Russian Deputy Defence Minister makes profit from construction in Mariupol

Timur Ivanov, Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, and his wife Svetlana are making profits from construction in the occupied and destroyed Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Source: Anti-Corruption Foundation, founded by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in a new investigation; Radio Liberty 

Details: Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has published an investigation about the lavish life of Timur Ivanov, Deputy Minister of Defence of Russia, and his wife Svetlana. 

Among other responsibilities, Russian journalists name Ivanov as having control over the construction of military garrisons, cadet colleges, hospitals, kindergartens, military airfields, space-vehicle launching sites and other facilities for the Russian army. Among these is the main facility for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. 

The Russian Defence Ministry’s Military Construction Company is in charge of this. 

At the moment, the same company is involved in the construction in Mariupol, which was almost completely destroyed during a siege carried out by the Russian army in spring earlier this year. 

During the summer, Radio Liberty’s project Donbas.Realii posted about this military construction company which reports to the Ministry of Defence of Russia and builds facilities as per their orders. 

The company has stated that they have already built 12 five-storey residential buildings in Mariupol. Russian bloggers and journalists have been producing a lot of reviews of these. 

It is clear from the company’s website that it is engaged in several construction projects in the occupied part of Donbas. It refers to Luhansk, the restoration of the Savur-Mohyla monument and laying a water pipeline from the Khanzhenkove Reservoir to the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast. However, the construction process in Mariupol is the one getting the most publicity in the Russian media. 

Even Russian journalists in propaganda videos cannot hide the fact that new houses are surrounded by ruins. It is also not mentioned who will mostly live in those new complexes.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation has established that the family of the Deputy Defence Minister of Russia is profiting from this construction. 

The Anti-Corruption Foundation’s material is based on emails from Svetlana Ivanova’s inbox and contains figures of the family’s wasteful spending for the last years. 

Over the last six years, the Deputy Defence Minister’s family has spent €1,300,000 per year on apartments, yachts, diamonds, luxury watches, antiques and holidays in St Tropez. This is all while the official family’s income is no more than 250,000 roubles [approximately €3,500] per year. 

According to the material’s authors, living beyond their official means is possible because of construction projects. In occupied Mariupol now, as well. 

Ivanov and his partners have made more than 17 billion roubles [approximately €235,052,173] on the residential blocks in Mariupol. 

European sanctions were imposed on Timur Ivanov in October 2022, but his wife Svetlana avoided this as they officially divorced in June 2022. 

The Anti-Corruption Foundation has assumed that the divorce is connected to a desire to place the family's property and funds out of reach of sanctions.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!