The wife of the head of the RDIF and a friend of Putin’s daughter leads a double life, and her friends receive government contracts from companies associated with her

Natalya Popova works at Innopraktika, and she also became a public ombudsman for the rights of high-tech companies at the end of 2019. She occupies chairs in numerous board of trustees, supervisory, coordination boards and boards of directors – in large companies, foundations or government bodies. So, in 2018 Popova entered the compound of the board of directors of VEB Ventures (an investment fund created by VEB), and already in 2020 VEB Ventures invested 500 million rubles in the shares of the cargo carrier Deliver. “It’s not surprising that by the time the investment was attracted, RDIF and its partner, the Mubadala fund, were among Deliver’s co-owners,” the authors of the investigation emphasize.

Since April this year Popova enters to the Supervisory Board of JSC SME Bank (part of the SME Corporation). “Corporation” provides RDIF financial guarantees since 2016.

According to investigators, in 2019 Popova also headed the Vision Media Center media company. Firm like it says on its website, fulfilled orders for RDIF, Russia 24, Channel One, the Ministry of Culture, Gazprombank, ITAR-TASS and other government organizations and organizations with state participation. Irina Viktorovna Meledina, a colleague of Popova in “Russia 24” and her close friend, acted as the founder with a 100% share. It was Vision Media Center that created the application, which was bought and promoted by Gazprom-Media under the Yuppie brand (analogue of TikTok).

Popova is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kotodetki Charitable Foundation, which received grants and financial support from government agencies. According to SPARK-Interfax, in 2019 it amounted to about 6.4 million rubles, and in 2020 – already 18.7 million rubles, that is, an increase of 193%. The head of the Kotodetki Foundation is Anna Belousova, a close friend of Natalya Popova, whose son is Popova’s godson.

It is curious that Natalya Popova, judging by the data from open sources, leads a double life. You can find her on international modeling sites profile with fashion shoots for Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, Bazaar and other leading glossy magazines. In an interview with such publications, she introduces herself as Natalia Sveshnikova, who is 10 years younger than the “original”.