Russian president's wife 'has no savings'

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Russia's leaders on Monday declared their incomes for 2010, with President Dmitry Medvedev revealing that he owns only one classic car dating back to the Stalin era and his wife has no savings.

Medvedev earned 3.378 million rubles ($120,653) last year, he said in a declaration published on the Kremlin website.

His income was significantly less than that of his mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who declared $180,118.

Neither leader had bought any new cars, land or apartments since last year.

Putin still owns the same fleet of two classic Volga cars, a jeep and a towed caravan, all Russian made, while Medvedev said that his only private car is a Soviet-made Pobeda classic car dating back to 1948.

His wife Svetlana, a housewife, listed a 12-year-old Volkswagen Golf, which she has declared for the last three years.

Svetlana Medvedeva declared that her three bank accounts were completely empty, with a balance of zero rubles.

The Medvedevs' teenage son Ilya, who is never photographed in public, was also listed, with no property, earnings or savings. He recently played guitar with Deep Purple musicians, news agencies reported, but no pictures were released.

Both Putin and Medvedev declared higher incomes than in 2009, when Medvedev earned $114,000 and Putin earned $134,250.

Putin's wife Lyudmila earned $5,222, while in 2010 she declared no income at all.

The highest earning official for the last two years, Yury Trutnev, the minister for natural resources and ecology, retained the position this year, declaring earnings of $4.097 million.

But the wife of first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov was the highest earning spouse with an income of $13.3 million, down from $22 million last year. Her earnings dwarfed her husband's income of $523,256.

Last year, Vedomosti business daily reported that Olga Shuvalova co-owned a property developing company.

The couple also has the most impressive car collection, boasting seven vehicles including three Mercedes and a Soviet-made Zil limousine.

The measure was introduced by Medvedev in 2009 as a way to expose corruption by stopping officials from hiding off-the-record earnings by channeling them to relatives.

He was the first president to declare his income from 2009 and the first declarations caused much excitement.

But the declarations of most officials proved short of revelations, since they do not list savings nor sources of income nor take into account the many free perks they enjoy.