Four sanctioned Russians with real estate investments in Bulgaria

Sergei Chemezov, Maxim Topilin, Vladimir Pligin and Alexey Chepa, through their relatives and offshore companies, own properties along the Black Sea coast, BIRD.BG found. These are high-ranking Russians who are on the sanctions lists of the European Union, and some of them are sanctioned by Britain and the United States.

Alexander Chemezov is the son of Rostec chief Sergei Chemezov (in the leading photo with Putin). Chemezov has been close to Putin since his service as a KGB officer in Dresden and is on the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United States and Britain. Alexander was sanctioned by the United States. A year ago, a joint investigation by BIRD and the Russian investigative site iStories revealed that Alexander and his mother Lyubov Chemezova had acquired apartments in the Estreya Palace complex in the resort of St. St. Cyril and Methodius. Constantine and Helena.

Alexander Chemezov’s apartment also features a large terrace with pool. It was bought at a very pleasant price for such a property – only BGN 302,390. His mother paid for her apartment 261 thousand. Lv. In addition to the Chemezovs, other Russians from Putin’s inner circle have acquired property in the complex. Among them is Konstantin Goloshtapov-Padre, Putin’s masseur. Goloshtapov has been one of the most secretive and closest people to Putin since the 1970s, when Putin worked on the KGB Investigative Committee in Leningrad. It is believed that he has the status of a “cadre”, through which hundreds of appointments have passed in the offices, state corporations and higher spheres of power. In Estreya, Goloshtapov has invested in two apartments through the company Denkraam Holding. She paid about $2.1 million for them. left. Goloshtapov is not currently on sanctions lists.

Maxim Topilin (in the leading photo on the left up) is a former Minister of Labor and Social Policy of the Russian Federation until 2020, and is now chairman of the Economic Policy Committee of the Russian Duma. In March 2022, it was sanctioned by the European Union in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine. His wife Maria Topilina owns an apartment in a resort complex in Obzor, bought for 166,000 euros in 2008.

Vladimir Pligin (in the leading photo on the right above) is a former deputy from the Russian Duma until 2016 and currently a senior party cadre in United Russia. It was sanctioned by the European Union in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. In Bulgaria, his son Alexander Pligin was the owner of the company “Jupiter Pro”, which was liquidated in 2017, but before that he managed to transfer to a Cypriot offshore villa of Budjaka near Sozopol.

Alexei Chepa (in the leading photo in the middle) is a member of the Russian Duma, sanctioned by the European Union after the aggression against Ukraine. He has made a large-scale investment worth more than 10 million euros in the Emerald complex in Ravda, where apartments have been acquired by Russian celebrities such as Philip Kirkorov and Lolita. The investment is through the offshore Spade Business and Chepa’s partner is Todor Zhivkov’s nephew Ognyan Bozarov. Chepa’s business venture was revealed in an investigation by Bivol, and the MP himself declared himself the owner of Emerald in a show on Russian television RTR together with Lolita and Kirkorov, who accused him of collecting unreasonably high fees from the owners there.

Currently, Daniil Chepa, who is the son of the MP, owns through an offshore company a stake in the Bulgarian company “Vertigo Bulgaria“, which makes BGN 1.5 million in net sales revenue per year. There he was a partner with Lydia Bozarova and two other Russians.

So far, there is no information on what the Bulgarian government has done to block the assets of sanctioned Russian citizens in Bulgaria.

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This post is also available in: Български (Bulgarian)