As heavy fighting
continues in Ukraine, one well-known
Russian socialite is still traveling
regularly to France
and it is causing quite an uproar
to the point
where a small protest
took place in Paris yesterday
with people demanding that France
do something to stop this
because of where
this woman's money allegedly comes from.
Svetlana MacNeill,
which is a woman of expensive tastes,
diamonds and couture,
extravagant parties
and European vacations.
Just last month,
she was seen shopping
and dancing
in the elite French ski
resort of Porsche Val.
But many Jovic is no ordinary
Russian socialite.
She is the other half of Russia's deputy
minister of defense,
Timur Ivanov,
one of the most senior architects
of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
And according to a shocking investigation
manual
which continues to gallivant
around France
more than a year
into Russia's bloody war.
Despite the fact that Ivanov
was sanctioned by the EU in October.
Don't shoot.
Going to keep
the explosive report
put out by the Anti-Corruption
Foundation, an investigative outfit
founded by Russia's
jailed opposition leader, Alexei
Navalny is based,
they say, on a leaked archive
of more than 8000 of many Verges
emails over the last 12 years
and has racked up more than 6
million views on YouTube.
It claims that on March 25th, 2022,
as dozens of missiles
rained down
on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv,
many of which spent more than $100,000
in a top Paris jewelry store
on the Place Vendome.
How was it possible
that she can continue to do this?
It's a very simple trick that they play.
Point number one,
Svetlana has an Israeli passport
through her class with her first husband.
And second of all, six months
into the war,
they have filed for divorce.
They haven't
they haven't split any assets.
Nothing has changed in terms of
daily life with whatever they owned.
They keep everything together.
They're like, technically,
they're not legally married anymore.
Equally shocking
are the opulent
lifestyle and lavish
spending that the leaked emails document.
According to Russian business
publication RBC.
Ivanov's official
income was once
declared to be around 14.2
million rubles
a year, less than $175,000.
Yet the Navalny group's report calculated
that the couple spent
more than a quarter of $1,000,000
in just one summer.
CNN has not been able
to independently verify those numbers.
How is he funding this lifestyle?
Well, the answer is corruption.
Corruption and specifically kickbacks.
According to the Russian government,
Ivanov oversees
construction for Russia's
Ministry of Defense,
including what the Anti-Corruption
Foundation describes
as lucrative contracts
to rebuild the Ukrainian city
of Mariupol,
which fell
to Russian forces under punishing
bombardment last May.
The Russian army has destroyed demolish
70% of the apartment blocks in town.
They had to build new ones and they did.
So that company
that built
those display houses in Mariupol.
It is the same company that pays
for two more Ivanov's personal bills.
Despite claims of such brazen corruption,
Putin toured the construction project
last month.
A request for comment
on the investigation
from the Russian
Ministry of Defense received no reply.
This is
all in France, though the
pressure may be mounting.
On Sunday afternoon,
the Anti-Corruption Foundation
organized a small protest
outside the Paris
apartment it claims,
many of which still rents.
Demanding to know how
she is allowed
to spend the profits of Russia's war
in the heart of France.
A question
so far without any satisfactory answer.
CNN has reached out to the French
foreign ministry
who respond
to saying
we do not comment on
individual situations.
France, with its EU
partners, has ended visa facilitation
for Russian citizens
and has also adopted targeted
individual sanctions against 1499
Russian officials and their supporters.
We also attempted, of course,
to reach out to Svetlana Manual,
which sending her an email,
but as of yet, we have not received
a reply.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.