The key facts

  • The Moscow Arbitration Court is preparing to hear Satyricon's lawsuit against the contractor Evrostropodryad demanding completion of construction and recovery of a penalty exceeding 4 billion rubles
  • The contractor does not accept the claims and explains the delays by objective circumstances
  • According to the investor Art-Invest's balance sheet, in 2025 the company's capital went 45 million rubles into the red, with accounts receivable making up 95% of its assets

Lawsuit against the contractor and the investor's condition

The Satyricon Theatre intends to compel its contractor through the courts — the company Evrostropodryad — to complete the reconstruction of the building on Sheremetyevskaya Street in Moscow and to recover a penalty of more than 4 billion rubles from it. The Moscow Arbitration Court has begun preparing for proceedings that, according to Life.ru, promise to be lengthy: the contractor does not accept the claims and explains the delays by objective circumstances.

The project's investor and the terms of the contract

The investor in the reconstruction is Art-Invest, a company created specifically for this purpose. According to its published balance sheet, with a turnover of 1.2 billion rubles in 2025, the company's accounts receivable amounted to 95% of its assets — the outlet suggests that this is precisely the money paid to the contractor. In the same year 2025, according to the same data, Art-Invest effectively ceased to exist: its capital went 45 million rubles into the red, and 'dead' assets appeared on its balance sheet.

Conflict of interest and the terms of the deal

Under the contract signed by Art-Invest with the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo), the reconstructed building of the state theatre is to cover 47,000 square metres, of which only 12,000 will go to the state, while the remaining 35,000, including a 15-storey apart-hotel, will pass to the investor. The owners of Art-Invest, as Life.ru notes, turned out to be Konstantin Raikin himself and his long-time partner Anatoly Polyankin; in 2016 the Ministry of Culture saw a conflict of interest in this and demanded that they leave the ranks of the founders, which, according to the outlet, was done only formally.

The conflict over the school and other circumstances

The outlet also cites other circumstances that, in its view, may have influenced the course of construction, while stipulating that the question remains open. In 2016, Raikin publicly criticised the state for its 'attacks on art and theatre'. Later, a conflict arose between him and Polyankin: the rector of the Higher School of Performing Arts abolished the position of artistic director, keeping management of the school for himself, and Raikin publicly accused him of attempting to seize the school. According to Life.ru, the scandal led to a criminal case and Polyankin's detention; he was later transferred to house arrest and then died. In February 2022, Raikin signed a letter from cultural figures calling to 'stop the war against Ukraine', and in April of the same year he lost his post as artistic director of the HSPA — the outlet notes that many linked this to his stance. After Polyankin's death, Raikin took the post of the school's rector.

The financial situation of the Raikin family

Apart from the troubled Art-Invest, the family's other assets are, according to the outlet, in order. The Raikin Plaza hotel earned more than 120 million rubles in 2025, its capital grew from 71 to 134 million rubles with almost no debt. The Arkady Raikin Foundation owns real estate (a shopping centre, a hotel, offices) worth about 200 million rubles, with revenue of 6 million rubles last year. The HSPA, according to commercial databases, lives 'feast or famine': in 2025 a cash gap emerged there. In the latest available declaration for 2021, Raikin declared an income of 11 million rubles, two Moscow apartments (78 and 86 sq. m on Malaya Nikitskaya and Malaya Bronnaya, valued at about 62 and 70 million rubles), a dacha in the Moscow region, and a 90 sq. m apartment in Czechia.

What is known and what remains unclear

All of the information cited comes from a single outlet — Life.ru; the publication contains no independent confirmation of the Art-Invest balance sheet data, the real estate valuations, or the interpretations of the conflicts. The outcome of the court proceedings with Evrostropodryad and the fate of the building's reconstruction remain unknown: the lawsuit is only being prepared for hearing, and the contractor disagrees with the claims.