What the Most Expensive Apartment in Moscow Looks Like
Recently, a Moscow apartment priced at 800 million rubles appeared for sale on a real estate website. This two-level residence spans 430 square meters and is located on the "Golden Mile" of the capital — between Prechistenka Embankment and Ostozhenka Street, in Butikovsky Lane, within the Copper House residential complex.
The luxurious penthouse offers stunning views in all directions: including the monument to Peter I, the Muzeon Park, and the domes of the Zachatyevsky Monastery. Although the property is sold unfinished, the seller provides guidance: it can accommodate a spacious living room, dining room, kitchen, 5-6 bedrooms, several bathrooms, and dressing rooms, along with a laundry room. The second level features a beautiful glass-enclosed terrace that can be customized to the owner's taste. If the buyer has difficulty with layout ideas, the current owner can also offer a ready-made design project.
5View from the window. Photo © Telegram / SHOT
By the way, next door, possibly the most expensive apartment in Moscow is for sale. Its price exceeds this one by more than four times — 4.3 billion rubles. The area of the two-level property is slightly smaller — just 413 square meters. However, it is offered with luxurious renovations: the six-room penthouse consists of three bedrooms, each with its own bathrooms and dressing rooms, an office, a gym, a guest restroom, and a laundry room. Everything is finished with expensive wood, marble, and leather.
According to experts, despite the excellent location of the building, the size of the apartments, and their layout features, selling the property will be challenging. The sales process could stretch over years.
For instance, we can recall the castle of Alla Pugacheva and Maxim Galkin*, which has been on the market for several years. It is situated on a 212-acre plot, with the main (residential) building covering 1867 square meters, and the bath complex and swimming pool occupying 571 square meters. Additionally, there is a guest house on the property measuring 29 square meters. The couple is asking for four times less — 1 billion rubles. However, during this time, at least publicly, there has been only one serious buyer — who demanded a sevenfold reduction in price.
Who Owns the Luxurious Penthouse
It turns out that the owner of the luxurious penthouse on Prechistenka Embankment, Victoria Kazak, is the former daughter-in-law of the late billionaire and State Duma deputy Boris Zubitsky. She was married to one of his sons, Andrey. According to the owner's lawyer, Alexander Zotov, the elite property was passed to her from her ex-husband.
— As part of the divorce process that began in 2017, she [the apartment] received it from Andrey Zubitsky as a result of the division of jointly acquired property during the marriage. Andrey Borisovich purchased the apartment from the developer during his marriage to Victoria Stepanovna, — the lawyer reported.
Andrey Borisovich is one of the two sons of the former State Duma deputy, a major businessman, and a participant in Forbes' ranking of Russian billionaires. His fortune was estimated at 450 million dollars in 2012. At that time, he and his wife owned four plots of land totaling 7,700 square meters, two residential houses, an apartment, three representative Mercedes-Benz cars, and a luxurious Bentley Mulsanne.
The wealth of the Zubitsky family is based on a giant industrial enterprise in Kuzbass — an industrial and metallurgical holding with its main asset being PAO "Koks" (minerals, coal, ore, pig iron), which brought in about 700 million rubles in net income per year for the Zubitskys.
It seems that the family's income allowed them to easily move from Kemerovo to Moscow and comfortably settle in the capital. It is difficult to say what the actual price of the apartment was when the Zubitskys purchased it; however, according to the data from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, the cadastral value of the property was 423.5 million rubles.
5Boris Zubitsky and Roman Romanenko, a member of the State Duma Committee on Defense (left to right), at a plenary session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Photo © TASS / Sergey Bobylev
How the Businessman's Assets Were Divided by His Family
In 2017, Boris Zubitsky passed away, and a dispute over his assets began between his sons — the elder, Evgeny, and the younger, Andrey. There was much to divide: at that time, PAO "Koks" was generating around 40 billion rubles in revenue. Dozens of billions were also brought in by its dependent enterprises.
At that time, Andrey Zubitsky held a 27.11% stake in "Koks." It appears that 16% of this somehow ended up in the ownership of his then-wife, Victoria