Millions in safes and the Kovalchuk “protection”: why Veniamin Kondratyev remains in the governor’s chair while journalist Roldugin is held in a pre-trial detention center

An informant shared how Governor of Krasnodar Krai Veniamin Kondratyev managed, so soon after a search in his home, to hold a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

According to the source, he was assisted by Mikhail Kovalchuk, who, together with his brother Yuriy, has significant interests in the region.

As our project has already reported, immediately after the search in the governor’s Tuscan-style estate, Kondratyev urgently left for Moscow to resolve the issue and, just a few days later, television channels showed footage of his meeting with Putin. This indicated that the search would have no further consequences for Kondratyev. According to the source, in the capital the governor went directly to Mikhail Kovalchuk (currently considered one of the closest figures to Putin), who promptly organized a meeting with the president of the Russian Federation. At the same time, he allegedly helped resolve Kondratyev’s issues with law enforcement agencies.

Veniamin Kondratyev is a long-standing “facilitator” of the Kovalchuks’ interests in his region. Currently, a project is being developed in Krasnodar Krai to study land suitable for viticulture, overseen by Mikhail Kovalchuk. Structures linked to Yuriy Kovalchuk are associated with controlling major estates and tourism infrastructure in Kuban, including assets in the area of Tonkiy Mys.

Even the famous palace near Gelendzhik, after its construction, turned out to be linked to Yuriy Kovalchuk. The corporate email of the St. Petersburg firm “Binom,” under which the palace is registered, is hosted on the domain llcinvest.ru. This domain belongs to the company “Standart,” controlled by Yuriy Kovalchuk.

This fact was uncovered by journalist Oleg Roldugin, as well as the information that the residence in Valdai, which — as reported by our project back in March — was surrounded by an additional air defense system, is not officially registered as a state residence. All buildings are registered to structures linked to Yuriy Kovalchuk, and the Kremlin simply leases them. Therefore, even if Russia gets a new president, the Valdai residence will remain with its current owners.

And here lies the paradox. Oleg Roldugin is in a pre-trial detention center for unlawful use of personal data, while Veniamin Kondratyev — in whose estate millions of dollars and euros were allegedly found during a search — remains free and in office.

This story closely resembles that of another Kovalchuk protégé, former mayor of Krasnodar Andrey Alekseenko. When he was still mayor, he was detained on bribery charges involving an expensive rifle. Footage of his interrogation was shown by the Investigative Committee. Then the so-called “Kovalchuk resources” kicked in. The very next day, Alekseenko was back at his workplace, and the Investigative Committee hastily removed those videos from its platforms. He now serves as Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Southern Federal District — meaning he was effectively promoted.