FBK told about the trips to Europe of former adviser Shoigu

Maria Kitaeva, the former adviser to the head of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, probably married the Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov and traveled around Europe after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is stated in the FBK investigation. Alexei Navalny’s associates allegedly received the “complete archive of Kitaeva’s mail for 17 years.”

Until 2012, Kitaeva hosted the “Servant of Russia” program on the “Zvezda” TV channel, worked on “Russia 24”, and then served as an information technology adviser to the governor of the Moscow region – this post was then held by Sergey Shoigu. When he was appointed head of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, Kitaeva received the position of adviser to the minister.

In 2014, by Putin’s decree, she was awarded the rank of official state adviser of the 3rd class – it is equivalent to the rank of major general. Now Kitaeva works as an adviser to the director of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. It is under the sanctions of Canada.

In 2020, Mediazon journalists analyzed the declarations and suggested that Kitaeva and Deputy Defense Minister Yuriy Sadovenko have three children together. FBK published the birth certificates of these children – according to the documents, they have the surname Sadovenko. At the same time, as the investigators note, Kitaeva and Sadovenko did not register the lack. Later, according to FBK, Kitaeva broke up with Sadovenko and married Ivanov.

FBK learned from the correspondence that Kitaeva flew to Tuscany with her children on vacation “almost every summer” and regularly visited other countries. At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kitaeva was in London, and then flew to Italy and Hungary several times – the last time in July 2023.