Representatives of the Russian-speaking diaspora in the United States launched the Real Estate project. The goal of the initiative is to search for American houses and apartments belonging to close associates of Vladimir Putin, high-ranking Russian civil servants, and their families. The authors of the initiative intend to create an interactive map, which will mark the American real estate of Russians associated with the Kremlin.
The project was launched by the Headquarters of the organizers of protests in the United States, a group that unites representatives of the Russian-speaking diaspora who are opposed to the current regime in Russia. Earlier, Protest America activists organized commemorative events dedicated to the murder of Boris Nemtsov, protests against the arrest of Alexei Navalny, and other diaspora actions in different parts of the United States.
“The idea of the project is to search for and draw on an interactive map of real estate objects belonging to Putin’s officials and a wide range of Kremlin servants,” says the Protest America Facebook page. “We have already begun to make this map, but we do not have enough hands and need help of volunteers in collecting data”.
The authors of the initiative identified a wide range of Russians, whose real estate in the United States they intend to make public.
“These are state officials: government ministers, their deputies, deputies of the State Duma and members of the Federation Council, governors, their deputies and ministers of regional governments, judges, prosecutors, police chiefs, leaders and high-ranking officials of federal and regional power structures, leaders of United Russia and party members, oligarchs close to Putin, Putin’s confidants in the elections, signers of the letter in support of the annexation of Crimea, propagandists, public figures and cultural figures who openly support Putin and children / parents / relatives of the above categories of persons, ”the project organizers list.
“Kirkorov, who owns expensive real estate in Miami, says that Putin is the best president”
“Everyone knows about Putin’s palace in Russia, but there are lower-ranking officials, their children, their relatives who own real estate abroad. This is partly known, but our task is to summarize how the money received by corruption is used to buy real estate in the United States, teach children, – one of the authors of the Real Estate project Alexander Zheleznyak told the Russian service of the Voice of America. – This includes propagandists and actors who support the current Russian government. Like, for example, Kirkorov who says everywhere that Putin is the best president, and he himself collected a bunch of expensive real estate in Miami.”
Recall that Philip Kirkorov often praises Vladimir Putin on his social networks. In particular, in January, after a brutal crackdown on the actions of Alexei Navalny’s supporters, the singer with an audience of almost five million subscribers posted a photo of Putin with a halo and hashtag #PutinBestPresident on his Instagram.
A month before, the singer had posted on his Instagram photo of his winter vacation in Miami. Russian media have repeatedly reported on Kirkorov’s real estate in the United States. In particular, the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” reported that the mansion with seven bedrooms brought Kirkorov about three million dollars in profit, as it grew in price.
“There are a lot of journalistic investigations, someone knows this, another knows, but our task is to find it all, generalize it, and convey it to people,” says Zheleznyak. “Our volunteers are now researching open sources in various states in the United States.”
In the open databases of real estate owners, they can find out whether a person owns real estate in the United States. After the scandal with United Russia party Vladimir Pekhtin, whose apartment in Miami was discovered by Alexei Navalny in this way, many public figures from Russia, according to rumors, began to register real estate in the name of relatives. This increases the amount of time spent by volunteers.
Whose property are they looking for in the US?
As a cheat sheet for volunteers, Protest America coordinators published a list of people who are recommended to be checked for real estate in the States.
Among them are Channel One President Konstantin Ernst, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, businessman Roman Abramovich, VTB top manager Denis Bortnikov (son of FSB head Alexander Bortnikov), VTB President Andrei Kostin, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko (he is called responsible for concealing facts about Navalny’s poisoning ), Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, son of the head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, head of VEB Igor Shuvalov, businessman Alisher Usmanov and others. There are more than 35 names in the list.
“At the moment, the power in Russia, which has not changed for 20 years and is increasingly forming into a dictatorship, poses a threat not only to its citizens inside the country. It poses a threat democracies of the free world, which Putin essentially declared war, on with his acts of aggressionsuch as cyberattacks, military provocations and disinformation campaigns. He introduces bonuses for killed American soldiers, an animated video appears about a missile strike on American territory, – said Dmitry Valuev in an interview with the Russian service of the Voice of America, a representative of the headquarters of organizers of the civil association Russian-speaking America for Democracy in Russia ” – “At the same time, prominent Kremlin functionaries, officials, State Duma deputies and many others responsible for the aggressive policy of the Kremlin continue to own villas and luxury apartments in the United States.”
According to Valuev, the uniqueness of the project based on a fact that it unites Russian-speaking emigrants living in the United States who want democracy in the homeland, and respect for basic freedoms and human rights.
Which of the famous Russians owns real estate in the United States?
In addition to Russian pop stars, who do not hide the presence of housing in the States, journalists drew attention to the real estate of Russians close to the regime.
In particular, in Russia in recent years, investigations have been published about the apartments in Miami of United Russia Vladimir Pekhtin, the deputy from the “Fair Russia” Alexei Chepa, the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, United Russia Ivan Karnilin. Also, the media reported on real estate in the United States of the wife of the president’s press secretary Tatyana Navka, the wife of Senator Vyacheslav Fetisov.
Note that Russian legislation does not prohibit owning real estate abroad, but it must be declared.
According to Alexander Zheleznyak, the publication of the data collected by the volunteers may become the basis for new journalistic investigations.
“If the project is successfully implemented in the United States, we plan to transfer our experience to Europe and expand the geography of our map with European villas and palaces of people serving the Kremlin,” summed up Dmitry Valuev. “Our association“ For Democracy in Russia ”also plans to support Russian-speaking Americans with sanction bills against persistent human rights violators in Russia who manage to evade responsibility.
Alexey Gorbachev, Voice of America
