An LDPR deputy seems to have once again found himself in another scandal involving expensive real estate. Residents of the capital’s elite residential complex "Vorobyov Dom" are now concerned that a fitness center, which may be related to Igor Lebedev, intends to break down a wall of the house for its own needs. This story once again cements the deputy family’s reputation as bourgeois rentiers living on income from real estate.


Nadezhda Grishaeva and Igor Lebedev

Recently, residents of the capital’s elite residential complex "Vorobyov Dom" have been agitated by terrible news: a local fitness club, which occupied the first floor, is now planning to break down a wall of the house for the sake of another entrance. The neighbors are not thrilled with this idea, so an online vote of the owners of the residential complex "Vorobyov Dom" has been launched on the Domscanner platform. There is only one question on the agenda: "Should we approve the redevelopment related to the installation of an additional entrance to the fitness club based on the application of GRINS LLC, the owner of the commercial premises?"

The residents’ concerns are easy to understand: after all, this is a premium residential complex located in one of the most prestigious areas of Moscow in the picturesque valley of the Setun River and in close proximity to the embankments of the Moscow River. The cost of apartments with views of the skyscrapers of Moscow City, the Kremlin and the Vorobyovy Gory nature reserve here reaches 125 million rubles. And God forbid if such beauty collapses due to redevelopment.

Life investigated what companies started the redevelopment, who is behind them, and found out that the culprit of what is happening is former basketball player and possible wife of Igor Lebedev Nadezhda Grishaeva.


Residential complex "Vorobyov Dom" in Moscow

Look for a woman

Now Nadezhda is 31 years old, she is from the family of the famous Russian basketball player Sergei Grishaev. Over the years, the young lady has managed to prove that she is a worthy representative of a sports dynasty. She played for Moscow Dynamo and the Russian national team. She became a silver medalist of the Euroleague, winner of the European Cup and silver medalist of the Russian Women’s Basketball Championship.

Like any girl, Nadezhda dreamed of family happiness, in 2014 she even went to Larisa Guzeeva for the program " Let’s Get Married ". True, it did not work out with the grooms there, but it is known that in 2016, a marriage was registered in the Kutuzovsky registry office of Moscow between people whose full names completely coincide with the names of Grishaeva and Lebedev. At the same time, in the same year, Nadezhda gave birth to a daughter, and in 2018 - a son.

Interestingly, both of them carefully hide this marriage, for example, the same deputy Lebedev did not indicate his spouse in his  income declaration  for 2017.

Base for the gym

According to SPARK-Interfax, in February 2020, Grishaeva registered the company "Verde Fitness". Judging by the matching addresses of Grishaeva’s company and the address of the premises, which the residents vote on, this is the very sports club on the first floor of an elite new building.

The authorized capital of "Verde Fitness" is minimal - only 10 thousand rubles. And if the basketball player saved on this, then she definitely did not save on everything else. The general director of the fitness club was none other than the world champion in powerlifting Mikhail Sekov.  Judging by the photos on social networks , he was also the personal trainer of the famous comedian Efim Shifrin.


Mikhail Sekov (left) and Efim Shifrin

In addition, the scale of the planned renovation of the premises, coupled with the probably considerable rent, indicate significant investments in the business.

Grishaeva most likely pays rent to the company "GRINS" itself. The company was founded quite recently, in 2019, and its main activity is real estate management. Since its balance sheet currently contains an asset worth over 280 million rubles, it is safe to assume that this is the very premises for the fitness center.

But it gets even more interesting. This company is run by a certain Yulia Levchenko, and the company itself belongs to the Cypriot offshore CCBlue Canyon managed by lawyer Evgaros Fikardos. In 2016, Yulia Levchenko’s full namesake participated in an auction for the purchase of a Moscow mansion, which was won by the Telmi company, owned by the full namesake of MP Igor Lebedev.

Later, Lebedev’s namesake rewrote Telmi to the offshore Hague holding limited, after which the Cypriot owner changed its name to Sawden management Ltd. And the already familiar Evgaros Fikardos came to manage it.

And now both, Fikardos and Levchenko, by some strange coincidence, are renting out the premises for Nadezhda Grishaeva’s gym. This almost detective story with the real landlord in the Vorobyov Dom residential complex is far from the only one and may even be a textbook example for the family.

Real estate collectors

There may be a dime a dozen such "interesting" places in Lebedev’s biography. For example, last year, journalists  discovered  so much real estate in his family that it would probably be enough for a small town.

The scale is astounding: five apartments in Moscow City with a total value of about 615 million rubles, the cost of two apartments in Sochi is another 74 million.

The family owns 20 apartments in the cottage village Nezhinskaya 14 (≈ 2.7 billion rubles), housing in the capital’s residential complex Kutuzovskaya Riviera (≈ 53 million rubles) and on Tverskaya Street (≈ 160 million rubles), a hostel on Volkhonka (≈ 438 million rubles). Hotels, offices and villas in Spain (≈ 2.7 billion rubles),  an apartment in the UAE  (≈ 136.9 million rubles), plots of land in the Moscow region (≈ 1.2 billion rubles).

It is worth recalling, that the educational institution of the LDPR party - the Institute of World Civilizations -received  educational buildings and a dormitory from the state for use - this is another billion.

The total cost of the transferred is about 10 billion rubles. Practice shows that the owners usually do not just live on such vast areas, but earn money. And, perhaps, at least some of these premises and lands (like, for example, the gyms of the fitness center in the residential complex "Vorobyov Dom") are rented out.

At one time, the journalistic community asked law enforcement agencies to pay attention to firms like Telmi or Sawden management Ltd. And it seems that such claims are not so easy to brush aside, but a year and a half has passed and ... the scandal has died down.

Solid minus

Life found out that after last year’s series of devastating articles about Igor Lebedev, business structures with signs of involvement in his family seem to have drawn their own conclusions: some of them changed their names and reorganized, some have a negative balance, as if expensive assets are being hastily removed from them.

For example, almost all of his mother Galina Lebedeva’s current and former companies are simultaneously suffering catastrophic losses. In 2019, Raritet had minus 581 million rubles in net assets, Destiny had minus 31 million, Raritet-M had minus 23 million, Residence-City had minus 6 million, Raritet-Yug had minus 2 million, and Renta-V and SVAP had minus a million rubles in net assets.

All of these oddities raise many questions. When a large business suddenly and without good reason goes to hell, like  Galina Lebedeva’s , it looks like an attempt to hide income and play the poor man. At the same time, Grishaeva’s business is going great and she is launching a new fitness club, and her partners are suddenly companies suspiciously closely associated with the full namesake of the LDPR deputy Lebedev. The security forces probably have other questions for Lebedev. First of all, whether he is really married to Nadezhda Grishaeva. After all, if so, they are breaking at least two laws: hiding property and illegally owning foreign financial assets. Such movements around the business and real estate of people associated with the State Duma deputy should become a subject of interest for law enforcement agencies. It is necessary to check who launched the business and bought expensive real estate in Moscow and with what money in order to give a legal assessment.

Gazeta.Ru, 09/17/2020, "Deputy Lebedev does not agree with the title of the "main truant" of the State Duma": Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and member of the State Construction Committee Igor Lebedev called his inclusion in the list of parliamentarians who most often missed voting for the spring session of 2020 nonsense.

"That’s complete nonsense. I have the highest attendance rate at all sessions. I sit in the presidium, so my absence will be immediately noticeable. In the hall, some deputy might not show up and they won’t notice him, but in the presidium, everything is visible - there are only seven seats. I always go to all sessions. You can ask my colleagues, they will confirm this. My attendance is close to 99%. Those who spread this false information will be held accountable," Lebedev answered a question from a Gazeta.Ru correspondent about whether this information is true.

Earlier, analysts from the Center for Political Conjuncture compiled a rating of deputies who missed over 80% of the votes in the State Duma. Igor Lebedev came in first place (95.35% of the missed votes). Next come Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Control and Regulations Larisa Shoigu (82.82%), member of the Committee on Agrarian Issues Viktor Ignatov (80.94%) and member of the Committee on CIS Affairs Yuri Misheryakov (80.88%).