Kumarin (Kum; hereinafter - criminal nicknames), Antikvar, Barmaley, Misha-Khokhol, Vasya Bryanskiy, Lesha Tolstoy, Fima Banshchik, Puchiglazyy, Baboon, Pomidorka, Monya-Faberge. This is the Tambov Organized Criminal Group from St. Petersburg, for which Russian President Vladimir Putin worked in the 1990s under the nickname "Vova-Shnyr".
Imagine, friends, if in the "decaying" America it turns out that a sitting president, for 25 years (including while in power), had a business with some Johnny "Eggs" from the Genovese mafia family or another mafia figure. Moreover, the business was purely criminal: involving murders, budget cuts, money laundering.
Meanwhile, the media under this president would launch a campaign with slogans: "But at least he didn’t let the U.S. collapse!" and "Our shnyr outplayed everyone". Kind of hard to imagine, right? — Not like in Putin’s Russia rising from its knees. Well, let’s go step by step.
1. The best friend of dad.
Once in 2006, the hard and hopeless life of the residents of the town of Tour-de-Peilz on Lake Geneva was interrupted by a bright event: some rich Russian from St. Petersburg bought the local landmark, the Château de Sully estate, for 30 million dollars, where the founder of the Credit Suisse Bank, Wilhelm Escher, once lived.
The new owner of the estate was a man of means. A large-scale renovation immediately began in the master’s house, the installation of sophisticated security systems, as well as the construction of a stable and a pool for bathing horses (the owner and his wife were fond of horseback riding).
New mature trees were purchased for the estate, which were delivered there by helicopter... Faster that way. Soon the Château de Sully became one of the most expensive estates on the Swiss Riviera.
It felt like the new owner of the estate decided to settle in Switzerland seriously and for a long time. He even ordered a super expensive motor yacht Nina by Riva Rivale 52 from Italy. Just for cruising on Lake Geneva.
The Rivale 52 from the Italian shipyard Riva is such a motor yacht for oligarchs. 16 meters long, three cabins plus a lounge, all the pleasure costs from $1 million.
For a long time, the identity of the Russian nouveau riche remained a mystery for the residents of the town of Tour-de-Peilz: who settled nearby? — In official documents and social interactions, he was introduced as Ilias Traber, a Greek citizen.
It was apparent that Monsieur Traber was a wealthy man and conducted some international business. He frequently traveled across Europe to France, Spain, and Russia, and dealt with offshore funds. At his request, the Luxembourg fund Genii Capital, which places the money of wealthy individuals, purchased a car for Vitaly Petrov, a Formula 1 pilot from Vyborg.
Leningrad Region, 2010. V. V. Putin testing Vitaliy Petrov’s race car:
Pilot Vitaliy Petrov (left) and his father — Alexander Petrov. In an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, Vitaliy Petrov called Traber "the best friend of dad" and his main sponsor.
All this was very strange. What kind of money is the "Greek businessman" Traber managing in Europe? Whose is it? And why is he the "best friend of Vitaly Petrov’s dad" (and the dad is a former killer from the Vyborg Brigade of the Tambov Organized Criminal Group)? And finally, why did Putin come to ride in this race car? — Is he familiar with Traber and Vyborg’s criminals?
Other oddities were associated with the cases of Monsieur Traber on the Cote d’Azur in France and Monaco. In the summer, the entire Russian elite gathered on the "Azure Coast" to party, villas, expensive apartments, and yacht berths were purchased.
In France, there is a department associated with the tax service – the BCR (Brigades for Control and Investigation). Something like tax police. In 2002, the BCR of the Alpes-Maritimes department (which includes the French Riviera) conducted an investigation into the purchase of real estate by Russians in the region. They gathered information about people and checked it through various channels, including special services.
A report was prepared for official use, but some parts of it ended up in the press (in the weekly «L’Express»). Specifically, the BCR report stated that in Nice, an apartment was purchased for 7 million francs (this was before the introduction of the euro) by "Putin’s friend Ilya Traber", who according to the French special services "is associated with the Tambov group, controlling the port of St. Petersburg".
Yes, but Ilya Traber was the name of monsieur Ilias Traber according to his second, Russian passport. It turns out he owns property in Nice too. And what kind of people he is friends with!
But that’s not all. 20 km from Nice is the most expensive and iconic place on the Cote d’Azur – the Principality of Monaco. Here in the Monte Carlo casino during the monarchy, Russian princes, counts, and authorities (in the field of literature) played roulette.
“This lovely Monte Carlo looks very much like a pretty... thieves’ den” (A. P. Chekhov).
But a notable fact: since 2000, monsieur Traber was declared persona non grata in Monaco. He wasn’t allowed into the den, ironically. For what? – For money laundering. In 1999-2000 he was involved in the case of the local offshore company "Sotrama", which was suspected of various illegal activities. As a result of the investigation, Traber and his partner Dmitriy Skigin were banned from entering Monaco forever.
What happened there was unknown for a long time (the principality’s authorities did not make the incident public). Details were revealed many years later by Robert Eringer, the former head of intelligence in Monaco, after he left his post in 2007.
American Robert Eringer and his close friend, retired CIA officer Claire George, worked for the Prince of Monaco from 1999, engaging in covert information gathering about suspicious foreigners. In 2002-2007, Eringer had the official status as head of Monaco’s intelligence service (advisor to the prince on security).
As Eringer revealed, the firm "Sotrama" in Monaco was suspected of laundering money from the Tambov Organized Crime Group, illegal deals with Russian oil, as well as trading weapons and paying bribes to Putin through corruption schemes (to his offshore accounts in Liechtenstein). Quite a bouquet there.
Eringer not only disclosed this investigation but also published some documents, including the Monaco police dossier on the firm "Sotrama".
Excerpt from the dossier. Mmm... so mister Traber is indeed from the Tambov group:
Another snippet from the same dossier: a list of enterprises controlled by the Russian mafia, whose money was being funneled through "Sotrama".
Oh, God! — The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal (which was created by Putin). OBIP — the management company of the St. Petersburg marine port. "Horizon International Trading" — an outfit in Liechtenstein where the profit from the refueling complex in Pulkovo, which Putin handed to Traber and his colleagues in 1996, was leaked.
Damn it: the Petersburg port, oil terminal, Pulkovo — all under the control of bandits, and the money was being funneled to Monaco together with Putin.
Still, in this story, pay attention to one funny detail. Monaco – a beautiful place, a tax haven for the rich and so on. But the financial reputation of the principality — is by no means flawless. There have been, and there are, quite a lot of dirty money here. Both the "Cosa Nostra" and African dictators have happened.
Therefore, to be expelled from Monaco for money laundering — it’s like being expelled from a brothel for promiscuity. You had to stand out. That is, our hero, monsieur Traber – is quite an extraordinary person, as you guessed.
The incident in Monaco in 2000 was a serious blunder for him. At some point, the double life that monsieur Traber led in Europe was uncovered. Ilias Traber was a respectable Greek businessman, and Ilya Ilyich Traber — was a criminal authority from the Tambov Crime Group with the nickname "Antikvar" with a long and bloody trail behind him.
Luckily for Traber-Antikvar, the Monaco authorities in 2000 did not make a big noise, quietly closed his entry, and that was it. It almost didn’t affect his life in Europe. The French didn’t touch him either, although, as seen from the 2002 BCR report, they perfectly knew who bought an apartment from them in Nice.
But however long the string may be... In 2008 Antikvar had a new story in Spain. And this time it ended with an international arrest warrant. In 2008, in Spain, local police, after two years of development, conducted the "Troika" operation against the Russian mafia. Dozens of bandits from Petersburg, who had moved to this country to settle in at the end of the 1990s, were arrested. They were all from the Tambov and Malyshev Organized Crime Groups (initially, it was one gang that later split into two parts).
Chronicle of the "Troika" operation. Arrest of Alexander Malyshev ("Kid"), after whom the eponymous OCG was named.
Petersburg bandits were accused of laundering money in Spain, extortion, tax evasion. One of the defendants was our hero. The Spaniards concluded that Traber — was one of the largest authorities in the Russian mafia. He was supposed to be arrested, but at that moment he was not in Spain.
In 2016, having lost hope of seeing Traber in their country, the Spanish authorities declared him wanted by Interpol. But by then, he had already abandoned his property in Europe and hastily moved to St. Petersburg.
2. Imaginary thug.
The photo below was taken in Sevastopol in the early 1970s. Cadets of the SVVMIU (Sevastopol Higher Naval Engineering School) under the guidance of an officer during practical boat handling training.
Captain First Rank Lev Ivanov (center), conducting this training, could hardly have supposed that the young cadet standing next to him would become the most famous graduate of the SVVMIU in its entire history: the godfather of criminal St. Petersburg Ilya Traber.
Traber graduated from the school in 1973 and went to serve in the Soviet submarine fleet. However, the military service did not suit him. He wanted money, and the young officer made a side business of sleight of hand (selling imported goods on the black market). And there, in a day, one could make more than in the army for a month.
Naval officer and black market dealer — not very compatible concepts (at that time anyway). In the end, in 1980, officer Traber left the navy and got a job... as a barman in the beer bar "Zhiguli" in the center of Leningrad. For many years under the USSR and later in the 1990s, this bar was one of the most infamous places in the city.
The famous St. Petersburg chanson singer Mikhail Sheleg even wrote a song about it:
Beer could be drunk, but diluted. It was another profitable shadow business. Traber mastered it as well. Added to that was trade in gold and antiques — the savings of the rich people of that time: in-house workers, shadow workers, etc., were invested in them.
Plus, as a minimum, since the 1970s, the Soviet shadow economy was well integrated with the criminal world. Underground millionaires paid criminals to protect them from other criminals. The center of this underground kingdom in the USSR was Georgia. There were the most factory workers; they paid Caucasian thieves-in-law, of which numerous appeared on this basis.
Amid these Georgian bandits was one authority who had special life ties with St. Petersburg and frequently took antiques from Traber. This was the thief-in-law Djaba Ioseliani. Traber and Djaba were well acquainted. Later, after the collapse of the USSR, Djaba became a major political figure in independent Georgia.
Djaba Ioseliani in the 90s during his political career:
Djaba in national costume. A rare frame, as Yeltsin shakes hands with a thief-in-law.
Unlike Djaba, Traber never did time nor was he a thief-in-law. But in the 1990s, he too rose to be a cool authority: he started with the antique market of St. Petersburg, stamping it under him. Then followed the capture of the St. Petersburg port, numerous oil depots, gas stations, hotels, and other assets in St. Petersburg and the region. So, gradually the Antique Empire was formed.
Traber assembled his own "Vyborg brigade" from select riff-raff ("the best friend of dad"), imposing protection fees on Vyborg and the surroundings. This brigade integrated into the "expanded" Tambov Organized Criminal Group, where Antikvar became one of the recognized leaders.
In this Tambov Organized Criminal Group, Traber was somewhat of a white crow. Most of its leaders were classic "blatnoes": with two or three convictions behind them, education — gym and prison, work biography — racket and murders. Traber stood out in that background – graduate of a serious military school, former member of the Communist Party (joined at 22, still a cadet), by life — a dealer and trader with years of experience. However, in the 1990s, he also took on the role of a blatant man, and he liked it very much.
This is the Israeli businessman Maxim Freidzon (Max the Gun Crafter), an acquaintance of Traber from the Petersburg of the 1990s.
From Freidzon’s interview with Radio Liberty:
“Ilya ... combined some business skills (trading antiques, working as a barman in a beer bar) and a clear and often grotesquely emphasized gangster image: it was rather strange that he emphasized it while other representatives of the criminal world at this level did not. He served as a bridging link, able to more or less articulate conversations, add, subtract and multiply numbers, calculate percentages”.
This ability to quickly "add and calculate percentages" and "serve as a linking link" was very valuable. Because a huge role in Traber’s rise in the arena of the criminal world played his ties with the FSB and the mayor’s office, and primarily with these two people:
These are two old friends from the Leningrad KGB. Both left the agency in the early 1990s. Putin became Sobchak’s deputy in the mayor’s office, and Korytov — Traber’s deputy in his gang. Putin in the mayor’s office oversaw the economy, Korytov in the Traber gang — the power block and ties to the roof. And the roof of Antikvar became the St. Petersburg FSB. There Korytov and Putin left a lot of former colleagues in high positions.
In the 1990s, the head of the USFB Petersburg was Putin’s friend Cherkesov, his deputy – Grigoriev (Putin’s witness at his wedding), in the first half of the 1990s, the head of the department for combating smuggling was Viktor Ivanov, the head of economic counterintelligence — Patrushev, and so on.
When did Putin meet Traber? — This is still shrouded in mystery. In 2011, the Kremlin’s press service, in response to a question from "Novaya Gazeta", reported that Putin and Traber met during the organization of the "St. Petersburg Oil Terminal" (PNT) in the sea port. That is, in 1995. The PNT was created in June 1995 with Traber’s participation and Putin oversaw this matter from the mayor’s office.
However, the press service of Putin, as usual, lies. Sobchak was elected mayor of St. Petersburg on June 12, 1991. Traber was present at his inauguration, where he gave the newly elected mayor a bronze bust of Catherine II. And as the St. Petersburg press wrote, Sobchak was introduced to Traber by Putin himself. So Vova and Antikvar were clearly acquainted BEFORE the privatization of the port, as early as 1991 at least.
Essentially, Traber – is one of Putin’s oldest ties in the criminal world. It has lasted for over 25 years – and with Putin as president, they continued to cooperate and had a joint business (we will also talk about this a little further down).
3. The gangland port.
The seaport of St. Petersburg – is a massive enterprise. By the time of the USSR’s collapse, there were about fifty berths there for various cargoes, an oil terminal, warehouses, a tug fleet, and the largest in Russia, the Baltic Sea Shipping Company was based here. All of this was seized and split up by bandits. In the port, as said in a St. Petersburg newspaper of that time, an "informal power pyramid" was built with Traber at the top.
The privatization of the port began in late 1992. It was transformed into a joint-stock company, and its shares were divided into three large packages, approximately: 51+29+20.
51% — to the labor collective, 29% — to the St. Petersburg City Hall, represented by KUGI (the Committee for the Management of City Property), and 20% remained with the federal authorities. Another important detail: 29% of the city hall’s shares were made preferred, i.e., without voting rights. As it turned out later – by mistake. Originally, they were supposed to be voting. But due to a «technical error» by certain clerks at KUGI in 1993, this package was made non-voting.
Moreover, this «technical error» greatly facilitated the task for those who wanted to seize the port. After all, if out of 100% of the shares only 71% vote, it is enough to buy a package of 35-36% from the port workers, who were mostly not wealthy people, and the port is yours (which ultimately happened). Therefore, no one at KUGI rushed to correct the «technical error» of 1993.
By the beginning of 1997, Traber and the gang had already bought no less than 40% of the shares. The purchased shares were collected into the offshore company «Nasdor» from Liechtenstein. The next step was to appoint their own managers. It was planned to convene an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and appoint their own management company to the port.
A company was specially created for this case and called «OBIP» — the Association of Banks Investing in the Port. As a joke, OBIP was deciphered as «the Association of Bandits Investing in the Port».
Naturally, Traber did not concoct this whole complicated scheme with the offshore in Liechtenstein, OBIP as the port’s management body, by himself. He was assisted by his partner and advisor Dmitiry Skigin (with whom they later were part of a case in Monaco).
Dmitriy Skigin, financier of the Tambovoka organized crime group.
A significant role in the port’s capture was also played by a certain Alexey Miller, who worked for Putin in the City Hall until 1996 and from 1996-99 for Traber in the port (he was the «director for investments» there).
Here’s what antiques did for Russia.
And everything was going well for them, but then Traber and «the bandits investing in the port» ran into a problem: the head of KUGI and Deputy Governor of St. Petersburg, Mikhail Manevich. And the latter, as head of KUGI, reported not only to the mayor but also to Moscow. Manevich was a member of Chubais’s team, which led the privatization process in the country in the 1990s.
Mikhail Manevich:
In 1997, Manevich suddenly decided to correct the «technical error» and nevertheless transfer the city package of 29% into the voting shares category. Moscow supported him. This fundamentally changed the situation. Control of the bandits was slipping. The entire long-term share buyout by Traber threatened to collapse.
What motivated Manevich remained unclear. But it certainly wasn’t a sudden fit of honesty. Manevich had been head of KUGI since 1994, he was friends with Traber’s family. He repeatedly helped bandits capture property, including the seaport. Manevich’s first deputy in KUGI, Herman Gref, was also quite friendly with Traber.
What happened between the friends in 1997? – The most plausible version is that Manevich did not go against Traber alone but was simply following instructions from Moscow — from Anatoliy Chubais. In exchange for converting shares into voting ones, he was promised a good position at the federal level in the capital. If so, Moscow’s leadership put Manevich in the line of fire while resolving their own issues...
Mikhail Manevich, his wife Marina (right), and colleagues – Anatoliy Chubais and Alfred Kokh.
So, Manevich stood in the way of the gang in 1997. The conversion of 29% of the city’s share in the port into voting shares did not suit Traber at all.
On the morning of August 18, 1997, Manevich and his wife left their house, got into a service Volvo, and went to work…
A professional was at work. He shot from a Kalashnikov, from the attic, from a very uncomfortable position, having to lean halfway out of a dormer window. Eight shots through the roof and rear window. Manevich only managed to shout «Marina!», she fell to the floor and was slightly wounded. Manevich lay in the back seat, with a fountain of blood gushing from under his collarbone, his wife recalled. She tried to plug it with her fingers, but it was useless. The bullet went through the carotid artery.
The executioner’s handwriting was unique: the assassin did not use gloves but smeared his hands with cream. This made for a smoother trigger pull, which is important when shooting from a long distance. And it left no fingerprints. After doing his job, he threw the machine gun and walked over the rooftops of houses.
Officially, Manevich’s murder has not been solved to this day, 20 years have passed. Although in the gangster Petersburg of the 90s, many knew perfectly well whose cream handwriting it was. The brigade of the Chelyshev brothers – former military specialists from the GRU, working for the Tambovoka organized crime group.
After Manevich’s murder, Gref took his position. He was more compliant. He didn’t interfere with the port. He wasn’t attempting to get the 29% shares. He pleased Traber.
2007: 10 years later. Gref and others at Manevich’s grave.
From the recollections of V.V. Putin («From First Person. Conversations with Vladimir Putin». Moscow, 2000):
«Misha [Manevich] was an amazing guy. I’m so sorry he was killed, such an injustice! Who did he trouble?..»
Who did he trouble? — Surely you know, Mr. Putin. Ask Traber. And later, during the resale of the port in the late 90s to a group of Moscow businessmen (Yuzhilin and company), didn’t Skigin pay you your share? Right here, close friends of Skigin say they didn’t forget about you there. So, the death of Misha, the «amazing guy», was very beneficial to you. Or don’t you remember anymore? Such a trifle compared to what was stolen later, that it simply got lost?
4. Terminals.
An important moment in the capture of the St. Petersburg port in the 1990s is that the port was privatized, so to speak, wholesale and retail. That is, while in 1993-97 there was a buyout of the controlling stake from workers, parts of it were also dismantled along the way: one berth would go into lease for 10-20 years for pennies, another.
The most desirable piece was the port’s oil terminal or, as it was called — the «oil bulk area». Through it passed the export of oil products, refueling (bunkering) of ships.
In June 1995, the oil base was leased to the «Petersburg Oil Terminal» (PNT), behind which stood bandits from the Tambovoka and Malyshev organized crime groups, as well as Vice Mayor Putin, who pushed for this decision.
Traber-Antique also participated there through the company IUB «Peter» (Informational and legal bureau «Peter») and Liechtenstein offshore companies.
The former port oil terminal was soon expanded, and it began to bring good money to the gang, which they used to buy the controlling stake in the port itself. Just like Napoleon: «War must feed itself». They captured the oil terminal — profits from the trophy went to capture everything else.
The author of the idea to capture the port oil terminal and create the Petersburg Oil Terminal was Dmitry Skigin. The PNT idea was a success, and in 1996 Skigin proposed a new project to the gang: to capture the oil base in the Pulkovo airport using the same scheme.
Said – done. As told by Maxim Fredzon, a friend of Dmitriy Skigin, Dima went to Putin, offered a kickback. They haggled for a long time, and eventually agreed on 4%. But considering that the business was planned with revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars (a monopoly on aircraft refueling in a huge airport), that too is pretty decent. In May 1996, by Putin’s order, the oil base in Pulkovo went to the bandits.
In the computer bases among the documents of the St. Petersburg City Hall of those years, there is this order from Putin No.488-r. The very one for which he took 4% from Skigin.
The «SOVEX» company, mentioned in the order, received a monopoly on airplane refueling in Pulkovo. Formally its owners were Skigin, Freydzon, and a Liechtenstein offshore «Horizon International Trading» — the accounting center and communal fund of the Tambovoka in Europe. In fact, «SOVEX» was completely controlled by the gang.
Meanwhile, according to Fredzon, «SOVEX» openly did not pay taxes, as foreign airlines transferred payment for fuel directly to Liechtenstein, to the accounts of «Horizon International». There, in Europe, this money was laundered through a network of offshores and divided among the business participants.
We give you kerosene in Pulkovo, you give us – money in Liechtenstein. It’s all simple.
The shadow accounts were closely monitored by Traber and Skigin. Only once was the veil of secrecy slightly opened over this offshore kingdom of the Tambovoka organized crime group – in the case of the «Sotra» firm in Monaco in 1999-2000.
At the very end of the 1990s, when the bandits had already seized the port and the entire fuel infrastructure of the city, they carried out a redistribution of the captured assets to make it clear who feeds off what. According to Fredzon, «SOVEX» by the decision of the gang passed into the hands of Traber. Putin’s informal share was not affected at this time.
Traber and Putin owned «SOVEX» until 2007, after which the company was sold to a consortium consisting of «Gazprom» and «Lukoil». That’s the kind of deal Vova had with the Antique.
5. «Mr. Traber called Mr. Gref…»
In 2016, an interesting case was heard in the High Court in London: the St. Petersburg businessman Vitaliy Arkhangelskiy sued the «St. Petersburg» bank. In the mid-2000s, Arkhangelskiy bought a number of terminals in the ports of St. Petersburg and Vyborg, for which he went into debt but could not repay. The 2008 crisis hit hard.
The failure to repay the loan led to a protracted conflict between the businessman and the bank, which has turned into a long saga with court cases around the world: in Russia, London, Nice, and even the British Virgin Islands.
Businessman Vitaliy Arkhangelskiy:
The situation was exacerbated by the fact that Vitaly borrowed from the «St. Petersburg» bank. This institution has a rich history. The «St. Petersburg» bank participated in the Putin affair «Raw materials in exchange for food» in 1991-92. It was also a co-founder of the firm SPAG in 1993 for laundering cocaine money. A murky mafia establishment that was on the call for the St. Petersburg City Hall for many years.
The owners of the bank changed several times over the years of its operation; today, it is formally owned by its managers. But in reality, as Arkhangelskiy claims, the «St. Petersburg» bank in 2008-2010 was owned by two families: Valentina Matvienko and Anatoly Serdyukov. And this is the Putin elite: Valya-Stakan and Tolya-Mebelshchik.
Therefore, Vitaliy Arkhangelskiy had little chance in the conflict with the «St. Petersburg» bank. In 2009, the bank came down hard on him. Confiscation of property, criminal cases. Moreover, the issue was not limited to just the return of the loan. Taking advantage of his problems, the bank wanted to take all the businessman’s assets for itself. At the same time, the cost of the latter far exceeded the debt. The creditor’s dispute with the debtor turned into a raider takeover.
In the summer of 2009, when Vitaliy’s business was in dire straits, he turned to the authority Traber, the «night commandant» of the Vyborg and St. Petersburg ports. He promised to help. Traber had his own interest in mind. In 2008, Arkhangelskiy was planning to buy the «Vyborg Fuel Company» (a network of gas stations on the «Scandinavia» highway) from him, but the deal stalled due to the buyer’s problems. Traber promised to help Arkhangelskiy refinance in Sberbank, with the calculation that he would have money to buy the gas stations.
What happened next became known to the general public in the spring of 2016 when transcripts of the court case of Arkhangelskiy were published on the Internet by the law firm «Kofrans» (Nice), which represented his interests.
From the transcript of the interrogation of Vitaliy Arkhangelskiy in court on 02/22/2016:
«He [Traber] called Mr. Gref and arranged a meeting with him for me in Moscow, then another meeting with him in Singapore, i.e., I flew to Singapore to meet with Mr. Gref».
From the same source (protocol from 02/22/2016):
«Mr. Traber is a long-time business partner of Gref, as Mr. Gref was the head of the property committee in the St. Petersburg City Hall…Mr. Traber made many deals together with Mr. Gref… I went to Moscow for one day to meet with Gref, as I believed that Gref could solve my problems, given Mr. Traber’s influence on him or the Antique, as he is called in the criminal world».
But the most spectacular quote from this court:
«Mr. Traber is a notorious criminal, but he [Mr. Gref] was forced to meet with me to please Mr. Traber».
In short, Traber stands above Gref in the hierarchy, and therefore Gref acts as his underling. All these revelations were in the court meeting on 02/20/2016. The next interrogation of Arkhangelsky was on 02/24/2016. Again, the issue of Traber and Gref was raised, as the English didn’t understand: how could the head of the largest state bank strive to please a well-known criminal?
The answer followed:
«Mr. Gref played an important role in the privatization of the port of St. Petersburg and several other objects, which ultimately ended up in Mr. Traber’s hands…Mr. Traber has great influence on Mr. Gref, and the latter simply couldn’t not meet with me, couldn’t be impolite with me, that’s the way it is».
However, in the end, Traber’s connections did not help Vitaliy Arkhangelskiy. Gref, of course, wanted to please the Antique but even more, he wanted to please Valya-Glass and Serdyukov – the owners of the «St. Petersburg» bank. And they were NOT interested in having Arkhangelskiy get the money.
As a result, Arkhangelskiy had to abandon everything and flee abroad. His business was dismantled, but he shed some light (in the courts) on the relations in Putin’s old Petersburg team. Namely, on Gref’s place in it. Unfortunately, his place is “at the latrine.” As he toadied for them in the ’90s, so he toadies now.
6. The Vyborg Shipyard.
The Vyborg Shipyard (VSZ) – one of the largest shipyards in Northwestern Russia.
In the 2000s, the factory was going through tough times. In the USSR, this shipyard specialized in drilling platforms for the continental shelf, but from 2000 to 2006, it built only one such ship for the Norwegians. The factory was left without orders, deeply in debt, and its owner (businessman Sergey Zavyalov) was actively looking for someone to buy it.
Buyers couldn’t be found for a long time, but at the end of 2006, Zavyalov finally got lucky. Two groups of investors united and jointly bought out VSZ from him. Who were these buyers?
On one side, there was a group of little-known (at the time) businessmen from St. Petersburg: former secret service agents Dmitriy Gorelov and Sergey Kolesnikov; Dmitriy Gorelov’s son Vasiliy, a former military man; and Nikolai Shamalov—a former dentist and member of the dacha cooperative “Ozero.” Some of the purchased shares were registered in their names personally, and some with the firm “Rosinvest” — an obscure company that regularly received colossal sums from Switzerland and was spending them across Russia, buying assets here and there.
On the other side, the buyers of VSZ were local investors from Vyborg, who had been well-known in the city for a long time. Like the bandits from the Traber brigade—
Alexander Petrov, Alexander Ulanov, Yuriy Paimulin, Oleg Tsoi. Along with them came Natalya Belikova—Traber’s lawyer in Vyborg.
Frankly, it was an extraordinary alliance. What did the secret service agent Dmitriy Gorelov, a friend of Putin, have in common with:
And the criminal Paimulin from the Traber gang?
What did the son of the secret service agent Gorelov, Vasia, who was placed in the bank “Rossiya” by his father...
...And the bandit Alexander Petrov from the Traber gang have in common? — But no, what am I saying? He is now an activist of “United Russia” in Vyborg and an assistant to a State Duma deputy:
What connected Nikolai Shamalov, Putin’s neighbor in “Ozero,” co-owner of Putin’s bank “Rossiya”...
...And Alexander Ulanov, Traber’s closest henchman?
Yet all these people jointly purchased the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant in 2006. That is, it was sort of a joint project.
The meaning of what was happening became clear later when, in 2010, one of the purchasers of VSZ—businessman Sergey Kolesnikov—unexpectedly fled abroad. Moreover, he did not escape empty-handed, but took with him a heap of documents, and even recordings of conversations with Shamalov and Gorelov, which he had secretly made for several months, preparing to run.
Having fled, he revealed a lot of interesting things. According to him, all shareholders of the plant from their group (himself, Shamalov, father and son Gorelovs) were just figureheads. The brigade of cellists. And the brigade worked for Putin. That is, the controlling interest in VSZ was purchased by Putin. Personally. The purchase was paid from the accounts of the firm “Rosinvest,” which was created in 2005 specifically for investing Putin’s money kept in Switzerland.
Once again: The Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant in 2006 was bought by the sitting president of Russia V.V. Putin and the crime boss I.I. Traber (Antiquarian) on a joint basis. Common business for the guys.
Moreover, this plant in Vyborg was not the only and not the largest project for investing Putin’s money, hard-earned in Swiss banks. The main one was a grandiose palace near Gelendzhik for $1 billion, the construction of which was paid with “Rosinvest.”
Also, along with the palace, “Rosinvest” acquired several plants and factories in Russia in 2006-2008, which looked attractive to investor Putin. A small portion (about $50 million) was spent in Vyborg on the acquisition of VSZ.
This story was made even more piquant by the fact that the personal money Putin invested in VSZ had previously been stolen from the Russian medical budget. From Russian hospitals. They were stolen through the firm “Petromed,” where Kolesnikov was vice president (we will talk about this in more detail below). Moreover, Putin’s investment goal in VSZ was ... to steal even more.
After purchasing VSZ, they routed an order through it for two drilling platforms for “Gazprom” worth a total of $2 billion. However, 90% of all work was performed by the subcontractor—“Samsung” for $1.15 billion.
One of these platforms, it was later named “Polar Star” at a Korean shipyard. The entire upper part (the main part) with all internal contents was made there.
In principle, “Gazprom” could have ordered everything from the Koreans and it would have been cheaper. However, by inflating the price, Putin and Traber made a good deal of money (at least $500 million). For what, in fact, the entire operation with the purchase of VSZ was launched.
Having processed the order, Putin and Traber lost interest in the plant. For several years, the plant languished again, and in 2012 they sold it to the state—United Shipbuilding Corporation. Also, of course, with profit. That’s the deal Putin and Antiquarian made.
Initially, what Kolesnikov revealed in the West caused shock. They didn’t believe him. Leading American newspapers refused to publish it until legal expertise of the documents and recordings he took out was obtained. The agency “Reuters” even conducted its own investigation of his information to verify it.
But unfortunately, everything was confirmed. Putin, who was initially welcomed and courted in the West, turned out to be another Third World dictator of the Mobutu or Mugabe type. They, too, sitting in power for 20–30 years, stole everything that wasn’t nailed down, while ranting about the damned white colonizers and African spiritual bonds.
7. Vova-35%
How did businessman Sergey Kolesnikov, from whom information about Putin’s palace and the cellist brigade of Shamalov emerged, even get into the inner circle of the Russian president (and into the named brigade as well)?
Once, back in 1992, at Sobchak’s city hall, a commercial structure was established—the “Petromed” company. Its founders were the Foreign Economic Relations Committee of the mayor’s office (Putin), the healthcare committee, and two businessmen—Dmitriy Gorelov and Sergey Kolesnikov. Both were former secret service agents. Later, in 1996, they bought this company from the mayor’s office, becoming its sole owners.
“Petromed” was officially established for the purchase of medical equipment for city hospitals. Truth be told, the equipment purchased was imported and mostly from a single supplier—a St. Petersburg branch of the company “Siemens.” A good friend of Putin, Nikolai Shamalov, worked in this branch at the time.
Shamalov worked at the St. Petersburg branch of “Siemens” from 1991 to 2008, initially as a sales manager, later as the head of the branch. Sales for the city’s needs went through “Petromed.” The scheme was simple: the mayor’s office transferred money to “Petromed,” which then bought equipment from “Siemens” on this money—constantly and in large sums (up to $50 million a year during Putin’s term as deputy mayor).
All of them (Putin, Shamalov, Gorelov, and Kolesnikov) knew each other well and worked as a team: Putin in the mayor’s office secured the budget, Shamalov at “Siemens” ensured the goods, Gorelov and Kolesnikov worked as "intermediaries"—a middleman where part of the money settled along the way. In 1996, when Sobchak and Putin were removed from the mayor’s office, “Petromed’s” business sharply declined. Under the new authorities, it turned out that such an intermediary could easily be dispensed with.
But as soon as Putin became president in 2000, “Petromed” flourished again. It began operating at the national scale and turned into a giant holding—a group of companies in Russia and abroad with an annual revenue of $250 million. Shamalov was carried almost on shoulders at “Siemens”—he alone achieved their annual sales plan.
Shamalov, Gorelov, Kolesnikov:
The flourishing of “Petromed” under Putin happened, of course, not by chance. As Kolesnikov explained, as soon as Putin assumed the presidency in 2000, he summoned Shamalov to discuss certain “new business opportunities” that arose with his (Putin’s) election to this position.
The opportunities were indeed alluring. Putin offered Shamalov and “Petromed” lucrative business: as the president of the Russian Federation, he would provide them orders for supplying equipment to Russian hospitals, and they would give him 35% of the kickbacks from all the obtained sums. The kickbacks were to be sent to Putin’s offshore companies—such as “Santal Trading” (Panama), “Rollins International” (British Virgin Islands), “Lanaval” (Belize), and others.
The guys from “Petromed” gladly agreed. The scheme of the flows was simple: “Petromed” received money for furnishing hospitals and transferred it to their London intermediary firms. Then part went for medical equipment, and part was stolen—it was dispersed to “safes” (Caribbean offshores). In fact, the kickback was not even 35%, but all of 40-45% because Shamalov, Gorelov, and Kolesnikov added their commission on top of Putin’s share.
What monies came to “Petromed” from which palaces and other purchases were financed afterwards? — The money was of two types:
1. Bribes to Putin from oligarchs disguised as “charitable contributions.” For example, in July 2001, Abramovich gave $203 million for instruments for the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. Instruments were bought, but not for the entire amount. $71 million from $203, Putin pocketed himself. According to Kolesnikov’s estimate, in 2001-2005, in this simple way, Putin amassed about $500 million from “charitable contributions” through their firm.
2. Pure theft from the budget (state orders). How could it be without them? Through “Petromed,” not only private “charitable contributions” for Putin were laundered, but also budgetary funds. As the “Reuters” own investigation demonstrated, in 2006-2010, $195 million passed through just one of “Petromed’s” London firms (“Greathill”) allocated under the national project “Health.” Of this, $111 million was spent on medical equipment, and $84 million was stolen (43%). Kickbacks were transferred to the offshore “Lanaval” in Belize (an actual country next to Honduras).
“Lanaval” was a Putin offshore managed by Shamalov and Gorelov. “Reuters” was able to trace (partially) where the stolen $84 million went further. It turns out $52 million of the $84 were spent on furniture and finishing materials for Putin’s palace near Gelendzhik.
By the way, they bought classy furniture. And the frescoes were also not bad. Money for medicine was spent wisely.
In fact, according to the surveillance carried out by Kolesnikov before the escape, the furniture and materials for the palace were brought into Russia... by smuggling. Putin did not want to pay duties. He stole others’ taxes and did not want to pay himself... and demanded Shamalov to bring everything in through contraband.
What does this say? — About Putin’s great respect for ordinary citizens of Russia (from whom he stole money from hospitals). And about his great respect for Russian laws, legal culture, so to say. He is a lawyer after all. And the Leningrad street taught him. The judo section of the authority Lenya-Sportsman. Dirty, full of hooligans, courtyards near the Nekrasovskiy market (the area where Volodya spent his childhood). Notable centers of legal culture.
Elektrostal, Moscow Region. October 2015. Central City Hospital, children’s infectious department.
Kislovodsk, Stavropol Krai. April 2016. Central Hospital, surgical department.
Vyksa, Nizhniy Novgorod Region. October 2014. Central District Hospital, children’s infectious department.
The same place. Furniture, frescoes, and so on.
And there are many such hospitals across Russia a lot. Money for their repair did not get there. Got lost in Belize. The national project “Palace” is paramount.
However, Putin did not spend hospital money solely on palaces. After all, Volodya is not only a state robber but also a capitalist: owner of factories, newspapers, and ships. From the interview of Sergey Kolesnikov in June 2011:
“When we had formed a rather significant fund [from kickbacks], the company ‘Rosinvest’ was created to engage in investments, using these [belonging to Putin] funds… We started several investment projects. The first project was related to shipbuilding, it was the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant...”
When asked how the selection of “investment projects” was carried out, Kolesnikov explained:
“We would propose something—Gorelov, Shamalov, and I. Shamalov would go to Vladimir Vladimirovich, and a final decision was made there.”
Putin visited VSZ in November 2008. Hardly anyone knew he was visiting his own plant (his and Traber’s).
He came there not just casually. As already mentioned, in 2007, the plant received an order from “Gazflot” for two drilling platforms amounting to $2 billion. At the same time, the entire surface part (90% of all work in the construction of such ships) was carried out by “Samsung Heavy Industries”—a subcontractor from Korea. VSZ was only responsible for the submerged (most primitive) part of the platforms where there are only metal structures. The overall assembly (joining the lower and upper parts) took place in Korea.
Such a scheme where VSZ does 10% of the work but receives almost 40% of the money is optimal from the perspective of enriching the plant’s owners (the authors of the scheme). From the perspective of the development of shipbuilding in Russia, its effect is small. But such a goal was not even set.
In 2008, Putin and Traber, with the help of budget money (VEB), attempted to launch such a project in the Vyborg district—to build a completely new modern shipyard in Primorsk for $1.2 billion. The result? — Zero. In 2012, the project was closed. Everything was too complicated: building a new plant, dealing with it, waiting for it to pay off. It’s easier to cut kickbacks. And somehow more familiar.
8. Epilogue.
If in a country where the opinion of the people counts for something, it becomes known that the president had been in cahoots for many years with one of the leaders of the criminal world—there would be impeachment and an independent investigation.
If it turns out that this business is also 100% corrupt—stolen from the budget, laundered, invested, stolen again—such a president would go down in history as a shameful bandit lackey. One who, instead of thinking about the interests of ordinary citizens, was stealing their taxes for his palaces.
That is exactly Putin’s true place in history: a thief and bandit lackey who raised from the ground his buddies—thieves and bandits, trabers, shamalovs, and the like.
Source: Putinism