The family of Alexander Zakharov, the creator of the Russian Lancet kamikaze drones, owns luxury real estate in London overlooking Big Ben. Write about it «Important stories».
With the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Western countries imposed sanctions against CST LLC (Zala Aero Group), the company that produces the Lancets. It was founded by Alexander Zakharov; he also holds the position of chief designer.
At the same time, Zakharov himself and his family were not included in the sanctions lists.
Journalists found an apartment with the Zakharovs in London's Westminster district, about a kilometer from Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Its area is about one hundred square meters, there are three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen-dining room and a balcony.
The Zakharov family has owned this apartment since 2018. Its cost is about 1.5 million pounds (about 180 million rubles at the current exchange rate).
The apartment belongs to Zakharov's wife and son, Svetlana and Lavrenty. Lavrenty Zakharov has been living abroad since at least 2015. Since July 2021, he 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. The UNIDIR website says that his research interests are the weapons and ammunition management program, demining and humanitarian access.
In 2022-2023, the structures of the Ministry of Defense bought drones from the CST for 5.3 billion rubles. «Important stories» wrote that in the creation of «Lancets» are used, among other things, foreign components that continue to arrive in Russia even after the imposition of sanctions.