How Elena Baturina rested in Kenya
Across the equator, surrounded by Meru oaks, camphor cinnamon and agar needlewoods, Elena Baturina and her eldest daughter were sitting on a designer sofa Elena Luzhkova. They admired the wildlife of the highlands of Laikipia in Kenya. A few meters away was a watering place where buffaloes and giraffes came to quench their thirst. Every day of such a holiday cost the rich up to ten thousand dollars. For this money, the staff of the hotel “Enasoit” gave them a truly luxurious safari. Yesterday, Baturina and Luzhkov watched a family of lions from the car. Today we went on horseback to watch rhinos. Tomorrow we were going to fly a helicopter over the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. Around them were experienced guides, guards with weapons and African servants with trays full of exotic dishes. So the widow Luzhkov spent the spring – apparently, she wanted to unwind and, at least for a while, forget about her failures in business.
Why Baturina is not the richest now
According to Forbes, the fortune of Elena Baturina has decreased by one hundred million – from 1.4 to 1.3 billion dollars. In the ranking of the richest Russian women for 2023, she ended up only in sixth place, although until recently she was in second, and earlier in first.
Recently, the billionaire has had a lot of problems, and, oddly enough, they have little to do with SVO. No country in the world has imposed sanctions on it, except for Ukraine. Perhaps because she has the right connections among Western elites. So, in 2014, she met with future US President Joe Biden, after which she transferred $3.5 million to his son’s companies through her structures. And in 2016, her charity donated £138,000 to London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Foundation.
A subsidiary of the Alfa Group consortium – its lawyers are considered big experts in the field of corporate wars – set out to recover from Baturina the cost of a 25% stake in Inteko. It is approximately 7.5 billion rubles. Representatives of the widow Luzhkov already called this situation by a raider attack. The scheme there is really non-trivial. In order to be able to file a lawsuit against Baturina, a subsidiary of Alfa Group bought out the rights of claim against her bankrupt brother Viktor.
The international hotel business of Elena Baturina collapsed. She had to sell unprofitable hotels in the Austrian Tyrol and Irish Dublin. After the start of the CBO, the Quana Palace hotel in the Czech Karlovy Vary was closed forever, which was bought and restored by Baturina. On these unsuccessful investments, Elena Baturina lost tens of millions of euros. So far, her spending on the construction of an elite 12-story residential complex in Limassol, Cyprus, has not been beaten off.
What income did Elena Baturina have left
If we talk about foreign businesses of Elena Baturina, then she still owns a complex of office buildings in the center of Brooklyn (New York), the Austrian manufacturer of solar panels RE-Pro Group, 100 hectares of land in Hampshire with a farm and a cheese factory, 75% shares in the German membrane plant Hightex, as well as $500 million invested in commercial real estate funds to generate profits.
At home, Luzhkov’s widow also has business assets. Auto-Vintage, a company controlled by it, owns seven thousand square meters of commercial premises in the Fusion Park premium business center on Usacheva Street in Moscow. Their cadastral value is one and a half billion rubles. Renting out these premises, judging by the Cian portal, is possible for the amount 250–500 million rubles in year. But on paper, Auto-vintage’s income is much more modest – only 167 million at the end of last year. On the balance sheet of the company there is also a mansion with an area of 487 m2 on 13 acres of land in the Odintsovo holiday village “Forest Town”. Price – approx. 100 million rublesrenting out will bring up to half a million per month.
60-70 million rubles a year is brought to Elena Baturina by her wide-profile enterprise “Diamant”. After the start of the CBO, the annual income of another of its legal entities, the Uyutny Dom company, which provides office services, soared sharply, from 67 to 94 million rubles.
Baturina sold the development company Inteko a long time ago, in 2011.
Real estate Baturina in Russia
Through the company “Reserve – Asset Management” Elena Baturina owns 20 hectares of land in the elite village “Gorki-2” on Rublyovka.
Judging by the satellite imagery, this territory contains a forest, a landscape park, a pond, something resembling a chapel, a large building for guests, a small one for servants, a house for guards, two checkpoints and, in fact, a huge palace, where it is not a shame to accept and crowned persons. You can’t even tell it’s brand new. Built in the style of classicism, it looks like both the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and the richest noble estates of the Russian Empire. The cadastral value of only one land is 1.6 billion rubles, and taking into account the buildings, this palace ensemble can pull three billion.
The last Moscow registration of Elena Baturina was in the restored historical Profitable House of A.G. Shchennikova on the 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya street. We are talking about a masterpiece of architecture: the facade is decorated with bas-reliefs, the entrance group – with columns. Baturina has a four-room apartment there worth up to 150 million rubles. Exactly the same (the same area and floor) is now rented for 250 thousand rubles a month.
According to the old USRN databases, in the 2000s, Baturina bought 30 acres in the territory of the small village of Les, which is located in the thickest pine forest on Rublevka. Soon a mansion was erected on her land. Such a dacha can cost up to 200 million rubles. Renting out is very profitable. For example, the house next door was rented for two million rubles per month.
Baturina’s real estate abroad
According to the English registry, Elena Baturina and both of her daughters are citizens of Cyprus and residents of London. They live in Mayfair, one of the most expensive areas in the world, on Grosvenor street. There, the widow Luzhkov has her own three-story townhouse with a terrace and her own courtyard. By data English realtors, this is the most expensive property in the area. Its cost is over 26 million pounds.
Elena Baturina also has a picturesque chalet in Kitzbühel, an old Austrian resort town in the Alps. The house is built right on the slope of the mountains and fits perfectly into the local landscape. Its price is up to 20 million euros.
The youngest daughter of Elena Baturina, Olga Luzhkova, was registered in New York. She has apartments there in Devonshire House, a classic pre-war condominium located in Manhattan in the Greenwich Village quarter. This area is considered among New Yorkers one of the most prestigious, bohemian and green. On the roof of the house there is a landscaped garden and a terrace. Inside there are public recreation areas, a gym and playrooms for children. A professional chef and porters are always at the service of the residents. All apartments have premium appliances and first-class finishes, including stucco and oak floors. The price for apartments – from three million dollars.