Photo: Alexander Miridonov / Kommersant

The main secret of Minister Lavrova

For many years, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry has been associated with close relations with Svetlana Polyakova - a woman whose partners and relatives began to occupy key posts in the ministry, and the family acquired assets of more than 1 billion rubles

“Your holyness, dear friends! I am more exciting to me more than ever, because it is not at work, but at the call of my heart, ”so the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, standing near the iconostasis, turned to Patriarch Kirill and people who came to the consecration of the restored church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Tsarskoye Selo. Lavrova can rarely be seen worried during public performances, but that day on December 8, 2014, judging by the video from the ceremony, was really special for him.

“First of all, I want to thank those who invited me to lead the Board of Trustees [for the reconstruction of the temple]. I did not hesitate for a second, I asked only about one thing: so that all members of the Board of Trustees would actively support me. In fact, they did all the work. I used ... well, to a certain extent, the administrative resource, as they say, but real ascetics - tsarist Selo, St. Petersburg, and Moscow - made the main part of the work, ”said Lavrov, holding the old icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which the Patriarch gave him.

Scenario: Roman Anin; Shooting (Moscow), Installation: Gleb Limansky

A mysterious woman in a scarf

The temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Tsarskoye Selo was built at the end of the 19th century, and first consecrated at the beginning of the XX in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II. The Bolsheviks who came after the October Revolution did not spare the temple: they closed it, and demolished the domes. Over the next almost 100 years, the building of the former church was alternately located a driving school, Karaoke and a car service.

Not only Foreign Minister, Patriarch and other high -ranking secular and church officials, but also Vladimir Putin came to the ceremony of the temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Tsarskoye Selo. Lavrov, Patriarch Kirill and the museum representative in the temple conducted a tour for the President of Russia. They paid special attention to the personal uniform of Emperor Nicholas II, which the Bolsheviks seized during the revolution from the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. Then this uniform was used as a props by the Lenfilm film studio. “In this uniform, Petka starred in the famous film“ Chapaev ”. It was for this that the uniform was brought into a terrible state, ” said the representative of the museum Putin.

If you carefully watch the video of the president’s visit to the temple, published in YouTube by the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church), as well as the plots of state channels about this event, you can notice that during the entire event, Sergei Lavrov was relentlessly followed by a woman in a black cloak and a white scarf. She accompanied the minister during the excursion for Putin, stood with him side by side to the side, while the president and patriarch lit candles at Candil ( the so -called large candlestick in the temple . - Approx. Ed. ).

We learned her name thanks to the award for participating in the restoration of the temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which the Patriarch handed her on the same day. “Polyakova Svetlana Aleksandrovna, an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, is awarded the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Monk Euphrosyne, Grand Duchess of Moscow, III degree,” one of the clergy said solemnly. "Aksia!" ( This exclamation, which translates from Greek as “worthy”, is accompanied by the presentation of church awards. - Approx. Ed. ) - exclaimed the patriarch and handed the woman in a white scarf the Order, while the choir threon -shaped repeated “Aksia!”.

Photo: Russianchurch / YouTube

As “important stories” managed to find out, Svetlana Polyakova is not just a little -known “employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”: for many years she has maintained very close relations with Sergey Lavrov. Polyakova has significant influence in the Russian Foreign Ministry, she was engaged in a business related to the ministry, and in addition, her family and relatives own assets in Russia and the UK worth more than 1 billion rubles.

A woman close to the minister

For many years, Sergey Lavrov, along with the Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu, is one of the most popular ministers of the country. In many ways, for this reason, Vladimir Putin asked both officials to enter the general list of the United Russia party in the upcoming elections to the State Duma. “I received an offer together with other members of this five ( in total, five people are included in the federal list. - Approx. Ed. ), The proposal made by President Putin at the Congress of United Russia. I considered this proposal, which sounded from the lips of the president, honor for me, ”so in early July of this year, Lavrov explained his decision to go to the State Duma.

Sergey Lavrov is 71 years old. He began his career in 1971 at the USSR Embassy in Sri Lanka and since then did not leave the diplomatic service. For 10 years (from 1994 to 2004), Lavrov headed the constant representation of Russia at the UN, until he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has been holding this post for 17 years.

Judging by the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov has a wife, her name is Maria Lavrova. The Foreign Minister has been officially married to her for many years. He also indicates the income of the wife in his annual anti -corruption declarations. Over the past five years, the Lavrov annually earned about eight to ten million rubles for two. However, as the publication of Insider found out last year (the Russian authorities, dissatisfied with the investigations of this media, recognized him, like many other independent media, a foreign agent), the foreign minister owns an elite real estate worth more than 600 million rubles.

But this real estate fades in comparison with the fact that “important stories” were found by the “employees of the Russian Foreign Ministry” (as the clergy called it in the temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh) Svetlana Polyakova.

For the first time, we learned about Polyakova from the source associated with the Foreign Ministry. He informed “important stories” that Sergei Lavrov allegedly associate a long -standing and very close relationship with this woman. Moreover, according to our interlocutor, Polyakova allegedly acquired a significant impact in the ministry. Her close friends were appointed to several key posts in the Foreign Ministry. For example, Roman Sadulin Roman, like Polyakova, was a co -owner of the Consul restaurant, located in the building of the Russian diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Another good friend Polekova Ekaterina Vadyaeva, the widow of the deceased brother Polyakova, received a position in Glavupdk under the Russian Foreign Ministry, this organization is engaged in the maintenance of diplomatic missions in Moscow, as well as the provision of real estate in the ministry.

Before going to work in Glavupdk, Vadyaev was a co -owner of a restaurant located in the very center of Moscow on Arbat. Vadyaeva rented a premises for the restaurant at the Operations Office of the Buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. In 2018, the parties terminated the lease, and Vadyaeva remained a subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of more than 4.5 million rubles. However, soon after the termination of the lease, a relative Svetlana Polyakova left the capital of the company. The Operations Office of the Russian Foreign Ministry have achieved debt through the court of debt, however, judging by the database of the Federal Bailiff Service, the debt has not yet been repaid.

According to our source, several high -ranking Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dissatisfied with the fact that Familiar Polyakova are appointed to key posts in the ministry, were forced to quit. One of the resigned confirmed this information to “important stories”, but refused to answer more detailed questions about Polyakova.

For a long time we could not identify Polyakov, because we did not know her patronymic. Until we stumbled upon the very video in the official YouTube channel of the Russian Orthodox Church about the consecration of the temple of St. Sergius of Radonezh. The video not only allowed us to find out the middle name of the heroine of this story, but was the first indirect confirmation of the words of the source about the proximity of Lavrov and Polyakova. And the point is not only that she stood side by side with the Minister during the church consecration ceremony, but also that she was among those few people who accompanied Vladimir Putin during his tour of the temple. In order to be next to the president during such events with a limited number of participants, you need to go through many approvals, and the fact that Polyakova got into the “retinue of the elect” speaks of her special status.

Photo: Russianchurch / YouTube

After we recognized Polyakova’s middle name, we managed to find the number of her phone. And with the help of one of the applications, we decided to check how it is recorded in the phones of other people. To our surprise, in several notebooks of Polyakov, she was recorded as “Svetlana Lavrova” or “Lavrov Svetlana”, although she never wore the name of the minister, judging by state databases.

As “important stories” managed to find out, Svetlana Polyakova traveled at least three times with Sergey Lavrov: once in Sochi and twice-to St. Petersburg. This information was provided to us by a person with access to air travel bases. Such archives are openly sold on various forums on the Internet; As a rule, they are offered by former or current law enforcement officials. Information from these bases can be trusted: correspondents of the “important stories” checked their names in them and received reliable data on their own flights. It is worth noting that these archives contain information not about all trips. Therefore, we cannot exclude that Polyakova and Lavrov had much more joint flights.

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Modest business and inconspicuous wealth

In addition to working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Svetlana Polyakova was engaged in business. Until 2012, she was a co -owner of the Consul restaurant, which is located in the building of the Russian Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Ostozhenka Street in the center of Moscow. The restaurant received state contracts from the Academy for the organization of food for students, teachers and foreign diplomats who came to training. Nevertheless, the “consul” cannot boast of a large revenue: over the past five years (from 2015 to 2020), it amounted to only 97 million rubles. Other Polyakova companies, judging by their official reports, also did not bring her high incomes. But despite this, Svetlana Polyakova turned out to be the owner of property worth about 1 billion rubles.

Polyakova owns an apartment with an area of ​​almost 260 square meters in the residential complex of Prechistenka 13 in the very center of Moscow. This house is located in the area of ​​the so -called golden mile - a plot between the streets of Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, where one of the most expensive apartments is sold not only in Russia, but all over the world. In the house on Prechistenka, 13 are only 15 apartments, and, in addition to Polyakova, the apartments in it are owned by the mother of the chairman of the board of directors of the National Media Group Alina Kabaeva, the wife of Yevgeny Bazhanov, the former rector of the Russian Diplomatic Academy, as well as one of the richest people in Russia Leonid Michelson.

Photo: Gleb Limansky / "Important Stories"

Photo: "Important stories"

Photo: Gleb Limansky / "Important Stories"

It is difficult to assess the cost of the apartment of Svetlana Polyakova because of the uniqueness of the object, but the apartment of almost the same meter in this house is sold for more than 700 million rubles. In addition, Svetlana Polyakova owns apartments worth about 50 million rubles in an elite residential complex in Sochi and a house worth about 57 million rubles in the village of Palitsa in the Moscow Region.

In addition to apartments, Svetlana Polyakova boasts a whole fleet of luxury cars. She owns Porsche, two expensive Mercedes, and until 2016 she still owned Bentley. This year, the mother of Svetlana Polyakova pensioner Tamara also acquired Mercedes, who costs 20 million rubles in the salons.

Photo: Platesmania.com (5); avto-nomer.ru

Polyakova’s daughter Polina studied at Imperial College Business School in London. Now she owns several companies in the capital of Great Britain, one of them - PPK Investments Ltd - is registered on Hollandgreen Place Street. This street is located in the Kensington area - one of the most expensive in London. In the same house where the company was registered, the daughter of Svetlana Polyakova Polina in 2016 rented an apartment for 999 years. Such long -term lease agreements are a common indirect form of real estate ownership in the UK. Polina paid 4.4 million pounds for the apartment - this is more than 440 million rubles at the rate on the date of purchase. At the time of the transaction, Polina was 21 years old.

Photo: "Important stories"

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ignored the request of “important stories”. Svetlana Polyakova also did not answer our questions.