On Monday, United Russia deputy Irina Yarovaya was next in line to give her explanations over her concealed real estate. The media have found an undeclared flat in Moscow, the market price of which is estimated at three million dollars now, that chairwoman of the State Duma Committee for Security and Counteraction to Corruption Irina Yarovaya owns. Under the law a deputy should not declare this real estate, because the flat in the elite residential house is in possession of her underage daughter. However, the question has arisen over the source of the monetary funds, on which the housing was bought, as at the moment of the purchase her daughter Yekaterina was just 17 years old, and Yarovaya’s income has made 1.5 million roubles annually.
The magazine The New Times reported on Monday that in 2006 Irina Yarovaya’s family has bought the expensive housing at an elite residential house in downtown Moscow, the Novye Izvestia daily reported. But for a little bit more than five years, during which she works as a State Duma deputy (since 2007), the expensive housing was not mentioned in the income declarations of the lawmaker at all. The problem is that the owner of a four-room flat with the space of 127.6 square metres is the daughter of the deputy from the first marriage Yekaterina Yarovaya since September 18, 2006. At the moment of the purchase of the flat she was just 17 years old, therefore, the questions, where the underage teenager has got the money to buy the elite housing in Moscow, are quite lawful. In the official income declaration for 2006 Irina Yarovaya, who worked as a member of the Council of People’s Deputies in the Kamchatka Territory at the time, declared that she earned about 1.5 million roubles.
Yarovaya managed not to declare the flat, the current market price of which is estimated at about three million dollars or 88.6 million roubles thanks to the fact that in 2006, when the real estate was purchased, the law was in effect that permitted the lawmakers not to mention in their property declarations the property, which is registered for their relatives, the Novye Izvestia daily noted. In 2008 this loophole in the legislation was eliminated, but the circle of relatives was limited with the spou ases and underage children. By that moment of time the daughter of Yarovaya already turned 18 years, therefore, the flat could have been declared again on quite legal grounds. In September 2012 Yarovaya opposed the bill of the State Duma opposition to enlarge the circle of the relatives of the state officials, who must declare their incomes.
The information about Yarovaya’s flat was exposed not just without any proper reasons, but as a result of the struggle between different clans inside the party, president of the Institute of National Strategy Stanislav Belkovsky said. “The struggle between different clans is fanning up inside United Russia that mainly results in the so-called “pekhting” (Navalny invented this special term to dub ongoing debates over this party functionary’s (Pekhtin) property – Itar-Tass),” the political expert told the newspaper. “You should not take it as a spontaneous process,” he noted.
The Izvestia daily reported that the United Russia deputies are going to sell their foreign real estate. Thus, the newspaper does not rule out that the lawmakers are getting ready for a possible approval of the bill on a ban for foreign accounts and property for state officials. The second reading of the bill can be put for voting already in March.
At least two highly-ranking members of the faction Andrei Isayev and Leonid Simanovsky are ready to refuse from their property for the sake of their deputy seats in the near future, the newspaper reported.
Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council Isayev and his wife Alina Dalskaya have already found a buyer for their land and a stake in the assets of a pilgrimage hotel in Germany right after the law enters into force. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Budget and Taxes Leonid Simanovsky told the Izvestia daily that he will be glad to rid of a small house in Cyprus, which his family owns already not for the first year.
President of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation Mikhail Vinogradov claimed that the ongoing process of the state officials getting rid of their foreign property can be an indicator that the bill will be really approved. “Everything depends from the political willpower of the president, as if he finds this ban grounded, the law will be lobbied. In another case the deputies will try to minimize the restrictions with amendments,” the political expert predicts.
The expert also noted that far from all deputies and public servants will really sell their property. “Someone will try to hide it, someone will register this property to their remote relatives, and someone will quit his post at all,” he believes.
Meanwhile, A Just Russia deputy Dmitry Gudkov said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily that during his recent trip to the United States he met with US senators. “We agreed to combat corruption jointly. So, it can be expected that new high-profile revelations of Russian thieves and crooks will follow in the near future,” he stated.