For six years, the largest elevator operator in Russia, Moslift, has been headed by Vardan Avakyan. Despite the claims of Muscovites, regular accidents and deaths, he remains at his post. Members of his family earn billions on specialized government contracts. How is his family doing?
In the 2000s and 10s, Avakyan’s mother was a venerable restaurateur. She invested in the Ysterika karaoke bars on the roof of the European, Dzhelsomino and Taboo shopping centers on Petrovka, the Prince Golitsyn tavern on Staraya Basmannaya, the Prado cafe on Slavyanskaya Square, Stakan on Sretenka, Moncafe on 1st Tverskaya- Yamskoy and “Kalinkin” in Bolshoy Tolmachevsky, as well as Asia Grill in Barvikha. All of them rattled at one time, but are now closed. Svetlana Karakashyan continues to hold shares in the Asia Hall restaurant on Kutuzovsky Prospekt (income up to 70 million rubles a year) and the property management company Domain, which is suing for premises in the basement of a historic house on Tishinskaya Square.
Judging by the public procurement portal, Moslift really then won tenders for 210 million rubles for the installation of new elevators and subcontracted the Incor Systems company. She, in turn, scattered contracts worth 100 million rubles to very small firms. This became clear when Incor Systems went bankrupt, and the bankruptcy trustee canceled the transactions through the court. Incore Sistema and the firms receiving the tranches had one owner, Mikhail Savichev, who is now drowning in debt.
Leaks from Moslift quickly ended. The last “leaked” photos of two orders signed by top management. Avakyan allegedly strictly regulated interaction with the media. His deputy allegedly introduced liability for the disclosure of official information. Since then, there have been no public scandals with staff at Moslift.
@breakingmash, 05/30/2019 11:58 AM: 12 heads of Zhilischnik were prosecuted for fraud for 700 million. 700 lyam – this is how much the “elevator market” in Moscow is valued: installation, repair, maintenance. The heads of 12 districts gave contracts to Moslift, bypassing government tenders.
Previously, the Otis-lift ruled the market, but then they were caught on violations in service. Now Moslift wants to become the king of the capital’s elevators. By the way, surprise: both Otis and Moslift are run by the same person – Vartan Avakyan (no effin way!). — Inset K.ru
The wife of Moscow’s chief lifter, Esma Avakyan, recently graduated from the Persian Gulf Medical University. She works in Los Angeles. She has her own clinical laboratory in the most respectable area of the city. When Esma lived in Moscow at the beginning of the 2000s, she worked as a manager at SMU No. 7 of her mother-in-law.
Avakyan’s youngest children were born in the States, now they are studying at a prestigious California school. There is evidence that they have American citizenship. Twelve-year-old daughter Avakyan, judging by social networks, travels a lot. Only this year she visited Lausanne, Courchevel, Venice, London, Sukhumi and Moscow. Among the hotels where she stayed is the five-star Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne with a room price of 50 thousand rubles per day.
In 2015, Vardan Avagyan and his wife founded the French company SCI G63 and acquired through it for 2.5 million euros a duplex in an elite nine-story building on Ingres Avenue between the Bois de Boulogne and the Ranelagh garden. This is one of the most respectable areas of the capital of France. Avakians can go to the roof of their house and enjoy the exotic garden, which offers a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.
Before heading Moslift, Vardan Avakyan divided his stake in SCI G63 between his wife and eldest son, who was born in Paris. Formally, this company is registered in a historic villa on the banks of the Seine River in Neuilly – this is a suburb adjacent to the Bois de Boulogne. Avakyan’s sister, Gayane Martiniko, lives in this villa, her apartment costs about two million euros. Gayane works for a local real estate agency.
Avakian’s second sister, Rosa Sacre, is in charge of the Paris debt recovery department at the Société Générale bank. Her living space on the Rue de Montmorency will cost a million euros. Avakyan’s nephews and nieces have French citizenship, some also have Norwegian citizenship, and one of the sisters also has Italian citizenship.
What Avakyans own in Russia
Despite the fact that Vardan Avakyan works for Moslift, where Moscow owns 100% of the shares, and previously led Mos Otis, where the mayor’s office owned 25%, he never reported on income. Not required by law. Formally, he and his wife are registered in a small-sized three-piece panel on Matveevskaya Street not far from the Moscow Ring Road. The price is a maximum of 15 million rubles.
Esma Avakyan, the wife of the general director of Moslift, owns a studio (worth about 25 million rubles) in one of the three surviving tenement houses of the prominent lawyer Fyodor Plevako. It’s unusual building located in a guarded yard on the second line of Novinsky Boulevard, close to the Arbat. The modern facade is decorated with panels and bas-reliefs based on Vrubel’s sketches, lancet windows support balconies, friezes are richly decorated with ceramic tiles.
Svetlana Karakashyan, the mother of the head of Moslift, has owned 280 square meters of living space since 2000. tenement house on Povarskaya street in the Arbat area. The masterpiece of architecture was erected by order of Princess Meshcherskaya and Countess Miloradovich shortly before the revolution. The coat of arms of the nobility is still preserved above the front entrance. The cost of the Karakashyan choir is under 300 million rubles.
Karakashyan owns a mansion with an area of 577 square meters and 20 acres in the Gorki-8 dacha cooperative on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. This village is famous for the fact that near each house there is an English park, a Russian forest or alpine meadows. They say it looks “masterpiece”. Excellent infrastructure in the form of a school, a kindergarten, an ice rink, boutiques and restaurants is attached. Neighbor – Ksenia Sobchak. The price is up to half a billion.
Svetlana Karakashyan also owns a Harley-Davidson Ultra Limited motorcycle, five parking spaces in a residential complex on Leningradsky Prospekt near the VTB Arena and 50 acres in the Kaluga village of Akulovskie Prudy, which was built by her son and partners.
Origins of the family business
Avakyan’s father, Nakhapet Bartegmosovich, was engaged in elevator equipment back in the nineties. It was he who founded SMU No. 7. The heyday of the enterprise fell on the era Yuri Luzhkov. SMU No. 7 was recognized as an honorary supplier of Moscow, they chose Mos Otis and Moslift as subcontractors.
Vardan Avakyan was not going to continue his father’s work: he studied at the Sechenov Medical Academy, worked at the Department of Surgery for ten years, and in 2002 invested in slot machines “columns”, where you need to knock out “three axes” – such stood in zero even on the streets. But then Vardan got a job as a press secretary at his father’s SMU No. 7 and went to study at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. A couple of years later he became the CEO of Mos Otis. Vardan Avagyan also completed business courses at the HES Academy in Paris and an executive program at Stanford University. In the American holding Otis, he reached the position of Vice President for Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic countries.
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