Press Release, 16.11.2021

Photo: Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov (in the centre, wearing a mask) received a housing subsidy  amounting to 16.6 million rubles. At that time, he owned five apartments totalling ​​313.5 square meters and a country house of ​​73.6 square meters / Photo by Roman Yarovitsyn / Kommersant

The Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko party appealed to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to check the information of the joint investigation of Vazhniye Istorii (Important Stories) and Transparency on the issuance of subsidies to officials who had already owned housing.

Journalists found out that a number of high-ranking officials received subsidies as “needy” persons. Among those supported by the state were Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev, Deputy Minister of Sports Odes Baysultanov, deputy head of the Department of Presidential Affairs Dmitry Verbovoy, Deputy Minister of Culture Alla Manilova and others.

According to the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre experts, the officials could use corruption gaps in legislation to get undeserved benefits, experts say.

“It is hard to believe that Alexei Meshkov, a native Muscovite and Russian Ambassador to France, who had been owning several apartments, suddenly became homeless. And can one call Sergei Nazarov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, who received 17 million roubles subsidies in addition to his three houses, a needy person?” Alexei Chumakov, Deputy Director of Yabloko’s the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, says.

Earlier, RBC has reported that in 2020-2022 the Russian government will allocate about 9.5 billion roubles to provide housing to officials.

Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre sent information about possible offenses connected with corruption to Igor Krasnov, Public Prosecutor General of Russia, and Alexei Kudrin, Chairman of the Accounting Chamber.

 ALEXEI CHUMAKOV

is Deputy Director of

Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the

Yabloko party