New Russian PM’s unexplained wealth
The new Russian prime minister became mired in corruption allegations after less than a day in the role when newly discovered documents showed that his wife has acquired a substantial fortune and that the couple live in a luxury property near Moscow.
Mikhail Mishustin, a previously obscure tax official, was handpicked by President Vladimir Putin and voted in by the Russian parliament yesterday.
According to papers published by Alexei Navalny, a critic of the Kremlin, Mishustin’s wife, Vladlena, declared an income of almost 800 million roubles (NZ$20m) over the past nine years, despite not appearing to own a business or have a job.
Mishustin, 53, who has been a civil servant since 1998, was named head of the tax service in 2010, a post he held until he was unexpectedly promoted to prime minister. Most Russians had never heard of him.
Putin made another surprise move on Thursday when he called for a referendum on changes to the country’s constitution to increase the power of parliament and the state council, an advisory body to the Kremlin. The move is widely interpreted as an attempt to prolong Putin’s rule indefinitely when his final term of office expires in 2024. He first became president on New Year’s Eve 1999 and shifted to the role of prime minister from 2008 to 2012 to sidestep constitutional tenure limits.
Navalny, 43, the most wellknown opposition figure in Russia, suggested that Vladlena Mishustin’s sudden wealth was connected to her husband’s position as head of the tax service. Russian anti-corruption activists often accuse officials of seeking to hide illicit earnings by passing them off as the incomes of family members.
‘‘Mishustin is obliged to explain to people who work decades, earning half a million roubles a year, if they are lucky, how his wife earned 320 times more. What does she do? Does she work? Invest? If so, where?’’ Navalny said.
‘‘It’s clear to anyone that if someone earns almost half a billion roubles honestly in business, then evidence of that business should be easy to discover.’’
The Mishustins did not comment on the allegations yesterday. There is almost no publicly available information about Mishustin, whose first name is short for Vladimir Lenin.
The couple are also believed to own a property worth 600 million roubles in an elite residential area called Cotton Way near Moscow.
Proekt, an investigative journalism website, said the
Mishustins were registered as owners of the 900-square-metre house between 2001-2005. Since then, the property has been listed as belonging to the ‘‘Russian Federation.’’
According to Mishustin’s 2018 tax returns, neither he nor his wife owns any property.
Since 2017 the Federal Registration Service, which Mishustin headed in 2004-06, has had the right to reveal the identities of property owners. ‘‘Russian Federation’’ has been used, anti-corruption activists argue, to disguise the ownership of other luxury properties belonging to Kremlin-linked officials.
Mishustin, who has played ice hockey with Putin, will be expected to try to improve the Russian leader’s ratings, which have sunk to a record low. He will be responsible for spending a financial package worth about NZ$630 billion, which the Kremlin hopes will boost an economy that has been dogged by western sanctions.
Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister and head of the audit chamber, estimated this week that corruption had cost Russia trillions of roubles in recent years.
Russians also discovered to their astonishment yesterday that Mishustin was said to have secretly composed the music for Grigory Leps, one of the country’s biggest pop stars.
Vedomosti, a business newspaper, reported that Mishustin wrote the melodies for two of Leps’ hits. The songs, entitled Zola and Real Woman, were released in 2011 and 2016 and are credited to an M Mishustin.
Alexander Vulikh, who wrote the lyrics for Zola, told Vedomosti that the new prime minister had composed the music for both songs.
Two of Mishustin’s friends also confirmed he was the author. Herman Gref, a former economics minister, disclosed in 2012 that Mishustin had composed a number of hit songs.
Sources say that Mishustin prefers not to publicise his sideline and Leps, 57, denied that he had ever worked with the new prime minister. ‘‘Politicians should do politics,’’ Leps said.
It also emerged that Putin, 67, has entrusted the drawing up of sweeping changes to Russia’s constitution to a working group that contains an action film star and a Olympic pole vaulter.
Dmitry Medvedev had held the post of prime minister since 2012. He and his entire government resigned shortly after Putin’s speech on Thursday. Medvedev, 54, said the move was aimed at smoothing the way for Putin’s constitutional amendments.
The working group that will be responsible for the changes to the constitution is made up of 75 people, only 11 of whom have a legal background.
Among the more famous names is Vladimir Mashkov, an actor who played a Russian intelligence agent in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the Hollywood film starring Tom Cruise. Mashkov, 56, is a member of Putin’s ruling United Russia party.
Yelena Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, is also among Putin’s constitutional experts. Others in the group include a well-known pianist, a Cossack leader, and a nationalist author.
– The Times