According to the revelation video, the former artistic director of the Mikkeli Music Festival has run a foundation whose money has not gone to young artists.
The imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnyin The team has released a revelation video about a conductor who is also familiar to Finns Valery Gergiev.
Gergiev belongs to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin related parties. He is the chief conductor of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and has conducted orchestras in world-famous concert halls.
Navalny’s team found out that Gergiev owns numerous luxury properties and apartments in Italy and the United States. According to the video, the conductor has not disclosed his foreign property to the Russian authorities.
In addition, the Navalny team claims that Gergiev is using the money of a charity bearing his own name as his own.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Gergiev has become unpopular in the West because he has not condemned the Russian attack. Many orchestras are reported (go to another service) that Gergiev is no longer welcome to lead them.
Gergiev also received entry passes for the position of artistic director of the Mikkeli Music Festival.
Luxury apartment in Putin’s resentment in the west
The Navalny team says it began investigations into Gergiev as early as 2019. The team has since abandoned the investigations but returned again recently.
The video begins with Alexei Navalnyi walking down the street in New York in the fall of 2019. At the time, Navalnyi was still at large, and today he is serving years in prison in Russia.
Navalnyi speaks to the camera about creditors working for Putin. He then points to a tall building and says conductor Valery Gergiev has a 165-square-foot apartment in the house.
According to US documents found by the Navalny team, Gergiev bought an apartment in 2004 for more than two million euros. Since then, the value of the apartment has doubled.
The team wanted to make sure, with Gergiev’s autograph, that the conductor would actually own the apartment in New York.
Another presenter of the video Maria Pevtshih went to see a performance led by Gergiev at the La Scala Opera House in Milan and, after the performance, asked the conductor for an autograph. The signature corresponded to the signature of a document found in the U.S. land registry.
According to Navalny, Gergiev has not told the Russians about the apartment because such information would not fit the story of Putin and his entourage about how terrible life in the West is.
The money of the foundation did not go to the young people
According to data from the Italian Trade Register excavated by the team, Gergiev has real estate properties in several Italian cities in addition to his New York apartment.
These include two palaces with a total value of at least EUR 20 million along the Venetian Canal.
In addition, Gergiev’s company only sold several million euros worth of properties in Milan. When all Gergiev’s properties and land in Italy are added together, their value, according to the video, rises to more than 100 million euros.
According to the revelation video, Gergiev also maintains his luxurious lifestyle with money from a charity that bears his own name. The official mission of the foundation is, among other things, to support young, talented artists.
The Navalny Canal says, based on the banking data it investigated, that the St. Petersburg villa and concert hall owned by Gergiev was built with the foundation’s money.
The foundation has received money from, for example, Russian oligarchs and their companies, as well as Russian banks. Supporters have also included Mastercard and Nestlé, for example. Currently, they no longer appear among the sponsors of the foundation website (go to another service).
The conductor’s popularity served as a fog curtain for crime
According to the video, Gergiev has used his international popularity to turn his attention away from the crimes committed by the Putin regime.
Among other things, Navalny’s team tells how Gergiev performed in the Russian invasion of the devastated Georgian city of Tskhinvali in 2008. The conductor also conducted a concert in Palmyra, Syria, in 2016 after Syrian troops backed Isis with Russian airstrikes.
Gergiev is not the only Putin court musician to have allegedly overshadowed his finances.
In 2016, the best way Sergei Roldugin revealed as Putin’s banking arbitrator in the so-called Panama scandal. Roldugin was also a frequent guest at the Mikkeli Music Festival in the past.
According to the leaks, the cellist was listed as the owner of many tax haven companies. Through the companies, power extending to Russian media companies and the defense industry was exercised and tens of millions of euros were circulated.
A revelation video about Gergiev was released in Navalny On Youtube (switching to another service) on tuesday.
The channel has previously published numerous videos on the corruption of Russian politicians and oligarchs. The video about Putin’s alleged palace has received the most attention.