Dec 29: Timur & Svetlana- living la bella vita
A thread by Pekka Kallioniemi published on December 28, 2022
Pekka Kallioniemi- Timur & Svetlana, living la bella vita
In today's #vatnik soup I'll introduce the current Deputy Minister of Defense in Russia, Timur Ivanov. Actually, I'll talk more about his wife and a socialite, Svetlana Zakharova, whose 8000 leaked e-mails were carefully inspected by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Ivanov is an engineer for the war. He's responsible for building military barracks, cadet corps, submarine bases and military airfields, as well as hospitals and kindergartens.
He is also responsible for many rebuilding efforts in Mariupol.
Svetlana have mostly been living off his husband(s), and all of her personal business ventures have gone bankrupt. She's mostly known for appearing on tabloid covers and being a TV presenter. She loves glamour and lavish life, including 5-star hotels, yachts and shopping.
On March 17, 2022, rescue workers were searching for survivors from the ruins of the Mariupol theater. At the same time, Svetlana was buying expensive jewellery in Joel Arthur Rosenthal's jewellery store in Paris. The prices at this establishment start from 100 000s of euros.
Later she travels to London to meet her son, but moves quickly to Paris. There she buys 8000 EUR worth of Prada outfits. Her daughter lives there, too, and they spend family time together for a month in Europe. At the same time, Russia is bombing civilian targets in Kyiv.
Every year the whole family spends the whole August in the Côte d'Azur in a 120 000 EUR / month villa. 90 000 EUR was spent for a yacht rental. For some villas, they paid 2000 EUR a month extra to see the Russian TV channels - just to see Solovyov lie on Russia-1!
Timur Ivanov has been a strong opponent of NATO, yet the family has no problem in vacationing in NATO countries like France.
They do all this through front organizations and offshore companies, some of them registered to Luxemburg.
In 2013-2018 they spent at least 1,3 million EUR on their holidays in Europe. These included 5-star hotels, and luxurious villas and yachts. Nice boost for the local economy!
They're also good friends with the press secretary of Russia, Dmitry Peskov. Peskov visited one of their parties and even put on a bear suit to entertain the
guests. As it turns out, Peskov's daughter, Yelizaveta also loves the West - she's living in France.
Svetlana's spendings seem endless, and she also likes to eat well: while Russian soldiers are eating food-like products in the trenches, Mrs Zakharova eats red & black caviar, croissants and fresh berries for breakfast.
They're circumventing the sanctions in a creative way: they're cars are registered to their drivers, their yachts are ordered for their nannies, and so on. Jewellery and clothes are paid via offshore companies. They also order construction from their own companies.
In Oct, 2022, Timur Ivanov (but not Svetlana) was put on sanctions list by the EU. What did they do? They filed for a "divorce", just so that she can continue her glamorous life in Europe. On 3 Dec, 2022, she was again shopping in Paris.
Sources: navalny.com/p/6631/
а и Пир. Гламурная жизнь заместителя министра обороны Тимура ИвановаГде вы были когда началась война, что делали? Вы наверняка помните. Кто-то в оцепенении листал новостную ленту, кто-то плакал. Кто-то собирал вещи, звонил родственникам, кто-то с ними прощался.https://navalny.com/p/6631/
Further reading
Wojiech Wojtasiewicz, Putin's bad year. "Russian elite has very few B and C options"- Newsweek
Over the years, an extremely personalistic system has been built around Putin using a scorched earth policy. There is no alternative to the host of the Kremlin. The Russian elite is still convinced that it will be possible to turn the tide of the war in Ukraine, says prof. Agnieszka Legucka, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs.
The year 2022 is coming to an end. What was it like for Vladimir Putin and the elite in the Kremlin?
Agnieszka Legucka: The year 2022 ends disastrously for the Russian authorities. The best summary is that they have nothing to boast about in front of their own nation. And when it comes to propaganda, the Russian elite is quite good, which can be seen in the polls, both governmental and those carried out by independent centers, such as the Levada Center. They still show relatively high support for Vladimir Putin. Despite this, the Russian president gave up the key forms of communication between himself and his own people, i.e. the "Priamoy Line" (a TV show in which the Kremlin's host answers selected questions), during which he presented data showing the successes of the authorities and a press conference with selected journalists. His annual appearance before the Federal Assembly, which is enshrined in the constitution, will also most likely be cancelled.
Taras Kuzio, Russia is quietly occupying Ukraine’s information space- The Atlantic Council
Vladimir Putin’s six-year military intervention in Ukraine has failed to reverse the country’s turn away from Russia, but the Kremlin leader is far from admitting defeat. On the contrary, his hybrid war against Ukraine remains at the heart of Russian foreign policy. Over the past year, Putin has rejected international calls for a compromise with Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Instead, he has continued to publicly undermine Ukrainian statehood while signalling his readiness for a long-term geopolitical confrontation by fast-tracking the distribution of Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. There are also indications of a mounting Russian offensive in the Ukrainian information sphere, with the Kremlin acquiring indirect control over key media outlets in a bid to turn the tide of Ukrainian public opinion back in Moscow’s favor.
Christine Chraibi, Viktor Medvedchuk says Crimea is Russia and Ukraine is a colony of the West- Euromaidan Press (2016)
Crimea is a territory of Ukraine only in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, while Ukraine itself has become a colony of the West.
Such a statement was made in an interview with Novaya Gazeta by Viktor Medvedchuk, Vladimir Putin’s great friend, and representative to the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group on the Donbas. (Medvedchuk is chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice and an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union. Russian president Vladimir Putin is godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter Darina (born in 2004). Medvedchuk and his party have marginal popular support in Ukraine-Ed).
Medvedchuk claims that Ukraine had an independent foreign policy before Viktor Yushchenko was elected president.
“That was true until 2005 … But, when Yushchenko was elected president, Ukraine became an object manipulated by other powers. When Yushchenko’s pro-Western team came to power, Ukraine fell under external management: Brussels and Washington dictate conditions and impose their policy. I won’t bother mentioning Ukraine’s dependence on external creditors. Ukraine has become a colony of the West. Today, it’s important to restore our country’s economic and political sovereignty.”
Medvedchuk also believes that the Ukrainian government has done nothing to return occupied Crimea to Ukraine, which is only de jure a part of Ukraine.
“Crimea is a territory of Ukraine only according to Ukrainian legislation (de jure). But, de facto, it’s a territory of Russia.”
In addition, he claims that Donbas residents do not wish to return to Ukraine.
“If anyone believes that people in Luhansk and Donetsk are clamouring to return to Ukraine, then they live in a delusional world. I can say this freely as I’ve had the opportunity of talking with people who live there.”
As member of the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group on the Donbas, Medvedchuk previously announced “DNR” and “LNR” demands with regard to prisoner exchange.
“I can give you the exact figures. The OSCE may be confused, but we aren’t. We’re looking at 113 Ukrainians that are being held prisoner in “DNR” and “LNR” territories. In addition, there are 647 missing…”
“On the other hand, “DNR” and “LNR” representatives are searching for 946 persons allegedly held captive on territories controlled by Ukraine. To date, we’ve established 602 individuals, some of whom have already been convicted and are serving their sentences, others are under arrest and their cases are being investigated.”