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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Where is the Russian brain? Many people ask themselves this question. But if you look at history, the answer is obvious: for centuries the entire intellectual potential of this country was either exterminated or exiled. Pushkin and Lermontov were exiled, Dostoevsky was condemned to death, Bunin, Nabokov, Shalyapin, Rachmaninoff — they emigrated. Mandelshtam, Babel, Meyerhold were tortured and shot.
So it is not surprising that today Russians are massively slipping into depression because of the so-called "SVO" and lamenting slowing incomes. But while the average Russian counts kopecks in stores, life is flashing in the Kremlin elite with bright colors. And their income growth has certainly not slowed. More likely, on the contrary. Read more in an exclusive column for 24 of the Channel.
Clock priced at a Russian city’s annual budget
The son of Russia’s Interior Minister, Alexander Kolokol'tsev, gave his 26-year-old girlfriend, model Lolita Shonina, a Rolex Daytona “Barbie”. Its value is estimated at more than 3,5 million euros — over 300 million rubles. To earn such a gift, an ordinary Russian district police officer would have to serve several thousand years.
I will cite another telling statistic. 3,5 million euros is a full annual budget of a small town or urban-type settlement in Tver, Volgograd, or Pskov regions with a population of from 5 to 12 thousand people. A whole town could live a year on one hour of the deputy’s companion!
In total this couple spent abroad for at least 86 nights, flying on private jets and spending millions of euros on hotels in Dubai and the Maldives. The total value of this girl’s accessories collection reaches 10 million dollars. But the funniest thing happened next: when the investigation gained publicity, they began to hotly delete photos from their accounts.
Imagine how painful it is to own all this luxury and have no way to boast about it. As they say, the rich also cry.
Merits to the UAE and the MFA plane as a private taxi
So, shall we raise the temperature? While the head of the Russian MFA, Sergei Lavrov, tells Russians about the "fight with the West", his civilian wife Svetlana Polyakova and her daughter Polina Kovaleva calmly obtained citizenship of the United Arab Emirates during a year of full-scale invasion. Moreover, Polyakova obtained a passport with the official wording "for special merit before the state". Probably for Lavrov’s "special merits" during his private visits.
Polyakova’s daughter lived for years in London, where in the 21 year she bought an apartment for 4,4 million pounds sterling with no mortgage. When Britain imposed sanctions on her, the girl was quickly placed in a Qatari Investment Fund. And for joint meetings, Lavrov’s family uses either business jets of oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Evgeny Giner, or... the official MFA Russia government plane.
They cynically framed civilian female relatives as "employees on diplomatic assignments" and ferried them on a state plane to France, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States. I wouldn’t be surprised if while Lavrov was browbeating foreign diplomats with Kremlin demands, his secret family enjoyed shopping in luxury stores in New York.
Spiritual crepe in Instagram and "patriotism" in southern France
Regional "patriots" are not far behind. The wife of Kursk region governor Alexander Khinsteyn — actress Olga Polyakova — actively runs her Instagram. The very Instagram that is blocked in Russia and which Khinsteyn himself aggressively fought as the initiator of Internet censorship. While residents of Kursk region move around with ration coupons, the governor’s wife posts photo shoots in Italian style and acts in films.
And this permeates the entire Kremlin. Let’s recall the so-called "old Russian values" of Putin’s family:
his ex-wife Lyudmila Ocheretna, after their divorce, takes money to the south of France and to Spain, renting out a historic building near the Kremlin to Russian state banks;
the older official daughters and the unofficial daughter Yelizaveta Krivonogikh own elite real estate in France, the Netherlands, and other European countries;
the younger sons from Alina Kabayeva grow up under tight security by the FSO in complete isolation from the world in Valaam.
A dead-end trap for Russians
All these people teach ordinary Russians the idea of 'patriotism' and endurance every day, while their own families hold passports of NATO countries and the United Arab Emirates. And ordinary residents are left only to wonder at new price tags in stores and the ingenuity of the authorities, which introduces a 'tax on infrastructure restoration after drone attacks'.
Russia has driven itself into a huge trap. War, occupied territories with nothing to rebuild, a demographic abyss, and lack of money — this is a circle from which the country cannot escape.
The economy will shrink, life will get worse and worse, and this noose will tighten around every Russian’s throat. Expect it to get even better — there will be new waves of mobilization as well.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Мільйони на коханок і майно у Європі: цинічне життя оточення Путіна під час війни". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
