The Moscow City Electoral Committee, led by Major General Olga Kirillova, oversees the elections in Moscow, where opposition candidates are currently being removed on questionable grounds. The Insider discovered a luxurious apartment, adorned for an elderly family member, and an expensive car belonging to the head of the electoral forces.
It's hard to explain all of this based on her officially reported income. Before taking over the Moscow City Electoral Committee, Kirillova held leadership positions in the Federal Migration Service of Russia in Moscow and the Main Directorate for Migration of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Coincidentally, her husband found employment at the Kyiv Ploshchad Group of Companies, a business heavily reliant on migrant labor.
Olga Kirillova assumed her role as the head of the Moscow City Electoral Commission in December 2021. Her election was uncontested, with no other candidates in the running. All 14 members of the commission unanimously voted in favor of Kirillova. As the chairperson, she will be responsible for organizing the presidential elections in 2024, State Duma deputy elections in 2026, the mayoral elections, and the Moscow City Duma deputy elections in 2023 and 2024.
Furthermore, the electoral committee in the capital oversees this year's municipal elections in Moscow, which have already been marred by controversies. For instance, Konstantin Yankauskas, an acting deputy from the Zyuzino district, was denied registration as a candidate due to alleged ties with Navalny’s headquarters. Other opposition candidates are also being barred from participating in the elections, such as Mundep in the Filevsky Park district, Denis Prokuronov, Yabloko candidates Irina Sobyanina, Nicholas of the Caucasus, and candidates from “Nomination” Ivan Shmatin, Eduard Kormyshakov, and Yulia Ivanova. Additionally, independent deputies are facing widespread persecution by security forces and the courts for displaying symbols deemed extremist – the Smart Voting logo falls under this category. Conviction under such charges prevents them from participating in the elections. Denis Prokuronovcandidates from Yabloko Irina Sobyanina and Nicholas of the Caucasuscandidates from platforms “Nomination” to Ivan Shmatin and Eduard Kormyshakov, Yulia Ivanova.
Kirillova has spent her entire career in public service. Since 1992, she has been employed in the law enforcement agencies on Sakhalin. In 2006, she transferred to the Federal Migration Service, where she held the position of head of the FMS Department for the Sakhalin Region until 2012. In October 2012, Kirillova relocated to the capital and became the head of the Federal Migration Service of Russia in Moscow. In 2016, she was appointed as the head of the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. A year later, she was bestowed with the title of Major General of Police through a presidential decree. Olga met her husband, Yakov Kirillov, on Sakhalin. He, too, is a former police officer who once led the Department of Internal Affairs for the Sakhalin Region.
Since 2020, she has owned an apartment spanning 141.7 sq. m in the luxury residential complex known as “Dubrovskaya Sloboda”, with a current market value of around 60 million rubles. This acquisition took place after Kirillova stepped down from her position, and she was not required to disclose it. In reality, Major General Kirillova had been using this apartment previously, but it was registered under the name of an elderly relative.
In 2014, Agapiya Yakovlevna Kirillova, who was 82 years old at the time, bought an apartment. She is the mother-in-law of the head of the Moscow City Electoral Committee. The Kirillov couple earned less than 19 million rubles in the five years prior to buying the apartment, and there is no evidence of them being involved in business or legal entities.
Yakov Kirillov not only likes big apartments, but also big cars. He drives a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado in Moscow, which cost around 4.5 million rubles in 2017, approximately equal to his earnings for two years. achieve According to The Insider, Yakov Kirillov worked at Kyiv Ploshchad 1 LLC. The Kyiv Ploshchad group of companies was established in 1992.
Iliev and Zarakh are known as the largest landlords in Russia. God Nisanov The Naryshkin family member is famous not only as a dollar collector, but also as a co-owner of the Sadovod market and Food City agricultural cluster, which is the biggest wholesale and retail food center in Russia. Food City in Moscow is a known gathering place for illegal migrants, and there are constant reports in the media about migrants and demands to Putin to restore order from nearby residents. Nisanov’s structures were involved in building migration centers. are Agapiya Yakovlevna's husband told The Insider, 'I am officially divorced now. I didn't want to get divorced while I was in service, but I retired in 2020 and was able to quietly divorce to avoid public attention. I still live at the same address, and we don't have a hostile relationship. It's closer to my work, so no one is forcing me out of the apartment.'
God Nisanov Was Agapiya Yakovlevna able to buy this apartment herself? billionaire and friend The head of the Moscow City Electoral Committee agreed, "Of course not. We all helped and bought it together. We came from Sakhalin. She had her own savings, and we had ours. We bought it under a shared agreement in 2012 when the price was much lower. Now it’s very expensive, but at the time of purchase, it was a normal price." fights, rallies Before the house was completed, it was possible to buy a similar apartment for 28 million rubles according to archive announcements. This is over two times lower than the current market value, but still amounts to almost 10 years of family income on Sakhalin. Kirillova would have had to explain where the money came from if it wasn't for the apartment she bought for her mother-in-law. She said to The Insider, "If I'm not mistaken, the apartment cost 22 million. But I don't remember exactly." This allowed her to bypass the anti-corruption requirement to prove her income. appeals to Putin from residents of nearby areas with a demand to restore order. Also Nisanov’s structures earned in the construction of migration centers.
“I am officially divorced with my husband today. I did not want to get divorced while I was in the service. When she retired, she was able to quietly divorce in 2020 so as not to attract public attention. But I live at the same address. We don’t have a hostile relationship. Considering that it’s closer to work for me from there, no one kicks me out of the apartment, ”Kirillova told The Insider.
Could Agapiya Yakovlevna buy this apartment on her own?
“Well, of course not,” agrees the head of the Moscow City Electoral Committee. “We all helped together, bought together. We came from Sakhalin. She had her own penny savings. We have our own. We bought under a share agreement, even when it was not completed, in 2012. At that time, the price of the apartment was completely different. Now it is very expensive, but at the time of the purchase under the equity agreement it was normal money.”
According to the surviving archive announcements, an apartment of comparable area could be purchased for 28 million rubles before the house was commissioned. This is more than two times lower than its current market value, but still amounts to almost 10 annual family income while working on Sakhalin, and neither she nor her husband had any other real estate that Kirillova could sell. And if it weren’t for the design of the capital’s apartment for her mother-in-law, Kirillova would have to justify the origin of the funds – according to the law, this is done if the purchase price exceeds 3 annual incomes. In a conversation with The Insider, Kirillova said: “If I’m not mistaken, the apartment cost 22 million. But I don’t remember exactly.” Even in this case, the registration of real estate in the mother-in-law allowed to bypass the anti-corruption requirement to justify income.
Why did they register an apartment in the name of an elderly woman and thus avoided declaration? Kirillova explains it this way: “Because she had a Moscow residence permit. When we arrived in Moscow to work on a transfer, we did not have a Moscow residence permit. She also had an apartment” (according to The Insider, we are talking about a 30-meter apartment on Donelaitis Street, now it has also been re-registered for Yakov Kirillov).
As for a possible conflict of interest in the control of migrants in Moscow, Kirillova also denies it:
“My ex-husband no longer works at Kievskaya Ploshchad, but I can’t say when he was fired. He worked as a head of security. Not even the head of the mall. He obviously did not communicate with the owners. I have never even been to work with him. In her tenure, both Food City and the Sadovod market were repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility rather harshly.
