In December 2022, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zaharova, purchased a 151 square meter apartment in a historic building on Bolshaya Dmitrovka street, located in the center of Moscow. According to the website Explainer, which cites data from real estate registries, bank and tax database leaks, as well as public sources, the official value of the transaction was 100,450,938 rubles (approximately 980,000 euros).
The apartment is located on the top floor (fifth) of the building known as the Income House of the Moscow Society of Mortgage Guarantee — a federal architectural monument, located right across from the headquarters of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. According to estimates by Explainer, the market value of similar apartments in that building is around 160 million rubles (approximately 1.56 million euros).
According to the extract obtained from the Russian cadastral register (Rosreestr), as of December 28, 2022, the registered buyer was the Russian state itself — “Russian Federation”. Subsequently, on April 12, 2023, a note appears in the register regarding the “donation” of the property — again to the “Russian Federation”. However, internal documents consulted by journalists show that in reality, the buyer was Maria Zaharova herself, and in October 2023, the apartment was registered in the name of her father, Vladimir Zaharov — a former diplomat and employee of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1980 and 2014.
Details, HERE
