A seat in the Russian parliament can cost $5 million. This is exactly how much Suleiman Kerimov paid

Senator from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov paid $5 million for a seat in the Russian parliament - first to get into the State Duma, then into the Federation Council, The Project found out during a study of nepotism in the Russian elite. This provided him with legal immunity - for this reason alone, Kerimov has been a member of the Russian parliament for 26 years.

Details . In 1999, Kerimov was elected to the State Duma from the Zhirinovsky Bloc, which received 17 seats following the parliamentary elections. Kerimov was 17th on the federal list. For a deputy mandate, the businessman paid $5 million to the leader of the LDPR, two close acquaintances of the billionaire told The Project. Zhirinovsky, according to the recollections of his colleagues, said the phrase “there are no free riders here,” meaning that one had to pay for the “trip” to the State Duma.

• ️ It was no coincidence that the billionaire got into parliament through Zhirinovsky: by that time he was already familiar with the politician through a joint business. In the 1990s, through Kerimov’s company “Nafta-Moscow” and thanks to Zhirinovsky’s connections with Saddam Hussein, they sold Iraqi oil to the West. Baghdad needed mediators because the country was at that time under sanctions due to the invasion of Kuwait.
• ️ Kerimov sat in the State Duma for two convocations - until the end of 2007. During this time, he co-authored 20 bills. The oligarch had to leave the Duma due to the fact that the deputy head of the presidential administration, Vladislav Surkov, who was then convening parliament for the needs of Dmitry Medvedev, who was elected to the post of president, did not want to see him there.
• ️ Kerimov had to move to the Federation Council. The first convocation cost him more than the State Duma - $10 million. Half of the fee went to the then senator from Dagestan Atay Aliyev to convince him to resign. Another $5 million in cash during this convocation and all subsequent ones was transferred to the Speaker of the Federation Council - first to Sergei Mironov , and after and to this day to Valentina Matvienko , says the source of the “Project”, who was involved in Kerimov’s finances. The billionaire called these payments “pennies,” the publication’s interlocutor recalled.
• ️ For almost 18 years in the Federation Council, Kerimov has not introduced a single legislative initiative; since 2021, he has personally participated in voting only once, and submitted applications for absentee voting five more times. That is, most likely, Kerimov practically does not appear at meetings of the Federation Council.

Read more about how Suleiman Kerimov corrupted the Kremlin in the investigation “By the Law of the Mountains” and watch the video version on YouTube , which continues the study “Fathers and Grandfathers” .