Last Friday, Meduza correspondent and leading investigative journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested on drugs charges. He is suspected of selling drugs on a large scale. During arrest, police planted several packets of mephedrone on him, and then allegedly found further substances at his home address. After these searches, Golunov was beaten and not permitted contact with his solicitor. Amidst a backlash of protest and solidarity, he has since been released on house arrest.

Golunov has conducted dozens of investigations into opaque and shady businesses run by Russia's public officials. As a gesture of solidarity, we are taking up Meduza's offer to republish this work - and present Golunov's January 2019 investigation into property owned by Moscow deputy mayor Pyotr Biriukov and his family.

Legend of Tsvetnoy housing complex, Moscow | Source: YouTube / of.ru

December 22, 2015, was a good day for the sales managers at the elite “Legend of Tsvetnoy” residential complex in Moscow.

That day, somebody bought nine of the ten apartments on the top two floors of the central tower — enormous homes with panoramic glass windows and a view of the Kremlin that (in the developer’s words) “erases the boundaries between man and city, opening up the possibility of enjoying an unlimited view of the capital.”

The total value of the apartments, according to Russia's public registry, is more than 820 million rubles ($12.4 million). Based on the prices of similar penthouses in the Legend of Tsvetnoy, their market value could be as high as 1.6 billion rubles ($24.2 million).

Meduza has learned that all nine of the penthouses were purchased by family members of Moscow Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov, who has managed the city’s municipal services system for more than a decade.

According to Federal State Registration Service records, four of the apartments belong to Biryukov’s oldest daughter, 46-year-old Irina Biryukova; two are registered in the name of his 41-year-old son, Alexander Biryukov; and another three belong to Alexander’s wife, 31-year-old Ekaterina Biryukova. Put together, the Biryukovs’ penthouses cover more than 17,220 square feet (twice as much as the palatial Eliseevsky store on Tverskaya Street in Moscow).

A real-estate development holding company called “Capital Group” built and owns the “Legend of Tsvetnoy.” In 2015, it so happens that companies linked to Capital Group were hired for some of the biggest contracts awarded in Moscow’s beautification program, which Biryukov supervised. For example, Meduza calculates that Capital Group entities received contracts for the “My Street” campaign worth almost 21.5 billion rubles ($324,900).