A video has become popular on the Internet showing a woman who looks like the head of the Khanty-Mansiysk Okrug providing local officials with a lesson on budget fraud. What do we know about governor Natalya Komarova?
What did the woman who appeared to be the governor say exactly?
The video was recorded during a business meeting. A woman very similar to the head of Ugra, 67-year-old Natalia Komarova, discusses the principles of a corruption scheme – how to embezzle budget funds for long-term construction. In the discussion, her possibly interlocutor was Alla Govorisheva, the speaker of the city council of Kogalym. Natalia Komarova, talks about the principles of a corruption scheme – how to plunder budget money for long-term construction. Her interlocutor, presumably, was the speaker of the city council of Kogalym Alla Govorisheva.
After saying this, she immediately turned to the organizers of the broadcast: "Did you turn everything off?" After that, the recording ended.
Governor Natalya Komarova became a public figure when the video was leaked on the Web. She has not yet commented on the incident. Some regional media have defended her, claiming that telegram channels launched a "large-scale campaign" against her to "harm her image," but in reality, Komarova's words were just sarcastic.
An investigator specializing in corruption and economic crimes explained the meaning of this scheme to Life.
Was the perinatal center in Surgut constructed according to flawed design documentation?
Natalya Komarova, born in the Pskov region and educated in Bulgaria, seems to have come from a non-ordinary Soviet family. She graduated from the Kommunarsky Mining and Metallurgical Institute in the 1970s. In the 1980s, she worked in the city executive committee of Novy Urengoy, known as the “capital of gas workers.” She served as mayor there in the 1990s. In the 2000s, Komarova was a deputy from the Yamalo-Nenets district in the State Duma. In 2010, she became the governor of Yugra.
Several scandals have been associated with Natalia Komarova's name. In 2015, the Central Bank did not allow the Khanty-Mansiysk non-state pension fund, of which she was a trustee at the time, to the guarantee system. The reason was a significant portion of pension reserves being invested in shares of closed-end Mutual Investment Funds (UIFs), whose book value turned out to be overstated by about 4 billion rubles.
Many questions arose for Komarova when VIS Infrastructure, an offshore company, won a competition in 2014 to build a clinical perinatal center in Surgut for 18 billion rubles. Construction was supposed to be done by 2018, but the clinic was handed over three years later. Life talked to a builder involved in the project.
In the summer of 2022, the regional authorities were searching for a contractor to finish the construction of a troubled building in Nefteyugansk at the address microdistrict 16a, house 53, for 708.5 million rubles. There might have been a questionable strategy to earn money from long-term construction.
Earlier, the “All-Russian People’s Front” activists noticed an overpricing of kindergarten construction in Ugra. The contracts included a cost of 2.27 million rubles to build one place, while the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Utilities estimates it at 1 million rubles.
Governor’s family and property
As per the declarations, Natalia Komarova has an apartment of 186.2 m2 and a parking space of 12.7 m2 in Moscow, which she has owned since her time as a State Duma deputy. Additionally, she received a cottage with an area of 459.3 square meters when she became governor. Over the past twelve years, she has earned 45 million rubles, which averages to about 314 thousand per month.
Life found the declared assets of the official. Her Moscow apartment is valued at about 60 million rubles and is located in the Ostrov club residential complex, near Troparevsky Park. The area is guarded and equipped with various amenities such as underground parking, a children’s pool, a fitness room, an indoor football field, billiards, and a sauna.
In Khanty-Mansiysk, Natalya Komarova resides in an elite mansion on Chekhov Street near the administration building. The area is fenced and tiled, amounting to 15 acres, with a checkpoint at the entrance. The three-story house, not counting the attic, basement, and basement, has an area of 744 square meters according to the cadastral map, which is 1.5 times larger than the area indicated in the declaration.
Based on records, when in Moscow, Natalya Komarova may reside in the capital representation of Yugra. This historic mansion in Starokonyushenny Lane, despite being an administrative building, had apartments sold a few years ago, with small units costing over 30 million rubles.
Few of the inhabitants of Ugra saw the governor’s spouse. This is a rock musician, ex-soloist of the band Rack 2 Vadim Komarov. She divorced him a couple of years later, as she headed the region. From the ex-husband, the governor has two adult daughters.
The eldest, 44-year-old Natalie, has been working as a lawyer in the Moscow branch of the Northgas oil and gas company since the 2000s. This is a Yamal-Nenets holding with headquarters in Novy Urengoy. Recall that her mother represented YaNAO in the State Duma, and in the capital of gas workers she was the mayor.
Natalie lives on Udaltsova Street in a solid modern residential complex “Quarter on Leninsky”. Near Udaltsovsky ponds, parks Vorontsovsky and the 50th anniversary of October. The cost of three-room apartments, like hers, here reaches 100 million rubles.
The youngest, 39-year-old Irina, works as a journalist in St. Petersburg. She has two addresses. A four-room apartment in a renovated pre-revolutionary building (F.F. Ertel’s profitable house) on Chekhov Street – an approximate price of 40 million rubles. As well as apartments for 73 square meters in the elite new building of the residential complex “Imperial” on Kievskaya Street – the cost is over 20 million. She also has Moscow housing – a three-ruble note in the business-class residential complex “Champion Park” near the Olympic Village. There are three large parks nearby. Such real estate will cost more than 50 million rubles.
Another premium address may be associated with the governor’s family – a three-ruble note worth over 35 million rubles in a stalinka on Kutuzovsky Prospekt.
