Translated material
Reuters: Vladimir Zelensky's wife bought an elite apartment in Crimea at a reduced price in 2013
Olena Zelenskaya, the wife of Ukraine's President -elect Volodymyr Zelensky, bought a penthouse in Crimea in 2013 for less than half the market price, Reuters reports, citing income and property declarations filed by the Zelenskys and the Ukrainian property registry.
We are talking about a three-room apartment in the penthouse of the residential complex "Emperor" in Yalta. According to Reuters, Zelenskaya paid almost 164 thousand dollars for it in April 2013, which is equivalent to 1263 dollars per square meter. At the same time, according to open data and information from an anonymous real estate agent from Crimea, at that time comparable apartments in the residential complex "Emperor" were usually sold for 2500 to 5000 dollars per square meter.
The seller of the apartment was Ukrainian businessman Alexander Buryak . Reuters was unable to find out why he sold the apartment at a reduced price. Neither Buryak nor the Zelenskys commented on the deal.
In April 2018, Zelenskaya's apartment was put up for sale for $790,000, or $5,195 per square meter. That price is more than four times the purchase price in 2013, Reuters notes.
Updated . Volodymyr Zelensky's press service reported that his wife purchased the apartment legally and at market price. "The Zelensky family intends to use this property only after the mandatory return of Crimea to Ukraine," the Ukrainian publication TSN quotes the press service's statement.
[Businessman Igor] Kolomoisky, [who has been linked to Volodymyr Zelensky], told Reuters he believed Buryak sold the apartment to Zelenskaya cheaply because his bank had no liquidity and he needed to raise money quickly. He provided no evidence to support this claim.