How the former Russian president got rich through his foundations since the start of the war

Foundations linked to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have amassed about $850 million since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, Radio Free Europe's Russian research unit Systema has discovered.

The rise in the foundations' wealth coincides with the resurgence of Medvedev's wartime image, whom President Vladimir Putin dismissed from the post of prime minister in 2020.

However, he has found an audience of millions of followers in his new role as an "online attacker," while still maintaining a role in the government as deputy chairman of Putin's Security Council and chairman of the ruling party, United Russia.

Medvedev, once a gentle and moderate figure, has become an ardent supporter of the war, and holds harsh and hateful stances towards Kiev and the West on social media.

Overall, 15 foundations linked to Medvedev received about 28 billion rubles, or $424 million, between 2015 and 2021, the last year before the full Russian occupation begins in February 2022, according to financial documents reviewed by Systema.

From 2022 to 2024, this amount increased to more than 130 billion rubles, or $1.39 billion. More than half of this money was received in the past year alone.

The foundations had a total of 23.5 billion rubles, or $316 million, in their accounts at the end of 2021 and 86.4 billion rubles, or $850 million, at the end of 2024, the data show.

The funds have been distributed for various purposes, including to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine and real estate projects - which appear to have links to Medvedev - from St. Petersburg to the Black Sea coast, Systema revealed.

The foundations do not publicly identify their donors, and only two of the 14 still in existence currently have websites. One of them, Nasha Pravda (Our Truth), says it has spent 2.4 billion rubles over the past two years to support the “special military operation,” Putin’s forced term for the war in Ukraine, with spending on thousands of drones, night vision goggles, generators, medical equipment and other supplies.

Nasha Pravda was created on Medvedev’s initiative, according to the head of the United Russia central executive committee, Alexei Sidyakin. The foundation has collaborated with the party — in February 2025, for example, they jointly donated equipment worth more than 14 million rubles ($177,000) to a Russian military unit, according to the foundation’s website.

Medvedev's 29-year-old son, Ilya, who joined the party in September 2022, attended the ceremony and was introduced as a project director in the same party committee.

Many foundations do not provide details about how they spend their funds.

But evidence shows that some were used to directly or indirectly support real estate projects linked to Medvedev – a topic of great public interest since a report by the now-banned Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), led by Alexei Navalny, revealed a network of luxury properties, yachts, vineyards and other assets attributed to the then-prime minister.