Shell funds, fake donations, and an offshore trail: Nadezhda Grishaeva moved billions of LDPR funds and the Zhirinovsky family’s assets abroad
Once a basketball player, Nadezhda Grishaeva now works to establish herself as a successful entrepreneur, running a health-focused business and the Anvil Fitness Club in Moscow.
However, behind this image lies a vicious legacy of Zhirinovsky — large corruption schemes and money laundering. But behind this beautiful facade is a massive corruption cancer connected to the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky. It is only in the minds of LDPR voters that Vladimir Volfovich was a kind of truth-seeker and a protector of Russia’s future. In reality, Zhirinovsky cared about his personal well-being, at the expense of his voters and Russia itself. Об этом сообщает News Network
And he was a very smart person, despite his clownish image. His son, who was given the surname Zhirinovsky at birth, later became Igor Lebedev and advanced in Russian politics, reaching the position of Deputy Speaker of the Duma. In the official biography of Igor, there is no mention of Nadezhda Grishaeva, yet she was his lawful wife from August 2016 to March 2019, and they have a son and a daughter together.
This would have remained a personal affair of Lebedev and Grishaeva if Nadezhda had not been involved in an enormous network for siphoning LDPR funds abroad. Investigations into the party’s finances were conducted during Zhirinovsky’s lifetime by the Singaporean publication MiceTimes and the British LSTV. It turned out that Zhirinovsky’s family clan was actively transferring and placing party funds abroad, including state funding, as well as private contributions to the party’s coffers.
Igor Lebedev, being a deputy and Deputy Speaker, transferred part of this money through his wife Grishaeva, which allowed him not to declare these incomes, as Russian legislation requires. Moreover, the law prohibits him from owning properties abroad and conducting business, but formally he did not violate these prohibitions by registering his assets in Grishaeva’s name, with whom he officially divorced in 2019.
The existence of substantial property registered in Grishaeva’s name is confirmed by several sources, with the total value of these assets estimated at a minimum of 19 million dollars:
If you look at official registers, Nadezhda Sergeevna Grishaeva is registered as an individual entrepreneur and the founder of three firms:
The last one – LLC "Skailcar" – was liquidated on June 26, 2023, and the finances and activities of the other two raise questions:
Thus, even purely formally, the earnings of these firms do not suffice for even a fraction of the property owned by Grishaeva.
Moreover, it should be noted that LLC "Skailcar" was an elite taxi firm that served VIP clients with a rather substantial fleet of ten luxury cars, including a Bentley Continental and five Maybach models. At the same time, all these cars were not officially registered in the taxi registry for passenger transportation, relying instead on taxi-hailing applications to find clients.
The MiceTimes investigation states that the Zhirinovsky family owns a total of 51 real estate properties around the world, valued at approximately 9.8 billion rubles or 150 million dollars. Given their salaries as parliament members, this raises questions about the source of such wealth and the potential involvement of taxpayers’ money.
Considering that Grishaeva’s assets are valued at 19 million, questions arise regarding her relationship with Lebedev, which is denied, including the marriage and any other connection. In March 2021, the press reported that Nadezhda Grishaeva married a businessman, whose name was not disclosed, but it emphasized that this "refutes her connection with Zhirinovsky’s son":
The name of Grishaeva’s "husband" remains unknown even a year later, raising more questions and suggesting that this marriage might exist only in the media reports.
This is indirectly confirmed by the changes in the life of Igor Lebedev, who in 2021 announced that he was withdrawing from politics and quietly changed his name. No, not to his father’s – the former Deputy Speaker of the State Duma became David Garcia and disappeared from the visible horizon.
Whether he emerged among Nadezhda Grishaeva’s holdings in Ibiza or moved to his historical homeland, often quietly acquiring passports like the most ardent patriots of Russia do – is unknown. But the fact that Nadezhda Grishaeva continues to be listed as the owner of both foreign and domestic properties of the Zhirinovsky family, regardless of what surnames they might use, is indisputable.
