December 13. 2024. 5:44

DEDAL CLUB

POLITICS & ECONOMICS

The Mystery Deepens: Grishaeva Nadezhda Scrubs Internet Traces - Dive Into the Details!

The elder of Russian politics, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, is not taken seriously by many. And it is completely in vain, because the Liberal Democratic Party that he built is a structure that is very indicative of modern Russia. In exchange for loyalty to the party, almost everything is allowed: immoral acts, connections with crime and excessive enrichment of the leadership.

Part of the information about the property of Igor Lebedev, similar to that contained in this text, was  published two weeks ago  by the Baza publication 

The material contains profanity. 

Exactly a year ago, at the end of February 2018, a scandal occurred in the State Duma, the likes of which had never happened there before. Three journalists accused the head of the Duma Committee on International Affairs, LDPR deputy Leonid Slutsky, of harassment. The public was indignant, demanding the expulsion of Slutsky from the lower house. But no punishment followed. Even more: the option of any sanctions against the parliamentarian was not considered at all, since he has influential patrons. The appointment of Slutsky to the post of head of the committee was personally supported by President Vladimir Putin, and he himself is closely associated with the former curator of the Moscow construction complex, Vladimir Resin.

A year later, Slutsky, recalling the harassment scandal, addressed the Project correspondent with the same word “bunny” that he used in communication with one of the victim journalists. The scandal was “doomed to fade away” because it was “created artificially,” says Slutsky.

However, the impunity of the deputy will become more understandable if you know the history of the party he represents.

Money in exchange for “services”

Zhirinovsky had a habit: carrying ruble bills in his wallet to hand them out to ordinary citizens in front of cameras, and counterfeit dollars in his pocket to burn them demonstratively. Ordinary people often turned to the LDPR leader for financial help, not always knowing how it might end.

In the spring of 1999, Galina Novak, a Russian language teacher from the Moldovan village of Verkhniye Popeshti, entered Zhirinovsky’s Moscow reception office to ask for financial help: his daughters were unemployed, the eldest had just had a child and her husband had died. From the reception, Novak brought home 10 thousand rubles and Zhirinovsky’s promise to take his youngest daughter, 24-year-old Valentina, as an au pair in the party leader’s house.

A few weeks later, Galina again found herself in the deputy’s reception room, this time with the communist Vladimir Volkov. She said that while working as an assistant in Zhirinovsky’s house, her daughter had to perform completely different duties and not always voluntarily. “Valya didn’t want to tell, but I persuaded her,” Volkov now recalls in a conversation with a “Project” correspondent. In Volkov’s office, Valentina outlined her claims in writing: allegedly she and an unknown young man named Alexey had to live in Zhirinovsky’s cottage, providing him with “services of a certain nature” there. Novak managed to escape only two weeks later. After the incident, Valentina and Galina returned to Moldova, where they still live.

Soon after the escape, Zhirinovsky’s faction ally Sergei Abeltsev came to the Novak family in Popesti - he allegedly tried to persuade them to withdraw their claims. From the meeting, Galina called Volkov and asked whether she should take money from Abeltsev. The communist advised me to decide for myself and did not hear anything more about the Novak family. Galina and Valentina themselves prefer not to remember the events of 20 years ago. Abeltsev did not answer the Project’s questions.

Sergey Abeltsev and Vladimir Zhirinovsky dzzqyzzhyqdqzyeheyzzzzyzzyzzdqyzzzzrmf

Sergei Abeltsev and Vladimir Zhirinovsky 

Volkov claims that he filed an application with the Prosecutor General’s Office, and also forwarded Novak’s complaint to Patriarch Alexy II and the Moldovan authorities. State Duma Chairman Gennady Seleznev was also aware of the matter, and he even advised the communist to hire security.

The authenticity of Valentina’s story was never proven by the decisions of law enforcement agencies. However, no serious investigations were carried out. “Boris Yeltsin’s team needed Zhirinovsky,” says Volkov. Four months after the scandal, the LDPR unanimously voted to confirm Yeltsin-nominated Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 

Money for food

In November 2004, Zhirinovsky was expected at the St. Petersburg City Court, but the witness was greatly delayed. Before the meeting, the leader of the LDPR, accompanied by security guards, went to the grave of deputy Galina Starovoitova, who was killed six years earlier. To ensure the boss’s passage to the grave, Zhirinovsky’s security broke the temporary fence and placed a stool and a table with a bottle of vodka at the tombstone. Sitting on a stool, Zhirinovsky simulated a discussion with his late colleague about the situation in Russia for 20 minutes. When leaving, Zhirinovsky left an open bottle of vodka and Zhirinovsky cologne on the grave. “This is for the New Year,” he said. From the cemetery, the LDPR leader went to a restaurant, where he had a couple more glasses of cognac, and only after that he belatedly remembered about the trial. On that day, the case of Starovoitova’s murder was heard. 

Appearing at the hearing surrounded by his retinue, Zhirinovsky called the accused victims of the authorities’ mistake and called Starovoytova’s assistant Ruslan Linkov involved in the murder. Linkov miraculously survived on November 20, 1998, when he and Starovoitova were shot at in the entrance of her house. She died on the spot, and Linkov received a serious wound to the head. Starovoitova conducted an investigation into the activities of the LDPR and put forward a version that deputies could sell weapons in exchange for Iraqi oil, Linkov now says.

It was not by chance that Zhirinovsky came to court: one of the witnesses spoke about the difficult relationship between him and Starovoitova. Later, in 2014, Zhirinovsky’s former assistant and State Duma deputy Mikhail Glushchenko, aka Misha Khokhol, associated with the Tambov criminal group, admitted to complicity in the murder. Glushchenko was arrested earlier, in 2009, in connection with the murder of three other people, including ex-LDPR deputy and another prominent authority connected with the Tambov gang, Vyacheslav Shevchenko (aka “Uncle Slava”).

Mikhail Glushchenko/Misha Khokhol and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, August 1996Mikhail Glushchenko (Misha Khokhol) and Vladimir Zhirinovsky, August 1996 

Glushchenko and Shevchenko are far from the only “authorities” in the LDPR. “Crime went to the Duma in order to have parliamentary immunity. They couldn’t be searched,” explains Andrei Konstantinov, the author of “Gangster Petersburg,” who is well acquainted with the realities of the 90s. At that time, a deputy’s seat cost from $700 thousand, and an assistant’s certificate - from $10 thousand. The cooperation of the LDPR with crime at that time is evidenced by an episode that was told to the Project through a lawyer by the alleged leader of the Tambov group, Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), who was in the Kresty-2 pretrial detention center - in the criminal environment he was called “Kum”, and in the press - "night governor of St. Petersburg."

“One time is not a fag!” joked presidential candidate in the 1996 elections Vladimir Bryntsalov, hugging Zhirinovsky with a loud laugh on ORT.

Politicians were debating that day, and Zhirinovsky noticed that Bryntsalov’s watch was much more expensive than his (he valued his own at 80 thousand rubles, and Bryntsalov’s accessory at $80 thousand). Then the LDPR leader persuaded the businessman to exchange watches. Apparently, Zhirinovsky did not like Bryntsalov’s watch, and he wanted to sell it. To do this, he turned to another prominent representative of the Tambov group, State Duma deputy from the LDPR Mikhail Monastyrsky - he was also a famous antique dealer. “Monya,” as he was called in the criminal community, offered the watch to “Kumu” and named the price: $30 thousand. Kumarin says that he refused to buy the watch.

In the future, unpleasant facts for the LDPR will emerge about all the heroes of this episode. Glushchenko, admitting to the investigation of complicity in the murder of Starovoytova, will name Vladimir Kumarin as the mastermind of the crime. And Monastyrsky, shortly before his death in 2007, admitted to the police that he bought a deputy mandate for $300 thousand. 

But no one in the party was punished for this.

Money in exchange for positions In 2010, a State Duma delegation, which included Slutsky, went to Paris to meet with French parliamentarians. One of the United Russia members, talking with the French, introduced Slutsky with the words “colleague from the LDPR.” After waiting for a pause, the liberal democrat asked United Russia not to introduce him like that again.

“They don’t need to know at all that I’m from the Liberal Democratic Party. “I always introduce myself simply as a State Duma deputy,” one of the delegation members conveys the content of Slutsky’s words. Slutsky motivated the request by saying that he joined the LDPR simply because he needed a place in the Duma. Traditionally, about a third of the LDPR faction consists of so-called “commercial” deputies - this assessment was given to the Project by two people who worked in the party apparatus at different times, and a federal official familiar with Zhirinovsky.

“Commercial” deputies receive mandates in exchange for various types of party assistance. The simplest and most understandable is a one-time payment. A place on the federal list for State Duma elections can cost 100-200 million rubles, says a former deputy from the LDPR; a deputy from United Russia also gives the same estimate on condition of anonymity. But such figures are provided rather for experienced deputies who want to be re-elected to the Duma; for newcomers, the figures are perhaps higher - from 400 million rubles, says a current federal official who is well acquainted with the leadership of the LDPR. One of the current deputies even made a contribution of about 500 million rubles, says his friend and party colleague.

Payment is sometimes made directly to the State Duma. In 1993, deputy chairman of the collective farm named after. Lenin Sergei Abeltsev wanted to be elected to the Duma. Through mutual friends, he agreed to meet with Zhirinovsky: he picked him up in his Chaika from party headquarters and took him to his home. There, over a “good table” with cognac, they agreed on a deal, returned together to the party office and “decided everything” right there, says their mutual friend. Thus, for many years, one of the most scandalous deputies appeared in the Duma, who would later silence Valentina Novak. In the current convocation of the Duma, he no longer works, but briefcases with cash still regularly appear in the party office.

In other cases, payment is made by transferring donations to one of the structures close to the party - the Russian Union of Free Youth, the Center for Support of Youth Initiatives and the Fund for Support of Unemployed Youth. All these funds are headed by deputy Vadim Dengin (and the head of the Union of Free Youth was also Zhirinovsky’s ex-wife Galina Lebedeva). The turnover in these structures is really considerable. In 2015-2017, they received voluntary donations and contributions worth 4.3 billion rubles. Also in 2015, two of these structures received money from the Presidential Administration - a subsidiary of the organization ordered them to supply furniture to the State Duma, and they received these orders without competition.

Donors often pay more than once. A typical example is Slutsky, who is considered one of the most important sponsors of the LDPR. Slutsky organizes flights for deputies to business events abroad, and once even paid for the celebration of Zhirinovsky’s birthday.

LDPR MP Leonid Slutsky escaped punishment after being accused of harassment

LDPR MP Leonid Slutsky 

The LDPR leadership instructs some “commercial” deputies to seek financial assistance for entire regional branches - this is, for example, what is happening with the Krasnoyarsk office, which has a curator Sergei Natarov, a former deputy minister of economics of the region. And almost everyone must pay at least some amount to the LDPR - each deputy supports the party with money equivalent to 10-100% of his salary - the money goes to maintaining the faction apparatus.

Finally, another form of earnings is the promotion of deputies up the career ladder. Thus, Eldepeeper deputy Sergei Zhigarev is not averse to becoming governor. To fulfill his dream, he finances the LDPR, and Zhirinovsky lobbies him in the Kremlin. At the same time, such deputies receive immunity. Several years ago, journalists found out that Zhigarev may own undeclared American real estate, for which he could be deprived of his mandate.

But the check was not even carried out. 

Money in exchange for loyalty

The reason why the Kremlin turns a blind eye to dubious transactions in the LDPR is clear: the party guarantees loyalty in matters of principle. For this, like the three other parliamentary parties, the LDPR receives the right to budget funding.

Dmitry Medvedev awards Vladimir Zhirinovsky for his services to lawmaking and the development of Russian parliamentarism, 2011

Award for merits in legislative activity and development of Russian parliamentarism, 2011 

In the spring of 2013, Zhirinovsky made a very unpleasant statement for the Kremlin: he publicly announced that his party would not support the appointment of Elvira Nabiullina as head of the Central Bank. Upset Kremlin officials had to urgently schedule a meeting with the leader of the LDPR. But they had no reason to worry - the conversation was short. They explained to the LDPR leader: the vote is a matter of principle, the president personally nominated Nabiullina, and the support of the entire so-called “systemic opposition” is required.

Zhirinovsky did not resist for a second and changed his position, asking only for a formal meeting with the future head of the Central Bank. As a result, the party unanimously voted for Nabiullina. Zhirinovsky always senses which way the wind is blowing and understands when he can vote against government initiatives and when not. Apparently, in order to prevent mistakes, the LDPR has a rule: when an important law is being considered in the Duma, ordinary party members are prohibited from speaking; only Zhirinovsky can do this.

But the LDPR’s loyalty is not limited to “correct” voting. Several months ago, the presidential administration developed a bill that gives authorities the ability to control the Internet in Russia. As usual in such cases, they decided to introduce the draft not on behalf of the president or the government, but on behalf of several deputies, among whom one must necessarily represent the “opposition.” Then Kremlin officials called LDPR member Andrei Lugovoy, experienced in such matters, and asked him to sign the bill, without Zhirinovsky even knowing about it.

The Kremlin can work directly with Lugovoi, as well as with about a dozen other LDPR deputies. The thing is that the leader of the LDPR reserves approximately a third of the faction for candidates delegated by the Kremlin. So in the Duma faction of Zhirinovsky’s party there ended up being Lugovoi, who needed immunity due to charges of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, or the former head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, a long-time acquaintance of Vladimir Putin. Simply relatives of important officials also end up there - the deputy of the fifth convocation was the ex-wife of the head of the presidential department of internal policy (it is the department that oversees the parties) Oleg Govorun, Tatyana Volozhinskaya.

In exchange for such services, Zhirinovsky never directly asks for anything, but if he needs something from the Kremlin, he will never hesitate to call. Such calls began to be heard especially persistently several years ago, when the leader of the LDPR really wanted to get new premises for his Institute of World Civilizations. In 2002, the state transferred the buildings in 1st Basmanny Lane for free use to the institute, and later they became the property of the company of Zhirinovsky’s family and partners, Raritet-M. Now the party leader asked the government for another house, but the Cabinet of Ministers was in no hurry to fulfill the request and had to contact the Kremlin. Kremlin officials, on the eve of the presidential elections and pension reform, decided to appease Zhirinovsky. As a result, in the spring of 2018, Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree according to which the LDPR received the building of the RAS Hotel on Leninsky Prospekt, in a very prestigious area of the capital, for use.

To whom and for what does the money coming to the party from sponsors and the state go?

Veteran agent

— In his first years, Zhirinovsky was a C student. And then suddenly he became an excellent student,” recalls his classmate at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University, where the future leader of the LDPR studied in the late 60s. Rumors about Zhirinovsky’s cooperation with the special services were already circulating then. Students associated their friend’s excellent grades with the fact that he may have been recruited by the KGB. In the presence of young Zhirinovsky, they tried to discuss only “innocent” topics.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky in his youth

Vladimir Zhirinovsky in his youth

In 1969, Zhirinovsky was sent on a business trip to a NATO member country, capitalist Turkey, to work as a translator at a construction site. When he returned, he said that he had spent several days in a Turkish prison for selling Lenin pins on the street. Be that as it may, after a trip to Turkey, Zhirinovsky no longer became involved with this country, but went to study to become a lawyer: perhaps the arrest ruined his diplomatic career.

Zhirinovsky’s work history also indicates a possible connection with the intelligence services. The future politician, according to his official biography, underwent an internship at the State Television and Radio and the State Committee for Foreign Economic Relations of the USSR, worked at the Soviet Peace Committee, was an employee of the dean’s office for work with foreign students at the Higher School of Trade Union Movement, and later went to work at the Inurkollegium of the USSR Ministry of Justice.

By the end of the 80s, Zhirinovsky held the position of legal adviser at the Mir publishing house, from where he came to create the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union (LDPSS) at the invitation of Vladimir Bogachev. Soon a conflict arose between the founders, as a result of which Zhirinovsky not only single-handedly headed the party, but also managed to officially register it: this is how the LDPSS became the first opposition party.

Vladimir Zhirinovskikh at the beginning of his political career

Vladimir Zhirinovskikh at the beginning of his political career

When Zhirinovsky headed the party, he also drove a “tattered gray Muscovite,” recalls party sponsor Andrei Zavidiya, who ran for vice president in 1991 together with the leader of the LDPR. “But soon everyone who could become a competitor began to survive. By the 2000s, Zhirinovsky managed to form a party leadership that consisted entirely of his confidants, family members and major party sponsors.

In the 2000s, Zhirinovsky already drove an expensive Maybach car. This car was registered to Zhirinovsky’s ex-wife Galina Lebedeva, and later it was transferred to Zhirinovsky family partner Alexander Mishin.

The entire party is governed by the same principle - gigantic LDPR money goes to Zhirinovsky’s family and partners, and the main one in this scheme is his son Igor Lebedev. 

Sports star

Igor Lebedev is fond of football. So much so that some party members say that Lebedev was going to buy a stake in one of the European football clubs, but encountered difficulties due to inclusion in the EU sanctions list. If it didn’t work out with football, it worked out with basketball. To understand how, you need to understand the family ties of the large Zhirinovsky family.

The Zhirinovsky family: Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Galina Lebedeva

Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Galina Lebedeva

In the south-west of Moscow, at the very edge of the Setun River Valley nature reserve, there is a multi-storey building for FSB officers. Next door is a small guarded community consisting of townhouses. It was here in 1999 that Zhirinovsky brought Valentina Novak, who later ran away from him.

The village on Nezhinskaya Street is a compact place of residence for the entire large Zhirinovsky family. The apartments here belonged to ex-wife Galina Lebedeva, whose divorce, according to their friends, could have been fictitious (press secretary of the LDPR faction Anna Krylova told the Project that this was not so, the divorce was formalized back in 1976, when “there was no point there was no fictitious divorce"), their son Igor Lebedev, nephew Pavel Zhirinovsky, nephew and deputy of the State Duma of the sixth convocation Alexander Balberov.

Zhanna Gazdarova, the alleged mother of Zhirinovsky’s illegitimate son Oleg Eidelshtein (former surname - Gazdarov), as well as the probable mother of the illegitimate daughter Tatyana Tezikova, and Zhirinovsky’s older sister Vera was one of the founders of the HOA.

Village Nezhinskaya street, 14, where Zhirinovsky and his immediate circle own at least 19 apartments with a total area of almost 7 thousand square meters

Village "Nezhinskaya street, 14"

According to Project estimates, the Zhirinovsky family and their immediate circle in the village own 19 apartments and non-residential premises in which Lebedeva’s company is registered.

The total area of the family’s property on Nezhinskaya is 6.8 thousand square meters. m, the total cost is about 2.7 billion rubles ($41.8 million). Most of the apartments belong to the Telmi company, which is owned by an offshore company registered to the full namesakes of Lebedev’s old comrade Yuri Chaplygin and Dynamo Moscow basketball player Nadezhda Grishaeva.

“Nadya at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of her father-in-law, V.V. Zhirinovsky,” is how Grishaeva’s mother (this is how she introduces herself on social networks) signed a photo on Instagram in which her daughter stands in front of a stand with photographs of Zhirinovsky in the Manege. Although Lebedev does not indicate his wife in his declaration, based on these words and the testimony of several party members, it can be concluded that Grishaeva is Zhirinovsky’s daughter-in-law.

“Grishaeva is not in a registered marital relationship with Lebedev, so she is not mentioned in the declaration on completely legal grounds,” says LDPR press secretary Krylova. 10 luxury cars were registered to Grishaeva - one Bentley Continental and nine Mercedes-Benz S-Class, including five Maybachs. Muscovites even have the opportunity to ride them - Grishaeva (of course, not personally, but with the help of hired drivers) is engaged in elite transfers, transporting VIP clients using the Yandex.Taxi and Uber services.

At the same time, in the register of officially registered taxis, Project did not find permits for Grishaeva’s cars to carry passengers. However, on the scale of a family business, private delivery is a mere trifle. 

Women party

On the Spanish island of Ibiza, 300 meters from the beach, there is a three-star hotel with a swimming pool, Azuline Hotel-Apartamento Rosamar. Its building is owned by Nadezhda Grishaeva.

The hotel business in general is close to the Zhirinovsky family - Grishaeva’s husband, Igor Lebedev, has a large area in the center of Moscow - 802.5 square meters. m on Volkhonka, and it is used as a hostel - Nereus. It is owned by the manager and business partner of Grishaeva and Galina Lebedeva.

Azuline Hotel-Apartamento Rosamar on the Spanish island of Ibiza, the hotel building belongs to Igor Lebedev’s wife Nadezhda Grishaeva

Azuline Hotel-Apartamento Rosamar on the Spanish island of Ibiza

Galina Lebedeva also loves Spain very much. Perhaps she also owns a hotel there - Acta Azul in Barcelona. At least, the company Spanish Destiny Invest SL is registered there in the name of Zhirinovsky’s ex-wife, which, in turn, manages the company Areir SA, which owns the hotel building.

In Barcelona, Lebedeva can also earn money by renting out office space - for this she has real estate in the city center with a total area of 436 square meters. m. But Nadezhda Grishaeva and Lebedeva are connected with Spain not only by business - in the coastal province of Alicante, the family and partners have five houses and apartments. Lebedeva’s largest property is a large house (it costs approximately 1.3 million euros) with a swimming pool in the town of Altea with a picturesque view of the Mediterranean Sea. The total area of buildings on Lebedeva’s site is about a thousand square meters, and the site itself is 1,461 square meters. m. In addition to the villa, Lebedeva also has an apartment in neighboring Benidorm with an area of 83 square meters. m. and cost 200 thousand euros. Grishaeva also has real estate there. In 2016, she became the owner of three apartments with a total area of 178.7 square meters. m and cost about 551 thousand euros in the Santa Margarita high-rise.

Grishaeva bought all of this real estate with her own money, according to the press secretary of the LDPR faction. Igor Lebedev, according to her, does not need real estate in Spain - in 2014 he came under sanctions in the EU and cannot travel there, she says. “And Grishaeva is a member of the Russian Olympic team and a participant in the London Olympics. She played sports professionally, played for Russian, Turkish and French basketball clubs for 15 years, and she also had advertising contracts. A professional athlete is able to earn the necessary funds in 15 years to purchase the specified property,” says Krylova.

Real estate of the Zhirinovsky family in Spain: Barcelona, Ibiza, Alicante

Real estate of the Zhirinovsky family in Spain

In Moscow, the wife of deputy Lebedev neighbors the wife of deputy Slutsky: both women have real estate in the Kutuzovskaya Riviera skyscrapers on Nezhinskaya Street (on the same street where the townhouses of the family of the LDPR leader are located). Lidiya Lyskova has a three-storey penthouse of 561.7 sq.m on the top floors of the high-rise. Grishaeva’s apartment is more modest: 117 sq.m. on the 27th floor. The cost of an apartment of this size in this building now varies from 47 to 75 million rubles (from $719 thousand to $1.1 million). To buy this apartment, Grishaeva sold her property in the very center of St. Petersburg, on the embankment of the Moika River, Krylova emphasizes. Apparently, many people in this family, including Galina Lebedeva, have a desire to see the city from a bird’s eye view. Its four companies own five apartments on the 54th-62nd floors of the City of Capitals towers in Moscow City.

The total area of the apartments is 1104.6 square meters. m, and the approximate total cost is 615 million rubles or $9.4 million.

And right opposite the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on Tverskaya Street, Grishaeva’s company has another apartment with an area of 195.7 square meters. m. Now an apartment of similar size in this building is on sale for 163.4 million rubles ($2.5 million). The family also has interests on the Sochi Black Sea coast. Grishaeva owns two non-residential premises with a total area of 873.5 square meters. m on the first floor of the high-rise residential complex Barcelona Park in Sochi, the developer of which was her mother-in-law’s company Raritet. One of Grishaev’s premises is rented out. Based on the price of commercial premises per square meter in a similar facility in Sochi, Grishaeva’s possessions will cost approximately 74.2 million rubles ($1.1 million).

Residential complex "Barcelona-Park" in Sochi, where Nadezhda Grishaeva owns two non-residential premises

Residential complex "Barcelona-Park" in Sochi

Finally, having left Russia, the Lebedev couple can admire the beauty of the United Arab Emirates - one of the few countries where Russians can invest money of dubious origin without fear. In 2014, Alexey Navalny said that he had found Lebedev’s apartment in Dubai’s Botanica tower with an area of 442 square meters. m. It cost Igor Lebedev 87 million rubles, but it cannot be found in the politician’s declaration. Now an apartment of similar size in this area will cost approximately 136.9 million rubles ($2.4 million). Lebedev himself called Navalny’s investigation nonsense and a provocation. 

But the listing of family assets does not end there. Zhirinovsky’s personal dacha is located in Daryin, near Moscow, next to the government “Gorki”. This is a famous place - in 2017, the party leader swam in the pool there with members of the LDPR Youth Organization.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky swims in the pool with members of the LDPR Youth Organization at his personal dacha in Daryino, near Moscow.

Zhirinovsky has plots with a total size of slightly less than four football fields.

Zhirinovsky’s illegitimate son Oleg Eidelshtein (former surname Gazdarov) lives across the street from his father. He owns almost 30 acres with buildings, and rents out another six. According to Project calculations, the cost of Zhirinovsky’s residence is approximately 1.1 billion rubles, his son’s is 127.6 million rubles ($17 million and $2 million, respectively). Zhirinovsky’s illegitimate son was also in charge of an important financial direction - he was previously the general director of the Golder Trading Company, a quarter of which belonged to Zhirinovsky’s ex-wife Galina Lebedeva. The company owned the rights to trademarks depicting Zhirinovsky’s portrait and his signature.

However, now the company is in the process of transformation, and its financial statements cannot be seen. All the real estate of the Zhirinovsky family discovered by the Project is worth a huge amount of money - 9.2 billion rubles or $142 million - this is the price of 51 real estate objects, including the Spanish hotel building. Zhirinovsky and Lebedev could never have earned this money based on salaries in parliament. But they could take part of what they earned from the money of Russian taxpayers, including those who never voted for this party. 

Men party

As a parliamentary party, the LDPR receives the legally prescribed 152 rubles for the vote of each of its voters - that is, just over a billion rubles a year. According to Project estimates, from 2013 to 2017, almost 1.3 billion rubles were withdrawn from 2013 to 2017 to those close to the family, their companies, the Institute of World Civilizations, as well as the family company of former LDPR deputy Igor Ananskikh, that is, a third of the party’s state funding for the same period.

The main contractor was Lebedev’s friend, director Daniil Bondar, who runs a business with his family in Spain. From 2013 to 2017, individual entrepreneur Bondar received orders from the Liberal Democratic Party for 840 million rubles, his company Fin-Art Group received 141 million rubles, and Fin-Art CEO Evelina Kim received 87 million rubles. The party allocated 128 million rubles for the maintenance of the Institute of World Civilizations. Grishaeva’s company “Telmi” received 21 million rubles. About 6 million rubles went to the security agency “Pharaoh-M”, which is registered at the address of the family’s property in the village on Nezhinskaya and belongs to Galina Lebedeva’s business partner Yuri Chaplygin. And Lebedeva’s own company, Raritet-M, leased premises to the party in 2016 and received 1.2 million for it. Finally, for some time the party collaborated with the Ruan company, owned by the family of the former LDPR deputy Anansky. The company received 49 million rubles for advertising the party.

The LDPR is not a women’s party at all; women working there complain that they do not feel comfortable and do not see prospects for growth. There are many more of them among men who in their youth were Zhirinovsky’s assistants - for example, Yaroslav Nilov, who at the age of 16 became the leader’s assistant on a voluntary basis, now heads the key Duma Committee on Social Policy, who became Zhirinovsky’s assistant at the age of 25, Alexei Didenko is now the first deputy leader of the faction, and the most young State Duma deputy Vasily Vlasov, who entered the country’s parliament at the age of 21, used to be the head of the secretariat of the party leader. Together they form the third category of deputies from the LDPR, along with “businessmen” and “Kremlin members”.

 The two main men of the LDPR party - Zhirinovsky and Lebedev - are now in conflict.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Igor Lebedev However, the two main men of the party - Zhirinovsky and Lebedev - are now in conflict. At the celebration of one of the party leader’s birthdays, everyone made toasts. Only the son was silent, who began to cough demonstratively and made it clear that he had a sore throat when it was his turn to raise a glass. True, fellow party members noticed that on the same day in the Duma Lebedev “neighed like a gray gelding.” Perhaps he just didn’t want to say anything. Some party members associate the conflict with the ambitions of Lebedev, who wants to lead the party after his father, others with the weakening of Zhirinovsky and his failing health.