They made them millionaires. At our expense.

[music]

well,

how wonderful it is to own an apartment in Moscow.

It’s a thought that has crossed the mind of every

resident of Russia: everyone wants an apartment in

Moscow. Those who already have one want to have

another one, but in the city center, because you can

at the very least rent it out and live off

that income comfortably anywhere you like—

even in Thailand. The only question is: how do you get one?

Prices are brutal. For example, in this

building, apartments start at 50 million

rubles apiece. Where is anyone supposed to get that kind of money?

Well, you don’t have to. Our investigation today

is about how expensive,

highly coveted apartments in central Moscow

are handed out for free—and you don’t need to be

a Hero of the Soviet Union (a top Soviet honorary title) or

save children from a fire. You can simply

write on Instagram about how much better Moscow has become

under Sergei Semyonovich (Sergei Sobyanin), and there you go—an apartment.

Back in the late 19th century, this spot was home to

a rental apartment building and manufacturing facilities owned by the merchant

Bakhrushin. The entire block was built up by them

and occupied. On the site of this corner

yellow building stood a different one—here,

take a look at the photo. Very charming, and

very fitting for the location. It had an

unusual architectural feature:

an internal spiral staircase at the corner

of the building with asymmetrical windows. Thanks to that,

the house was very recognizable. It was often

photographed and filmed. Here it is in

1935, in the prewar Stalin era. Here it is

in

1958, and in 1959 during the Khrushchev Thaw.

Here’s the 1970s, and here’s a photo from the wild

1990s—our little house is still standing there peacefully.

And even in 2005, the famous staircase is still

in place, and the house even seems to be occupied—you

can see curtains in the windows. In short, this

building outlived the tsar, the empire, survived

the revolution, Lenin, Stalin, stood through

both world wars, and didn’t go anywhere during

perestroika or the 1990s.

A historic building, cultural heritage in the truest sense—

something to cherish, dust off,

take pride in, and show on guided tours. But today,

as you can see for yourself, it’s gone. In its place

there’s also something yellowish, but

completely different: a modern building.

The Bakhrushin apartment building managed to survive

a great deal, but it did not survive Putin’s Russia, and

in its place there appeared not just anything,

but a true symbol of Putin’s Russia:

a shameless bureaucrats’ nest in the capital.

Why shameless? Well, because we,

as a society, as

taxpayers—who are we willing to hand apartments to for free?

To orphans,

veterans, the very sick, the desperately

needy, military personnel, people on housing waiting lists—

people who are all crowded together

in a one-room apartment and have no

way to earn enough on their own. To people

who have rendered extraordinary service

to society, and for which

they ought to be given apartments. But here, from

these windows, from apartments worth nearly

100 million rubles each,

dozens of pairs of eyes are looking down at us.

Civil servants to whom this literally most

elite Moscow real estate

was handed out practically for free. And these are

not some top bosses, but very often

minor clerks, nameless

deputy assistants to deputy assistants working for

the Moscow authorities, who have long since turned into

a real mafia. I would very much like

the whole country to watch this video and understand

the scheme by which officials become millionaires

at our expense. Everyone is always

discussing their salaries, but salary is only

a small part of what they actually

get from us. I’ll tell you the story of our

bureaucrats’ nest from the very beginning. It is

very interesting—and very shameless.

The corner building on Sadovnicheskaya Embankment

was in terrible condition throughout the 2000s.

Ordinary residents had long since been resettled, and

either homeless people or migrant workers were living there.

But despite its deplorable

condition, in 2009 it was still decided that the building should

be preserved and renovated. And

literally a week after that

decision—what a coincidence—on

Sadovnicheskaya Embankment, a collapse occurred.

Entire sections of that building—you can

see it clearly in old photographs—not even the adjacent one,

but the one after that—collapsed, and under the rubble

three workers were killed. The tragedy and the issue

were widely discussed in the media. The next

morning, Resin himself was already at the scene—

the head of Moscow’s construction complex.

By the way, he is now a deputy from United

Russia and an aide to Patriarch Kirill. What

did Resin say back then? Let’s listen.

Originally, we planned to preserve these buildings

and renovate them. Now a decision will be made

to demolish them and in their place

reconstruct, so to speak, exactly the same type of

architecture.

And now, as they say, watch closely.

The collapse happened here, but

they demolished all of this, including the corner building

we’re interested in. This simple trick was,

of course, noticed by absolutely everyone. On every

channel in those days there were unbelievable

reports: they are destroying our

cultural heritage, Moscow has lost yet

another historic block today. But

on Sadovnicheskaya Embankment, with astonishing speed

and professional efficiency, they destroyed

19th-century buildings. Practically nothing remains

of the four-story building constructed in 1906.

Once again, for everyone:

they repeat that there are no protected landmarks here,

not even nearby.

the entire block, the entire block, this whole area

not a single politician, not this building

who did this, and why the hell was it done like that

at a practical, technical speed

how quickly this planned destruction was carried out

no one expected it from them

the idealization is understandable—he's already an old man

but the Moscow authorities insisted that everything

would be fine. Yes, they're demolishing the entire block because

it cannot be restored, but we

will build exactly the same thing, and best of all,

it will be for benefit recipients and people on the housing waiting list

by the end of the week, the historic block would be completely

razed to the ground. In its place, they planned

to build about 10,000 square meters

of new housing, and as the authorities promised,

all of it would go to people on the waiting list. It

was slated for demolition and for

the construction of municipal city

housing to resettle residents

of the Central District. Now this plan

will definitely be carried out

the Moscow authorities told us: here there

will be 10,000 square meters of housing

for those who need it

for example, people being relocated from dilapidated housing

or, as stated in a decree of the Moscow government,

it is designated for benefit recipients and

young families. At this point, one might

stop and say: all right, to hell with it

those idiot officials demolished

a historic block, but there's nothing

to be done now. But at least the people on the waiting list

or at least residents of dilapidated buildings in

this central district won't have to move to Yuzhnoye Butovo (a far-out residential district in Moscow)

but will be able to stay here, in their own neighborhood

let's see what happened next

the building was demolished, and in its place there appeared

an improvised parking lot

that was probably the last time when

benefit recipients could visit this

site. In 2015, the government

of Moscow, using its own funds—from the city budget—

began building a new

building on the vacant lot. The pace of construction was simply

shocking. Just look at

the sign: from scratch to full completion

in just 14 months. And by the beginning of 2018,

in the brand-new gleaming building

the apartments were ready to be allocated. Young

families and people on the waiting list were practically

packed and ready to go. What a location, what views, and

what a setting. One square meter in this

district costs 500,000 rubles, and before

Sergei Sobyanin stands a difficult choice

he could give the apartments to people on the waiting list, as

promised. After all, everything here was torn down to hell

for the sake of those on the waiting list. Or

if not, then as is customary with

city property, these apartments could

simply be sold at auction for a lot of

money and replenish the budget, and then

buy, for example, medicine for pensioners. But

why sell them if you can hand them out

for free, or almost free, to the most

needy

the most vulnerable

let's look at those sixth-floor windows with

their picturesque view of the embankment. Somewhere

there is a wonderful apartment

with an area of

135 square meters (about 1,450 sq ft). One like that costs 70

million rubles, and only

a very wealthy person could afford

to buy it. But when you work at Moscow City Hall

run by shameless

crooks, miracles happen

the apartment goes to the seven-year-old son

of Moscow's culture minister, Alexander Kibovsky

—Volodya Kibovsky, born in 2012

a responsible first-grader and

property owner. It's even listed in his father's declaration

this apartment is listed there. All right, maybe

the minister's family had nowhere to live, but

no—from that same declaration we can see

that they already have

a 174-square-meter apartment (about 1,873 sq ft), which, believe it or not,

they also bought from the city of Moscow

at a super-discounted price. It is located

in the elite residential complex Kupecheskaya

Usadba, very close by, in Zamoskvorechye

less than a 15-minute walk away. Its market

value is 150 million rubles. Let's move on to

the next lucky recipient among the

"people on the waiting list": apartment No. 53, 141

square meters (about 1,518 sq ft), market value 75

million rubles. The owner is Artur Lvovich Kiskin

back under Luzhkov (former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov), he

headed the city's housing and utilities department, and

later he became the man in charge of

capital repairs. He is the head of the Capital Repair

Fund for Apartment Buildings of the City

of Moscow, the person responsible for

tilework, trash chute repairs,

and plaster in our building entrances. The job is

undoubtedly a dirty one, but his earnings, apparently,

are not bad. A year before this discounted

purchase, Kiskin's son bought an almost 200-

square-meter apartment on Malaya Pirogovskaya Street

for 145 million rubles. His wife also has

another 165 square meters nearby in an elite

club-style building—that's worth about 120 million

rubles. And you and I are handing this family

another 141 square meters

in the city center. Between the apartments of Kibovsky

and Kiskin there also settled, side by side,

three more Moscow City Hall officials. Each

of them has an apartment of 147

square meters (about 1,582 sq ft): Yuliana Knyazhevskaya

chair of the Committee for Architecture and

Urban Planning of the City of Moscow

Apartment 64 belongs to Oleg Dmitrievich Antokhin

who is the head of Moscow State Construction Supervision

and here's another "person on the waiting list"

Mikhail Kalinin, head of the department

for valuation of city property of the City

of Moscow

you've never heard of anything like that, and neither have we

You may not have heard, but Sobyanin did, and so here it is.

This is prime Moscow real estate.

The kind you could sell as soon as tomorrow and

become a dollar millionaire. In fact,

12 of the 24 occupied apartments in this

building belong to employees of Sobyanin's

mayor's office, and it's impossible not to notice that

the overwhelming majority of them, except for one or two,

are directly connected to construction and

city property. In other words, their

departments either built this house or

sold it, or demolished the previous

historic building. So let's deal with them

all right away. Listen carefully and

remember the names and positions — it's important.

Yemelyanov, Alexei Alexandrovich

Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural

Heritage. His apartment is nearly 180 square meters

(about 1,940 square feet). He has worked in the department since the 1990s,

and it was his department that refused to

recognize the Bakhrushin house that stood on this

site as a cultural heritage landmark. But now

his new apartment is worth 90 million rubles (about $1 million).

Shakhmuradova, Sabina Ruslanovna, head of

the department for coordinating work on land

management sites and district operations

at the Moscow City Property Department.

But you can no longer find her in the state registry extracts.

A month after the purchase,

of the 180-square-meter apartment

(about 1,940 square feet), she transferred it to her mother, who has a different last name.

If this woman at least has a position, however

unclear it may be, then her neighbor

Dilerov, Ilnur Ilesurovich, is a complete

mystery. He worked as an aide to the Minister

of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan (a federal subject of Russia). On the

Moscow mayor's office website, there isn't a single word about him.

But in an article about development near Dubki Park,

he appears as an aide to

Moscow's chief construction official,

Khusnullin, and he also has 180 square meters (about 1,940 square feet).

Next, an apartment of 144 square meters

(about 1,550 square feet). The owner is Kuznetsova, Natalia

Vladimirovna, deputy head

of the department coordinating the work

of the urban planning policy and

construction complex of the city of Moscow. So you

understand: there's Sobyanin, then he has

a deputy, Khusnullin; Khusnullin has

deputies; and one of those deputies has

yet another deputy — and we are giving

that person an apartment worth 70 million rubles (about $780,000).

Hang in there, dear viewers, we're

continuing. Another 144-square-meter apartment

(about 1,550 square feet): Logachyova, Ekaterina Ivanovna,

deputy head of the Department

for Territorial Executive Bodies

of the city of Moscow. She became

a government official in 2017, and in

2018 we bought her an apartment in this

building.

Stepanov, Maxim Sergeyevich.

Born in 1989, he isn't even 30 yet,

our dear Maxim Sergeyevich. He works

as deputy head of the Department

of Urban Planning Policy of the city of Moscow.

In his entire life, he could have saved

at most 5 million rubles (about $56,000), but his apartment

is worth 50 million rubles (about $560,000). Another

owner, not much older, is Buloy

Boris Alexeyevich, deputy

press secretary to Sobyanin. I won't even

comment on how ridiculous that position is,

but in 2012 the Presidential Property Management Department

already allocated him an apartment in

an elite residential complex on

Starovolynskaya Street. That apartment was

131 square meters (about 1,410 square feet), with a market value of at least 80

million rubles (about $890,000), and it was

officially transferred to him by the Russian

Federation, as confirmed by the registry extract.

It didn't go anywhere, so please explain to me

why on earth we are giving him another

apartment. What is he doing in our building? These are

the twelve friends of Sobyanin I wanted

to introduce you to. Every single case

is outrageous in its brazenness

and injustice. But believe me, this is still

far from everything. Before we move on to

the other neighbors, we need to deal with

the giant elephant in the room —

namely, the question of how these

apartments ended up in the ownership of

Moscow officials.

Where did each of them get 70 or 90

million rubles to buy them? If they bought them,

of course they do not have that kind of

money. The apartments were sold at different

prices — so heavily discounted that you could

say they were practically given away. You understand,

you can't, without documents, either

sell, transfer, or gift

state property. There has to be

a document, for example one like this, from which

we once learned that the TV

liar Vladimir Solovyov received

an apartment from the Moscow government at a price far

below market value. In other words, he

formally bought it, but in practice the city

gave him a great deal of money. In our

case, everything is completely classified.

We checked databases and archives, made calls and requests —

we did everything — and there is not a single accessible document

explaining why these people received

apartments from the city, or if they bought them,

then at what price. We understand that this

secrecy exists because the apartments were

effectively stolen from the city through

sales at laughable prices. And purely

analytically, we can prove that none

of these officials could have bought them at

market price. We took the financial disclosures of all

these Sobyanin lackeys, especially since they had been publicly available

for many years, and

simply estimated how much they could have

saved over recent years. The result

surprised us greatly: almost none of them

could even theoretically have had

more than 6 to 7 million in her accounts, and then

we found another very interesting

resident of this building who helped

us refine the calculations: this is Olga Timofeeva

— if I'm not mistaken, a State Duma speaker

and, most importantly,

co-chair of the All-Russia People's

Front, known for its tough

anti-corruption campaign. Humanity,

respect, courage, honor — all of

that... who could ever forget how

she learned from her elders to help people, supports

spiritual values, and always honorably keeps her

word. And her income in Russia

has been known since 2012, but

most importantly, before the last election

in 2016 she published a special

pre-election declaration listing

the balances in her bank accounts. Let's look:

in September 2016, she had

226,000 rubles in VTB (about $3,500 at the time), and

exactly two years later she buys a 140-

square-meter apartment in this building on

Sadovnicheskaya. Her income for those two years was 9

million rubles. Let's assume she

lived frugally and saved half of it — four

and a half million. But that's all she

had at most, all she could have had for

buying an apartment whose market value

was 70 million rubles. Fine, forget the

market price — let's take the developer price,

that is, a heavily discounted value

for the apartment, and the cadastral value there is 40

million rubles. And we have no doubt that

Sobyanin was selling these apartments for one

tenth of their cadastral value.

Do I even need to point out that in this area

of Moscow, for 5 million rubles you can't

buy even a room — at best, a parking space.

So apparently everyone there is for sale:

politicians, and journalists too, well,

everyone has their price — but in

our building there aren't only officials; there are also people

who are more entertaining. I didn't start this video

by mentioning Instagram for nothing, where

paid performers praise Sergei

Semyonovich (Sergei Sobyanin), and we understood that they were

being paid to fawn over the thieves at City Hall, but

we didn't suspect it was this much. So who

is it here that grabbed a 107.6-square-meter apartment

on the fifth floor?

[applause]

Good afternoon, Larisa Andreyevna Guzeeva.

A star of Channel One and of all Soviet

cinema, who so sincerely, so

honestly told us about the wonderful

Mayor Sobyanin: "But if you don't come

and vote..."

Larisa Guzeeva praises Sobyanin; Sobyanin

gives her an apartment in the center for one

tenth of the price. So who, then,

turns out, financed it? You and I did.

We financed the far-from-poor Larisa Andreyevna — well,

to the tune of about 80 million rubles. But why? Who

decided this? In what law does it say that we

must pay for apartments for wealthy

TV hosts? I even decided to call

Larisa Guzeeva

to ask her how that happened.

Larisa Andreyevna, this is Navalny speaking.

Alexei is bothering you. I believe you've long been

waiting for my call. I

wanted, Larisa Andreyevna, to discuss with you

your apartment at 80 Sadovnicheskaya.

Larisa Andreyevna refused to speak with us and said

nothing — she just hung up.

Larisa Andreyevna, hello again, once more,

it's Navalny again, about your apartment.

Please talk to me.

I want to know — please explain to me:

you received an apartment measuring one hundred seventy-

six square meters in a building

on Sadovnicheskaya...

[music]

Very well, I want to know under what terms

you bought it, or whether the city gave it to you.

My name is Alexei Navalny.

[music]

Between you and

...please don't hang up on me.

Please.

[music]

Larisa Andreyevna, and I'm sure you

know who I am.

[music]

I think you are, I think you are

an open person and can explain

how exactly you got this apartment.

I've never... well, let's just say,

let's get acquainted, let's meet.

I'd be happy to meet with you.

You have a very large apartment, so it

seems you received it from the city.

...

So you can see that it's really me, you see, well, you

can see it's me, you've confirmed that, right?

Navalny.

Larisa Andreyevna Guzeeva does not want to

talk to us, despite the fact that

we, generally speaking, paid for the apartment with an area of

176 square meters in

a luxury residential building. Larisa Andreyevna,

sorry to have bothered you, but

the people who

paid for these

gorgeous luxury apartments for you and your neighbors also have

the right to know why. Please tell us,

tell the whole country why it was fair and

right to give actress Guzeeva

a 107.6-square-meter apartment worth 90 million

rubles.

If this was payment for your posts on

Instagram and videos supporting Sobyanin,

then let Sobyanin pay you himself, because he

robbed us in order to pay you for

helping him stay in power

and keep robbing us. That's the scheme

that was set in motion, and not a single day in her life...

In the city center, for example — not in St. Petersburg, where when I

had my own apartment, not here, I

always live way out in the middle of nowhere. Believe me, I have never

had any other option. I have probably never had rich

lovers or husbands — never. No one there

has ever in my life given me even a single

square centimeter.

I understand that you are probably already tired of hearing this,

but I think it is necessary and important

to list by name the other residents

of this building.

The whole country knows its beneficiaries and

people on waiting lists, its orphans and fire victims. Devikin

Igor Nikolaevich, head of administrative affairs for the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament),

former head of the security service

for Volodin (Vyacheslav Volodin, senior Russian official). Pristanskov Dmitry

Vladimirovich, former head of property management — he

resigned in December 2018 for frankly

corrupt reasons and received an

apartment after that: 132 square meters.

Shkolov Evgeny Mikhailovich, former

Putin aide on personnel matters,

received a 150-square-meter apartment and four

months later resigned. Kruz Andrei

Feliksovich, head of the inspectorate

of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation (the state audit office),

which fights

corruption under Kudrin’s supervision — 136 square meters.

Trunin Ilya Vyacheslavovich,

Deputy Finance Minister of the Russian

Federation.

134 square meters. Nagumanov, no-ip vazy k vich.

Head of the FSB (Russia’s security service) for Arkhangelsk Region.

That is the man whose FSB building was the site where an anarchist blew himself up.

136 square meters in Moscow, for some reason.

Though they are in Arkhangelsk. Yakovleva Elena Polna

Director of the Department of Budget Policy

in the sphere of public administration,

the judicial system, and the state

civil service — 146 square meters. Malyshev

Fyodor Ivanovich, adviser in the Expert

Directorate of the President.

136 square meters. Baryshev Pavel Fedorych,

Deputy Minister of EMERCOM (Russia’s emergency ministry) — 135 square meters. And to

finish the list, I want to mention this

wonderful lady: Abramchenko Viktoria

Valeryevna, head of Rosreestr (Russia’s state real estate registry), responsible

for destroying the real estate registration system

in Russia. All these “Russian Federation individuals”

instead of the surnames

of Chemezov, Sechin, Rogozin —

that is under her jurisdiction. She and her staff, manually,

alter the data and conceal

the real property holdings of corrupt

officials.

150 square meters in central Moscow. An important thing

that everyone should understand in

Putin’s Russia is that the question of how much

officials earn in salary

is meaningless. Sure, on paper he may have 4

million rubles a year, but then through a scheme like this

he grabs an apartment worth 80

million rubles, and on top of his salary

gets the equivalent of 20 years of annual income and does not even

pay a single kopeck in tax on it. You,

from your salary of 50,000 rubles a month, will pay

income tax and social contributions, but they will not.

You will get a tiny pension and

struggle to survive, while these figures have received

two or three apartments while in government service. One in

some building like this can be rented out for 300,000 rubles

a month, and that is it:

a pension for life. Nevertheless, I have

good news. Right now you have

an excellent opportunity to say: I do not want

to pay for your luxury apartments,

and to say it in a way that both Sobyanin (Moscow’s mayor) and

Putin will hear. On September 8 there will be regional elections.

They will also take place in Moscow, where thanks to United

Russia (the ruling party), these kinds of tricks can be pulled off.

In Moscow and in St. Petersburg and everywhere else, we must

go to the polling stations and make sure that as

few United Russia candidates as possible

are elected. For that to happen, we need

to coordinate and vote the same way.

If we scatter our votes, United Russia

will win. For this purpose, we created the Smart Voting

website. Register, and we

will tell you whom to vote for in order to

upset a United Russia candidate. Tell them that

you no longer want to buy these apartments for them.

Subscribe to our channel.

They tell the truth here.