Crooner and State Duma Deputy Iosif Kobzon earned $160,000 last year and owns seven homes and four luxury cars together with his wife, according to his income declaration released Thursday.
The declaration, published on the Duma's site two weeks after a deadline set by President Dmitry Medvedev, showed that Kobzon, 63, a senior member of United Russia, earned 4.77 million rubles last year, and his wife, Nelli Kobzon, made 3 million rubles ($95,000).
Kobzon owns a 548-square-meter mansion, a 568-square-meter guest house, a 671-square-meter apartment, a plot of land and two cars, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Mercedes-Benz. His wife owns four apartments, a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz.
Kobzon previously refused to disclose his income, saying that submitting documents with the tax authorities was enough. “Why should I give information to reporters who do smear publications?” he told Marker.ru on Friday.
In the 1990s, Kobzon was the head of the Moskovit holding company, which was involved in oil and metals trade, among other things. During that time, he also worked with Shabtai Kalmanovich, a businessman and former coach of the national female basketball team who was gunned down last November in Moscow.
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