rustam Minnikhanov’s criminal

empire, which, as in all good detective stories,

is located

in the most obvious place—right behind me.

The building behind me is the Luciano hotel complex. It is

an elite, expensive hotel that has

a spa complex, a beauty salon, and

a restaurant. In Kazan, literally everyone knows it,

primarily because it

belongs to Minnikhanov’s wife, Gulsina

Akhatovna. And it is in this spa complex—

forgive the pun—

that the president’s family launders billions.

And the spa treatments have nothing to do with it.

The hotel business is only

a signboard, a front. In reality, behind all

these jars, massage rooms, and

pools lies a specially created

machine for taking bribes and

laundering money. This is what the family of the president of Tatarstan

lives on.

Federal news outlets first took notice of Minnikhanov’s wife,

Gulsina, probably in

2017, thanks to her financial disclosure.

According to the published data, she

earned 2.3 billion rubles in one year (about $38 million).

That is far more than, for example, the budget

of Nizhnekamsk. Naturally, everyone was stunned.

2.3 billion rubles—even the biggest

crooks in United Russia don’t dare

declare sums like that. At first there was no explanation

at all.

Then came a terse comment saying that

she had sold a stake in that very spa complex

we were standing by to some

unknown offshore company. A stake in a Kazan

spa complex for more than 2 billion rubles

doesn’t sound very convincing. So we

decided to look into it. We started digging and

were very surprised, because right on the

surface we found one of the

largest bribes we can remember—and, most interestingly,

one that is proven perfectly,

fully documented from start to finish.

The bribe—a stake in Gulsina Minnikhanova’s company—was

bought by the Cypriot offshore company Santero. We found it

and studied its annual reports for 2016.

Here is the line we need: it bought 49

percent—that is, not a controlling stake—of

Luciano for 2.2 billion rubles,

which is roughly equivalent to 33.5

million dollars. There it is in the

Cypriot document. And now the suspicious part begins.

Immediately after

buying these shares, the company

writes them down in value. To simplify it completely:

if you bought something for 100 rubles, then

in your accounting documents you should

record

it as 100 rubles too, not 200; otherwise it is

an overvalued asset. But instead of 33.5 million,

our offshore company bought a stake in the spa complex

owned by Minnikhanov’s family for $33 million,

yet on its balance sheet it listed it at only 6.5

million.

Theoretically, that could have happened

if, the day after the purchase,

a meteor had accidentally fallen on the spa complex and

completely destroyed it—then you could

write it down like that. But we

checked: no meteor fell. Which means

the deal was fictitious, not a market transaction. We

We kept reviewing the financial statements, and in

2018, believe it or not, the exact same thing happened

again.

Shockingly, Santerna contributed to Luciano’s charter capital

to the tune of $10 million, and at the same time did not

increase the ownership stake it held, and then

once again completely wrote down that

investment. In other words, they again spent

money on something absolutely unnecessary,

literally paying for thin air. So,

curious who this bungling

businessman is, the one who just throws

money around, practically stuffing it into

Minnikhanov’s pocket? The answer is right there in

the corporate registry.

The offshore through which the bribe was paid

is 100% owned by the Russian

oligarch Ruben Vardanyan. Vardanyan, one

of Russia’s richest men,

is known as the founder of the investment

firm Troika Dialog and as one of the ideological

driving forces behind Skolkovo and other

“innovation” projects. He presents himself as a super-

sophisticated investor, engaged in

philanthropy, and around the world

maintains a highly respectable image.

But that really is only an image,

apparently aimed at his foreign

colleagues and partners. In reality, he

quite recently paid 3 billion

rubles (about $40 million at the time) in a straightforward bribe to the president

of Tatarstan (a republic within Russia). Why Tatarstan?

A logical question. Vardanyan has had

close and long-standing ties

to Tatarstan. Since 2006, his

Troika Dialog and he himself have held large

stakes in KAMAZ, which, as is well known,

is based in Naberezhnye Chelny.

Vardanyan, together with Minnikhanov, sits on

the supervisory board of the Investment

and Venture Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan, and

by his own account, he is a big fan

of Tatarstan—and it shows. In total, Vardanyan

paid the Minnikhanovs $43.4 million.

Of that amount, he wrote off

or impaired $38.4 million. That is

the bribe—equivalent to nearly 3

billion rubles. After all, this is the 21st century;

the era of cash in suitcases—or

railcars, in our case—is over.

So to disguise this bribe, they

used the following scheme:

a pseudo-purchase of the spa complex—precisely

a pseudo-purchase. From the outside, it looks as though

Vardanyan’s offshore owns 49%

of this entire huge

hotel & spa complex—that is,

of a business that generates at least some

income.

But that is not the case. Luciano is registered as owning

only the building, while

the money is actually earned by entirely

different legal entities, and Vardanyan has nothing

to do with them.

We specifically went to have coffee at the

hotel restaurant to see

who collects the profits from this complex, and

the contents of the receipt surprised us.

It turned out that the money for services rendered

does not go to the companies of Nikonov and

Vardanyan, but to an entity called LLC Service Center, also

listed on Luciano’s website. This

company belongs to Venera Gafarova and the sister

of Minnikhanov’s wife. This is a very important

figure in our investigation. Venera Gafarova herself

is unlikely to be running a business in Kazan,

because she lives mainly in

Switzerland, where she looks after

her grandson, who studies at one of the most

expensive schools in the world.

Venera Gafarova’s husband, Harris Gafarov,

headed the pension fund

of Vysokogorsky District from 2002 to 2015,

and when his career as an official

ended, in 2017 he and his

wife bought themselves Maltese

passports. Here is the notice of their admission to

Maltese citizenship. It always seems to be this way with

United Russia party members: the pension fund is in Tatarstan,

but their retirement is in Switzerland or somewhere else

in Europe. We will mention Gafarova more than once

in this investigation,

because many of the Minnikhanov family’s assets

are registered in her name as a nominal owner.

But for now, we still have one more

unfinished matter near the famous

Luciano.

As someone from Kazan, I can tell you for sure that

everyone in Kazan has probably heard of the Minnikhanovs’ spa complex,

or at least knows about it. But when

you hear “spa complex” or “hotel,”

even if you have a very vivid

imagination, you still picture

just a hotel—maybe a building,

some infrastructure. But that is not our

case. Here, the Minnikhanovs own

an entire city block, and they are expanding right before

our eyes.

The largest building here is

the Luciano spa complex—more than 14,000

square meters (about 150,700 sq ft). Attached to it is a 10-

story hotel building and a conference hall.

The huge covered parking garage also

belongs to the Minnikhanov family. And this

residential building next door is also worth mentioning.

The Minnikhanovs own apartments here—not

just one, not two, not even five, but an entire

entrance section containing 22 apartments with a total

area of 2,178 square meters (about 23,440 sq ft). And here

is a new mega-development: a year ago, the wife

of Minnikhanov bought from former Kazan mayor

Kamil Iskhakov the land under the

Health Complex. Unlike Luciano,

this was a fairly affordable bathhouse complex with

a gym. The 12,000-square-meter plot

(about 129,200 sq ft) in the very center of the city

was sold to Minnikhanov’s wife for 165

million rubles, and three weeks later

after the purchase for Rustam Minnikhanov himself

revalued it at 560 million rubles

the old bathhouses were demolished, and in their place they are building

some kind of multifunctional center

so, we’ve dealt with the bribe from the oligarch Vardanyan, and

we’ve разобрали it, and so that you don’t think this is

some kind of fluke or mistake, I suggest we move straight

on to the next bribe. It’s not only

the big oligarchs who have to pay tribute

local businessmen keep up too

Minnikhanov’s system is set up so that

his small—and more often large—cut

he gets literally from everything and everyone

around him. Let’s figure out where the

president of Tatarstan, who has spent his entire

life in public service,

got a 1,600-square-meter house. We are in the very

heart of Kazan—you simply couldn’t find a more central location

to the right is the Kazanka River

a tributary of the Volga

right here is the embankment, a beautiful and

well-developed tourist area. Ahead is

the Kazan Kremlin

you can see the famous Kul Sharif Mosque. Here,

without exaggeration, stand the most expensive

houses in Kazan

but the very most expensive among these houses

is, of course, Minnikhanov’s

this luxurious house, with an area of almost

1,600 square meters, belongs to a company

owned by his wife

the mansion looks very modern, the kind of place

with terraces—you’d expect to see it somewhere in Switzerland

or Spain. Although the house is listed

in the asset declaration, the land under it

has been declared only partially. The plot’s area is

6,500 square meters

in total

to the right is another, smaller house, registered

directly in his wife’s name. There is also a boiler house and

greenhouses nearby. The total value of this complex

is very hard to estimate—nothing like it in

Kazan has ever been sold. Nevertheless,

we are sure it is worth no less

than 1 billion rubles

where could such money have come from in the

family of a public official?

Of course it couldn’t have—and it didn’t. The house

with an area of 1,579 square meters was acquired by Minnikhanova’s company

in an exchange with a local

businessman, Ravil Ziganshin—a businessman

former deputy, and contractor for Minnikhanov

in return, Minnikhanov had a non-residential basement

space here, which was exchanged for

this kind of house on the embankment

Is that luck? No, it’s a bribe

to the sitting president of the republic from

the region’s largest developer

but we’re not done yet with the luxurious

houses on the embankment. Let’s once again

look at Minnikhanov’s billion-ruble house

and at a neighboring plot. This house

to the left of Minnikhanov’s is registered to the daughter of

his sister

Leila Kadyrova. The house has an area of 575

square meters and was purchased in 2011

we estimate the value of this house at 200

million rubles. Kadyrova herself works

as an ordinary notary, by the way—you can

book an appointment and even request a home visit

from her

and now let’s look to the right, also directly

across the fence. No, this is not another palace

it is a mosque, and its story is very

interesting. I am now standing not far from

the house we flew over. It is so

close to the Kazan Kremlin that this whole

zone has a special protected status

as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site

and behind me you can see the mosque

in theory, construction is not allowed here, but this is just

yet another illustration of the fact that for the

Minnikhanov family, laws and rules do not

exist

this mosque, made of the whitest marble in the

world, was built quite recently. The construction was overseen by

the same Ravil

Ziganshin, who effectively gifted

the neighboring house to the Minnikhanov family. The mosque is named

in honor of Minnikhanov’s son, Irek

who died in a plane crash in 2013

the mosque is hardly open to the public

and clearly has a special

status. First, it is located

literally just across the fence from the Minnikhanovs’ house

and second, among its founders are

the president’s closest relatives

the 24-year-old’s

Irek Minnikhanov, who lived permanently

in Switzerland, was buried not here but in

the city center, on the Alley of Fame—a

memorial complex in Gorky Park where

well-known revolutionaries are buried,

as well as cultural figures and scientists. There had been no burials

there since 1957, but half a century later

Irek Minnikhanov’s grave appeared there

and

what is the main sign of a corrupt official

from United Russia (the ruling political party)? He cannot build himself

just one dacha—he needs more and more country houses

it is an endless process that defies

logic: more houses and more square

meters. We found the Minnikhanov family’s second house

20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from Kazan

in the village of Ilyino, a 40-minute drive from

downtown Kazan

before you is a 100-square-meter house belonging to Gulsina Minnikhanova

the wife of the president of Tatarstan. The house

is registered directly in her name. It’s a great spot

very pleasant, right by the water. But you’re probably

asking why we’re showing this to you—what’s the

point?

A house is a house, nothing special. The answer

is literally right before your eyes—there it is

it sits on more than 3 hectares (about 7.4 acres)

of Tatarstan land with access to

a helicopter landing pad, and this land is registered

not to Minnikhanova herself, but to a farm

his wife's sisters

the very one in whose name the restaurant is registered

Lucha and Venera Gafarova. Here is the main house

with access down to the water

its area is 1,380

square meters. To the right is a 770

square-meter pool building, and a little farther on

you can see a separate bathhouse and a greenhouse

and at the entrance to the property there is a checkpoint and

a guard house. We estimate this entire country estate at

500 million rubles

what is the main sign of a corrupt official

a United Russia party member? I think I've asked this before

wait, I'm asking on purpose, just to drive the point home

it is impossible to stop stealing

for a corrupt official, a bribe-taker

nothing will ever be enough. There is your

answer. But the famous

"Why do we need new officials? They'll come

and start stealing, while the old ones have at least

already stolen enough"—in principle

no, they will never steal enough, and the methods

will only become more and more sophisticated

more sophisticated. Dacha No. 3 of Minnikhanov

is located 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the center

of Kazan, on the picturesque bank of the Volga River

the story of this house is staggering in its brazenness. On

this site there used to be an old Soviet

children's camp, Volga. The camp needed

renovation and rebuilding, and the oil company

Tatneft volunteered to do it

but to understand the trick, you need

to look at the satellite images. The camp

used to be right here, in a very good spot, right

by the river, and it ended up

over here. Construction began on the waterfront plot

in 2011. At the opening

of the new camp, Minnikhanov said: "We have always

wanted to have a good youth center

and camp, but we always wanted to have one, and now

a youth center—and thanks to the oil

company Tatneft

that wish came true." It was his personal wish

that came true: Minnikhanov got yet another mega-

dacha

Right here, on the site of the stolen

children's camp, stands an elite

settlement, Borovoye Matyushino, which

is called Kazan's Rublyovka (an upscale suburb associated with Russia's elite). Here live

important bosses from Tatneft

but the largest and most luxurious house in the settlement

once again belongs to our old acquaintance, Rustam

Minnikhanov

this plot, with an area of 9,000

square meters, is registered to a company owned by his

wife. From above you can see a separate house for

the staff; its area is 308 square meters

while the main house has an area of 1,500

square meters, and next to

the artificial pond there is another

300-square-meter structure, something like a huge

summer veranda. We found the architectural

plans for this house

the luxury is astonishing: the house has its own

movie theater, a sauna complex with mosaics on

the walls, a fireplace hall, and of course its own

huge swimming pool. And in general, the interiors

are striking in their opulence. We estimate this entire

super-dacha at 1 billion

rubles

pulling away from the house, we turn our attention to

the helipad. Dear residents of Tatarstan

we have found out that this is your helipad

come and use it. This floating

platform was built by Tatneft and, according to

the documents, gifted to the Republic of Tatarstan

but by some curious coincidence

this gift for the republic

was placed not on the Kremlin Embankment

but right by President Minnikhanov's personal dacha

this piece of "public property" is inaccessible to an ordinary

person

and this story, by the way, is a perfect

illustration of the fact that Minnikhanov truly

considers Tatarstan his personal domain

he directly equates himself with the republic

state property

equals my property. And Tatneft is

quite literally the key mechanism of his enrichment. The

company has two parallel

functions: on the one hand, it extracts and

sells oil; on the other, it pays for Minnikhanov's personal

whims and desires

providing him with a lifestyle that

he officially has no money for. The best

example

is the private jet. We analyzed

Minnikhanov's movements around the world and

compared them with which aircraft were in

the same places at the same time. The only

match was a private Falcon 8X jet. In

November of last year, Minnikhanov visited

Bratislava

the plane we were tracking was there too. On February 2

of this year, the jet flew to

New York, where we also found Rustam

Minnikhanov, who was meeting with

American Tatars

on June 6, the plane flew to Altai, and

two days later, on Monday, the media reported

on a meeting between the president of Tatarstan and

the region's governor, Oleg Khorokhordin

on this same plane, Minnikhanov also flew

on what was clearly not a business trip to Abu Dhabi, to

watch the Formula 1 final

for New Year's, the Falcon was waiting for Minnikhanov in

the Maldives during his ten-day

vacation. Such an aircraft costs 3 billion

rubles

its upkeep is at least 200 million

rubles a year. It is a very expensive

luxury, and Minnikhanov personally, and even

the state budget, cannot

afford to pay for something like this. The aircraft alone

without maintenance costs as much as 10

city budgets of Dubna. And who pays for it?

We ordered an extract from the civil aviation register

to find out who the owner is

about this private jet and got an answer

As for Tatneft, it should be stated clearly and plainly:

one important thing: this is not some nice little

favor. It is a bribe. Tatneft is a company

that is publicly listed. Its shares are traded on the London

Stock Exchange, and substantial stakes

belong to major international

investors. And all these investors, instead of

receiving dividends,

are paying for Minnikhanov's New Year

flights to the Maldives.

By the way, speaking of New Year, there is a very funny

story about Minnikhanov's pettiness.

He has a 220-square-meter apartment in Dubai

— here it is in the declaration. It was registered in the name of

his son, who bought it when he was about

twenty years old, and then, when he

died, the apartment passed by inheritance to his

mother. So, Minnikhanov really likes

to celebrate New Year there.

But somehow you have to get to the United Arab Emirates,

and that is expensive, lots of people are traveling,

and so on. So every year in

the last days of December, around the

29th or 30th, Minnikhanov

would arrange an official working visit to Dubai for himself.

There you go: 2015, December 31 — work is in full swing.

2016, December 31 — a meeting with some

important representatives of the Emirates. It feels

as if the meeting is taking place at Minnikhanov's

home, or in the next room.

Here his nephew is spending his vacation

in exactly the same interior. Next, 2017

— once again, by an amazing coincidence,

work right before New Year suddenly came up

precisely in the Emirates. 2018 — the same

situation again. In other words, Minnikhanov

comes up with state business for himself on December 31

in Dubai, and then, well, how could he not

stay on for a couple of weeks? He is literally

squeezing everything he can out of

the Tatarstan budget and out of Tatneft, which

is supposedly a national asset.

They simply use it as a cash cow: to

build a helipad,

provide a dacha, provide a plane,

and for Minnikhanov's election campaign

Tatneft also provides the money. He has

this well-known campaign program

for neighborhood improvements called "Our Yard."

Minnikhanov flaunts it as his

main trump card, his big achievement. But who is really

paying for it? Tatneft. In order

to help its boss get re-elected,

they turned a public oil company into

their own personal wallet. When did Minnikhanov

start stealing?

We asked ourselves that question, and we are ready

to answer it: as soon as the opportunity arose,

even before he became

president — that is, back when he was serving as

prime minister, Minnikhanov began

to grow fabulously rich. In 2009, even before

all those stories about the spa salon, the wife

of Minnikhanov became the owner of a 175-

square-meter apartment in an upscale residential building on

Yakimanka in Moscow. One like that now costs

about 120 million rubles. His wife's income

that year was 8

million rubles. In 2011, Minnikhanov's 22-year-old

son bought, for 1 million euros,

two apartments in the same building in France.

Their total area was

322 square meters.

The apartments are located in a low-rise residential

complex 10 minutes from the border with

Switzerland. Where did a 22-year-old guy get

1 million euros for housing like that? Daddy gave it to him —

the newly elected president at the time.

Today those apartments are worth more:

at least 1.5 million euros, or 135

million rubles. They are registered in the name of

Minnikhanov's sister, Venera Gafarova. We do not know

in what year, but apparently

around the same time he became the

owner of a 220-square-meter apartment

in Dubai. From the photographs, we roughly

understand where it is located. Apartments like that

in Dubai also cost close to 1 million

dollars; we estimate its value at 70 million rubles.

Do you know where apartments are more expensive than in the sunny

Arab Emirates? On Red Square in Moscow.

There, property owned by the company Luciano

includes apartments worth 220 million

rubles.

They also have a garage there. In total, the residential

real estate we found belonging to the Minnikhanovs

comes to almost 3.5 billion

rubles. And that is only what was bought

by the president himself or by his wife. The sum is

certainly shocking.

But you know, the problem is not only in

the enormous amounts of money they invested

in real estate. The problem is in their lifestyle.

For several years we have been closely following both

Minnikhanov himself and his

relatives on social media, and the scale of it

shocks even us. It is not only Minnikhanov himself who flies on private

jets,

but everyone down to very young children.

During vacations, their social media is flooded

with photos from private aircraft,

diamonds, handbags costing 20,000 euros each,

and for some reason they are constantly photographing black

caviar. The children look as if they are growing up not in the family of a president,

but in the family of some super-rich

rapper.

You look at it and really understand:

these people have completely lost all sense of shame.

This is Venera Gafarova's grandson. How old is he here,

about 12? And this 12-year-old boy

is wearing two watches at the same time: on his left wrist,

a Hublot worth more than 1 million rubles, and

on his right wrist, a Breguet for about the same

price. Do you know why he needs two watches?

So he can have both Kazan time and

Swiss time at once.

And a schoolboy walks around with two and a half

millions of rubles on his wrist every day

Where does such brazen audacity come from?

Learning from the best, we examined

the watch collection of the president himself

I will never tire of repeating

that of a civil servant, not a businessman—and he has broken

all records, judging by the photographs

Minnikhanov is simply obsessed with watches. His

favorite brand is Patek Philippe. We

found an entire collection in his possession. Here are

some simpler ones for 3 million rubles, then

the same model in black for another 3 million

another Patek Philippe for 4 million rubles

or these classic ones for 5 million—

the same price as the ones from the official photo shoot—but

the most impressive Patek Philippe costs 19

million rubles—roughly three annual salaries

for Minnikhanov. That's already a lot, and we

haven't even gotten through half of it. This is

an Audemars Piguet for 9 million rubles, and

this is a Richard Mille, like Peskov's, only

slightly cheaper—20 million rubles. And here

a pensive Rustam Nurgaliyevich has put on

an even more luxurious watch—a tourbillon—and

one worth 26 million rubles for a photo shoot with

grandmothers who are war veterans. Minnikhanov deliberately

dressed especially modestly: on his wrist, a Vacheron

Constantin worth 5 million rubles

Here are a couple more models for the sake of completeness

of the collection. In total, we managed to find

12 watches in his possession

with a total value of 107 million rubles

An investigation into illicit enrichment

into Minnikhanov is like a renovation that

can never be finished

and can only be stopped. So

by an act of will, we are drawing a line under

the Minnikhanov story. But in Kazan

we will definitely come back to it again

[music]

We can't leave Kazan without

showing you this place. And if, in the case

when we were standing near the spa salon

linked to the Minnikhanovs, we had to talk

about front companies and secret business dealings, here

there are no secrets—at least

not now. Behind me is the office of the TAIF Group

of companies

the source of colossal enrichment. Shamil

will explain the history of this outfit, put

all the pieces together, and very clearly

demonstrate how Babai (a nickname for Mintimer Shaimiev) Shaimiev

deceived and robbed his own people. You

remember we showed you a coin with

an oil derrick on it

That very oil which was supposedly exclusively

the property of the Tatar people, all the natural resources

around which the entire battle

for sovereignty unfolded—all of it became a source

of enrichment not for Tatarstan, as promised, but

for Mintimer Shaimiev personally. In 1995,

the authorities of Tatarstan created the company TAIF

which was tasked with preparing the privatization

of the largest enterprises, with controlling stakes

held by the state

The republic contributed to its charter capital

stakes in the largest enterprises

of Tatarstan—Tatneft

Nizhnekamskneftekhim, and so on. TAIF

was given unique conditions

They paid no regional taxes

at all. The government also allowed them

to buy oil from Tatneft at

a fixed low price

and then export it at market prices

The profit created virtually out of thin air

was spent by TAIF on buying up

telecom operators, TV companies, factories

and building shopping centers

The list could go on forever. They

became a very rich company very

quickly. And then it turned out that TAIF was

no longer state-owned: the republic

had simply disappeared from the list of owners, and all

the wealth accumulated thanks to all these privileges

ended up in private hands

Whose hands those were remained hidden for a very long time; the ownership structure

was opaque. Several

years ago, because of court proceedings,

it became known that at least a quarter—

25 percent of TAIF—belongs to the children and

grandchildren of Mintimer Shaimiev

So that you understand the scale of the

wealth we're talking about: last year the

Shaimiev family became the third-richest

family in Russia

right after the Rotenbergs. Their fortune

was estimated at $3 billion, or

225 billion rubles

That's roughly Tatarstan's annual budget

How does the family of the first president spend this

money? Exactly as you'd expect: super-

elite real estate in Russia and

abroad

We are flying toward the estate of the younger son

of Mintimer Shaimiev

Radik, near the village of Obukhovo, 20 kilometers (about 12 miles)

from Kazan

The size of the plot impressed even us

478,000

square meters—roughly the size of two

Moscow Kremlins

And over here, screened by a small forest so it can't be seen

from the main house, are the garage

the utility building, and the staff house. The estate's infrastructure

is managed from

here. And of course, the main house

It may only be two stories, but its area is

a full 3,000 square meters. Around it are

perfectly trimmed lawns, trees, and

gardens. You might think that behind the house

there is a lake, but no—it is an artificial

pond with an area of 12,000 square meters

We estimate the value of this Shaimiev family estate at

2 billion rubles

[music]

Radik Shaimiev's daughter—that is, the granddaughter of

the first president of Tatarstan, Kamille

Shaimieva lives in London. In the incorporation

documents for a Cyprus offshore company, we

also found her home address. This apartment

is in this building, in the most expensive district

of London, worth 5.5

million pounds — that is, 550 million

rubles. But besides his granddaughter Kamilla, there are

other grandchildren too. They also need somewhere

to live. We are three kilometers

away from the dacha of Radik Shaimiev, which we

already showed you.

This is near the village of Bima. It was precisely

because of filming this dacha that the security guards launched

a chase on ATVs, and the police stole

all our equipment, just so you would not see

what is here.

So, we are pleased to present to you

the giant dacha

of Timur Airatovich Shaimiev, the 30-year-old

grandson of the first president of Tatarstan, and

this dacha is no less impressive than

his uncle’s dacha next door.

The total area of the property is almost 400,000

square meters.

The plot is so large that we have to

fly quite a distance just to

get the whole thing on camera. The entire property

is filled with artificial ponds and

canals. Construction here is now nearing completion.

The size and purpose

of many of the buildings are not yet known, but the area

of the main house we already know: 2,000

square meters. We estimate this

country residence at no less than 3

billion rubles.

In Tatarstan, many consider Mintimer

Shaimiev a national hero. He himself

says that people kiss his hands when they

meet him, that monuments are erected to him

during his lifetime. He retains his

position as an adviser

to the president and actively participates

in political life. The proposed constitutional amendments

are aimed at the comprehensive

strengthening of the Russian Federation.

And we suggest you look once again

simply at these two houses: 5 billion

rubles sunk into dachas — or rather, into these

palaces.

This is what it was all for:

the division of powers,

the nationalization of resources, the usurpation

of power, and these sky-high percentages for United

Russia — this is what it was all for. The money is,

of course, enormous. But if you think about it,

they did not sell

themselves all that dearly, really.

[music]

[music]

In 2010, when Minnikhanov had just become

president of Tatarstan for the first time,

a journalist asked him whether it was possible

to defeat corruption. He answered no and

said, and I quote: “Out of ten people, one

won’t take bribes.”

“Nine will. If they bring them, how can you not take them?”

And Minnikhanov has adhered to this principle

faithfully and devotedly. The very moment

unlimited power fell into his hands,

Minnikhanov began stealing — a lot.

Shamelessly, brazenly: dachas, apartments, watches,

aircraft, real estate abroad.

Minnikhanov personally has everything you could

possibly imagine, and it did not come

out of thin air. This is not some abstract

money. This is your money, people of Tatarstan.

These are your wages, your taxes, your

resources. In the end, you were deceived,

sold out. Thirty years ago, Shaimiev promised

you that all of Tatarstan’s wealth would be

yours. He deceived you. The wealth is his — first of all his.

Second, Minnikhanov’s. Third,

some other official’s,

who belongs to their clan. And every

new dacha, every new airplane of your

president is simply another

transaction in robbing you.

They will take away your right to choose, they will extract

tribute from you, and Minnikhanov will get, well, another

piece of real estate in Dubai. Power is not given by God,

by grandfathers and great-grandfathers, or by the “father of Tatarstan.”

There should not be such a thing in your country. Your president should

be a person to whom you matter more than

a trip to the Maldives on a private jet.

On September 13, do not vote for Minnikhanov.

Vote for anyone you want — just not for him.

If you are from Kazan, Nizhnekamsk, or

Naberezhnye Chelny,

take part in Smart Voting. All these

United Russia members in your local assemblies are accomplices, they are

participants in a gigantic operation to

loot Tatarstan.

Register on the Smart Voting website

and subscribe to our

channel.

This is where the truth is told.