A new player in the St. Petersburg hotel market
The first quarter of 2024 was marked for some Yanina Kopaygorodskaya two major acquisitions. In February-March, she became the sole owner of the Obolensky Hotel in the center of St. Petersburg and the French restaurant L’eclat, located in the hotel building. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, since February-March of this year, it has owned 100% of the shares in the authorized capitals of two companies – TM Otrazhenie LLC and Hugge LLC, which own, respectively, a hotel and a restaurant. The total revenue of both companies for 2023 amounted to more than one hundred million rubles.
“Obolensky” is a 4-star art hotel with 49 rooms. It is located in the center of St. Petersburg, on the street. Pestelya, 1/12, on the corner from the embankment of the Fontanka River – in a historical place where the Versailles Hotel used to be located.
As they say in the guidebooks, The hotel concept reflects the romantic era of the early 19th century. Travelers will find cozy designer rooms, each of which is unique with its details and secrets; atmospheric French restaurant L’eclat. The observation deck on the roof becomes a bar in the summer season Bar by L’eclat in the open air, offering a unique view of the iconic sights of the city: the Engineering Castle, Panteleimon Church, the Summer Garden and the Savior on Spilled Blood.
The hotel was built in record time in just 17 months and received its first guests as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2022. The official opening took place in September 2022. The event was widely covered by the press, unlike the current silence that accompanies the change of ownership. The secrecy is probably due to the reluctance of the new owner Yanina Kopaygorodskaya advertise your expenses, which may raise unwanted questions about the origin of the money.
The details of the transaction for the acquisition by Ms. Kopaygorodskaya of the companies TM Otrazhenie LLC and Hugge LLC are not disclosed. The previous owners are individuals involved in the real estate market of St. Petersburg, possibly denominations. You can estimate the approximate market value of a hotel with a restaurant at affordable prices information on the amount of investment in the construction of the facility, as well as information on revenue. The Obolensky Hotel was built with the credit support of JSC Rossiya. From the bank’s messages it is known that the total investment amounted to more than 400 million rubles. With all the initial data, the market value of the object must be at least half a billion rubles, the amount of funds raised with interest.
The location of the hotel, its status, the amounts involved, as well as the financial participation of a famous bank in the project force us to take a closer look at the figure of Ms. Kopaygorodskaya, who so unexpectedly burst into the hospitality industry of St. Petersburg.
Trudovik, fortune teller, hotelier
Yanina KopaygorodskayaA retouched biography can be found online Yanina Nikolaevna Kopaygorodskayafrom which you can only learn general information about it. Russian teacher and entrepreneur, head of a number of commercial organizations. Graduate of Tolyatti State University with a degree in Preschool Education Management. She devoted many years to teaching and working with children in the field of preschool and school education. Currently engaged in entrepreneurial activities. He is the initiator and coordinator of a number of projects in the field of charity.
More meaningful information about Ms. Kopaygorodskaya has to be collected from scattered sources. Prior to these recent acquisitions, Ms. Kopaygorodskaya was not known to the general public as an entrepreneur. But in Sochi they know her as the mayor’s new wife Alexey Kopaygorodsky.
A quick look at the business Yanina Kopaygorodskaya enough to understand that she herself could not earn money to buy hotels and restaurants in the historical center of St. Petersburg. Two companies of Ms. Kopaygorodskaya, in which she is the sole owner and at the same time general director – Alex LLC (hairdressing salon) and Business Comfort-Yug LLC (car rental and leasing) – were registered only in the fall of 2023, and the third – LLC “Empire” (hotel business) and even in January 2024.
Until last fall Yanina Kopaygorodskaya was not engaged in business and did not have legal income that would allow her to accumulate the required amount to purchase assets in St. Petersburg.
Some clarification is required here. Yanina Kopaygorodskaya was born in Tolyatti, Samara region, into a poor family, with no chance of a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Originally her name was Yana Khotinskaya. In Tolyatti she graduated from school, then TSU and worked as a school technology (labor) teacher. Having married someone Suleyman Davlatkhudzhaevshe renamed from Yana Khotinskaya to Yanina Davlatkhudzhaeva. Later, in 2019, she changed her last name again to Davlatova. On Yanina Davlatova and the mayor of Sochi got married last year, which led to another change of her surname – to Kopaygorodskaya.
Yana KhotinskayaAt the time of meeting my current husband Yanina Davlatova I was no longer working as a Trudovik, but I had not yet been involved in entrepreneurship, unless you count your activities as an online clairvoyant and healer. The “sorceress” actively promoted her services on social networks, thanks to which in RuNet preserved her advertisements and reviews from her grateful clients, the authenticity of which, however, was never verified.
This digital trace is of interest also because information about Ms. Kopaygorodskaya’s past is carefully erased from the RuNet. She herself cleaned up her accounts on social networks, where she had previously promoted psychic services. In addition, many media publications, links to which can still be found, have been deleted.
After the former clairvoyant became close to the mayor, someone seriously began to correct her public reputation. The Internet was flooded with her new accounts on various platforms, positioning Kopaygorodskaya as a psychologist and marketer. There, the same type of primitive marketing advice is published on her behalf. Obviously, in this way, PR people and SMS people are trying to hide more deeply all the “negativity” about a person available on the Internet. They partially succeed – all this useless marketing writing actually takes up many lines in Internet search engines when asking for the name Kopaygorodskaya.
Marry only enterprising people
The fact that Kopaygorodskaya began her rapid ascent in business only after she married the mayor of Sochi suggests that it was he who could become her investor. However, this version is not confirmed by open data about his financial condition, and indeed, the mayor’s entire biography.
Alexey Kopaygorodsky born March 26, 1985. In 2003-2013 he served in the Russian Armed Forces. Since 2014, he has worked in various administrative positions, mainly in the regional administration of Kuban. In 2016, he was briefly seconded to the post of vice-mayor of Krasnodar, but in 2017 he returned to the regional administration, where he worked until he was elected mayor of Sochi in 2019.
In other words, the Sochi mayor did not have the opportunity to honestly earn money to invest in large business projects of his new wife. Moreover, as is customary among many officials, Kopaigorodsky’s wives were always wealthier than himself.
According to data from the official declaration, a year before his election as mayor, in 2018, Alexey Kopaygorodsky’s income amounted to 1.58 million rubles. Based on the results of the same 2018, Kopaygorodsky’s ex-wife Anastasia Gredinadaughter of a famous Krasnodar businessman Dmitry Gredindeclared 14.7 million rubles in 2018.
Since then, the income of the mayor of Sochi has steadily declined. In 2021 Alexey Kopaygorodsky earned 1.4 million rubles. No real estate or cars owned. Only an apartment with an area of 279.4 sq. m, land (638 sq. m) and a residential building (238.3 sq. m) in use.
Ms. Gredina’s fortune only grew. In 2021, she has already earned 37.5 million rubles. She owned nine land plots (from 856 to 2307 sq. m.), three residential buildings (98.7 sq. m., 112.5 sq. m. and 141.6 sq. m., 1/6 share) and an apartment with an area 279.4 sq. m. In addition, she had two non-residential buildings (59.6 and 78.2 sq. m.) and eight non-residential premises (from 16.7 to 962.4 sq. m.). At the same time, she owned three cars of the Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai Santa Fe brands.
After Kopaygorodsky was elected mayor of Sochi, the city started doing business numerous relatives of the then mayor’s wife and their partners. All of them still successfully earn money in the energy sector, construction and development, hotel and restaurant businesses, retail… Last year, journalists from the Krasnodar independent publication “Protocol” were not too lazy to understand in detail the matrimonial ties of the Sochi mayor. The result of their efforts was investigationamong other things containing the most detailed analysis of the Sochi business of numerous Gredins and their partners.
It is unlikely that the Gredin business empire could not have formed and developed so successfully in Sochi without the support of a related mayor. Typically, business gratitude for such protectionism has a certain material embodiment. In theory, this gratitude could become a source of funds for the purchase of a hotel in St. Petersburg. Although investing in a new spouse funds received from the previous family seems a little cynical.
Change of wives and declarations
Of course, the Sochi mayor has similar business ties not only with the enterprising relatives of his ex. For example, a number of sources pays attention on the presence of the Sochi mayor of a pool of so-called “court developers” who are not related to his wives. This limited circle of entrepreneurs, as they write, also enjoys the support of Kopaygorodsky. All of them receive good plots and most favored nation treatment for the implementation of their projects, for which they are probably also sincerely grateful to the mayor.
The list of structures friendly to the mayor can be continued for a long time. There is a lot of money circulating in Sochi. Thus, budget revenues for 2024 are set at 53.1 billion rubles, expenses 54.3 billion rubles. The mayor has many temptations and opportunities to earn additional income. If we assume that the mayor managed to accumulate funds that were not reflected in the declaration, then he would inevitably be faced with the task of legalizing them.
Until now, Yanina Kopaygorodskaya has not had to submit anti-corruption declarations. Now, when for the first time she will have to disclose information about her income and property as the mayor’s wife, her declaration will indicate that she owns, among other things, an expensive hotel with a restaurant in St. Petersburg. Formally, everything will look as if the modestly earning mayor of Sochi married a rich businesswoman. An excellent legend, if we assume that the mayor actually financed the purchase of Obolensky. This option would not have worked with my previous wife. Her high earnings would still not be enough to justify such an expensive purchase. From this point of view, meeting new love, which has grown into a happy marriage, is a real gift of fate. In all senses.
