Treasure Island: the most expensive mansions in Moscow put up for sale
Three English-style mansions on the banks of the Moskva River are being sold for 3 billion rubles each. These are the most expensive private houses in the capital, available in real estate aggregators. Izvestia studied what is known about expensive housing, and found out that the real estate built by an unknown owner "for his family" was controlled by the structures of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov some time ago, and now it is probably listed as a little-known Chechen businessman.
Family real estate
Moscow City is only 10 km away from here, and Red Square is 18 km away. But on an island covered with protected pines, you can forget that you are in the middle of a huge metropolis. In 1991, Serebryany Bor received the status of a specially protected natural area of the city of Moscow. However, almost half of its territory is built up with palaces, cottages and other luxury real estate, according to the official project of the Moscow City Hall "Discover Moscow".
The residents of the island on this website include Presidential envoy to the Far East Yuri Trutnev, Patriarch Kirill, artist Oleg Gazmanov, entrepreneurs Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Grigory Berezkin, Vagit Alekperov and Leonid Fedun. There are sites belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some information is classified.
The plots for sale border the coastline of the Moskva River and are located deep in the protected part of the island. To enter here, you need to issue a special pass. The three-storey mansions indicated in the ads are made in a single architectural style and occupy an area enclosed by a common fence with a brick arch and a carved metal gate at the entrance. Each residential building has an area of 1700-1800 sq. m. The building is located on plots of 38 acres, with garages for two cars and one apartment for staff in an additional administrative building. There is a boiler room and a security post.
There is also a fourth mansion on the territory. His real estate owner began building along with the other three back in 2011 — for himself and his family, but over time, the need for so much housing has disappeared, according to realtors showing houses to potential buyers. Now the owner plans to keep only one house, and sell the other three.
The property was put up for sale at the end of 2024. But, as the realtor clarified, the owner made the decision to get rid of the assets back in 2021. At the same time, work on the interior decoration of two of the three properties for sale was suspended. Only one of them is fully prepared and equipped. Now this house is rented out for 3.6 million rubles per month. The other two are in white box condition — the entire frame of the buildings has been built and the facade has been decorated, basic communications have been made, and basic finishing work has been completed. Since then, the buildings have been maintained in a mothballed state.
The infrastructure consists of its own boiler house, centralized gas and water supply, sewerage, two power supply lines with an emergency power supply system. There are trees, shrubs, tiled paths and elegant street lights all around.
Paths and landscaping of the site
Staff apartments and garages
The realtors gave the Izvestia journalist a detailed tour of two buildings without decoration. It's easy to get lost inside — there are dozens of rooms on each floor, interconnected by corridors, passageways and stairs. On the walls there are A4 sheets with 3D printed projects on how it was planned to use a particular room. The third floor in each of the houses is divided into two unrelated parts. For the convenience of future residents, two elevators are equipped.
In addition to the technical rooms, a font, sauna, hammam and showers are planned in the basement of one of the buildings. Another house has a maze of technical rooms in the basement for servicing a deep pool with a Jacuzzi on the ground floor. A covered brick gazebo with barbecue and barbecue area is attached to the house with a swimming pool "as a gift".
View of the house with pool
The Izvestia correspondent was not allowed into the finished house — it was necessary to arrange this in advance with the owner. But the realtors shared photos of the interiors with the comment that the house is equipped "in the style of the Great Gatsby" (the hero of the novel of the same name by Francis Scott Fitzgerald about an eccentric millionaire. — Ed.). The property, according to the seller's representatives, is registered to a Russian legal entity, but the realtors did not name the seller at the viewing stage.
The trust from 1937
Since March 1, 2023, Rosreestr has stopped providing information about the owners of real estate if the statement is ordered by third parties. However, the numbers of the plots being sold indicated on the cadastral map appear in disputes over the issue of reducing the cadastral value.
In court decisions in 2020, offshore companies Drastrend ltd, Blakstead ltd, Promargent ltd with registration in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus Dexbert Enterprises Ltd were named as owners of the property. A source in the real estate market confirmed to Izvestia that, at least in the case of a fully completed house, the same Cyprus company retained the rights to it.
Since 2018, these offshore companies, represented by their representative Nikita Veselkov, have been trying to reduce the tax burden, but all the courts have lost. The same lawyer acted in similar lawsuits on behalf of Mosdachtrest JSC. This company manages summer cottages on the territory of Serebryany Bor.
It appeared in 1993 and calls itself "the full legal successor of the state enterprise established on the basis of the Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated October 17, 1937 "On the preservation of housing stock and improvement of housing facilities."
"People who shaped the history of our country lived here. Today's residents of Serebryany Bor are accomplished and successful people, diplomats, businessmen, top managers of leading foreign and Russian companies. They used to work hard to be successful. Here, in Serebryany Bor, they regain their strength, physical and mental. The pines heal, and the water heals...," says Mosdachtrest about its clients.
The sole founder of this company is Business-Real Estate LLC, 80% of which is owned by AFK Sistema. In 2013, Vedomosti named Vladimir Yevtushenkov, the founder and co-owner of AFK Sistema, and his son Felix, the largest "summer residents" of the island with real estate for rent and ownership of an area of 27 hectares. The plots being sold now coincide with the territory indicated by the publication on the island's map as the property of the family of Vladimir Yevtushenkov and AFK Sistema.
Mosdachtrest is listed as the customer of the layout on the floor plan of one of the houses for sale
In 2021, the Virgin offshore companies Blacksted, Drustend, Prosaergent and Cyprus Dexbert Enterprise were listed in the list of companies affiliated with MGTS PJSC (as part of the same group of companies), which is part of the AFK Sistema circuit. Earlier, a document was published online, according to which all four of these offshore companies belonged to Sistema Management Cyprus LTD, controlled by AFK Sistema through SFH Invest S.A. In 2022, the latter was sold in shares of 90% and 10% to third parties. This is reflected in Sistema's financial statements, with the clarification that as a result, the corporation's assets decreased by 13.9 billion rubles. This roughly corresponds to the total cost of four houses in Serebryany Bor with a common territory.
From Luxembourg to Grozny
It is much more difficult to reliably identify the current owners of Virgin offshore companies than the founders of a Cypriot company. The data obtained by Izvestia from the Cyprus register of legal entities coincides with information about other offshore companies in open sources: from 2018 to 2022, Dexbert Enterprise was controlled by Sistema Management Cyprus LTD.
In August 2022, the owner changes to SMC HOLDING EUROPE LIMITED. On its website, this company states that its "ultimate beneficiary is a German citizen with more than 30 years of experience in managing enterprises related to manufacturing and engineering." At the same time, the only shareholder of the company is Luxembourg—based SFH INVEST, among whose leaders the German Waldemar Reiswich is mentioned in open registers. In December 2022, he became the manager of Advanced Industries Group, which is how Segezha Packaging, the former foreign branch of the Segezha Group lumber company, was renamed after its purchase from Sistema AFC structures.
Barbecue house
However, in June 2023, the Cyprus offshore company returned to the direct control of Luxembourg-based SISTEMA FINANCE S.A. Vedomosti called this company the "family fund" of Vladimir Yevtushenkov. This company controlled the Cyprus offshore company until February 2025, when the EU imposed personal sanctions against the founder and co-owner of AFK Sistema. By that time, ads for the sale of mansions had been hanging online for two months.
In February, Dexbert Enterprise came under the control of the Moscow-based Nasa LLC. This company is registered at 41 Tamanskaya Street, Mosdachtrest JSC. Until 2017, Lyubov Karmanova, an employee of Sistema's Property Projects Department, was listed as one of the founders of Nasa LLC. The other founders and managers of Nasa did not change until the end of 2023, when the company came under the control of Ecoline JSC, which was registered at the same time.
Ibragim Chitaev, a 45-year-old native of Grozny, is listed as the sole founder and CEO of Ecoline. Chitaev posted photos of Makarov's pistol lying on the table and masked FSB officers as profile images in messengers. He did not respond to messages with questions from Izvestia.
AFK Sistema stated that neither the company nor Vladimir Yevtushenkov control or are beneficiaries of the offshore companies that own the specified real estate in Serebryany Bor. The businessman's representative ignored questions about whether these companies and real estate belonged to Yevtushenkov or his relatives earlier, as well as to whom they were transferred.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
