The Moscow House of Culture GES-2 opened in the building of a pre-revolutionary power plant on Bolotnaya Embankment in December 2021. It is not only a cultural center where various art forms come together, but also a cozy urban environment, including a cafe, a shop, a library, a playground and workshops. The main objective of the facility is the development of innovative art production in Russia.
The creation and development of the art space was carried out by the V-A-C Foundation, which belongs to the Russian entrepreneur and billionaire Leonid Mikhelson. But, as Octagon noted, in January of this year, the ownership structure of the cultural center changed.
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, on January 20, the businessman’s daughter Victoria Mikhelson became the owner of Optima LLC. This company owns the assets of the GES-2 House of Culture. In addition, Victoria received a share of 0.1 percent in the legal entity GES-2 itself.
According to tax consultant Ramziya Zabirova, such an ownership scheme is intended to facilitate the input-output of funds from the project, and should also reduce the risks of personal liability in the event of an emergency at the facility.
“The nuances, including special managerial powers, are usually spelled out in the charter of a legal entity, so now it’s impossible to know for sure the advantages of this particular scheme.”
Victoria Mikhelson, who has studied contemporary art in the UK and the US, is currently Director of Development at GES-2. The Leonid Mikhelson Foundation, which organized the project, is named after its successor – V-A-C: “Victoria – the art of being modern.” Unlike her father, Victoria is not under sanctions (restrictive measures against the owner of Novatek were introduced in 2022 by the UK and Canada).
It is known that Mikhelson spent more than 30 billion rubles on GES-2 (according to the SPARK database, the company’s balance sheet at the end of 2021 was 30.9 billion rubles). The project was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited the cultural center at least three times.