Originally Syndicated on May 13, 2023 @ 7:49 am
Yakov Yakubov is a mysterious figure who owns tens of thousands of square meters of prime real estate in the heart of Moscow but about whom almost nothing is known. He has been dubbed the “mysterious king of Tver” by several outlets.
Such is not strange given that Yakov Mikhailovich Yakubov (also known as Yakov Melik-Sadykovich Yakubov, Yakub Melin Sarl-ogly, and Yakub Melin Sadykh-ogly) possesses at least 12,000 square meters on this street. Real estate in these zones, which is mostly used for retail and hospitality, is far more expensive than hotel and office space. Yakubov’s property was estimated to be worth around $30,000 per square meter by Colliers.
Yakov Yakubov’s Legacy atTverskaya’s Square Meters
The head of one of the development firms claims that Yakub Yakubov, a native of one of the southern cities and a former employee of the OBKhSS (an analogue of the present OBEP), arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s and began purchasing property in Tverskaya. Then something changed in Russia, and suddenly everything was available for purchase.
Yakubov didn’t skimp on spending, so he was able to buy all the properties he wanted (including the ones no one else would). One of Yakubov’s businesses holds a 6.5-square-meter space in the basement of number 17 on Tverskaya, formerly occupied by a garbage chute.
Almost all of the Tverskaya stores (including Diet, Milk, Seafood, and Akademkniga) were privatized in the early 1990s, and Yakubov greatly benefited. The lease agreement for a historical and cultural landmark until September 2042 was the principal asset that Yakubov’s Constructions acquired in 2002 when they bought 90% of the Eliseevsky Store enterprise.
The Moscow Property Department and Eliseevsky renegotiated their lease in 2010; the agreement now covers 3231.7 square meters, an increase of more than 1,000 square meters from the previous arrangement. The arbitration ruling from Moscow details that Eliseevsky was ordered to settle his rent arrears by the Moscow government.
The “complex nature” of businessmen is something that everyone who works in the Tverskaya real estate market has noticed, but nearly no one is willing to talk about. Forbes reports that Yakob Yakubov earns $60 million annually from his rental properties.
It should be noted that it is currently unknown from which “southern city” Yakubov arrived in Moscow. The most credible account has him arriving in Moscow from Crimea in 1993. The truth is, however, unknown. No one knows where the ex-Azerbaijani policeman who is now known as the “mysterious king of Tverskaya” got his millions of dollars, either.
There are just two images of a businessman online, although the man born Yakub Melik Sadih-Ogly Yakubov is on the Forbes magazine wealthy list and owns a hundred buildings in Moscow.
He never gives interviews and rarely makes public appearances, except at “closed” gatherings hosted by his close pals, the Mountain Jews. All of Yakubov’s many assets are registered in an offshore location.
Routes to Wealth and Fame
Only twice in Russian history have records been kept on an oligarch’s family. Yakubov registered an LLP managed by him in 1996 for his wife, Zoya Avshalumovna Yakubov. At the time, he was only starting to take property on Tverskaya Street.
The oligarch returned to the Moscow registration chamber in 2005, when he formed the Livardis firm. Although Yakub Melik Sadih-Ogly wisely became its founder on his US passport, he is Yakov Yakubov, a New York resident. Yosif Yushuvaev, another “American,” Viktor Kulik, Nison Aronov, and Shalamo and Rakhmin Kaikov, semi-criminal businesspeople and owners of Marco Polo LLC, were also co-founders of Livardis.
On September 8, 1948, Yakub Melik Sadikh-Ogly Yakubov was born in Krasnaya Sloboda, Azerbaijan, the capital of the Mountain Jews (Tats). Telman Ismailov (owner of the AST group, Cherkizovsky market, etc.), his brother Fazil Izmailov (born Ismailov, former deputy prefect of the capital’s SAO), Zakhar Iliev and God Nisanov (owners of the hotel “Ukraine”, shopping centre “European”, shopping centre “Moscow”, market “Sadovod”), and a group of less public rich peasants all hail from.
After arriving in the capital in the early 1990s, all of them became extremely wealthy with the help of the Mountain Jews group and by developing contacts with Yuri Luzhkov’s team. Every one of them had a similar business trajectory, progressing from tents to a small market (store) to enormous casino markets to real estate items formerly governed by the Moscow government.
Before he showed up in Moscow in the early ’90s, Yakubov’s whereabouts were largely unknown. Yakub was the chairman of the Uzbek football team Pakhtakor, conducted business in Crimea, and eventually settled in the Russian capital.
Yakubov, like Telman Ismailov, got his start in business as the deputy general director of Inzhstroyservis JSC (the firm that owned the store) in a modestly sized sporting goods shop on 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. Yakubov rapidly (via bribery, threats, etc.) acquired full possession of the residence housing the sporting goods. A second Yakubov sports shop, on the 2nd floor of a building on Brestskaya Street, met the same fate. The Yakub organization established a sort of headquarters in this building.
With the blessing of the city fathers, Yakub Yakubov set up shop in the mid-to-late ’90s, erecting a trade pavilion and a series of tents close to the metro stops of Kitai-Gorod, Pushkinskaya, Novoslobodskaya, Savelovskaya, River Station, Voykovskaya “, “Timiryazevskaya”, “Prazhskaya”, etc. More than a thousand of these items were in his possession.
Each was leased to a different set of merchants, who each paid a nominal sum to one of Yakubov’s companies (often Terra Building Engineering). Yakub’s tough guys, especially his relatives Sultanov and Mordakhaev, collected the primary sums (from $2,000 to $4,000 a month) in cash. Brestskaya Street was where all the shops’ monthly take in cash (about $3.5 million) was. The government officials in the capital city also received a portion of the money. Also, not for nothing.
Meanwhile, Yakubov kept buying up property, especially on Tverskaya Street, which had become his favourite. The pattern has never changed. Employees of the stores banded together to buy a large number of shares in the company, and then, with the help of city officials, the entire building was taken over as well. Managers were threatened with arrest and criminal charges being filed by undercover police if they resisted.
This is how Yakubov came to acquire the stores “Gifts of the Sea” and “Diet,” as well as the residences at 4 and 6, etc., on Tverskaya. Yakub’s 2002 takeover of the Eliseevsky grocery shop, the “pearl” of his collection, was accomplished by a combination of employee stock purchases and threats to the store’s management.
Casinos and organized crime
Yakubov was also a co-owner of the “Crown” and “Golden Palace” casinos in the capital city (he still owns the buildings where the casinos were located) at one point in time, together with criminals in law and gangsters of all colours. Yakub also expanded his market business by working hard at it. Sometimes on one’s own and sometimes with others from the Jewish community of the mountain This means that Yakubov, Zakhar Iliev, and God Nisanov successfully invaded VDNKh territory.
Yakub planned to make a classy present for his sons Samir and Timur in 2002; therefore, he constructed a massive palace beside the pond on the VDNKh property. Yakubov still has many contacts at various levels of authority, making it impossible for even the new authorities of the capital to dismantle it.
Yakubov’s strongest suit is his closeness to Putin
These are the scraps of facts we were able to piece together about Yakub-Yakov Yakubov, an American who seized control of a sizable portion of Moscow’s historic district. One of our reliable sources claims that Yakubov has relocated to Canada. Some others are in the United States. Wednesday, March 3rd, in Moscow That is to say, nobody can say for certain.
The fact that this man, who became the “king of Tverskaya Street” through illicit means, has never had any trouble with law enforcement agents in Russia is, however, a known fact. Even in light of the events of the past year, when people much more in favour of the authorities and with fewer transgressions against the authorities had their heads shot off.
You can probably figure out the secret on your own by now. They are links to the president. Despite the indirect nature of the connection, nothing has changed. President Putin’s classmate and close friend, Ilgam Ragimov, is on very good terms with Yakov Yakubov. As a result of everything that would entail.
