Translated into English using Google Translate
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, is one of the main anti-heroes of Russian aggression in Ukraine. It was he who first announced the dispatch of 12,000 Chechens to a neighboring country, promising victory “in the coming days”, and then admitted the inefficiency of the Russian army, offering a crazy way out – to kill and destroy without looking back. But for himself, the Chechen leader loves to build, and, as the Agency found out, in this matter he does not even shun foreign assistants and their money. At the same time, Kadyrov publicly does not forget to stigmatize “foreign agents” who receive money from abroad.
- How did Kadyrov’s residence turn into an island?
- Who brought Van Damme to Chechnya?
- How much does furniture cost in the Grozny Palace?
- How was the mansion of Kadyrov’s wife classified?
Exactly 10 years ago, in February 2012, the citizens of Russia learned about the palace of unprecedented, as it seemed then, luxury. The builders handed over the new residence of Kadyrov in the very center of Grozny – huge, with columns, one large and four small domes. The building was made impregnable in the medieval understanding of fortification science – a bypass channel was specially dug from the Sunzha River, and the area around the residence turned into an island. Since then, few have managed to get there, and even more so to film this place on video.
Only thanks to the official website of public procurement then it became clear the scale of the luxury surrounding the palace, and at the same time the cost of its maintenance.
Territory in ⅔ of the Kremlin with 36 hectares of lawns, 2260 trees of different species, 8 hectares of flower beds with 16 thousand rose bushes, as well as 64 thousand square meters. m of premises with 13 thousand sq.m. carpets and 4 thousand sq.m. tapestries on five floors.
The authorities of Chechnya were ready to pay 84 million rubles from the budget for maintaining this beauty, removing garbage and buying individual plants. or almost $2.7 million at the exchange rate of that time. The cost and source of financing for the construction of the palace itself could only be assumed by journalists – it was believed that 10 billion rubles were spent on it, and it was built with state money. There was every reason for such an assumption – in those years, the republic annually received 60 billion rubles from the federal budget. subsidies, and in recent years this amount has increased six times.
However, this money was not enough for Kadyrov’s requests. The “Agency” obtained documents that partially shed light on who is building the palaces of the head of Chechnya.
foreign friend
There is a whole generation of people in the North Caucasus who were born far from their native land. During the Stalinist deportation of peoples, which cost the Chechens at least 100 thousand lives, most of the people were sent to Kazakhstan. Among the deportees were Kadyrov’s ancestors – his father Akhmat-Khadzhi was born in Karaganda. Ramzan Akhmatovich belongs to a new generation – he grew up already in Chechnya, but he retained ties with the Kazakhs.
“We have been true friends and brothers for many years. And our friendship has nothing to do with positions and financial situation, “- with these words, Kadyrov congratulated the citizen of Kazakhstan, the oligarch Kenes Rakishev, on his birthday. This person often performs delicate assignments – in the media, he received the unofficial title of “purse” of former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and at the same time he was already seen in business relations with the Chechens. Therefore, the phrase about the lack of connection between friendship and financial situation looks deliberate.
How Rakishev is connected with Chechnya
Kenes Rakishev is one of the richest people in his country with an estimated fortune of $950 million. Rakishev earned the title of “Nazarbayev’s wallet” thanks to business and investments in the interests of the family of the former president of Kazakhstan. But the entrepreneur also helped Kadyrov a lot and mutually beneficial – for example, according to the “Project”, the Chechens participated in Rakishev’s purchase of an oil port on the North Sea, as a result, the asset ended up in the hands of denominations associated with the head of Chechnya. Officially, Rakishev also did not hide his help to Kadyrov – for example, he sponsored the Grozny Terek.
Rakishev’s e-mail was sent to the Agency’s mail address, covering the period of the late 2000s – early 2010s.
From it it turns out that the oligarch devoted a lot of time to Chechnya. It was probably he who organized the public events that Kadyrov used for his PR. In October 2011, the famous actor Jean-Claude van Damme flew in to celebrate the day of the city of Grozny – the trip made a strong impression on him, and he even publicly called Kadyrov a “friend.”
In fact, it was a commercial visit – it was personally handled by Rakishev, who communicated with the actor through the special agency Doors to Hollywood, which takes celebrities to various events for money. It is not known how much Van Damme was paid, but then the agents warned the Kazakh businessman that Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival in Grozny could cost up to a million euros, and Terek’s training with Barcelona could cost 1.5 million euros.
Photo: Kenes Rakishev discusses the arrival of foreign stars in Chechnya. Source Kenes Rakishev Post
But the most interesting part of the correspondence refers to the period of the construction of the palace in Grozny.
Cabinets of one million euros
The residence began to be built after the inauguration of Kadyrov in 2007 – the exact date was never reported, especially since, due to the secrecy of the object, journalists have repeatedly confused the Grozny Palace with another mansion of the head of the region – in Tsentaroi.
Only in 2010-2011. the framework of the new facility was noticed by bloggers, they also drew attention to the new channel of the Sunzha, due to the laying of which an emergency would occur later – as a result of engineering work, nine nearby streets would be flooded.
While the public was confused in Kadyrov’s palaces, Rakishev, according to the correspondence we studied, was preoccupied with a domestic question – how to arrange interiors for Kadyrov. This case was very difficult.
In the alleged correspondence of the Kazakh oligarch, we find a contract between two foreign companies – the Slovenian OMNIA ARHING d.o.o, which, as it turns out, built the palace (more on it below) and the Italian furniture company OAK Industria Arredamenti S.p.A. For 500,000 euros, the Italians undertook to draw up an interior design project for the main floor – the “presidential” one, with an area of 3,100 square meters. m. with rooms for the head of the region, guests and a meeting room.
Agreement between OMNIA ARHING d.o.o and OAK Industria Arredamenti S.p.A. for the project of interiors of the presidential floor in the Kadyrov Palace
Half a million euros for a sketch is, of course, expensive, but OAK Industria is one of the serious players in the luxury interiors market, including for the Russian nobility. The company’s president, Renato Polona, recently claimed that his company had delivered a long table to the Kremlin — the same one that Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron sat at before the war in Ukraine.
The amount obviously did not confuse the customers, because soon the Italians sent Rakishev an estimate for the arrangement and furnishings of two rooms – the presidential office (110 sq. M.) And the library (220 sq. M.). This is only a tenth of the total footage of the floor, but customers also needed to spend 2.4 million euros on it. For this money, the builders had to hang a plaster ceiling (€200,000), lay marble floors and parquet selected by specialists (€595,000), install wooden doors, plaster columns, and carry out other installation and finishing work. The amount also includes furniture (€831,000) — cabinets, including for displaying weapons, tables — either with marble tops or in leather — armchairs upholstered in leather, bedside tables and the wooden coat of arms of the Chechen Republic with inlay.
Photo: Estimate for the arrangement and furnishings of Kadyrov’s office and library
Rakishev was going to pay for everything. In the summer of 2010, representatives of OAK Industria were planning a trip to Chechnya to present the project, and before that, Polonya sent an estimate to the oligarch from Kazakhstan with the words: “I would like to receive your confirmation regarding the donation of these two premises.”
Maybe the presentation didn’t go too well. Now Polonya told the Agency that “due to the urgency of the client, we could not meet his requirements, so we canceled the contract.” But even for a project that probably did not suit Kadyrov, the customer had to pay huge sums of money – such that the budget of poor Chechnya could hardly afford. The “forfeit”, apparently, was paid by Rakishev – at the end of 2010, the managers of OAK Industria Arredamenti S.p.A. sent him a notification that they managed to complete the work for 350,000 euros (this is a large part of the obligations under the contract for 500,000 euros). From the address of Rakishev, this letter was sent to an unknown person with the words: “Brother, I am sending you what they sent! If anything, tell the boss that I will pay for the project myself.”
“Brother, I am sending you what they sent! If anything, tell the boss that I will pay for the project myself.”
As a result, Kadyrov, of course, was not left without Italian furniture. A representative of the construction company OMNIA ARHING told the Agency that, as a result, other Italian companies were engaged in the supply of furniture and interior design – Cappelletti srl, Jumbo collection group, Asnaghi Interiors SpA and OAK s.r.l.
Whether Rakishev paid for these contracts, the builders do not say. But in 2011, Kadyrov signed a decree on awarding a Kazakh businessman with an order named after his father, Akhmat Kadyrov. True, the construction and awards did not end there.
Slovak Chechens
After the palace was handed over, smaller mansions began to appear around it – for the women of the head of Chechnya. To the northeast of the “island” on the Sunzha River, directly opposite the palace, a beautiful house with a swimming pool was erected on a plot with an area of two football fields – as Project previously said, this is the mansion of Kadyrov’s second wife, Fatima Khazuyeva.
To the southwest, immediately behind the arch leading to the palace, another building was built – against the backdrop of a giant glass residence, this light, three-story house (with a total area of 2.3 thousand square meters) with a bizarre tower and a pond looks very cozy.
The mansion was handed over in 2014 and, first of all, it was classified – first it was registered to Grozny City LLC, created by the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, and then rewritten to a certain Malik Mamedovich Karimov – this name is indicated in Rosreestr. Most likely the name was made up, the “Agency” could not find a single person with such a surname, name and patronymic in the registers of Russian citizens.
The answer to the question why this was done is very simple. Kadyrov’s first wife, Medni Kadyrova, and her children live in this mysterious house. And the builder for such an important mansion was not chosen by chance.
The already mentioned OMNIA ARHING has several sites – Russian and Slovenian. On each of them in the “portfolio” section you can find interesting objects in Chechnya. For example, the Slovenian website lists Kadyrov’s residence.
And on the Russian version of the site, a mansion built for Medni was discovered.
An OMNIA ARHING representative confirmed to The Agency that the company was building both mansions. At the same time, he claims that at least the Ministry of Construction of Chechnya paid for Kadyrov’s residence.
Perhaps it is convenient for Chechens to deal with a Slovenian company – during the construction of residences, the former head of Chechnya, Doku Zavgaev, was the Russian ambassador to this country. Ferkov and Zavgaev are familiar with each other and even posed for a photo.
But so far, the company has received money not only in an official way. By a strange coincidence, in the same 2014, when Medni’s mansion appeared, OMNIA ARHING built a brick factory in Grozny. The contract was concluded with the Chechen Ministry of Construction, but the money came from two one-day firms registered in Britain. The leaders of OMNIA ARHING, like Rakishev before, Kadyrov did not forget to award – a certificate of honor.
* * *
Kadyrov, who sends his subordinates to destroy the lives of Ukrainians, took good care of the comfort of his own life. In total, with the help of various people and organizations, he built at least five mansions in Chechnya for his family. Three are located in Grozny, in addition, the head of the region has residences in Gudermes and his native Tsentaroy.
These palaces are used by Kadyrov, whose ancestors suffered from the Stalinist terror, not only for peaceful purposes, but for work and expensive receptions. Palaces are also needed for torture. Here is what the son of the kidnapped Zarema Musaeva, Ibragim Yangulbaev, told about the Grozny residence of the head of Chechnya: “I was kidnapped along with my father and brother, taken to the residence, they tortured me, personally Kadyrov tortured me, tortured, beat my father, my older brother, they wanted me protect them, but they were also beaten.” In a conversation with the Agency, Yangulbaev confirmed that it was Kadyrov’s residence in the center of Grozny.
Mikhail Rubin, Mikhail Maglov, Roman Badanin
Original source of article: proekt.media
