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- The secret exodus: who received the legacy of the author of "20 ideas for the development of Russia"
The secret exodus: who received the legacy of the author of "20 ideas for the development of Russia"
The father and two minor children of businessman Dmitry Davydov (listed by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as foreign agents) initiated an inheritance case and as a result became owners of assets belonging to him for at least hundreds of millions of rubles, Izvestia found out. This is confirmed by recent rumors about the death of a man who was called the author of the acclaimed project "20 ideas for the development of Russia." In 2021-2022, 1 billion rubles were spent on its advertising. Izvestia found out the probable date of the businessman's death and found out what inheritance he left to his relatives. However, lawyers do not rule out that the death could have been staged to avoid criminal prosecution in Kazakhstan, where Davydov was accused of tax evasion in the amount equivalent to 8 billion rubles. The mysterious death of a mysterious businessman is in the investigation of Izvestia.
The legacy of "20 ideas"
100 m from the Garden Ring, next to the Scientific Research Institute. Sklifosovsky, there is a not very noticeable mansion built in 1917. One basement floor, two residential, only 800 sq. m. Even the cadastral value of the house exceeds 220 million rubles, and the market value can reach 500-600 million rubles.
Some time ago, the building changed hands: two minor children, US citizens, and their grandfather, who officially lives in the small village of Atakent in northwestern Kazakhstan, became its new owners. They inherited the mansion — since 2014 it has been owned by a mysterious man, a Kazakh businessman with Russian roots Dmitry Davydov.
There is an unusual story behind the usual name: it is this man who is considered the author of the sensational project "20 ideas for the development of Russia" a few years ago, it was he who built a large-scale betting business in Kazakhstan, went on the run after being accused of tax evasion, and in Russia was entered into the register of foreign agents.
There are entire pages in leading newspapers, special projects on major websites, every second millionaire blogger and first-rate show business stars from Olga Buzova to Philip Kirkorov and Nikolai Baskov as people involved in the advertising campaign - such was the large—scale promotion of the 20 Ideas for the Development of Russia project in 2021-2022. The author of the "breakthrough" recipes for a better life was an unknown entrepreneur Dmitry Davydov. According to estimates by advertising market experts, he spent about 1 billion rubles on advertising his ideas for no apparent purpose.
The project "20 ideas for the development of Russia" is a set of proposals to improve life in the country. The ideas ranged from the obvious, like the need to turn Moscow into an international financial hub, harmless ones like increasing fines for owners of expensive cars, to the eccentric ones, like implanting chips into people who have committed crimes.
Perhaps no one would have paid attention to the ideas themselves if it hadn't been for a large-scale advertising campaign. According to estimates by advertising market participants, in total, more than 1.2 thousand advertising articles talking about "20 ideas" and more than 2 thousand publications on social networks were published in the media, including a huge number of bloggers with millions of subscribers.
In the fall of 2021, the media revealed the name of the alleged author of the project, entrepreneur Dmitry Davydov, co—owner of the Kazakh bookmaker Olymp.
The wave of publications began to subside only in 2022 and finally stopped after the Ministry of Justice of Russia added a certain Dmitry Viktorovich Davydov, born in 1981, to the unified register of foreign agents on December 17 of the same year.
The "20 ideas" were gradually forgotten, but at the end of August this year, an unsupported message appeared on one of the social networks stating that the likely author of the project had died, and back in 2023.
In the course of its own investigation, Izvestia managed to confirm this fact and find out what kind of inheritance the mysterious entrepreneur left, and who got it.
Who got Dmitry Davydov's fortune
According to Izvestia, Davydov's relatives inherited from August 23 to August 29, 2024. This means that the author of "20 ideas" died no later than February of the same year (since you can inherit at least six months after a person's death).
In the register of inheritance cases, which is maintained by the Federal Notary Chamber, there were only five full namesakes of Dmitry Davydov who died between 2023 and 2024. Four inheritance cases do not fit the deadlines and, in addition, were opened in Orenburg, Primorye, Pskov region and Bashkiria, and only one in the Saratov region, which borders Kazakhstan, where Davydov is from. In this case, the official date of death is listed as September 11, 2023, which most likely corresponds to the death of the alleged creator of "20 ideas", and not his full namesake.
Izvestia also managed to discover the Russian part of Davydov's inheritance. Since 2014, the businessman owned the mansion on Mira Avenue in Moscow. According to the information received by the publication (supporting documents are available to the editorial staff), in August 2024, the mansion was given in equal shares to three relatives of Dmitry Davydov. These are the businessman's father, Viktor Davydov, a citizen of Kazakhstan, and two minor children of the deceased businessman (Izvestia has their names at its disposal).
The children of the alleged creator of "20 ideas" were born in the American state of Florida, and for some time the five-star Rocco Forte The Charles Hotel in Munich was listed as their registration address. However, they are now presumably living in Dubai, where one of them goes to a gymnastics school. Information about Davydov's wife could not be found, and it was also not possible to contact his other relatives.
In addition to luxury real estate, Davydov still had a business in Moscow. He owned the Oblomov on Presnya company, which owned the restaurant of the same name, located on 1905 Street. The area of the premises is 797 square meters, the market value reaches 500 million rubles. The restaurant is now closed, but the company continues to operate: in 2024, according to the Rusprofile service, it received revenue of 40 million rubles and recorded a loss of 12 million.
At the same time, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the company has not yet been inherited by Davydov's relatives, and he remains the sole owner, at least on paper.
Lyubov Ivanova, the company's CEO, told Izvestia that she had not heard anything about Davydov's death.
— This is actually the first time I've heard this from you [that he's dead]. Do you have any supporting documents? I don't have one," she said.
She refused to answer questions about contacts with the owner of the company and stressed that she did not understand the reasons for the close interest in Davydov's figure.
— Of course, I keep in touch with everyone, but I won't answer any questions. I do not know what kind of value it is that you are writing an article about it. Who is he, a diplomat, a deputy? — summed up the interlocutor of Izvestia.
Kazakh assets
It is unknown whether Davydov left an inheritance in Kazakhstan. Izvestia failed to find the entrepreneur's open inheritance case in the republic. However, the businessman had reasons not to make a will in Kazakhstan.
In his homeland, he was accused of creating an illegal gambling business under the guise of a bookmaker, tax evasion and money laundering. We are talking about the Olymp bookmaker, whose co-owner the media has repeatedly called Davydov. Some of the defendants in this case have already been convicted, but Davydov managed to escape — he has been wanted since 2020. His wanted card still hangs on the websites of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan and Russia, despite his death.
According to court materials, as of July 12, 2022, the company's arrears in taxes and other mandatory payments amounted to 62 billion tenge — 8 billion Russian rubles, or $98 million at the exchange rate at that time. Later, the amount of debt due to penalties and fines increased to 86 billion tenge.
Court documents from Kazakhstan show that Davydov and his family had some of their assets seized, but their list is not specified. The family tried to challenge the seizure of the property. Thus, Davydov's lawyer pointed out that the confiscated funds belong to relatives and were seized by mistake, since there were no grounds for the arrest in the court decision. Davydov's sister and father also disputed the confiscation, insisting that they had not received money from Davydov, but had earned it themselves. So, Yulia Davydova earned more than 100 million tenge from 2016 to 2019 thanks to her own business.
An analysis of the register of legal entities in Kazakhstan showed that the Davydov family owns a significant business, which, however, fell into disrepair after Dmitry Davydov started having problems with law enforcement agencies. The businessman's brother, Vladimir, owns a restaurant chain in Kazakhstan, and his sister, Yulia, owns a Payment Transfer company that deals with electronic payments and rental of real estate. However, despite their formal existence, these businesses show no signs of activity, and their owners have small debts.
The strangeness of Davydov's death
Experts do not rule out that Dmitry Davydov's death could have been staged to reduce the attention of law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan. It is impossible to confirm or deny this, but it is noteworthy that after the information wave around Davydov's death on September 2, 2025, the owner of the domain changed. 20idei.ru (blocked by the decision of the Ministry of Justice) — a private individual became the new owner, whereas before that the domain belonged to Davydov personally.
In February 2025, a new "20 ideas" website appeared, but already in the .com domain zone. The domain owner is hidden, but Kazakhstan is indicated as the country of administration.
"Today, it is difficult to forge a death certificate, especially in Russia," Vitaly Maryasov, a lawyer at the Yenisei Siberia Bar Association, told Izvestia. — At the same time, practice knows a lot of criminal cases for illegal forgery of death certificates, followed by fraud. People "die" fictitiously in order not to pay debts or to escape from criminal prosecution. It is not difficult for the investigating authorities to uncover the fact of forgery of a death certificate allegedly issued in Russia. There would be a wish.
Another thing is a forged document issued by the authorities of a foreign state, the lawyer stated. This requires close international cooperation, which is not always carried out at the proper level.
— I would draw attention to the fact that the criminal prosecution of Davydov in Kazakhstan has not been terminated in connection with his death, as indicated by his being on the wanted list. Perhaps it's a matter of time, or maybe no one there knows about his death," Vitaly Maryasov noted.
According to him, the Moscow courts are literally inundated with lawsuits from the Moscow City Property Department, which is trying to verify the purity of the inheritance files of deceased foreign citizens who owned property in Russia and recognize it as extortionate property in order to transfer it to the ownership of the city.
If there is the slightest reason to doubt the legality of the transfer of ownership of inherited property, the court checks the entire inheritance file, including the will and death certificate, adds Maryasov. Perhaps Davydov's property will have to undergo such a judicial review.
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