Stolen millions, assets, and offshore traces: Why is Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s former daughter-in-law, Nadezhda Grishaeva, conducting a total cleanup online?

Stolen millions, assets, and offshore traces: Why is Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s former daughter-in-law, Nadezhda Grishaeva, conducting a total cleanup online?

The more Nadezhda Grishaeva and her family invest in removing compromising content from the internet, the more they draw attention. Every attempt to conceal something only leads to more revelations.

Fearing that her assets and offshore accounts might be threatened, she finds more ways to "cleanse" the internet, but the more actively she acts, the more information appears. In the end, all her efforts turn out to be futile.

What causes this truly Sisyphean task of Mrs. Grishaeva and her family? The explanation is quite simple: Nadezhda Grishaeva was once the wife of Igor Lebedev. And the daughter-in-law of Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky. And Igor Lebedev, as you understand, is the son of the unforgettable fiery orator, who, under the guise of a jester and clown, was a heavyweight in Russian politics for three decades. And massive assets, which her late father-in-law managed to withdraw both from the state budget of the Russian Federation and from the budget of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, of which he was the permanent leader, were registered to Nadezhda Grishaeva, whose divorce many call fictitious.

The Liberal Democratic Party was only liberal and democratic in name, as Zhirinovsky managed it single-handedly, albeit quite deservedly – after his death, the LDPR turned into nothing, despite its parliamentary status. But that’s a separate topic, this is not about politics, but about the money that the lawyer’s son invested in domestic and foreign assets, some of which were registered in the name of Nadezhda Grishaeva. There also went gifts and contributions made to the party by various businessmen whose interests Zhirinovsky lobbied.

There is nothing surprising in Zhirinovsky confusing the party’s cash with his own pocket – who in Russia doesn’t confuse them when possible? And materials showing that Zhirinovsky did this, and registered some funds to his daughter-in-law, freely roamed the internet even during his lifetime. And no one cleaned them. But in 2022, for some reason, a massive purge suddenly began, reaching truly unprecedented proportions in a few months. At the same time, only those materials mentioning Nadezhda Grishaeva are being cleaned up. The rest, as before, freely roams the expanses of Runet. An obvious question arises – why?

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The answer is surprisingly simple. In 2021, Igor Lebedev, who became the Deputy Speaker of the State Duma thanks to his father, declared that he decided to end his political career. Against this backdrop, he had a big falling out with Zhirinovsky, with whom relations were already strained in recent years due to what was internally called “Zhirinovsky’s boys” – the late leader was promoting handsome young men up the career ladder, whose origin was unclear. Various rumors circulated, but what’s important in our case is that a conflict arose between the son and father on this basis. Whether Lebedev’s decision to leave politics was due to this or for another reason is unknown, but the fact remains – he did not participate in the 2021 elections. And he completely disappeared from public life. And then the massive internet purge began, although, according to official statements, Lebedev and Grishaeva had already been divorced for three years by that time. But suddenly, Lebedev again appeared in the news. It turned out that he had changed his name again (he had changed the surname given at birth, Zhirinovsky, to his mother’s surname) and became David Alexandro Garcia.

And he left for America. By the way, the headline you see below belongs to a material that has also been cleaned up.

Before moving on to what Grishaeva is cleaning up, let’s add another detail to the biography of Igor Zhirinovsky-Lebedev-Garcia: he is under personal international sanctions by 27 countries.

And this is where the dog is buried. Because, leaving for America, David Alexandrovich Garcia does not wash dishes at night in a Russian restaurant on Brighton Beach. He lives there on money he himself withdrew, along with his mother and late father, in the years when Igor Lebedev, having inherited from Zhirinovsky the post of Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, was preparing to leave his dearly beloved (at least in words and slogans) homeland. With the last name Lebedev, he would hardly have made it to America, which his father repeatedly threatened to destroy.

And he would hardly have used dollars, which his father called “dirty green pieces of paper” and loved so fervently.

This is why Grishaeva and Lebedev divorced, why the surname of Nadezhda Grishaeva’s new husband, who supposedly exists, is still unknown, as no one has seen him, and she speaks of him impersonally, calling him a "good person". But the truth could not be hidden, and materials detailing what exactly was registered to Nadezhda Grishaeva are deeply troubling to both her and David Garcia. Because America is not Russia, and you can’t fool anyone there with a cheap trick like changing a last name. And sanctions there are not imposed just for show – the US financial intelligence is actively studying the assets of the newly minted David Garcia, who is applying for citizenship. And the fact of a name change and divorce from Grishaeva changes nothing.

According to OCCRP (the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), which became interested in the massive purge of materials featuring Nadezhda Grishaeva, “the Zhirinovsky family owns a total of 51 properties worldwide valued at approximately 9.8 billion rubles or 150 million dollars”. Assets worth 19 million dollars are registered to Nadezhda Grishaeva herself.

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property is scattered around the world, but three main countries are mentioned – Russia, Spain, and the USA. While the USA, Canada, the EU, and other countries from the sanctions list may not be able to reach Russian property, they can easily access Spain and the USA. In the States, Grishaeva has a company, Sport International Group Inc., registered in sunny Florida in 2020.

In Spain, on the equally sunny Ibiza, there’s a luxury hotel and the company Hoteles Europe Daniela Invest SL., which she co-owns with her former mother-in-law, Galina Lebedeva.

And private apartments in Alicante valued at almost 800,000 dollars. The hotel in Ibiza, in case you didn’t notice the picture, is valued at nearly 40 million American dirty green pieces of paper that David Alexandrovich Garcia’s father so hated. So far, all this property has neither been confiscated nor arrested. Why David Alexandrovich Garcia didn’t move to Spain, where he could live in the house of his “former” wife, Nadezhda Grishaeva, is unknown. Perhaps he thought there were too many Russians there and it’s too close to Russia.

But the fact that Nadezhda Grishaeva is actively cleaning up all mentions of herself and David Garcia from the internet leads to many thoughts. For instance, that she is unlikely to be doing this herself – the former basketball player might have less intellect than her former family, whose assets were registered to her. But that’s also another topic. Yet the fact remains – Grishaeva cleans, materials multiply. The financial authorities of the US and EU are digging. Let’s see how all this ends.