Photo: tekspb.ru St. Petersburg
Last Thursday, February 16, the vice-governor of Saint-Petersburg, Boris Piotrovsky, appointed Anna Yalova director of the Manege Central Exhibition Hall. It turned out that Yalova is a relative of ex-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, one of the main sponsors and patrons of the neo-Nazi group “Right Sector” * (recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).
The authorities of Saint Petersburg do not react to this fact, despite the requests of the townspeople and public figures. The reason for Smolny’s passivity may lie in Yalova’s close acquaintance with Alexander Beglov’s family; she is a neighbor of the governor’s daughters.
Smolny in yellow and blue tones
The relationship of Anna Yalova, née Alekhanova, with Petro Poroshenko was reported in 2018. At that time it became known that the eldest son of the Ukrainian president, Alexei, married a Russian woman from St. Petersburg, Yulia Alekhanova . At that time, his older sister Anna had already worked as the deputy director of the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, subordinate to the Committee for Culture. This fact caused wide resonance in Ukraine.
Now Anna Yalova has been appointed director of the Manezh by order of Boris Piotrovsky. It is possible that in other circumstances his relationship with the Poroshenko family went unnoticed were it not for the pro-Ukrainian stance of Piotrovsky himself. So, literally in January, on his social media pages, he urged the Petersburgers to buy a new album by British rocker Ozzy Osbourne. The fact that Osborne created this album in support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the disc even came out in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, the senior official was too shy to say. In such a situation, the appointment of Poroshenko’s relative to the head of St. Petersburg’s most famous showroom no longer looks like an accident or coincidence.
The most important thing is that Smolny, led by Governor Alexander Beglov, does not react to what is happening, but even here everything is understandable. Boris Piotrovsky is the son of Mikhail Piotrovsky, head of the Hermitage, one of Beglov’s closest friends. Boris Piotrovsky even received of deputy governor without any serious experience in the civil service. So, in September 2020, Beglov first appointed him head of the culture committee, and three months later already deputy governor – no Smolny official can boast of such a rapid rise.
“A wonderful neighbor has moved into our house”
We managed to establish that Anna Yalova can also be closely related to the family of Alexander Beglov, thanks to which Smolny turns a blind eye to her relationship with the Poroshenko family. The Unified Information System in the field of public procurement contains information on the only state contract concluded with Yalova as an individual entrepreneur. It was concluded by the Institute of Cultural Programs in April 2022. Its cost is only 5,200 rubles, but something else is interesting. The contract information indicates the registration address of Anna Yalova as an individual entrepreneur – this is Paradnaya Street, House 3 Building 2.
This address is known as the “Front Quarter” – the most expensive luxury residential complex in St. Petersburg. In November last year, “Chronicles.Media” found out that two official daughters of Governor Alexander Beglov, Yulia Belova and Olga Kudryashova, live in this residential complex. They registered three apartments at once, the market value of which exceeds 100 million rubles each. The most interesting thing is that the apartments of Beglov’s daughters are located not only in the same LCD with Anna Yalova’s apartment, but in the same house and even in the same building with her.
All three apartments were bought by many brothers and sisters of Alexander Beglov, who, with their modest incomes, could not have bought them on their own. After their death, the apartments were inherited by Alexander Beglov and immediately passed on to his daughters by donation. The transactions were formalized by the governor’s daughter, Yulia Belova, who has notary status. Curiously, she also drafts real estate transactions for Beglov’s mistress and her illegitimate daughter.
Given such closeness to the elite residential complex, there is a high probability that Anna Yalova is close to the Beglov family. This would perfectly explain how someone close to Petro Poroshenko managed to obtain of director of the Manezh at the same time as the Russian army is fighting with the very neo-Nazi groups that were formed and armed under the auspices and the money of the Poroshenko family. And most importantly, this explains the silence that Alexander Beglov keeps after the establishment of Yalova’s relationship with Poroshenko.
It is now only possible to resolve this situation, which is not only complicated, but also extremely dangerous, with the intervention of the federal centre. Otherwise, everything will be “thrown on the brakes”, as has already happened with Boris Piotrovsky and his advertisement for Ozzy Osbourne’s “Ukrainian” album. And this at a time when ordinary Petersburgers for such anti-Russian activities could rightly be fined or even punished. But in St. Petersburg, equality before the law probably no longer applies – friends, partners and relatives of the Beglov family were able to avoid responsibility.
