Navalny Publishes Photos of Officials’ Suspected Luxury Real Estate

[One photo here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/navalny-publishes-photos-of-officials-suspected-luxury-real-estate/490387.html]

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 28, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has published photographs on his blog of a luxury cottage cooperative said to be owned by top United Russia officials including deputy chief of staff Vyacheslav Volodin.

On Tuesday, Navalny’s LiveJournal account published several aerial shots which show the Sosny dacha complex in the Leshkov Istrinsky village in the Moscow region.

Among the homeowners named by Navalny is Volodin, also one of the founders of the complex. While Volodin has declared himself the owner of about 8,000 square meters on the complex, Navalny claims that Volodin has another, undeclared plot at the site that features an artificial lake and a helipad.

According to Navalny, the official salaries of the state officials are not enough to allow them to purchase such properties, with Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko in particular singled out for criticism

Between 2008 and 2012, Prikhodko officially earned 35.5 million rubles ($1.08 million). His plot, including the buildings on it, is said to be worth 185 million rubles.

United Russia State Duma deputies Sergei Neverov and Igor Rudensky are also said to own plots in the complex.

Navalny also claims that the officials are not only building on their own sites, but also on land owned by Nikolai Shustnenko, the president of the Basis group of companies. It was not clear on what terms the land was being used.

This is not the first time that Navalny and his Foundation to Fight Corruption have used aerial photography to highlight perceived corruption by top officials. In June, he published photos of luxury property said to belong to the head of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin.