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Investigation Committee opens 2 new criminal cases over Defence Ministry real estate sale in 2011

Both cases the criminal proceedings have been initiated against "unidentified officials of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defence"

MOSCOW, July 23 (Itar-Tass) - The Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee has opened two new criminal cases over violations in the sale of the RF Defence Ministry’s real estate items in 2011, including part of the Tauride Palace ensemble.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass that in both cases the criminal proceedings have been initiated against so far “unidentified officials of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defence.”

The first criminal case was opened over the sale of 1 hectare of land in Moscow’s suburb Balashikha that was intended for housing construction. It was sold considerably below the originally stated price, and a shopping centre was built on it instead of apartment houses.

The second criminal case was initiated over the sale of the “Gardener’s House with two wings” - a monument of the XVII century that was transferred to the Defence Ministry tenure. The house is part of the Tauride Palace architectural ensemble near St. Petersburg. Soon after the transfer to the Defence Ministry of the land plot and three buildings on it, in which the state invested in 2008 more than 106 million roubles, the property complex in autumn 2011 was sold for 376.5 million roubles to a company that had been set up a few months earlier and registered in Cyprus. According to experts, the market value of the real estate item at the time of its sale was by 75.8 million roubles higher than the sale price.

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