Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova and her husband, former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko, were suspected of circumventing sanctions and laundering money in Portugal.
The Portuguese Court of Appeal has considered the case of freezing the assets of former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Andrei Dementiev. He and his wife Margarita Kislitsina are suspected of money laundering, violating international sanctions and tax fraud. The case centers on his large transfers from Russian and offshore sources, the purchase of luxury real estate in Portugal and ties to the family of Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who is under EU sanctions.
Dementiev’s family has lived in Portugal since at least 2009. The investigation found that she controls a number of companies and bank accounts, luxury real estate and cars. Between 2015 and 2022, Dementieff transferred about 20 million euros to her accounts at Portuguese bank BPI. The problems started because of the transfers after the war between Russia and Ukraine began – the accounts of the former official and his partner received $10.75 million. The payments were used to buy a house in the luxury resort town of Cascais. The property later turned out to be linked to another person – a construction magnate linked to Russian elites.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Dementiev’s girlfriend acted as a nominal buyer and concealed the real owner and the origin of the funds. This, according to the investigation, was done in order to circumvent the existing sanctions.
The investigation drew attention to the structure of companies associated with the family of Dementiev, which owns real estate and hotels in Cascais and conducts transactions with Vladimir Khristenko – son of former Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and current Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. The latter is on the EU sanctions list. The prosecutor’s office believes that such a chain indicates stable ties between Dementiev’s family and the Khristenko-Golikova family. According to investigators, the Khristenko family had two villas on the Atlantic coast in Portugal with prices of at least 1.2 million euros and 3.5 million euros.