Navalny team reveals former Donetsk militia leader has luxury apartment in Dubai
Alexander Borodai, the former leader of the Kremlin-controlled authorities in the part of Donetsk Oblast currently not under Ukrainian government control, secretly owns a luxury property in Dubai, according to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s investigative team.
Borodai owns a 104 square meter luxury apartment in Grandeur Residences, an ostentatious residential complex on the crescent of Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, Navalny’s team said.
The private property is just 40 meters away from the Persian Gulf, with a private beach in close proximity. The residential complex also boasts its own swimming pool, encircled by palm trees. A property in Grandeur Residences is estimated to be worth almost EUR 500,000.
Borodai purchased the Dubai property in 2015 after he had left the non-government-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, investigators said. He did not declare his newly-purchased property, although under the Russian law he is obliged to indicate all of his property’s value and the origin of the funds used to acquire it.
Borodai’s tax declaration only includes a Lexus, properties in Russia, and zero income.
Borodai was one of the first self-proclaimed leaders of the non-government-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast. He was removed from office shortly after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 flight in 2014, as was his comrade-in-arms Igor Girkin, his self-proclaimed “Defense Minister.”
Girkin is now on trial in absentia in The Hauge, the Netherlands, for his involvement in the tragic plane crash.
Borodai then moved to Russia and joined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, and was soon elected a member of the Russian parliament.
The investigative team led by Navalny, a prominent Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, exposes high-level corruption in Russia. Previously, on Jan. 19, 2021, it released the documentary “Putin’s Palace” on a lavish palace complex on Russia’s Black Sea coast allegedly belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That was two days after Navalny himself had returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been receiving treatment after being poisoned in Russia in August 2020 by a Russian “novichok” nerve agent.
A subsequent investigation by the Bellingcat investigative team revealed that Navalny had been trailed by FSB agents before his poisoning, and that the deadly substance used to poison him had been applied to his underpants.
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