State Duma candidates reported on foreign real estate. The communist and United Russia party spent the most on it

Most of the candidates for State Duma deputies who own expensive real estate abroad run for parliament from United Russia. This is found out “Dozhd” by examining the declarations submitted to the election commission.

Out of 3908 candidates, 37 have declared housing abroad. Nine of them from “United Russia”, eight – from “Fair Russia – patriots – for the truth”, three more from the Communist Party, Yabloko, “Green” and “Party of Pensioners”, two from “Civil Platform” and “Party of Growth”.

According to “Dozhd”, most of the candidates bought foreign real estate, four – privatized, received as a gift or inheritance. Most often they buy houses in Germany, Bulgaria and Montenegro (five people each), four have real estate in Spain, and two more have apartments in Cyprus and Ukraine.

The leader in terms of expenditures was the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, deputy of the Duma of the VII convocation Vladimir Blotsky. In 2013, he bought a 312 m² house and a 1050 m² land plot in the UK for 102.8 million rubles. The total amount of his income and the income of his wife for the last three years preceding this purchase amounted to only 117.2 million rubles.

Blotsky this year took 47th place in the ranking of civil servants with the highest income in terms of versions Forbes. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the deputy has been engaged in business in the field of the fishing industry. His 2020 earnings records indicate that he is a co-owner of the Treska Murmansk and Interfart seafood companies. Blotsky also has a stake in the Podmoskovye company, the Sovremennoe Pravo law firm and the Leader agricultural enterprise.

In 2018, “Novaya Gazeta” wrotethat the communist and his family received a residence permit (residence permit) in Hungary under the bond purchase program. Blotsky then confirmed this information, specifying that this was done before he became a State Duma deputy in 2016. Once in parliament, he and his family gave up their residence permit in order to “comply with the law.”

The second line in the rating of “Dozhd” was taken by businessman and member of “United Russia” Andrey Gorokhov. He also became the richest of all candidates. The foreign property of United Russia and Tatyana Gorokhova (the declaration does not indicate who she belongs to) cost 90.7 million rubles. Gorokhov owns a residential building and two land plots in Austria. According to SPARK, Gorokhov is the owner of the Austrian pharmaceutical company Megainfarm GmbH (for example, she patented the drug Miramistin).

The third place in the list of candidates with the most expensive foreign real estate was taken by a native of Bashkiria Rifat Shaikhutdinov (Civic Platform party). The property owned by him and his wife in Finland cost 90.4 million rubles, according to financial statements. His wife Guzel Ismagilova in 2015 bought a house in Italy for 89.3 million rubles. The sum of their total income for the last three years preceding the purchase of the property is about 6 million rubles.

The fourth place was taken by the deputy of the State Duma of the VII convocation, the candidate from “Fair Russia – patriots – for the truth” Vadim Belousov. Officially, his wife owns an apartment, a house and a land plot in Spain for a total of 74.3 million rubles. She bought Belousov’s apartment in 2016, and the house in 2019, when her husband was already a State Duma deputy. This property is reflected in his declaration.

Another candidate from United Russia, now the head of the Lipetsk region Igor Artamonov, closed the top five. As follows from the declaration, in 2013 his wife bought an apartment, a parking space and a utility room in Germany for 56 million rubles. In total, three years before this purchase, she earned only 386 million rubles.

State Duma elections are scheduled for fall 2021. Simultaneously with them, direct elections of heads of nine regions (in three more subjects they will be elected by deputies) and deputies of 39 regional parliaments should take place. Due to the pandemic, voting will be three days – from 17 to 19 September. Residents of Moscow, Sevastopol, as well as Nizhny Novgorod, Kursk, Yaroslavl, Murmansk and Rostov regions will be able to vote online. This year, the CEC for the first time decided to refuse from the public broadcast of the vote, citing lack of funds. Now the broadcasts will be available only to “participants in the political process”.

At the end of May, the United Russia primaries were held. In Moscow, as the media wrote, candidates supported by the party won in all districts. According to poll Levada Center, EP rating in Moscow was 15%. However, 28% of those who, in principle, will go to the polls intend to vote for the party. The top 5 of the federal list of United Russia, proposed by Putin, included ministers Sergei Shoigu, Sergei Lavrov, children’s ombudsman Anna Kuznetsova, chief physician of the Kommunarka hospital Denis Protsenko and head of the Talent and Success Foundation Elena Shmeleva.