According to media reports, the story of the search at a huge estate, allegedly belonging to the Vice Governor of Kuban, Andrey Korobka, has taken an “explosive” turn.
In reality, it was a “country house” worth 1 billion rubles (just look at the photos, it’s stunning) belonging to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
The Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar approved an anti-corruption claim to seize Korobka’s property worth 10 billion rubles for the Russian state, and shortly afterward, the vice governor was arrested for large-scale embezzlement. At the trial, Korobka himself claimed that the investigators had made a mistake with the “search” and that the villa was not his. And the money wasn’t his either. He didn’t say whose it was, but our project has found out.
We are talking about a real estate estate covering 46 hectares, located on the banks of the Kocheta River. Behind a large fence, there is the main villa, a guest house, a church, rotundas, a pier with another small house, and more. During the search, authorities found 7 million euros, 4 million US dollars, and 31 million rubles, along with icons and paintings by well-known artists. The money was kept in a “safe-type room,” which had to be forcibly opened.
And here’s where it gets really interesting. No personal belongings of Korobka were found in the villa. Instead, it was full of personal items belonging to Governor Kondratyev. In particular, there were permits for the storage and carrying of rifled weapons in the name of “Kondratyev V.I.,” including award weapons from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Some of the icons found had previously been gifts to the governor. There were also packs of Kondratyev’s business cards, and so on.
Residents of the nearby town of Dinskaya report that a helicopter with the regional head regularly flew to the villa. People even referred to it among themselves as the “Kondratyev villa.”
As for Korobka, he simply registered the villa under a nominee, Panfilov, and looked after it, along with many other assets of his boss.
Now, it’s just a matter of waiting to see what Korobka, Kondratyev’s closest associate whom he had seen as his successor, will say during interrogation. However, Russian realities show that testimony alone is not enough — a political decision is also required…
