Businessmen who helped Vladimir Putin to get oil money millions still own valuable properties in Latvia, as the TV3 program Nekā Personīga reminds us.
The Russian dissident organization raises the alarm that a year and a half after Russia invaded Ukraine, people who have benefited financially from the authoritarian Putin regime and actively supported it, are still growing businesses in Latvia without any worries.
They suggest expanding the list of national sanctions, bet the answer doesn’t come.
Under the 90’s president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, the oil company Yukos was one of the largest Russian companies. Its owner, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the richest person in the country. When Putin came to Yeltsin’s place, business in Russia became possible only for businessmen with a friendly relationship with the president. Khodorkovsky was arrested in 2003, and his company Yukos was taken away. Soon the oil fields went to Rosneft, controlled by Vladimir Putin’s childhood friends. Khodorkovsky spent 11 years in prison.
Alexei Golubovich, one of the directors of Yukos, testified against Khodorkovsky. He was rewarded for this. While the rest of the company’s management was in prison or hiding in exile, Golubovich was increasing his fortune in Russia and getting involved in politics. Cooperation with the authoritarian regime turned out to be profitable for him. Alongside other investments, Golubovich bought property in Latvia and received a residence permit.
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The building at Tērbatas Street 14 has caught media attention before. This house, at least since 2018, belongs to Alexei Golubovich. To be precise: he formally owned it until last summer when Elena Loginova, his wife, became the owner.
Loginova also received a temporary residence permit in Latvia. The building belongs to Tērbatas 14 Centrs, which, in turn, belongs to the Kaivas Residential, a Cypriot company’s Belveron Holdings Limited branch. The true beneficiary of the company is Elena Loginova. In addition, Cypriot offshore Belveron owns several valuable real estates in Latvia in Old Riga, Mārupe, and several Riga districts.
Although the connection with the false witnesses in the Khodorkovsky trial is visible in the Latvian company register, none of these properties have been seized. The assets of the companies are also not frozen.
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Project Green Village is owned by Gennady Burtsev’s wife. He is the deputy general director of the Russian state company Surgutneftegaz. In February of this year, Putin awarded him wit the medal.
The owners of this oil giant include hundreds of companies, in which the beneficiaries are supposedly the management of Surgutneftegaz but it deposits all dividends for the benefit of some unknown people. Also, the company itself has accumulated trillions of rubles in reserves. Russian opposition politicians have carefully studied the Surgutneftegaz transactions. They discovered that the finances are controlled by Vladimir Putin’s childhood friends.
Gennady Burtsev’s wife is Natalia Burtseva. She got a residence permit because she bought a property in Pinki, in the village of Saliena. It is a project that was once developed by several political businessmen, including Ainars Šlesers.
Burtseva has given an address in Jūrmala as her place of residence. Five years ago, she asked to extend her residence permit and stated in the documents that the family’s savings, made up of her husband’s salary, were used to buy the property.
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Dmitry Savvin is a Russian publicist and, as he describes himself, a “national-patriotic” activist who has strongly spoken out against the annexation of Crimea. Savvin left the country in 2015, requesting political asylum in Latvia. He calls on the responsible institutions of Latvia to pay much more attention to those close to the Kremlin regime, who have bought property here and received residence permits.
Savvin recently appealed to the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Saeima, pointing out the insufficiently strict regulation. He suggests applying sanctions not to individual individuals but to all supporters of the Putin regime collectively: the Russian government, the presidential administration, all special services, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the United Russia party, all parties whose representatives accepted the annexation of Crimea, as well as all media and organizations that these groups are related.
Savvin calls for them to be recognized as criminal organizations in the laws of Latvia. Then it would not be necessary to include each individual in the list of sanctions – it would be clear that no one from, for example, United Russia or the General Staff of the Armed Forces is allowed to enter Latvia.
Nekā Personīga reminds: all suspicious permit recipients obtained them by buying properties in Latvia. The authorities have started investigations into 19 persons, which could lead to criminal proceedings. The dissident organization warns that without action, the network of agents of influence will only grow. At the same time, it calls for simplification of procedures for those who are persecuted in Russia and Belarus.