Ozero is a co-operative

Housing cooperative

A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...

 society allegedly instituted on November 10, 1996 by Vladimir Smirnov (head), Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

, Vladimir Yakunin

Vladimir Yakunin

Vladimir Ivanovich Yakunin is a Russian official, president of state-run Russian Railways company. Yakunin is a close ally of the former Russian president Vladimir Putin and is considered to be one of the members of his inner circle.-Biography:...

, Andrei Fursenko

Andrei Fursenko

Andrei Aleksandrovich Fursenko is a Russian politician, scientist and businessman. Currently he is the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.-Family and education:...

, Sergey Fursenko

Sergey Fursenko

Sergey Aleksandrovich Fursenko is a Russian businessman.He is a brother of Andrei Fursenko.Since July 2003 Sergey Fursenko is the Director General of the JSC Lentransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom....

, Yury Kovalchuk, Viktor Myachin, and Nikolay Shamalov. The society united their dacha

Dacha

Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...

s in Solovyovka, Priozersky District

Priozersky District

Priozersky District is a district of Leningrad Oblast, Russia. The area of the district is . Its administrative center is the town of Priozersk. District's population: -History:...

 of Leningrad Oblast

Leningrad Oblast

Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

, which is located on the eastern shore of the Komsomolskoye lake on the Karelian Isthmus

Karelian Isthmus

The Karelian Isthmus is the approximately 45–110 km wide stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia, to the north of the River Neva . Its northwestern boundary is the relatively narrow area between the Bay of Vyborg and Lake Ladoga...

 near Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

.

By now, its shareholders have assumed top positions in Russian government and business. As of 2008, Vladimir Putin is the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Yakunin

Vladimir Yakunin

Vladimir Ivanovich Yakunin is a Russian official, president of state-run Russian Railways company. Yakunin is a close ally of the former Russian president Vladimir Putin and is considered to be one of the members of his inner circle.-Biography:...

 is the Head of Russian Railways

Russian Railways

The Russian Railways , is the government owned national rail carrier of the Russian Federation, headquartered in Moscow. The Russian Railways operate over of common carrier routes as well as a few hundred kilometers of industrial routes, making it the second largest network in the world exceeded...

, Andrei Fursenko is the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Sergey Fursenko is a brother of Andrei Fursenko, the Director-General of Lentransgaz and the President of the Football Club Zenit

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg

Football Club Zenit is a Russian football club from the city of Saint-Petersburg. Founded in 1925 , the club plays in the Russian Premier League...

 (St. Petersburg), Yury Kovalchuk is the Head of the Board of Directors and a major shareholder of the Russia bank, Viktor Myachin is its former Director General (1995-1998, 1999-2004), Nikolay Shamalov and Vladimir Smirnov are prominent businessmen.

Support for Putin

Boris Nemtsov

Boris Nemtsov

Boris Efimovich Nemtsov is a Russian politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Russia from 1997 to 1998. He was a co-founder of the Russian political party Union of Right Forces and is an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.-Early life:...

, former deputy prime minister of Russia and current opposition leader, suggested in a 2011 interview that only those in Ozero really support Putin any more: "Everyone is unhappy with Putin, save perhaps his closest friends, members of the so-called Ozero dacha cooperative [...] In only a few years these fellows turned from medium-sized entrepreneurs into dollar billionaires. For example, the Kovalchuk brothers have seized power over Gazprom

Gazprom

Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...

; the KGB

KGB

The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...

 veteran Gennady Timchenko

Gennady Timchenko

Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (also spelled Guennadi Timtchenko; (born 1952) is a prominent businessman, active in the energy trading business, citizen of Finland, currently living in Geneva, Switzerland....

 is now a trader who controls 40 percent of all crude oil exports; Putin's former sambo

Sambo (martial art)

Sambo is a Russian martial art and combat sport. The word "SAMBO" is an acronym for SAMooborona Bez Oruzhiya, which literally translates as "self-defense without weapons". Sambo is relatively modern since its development began in the early 1920s by the Soviet Red Army to improve their hand to hand...

coaches, the Rotenberg brothers, continue to get lucrative contracts, and there are a few more people like this."