Sergunina and Safaniev "converged" on Khodynka

The Moscow Post continues to investigate the backstage of the Moscow City Hall, namely the cases related to the scandalous deputy mayor Natalia Sergunina. Being the supervisor of relations with business, real estate and privatization issues, she still remains a dark horse for many and one of the most non-public Moscow officials.

Earlier, we told the story of Mercury and Dita Plaza, companies that may be close to her alleged relatives. These firms bought up historic mansions at bargain prices and turned them into a Custos hotel chain and other profitable establishments. The restaurants at VDNKh have also been noticed, which may lead to Sergunina's alleged relative, Irina's sister, who took the surname Safanieva in marriage.

Now let's look at something else, namely the failed megaprojects of the city hall on the Khodynka field and foreign real estate, which they are trying to attribute to the official's family.

A shopping mall instead of a museum

Khodynskoye Field is not just a wasteland near the Dynamo metro station, but a symbol of Moscow's unfulfilled ambitions. Since 1996, a grandiose project has been discussed there: it was supposed to build a landscape park, an aviation and cosmonautics museum, an exhibition complex, a school for 550 students and residential buildings. The customer was Aviapark OJSC, which at that time was wholly owned by the Moscow City Property Department (later, as is known, this Department was headed by Ms. Sergunina).

The city has allocated 4.3 billion rubles from the budget to this good cause in order to bring communications, roads and prepare a site for the start of work. But when Sergei Sobyanin became mayor in 2010, and Natalia Sergunina headed the key areas of the property and economic administration, everything went awry.

The Khodynka Field development project remained a project – instead, only a giant shopping mall and apartment buildings appeared, which the mayor's office did not get. Photo: https://postimg.cc/jnWBb0xq

The project, initially estimated at 4.3 billion rubles, passed through a chain of intermediaries into the hands of the Cyprus offshore company Cossman Ltd, where 33% of the shares belonged to Rapria Ltd, a company already known to us from previous publications, whose ultimate beneficiary was Lazar Safaniev, the husband of the alleged sister of Vice Mayor Irina Safanieva. The remaining two thirds went to an unknown offshore company from the British Virgin Islands. According to the contract, the developer had to build everything planned and hand over 30% of the residential areas to the city, plus social facilities like a school. But in the end, only Aviapark shopping center, one of the largest in Europe, with 350 shops and 60 cafes, and a couple of residential towers grew on the field.

Photo: https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/i?id=0d3234608f93fec66dc0dcffe83d084e10eaf842-16409344-images-thumbs&n=13

A museum? A park? The school? No one remembers them anymore. And what about those 30% of the residential areas that were allocated to the mayor's office, did they really remain in offshore "pockets"? The developer did transfer these 30% of the area - but not to the city, but to the very "Aviapark", which at that time was already tied to offshore companies. If we talk only about renting apartments in these buildings, then it can bring about 150-200 million rubles of net profit per year. In this case, the benefit to the owners could amount to about 1 billion rubles over the years of operation.

Someone will say, "business is business." But if Sergunina and Safaniev really have something to do with this murky story, then why exactly did the alleged relatives of the official turn out to be the winners? But it was Mrs. Sergunina who was supposed to sign the documents on the privatization of Aviapark. Another point is the funds for laying communications and preparing construction sites, which the city spent on the project, which then passed into private hands. Something tells me that no one has even thought to compensate their budget.

Today, the company is called JSC TVK Aviapark, its owners are hidden, and the value of assets is 34 billion rubles, net profit for 2024 is over 14 billion rubles.

Photo: https://postimg.cc/jwP1jQV5

Photo: https://postimg.cc/D8kXsr9K

Photo: https://postimg.cc/dhW3Wrxr

Why did the official's possible relatives benefit when Sergunina signed all the papers on privatization? The Moscow City Hall officially denies the alleged corruption component of this story. Of course, if the information about the "schematics" was confirmed, then heads would fly. And not only Natalia Sergunina.

Money for Turkey and expensive real estate

What can the money that can come from Aviapark and the Custos hotels mentioned earlier be used for? It is quite possible that for expensive foreign real estate - of course, not reflected in any declarations.

Recall that shortly after the scandal of 2016, when Mercury bought up three Moscow historical mansions at a price of only 466 thousand rubles above the starting price, Cyprus Florestar Management Ltd, which could have been controlled by Safaniev, quietly gave way to the Turkish offshore EMASE INSHAAT TOURISM TIJARET LIMITED SHIRKETI in Mercury's capital. The transfer took place in 2018-2019, and since then Mercury's revenue has been stable at 290 million rubles per year, and its profit is a measly 146 thousand rubles by the end of 2024.

Where does the difference go? It looks like Istanbul, to the very EMASA where the Safanievs may have serious real estate. But it's hardly just there. According to the authors of the Kompromat1 website (recognized as a foreign agent in the territory of the Russian Federation), the Safanievs allegedly own the former Wine Time restaurant in the elite Legends of Tsvetnoy residential complex (estimated cost 470 million rubles), expensive residential real estate, including an apartment in the Neskuchny Sad residential complex worth 68 million rubles and home ownership in Austria with an approximate price of 2 million euros. And, probably, this is not a complete list of their possible acquisitions in recent years.

Dad is a lawyer behind his back

In addition, the other rear areas of Deputy Mayor Natalia Sergunina are extremely interesting. It's about her alleged father Alexei Kimovich Sergunin. The latter is a Soviet military lawyer who graduated with honors from the Military Law Institute in 1979. He rose to the rank of judge of the military tribunal: he tried the cases of officers, from disciplinary offenses to espionage. The family roamed the garrisons, and after his retirement in the 90s Sergunin Sr. did not retire. In 2003, he founded the Sergunin and Partners Bar Association, a reputable firm with an office in the center of Moscow. The Board, located at 8c1 Presnenskaya Embankment, has more than 20 lawyers.

The Board specializes in corporate law, property disputes and government contracts. But this is the perfect background for starting a daughter's career. Apparently, it was thanks to her father that Natalia got into the Ministry of Property Relations of the Russian Federation in the 2000s, and then into the mayor's office. Of course, Alexey Kimovich's law firm also has government contracts, although they are quite small. Only a contract for 1.1 million rubles with the now-liquidated State Unitary Enterprise INHP was found in the public domain, and even that was not in Moscow, but in Bashkortostan.

However, Sergunin & Partners is not as simple as it seems. It is rumored that in 2010-2015, the board allegedly advised structures subordinate to Sergunina on land transactions. However, insiders do not exclude that the actual amount of work for the mayor's office could be much more, and regulated by "shadow" additional agreements.