More than love

The children's Ombudsman Lvov-Belov, looking for an international criminal court, meets with the Orthodox oligarch Malofeev. Novyevropa found out why not only romance can stand behind them

The edition of Virtste noticed billionaire Konstantin Malofeev and the Commissioner for Child Rights Maria Lvov-Belova in Yekaterinburg on the so-called “royal procession” on the anniversary of the murder of the royal family. They held hands, this can be seen on the frames published by the telegram channel of the Yekaterinburg diocese. Six sources close to the Russian Orthodox Church, the presidential administration and the lovers themselves confirmed the publication that the official and businessman Roman had. Such a rumor went before. So in December 2023, the Prochrevsky publication “Notepad” shared the observation that Konstantin and Maria were too often traveling on joint business trips. The publication carefully suggested that the soulless connection of the Orthodox mother (the priest’s wife) and the mother of nine children with a businessman could be one of the reason for her future resignation.

At the same time, the “Notepad” did not directly say anything, noting that “both Lviv-Belov and the Malofeev people are not the same circle that the“ Ivleeva’s Holory-Logical Parts ”, such accusations for them are too serious a threat of reputation.

However, the current joint appearance in public is hardly an accident, because the event in Yekaterinburg was attended by a lot of other public and religious figures, which means that the relationship of an official and a businessman ceased to be a secret for someone. According to one of the interlocutors of the “Svetka”, Patriarch Kirill, whose deputy along the World Russian People’s Cathedral (VRNS) was Malofeev until March 2024, has long been aware of this love line and does not approve of it. The official explanation, proposed immediately after the resignation of Malofeev from the key church and public post, which he occupied for almost five years, sounded unable. According to the businessman, he decided to pay more attention to the newly created Foundation "Tsargrad", so there will be no forces at the VRNS. But, in truth, the position in VRNS does not require special return (the cathedral is collected only once a year), but he plays a huge symbolic role (deputy Patriarch himself!). Probably, the Patriarch was forced to act on a precedence, anticipating a major scandal with the destroyer of the family Uzs of Malofeev in the title role.

In the best traditions of soap operas, we understand the love story of two key figures of the ultra -conservative Orthodox camp and try to evaluate what political consequences their sinful connection is fraught with.

Dugin

Where and when they could meet Lvov-Belyov and Malofeev, it is not known reliably, but until 2022 they never appeared at the same event together-or there is no information about this in open sources. Their first public meeting took place on December 7, 2022 in Novosibirsk, where the First Siberian Forum of the WRNS was held, organized with the active participation of the local Orthodox businessman Yevgeny Tsybizov. The event was iconic: priests from all over Siberia, the odious deputy of the State Duma Mikhail Delyagin (SRZP) and even the official philosopher Alexander Dugin gathered at him. Along with Dugin, among the honored guests were the children's ombudsman Maria Lvov-Belova and then the current deputy head of VRNS Konstantin Malofeev.

Forum participants discussed the fight against “destructive ideology”, a national idea and traditional family values. The concert of Philip Kirkorov in the Kremlin Palace, the work of the Leningrad group was convicted in working order and offered to ban the show “You will not believe” and “Let's get married”, although it would seem. Speaking at the event, Maria Lvova-Belyova expressed confidence that the forum “will develop modern approaches to comprehending the spiritual and moral guidelines of society,” and Konstantin Malofeev spoke of the “global sodom” and “sacred war”.

The next meeting of future lovers took place after three weeks, January 14, 2023. The Foundation of St. Vasily the Great, founded by Malofeev, organized the musical performance “In Search of Christmas” for the children of Donbass, where Lviv-Beelov also arrived. At the end of the presentation, Maria and Konstantin presented the project “Happy Childhood”, which will help children's boarding schools in “new territories”.

“We repair the premises, purchase new furniture and modern rehabilitation means, equip labor workshops, attract and train specialists. We can do all this for the guys already in the coming year. We hope that there are also loving families for them, ” the Ombudsman painted a new venture.

In early February, the couple went together to the south-east of Ukraine, where she visited boarding schools of the Zaporizhzhya, Lugansk and Donetsk regions. In her telegram channel, Lviv-Belova talked about the fact that in a month he and Malofeev managed to collect 25 million rubles, which they spent to help children's boarding schools and large families. After this trip, the Ombudsman met with Vladimir Putin, told him how the process of adoption of Ukrainian children is going on, and also mentioned cooperation with Malofeev and Medvedchuk:

“I don’t know if you can say this on camera or not ... I wanted to convey greetings to you from Victor and Oksana Medvedchuk. They help me a lot, thanks to them a lot. Konstantin Valerievich Malofeev - this is “Tsargrad” - also takes an active part with the Vasily Great Foundation. By the way, in 2014 they were one of the first to help Donbass, ” the official emphasized by chance.

A month later, on March 17, the International Criminal Court will issue an arrest of Putin and Lvovo-Belova, but Malofeev and Medvedchuk will not remain in the focus of the international investigation. An extremely sensitive story with an arrest warrant, probably, greatly influenced the relationship between Lviv-Belova and Malofeev. The latter not only did not turn away from her, but also publicly defended:

“I was in the Donbass with Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova and personally saw how she saves children from the war. Orphanages under Ukraine have not been repaired since Soviet times. Children need the most necessary. There are not enough staff. At the same time, compassionate families are ready to adopt orphans. She herself is busy with this charitable business and already took a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol under guardianship. Demons from this is furious: people should hate, not love. This war was not unleashed for the West. They wanted us to hate each other. Instead, good Russian mothers and dads adopt Ukrainian babies and love them as relatives, ” the businessman wrote in his telegram channel.

And already in April, as the New Evrope discovered, the next meeting of Malofeev and Lvova-Belova, who had hardly resembled just a working trip, took place. On April 19, Konstantin Valerievich arrived in his native Penza for Maria and visited her art -ore for children “New Beregs”. And on April 20, they, together with the father and brother of Malofeev, went to the village of Beguch, the Penza region, where his ancestors once lived. However, Maria did not write anything about this trip and acquaintance with the businessman’s family, and Malofeev did not mention her in his story about a trip to the telegram channel. But the fact that Malofeev and Lvov-Belov really traveled together is evidenced by a short note on the website of the Center for Additional Education of the Russian Kamoshkir village, which is dryly reported:

“On April 20, 2023, our district was visited by K.V. Malofeev, the Russian manager and entrepreneur, founder of the Tsargrad TV channel, whose ancestors lived on Cameshmic land. Together with him, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for the Rights of the Child under the President of the Russian Federation, arrived in the historical homeland of the Malofuch, in the village of Beguch, and came to the village of Beguch. ”

Last summer, charitable project partners met more than once: at the Festival "Happy Childhood" and the St. Petersburg Economic Forum (PMEF). And at the end of August, the wife of Malofeva Irina Wilter, with whom he lived for almost 30 years, filed for divorce. The process, of course, the couple did not advertise: the journalists themselves found it on the website of the World Court of Moscow. The reason was also not named, but the investigator Ilya Shumanov from Transpenseri International then suggested that divorce could be associated with sanctions imposed on Malofeev. Recent events cast this version to doubt.

Dangerous union

Konstantin Malofeev is a key figure for the nationalist movement and a real Orthodox oligarch. He put together a condition on investments (the origin of which is very opaque) and cellular communications, having at one time 10% of Rostelecom shares, which he sold in 2015 for 25 billion rubles. Malofeev himself says that he “earned enough” and cooled to the business. Instead, he hit politics and nearly. In 2012, he tried to become a deputy in the Smolensk region, in 2014 he was the main sponsor of “Russian Spring” in Crimea and Donbass: back in January, he carried out reconnaissance under the guise of “pilgrimage to the relics of the Magi”, financed the Cossack units who fought on the side of the self -proclaimed republics, and was probably directly connected with Igor Strelkov and Alexander. Boil.

Then Malofeev fell under sanctions, and his entrepreneurial activity actually ended. Now his main asset has become Orthodoxy - in his rather radical version. He created the nationalist television and Internet telekanal "Tsargrad", headed the Society for the Development of the Russian Historical Enlightenment "The Two-headed Eagle", and in 2019 he became deputy head and probably the main sponsor of VRNS. In 2021, he tried to secure a chair from the deputy of the Just Russia party, but something did not grow together.

And yet: after 2014, Malofeev became almost the main person of the right-conservative camp in the country. He, in front of the steam locomotive, promotes “scrapers”, traditional values ​​and already offers Putin the throne:

“We believe that Putin is sent to us by God. With his arrival, Russia got up from the knees and forced to respect himself all over the world <...> We must do everything in our power so that President Putin remains in power as long as possible. And if for this you need to change the constitution - this is how this need has risen for a long time! ” - said Malofeev at the meeting of the “two -headed eagle” in 2018.

Then it seemed impossible, but today the imaginary “party of the monarchists” was clearly won, and Malofeev firmly took his place in the Putin’s establishment.

It is noteworthy that such an aggressive preacher of “traditional family values” and “spiritual bastards” was married to lawyer Irina Wilter, quite distant from Orthodoxy, and their daughter Natalya married Leonid Naumovich Marder, the son of the already late vice-president of Rostelecom and one of the sponsors of the Federation of Jewish communities of Russia (Feor). As the chief rabbi of Russia according to Feor Berl Lazar admitted , "the Marder family has always been a real Jewish family ... This is the family that at any Jewish holiday feels pride in the fact that they are Jews." Rumors that the wedding of the daughter of the “main Orthodox oligarch” and the preacher of “traditional values” went through the Judaist rite, and the daughter of Malofeev became a citizen of Israel, then some associates of the leader of “Tsargrad” were embarrassed. But the scandal managed to quickly hush up, especially since anti -Semitism in Russia is prohibited and fraught with criminal prosecution.

The new passion of the ideological oligarch Maria Lvov-Belova is also not a mistake. She was born in Penza, in the family of a poor musician. At 16, she went to work, sang in the church choir, in the same place, in the church, she met her husband, the future priest, became a mother and threw her studies at the Institute of Culture. Toward the end of the zero Lvov-Belyov, she began to engage in social activities and charity. Together with her friend, also mother and activist Anna Kuznetsova, she led the regional public organization to promote social adaptation "Blagovest". Helped orphans, large families.

In 2016, Anna Kuznetsova, a partner of Maria in the Blagovet, became an authorized person under the Presidential Rights under the President. Since then, both affairs went up, and Lviv-Belova began to open new rehabilitation centers for money received from the state and charitable foundations. Under its leadership, the “Louis Quarter” grew up, where graduates of boarding schools and orphanages helped to adapt to independent life, the boarding house “House of Veronika” and the art estate “New shores”-a house where people with limited physical capabilities can live and develop.

By 2019, she was already known as a philanthropist: she met in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and was even a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the elections. But in the real policy of Lviv-Belyov, she got almost by accident-after she elected to the Penza City Duma and immediately after the election put her mandate.

“Maria Lvov-Beelova unequivocally and quite hard forced to abandon the honestly earned mandate of the deputy of the Duma of the city of Penza in favor of Olga Isaranova, who has a reputation of“ his own ”in the city hall,” the local press wrote in September 2019.

Maria was upset, but lost, referring to the fact that during the election campaign she "constantly crossed through herself, constantly made concessions, listened to a huge amount of negativity in her address." Perhaps she was and did not need a deputy place in the City Duma, moreover, in November 2019, she found a more cozy place for her - in the Presidium of the General Council of United Russia. Then her husband Pavel Kogelman, who worked as a programmer and providing them with a large family, was ordained a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, which positively affected his wife’s career and probably turned the family budget: according to the declaration, in 2020, Maria earned almost three million rubles, and her spouse, who replaced the profession, 446 thousand. Today he serves in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Krylatsky and, judging by the posts in his blogs, almost alone brings up the children left from his wife (at least a significant part of them). From the point of view of church law, the betrayal of mother entails either the adoption by a priest of monasticism, or a prohibition in service. However, in the modern practice of the Russian Orthodox Church, a simple vow of celibacy is also allowed, without the adoption of monasticism, since the second marriage to clergymen is strictly prohibited by canons.

In the summer of 2020, Lviv-Belova participated in the competition “Leaders of Russia”, which is overseeing the presidential administration, and was able to win, after which, after which, in September 2020, the governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev appointed a social activist from the region. It is not entirely clear who exactly could lobby for her appointment, but it is obvious that by this moment Lvov-Belyov had already had connections in the AP and the Russian Orthodox Church, which played a role in the future. So, according to the anonymous interlocutor of the “miles”, it was the Russian Orthodox Church that promoted her to the post of Commissioner for the Rights of the Child:

“Since the Russian Orthodox Church oversees the whole family policy, followed by the last word. So she [Lvov-Belova] became a joint project of the Russian Orthodox Church and AP, ” a person who was familiar with this story told reporters.

As a result, in 2021, having been the senator for only a year, Maria received the main appointment of her life and became the Commissioner for the Rights of the Child under the President of the Russian Federation, replacing her girlfriend, like -minded person and countrywoman Anna Kuznetsova. At this point, 38-year-old Lviv-Belova had an impeccable reputation, a solid track record, a husband-priest, five native children, four adoptive and more eight adoptive, living separately. The perfect candidate!

Who would have thought that in a year and a half the International Criminal Court will accuse her of war crimes, and the whole world would see her name on a par with Putin?

Suddenly, this did not destroy the career of Mary, but only gave her weight. According to one of the interlocutors of the “layout”, after such Lvov-Beelov it will be difficult to lose accounts. The warrant issued by the Mus made it invulnerable to critics within Russia:

“Indeed, in her political brand, at first the giant part was occupied by the fact that she was the priest’s wife, but now it was, like shagren skin, clenched. And now she is under an international court, an official of class B. She cannot be handed over in any way. Because you will hand it over, and it turns out that you are a wrong, non -poatriotic position, ” the interlocutor close to the Russian Orthodox Church told the Vies.

According to the sources of the “miles”, Malofeev has “gigantic” political ambitions, and Putin’s handle - a walking conservative brand and a victim of the “intrigues of the West” - looks in this context as a very profitable ally. And it doesn’t matter what the Patriarch thinks of this.