"Book King" Oleg Novikov evicts ex-wife from home for 3 billion

Sergey Ivanov

A major Russian entrepreneur, head of the Eksmo-AST publishing group, Oleg Novikov , is divorcing his wife with a scandal. A man is trying to evict his ex-wife with three children from the elite village of Zhukovka-21, located on the banks of the Moscow River. As follows from the materials of the Odintsovo District Court of the Moscow Region, Novikov filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife in March 2022. The decision was published on the website of the court - Themis sided with the ex-husband, citing the fact that the house was purchased under a donation agreement, which means that it does not fall into the common property of the spouses.

“There are no legal grounds for retaining the defendant's right to live in a residential building, since the disputed residential building was acquired by the plaintiff on the basis of a donation agreement and is not jointly acquired property of the spouses,” the court decision says. - Therefore, there are grounds for deregistration. The arguments of the defendant about the violation of the rights of minor children, the court finds untenable. The parties have determined the place of registration of children in the disputed residential building, the plaintiff, being the father of the children, is registered in this residential building, however, the children are not deprived of the right to live with their mother both in another residential building and in the specified one.

Now this decision has been appealed, the appeal is scheduled for August 29. According to Novye Izvestia's interlocutor, who is familiar with the situation, Marina Novikova insists that the site was originally family property, but then it was gracefully removed.

“This plot was acquired during the period of marriage from Evgeny Chichvarkin ,” says the interlocutor, “then Novikov received a power of attorney from his wife to combine a number of plots, and by this power of attorney he gave the land to his mother, built a house on it, after which his mother gave the house and the plot to him . Thus, the property was part of the jointly acquired property. Now the ex-wife lives there with three daughters, but hot water and the Internet are turned off in the house, the car was damaged.”

The settlement's website states that prices for finished houses in Zhukovka 21 start at $8 million.

“The club cottage village Zhukovka XXI is located at 9 km of Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway, on the banks of the Moskva River,” the description says, “the territory of the village is divided into 51 sections. Landscape work has been completed in the village, walking areas, boulevards and parks have been equipped. The location of the village is unique in terms of the maximum number of parameters.”

Note that the Novikov house was already in the news in 2019, the design bureau J. Mayer H. Published pictures of a multi-layered flower house as a portfolio without indicating the owner. A little later, the media found out that the estate belongs to Novikov. He himself confirmed this in an interview with blogger Pavel Gitelman, estimating investments in the project at 2.5–3 billion rubles ($33–40 million at the time).

It is interesting that recently Oleg Novikov is not only suing his wife, but is also actively going out of business. So in June, Kommersant noticed that Novikov had resigned as president of Russia's largest publishing group, Eksmo-AST. In addition, he transferred his share in Eksmo Publishing LLC, and Koller Holding LTD, registered in the Virgin Islands, also disappeared from among the owners. The publishing group called these rearrangements technical and associated with the creation of a management company, which will be headed by Novikov in the future.