Elite mansions of St. Petersburg: from the Rotenbergs and Timchenko to Tambov figures and Gazprom bosses—how billions and power turn into apartments with Hermitage views

Since March 1, Rosreestr has ceased releasing information on property owners from the Unified State Register.

This is expected to complicate the process of monitoring the wealth of those commonly referred to as top executives and VIPs. After all, housing is one of the clear measures of life success. As a final note, 47news took a look at the owners of elite real estate in St. Petersburg who have given reasons to be talked about.

For instance, house No. 4 on Italianskaya Street has seen many people and events, with the legendary "Stray Dog" in its basement and the Mikhailovsky Theater in the neighboring courtyard. However, recently, attention to this building has been drawn by a legal dispute over a flood involving Anastasia Volochkova and the local homeowners’ association (HOA). Wherever the famous ballerina is, there is always a fiesta of news, meaning interest in her "airiness" won’t be washed away even by heavy communal emergency issues.

If we focus on the flood dispute of the star, the defendant in the lawsuit is not only the association but also Kirill Viktorovich Krutikov. Primarily, this name is associated with the federal developer group "FSK." According to Rosreestr, Krutikov resides on the fifth floor, while Anastasia Yuryevna is on the fourth and third. However, based on January reports from the Dzerzhinsky Court, Volochkova noted that the apartment in the house on Italianskaya is dear to her as a museum exhibit, though she hasn’t lived there for a long time.

In the past, two apartments in this house were owned by Forbes billionaire Alexander Nesis, known for the investment group "IST." Today, the surname Nesis still appears among the owners of square footage in this prestigious building, but now it belongs to women—Maryana and Yulia.

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For a long time, Italianskaya 4 was the official address of the Baltic Construction Company (BSK) of the authoritative businessman Gennady Petrov. Therefore, it’s no surprise that one of the apartments here belongs to Anton Petrov. The name of Petrov Jr. is linked to the development of the jewelry chain "585*Gold."

Relatives of the late Yeltsin-era Minister of Railways Nikolai Aksenenko can also be found here, as well as the unexpectedly deceased Sergei Amelin, who controlled the construction empire "Stroyimpuls" ten years ago.

The residential complex "Fifth Element" on Krestovsky Island has been part of the history of elite real estate in St. Petersburg for twenty years. It is located on the territory of Primorsky Victory Park, right by the Southern Pond, on the site of the former "Vostok" restaurant. However, over all this time, the building has not ceased to be an apart-hotel. Although prestigious real estate websites continue to lure potential buyers with advertisements about "maximally comfortable living spaces," according to the legally precise wording of Rosreestr, there are no apartments here, only premises with abbreviations like "room L6-N" or "room 17-N."

Nevertheless, the spaces in "Fifth Element" are quite voluminous, and their owners are well-known individuals, not only in St. Petersburg. For example, the owner of two premises with the possibility of permanent residence is Sadigov Famil Kamil ogly. The Deputy Chairman of the Board of PJSC "Gazprom" has been overseeing the financial and economic issues of the monopoly since 2019.

Another owner of square footage in this complex hotel is Khachaturova Vasilisa Danilovna. In this name, one can recognize the daughter of the ex-president of "Rosgosstrakh" Danila Khachaturov and fashion designer Ulyana Sergeenko. Nearby is Tatyana Naginskaya, associated with the construction holding "Titan-2," as well as Dmitry Stolov, whose name is clearly linked to advertising in the St. Petersburg metro and beyond.

The "Fifth Element" itself is a project by the developer "Stroymontazh" of Artur Kirilenko and Sergey Polonsky. The corporation went bankrupt, unable to survive the 2008-2009 crisis. Sergey "if you don’t have a billion..." Polonsky, according to the latest news, is in Dubai, while his ex-partner Artur Kirilenko still owns several premises in the house by the Southern Pond. St. Petersburg is a metropolis, but small enough that it sometimes feels like prominent figures of big business simply move from one status condominium to another.

For example, the prestigious four-story building with the beautiful address Fontanka River Embankment, 1. Here, Rosreestr lists an apartment belonging to Nikolai Dobrinov—vice president of Alexander Nesis’s "IST" group mentioned in the paragraph about Italianskaya 4. Also here is the apartment of Tamara Stepashina, the wife of the ex-chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, chairman of the board of directors of the "Imperial Porcelain Factory" Galina Tsvetkova, former vice-governor of Yugra Vyacheslav Novitsky, and ex-head of the "Baltic Shipyard" Oleg Shulyakovsky.

The "House on Fontanka" near the Engineer Castle is the flagship project of "Corporation S." The letter "S" in the name is commonly associated with the surnames Sokolov Maxim, Sopromadze Vasily, and Sergeenko Nikolai. Maxim Sokolov, who after working on St. Petersburg construction projects also served in Smolny and managed the Ministry of Transport, now heads "AvtoVAZ" and is no longer officially on Fontanka. Now, the sole owner of the apartment in the house is his wife, Anzhelika Ryskova.

Berezovaya Alley, 19. Look! Suspicious faces! Who is joining the most powerful citadel of St. Petersburg

The most powerful house in St. Petersburg is undoubtedly the residential complex "Berezovaya Alley, 19" on Kamenny Island. Much has been written about those who own the spaces of this citadel of absolute success. Closing out 2022, it can be noted that the composition of the property owners here has hardly changed. Every surname signifies influence and recognition: Arkady Rotenberg, Gennady Timchenko, Sergey Fursenko, Nikolai Shamalov, Yuri Kovalchuk, Taimuraz Bolloev, Vasily Shestakov. But for such power, "hardly" means a lot. It so happened that one of the apartments on Berezovaya 19 is now under arrest, and it all started on February 24.

On that very date, a three-story apartment No. 12 in this, in every sense, complex, was visited by the Moscow FSB for a lengthy search. The story of the new tenant, Dmitry Sokolov, is intertwined with the well-known case of Russia’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, WEX. After the unpleasant incident, the owner of 479 square meters briefly remained a witness and then disappeared. No one has been able to find Dmitry, whose brief drama we recently recounted.

The address 2nd Berezovaya Alley, 19 is also listed on the website of the St. Petersburg real estate agency Engel&Volkers. A buyer is sought for 4 bedrooms in a residence with a total area of 420 square meters. This offer has been up for three years. As "Fontanka" wrote, these are the apartments of Sergey Kolesnikov. The emigrant entrepreneur became known for mentioning a construction project near Gelendzhik in an open letter to President Medvedev in 2010. It should be noted that Sergey Kolesnikov owns two townhouse apartments in this famous building.

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Additionally, about a year ago, journalists’ attention was drawn to a rental listing for an apartment in this house. It was published on the same Engel&Volkers website. For 700,000 rubles a month, one could live in a four-story apartment of 447 square meters, where, for instance, one could pass the time on an Italian designer chaise lounge covered in gold foil. The owner is a luxurious lady, but she is unrelated to the Rotenberg-Shestakov list.

Of course, the king is played by his retinue. The royal corner on Berezovaya 19 is surrounded by four-story residential blocks of the Berezovaya Alley 13-15 quarter. Their residents underscore the primacy of the main place.

Thus, these walls can be called home for the heirs of billionaire Alexey Sargin, who unexpectedly passed away six years ago while vacationing at a hotel in Dubai. He went through a lot, was on the wanted list during the raider madness of the early 2000s, and amassed much—one of the well-known assets of the businessman was JSC "House of Fashion," owning the eponymous center on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. Sargin’s story was closely tied to the biography of the powerful "Tambov" hero of the 90s chronicles, Vasily Vladykovsky.

Several apartments on Berezovaya 13-15 are owned by the surnames Gvichia, Shcherbakovsky, and Buchin. Together, they are associated with the "Stepan Razin Beer Combine" during the period of its sale to the Dutch "Heineken." The latest news about Gia Gvichia is only related to the tinting, which was ruthlessly removed from his Rolls-Royce during a demonstrative traffic police raid. How far we’ve fallen.
The surname Georgy Korzhavin refers to shipboard radio-electronic systems of the federal concern "Granit-Electron." What kind of acoustics must be in a two-story apartment of 300 square meters.

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With abundance, especially during pre-election campaigns for the St. Petersburg parliament, another person from the residential complex on Berezovaya Alley 13-15 is often mentioned in the city—businessman Maxim Dolgopolov. The entrepreneur’s political credo changes at the speed of a weather vane in gusty winds. He pledged allegiance to "United Russia," took on "Right Cause," briefly oversaw the local LDPR, and later found himself in "A Just Russia." And in the late 2000s, he spent some time in a Dubai prison.

Mentioning "A Just Russia," which is now also "For Truth," it can be noted that the wife of the leader of this political entity, Sergey Mironov, is also drawn to this residential complex on Kamenny Island. In a way, house 13-15 on Berezovaya can be called a former vice-governor’s residence. For example, among the apartment owners, one can find the surnames Rashid Ismagilov and Sergey Kozyrev.

The year 2022 was marked for the prestigious house by a loss. In November, Dmitry Kozharsky, president of the fishing company FOR GROUP and a member of the council of the All-Russian Association of Fishery Industrialists, died in a car accident. He was known not only as a fishing business shark but also as a businessman interested in real estate in the historical center of St. Petersburg. However, perhaps the main difference between the powerful house No. 19 on Berezovaya Alley and the neighboring ultra-prestigious one is that some apartments in the residential blocks No. 13-15 bear the burden of a mortgage. It so happens that the people from "nineteen" can do without such petty concerns.

From Miller to Cosmic Asya. The Best View of St. Petersburg if You Live in Gazprom Dorm

The building on Mytninskaya Embankment, 5, is not a veteran in the St. Petersburg elite residential real estate market. This is because, until the mid-2000s, this house was excessively residential and known as the "Dorm on Mytna." What a Soviet and Russian student shelter is like is clear, even if it’s from the prestigious LSU-SPbU: "We don’t sleep in the dorm because we want to eat."

But today, both the residential building and the neighboring business center are considered among the most modern in Russia in terms of technical solutions. Authentication by iris scanning is, for the current "Mytna," just a first-year introductory lecture. And the view from these windows has always been one of the most luxurious: on one side—Petropavlovka, on the other—the Stock Exchange, and across the Neva—the Hermitage. Indeed, it’s one of the best views in the world.

In rubles, the market values this roughly as follows: for each monument visible from the window—about 10 million. With a discount or through connections—about 8 million.

The high-tech architecture made headlines a few years ago when journalists found a gigantic apartment belonging to Alexey Miller on Mytninskaya, allegedly created by combining six less colossal ones. Today, according to the Unified State Register, the owner of these almost 1,400 square meters on the attic top is not specified. But the neighboring apartment of 190 square meters is registered to a person with a name identical to the head of "Gazprom."

In our house on the embankment, there are just a couple of dozen apartments. Minus the thirteenth. An unlucky number is often avoided in elite housing. They’re superstitious. If you go a bit lower, among Miller’s neighbors, you can see Alexander Bobkov. But this top manager viewed St. Petersburg from special heights. He oversaw the Gazprom skyscraper "Lakhta Center" back when it was still "Okhta." Also here is Elena Ilyukhina. She also led the implementation of the "Lakhta Center" project. Her area of responsibility includes not only legal and corporate issues of "Gazprom Neft" but also a seat on the board of the football club "Zenit."

Another Gazprom trace in the super-house is Andrey Kruglov. He has been a deputy chairman of the monopoly’s board since 2004, from the time when students were just being resettled from the dormitory on Mytninskaya (some closer to Vasilyevsky Island, others to remote areas like Peterhof). Kruglov was on Gazprom’s board until 2019, when he was appointed deputy minister of finance of the Russian Federation.

Also here are nearly 300 square meters belonging to Borisova Asya. The biographical twists of "Cosmic Asya" were playfully described by "Fontanka" when her management company "Credo" won a tender to build the Supreme Court complex. This is the one nearby, on Tuchkov Buyan. It all started in the late 80s with a cool buffet at the "Cosmos" bar. Then came antique salons in "Passazh," "Astoria," and the grand hotel "Europe." And in 2004, the president awarded her a state prize for creating the state complex "Congress Palace," that is, his residence in Strelna. It’s logical and plausible.

The media mentioned her acquaintance with the former deputy head of the Presidential Property Management Department, Ivan Malyushin. This surname can also be found among the owners of "Mytna." There are many Orlovs in Russia, fewer Romanoviches, and with the name Arseny—it’s already a rarity. A couple of years ago, a story raced through St. Petersburg’s news field at Telegram speed about a fruit businessman with the same name who crashed his 20-million-ruble Ferrari Portofino on Petrogradka. Almost 200 elite square meters to an expensive sports car—quite a gentleman’s set.
The transformation of the old student housing into ultra-modern residences was handled by the "LSR" group. Therefore, seeing the name and surname of Elizaveta Molchanova among the apartment owners on Mytninskaya 5 is logical.

As for neighbors, there are close ones, say, from the same entrance, and there are those not quite so close. For example, from the house next door. It’s clear that near "Mytna," the residents are also not ordinary people. So, in the third house, one of the apartments belongs to Rina Vosman—business partner and wife of the well-known but now ostracized Oleg Tinkov. (Tinkov is selling another of his apartments with a view of the Admiralty.) And from the windows of his wife, the view is almost the same—on the "Flying Dutchman" with Petropavlovka, though the roof is different.

From Sobchak to Von Messing, from Boyarsky to Tambov. How the Iconic House on Moyka Has Changed

Moyka, 31—this is six floors and five entrances just a minute from Palace Square. The house has long had a reputation for prestige, but on a layman’s level, its status fluctuates between two noble lineages: Boyarsky—Sobchak.

Yet, multi-apartment living implies a somewhat larger number of residential spaces than just a couple. There are about fifty here. There are even more windows, and on Moyka 31, they must have excellent sound insulation. Here is the turn into the Winter Canal. During the white nights, the concentration of river trams at this fork is off the charts. This means that from every deck, the guide must shout to the "esteemed guests" about how the dying Pushkin asked for soaked cloudberries (the poet passed away in the house opposite), warn about the dangerous dimensions of the 2nd Winter Bridge, and then inform about the residence of the country’s honored D’Artagnan and the main figure of "heavy luxury." And so, non-stop all summer. Mikhail Sergeevich with Larisa Reginaldowna Luppiyan, actress-daughter Elizaveta, and deputy-son Sergey continue to be anchor residents. And it’s not just the family’s 183 square meters on the first floor. Owner Boyarsky also has two smaller residential spaces, also on the first floor.

As for neighborly eccentricities, the Boyarsky youth could hardly have tapped on the radiators with young Ksyusha. The future and only mayor Anatoly Sobchak, his wife Lyudmila Narusova, and 9-year-old Ksyusha moved into a former communal apartment only in 1990. Their floor is the fourth. The St. Petersburg top family relocated to the center from the new buildings of Prosveshchenie. Both Lyudmila Borisovna and Ksenia Anatolyevna remain among the residents of this wonderful house.

Officially, the closest neighbor of the Boyarskys is Elizabeth Elena Von Messing. The pile-up of German-Courland names shouldn’t confuse. As "Fontanka" has repeatedly written, under this name, the incomparable Elena Skorodumova, known as Pomidorikha, has been arrested multiple times, though she despises the nickname. St. Petersburg’s roguery of Elena grew into an international detective story, and her news trails are lost in Finland. The apartment next to the Boyarskys on Moyka is not the only one for Von Messing. Among the local old-timers is the family of Ivan Uralov, also a dynasty—artistic. There is much of the monumentalist Uralov in St. Petersburg—he is in metro stations, concert halls, churches, and libraries. He became the chief artist of the city under Sobchak and ceased to be so during early Matvienko’s time. Later, the artist Uralov heard much criticism from investor-St. Petersburg for the tower on Okhta, the skating rink on Palace Square, and the floating fountain at Vasilyevsky Spit.

It can be said that the residents of Moyka 31 gravitate toward a certain isolation; within, there are their own agglomerations. For example, one of the largest owners of square footage in the historic building is Elena Karisalova. On the second floor, she owns three apartments at once. The Leningrad-born Muscovite Elena is known not only as the founder of the cultural fund Still Art but also as the wife of the general director of the petrochemical SIBUR, Mikhail Karisalov.