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Igor Medoev, Marat Medoev’s father
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Journalists track down Slovakian property belonging to family of FSB officer with ties to Russia’s corrupt funeral industry

Igor Medoev, Marat Medoev’s father
Igor Medoev, Marat Medoev’s father
Pervyi Kanal / YouTube

The family of Russian Federal Security Service Lieutenant Colonel Marat Medoev owns villas and companies in Slovakia, according to a new investigation by Novaya Gazeta and the Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak (ICJK). Sources previously told the website Proekt that Medoev “could be a stakeholder in funeral business projects” about which Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov has reported.

Journalists learned that Marat Medoev’s mother and father have owned a country house in an affluent district outside Bratislava since 2011. Real-estate experts estimate that the couple’s home is worth between 250,000 and 600,000 euros ($281,975 and $676,735). The real-estate management company “Medeva” is also registered in the name of Medoev’s mother.

The Medoevs’ home outside Bratislava is near a villa owned by their daughter Maya and her husband Pytor Ovsyannikov, who serves as head of the Moscow Labor and Social Protection Department’s Control and Accounting Service. According to Novaya Gazeta, Ovsyannikov has ties to the owners of the firm “Faraday,” the largest supplier of specialized footwear for Russia’s law-enforcement agencies. Over the past several years, Faraday has won state procurement contracts worth more than 11 billion rubles ($170.4 million), mostly without competing against any rival bids. Faraday’s owners have a villa near the Medoevs’ and Ovsyannikov’s homes.

Igor Medoev told ICJK journalists that he bought his home for 250,00 euros ($280,000), using money he raised by selling his cottage in Russia. He also noted that retired military officers now receive good pensions of roughly 3,000 euros ($3,384) a month.

Igor Medoev insists that neither he nor his son had anything to do with the criminal case against Ivan Golunov. “When I get back to Russia, I’d like to meet with Golunov and explain that this has nothing to do with us. I will ask him to write that we were in no way involved in his arrest,” Medoev argued.

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