Kremlin’s top brass & Russian officials release their 2016 earnings
Minister of North Caucasus affairs, Lev Kuznetsov, has become the richest member of the Russian government. According to tax returns, he earned 582 million rubles (over $10 million) last year, 12 times more than in 2015.
The press service of the Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs told Interfax that Kuznetsov’s earnings grew due to enhanced income from deposits, as well as the sale of expensive real estate in Moscow.
The income of the minister’s spouse grew threefold in 2016, from 10.9 million rubles in 2015 to 32.7 million rubles ($580,000). As a result, the Kuznetsov family’s total income amounted to 614 million rubles ($10,899 million) last year, the most for any family of Russian government officials.
In contrast, the “poorest” member of the Russian government, Minister of Agriculture Aleksandr Tkachev, earned “only” 5.6 million rubles (about $100,000) in 2016.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev earned 8.6 million rubles ($153,000) in 2016, according to his tax return, which was posted on the official government website. This is nearly 181,000 rubles ($3,200) less than in 2015, when Medvedev’s earnings totaled 8.8 million rubles ($156,000).
According to the return, the Russian prime minister’s monthly salary amounted to some 715,000 rubles ($12,700) last year.
Medvedev’s income decreased due to a reduction in interest from bank deposits, the Russian government’s press service explained.
Medvedev owns a 367.8-square-meter apartment and leases a 47-acre plot of land.
He also has two vintage cars: a 1948 Soviet GAZ-20 Pobeda and a 1962 GAZ-21 Volga.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earned 8.858 million rubles ($157,712) in 2016, down 33,000 rubles ($591) from 2015, according to the tax return posted on the Kremlin’s official website.
Last year, Putin’s monthly income amounted to 738,000 rubles ($13,178), down from around 741,000 rubles ($13,232) in 2015.
The president also declared ownership of a tract of land (1,500 square meters), two apartments of 77 square meters and 153.7 square meters, and a garage (18 square meters). All of the president’s declared property is in Russia.
Among Putin’s official assets are two vintage Volga cars, a four-wheel drive Niva, and a tent trailer.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earned 12.8 million rubles (over $227,000) last year.
The highest income among Kremlin officials was declared by the deputy head of Russia’s Presidential Administration and former Rosatom chief Sergey Kirienko. In 2016, Kirienko earned more than 85 million rubles ($1.5 million). Apparently, Kirienko earned the lion’s share of the income while serving as Rosatom’s CEO, up to October of 2016.
The most modest income among Kremlin officials for the past year was declared by the freshly appointed ombudsman for children’s rights, Anna Kuznetsova, who earned about 2.8 million rubles ($49,702) in 2016.
Russian Liberal-Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky became the richest leader of a State Duma faction, boasting an income of over 79 million rubles ($1.4 million).
Sergey Mironov, the head of the leftist opposition Fair Russia party, earned the least among Russian State Duma members last year – 4.5 million rubles, down 200,000 rubles ($3,500) compared with last year.
