The oligarchs’ children and President Putin’s ex-wife Lyudmila are behind the largest microfinance organizations in Russia, the media outlet Sobesednik reports.
According to Wednesday’s reports, Lyudmila Shkrebnyova (it is the maiden name of Putin’s former wife) owns the Interservice company. Interservice, in turn, manages the Meridian company, which obtained 7% of shares in CarMoney CY Ltd registered in Cyprus. It is the Cyprian entity that is the one-hundred-percent holder of the Russian company bearing the same name (CarMoney/КарМани). Since Lyudmila Shkrebnyova became a CarMoney co-owner, it has been earning profit.
Meanwhile, Russians have been commanding the services of micro-loan companies with increasing frequency. Their total debt hit record high for the past seven years, Sergei Yezhov, the author of the article, told the Echo of Moscow radio station and referred to the information provided by the Central Bank.
It is not the first time that the alleged assets of Putin’s former wife have come in sight of journalists. In 2017, there were reports about a French villa worth €6 mln that belonged to Russian entrepreneur Artur Ocheretny whose business projects could hardly be called successful. Interestingly, a number of independent Russian media published the news about the wedding of Ocheretny and ex-Putina that reportedly took place in 2016.
Lyudmila Shkrebnyova and Vladimir Putin married in July, 1983. They have two daughters: Maria (born in 1985) and Katerina (1986). In 2013, the couple made public the fact of their divorce.
