Deputy General Prosecutor Andrei Kikot is linked to a major real estate developer, The Insider found out. Through his ties with the high-ranking law enforcement officer, head of the Setl Group conglomerate Maxim Shubarev protects his business and receives millions in contracts from the Prosecutor’s Office, while Kikot leads a luxurious life and lives next door to Alina Kabaeva.
Deputy General Prosecutor Andrei Kikot's career was largely due to his father. Kikot Sr. was the founder of the Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which now bears his name. He was a member of the Federation Council and the head of the Kremlin Personnel Directorate.
Before joining the General Prosecutor's Office, Kikot Jr. worked in St. Petersburg and was the Prosecutor of the Novgorod Region. In addition to his father's connections, a PhD in law helped him in his service. It is true that he had copied his dissertation: the “scholar”’s plagiarism was exposed by the Dissernet community.
Last year, Andrei Kikot was in the top ten richest uniformed officials in Russia – primarily due to the high income of his wife.
“The media has repeatedly drawn attention to the high earnings of Andrei Kikot's wife, but no information about her could be found in open sources,” Forbes wrote. However, The Insider not only managed to establish the name and business assets of the prosecutor's wife, but, through her, also discovered the law enforcement officer's corrupt ties.
The wife of the deputy prosecutor general is named Diana (they lived at the same address in St. Petersburg together). This year, she reverted to her maiden name, becoming Tagirova again. These changes were reflected in the Federal Tax Service database in February – Diana was registered as an individual entrepreneur. However, the couple may not have divorced, even formally. There are two minor children in the prosecutor's family, which means that the divorce papers had to be filed with court, but there is no information about any trials involving Kikot and his wife in the open court databases. Besides, in his last tax declaration, Kikot supplied information on his wife's income.
He also listed the use of a 286.5 square meter apartment. As The Insider was able to establish, the Deputy General Prosecutor’s family lives in the Prechistenka 13 upscale residential complex (the address appears in the leaked database of clients of medical organizations, and the area of the apartment matches that on the tax declaration). It’s one of the most prestigious houses in Moscow. For example, Leonid Mikhelson, who is among the country’s richest people, owns real estate nearby. Lyubov Kabaeva, mother of Vladimir Putin’s beloved gymnast, also lives next door.
The value of the real estate Deputy General Prosecutor uses is over 500 million rubles. According to the extract from the Federal Register, the apartment belongs to a Maxim Shubarev.
The name matches that of the owner of Setl Group, one of the largest real estate developers in Russia. The fact that the owner is the Shubarev, and not his namesake, is evidenced by the fact that he was a business partner of Kikot's wife.
Diana Kikot and Maxim Shubarev jointly owned Energostroytekh LLC, which leases construction equipment. The company owns accommodation units, power transformers, diesel generators, and oil and water tanks.
This year, Diana's stake (25%) in Energostroytekh was transferred to Galina Gomzina. According to The Insider, she is the prosecutor’s 69-year-old relative who used to work as a beautician in a St. Petersburg beauty salon. Energostroytekh's annual turnover is over 600 million rubles.
Until recently, the prosecutor's wife also owned a construction company called Est-Monolit with annual revenues of 272 million rubles. Now the company is registered in the name of Elena Vitalievna Kikot, evidently another relative of the law enforcement officer.
It turns out that Maksim Shubarev not only gave the Kikot family an expensive apartment to live in, but also invited their relatives into his business. There is also a conflict of interest: Kikot had been supervising the legality of construction for many years, particularly in St. Petersburg, the main region where Setl Group operates. In addition, Shubarev's firms have been receiving government contracts from regional prosecutor's offices to build residential housing.
Thus, Shubarev's Ostrov City LLC and Setl Invest LLC have been selling apartments to the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office, and SK Kamenka LLC to the Leningrad Region Prosecutor's Office.
Specialized Developer Ost-Stroy LLC sells residential housing to the Prosecutor's Office in the Kaliningrad region.
Diana Kikot (Tagirova) did not answer The Insider's questions about the terms of use of the luxury apartment and the nature of her business partnership with Maxim Shubarev. Shubarev's Setl Group also refrained from commenting on the government contracts received from the Prosecutor's Office and the business owner's personal ties with the Deputy General Prosecutor’s family.