Woman Russian top official manages to escape sanctions and live a luxurious life in Europe: “Svetlana demands at least $ 50,000 a month” | War Ukraine and Russia

Svetlana Zakharova is all glamor if you can believe her social media: champagne, jewelry, expensive cars and exotic travel are the common thread. She likes shopping in Paris – privately, of course, so she can buy a pair of earrings worth €150,000 or a ring worth €104,000 – and holidays in Saint-Tropez on the Côte d’Azur – where she rents a villa for 150,000 euros per month.

A few weeks ago she was caught by journalists from the Ukrainian newspaper ‘Ukrainska Pravda’ in the fashionable ski resort of Courchevel, where she went shopping in expensive boutiques and partied in the well-known ‘Cap Horn’ shop.

LOOK. Ukrainian journalists confront Russians in French ski resort

It is remarkable that she can go about her business undisturbed, because Zakharova is the partner of the Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, a man who is closely involved in the invasion of Ukraine. Ivanov is responsible for the construction contracts at the Ministry of Defense and in that position, among other things, busy with the reconstruction of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city that was destroyed and captured by the Russians.

The fact that Zakharova can simply continue her luxurious life in Europe is due to two smart “tricks” according to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. “She obtained an Israeli passport illegally and was preventively separated from her husband in August last year,” said researcher Maria Pevchikh.

The latter happened just before the European Union announced sanctions against Ivanov. However, Zakharova and Ivanov would still be a couple in reality, according to a collection of 8,000 leaked emails that Zakharova received and wrote herself over the past 12 years for the Anti-Corruption Foundation to review.

Because of her two “hands-on skills”, Zakharova is now not subject to sanctions. “She can just keep her bank accounts and her real estate and keep shopping on the Champs-Élysées,” said Pevchikh. “Despite the fact that every euro she spends at Hermes and Cartier in Paris is soaked in blood.”

A dress of 59,500 euros from Dolce & Gabbana? Nineteenth-century furniture worth 85,000 euros? No problem, as can be seen in photos. “They have enough money to even buy a ‘holiday Rolls-Royce’,” says Pevchikh. “They have one in Moscow, but because they spend so much time on the French Riviera, they bought one for there as well. It sits there in the garage and waits for them all year.”

Where does the couple’s money come from? “Corruption,” says the Anti-Corruption Foundation firmly. “Ivanov receives kickbacks from those to whom he assigns Defense construction contracts.”

That it is better to pay a lot of bribes, according to an article by Tatler magazine about the divorce of Zakharova and first husband Mikhail Maniovich, a wealthy businessman. Maniovich warned Ivanov in it that he would not be able to support his new wife. “Svetlana is demanding at least $50,000 a month,” he said.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation is now calling on the West to intervene and is asking everyone to take action on Sunday at a home owned by Zakharova on Rue de Babylone in central Paris.

The stepdaughter of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov can confirm that the protest can have consequences. She lived under the radar in London and was sanctioned by the United Kingdom after the intervention of the Anti-Corruption Foundation.