We live in difficult times. And not only ordinary people, but famous people get hurt, too. Many countries have already imposed sanctions on Russian politicians. State Duma deputy Valery Gartung is no exception. He is on a whole list of countries where he is not “welcome. As it turns out, the Gartung family has offshore companies, Cyprus passports/citizenship, and apartments in Switzerland and Cyprus. In other words, does this mean that Valery Gartung is an exception? Why do sanctions not work in this case?
How has Gartung been in the Duma for so long?
Valery Gartung is an absolute long-time resident of Russian politics. He has been in the Duma since 1997, representing the interests of the Chelyabinsk region. During this time he managed to change a whole bunch of parties. At the moment, the politician is on the sanctions lists of many countries. The road to the EU, the United States, Japan, Ukraine, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland is closed to him.
Incidentally, they say that 20 years ago Gartung simply bought the chairmanship of the Chelyabinsk organization of the Russian Party of Pensioners for next to nothing. Thanks to this timely “purchase” he is firmly and permanently entrenched in politics. Whether this is true or not, as they say, the earth is full of rumors. Only in two years he has already replaced the head of RPP S. Atroshenko. Coincidence? We do not think so.
Expensive-Rich: How Valery Gartung a famous politician lives
According to the information resource “Declarator”, the total family income last year was more than 106 million rubles.
The family has almost 22 thousand square meters of real estate, including apartments in Switzerland, 190 square meters, and in Cyprus, an area of 94 square meters.
These foreign apartments have long been in the name of Marina’s wife. It is understandable, because it is no longer possible to go to Switzerland.
There are four vehicles registered in the family. One is registered to the head of the family – a Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, the wife has a Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes-Benz A 250.
According to Duma.gov.ru, the Gartung family’s declared income for the year 2021 was nearly 213 million rubles. Last year, V. Gartung declared income of almost 31 million rubles, and his wife’s income of almost 182 million rubles.
Where does such a huge income come from? Especially the politician’s wife? Mostly from owning a large number of shares in the Chelyabinsk Forging Press Plant. For example, after the introduction of sanctions and the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, he gave almost 24 percent of the company’s shares to his wife.
In other words, the share capital ended up in the hands of Marina Veniaminovna.
The plant’s revenue for 2021 was almost 15.5 billion rubles.
The company’s profit amounted to 526.3 million rubles.
As for the court cases in which the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant acted as a defendant, the company lost 51% of them.
About Cypriot passports: the Gartungs were drawn to Europe? What about the sanctions?
As the saying goes, there are devils in quiet waters. Recently, this famous family has been scandalized in the media. Journalists found out that Marina Gartung has had a Cypriot passport since 2017, and European citizenship, which she received through the government program of Cyprus “Citizenship for Investment”. We should add that participation in such a program at the time cost 2 million euros. In other words, to get citizenship in Cyprus, you had to invest that amount. But what about the homeland? Patriotism?
We will not go into details, we have already written about it in detail in the telegram channel “Russian Press”. Journalists also claim that Valery Karlovitch allegedly has a passport and citizenship of Cyprus. Allegedly, he even has documents proving this fact. But they are not made publicly available, because it is personal data.
I wonder what will happen to the assets and possessions of the Gartung family in Cyprus now? Sanctions and all that don’t work for them, or what?
And what about offshore?
By the way, another interesting point. In addition to passports, citizenship, and an apartment, the Gartungs also have an offshore company in Cyprus. As they say, the traditional schemes.
Moreover, according to the same news channel, this Cypriot offshore company was opened for another offshore company. The Gartung family distinguished itself here as well.
We are talking about the offshore company Encontrata Limited, registered in Cyprus in 2007.
It was this firm that was originally the beneficiary of Gartung’s offshore Encontrata Ltd. But two months later, the beneficiary changed. It became another offshore company, Webmark Limited, a figure in the scandalous Panama Partners list, which is located in the Virgin Islands.
And, by the way, Webmark Ltd had a completely different address before. It was listed in the Russian Federation, namely in the elite village where the politician’s family lives. A direct connection with Gartung’s wife is also reported in the information database of Russian and Belarusian officials.
And finally, we share one document proving that the Gartung family has been moving dough offshore for a long time.
This is just one page of the audit report of some company called SHIAKALLIS & Co. AND AUDIT SERVICES LIMITED. The report states that this company is affiliated with both Webmark Ltd. and Encontrata Limited. At the same time, we can see that “Encontrata Ltd” received more than 51 thousand euros of dividends from the factory ChKPZ, which belongs to the politician’s family. And “Webmark Ltd”, in turn, funded the working capital of “Encontrata Ltd” by more than 7 thousand euros.
Where are the sanctions?
As you can see, sitting for decades in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, the great patriot Valery Gartung, with the help of his family has long been withdrawing money into offshore and preparing an additional springboard for a luxurious life in Cyprus. And this is only from what is known, but how much more is in the Russian politician’s stash? And where are the sanctions anyway?
