The Insider: Kolpakov- How the head of the presidential administration became a billionaire, while helping Putin hide stolen assets

The Insider has found that Alexander Kolpakov, who leads the Presidential Property Management Directorate, is assisting Putin in concealing corrupt assets such as palaces and yachts. Additionally, Kolpakov's family reportedly owns real estate worth one billion rubles ($13 million).

Sergei Yezhov

March 22, 2023

Alexander Kolpakov, the head of the presidential administration, likes to welcome guests in a snow-white suit. The guests of his parties are billionaires, politicians and show business stars. And the official himself has long passed to the rank of a billionaire.

With oligarch Musa Bazhaev (right)

Photos from Kolpakov's party were published by the BlackMirror Telegram channel, which gained access to the hacked correspondence. From the documents posted by the channel, it follows that the official’s family was engaged in the construction of cottages near Putin’s palace in Gelendzhik, and the father-in-law of the head of the presidential affairs department acted as a nominal tenant of state land plots of 150 hectares in the Abrau-Dyurso area. As The Insider found out, these are far from the only assets that were registered in the name of Kolpakov's elderly relative.

Putin's key keeper and grandfather on a Harley-Davidson

55-year-old Alexander Kolpakov spent his whole life in the service of the state. Immediately after the army, he served in the government security department of the KGB of the USSR, then in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. He was responsible, in particular, for the construction and management of the residences of the head of state. The Office of Presidential Affairs (UDP) was headed in 2014.

The chief key keeper of the Kremlin, if he is content with only one salary, should be, if not poor, then certainly not fantastically rich. However, as The Insider's investigation showed, Kolpakov secretly lives the life of an oligarch. Helping him hide illegally acquired property is 85-year-old father-in-law Yuri Sidorov, who, along with other family members, walked at the official’s birthday party.

Suspicion is already caused by the fact that two Harley-Davidson motorcycles are recorded on a very elderly man. The cost of each is 2.8 million rubles.

From the average pension of a Russian, two such motorcycles would have to be saved for 25 years. But Sidorov owns not only Harleys but also several expensive cars. Including a rare 1952 Mercedes-Benz convertible. These cars cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sidorov also has a Soviet rarity - a ZIL-111A limousine, Nikita Khrushchev drove a similar one. Only 70 of these models were produced.

Father-in-law Kolpakov also has a more modern car - Range Rover. Only the wife of an official and his sons pay for his parking.

Himself with palaces

Putin's famous palace near Gelendzhik was run by Investstroy. Its founder is Inna Kolpakova, the wife of the head of the UDP. Alexander Kolpakov himself acted as the founder of Argument JSC, to which Putin's yacht Graceful was registered, and the Argument company itself subsequently - to Gennady Timchenko.

Graceful is one of several Putin yachts

Kolpakov not only helps Putin to manage the corrupt property de facto belonging to the president but also does not forget about himself. He records expensive real estate, as in the case of cars, on his father-in-law - Sidorov. It was Yuri Sidorov, according to extracts from Rosreestr available to The Insider, who in 2021 became the owner of 30 acres of land in the Zarya cottage settlement on Rublyovka.

Together with a newly built house (875 m²), the estate costs at least 200 million rubles. It is interesting that the Italian Cirillo Lanfranco, Putin's personal architect, previously owned this land.

The father-in-law of the head of the UDP has another estate in the same village. Literally across the street from the "Italian".

Land (31 acres) and a house (724 m²), together with a garage and other buildings, can be estimated at about the same 200 million. And it is in this house that the son of the head of the UDP, Anton Kolpakov, orders food delivery. He works, by the way, at Promsvyazbank under the leadership of Pyotr Fradkov, the brother of Deputy Kolpakov Sr. in the Kremlin.

Sidorov also acts as the owner of two Moscow apartments: a 122-meter one in the residential complex "Imperial" (55 million rubles) and a 53-meter one on the street. Krylatsky hills (20 million rubles).

Real estate in the Krasnodar Territory, of course, is also owned by Sidorov. He owns two land plots and two houses in Gelendzhik, on the seashore. However, the Kolpakovs can also swim in the pool, which is visible on satellite images.

The total area of ​​houses (one- and four-story) is 1100 square meters, and plots are 24 acres. The southern residence of the Kolpakovs should cost about 300 million rubles.

Drinking buddy contractors

Kolpakov and his wife own an apartment (168 m²) on Osennaya Street, another smaller apartment, two relatively small houses (235 and 258 m²), and 31 acres of land. The total value of the property of the Kolpakov family, together with the assets recorded on the father-in-law, is in no way less than a billion rubles.

Answer the question "Where does the money come from?" it will help to study the people with whom Kolpakov drank vodka on his birthday. Among those invited, The Insider found businessman Vitaly Smirensky. This is a business partner of Vladimir Dyachenko, the key character in The Insider's investigation of Medvedev's corruption (later it formed the basis of Navalny's famous investigation "He is not Dimon to you"). It was in the name of Dyachenko that, for example, sneakers for Dmitry Medvedev were ordered.

Through his face value Vladimir Dyachenko, Medvedev bought everything he needed, including the famous sneakers

As for Smirensky, according to The Insider, he is the official supplier of the Kremlin. Through his company En-Trade, Kolpakov's drinking buddy acted as a contractor for the Kremlin Palace, the Rublevo-Uspensky complex, and a departmental pharmacy controlled by the UDP. The En-Trade company supplied consumables for the feedback complex, and video equipment, and repaired the alarm system.

Another guest at Kolpakov's party is billionaire Musa Bazhaev. It was he, together with the UDP, who built the Center "House of Russia" in Palestine for 3 billion rubles.

It is impossible to explain the fantastic enrichment for an official with many years of experience in any other way than corruption. It seems that keeping the president's secrets turned out to be a profitable business, however, as it now turns out, Kolpakov hid both his own and Putin's assets so carelessly that it was not difficult to uncover these schemes.