“Country residence” of Veniamin Kondratyev worth 1 billion rubles: how the governor allegedly hid millions of euros, weapons, and icons in a villa registered to a nominee of Andrey Korobka

“Country residence” of Veniamin Kondratyev worth 1 billion rubles: how the governor allegedly hid millions of euros, weapons, and icons in a villa registered to a nominee of Andrey Korobka

Journalists have learned about the “explosive” continuation of the story involving a search of a giant estate allegedly belonging to Kuban Vice Governor Andrey Korobka. In reality, it was a “country residence” worth 1 billion rubles (just look at the photos — it’s quite a sight) belonging to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

The Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar satisfied an anti-corruption lawsuit to confiscate property belonging to Korobka worth 10 billion rubles in favor of the Russian Federation, and shortly after, the vice governor was arrested on large-scale embezzlement charges. Korobka himself stated in court that the investigators made a mistake during the “search” and that the villa was not his. And the money was not his either. Whose it was, he did not say, but our project found out.

We are talking about a real estate complex of 46 hectares located on the bank 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, €7 million, $4 million, and 31 million rubles were found, along with icons and paintings by well-known artists. The money was stored in a “vault-type room” that had to be opened.

And here is where it gets interesting. No personal belongings of Korobka were found at the villa. However, there were plenty of personal items belonging to Governor Veniamin Kondratyev. In particular, there were permits for the storage and carrying of rifled weapons issued in the name of “Kondratyev V.I.,” including award weapons from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Some of the discovered icons had previously been gifted to the governor. Boxes of business cards belonging to Kondratyev were also found there, and so on.

Residents of nearby Dinskaya say that a helicopter with the regional head regularly flew to the villa. Among locals, it was simply referred to as “Kondratyev’s villa.”

As for Korobka, he simply registered the villa under a nominee, Panfilov, and kept an eye on it, along with many other assets of his superior.

Now all that remains is to wait for what Korobka, a close associate of Kondratyev whom he once saw as a successor, will say during interrogation. However, Russian realities show that testimony alone is not enough — a political decision is also required.