Buryatiya senator Vitaly Malkin narrowly beat out billionaire and Dagestan senator Suleiman Kerimov for the title of top-earning member of the Federation Council for 2011, according to income declarations released Friday.
Malkin said he took home 1.01 billion rubles ($34 million) last year, while Kerimov said he earned 983 million rubles ($33 million), a small fraction of his $6.5 billion net worth as estimated by Forbes.
Malkin also said he and his wife owned five land plots, nine apartments, and three enormous houses, including one with territory measuring 3,400 square meters and another in Italy with 2,198 square meters of space.
In comparison, Kerimov's two declared residential properties are tiny: a 54-square-meter apartment and a 39-square-meter flat. The mysterious billionaire, who made his money investing in state-run blue chips including Sberbank and Gazprom, also said he owns two cars: a Bugatti Veyron, one of the most expensive cars in the world, and a Mercedes Benz S 600.
Cabinet officials and members of the presidential administration released their income figures for 2011 on Thursday. The State Duma was set to release information on the earnings of its members by Saturday.
Federation Council Speaker and former Leningrad Region Governor Valentina Matvienko said she earned 3.29 million rubles in 2011. She said her husband earned 230,000 rubles. Matvienko said she and her husband own three apartments and two country houses. She said she owns a Chevrolet Niva.
Billionaire senator representing the Belgorod region Vadim Moshkovich said he took in 447 million rubles, while his wife earned 235 million rubles. He said he and his wife own 14 land plots and he has an Aston Martin. Moshkovich at one time owned agricultural holding Rusagro.
Nikolai Olshansky, who became a senator from the Voronezh region last year after serving as a State Duma deputy from 1999 to 2010, earned just under 13 million rubles, while his wife made 561 million rubles. Olshansky has assets in mining companies.
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