Are the assets of the Lebedev family “beating” the party and its new leader, Slutsky?
After the death of its founder and permanent leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party, headed by the chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, is trying to open a second wind in the party structure, which is faced with the prospect of losing popularity among voters. So, in the outgoing December, at a “rally” dedicated to the 33rd anniversary of the Liberal Democratic Party, businessman Viktor Bout, who returned from the United States, where he was sentenced to a long prison term for arms smuggling, joined its ranks. A little earlier, Slutsky’s attempt to attract the creator of Wagner PMC to participate in the congress turned into a loud scandal. Evgenia Prigozhina, who declared his “deepest disrespect” to the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. Considering what is happening, it is clearly premature to talk about resolving the issue with the “successor of Zhirinovsky”. The founder of the party himself, during his lifetime, repeatedly named his son, the vice speaker of the State Duma, as one of them. Igor Lebedev, but in June last year, he announced the cessation of political activity and refusal to participate in the upcoming elections. The media cited the managerial and financial conflict between Zhirinovsky and Lebedev as the reason for this, but the latter categorically denied the existence of such. Lebedev’s name did appear in a high-profile scandal involving the theft of 29 million rubles from the Liberal Democratic Party’s reserve fund: former accountants accused of major fraud said that they received instructions to transfer money from the party leader’s son. In turn, representatives of the investigation reported that the party leadership refused to cooperate. Meanwhile, the stolen millions could have been invested in the purchase of real estate and business in Spain by the Lebedev family. In particular, several Spanish companies were associated with the former deputy himself and his mother, Galina Lebedeva, for which a number of expensive objects were registered, including apartments, a villa on the Mediterranean coast and a hotel in Barcelona. The beneficiary of another hotel – in Ibiza – was the former Russian basketball player Nadezhda Grishaeva: she is called Lebedev’s next wife, who did not appear in his official declarations.
Slutsky stayed with Bout, but without Prigozhin
Deprived of its founder and charismatic leader Vladimir Zhirinovskymanagement LDPR makes every effort to keep the party “ship” left without a “helmsman” afloat. And although the media stated “Sagging” of the Liberal Democratic Party following the results of the September single voting day in the regions, headed by the Liberal Democrats, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky hastened assure voters and journalists that the election result was better than originally expected.
The outgoing December caused a certain revival of interest in the party, associated with the so-called “three-day rally”, timed to coincide with the 33rd anniversary of the founding of the Liberal Democratic Party. chief event event was the official entry into its ranks of a businessman Victor Bout, on the eve of returning from the United States, where he was serving a 25-year prison sentence for arms trafficking. Such personnel “acquisition” was regarded by journalists and political scientists as a possible try renewal of the party leadership, and very unsuccessful.
Recall that this was preceded by a scandal with an attempt invitations to the “gathering” of the odious founder PMC “Wagner”group owner “Concrod” Evgenia Prigozhina, whose presence, apparently, was to strengthen the patriotic component. That’s just the “Kremlin chef” did not appreciate the sign of attention, publicly saying about my “deepest disrespect” to Slutsky whom he knows “exceptionally on the bad side”.
Slutsk “message” accepted and hurried announce about “cancellation of the invitation to Evgeny Viktorovich”adding that he himself did not sign such a thing and promising to conduct an internal investigation of how the businessman was among those invited at all. A really offensive incident on the eve of the gala event, where all the attention of the press eventually went to Bout.
Igor Lebedev and the scandal with stolen millions
Meanwhile, the question of Zhirinovsky’s successor, although it faded into the background after the appointment of Slutsky as chairman of the party, was not completely removed from the agenda. Political scientists are among them. calledfor example, the Khabarovsk governor Mikhail Degtyarev and State Duma deputy Yaroslav Nilova. By the way, the late leader himself among the possible political “heirs” has repeatedly mentionedhis son, also a former parliamentarian and ex-vice speaker Igor Lebedevbearing the mother’s surname.
It was only in June last year that it became known about the conflict between the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party and his offspring, as a result of which Lebedev announced about his departure from politicians and refusal to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The reason for this decision is the sources of RBC called disagreement of a number of party functionaries, including Lebedev, with the appointment of a deputy as the first deputy head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma Vasily Vlasov.
In addition to personnel and managerial disagreements, there were allegedly financial, the essence of which, however, was not voiced. The ex-deputy himself has a conflict with his father categorically deniedtalking about what I decided “try something else”. He also called untrue information about his Spanish citizenship and a passport issued by addressed “David Garcia”.
We will return to the Spanish topic, as for financial issues, here it is worth recalling the high-profile scandal that occurred in 2020 with the theft from the reserve cash desk of the Liberal Democratic Party 29 million rubles. As wrote “Kommersant”, two former party accountants became defendants in a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud Nefteeva and Danilinaserving the settlement accounts of public organizations close to the party and accruing monthly bonuses from non-party funds, the amount of which could reach 1 million rubles.
During investigations there was a conflict between the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party and the security forces: then Zhirinovsky accused police officers in incompetence and red tape; in turn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs pointed to the refusal of the party leadership to cooperate with the investigation. It is indicative that during the interrogations the defendants named the initiator of the withdrawal of funds none other than Mr. Lebedev, who allegedly gave instructions on where exactly to transfer the money. The former accountants insisted on holding a confrontation with the deputy.
The parliamentarian himself regarded accusations against him as a “lie”, adding that he contacted the investigators through lawyers and participated in a confrontation with one of the defendants. The authors of Kommersant addressed Attention on the following circumstance: the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party turned to the police with a statement about the theft, and investigation progressed exactly until Lebedev, “who is the second person in the party hierarchy”, “surfaced” in the case, after which the proceedings stalled.
Spanish apartments of Galina Lebedeva
results investigations hardly liked Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who criticized the security forces. But wasn’t the story of the theft of party millions meant when certain financial disagreements were mentioned in the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party? Here it would be appropriate to return to the story of Lebedev’s alleged Spanish citizenship. The fact is that party millions could have been invested in the purchase of foreign real estate by the former parliamentarian, which Baza wrote about at one time (the publication has now been deleted, but its archival archive can be found online). copy).
As figured out “Baza”, in 2007 in the Spanish city of Altea (province of Alicante) a real estate management company was registered “Go Evolution International 21 SL”; in 2012, its authorized capital was estimated at 2.8 million eurosand the value of the assets 4.5 million euros. The company was the official owner of apartments with an area in an elite residential complex Villa Gadea on the Mediterranean coast, with an area of 133 square meters and a cost of about 400 thousand euros.
In 2009-2015 manager “Go Evolution International 21 SL” was Lebedev, and he remained as such, being included in the EU sanctions lists after the return of Crimea. The publication is skeptical about the version of a possible namesake. The fact is that among the managers of the company was also Galina Lebedeva– that’s the name of the ex-wife Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the mother of a former Vice Speaker.
After that, the management of the company passed to Daniil Bondar and Sergei Chalyshev. Bondar is a producer, documentary filmmaker and political PR specialist whom Lebedev called “his old friend.” Only in 2017, as an individual entrepreneur, he received from the LDPR order 164 million rubles for the placement of advertising and information materials. As for Chalyshev, this man led the State Duma secretariat Lebedev at the same time being the manager of a Spanish company.
Galina Lebedeva performs in Russia founder a range of commercial structures. Until September 2020, she was the only owner registered in Sochi and liquidated last May with zero financial indicators Raritet LLCspecialized in real estate transactions. At the same Sochi address, only in the next office,located LLC “Barcelona City”in charge of housing management. Until June 2022, the owner of the company was Natalia Chalyshevawhich “Baza” calls spouseformer assistant to Lebedev, and last June the only owner firms became himself Sergei Chalyshev.
Are the assets transferred to the spouse?
In addition to apartments in Altea, Baza found several other Spanish assets of the Lebedevs, in particular, a villa and a land plot of 800 square meters located in the elite cottage village of Altea Hills. Real Estate Officially framedper company Inaugural S.L., which from April to June 2018 was de jure run by the mother of the former deputy Galina Lebedeva, and from June by the same Daniil Bondar and Sergey Chalyshev. The authorized capital of Inaugural SL was 3.3 million eurosthe villa itself can cost the same.
In addition, in the fall of 2016, 72-year-old Lebedeva established a company Spanh Destiny Invest S.L.since 2017 the manager of a travel company registered in Barcelona “Areir SA”which is issued a 3-star Hotel Azul on the Gran Vía in Barcelona. The cost of the hotel was approx. 14.5 million euros. AT publications tells about another company, originally registered for Lebedev – Hotel Europe Daniella Invest S.L.which through the “child” structure Agua Azul SL belongs to a 3 star hotel Azuline Hotel – Apartamento Rosamar in a well-known place for party lovers – in Ibiza.
Soon the ownerHotelsEuropeDaniellaInvestmentSL» changed and instead of mother policy they became a former Russian professional basketball player Nadezhda Grishaevawho invested in the company 7.4 million euros. At the end of December 2018, the athlete headed a company with a similar nameHotel Europe Marcello Invest S.L.specializing in property management. By information portal “Baza”, Grishaeva – the second wife of Lebedev and the mother of his two children, although, as a deputy, he preferred not to indicate the name of his wife in his declaration.
The latter circumstance, if true, makes the change of ownership of the Spanish company understandable. And the whole story with foreign assets suggests where tens of millions of party rubles could be withdrawn. Whether Zhirinovsky was aware of the machinations and how he treated his son’s business and real estate abroad is hard to say. But everything described above runs counter to the official patriotic rhetoric of the Liberal Democratic Party. Given that the party is already going through far from the best of times, past ties with Mr. Lebedev may backfire on it, and no “renewal of the ranks” will correct the situation. As for the ex-vice speaker himself, he is still “under sanctions” and may well lose his European well-being.
