NCS
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On a wet Sunday afternoon, a handful of protesters collect outdoors an upscale Parisian condominium advanced.
“Freedom for political prisoners!” they chant. “Down with Putin! Putin is a war criminal!”
Several maintain indicators: “He makes money off the war in Ukraine. His family lives in France,” or “Family of a war criminal lives in Paris.”
What’s introduced them right here is the Russian socialite who reportedly rents certainly one of the residences inside, and her different half, Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov.
Svetlana Maniovich is a lady of high-priced tastes: invite-only Parisian jewelers, couture clothes and yacht holidays on the Mediterranean. The way of life isn’t uncommon for folks in her elite Russian circle, and her lavish spending has been on show on social media and in Russia’s society pages. But she’s no extraordinary Moscow highflyer.
Her former accomplice, Ivanov, is a senior architect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a person who, on paper, reportedly has an official earnings of round $175,000 per yr. He’s additionally the topic of European Union (EU) and American sanctions over the struggle on Ukraine.
Maniovich is the topic of an in depth investigation by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), an investigative group based by jailed Russian opposition chief Alexey Navalny. The ACF, which organized the Paris protest, alleges that it is Ivanov, and ill-gotten beneficial properties introduced in by his authorities place, that has funded Maniovich’s way of life.
“For the uber-corrupt people, it’s almost like it was – almost like nothing changed,” mentioned Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations for the ACF, in reference to the influence of Western sanctions.
Drawing on a trove of 8,000 leaked emails, Pevchikh and her group assembled an image of a lady who has seemingly escaped all scrutiny for Ivanov’s position in Ukraine, and the excessive earnings he’s allegedly reaped. A video about Maniovich produced by the ACF has racked up over six million views on YouTube.
Using invoices discovered in her electronic mail, the ACF investigation claims, as an illustration, that on March 25, 2022 – as Russian missiles had been raining down on Kharkiv – Maniovich spent greater than $100,000 in a high Paris jewellery retailer on the famed Place Vendome.
Just final month, and greater than 5 months after the EU positioned Ivanov on its sanctions listing, a Ukrainian video crew caught Maniovich on digicam purchasing and dancing in Courchevel, the elite French ski resort.
Maniovich – who additionally goes by Svetlana Ivanova, in addition to by her maiden title, Svetlana Zakharova – didn’t return NCS’s request for remark.
NCS has not independently verified the supply of Maniovich’s apparently unexplained wealth. Her way of life is funded, the ACF alleges, by the graft of Ivanov, who holds “one of the most lucrative jobs that one can have in the Ministry of Defense,” based on Pevchikh.
“He is responsible for construction,” Pevchikh mentioned. “So every building site (that) there is for the Russian army, that’s his domain.”
His excessive wealth – with property together with, the ACF says, a historic home in certainly one of Moscow’s most costly districts, and an opulent dacha – has a easy rationalization.
“The answer is corruption,” Pevchikh argued. “Corruption, and specifically kickbacks. This is the system, the core concept of Russian corruption.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
The ACF alleges that Ivanov, already a rich man, is benefitting extensively from the invasion of Ukraine.
The minister is ceaselessly pictured in Russian-occupied Mariupol by state media, chopping ribbons on numerous building tasks. When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol in March, he held what was billed as an impromptu middle-of-the-night encounter with residents at certainly one of Ivanov’s new condominium blocks.
“They destroyed Mariupol first, and then they designated a little plot of land where they built display houses,” Pevchikh mentioned.
“The same company that built the display houses in Mariupol is paying for Timur Ivanov’s personal bills, personal construction projects, like his house on the outskirts of Moscow and his house in the center of Moscow,” she claimed.
So how is Maniovich in a position to get away along with her luxurious, European way of life?
“It’s a very simple trick that they’ve played,” Pevchikh mentioned. First, she mentioned, Maniovich has an Israeli passport, by her first husband.
But extra to the level, the ACF alleges, Maniovich and Ivanov have severed their ties – not less than on paper. The pair finalized their divorce in August 2022, based on court docket paperwork included by ACF in their investigation – six months after the struggle started and simply two months earlier than the EU positioned an asset freeze and journey ban on him – however not her.
Yet no public data present Maniovich and Ivanov have even begun the course of to divide property or custody (which may take years), the ACF says.
“The biggest indication of a real divorce is the division of assets afterwards. We see none of that,” Pevchikh mentioned, referring to the proof uncovered by ACF’s investigative group.
“In terms of the things that legally point to a real divorce, we don’t see any changes. It all still looks the same.”
In an announcement to NCS, the French Foreign Ministry mentioned it doesn’t touch upon particular person circumstances, however that it had focused 1,499 Russian officers with sanctions.
“We are continuing discussions with other member states in order to adopt new sanctions, to maintain pressure on Russia and to hinder its war effort,” the ministry mentioned.
Whether the protesters’ demand that Maniovich herself face a reckoning is, thus far, a query and not using a passable reply.