The family of the creator of the Lancet kamikaze drones owns property in the UK
© PHOTO: KALASHNIKOV CONCERN
While designer Alexander Zakharov is arming the Russian army, his son Lavrenty Zakharov is working at the UN Institute for Disarmament Problems
The wife and son of the creator of the Russian Lancet combat drones, Alexander Zakharov, Svetlana and Lavrenty Zakharov, have owned an apartment in an elite area of London worth £1.5 million (about 180 million rubles at the current exchange rate) since 2018 . The UK has imposed sanctions on the drone manufacturer CST LLC, but not on the Zakharov family.
Alexander Zakharov is a Russian designer who has been developing and manufacturing drones for over 15 years. Today, his most famous invention is the Lancet kamikaze drone (loitering ammunition), which delivers a warhead directly to the target - a tank, an artillery mount, a radar, etc. The drone was used in Syria and is now widely used in the war with Ukraine. The military and experts recognize the effectiveness of the Russian "Lancets"; Ukrainian expert Oleksandr Kovalenko calls these drones “the scourge of the war zone.”
In the propaganda stories ( one , two ) about the power of the "Lancets" on the TV channel "Russia-1" Zakharov is called the "second Kalashnikov." His company CST is indeed part of the Kalashnikov concern, but the controlling stake belongs to Zakharov. In 2022-2023, structures of the Ministry of Defense bought drones from the CST for 5.3 billion rubles. The Zakharov family, wife Svetlana, son Nikita and daughter Maria, is involved in the drone manufacturing business. Of course, the production of "Lancets" uses foreign components that are prohibited from being supplied to Russia due to sanctions. All this "Important Stories" was told here .
Putin's elite has a habit of making money in Russia on patriotism and war with the West, while investing and spending what they earn in the same hostile West. This elite does not want to acknowledge the contradictions here, and the Zakharov family is no exception. As follows from the UK real estate registry, the Zakharovs purchased an apartment in the Westminster area, about a kilometer from Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. On the site of the real estate agency, an advertisement for the sale of this apartment with photographs and a plan has been preserved . The apartment is small - less than 100 sq. m, it has three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen-dining room, a balcony. The house has a gym and a view of Big Ben from the roof.
Lavrenty Zakharov is the youngest son of the Lancet drone designer Alexander Zakharov. He is a good student and has had a good start in his career, but neither suggests that he could earn a flat in London.
According to LinkedIn , Lavrenty Zakharov has been living abroad since at least 2015 - from the age of 16. In the UK, he graduated from high school, received a bachelor's degree in politics, sociology and Eastern European studies from University College London, and then a master's degree in conflict studies from the London School of Economics. Since July 2021, Lavrenty has worked at the UN agencies in New York and Rome, and since May 2023 at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland. Lavrentiy Zakharov's research interests, according to the UNIDIR website, are the weapons and ammunition management program, demining and humanitarian access.
Svetlana and Lavrenty Zakharov did not respond to a request from Important Stories.
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