Uncovered reserves: fugitive judge Khakhaleva bought a luxury apartment in Tbilisi
Elena Khakhaleva, a former judge of the Krasnodar Regional Court who left Russia and was then put on the international wanted list, acquired luxury real estate in the center of Tbilisi, Izvestia found out. According to the Georgian Real Estate Registry, she became the owner of an apartment worth about 25 million rubles in one of the skyscraper towers in the Axis Towers residential complex on Ilya Chavchavadze Avenue. According to the sources of the publication, the "golden judge" may be hiding from the Russian investigation at another address in the Georgian capital. The details are in our investigation.
Elite residential complex and security
In June 2025, Elena Khakhaleva registered the rights to an apartment with an area of 53.1 square meters. located in the prestigious Vake district of Tbilisi. This follows from the data of an extract from the Georgian real estate register, which was at the disposal of Izvestia. The surname, first name, patronymic and date of birth in the document completely coincide with the data of the former judge of the Krasnodar Regional Court, who was put on the international wanted list by Russia on charges of large-scale fraud and forgery.
The apartment is located at 37m Ilya Chavchavadze Avenue, in the towers of the elite Axis Towers complex. According to the document, ownership is registered on the basis of a purchase and sale agreement, drawn up back in August 2023. Elena Khakhaleva left Russia even earlier — in 2021.
Chavchavadze Avenue, on which Axis Towers stand, is one of the main and most prestigious streets of the city. There are many good restaurants, fitness clubs, private clinics and premium shops in the area, which is why residents can hardly travel to other parts of the city.
The towers, built in 2019, have become one of the architectural symbols of modern Tbilisi and represent a multifunctional complex: apartments, offices, restaurants, fitness, swimming pool and hotel. The security service lets only apartment residents or tenants inside, as well as hotel customers, as the correspondent of the publication was convinced, who also tried to rent an apartment or apartment in the complex for a day, but could not due to lack of available places.
Axis Towers in Tbilisi
Khakhaleva's apartment is located on the 26th floor in the block next to the hotel. Apartments of similar square footage in this complex cost about $230-270 thousand (17-20 million rubles), according to local housing purchase and rental services.
— Vake was originally, probably since the thirties of the last century, the area where the Georgian urban intelligentsia settled. There are a huge number of embassies here. This is an area that is convenient to live in, because it has everything from nearby fitness clubs, pools, spas, and coworking spaces," said local realtor Yulia Sheina, who specializes in real estate in Vaka.
Axis is the tallest building in Tbilisi today, the Izvestia interlocutor noted. One tower houses office and retail space and a hotel, while the second tower is residential. Rental of housing there starts from $1.5 thousand per month, if we are talking about apartments with 50 "squares". The cost of daily rent is about $120 per night.
Elena Khakhaleva's name became widely known in 2017, after information about her daughter's lavish wedding appeared in the media. Nikolai Baskov, Iosif Kobzon, Valery Meladze and other stars performed at it. The media estimated the possible cost of organizing the celebration at several million dollars, and Khakhaleva was given the nickname "golden judge."
In 2020, the Higher Qualification Board of Judges stripped Khakhaleva of her mantle and immunity. A criminal case was opened on charges of large-scale fraud and forgery. According to investigators, from January 2016 to July 2019, she was absent from her workplace 127 times without valid reasons, but these days were reflected in the timesheets as workers, as a result of which she was paid a salary of about 1.2 million rubles.
In addition, according to the united press service of the courts of the Krasnodar Territory, the court found that Khakhaleva, through judicial mechanisms, distributed highly liquid farmland in the region in favor of business entities associated with her ex-husband Robert Khakhalev.
Second address
Elena Khakhaleva does not live in the Axis Towers apartment all the time and almost never appears, Izvestia correspondents found out. Her place of residence in the Georgian capital may be another property on Maxim Gorky Street, sources told the publication. They found it difficult to name a specific house, but they noticed that it was a small street and there was only one large house on it, number 16.
The Izvestia correspondent who visited the site was convinced of this. This particular house is the only one in the whole area equipped with a powerful video surveillance system. Moreover, according to local residents, this particular house was recently renovated, the facade was lined with brick. In 2019, house number 16 really looked different.
The apartment on Maxim Gorky Street could have cost the ex-judge much less than a one-bedroom apartment in Axis Towers. According to local real estate sales services, in June 2026, a one-bedroom apartment in one of the houses on this street costs $103 thousand (over 7.5 million rubles).
In Russia, it was seized, but there are no problems abroad.
On June 5, 2026, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar turned the property of Elena Khakhaleva and related persons into state revenue: shares in the authorized capital of four companies, 73 land plots, about 100 residential and non-residential facilities, as well as more than 15.5 million rubles in accounts were seized. According to the court, the family illegally seized a land fund of more than 12.5 thousand hectares.
The full address list of residential properties converted to state revenue has not been publicly disclosed. At the same time, among the properties that the media previously linked to the Khakhaleva family were a mansion on Uritsky Street in Krasnodar worth 80 million rubles, a three-story cottage on Alma-Atinskaya Street for 65 million rubles and a mansion on Kropotkin Street for 39 million rubles.
As Izvestia reported, before leaving, Khakhaleva sold a three-story mansion along with a plot of land for 85 million rubles, and her daughter's wedding could take place in this house. In a mansion of 700 sq. m. There are five bedrooms with carved solid wood beds with gilding. The house also had two kitchens, two living rooms, a study, a library and a billiard room.
The seizure of real estate in Russia did not affect the ability of the ex-judge and her family members to freely acquire property abroad, even if Khakhaleva was put on the international wanted list, Dmitry Krasnov, chairman of the Board of the Moscow Bar Association No. 1, explained to Izvestia.
— Not everyone has an agreement with the Russian Federation on cooperation. De jure, they may exist, but de facto countries may not want to interact with Russia, including for political reasons. Georgia may well do the same, as well as Moldova or Israel, from where individuals wanted by Moscow may also not be extradited," the source said.
Krasnov added that even the official request of the Prosecutor General's Office for the search and extradition of Khakhaleva from Georgia may remain without movement, and as long as local authorities do not pay attention to the person wanted by Russia, he is not deprived of his rights. The exact location of Khakhaleva is currently unknown, so even if she is in Georgia, local authorities may not take steps to search for her, the lawyer explained.
— After the start of the SVO, many people who could have problems with the law in Russia left for Georgia. There are such people in the Baltic States, in Armenia, and in Azerbaijan. And these are people with existing convictions in Russia, who are wanted and simply have not yet been convicted or convicted in absentia. They quite easily find work there, means of livelihood, the opportunity to stay there in violation of visa regimes, get a residence permit with the inaction of local authorities, — said Krasnov.
Izvestia tried to contact Elena Khakhaleva and her closest relatives using their existing contacts. The judge's phone number was answered by a woman who told the Izvestia correspondent that he had the wrong number. The relatives' phones were unavailable.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
