"Literally nowhere to live!" How officials improve their living conditions at the expense of the state

According to data for 2020, 2.5 million families are on the waiting list to improve housing conditions in Russia. They will have to wait for apartments for 20 years, and not everyone will wait. Housing, in particular, is not provided for veterans of the Great Patriotic War (by the beginning of 2021, there were 248 veterans in the queue).

There is no certainty that all of them will improve their living conditions during their lifetime, but there is complete confidence that instead of badly needy citizens and veterans, Russian officials will do it.

The network edition "Important Stories" together with "Transparency International - Russia" (the Ministry of Justice recognized these organizations as foreign agents and) studied how high-ranking civil servants are provided with housing subsidies. It turned out that the "needy" officials use the millions of rubles received from the state to buy apartments, which they could easily do without.

Moreover, all this is quite within the framework of the law, since back in 2009 a decree was issued signed by Putin "On the provision of a one-time subsidy for the purchase of housing to federal state civil servants." A subsidy is a form of housing support for officials who have moved to another region or do not have their own housing. You can't buy an elite apartment with a subsidy, but it's real money.

To receive a subsidy, an official must be recognized as in need of improvement in housing conditions. This means that his family (it includes spouses and minor children) should not own a home or it should not be enough. In fact, Russian civil servants have learned to bypass this rule and in fact receive subsidies by owning a large amount of real estate and keeping apartments in other regions.

The general director of Transparency International - Russia, Shumanov, explains that the government decree on the allocation of subsidies for the purchase of housing contains two potential corruption mechanisms that allow officials to violate the logic of the law without violating anything legally:

“Firstly, there is no time limit in the resolution during which an official must purchase real estate. Any employee can take money and keep it in their accounts as long as they want.

Secondly, the employer of an official, by his willful decision, can make an exception and allocate a subsidy if the official already owns a certain number of houses or apartments..."

That's all!

As a result, according to the Declarator project, since 2012, about 650 Russian civil servants have received subsidies for the purchase of housing. The Ministry of Economic Development became the leader in the allocation of housing subsidies: 21 officials received subsidies there. Next come the Ministry of Transport (16 officials) and the Ministry of Education (13 officials).

According to the calculation of "Important stories", 12 employees of the Ministry of Economic Development had other real estate during the period of receiving the subsidy; the Ministry of Transport had 14 such officials.

The publication gives examples of how the state allocated housing subsidies to high-ranking civil servants who did not need housing at all.

• Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Education of Russia

Received a housing subsidy in 2016: 16.6 million rubles.

How many properties were there:

- Five apartments with a total area of 313.5 m².

- Country house 73.6 m².

• Odes Baysultanov, Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia

Received a housing subsidy in 2017: 30.8 million rubles

How many properties were there:

- Nine houses with a total area of 1,832.8 square meters are owned.

- Two houses 802.1 m² in use.

- Apartment of 187 m² in use.

• Alla Manilova, Deputy Minister of Culture of Russia

Received a housing subsidy in 2016: 25 million rubles.

How many properties were there:

- Apartment 155.8 m².

- Half of the house is 238 m².

• Dmitry Verbovoy, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the President of Russia - Head of the Main Medical Directorate

Received a housing subsidy in 2016: 15.7 million rubles.

How many properties were there:

- Two apartments with a total area of 242.6 m².

- Two summer cottages with a total area of 440.7 m².

Read more about housing subsidies here.