Russian investigative journalists uncover mansions owned by top Moscow FSB officials

Moscow Federal Security Service Directorate head Alexey Dorofeev and the family of his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Marat Medoev, own adjacent mansions in the “Lesnaya Bukhta” (Forrest Cove) villa community, according to a joint investigative report by Novaya Gazeta, Baza, and Transparency International Russia. Journalists say each piece of real estate is worth upwards of 70 million rubles ($1.1 million).

The two homes are reportedly three-story buildings with more than 700 square meters (7,535 square feet), located near the shore of the Istrinskoye Reservoir. The mansions are surrounded by a single fence and connected by a shared walkway. Marat Medoev’s father (Igor Medoev, a decorated FSB veteran and former aide to Russia’s defense minister) bought the first land plot in 2013. Two years later, Alexey Dorofeev acquired the neighboring real estate. They registered their new homes on this land on the same day in 2017. Marat Medoev’s daughter, Elda, also owns property in the same villa community.

A neighboring home belongs to Anastasia Mazaraki, the wife of businessman Lev Mazaraki, whose brother Valerian is the first deputy director of “Ritual,” a municipally owned mortuary company.

One of the founders of the entire Lesnaya Bukhta community is an entrepreneur named Valery Vasilyev, who is reportedly the father of former FSB officer Andrey Vasilyev, who was arrested this spring in the criminal case against FSB Colonel Kirill Cherkalin. Dorofeev bought his land from Valery Vasilyev.

A source with access to “transport communication data” told Novaya Gazeta about links between these individuals, saying that Alexey Dorofeev and Marat Medoev have taken trips together repeatedly “for many years,” including with their families. Additionally, Medoev has reportedly traveled together with Lev Mazaraki, and Dorofeev traveled with Andrey Vasilyev, before his arrest.

In 2009, Alexey Dorofeev and Marat Medoev, along with another 16 “top security officials” and their relatives received land outside Moscow in Podporino. According to Novaya Gazeta, the local authorities allocated the real estate for a “non-commercial cottage partnership for veterans” at the request of the FSB. The partnership was named “Dacha Ostrovok” (Cottage Island). Two months later, on the exact same day, almost all these individuals (including Dorofeev and Medoev) sold their land to top executives at the construction company “LSR Group.”

Attorney Dmitry Dinze told Novaya Gazeta that such transactions are “grounds for certain questions,” arguing that these actions could have been carried out with the aim of seizing public land. Alexander Khinshetin, a federal lawmaker and the deputy head of the State Duma’s Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, says the situation uncovered by journalists is strange. He’s expressed his readiness to look into the matter, while noting his disbelief that FSB generals could be involved in “some kind of scam.”

FSB officers Alexey Dorofeev and Marat Medoev are named in a forthcoming investigative report by Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov. In early June, Golunov was arrested in Moscow on false charges of dealing drugs. Golunov suspects that the case against him could be related to his reporting on Russia’s funeral business. After a public campaign, the Interior Ministry freed Golunov and closed the case against him.