Sunday, 16th January, 2022.
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| Eladio and I on TV. Our faces have become very well known. We are known as Maria and Eladio |
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| Our squatter. Photo courtesy of El País |
Dear all,
I can hardly believe the story I am about to tell myself. We have a "KGB operative" living in our house and sleeping in the room next door. As someone wrote this week "reality surpasses fiction". It really does. I can hardly believe we are living this situation. The injustice and absurdity of it is incomprehensible but so are the laws of this country. Frankly, Spain is a squatter's paradise. Our hands our tied - no, we cannot change the locks, no, we cannot kick him out, no, we cannot cut off the water. Basically there is nothing we can do. Why? Because Spanish law favours squatters. We have to wait for the court case which could take place in 6 months or more. To get Felipe Turover evicted could take up to a year. He knows he has the upper hand and was even told so, according to him, by the Spanish Guardia Civil!!!!! We are desperate and when you are desperate you take desperate but legal measures. That is why we have resorted to media pressure, to get him to go, to highlight the case for it to be processed faster by the legal system, but also, my friends, to show the world that Spain has the strictest laws in the world when it comes to evicting a squatter. This may well put off people from other countries wanting to buy property here. The laws won't change any time soon with our socialist government in coalition with a communist party. But I hope this story which has reached all the corners of the earth this week, will at least focus on the injustice not just of our story and suffering but on Spain's ridiculous laws and sluggish legal system. The other option would be to hire an eviction company to do the job. But they are sleazy and dangerous and I don't want them here. I will not go down that route. I have lived here for 40 years and love this country but am now angry and frustrated. When we rang the police to evict him on 19th November, nearly 2 months ago, we had no idea the law was against us. He paid promptly from January to the end of September and his vacational contract expired on 1st December yet he is still here. We have lost earnings of 3.500 euros and paid 4.500 in legal fees. But it's not the money and don't think we are rich. We just want him to go. Now comes the full story of our nightmare week.
But first let me introduce you to Felipe Turover. This man arrived at our house a year ago on 7th January, just before the famous snow storm hit Madrid. He came through a vacation rental platform and seemed the perfect gentleman. He then asked to stay on with a verbal agreement. I looked him up on Google just in case and did find lots of articles from 20 years ago that linked him to high politics in Russia. Most of them talked about his part in destroying the corruption of Yeltsin's government. There were references to him being linked to the KGB but I had no proof. Plus I thought that if he had wanted to rid the country of corruption he must be one good Russian. So, he stayed on. He renewed his stay every 10 days and was a delight to host. He is cultured, has traveled widely and he seemed to be quite well off. He wears expensive branded clothing, has the latest iPhone, wears an expensive watch and bought food from gourmet stores. We got on well with him. I even made Russian food for him - my famous "bitki" or "pelmeni".Everything was fine until the end of September. He paid that month and then proposed booking for one month instead of for 10 days so as to avoid anyone booking his room; something that had happened on occasion. I agreed. Come the beginning of November the money didn't arrive. He made excuses which I believed. He then proposed paying me both October and November and the money didn't come either. Meanwhile my poor dear father was dying and I didn't think about him until later. I asked Felipe for bank receipts to prove the transfers and he gave me them. We took them to the bank, ours - La Caixa- who couldn't find the money and to his bank, BBVA. It was at this last where we were told they were most probably false. Later we knew they were because both slips have the same operation number. He most probably prints them in his room. I read more about him after this and came up with articles from El País where he was described as a "compulsive liar". I could not agree more.
We confronted Felipe Turover on 19th November and said if he didn't pay he had to go that very day. We did this in the company of our neighbours as we were frightened of him. Yes, he had behaved perfectly up till then but we didn't know how he would react. Thereby began our nightmare.
Olivia reported him to the local court. We went there on the Sunday but the Judge refused to evict him saying the measure was too grave or serious for his freedom. By God! And what about our freedom? We can't even leave the house. We have to leave separately so there is always one of us here. We can't even have our grandchildren to stay. That is how we are living and we want our normal life back.
However, that day, 19th November, a date I shall never forget, the Guardia Civil did get him to agree verbally that he would leave on the 24th November. That didn't happen. And he submitted us to psychological torture from then on with his excuses as to why he couldn't leave. From then on too the tension increased in our house and when he heard of our legal proceedings he wrote a threatening Whatsapp whereby there would be zero communication from then on. We decided to put the alarm on every night to control his movements, put in a lock on our door and some cameras. He avoided us as we avoided him. It annoyed me that he was using our kitchen so we put a camera in there too.
Meanwhile, someone sent me a link to the book I wrote about last week, Putin's People - book of the year in the UK by The Times, The Telegraph, The Economist and The Financial Times. In it, FT (Felipe Turover) is described as a KGB operative and someone who helped Putin reach power when Putin was the vice mayor of St. Petersburg. We read that he had been threatened later by the current "Tsar" (FT's words) who ordered him to leave the country otherwise he would be "liquidated". What we don't know is why he fell out of favour with Putin. That frightens us. Since then we know that he hid in Switzerland, in the Alps for more than 10 years. It seems he came to Spain because his father Enrique Turover was not well and he had to look after him.
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| The book where Felipe Turover is called a KGB operative |
(You might be interested to know his father is an academic who wrote the definitive Spanish Russian dictionary and was the interpreter for people like Brezhnev, Gorbachev and even the former King of Spain. We have also learned that Enrique Turrover, now aged 89 and living in a care home on the outskirts of Madrid, was given Spanish nationality by the government for his merits. Thus his son, FT, got Spanish nationality too. He also has an Israeli passport either through his mother or Father, one of whom was or is Jewish) as well as a Russian one.
Thus, when I read that he is a " KGB operative" that is when I got worried. The book is written by Catherine Belton, the former Moscow correspondent for the FT who now works for Reuters. For the book which took her 7 years to write she came to Boadilla del Monte, near where we live, to interview FT. Below is an extract of an interview with her where she describes talking to FT. It is interesting to note that Catherine Belton has a degree in Russian politics so I do not doubt her word. But I do doubt FT's word. Obviously I do after all his lies. This is what she said about him:
"What did you discover that was new?
I was able to track down Felipe Turover, a KGB operative who played a key role in the scandal that brought Putin to power as the whistleblower who revealed the Yeltsin Family was given credit cards by a Swiss company reconstructing the Kremlin. He’d been quite high level operator who also happened to know Putin and worked with him in the early 1990s on the oil for food deals in St Petersburg. His explanation added a greater element to understanding how the Putin regime operates. Everyone knows that in Putin’s St Petersburg oil-for-food deals the scandal centred around crony companies appointed to handle commodity exports who were able to keep the cash (rather than import food). But Turover’s explanation of the deals showed they were not just about corruption, but more strategic: Putin was handing out export licences to people he knew, very often connected via the KGB, because the city needed to create a hard currency slush fund to pay off debts to pay for equipment for vital infrastructure and to maintain intelligence networks abroad. Turover added a strategic dimension to what we’d come to know as pure kleptocracy. Putin and his allies were not just lining their pockets but siphoning off funds for more strategic ends. It became apparent how Russia under the current Putin regime continues to run in much the same way: Putin has parcelled out the country’s economy and its cash flows to a tight network of loyal allies who run these sectors of the country and divert funds to the Kremlin, sometimes to help win elections, run propaganda, and more recently to seek to boost Russia’s geopolitical stature by undercutting rivals and undermining western democracy."
You can read the full interview with her here.
After learning this and having begun legal proceedings, for a couple of months we stayed quiet waiting for our appeals to justice to bear their fruits. But it is all so slow and we knew we had to take further steps.
So when about two weeks ago, El Pais - Spain's top daily - got in touch with us after I appealed to a journalist I know there I decided to tell our story. The journalist, assigned to the story Fernando, was extremely interested in it and who this FT was. He came to our home to interview us and hoped to see FT too. He then went on to do a very thorough investigation as his paper could hardly believe the story. I mean it has all the ingredients of a film rather than real life. Was the man in our house really the Felipe Turover described in Catherine Belton's book? We met Fernando and told him our story in great detail. In it we described this man's endless lies - he had been vaccinated against Covid in January 21 (impossible in Spain at that time for someone his age), his father was a Spaniard who as a child had been sent to Russia to escape the Spanish Civil war (later Fernando found out this was not true), that he had said he never married nor had a child (not true, he married a woman called Rosa in Russia. She was the daughter of a Spanish woman, Dolores who was sent to Russia to escape the Civil War. He also has a son called Antosha (Antonio). His other lies of course were about paying us; the false bank receipts. I have also learned since then that he hasn't paid the storage rental company, "Blue Space" and has lost most of his belongings. Now he has just a few suitcases in "his room". We also found out that the car rental company, "Opción Car" had been duped too and that he owes the company 1200 euros. Not only that he had bumped and damaged two of the company's cars. The owner Diego told me he had given him similar false bank receipts. So he wasn't only duping us.
Being a good journalist and wanting to protect us, Fernando wrote to FT on the pretext of talking about his role in Russian politics as described in the book Putin's People. FT took the bait and was keen to be interviewed and they met at a fancy hotel in Madrid. He took along a woman we presumed to be his girlfriend, who he presented as his press rep!!!! Another big lie. Fernando also went to his father's house which FT told me he had sold just before he came to stay. Fernando found out it had been sold a year earlier. He was able to talk to neighbours who remembered him well and to the current owner. She described him as a "womaniser". He is I know because he used to try and flirt with my daughter Suzy who frankly left our house to live in the provinces so as not to be anywhere near him. Fernando came away with information that revealed that FT was on a debtors' list and that the proceeds of the house went to the people he owed money to. With all the information F (the journalist) got to prove and expose Felipe Turover for the conman we are now sure he is. No doubt FT was furious he had been exposed and that the paper now also knew he had been squatting at our place. We also know through the police that he has done it before at another home. We would love to know where so as to find out how they got rid of him.
The article was published this last Monday 10th January and you can read it here. You will be shocked at what you read.
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| Two whole pages on this story which was published on Monday 10th January |
Of course our names and picture was now there for the world to see. I figure as Maria which is my birth name. Anyone who knows me and saw the article and anything else that was published later, would know it was me but not the general public.
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| Our photo for the El Pais article. Courtesy of the newspaper |
FT's name is now name shamed, he has no girlfriend or car and and has even lost his keys. I feel like his jailer. No doubt he has no friends left either as anyone in his circle will now know exactly who FT is. Not a nice situation for him but then again it is even worse for us. I feel no remorse for him being exposed.
There has been a lot of talk and questioning about whether FT really is or was a " KGB operative" . Of course he will deny it. I mean a spy is not going to say he is or was a spy. But I believe Catherine Belton. She wouldn't have written it if she wasn't sure.
That Monday morning I had to be at the hospital for pre op tests for my knee operation. I had to go back again for a pre op PCR test on Wednesday and on Thursday be operated. With all the developments I had to cancel Thursday's operation. This man has interrupted our lives so. This nightmare, especially this week, has had a huge toll on me. I can't sleep and I am a nervous wreck. Meanwhile he continues to live here and there is nothing I can do.
You might want to know why we let El País reveal the whole story. Well you have your answer at the beginning of this post. If the law can't help us and we have to wait months or years, we need to showcase this story. Don't think we like doing this. We hate it but we don't have many other tools. No doubt FT didn't realise that when he came to squat here he would come to the house of someone who is a communications director and whose daughter is a TV journalist capable of creating so much media hype.
Of course the El País article was read by many and Olivia, my TV reporter daughter who has been a brick throughout, has been heavily involved. She is almost our spokesperson - well she does speak so well. From Monday to Saturday we have had TV cameras from all of Spain's main TV stations, including her own, here the whole time while he is entrenched in his room.
Last Sunday, after we had put a camera in the kitchen, linked to my phone, I told him he could no longer use the kitchen nor anywhere else in the house, just the room; not even the garden! That's because our contract which is verbal and which has now expired, does not mention anywhere that he has the right to use anything apart from the room. He stayed there most of the day. TV reporters began knocking on his door but he refused to come out. You can see this happening in a short video I took here.
After this incident of calling on his door he sent me a threatening message to say if anymore TVs did the same he would call the police as what I was doing was illegal. I didn't answer. Here was the squatter telling us we were doing something illegal. For God's sake. More knocked on the door but the police did not come. We had him cornered media wise.
The house was full of TV station cameras and crew. Oli was managing it all and both Elado and I, together or alone were being taped or interviewed live or for later use. I understand this world and have been on TV many times, but never as the protagonist. It's very stressful.
Meanwhile, I decided to try to showcase our story in the British press. After all this was happening to a British born woman and I wanted international coverage to show the injustice of Spanish squatting laws. We have all heard of squatters taking over an empty house; bad enough, but having one in your own house and in the room next door is just not on. It's not tolerable. I got in touch with the Madrid correspondents of The Guardian, The BBC and The Times. The Telegraph had picked up El País' story already which can read here. David from the The Times was very sympathetic and on Friday 14th published an article which you can read here as it is open to non subscribers.
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| Thanks David for the article in The Times |
I was pleased of course but wanted more. I asked David for a contact who might cover the UK tabloids in Madrid and he gave me the name of the Daily Mail European correspondent. Shortly afterwards The Mail Online published the story. There are many comments after the article. I particularly like this one:
"I checked this Turover on the wibbly wobbly Web, and he is or was well entrenched in the vast money grabs in Russia when the soviet Union collapsed. And indeed he did grass up old putin, and having his name and address splashed over the press and media was not his brightest decision in my book"
I think that he has put it in a nutshell. FT has been exposed and now the whole world knows who he is. No wonder he is entrenched in his room.
Later David told me that The Mail had stole his story and that journalism in Fleet Street is not what it was. He admitted though: "Anyway, mailonline is a beast, the world's most read "news" site, so now the whole world knows about your situation". Oh my God I thought. On a more lighter note this week he commented to me: "What an extraordinary story - look on the bright side, out of this current nightmare may yet emerge a rather good film - with you played by Joanna Lumley". Many people this week have said it would make a good film for Netflix. Eladio keeps describing our situation to the press as "living with the enemy" , the name of another film. He is right.
For the whole week we were on and off TV and exhausted. I don't think FT really realised our power when it comes to contacting the media. No doubt he thought he was duping a retired couple. But he was duping a family with members - Oli and I - who know how the media works. I really hope now he regrets having chosen our house to squat in or us as a couple to groom and dupe. Now he has to face the music.
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| Our media circus |
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| Our image is everywhere and we are exhausted from so many TV interventions |
More exhausted was our squatter. On Tuesday afternoon he actually left the house - he must have been desperate with no food or drink or cigarettes - and of course the cameras caught him. Oli caught him too. She found he was carrying a bag with medicines and 4 bottles of wine. He got cross and called the police. Would you believe they escorted him to his room? One of them went up to talk to him and came down to say he had "promised" he would leave the next day, Wednesday noon. Of course he didn't. The policeman said he would come back at that time but he rang the night before to say he wouldn't and that we should call him if FT leaves. You see how abandoned we feel by the forces of law in this country? It seems their hands are tied too without a judge's order. It is completely absurd.
Wednesday was the worst day when things came to a climax. We had hoped he would go at noon as he had said to the policeman. He remained in his room where he had been for a day and a night. We and the TV crews heard loud noises in his room; very loud ones. I imagined he was trashing the room. Oli called the police as I really thought he might even be committing suicide. They came but told us no one could go in his room, not even them. For God's sake Spanish laws are laughable. But they did go in when he called out for help or moaned inside. The police saw the TV cameras and shooed them away but Eladio stood up to them. I have never seen him so cross. He said he was the owner and he would decide who comes into his house and who films what. The policeman later apologised. Remarkable.
So what did they find? A semi unconscious man with booze and tablets everywhere. The police said he hadn't trashed the room. Later FT himself showed me the bathroom where I could see he had broken the wall. I was furious. I was also furious to see the mess it was in. He allowed me in so I could take photos. My friend Amanda said I would probably have to gut the bathroom when he eventually goes.
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| What I saw in the bathroom |
Later he took his rubbish to the container and as it is no longer his I was able to take a photo. This is the cocktail of wine, whisky and tablets I found (Stillnox, lexatin and tramadol).
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| This was what was in his rubbish |
When I saw it I wondered if he had tried to commit suicide. I asked a friend, Mari Carmen, who is a pharmacist and she told me that most certainly this amount would have been enough but we don't know how much he took. Olivia and her partner Miguel are convinced it was just another show. I don't know.
Soon the paramedics were there and eventually they took him off in an ambulance. The cameras caught him being escorted and leaving. It was a ghastly situation for us. Really ghastly.
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| FT leaving in an ambulance |
So he had gone but would be back but we didn't know when. There was no rest for the wicked and by then there was so much media interest we were one of the main topics on many news programmes. The TVs left late but I wasn't able to rest. I just couldn't sleep.
Thursday morning was the most worrying of the week. Eladio had gone with Lucy to take Elliot to school and Lucy for an appointment. I was on my own. At 7.30 am he appeared at the gate having come by taxi. He paid for it by credit card!!!! So he must have some funds. He had lost his keys and no way was I giving him another set and we won't unless a judge orders it. He told me he would be leaving that day at 12. Was it another lie? In any case Oli alerted the TVs and they came again to see if he would really leave and catch him on camera. I then went into my room, locked the door with a key and put the alarm on. Shortly afterwards it went off. It was him. He wanted to go out as a taxi had come to bring him something. I caught that on camera too. The taxi had brought him cigarettes and again he paid by credit card.
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| The taxi that came to bring him cigarettes |
As I escorted him to his room where he let me in (me alone with him in his room - how scary), he told me he would leave that day at 12. I asked him why he had got drunk, he said he hadn't - come on - but promised to go. This time I really thought he would. The TV cameras were all there waiting. By 12.15 I lost my patience. I knocked on his door and asked him to come out and talk to me. All of this was being filmed. He saw the TVs and closed the door again. That is when I turned round to the cameras to describe my situation. I then broke down. I had an anxiety attack, the first in my life. I told the cameras not to film it and I hope they didn't. There I was trembling from head to toe and hanging on to the reporter from Antena 3. Up came Olivia and Eladio to comfort me and make me calm down. I was so bad my daughter wanted to call an ambulance. I didn't want that but I did talk to my GP and she has prescribed pills for anxiety and has also written a medical report which we hope our lawyer can use if the case ever comes to court. I am a strong woman but can only take so much as I'm sure you understand.
The interviews continued despite my panic attack - I must say I felt relieved afterwards and they did not finish until past 10.30 pm. During this time he stayed in his room. He did call me (every time he calls we tape it) to say with a drowsy voice he meant 2 and not 12 but that he was trying to go and would leave that day. He didn't obviously. The last interview was with a right wing minor TV channel 13 TV, a programme called "Gato al Agua" who treat us so kindly.
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| Interview with 13 TV |
They have been here twice. I was very proud of my 77 year old philosophy professor husband Eladio who spoke just as someone of his category can. He said things like "Is the law made for man or is man made for the law?". You can see the interview here.
Friday came and that day we were joined by Eladio's brother, José Antonio and his wife, Dolores. They have been following events with great worry and are concerned for our health and well being. It was great to have them there. He, FT, had been in his room since 10 am on Thursday and I imagined he didn't have much food. We had more interviews both with radios and TVs. One was with La Sexta - that left wing channel which had treated us rather badly the day before. They wanted to come again to make amends. That is unheard of. The reporter told us it was the director of the programme "Mas Vale tarde" who wanted to do another interview with us, not the more aggressive presenter. I never watch any of these TV programmes, most of them are pretty rubbish and sensational. I do not respect them but have to say they have big audiences. I also have to say apart from the La Sexta presenter, everyone has been a brick and very sympathetic. By Wednesday I had set up a bar for them all in our kitchen. They told me they were grateful as they were used to sitting outside in the cold. Not at our house. They are all extremely welcome and I am grateful to them for echoing our case.
The interview went well this time. I think it was at about 8 pm. All the journalists had tried to speak to him by knocking on the door. Incredibly, FT, who had been in his room by them for nearly 40 hours, came out and spoke. He said he wanted a walk in the garden. I refused and he went back into his room. He then said he wanted to go to the street and I had to acquiesce. The camera followed along with Oli who taped it to send to the other TVs. He only replied to one question; was he an ex KGB spy? He laughed and said that was impossible as when the KGB was disbanded he was only 17. You see he has lied again. He was born in 1964 ( I have a copy of his Spanish ID card) and was 27 when the Russian spy organisation was closed. In any case it didn't close, it just changed its name and still today, we in the west refer to it as the KGB.
That whole episode provoked another panic attack and I went into my room sobbing and trembling. Oli was concerned of course as was my husband. Thankfully there were no cameras by then. Once I had got over it I went down to join the family. It was then that FT rang me again! Oh God I hate him calling me. He said he had heard me cry and was concerned. Concerned, the man who is making my life a torture?
Saturday came and although there were would be fewer cameras, I still wasn't at ease. Who could be? Oli came and taped us for the midday news on Telecinco and Antena 3. A3 news has the biggest audience in Spain and there we were again on TV. I only caught the tail end of it. When is this going to end.?
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| On TV again yesterday |
I decided yesterday morning that I would try to talk to him to reason with him and I did. I had 3 long conversations but cannot reveal any of the content as we have yet to digest it. The day was not stress free because of me having to face him personally. My family think he tries to manipulate me emotionally, to feel sorry for him. Is he playing with me again? Maybe. He told me he would leave on Monday morning come what may. I cannot believe him now.
Yesterday, finally, I left the house after days stuck at home with this media circus. There was nothing left in our cupboards and it was with great hurry Oli and I bought food for the coming week. With all this on my mind I had completely forgotten our dinner with my dear friend Julio that night. Originally we were going to his place but as you know now we cannot leave the house. He arrived with a load full of wonderful food and there I was in my dressing gown not having remembered. How could I remember with all this going on? However, he completely cheered us up and we had a great night, trying not to talk too much about our nightmare week. Julio did us the world of good.
Today is Sunday and yes more TVs are coming. FT called me to ask me to open the gate. I told him more cameras were coming tomorrow and please will he leave. Again he said yes; well, not really - adding "I'm 90% sure I'm leaving". I have lost my patience. But as you know, I shall carry on until we win this battle or rather this war. As Sir Winston said; "if you are going through Hell, keep going". Keep going I will.
More from me next week. Cheers till then,
Yours and truly, Masha (alias Maria)
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