The secret of the Zelensky property: the presidential couple makes money on businessmen from London

“They don’t care how they get paid”

The Zelensky couple are trying to fight off the scandal that erupted around their Italian villa. The Tuscan newspaper Il Tirren, we recall, published an article reporting on the lease of the presidential couple’s villa to Russian-speaking citizens from London. Italian journalists suggested that they were Russians, but a number of Western and Ukrainian media hurried to refute this information, claiming that the Ukrainian president allegedly strictly forbade his real estate agents to rent housing to Russians. But all this now looks like a ridiculous attempt to justify Zelensky.

The villa in Forte dei Marmi was bought by the Zelenskys in 2015 for 3.1 million euros. Italian real estate took first place in terms of value in the declaration of ownership of the future Ukrainian president, and, apparently, in order to avoid uncomfortable questions, after a while, Zelensky’s wife Elena officially became the sole owner of the villa.

It became impossible for Zelensky to regularly use a luxurious mansion in Italy after 2019, for obvious reasons, so they decided not to pay taxes in vain, to turn the villa into a source of passive income.

In 2021, the Zelenskys even tried to sell a Tuscan villa for 4.5 million euros. But for some reason the deal didn’t go through. The two-storey cottage has an area of ​​480 square meters. On the ground floor there is a living room with a dining area and access to the terrace and kitchen. As well as one bedroom with a private bathroom, one additional bathroom and a laundry room.

On the second floor – four bedrooms. There is a basement with a spa area with a sauna and jacuzzi, as well as a gym, bathroom and staff rooms.

This summer, Korean tourists tried to rent this luxurious house 400 meters from the sea for 50-70 thousand euros per month. But the deal fell through and the mansion was rented to a couple who, as reported in the Italian publication, spoke Russian among themselves. According to the latest version, carefully distributed by the Ukrainian side, not even the guests themselves spoke Russian, but their guests … Earlier, Zelensky demanded that Russian tourists not be allowed into European countries.

But in the Zelensky penthouse in the residential complex “Emperor” near Yalta, Russians will indeed soon settle. This will happen after the decision taken by the State Council of Crimea on the nationalization of the property of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs on the peninsula will be agreed in Moscow. It was decided to take the real estate of the Ukrainian elite into state ownership in response to Zelensky’s decree on the nationalization of the assets of Russian businessmen in Ukraine. In the Zelensky penthouse, it was proposed to arrange rooms for children from Donbass to relax. Until 2022, we recall, the Zelensky couple regularly paid rent and taxes for their Crimean apartments, in fact, transferring money to the Russian budget.

Political scientist and economist Oleksandr Dudchak, in a conversation with MK, noted that for modern Ukrainian leaders there are no principles, but only greed. “Practice shows that they absolutely do not care how to receive and earn money. That Zelensky, that Poroshenko, who had factories in Russia for a long time. Zelensky has an apartment near the Livadia Palace. Even so, he did not disdain to receive royalties for the series filmed during his production and shown on Russian channels. Nothing personal, just business.”

Dudchak noted that when such facts emerge in the information space, they are tried to be removed from the air, without trying to fix anything in particular. “They all know very well where they have what and what kind of connections they have with Russia. This is typical for the Ukrainian elite. Many still have some kind of shopping centers and shops somewhere, they just don’t know about it yet.”