Translated material
Orphanage
Cut " Cranes of Friends "
Orphanage.
Investigation of how the family of the President of Azerbaijan settled in the Moscow Region
Maria Zholobova, February 20, 2019
The son of the president of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev at the age of 9 became the owner of a luxurious house next to the residence of Dmitry Medvedev on the Rublevo-Uspensky highway. The history of the acquisition of this estate reveals Aliyev’s financial ties with the Pashayev businessmen family, from which the first lady of the country Mehriban Aliyeva comes from.
“If relations between all neighboring countries were such as relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, I assure you, there would never have been not only conflicts, no misunderstandings,” said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s 2008 Baroness Mayendorf in the suburbs of Barvich.
A month later, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have already signed a declaration of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict there. The castle was restored just three years before this event and liked President Dmitry Medvedev so much that he made him his official residence.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, perhaps, also did not have to get to the meeting place for a long time. A year before, his 9-year-old son became the owner of a huge mansion in one of the most prestigious and closed villages of the Rublevo-Uspensky Highway-“Mayendorf Gardens”.
President Ilham Heydar Ogly Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev has been the position of President of Azerbaijan since 2003 - since the seriously ill father appointed him his successor - and is clearly not going to leave her. In 2009, the Constitution of Azerbaijan adopted amendments that allow Aliyev to be elected an infinite number of times, and in 2016 the term of presidential powers was increased from five to seven years. Then the position of vice president was established in Azerbaijan; It is he, and not the Prime Minister will act as the head of state, if for some reason he cannot exercise his authority. Ilham Aliyev appointed his wife to the first vice president-Mehriban Aliyev.
Before his presidency, Aliyev managed to stay prime minister for a short time; Twice, in 1995 and 2000, he was elected a deputy of the parliament of the republic, and from 1994 to 2003 he worked as vice president of the state oil company. According to the official biography, his short experience in the field of private business concerns 1991-1994, when he "headed a number of production and commercial enterprises."
Aliyev gardens
The cottage village “Mayendorf Gardens”, like the Medvedev residence, named after the tsarist officer Mikhail Mayendorf, who left Russia with the outbreak of World War I, is located 16 km from the Moscow Ring Road, near the Barvikha sanatorium. Also about 10 km-the official residence of Vladimir Putin Novo-Ogarsevo and the Premier residence of Gorki-9. Several times the mansions sold in this village were recognized as the most expensive in Russia and even in the world.
In the “Michendorf gardens”, Russian “Forbes” own real estate, as the richest Russians who are included in the rating of Forbes magazine rating: the richest (according to the 2018 rating) businessman of Russia Vladimir Lisin, Iskander Makhmudov, Andrei Bokarev, Dmitry Mazepin are owned. The real estate of Alexei Bogdanchikov, the son of the former president of Rosneft, Sergei Bogdanchikov, is located there; Businessmen Alexander and Shalva Chigirinsky.
There is also the only private mansion in the world created by the architect See Hadid. The customer was the co -owner of "Capital Group" Vladislav Doronin, the site was registered on Zinaida Doronin.
The website of the architectural bureau of Zahi Hadid says that the height of pines and birch in this village near Moscow reaches 20 meters. And if Doronin’s futuristic house rises above the trees, Aliyev’s section is hidden behind them.
Houses and plots for sale in the cottage village " Mayendorf Gardens "
The developer of the village on its website guarantees potential buyers the privacy of transactions, as “understands the nature of the audience local,” and promises that “outsiders and the press” will not penetrate the territory of the village. The guard at the checkpoint told the project correspondent that he himself does not know the names of the tenants, and sometimes even how they look, since the owners of the mansions come in cars with tinted glasses. Also, almost every owner of the house lives nearby, he assured.
So, the personal protection of Aliyevs lives in a 200-meter house specially built for her, follows from the data of Rosreestr.
The area of the site of Heydar Aliyev Jr. is more than 7 thousand square meters. m. The area of the mansion is 1.6 thousand square meters. The house is located on the border of the village close to the Pucoshkinsky forest park, nearby is the Big Barvikhinsky pond (local residents complained that it was completely blocked by the fence).
The Michendorf Gardens can already be called the Aliyev family nest: the house of the eldest daughter of the president of Azerbaijan Leila is located nearby, OCCRP previously found out. Aliyeva site area is 7.7 thousand square meters. m, it is located in a few houses from the section of her brother Heydar. Aliyeva, like her brother, became the owner of this expensive real estate at a young age - at 20 years old.
In addition to the obvious non -core, the source of the enrichment of Aliyevs has always raised many questions. OCCRP journalists have found that members of this family own various enterprises hidden by offshore companies, luxurious real estate objects and even gold deposits.
Who to live well in Rus'
Many heads of the CIS member states or their relatives are quite close to Russia. In Russia, the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, singer Joseph Kobzon , was hiding from criminal prosecution in his homeland that he lives a “fence fence” with him in Bakovka near Moscow. The son of Yanukovych Alexander, meanwhile, registered a company in St. Petersburg. The first president of the Kyrgyz Republic, Askar Akayev, after he was overthrown as a result of the “tulip revolution”, also hid in Moscow and is now teaching at the Higher School of Economics at the Faculty of Social Sciences. During the investigation of the criminal case against the daughter of the former President of Uzbekistan Gulnara Karimova, it turned out that the “criminal group” in which she consisted, owns several apartments in Moscow and a mansion in Rublevka, as well as a hotel complex in Yalta. Last year, it was announced to buy control over the Port Vysotsky son -in -law of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev Timur Kulibaev.
Two families
The site and house of Aliyev Jr. were first decorated on Arif Pashayev-Azerbaijani physicist and the president's father-in-law. Pashayev presented real estate in the Mayendorf gardens to his presidential son a year after the purchase, should be from extracts from Rosreestr to the site and house.
The gift agreement was issued back in 2007, so it is difficult to estimate the value of real estate at that time. It was not possible to contact the seller of the house Mikhail Marchenkov, the former owner of construction companies operating in the Rublevka area. However, now a plot of the same area with a residential building in this village is for sale for 2.3 billion rubles (about $ 35 million)
Arif Pashayev, like almost his entire family, was known for many years as a representative of the scientific elite of Azerbaijan (since Azerbaijan was the Soviet Republic). Physicist Pashayev holds posts of the rector of the National Academy of Aviation of Azerbaijan and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His father is a writer and literary critic Mir Jalal Pashayev, his brother Hafiz is a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, diplomat, former Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the USA, Canada and Mexico. The wife of Arifa Pashaev Aida was an Arabist, headed the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan. Sister Mehriban Aliyeva Nargiz is a doctor of philological sciences, the rector of the Moscow State University branch in Baku. The future "First Lady" itself graduated from the Moscow Medical Institute. Sechenova, worked at the Moscow Research Institute of Eye Diseases.
But Pashayev is not just an intelligent family. The nephew of Arifa Pashayeva Jamal leads Pasha Holding - a corporation uniting numerous assets of the presidential family. These are Pasha Insurance and Pasha Life; The development company Pasha Construction, which runs many real estate objects in Azerbaijan, tourist Pasha Travel; Absheron Hotel Group, which controls several five -star hotels; Investment company Pasha Capital.
The holding also includes two banks - Kapital Bank and Pasha Bank, the latter also has a share of Arif Pashayev himself.
The fact that Pasha Holding is the president’s daughter - Leila and Arza Aliyeva - follows from the annual report by Kapital Bank. Pasha Holding estimates the amount of its assets of $ 4 billion.
Also, both clans - Aliyev and Pashayev - own real estate abroad. In particular, OCCRP reported that Retro-INTER, which owns a number of real estate in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), belongs to Pashayev Arifaev. The company of his granddaughters Arzu owns there an elite dignity of 1 million euros. Aliyevs also own several real estate objects in London, including a mansion for $ 25 million, OCCRP found out.
Perhaps Pashayev’s companies are connected by business relations with the Russian state. The Azerbaijan Landromat OCCRP investigation mentioned a money transfer that the Russian state exporter of weapons Rosoboronexport made to the offshore company related to Pasha Holding - Inmaxo Capital. She acted as an intermediary in the export of cement from Russia to Azerbaijan for the construction company Pasha Insaat, which is part of the holding. “Project” sent a request to Arif Pashayev, but at the time of publication did not receive an answer.
The first lady
Mehriban Aliyeva also had his own role in the family business - according to the Panama Archive, in 2005 the president’s wife, together with Azerbaijan’s tax Minister Fazil Mammadov, became the UF Universe Foundation Management Fund, which indirectly owned 51% of Azerbaijani ATAHOLDING Corporation. It was assumed that the shares in the UF Universe Foundation will be divided between the children of Aliyeva, including the young Heydar, but in 2007 the fund was closed.
According to Transparency International, Azerbaijan takes 152 place in the ranking of perception of corruption out of 180, and compared to last year the country's position worsened. Russia, along with Papua Nova Guinea, takes 138th place.
Azerbaijan presidential candidates must provide information about their income in the CEC. The latest presidential elections in the republic took place in 2018, but the CEC declarations were not published. Some candidates revealed information about their property and media income, but not Aliyev.
At the same time, as Radio Liberty found out , information about companies related to the ruling family is deleted from the Azerbaijani tax register.
“Project” sent a request to the administration of the President of Azerbaijan, but at the time of publication the material did not receive a response.
Aliyev’s apartment
The mansion on Rublevka is not the only case when the President of Azerbaijan writes its assets on Heydar Aliyev Jr. In 2009, at the age of 11 years, he became the owner of nine mansions in Dubai, earlier the Washington Post found out. At that time, their cost was estimated at $ 44 million. In Dubai there are also villas belonging to Leileh and Arza Aliyev.
The “project” may have found other Moscow assets of the presidential family of Azerbaijan. In the “Telephone Directory of Moscow” there is evidence that in Moscow the president of Azerbaijan and his wife have an apartment in a house on Bolshaya Yakimanka, 26. This is a prestigious area, the so -called “Tsekovsky” house, where diplomats and party functions received apartments from the end of the Soviet era. Now real estate in this house is not so expensive in comparison with the “Michendorf gardens”: an apartment like Aliyev with an area of 136 square meters. m will cost up to 100 million rubles (about $ 1.5 million).
A resident of the entrance, in which the Aliyev apartment is located, told the project that their representative regularly appears in the house, takes mail and accounts.
In the extract from Rosreestr there is no data on the owners of this apartment. This is possible if the ownership of the apartment was registered until 1998, that is, before the adoption of the law “On state registration of rights to real estate” and was not then taken into account in the Unified State Register, an employee of Rosreestr explained.