It is a dream property, out of sight on the shores of the Adriaric, near Pesaro (Marche). Twenty-six hectares of land along the beach, 650 meters of privatized coastline, a main building of more than 700 m2 living space and a luxurious swimming pool with a breathtaking view… According to information collected on the spot by the Italian daily La Stampa, it was acquired by a company called Dominanta, registered in the neighboring province of Ancona, for at least 7 million euros in 2009. Its market value, after work, would today exceed 10 million.
But as is often the case with such exceptional properties, the identity of the true owner of the premises is more than difficult to establish. Who is behind the Dominanta company? According to information collected by the teams of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, created by the dissident lawyer Alexeï Navalny, it would be the very influential Valentina Matvienko, close among those close to Vladimir Putin and current President of the Council of the Federation (the Chamber high of the Russian Parliament) – which makes him one of the main people responsible for going to war against Ukraine. How did they acquire this certainty? By examining the contracts with the local companies that carried out the beautification work on the villa, and also the Instagram accounts, rich in lessons and details, of Valentina Matvienko’s family.
Opaque Holdings
However, this bundle of presumptions, for the time being, is not enough. And despite the requests of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, nothing has yet been done to confiscate the villa, which the report of the foundation of Alexeï Navalny notes with irony that it is located less than 50 meters from a lighthouse of the Italian army, in other words a NATO-affiliated installation. Since the end of February, the Italian state has been trying to get hold of the possessions of the pro-Putin oligarchs located on its soil. No less than 500 people, directly or indirectly linked to the Kremlin, would be in the sights, and the chairman of the council, Mario Draghi, even advocated the creation of an “international public register” of oligarchs with a heritage of more than 10 million euros. But for now, the seizures announced represent “only” an amount of 143 million euros.
The most spectacular catches are those of two gigantic yachts. The first, the Lady M (65 meters long for an announced value of 65 million euros) is the property of Alexei Mordashov, CEO of the Severstal group (metal production), whose fortune is estimated at 26 billion euros. It was immobilized in the port of Imperia (Liguria) where it was wintering. A few kilometers away, in the port of San Remo, another “mega-yacht” was seized: the Lena of the Russian-Finnish businessman Gennady Timchenko, 50 meters, estimated at “only” 50 million euros.
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