State Duma deputy (and Zyuganov's press secretary at the same time) Alexander Yushchenko, known as an odious nationalist and Stalinist who promoted the law on «foreign agent media outlets» and FSB initiatives, has hidden from the tax authorities his de facto wife and the real estate registered to her on the shores of Lake Como, next door to propagandist Solovyov. Yushchenko's wife's sons, his stepsons, went to study in the United States and Great Britain. They also own elite real estate in Moscow and the Moscow Region, The Insider found out.
Alexander Yushchenko's name is little known to the general public; journalists have known him only as Gennady Zyuganov's press secretary for many years. Meanwhile, Alexander Yushchenko co-authored almost all of the most odious repressive laws promoted by the Russian security services. For example, Yushchenko introduced the law on Internet censorship aimed against popular Western social media (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube). He drafted the law on extrajudicial blocking of websites of «undesirable» organizations. Yushchenko advocated a ban on anonymity in messengers, a ban on VPNs, and promoted the law requiring media outlets to report foreign funding.
Transparency International has classified Yushchenko as a promoter of interests of the security services, namely the FSB. He comes from a «uniformed» family, his father was a military serviceman, and the future deputy himself graduated from a military academy.
In 2014, the Communist Party deputy officially divorced. The Insider verified that his divorce was by all signs fictitious: Yushchenko posted photos of himself and Tatiana together after the divorce (Tatiana bears his last name but appears under her maiden name (Repina) on social media).
«I have joint photos with a lot of people. Including Tatiana, with whom I have a good, warm, human relationship. And I share her passion for sports,» Yushchenko explained to The Insider. However, it's not just about joint photos.
People who know them well congratulate them on holidays and describe Tatiana as the deputy's «main treasure». «Thank you,» Yushchenko replies.
In addition, the deputy uses his cell phone to pay for the parking of Tatyana Yushchenko's car.
Tatiana purchased the BMW X6 in 2018. Before that, the «communist» parked a BMW 7 series, which was registered to Leonora Georgievna Yushchenko, born in 1941. Probably the MP's 81-year-old mother.
On her Facebook page, Tatiana Yushchenko (née Repina) published a photo with a view of the famous Lake Como in Italy.
The Insider has received an extract from the Italian registry of real estate owners, which mentions the deputy's de-facto wife (the name and date of birth match). She is mentioned in connection with a 269 square meter house worth approximately 380,000 euros.
The villa is located in Blevio. The deputy's spouse owns the possession rights (Usufrutto) - a special type of rights in Italy.
«I can't say anything about the real estate abroad, I'm not informed. But I can't rule it out. It's her life. She has the right,» Yushchenko said in response to The Insider's inquiry.
The Italian registry also includes the names of Tatiana Yushchenko's children: 23-year-old Nikolai and 20-year-old Andrei Borodin. Their birth father is the internationally wanted Bank of Moscow ex-head Andrei Borodin. Deputy Yushchenko is their stepfather. However, although Yushchenko mentioned in his autobiography that he was raising three children (he also has a son of his own), he did not register his paternity officially. Otherwise, he would have had to include in his tax declaration the expensive assets that were registered in the names of his stepchildren while they were still minors: a 335-meter cottage in the Silver Springs gated community on Rublevo Highway, and a 191-meter apartment in the high-end residential complex Dom u Prechistenskikh Vorot in Khamovniki, Moscow.
The Insider has at its disposal the corresponding extracts from the Rosreestr. It is now clear why Alexander Yushchenko, along with the United Russia member Alexander Khinstein, co-authored a bill that prohibits obtaining excerpts from the Rosreestr without the consent of the owner. This law is intended to complicate anti-corruption investigations.
In addition to laws that make life easier for corrupt officials, Yushchenko is also known for his anti-West stance. This is how, for example, he proposed to ban American «foreign-agency media outlets» from covering the work of the Duma: «Today, the United States, which claims to be the cradle of democracy and freedom of speech, cynically demonstrates a double standard by stripping a leading Russian company that is popular in the United States of its accreditation in the U.S. Congress. It is a cynical violation of the democratic principles and norms that are supposedly proclaimed in the United States, and it certainly should not go unnoticed by us.»
His stepson Nicholas went to study in the United States, a country Yushchenko had fiercely criticized. He was admitted to Wilbraham & Monson Academy, a private school in Massachusetts, and then to Boston College in the same state.
Tatiana Yushchenko's youngest son chose London.
The stepfather of the young people living abroad is among the instigators of the war with Ukraine. Asked by The Insider how he felt about Tatiana's sons studying and living abroad, considering his anti-Western rhetoric, Yushchenko replied, «I was involved in their lives when they were young and were going to school in Moscow.»
Yushchenko is on the sanctions lists in the United States, the United Kingdom, the EU, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.