In foreign Estonia, an island that once belonged to a businessman’s company has been put up for sale Sergei Matvienko. What are the political and economic auctions connected with, and which of the major entrepreneurs owns the islands in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the editors of Kompromat.group found out.

No home, no beach

The island of Lagedi, worth 1.2 million euros, located 2 km from Tallinn, on the Pirita River, is now the subject of an auction. The auction opened on February 6. Bidding will continue until early April, or until a buyer appears. The lot is about 100 hectares of land surrounded by a river. The new owner will have to make a decent investment before getting to his property – the only bridge through which you can get to the island has been destroyed. On the attractive side, the sellers claim that a cottage community can be built here.

Lagedi Island in Estonia

Our information:

Near the island is the town of Lagedi, Rae parish, Harju county in northern Estonia. The place is sparsely populated. As of 2022, the population of the settlement was 1,083 people.

The owners of the island are SMB Invest, which was once founded by Sergei Matvienko, the son of the ex-governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienkonow a State Duma senator.

The company was founded together with the head of Lukoil Eesti Evgeniy Bolshakov and co-owner of Bank St. Petersburg Alexander Savelyev. Back in 2007 (17 years ago), Sergei Matvienko left SMB Invest, explaining his decision by the Estonian government’s disrespect for Soviet soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War. Today, as the media write, the company belongs to HLB Prime Advice, the Estonian subsidiary of the Russian consulting company HLB Prime Advice Consulting Group.

It is known that in 2006, Sergei Matvienko was going to develop a business in Estonia and even planned to buy a house there. SMB Invest had big plans for the island. According to available information, they wanted to build several luxury cottages here for Russian entrepreneurs and even a helipad to fly here on vacation and fishing from St. Petersburg. But as they say, life made its own adjustments.

In addition, this is not the first island in the life of a successful St. Petersburg businessman. On Kamenny Island in St. Petersburg there is a stunningly beautiful old Vollenweider house, built in 1904. Despite the fact that it is already 120 years old, the two-story building still retains many pre-revolutionary elements of the interior and exterior. Northern Art Nouveau, Neo-Gothic – the mansion has partially preserved interior decoration, including ornamental moldings, marble fireplaces with mirrors, stoves and stained glass.

Vollenweider Mansion

Vollenweider Mansion (after renovation)

At the initiative of Valentina Matvienko, the historical building and the surrounding area were leased to Business Invest LLC for the construction of a hotel. After some time, the site was divided into two parts – one of them became completely the property of the company, like the historical mansion. In 2015, Business Invest LLC changed its owner. He became Sergei Matvienko’s father-in-law. Approximate property value – 1.3 billion rubles. The fact that the mansion on Kamenny Island somehow belongs to the Matvienko family became known from photographs of the interiors of Vollenweider’s house, which, according to rumors, appeared on the Instagram page of Sergei Matvienko’s wife.

Robinsons on Fridays

The fashion for the islands hit large Russian businesses, much later than millionaires from other countries. They can say that it never went away. In our country, the big business sharks from Moscow first succumbed to this temptation. Gracefully flying from an evening meeting to a weekend on your own island has become a fashionable habit. A similar fashion has reached the Northern capital.

Who has what?

Igor Vodopyanov, a billionaire from St. Petersburg, owner of the Teorema company, according to rumors many years ago bought himself an island on Vuoksa in the beautiful and very expensive Priozersky district of the Leningrad region. Vuoksa is a lake-river system, with very clean running water and small islands spread over many kilometers. This natural structure allows tourists to relax here quite comfortably, without disturbing each other at all. As legends say, the island originally belonged to a certain cool businessman from the 90s Andrey Batkovich. He built the unauthorized chapel of St. Andrew here, which is generally popular with tourists and pilgrims to this day. Vodopyanov, as rumors say, built himself a Reception House here – a whole estate with houses, servants’ houses, beaches, forests and rocks. Then the owner of “Theorem” allegedly added three more of the same to his island.

Vuoksi lake system

According to rumors, this is where the estate of billionaire Vodopyanov is located

There are islands with owners not only in the Leningrad region, but also directly in St. Petersburg. For example, in the Northern capital there is a very small private island – Serny.

Serny Island

Our information:

Serny is a small island without residential buildings on the Malaya Neva. This is one of the many islands of the Neva River delta within St. Petersburg. It is located north of the second largest island in the Vasileostrovsky district of the city – Dekabristov Island.

The owner of the island is a major real estate specialist Alexey Komrakov. Currently, the entire territory of the island is rented by the owner Anders Motors Andrey Egorov, there are also parking areas for private boats and jet skis. The owner intended to build a hotel and yacht club here. Judging by indirect data, the size of the future complex is 25-30 thousand m2, which means that future investments will amount to several billion rubles.

Another island in St. Petersburg is directly related to billionaires – this is the island of New Holland. New Holland is not an ordinary St. Petersburg park, it is a fashionable space with entertainment and restaurants for every taste for children, youth and adults.

Our information:

New Holland is an artificial island surrounded by canals, created by the Dutch, hired by Peter I to build the new Baltic Fleet at the beginning of the 18th century. The island’s name comes from its canals and Dutch-style buildings.

Its owner is Roman Abramovich, one of the richest people in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). He won a competition to buy the island in 2010.

In 2011, New Holland was opened to citizens for the first time in almost 300 years. The island was opened for year-round visits in 2016. The project to restore and transform an abandoned island with ancient buildings into a fashionable art cluster is headed by Abramovich’s ex-wife Daria Zhukova. She and her ex-husband now jointly own the fund responsible for the development of New Holland. The funding comes from Abramovich’s investment company, Millhouse. From the very beginning, business circles in the Northern capital looked at Abramovich’s purchase with surprise, because such a project is very difficult and, most importantly, it takes a long time to recoup the investment. However, as rumors say on the banks of the Neva, the state simply forced Abramovich to show similar charity in relation to St. Petersburg.

However, as our insiders say, these islands are only a small fraction of those islands and islets that can be owned by large businesses. Assets love silence, so perhaps we will never know about the rich Robinsons who fly at helicopter speeds to relax on their own island.