Last week, a lot of noise was made by the article "Umyerov’s Ministry of Sabotage". Its main idea was to demonstrate the inability of the Ministry of Defence, led by a group of business partners of Rustem Umyerov, to work normally.
These are Lenur Mambetov and Snaver Seitkhalil, who, like the President’s Office, are placed in completely irresponsible positions as freelance advisers to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence on a voluntary basis. Also, this includes Deputy Minister Dmytro Klimenkov, to whom Umyerov entrusted the largest monetary flows of the Ministry of Defence.
This entire group has mismanaged the Ministry to the extent that military representatives allowed faulty 120-mm mines worth billions of hryvnias to reach the front. Umyerov personally withdrew 23 billion UAH from the Ministry’s "Defence Procurement Agency" so that border guards could quickly push them to a Polish "middleman" with a 100% prepayment.
This affected many sensitive souls. As expected, Arsen Zhumadilov, head of the "State Rear Operator", commented on this. This is the Ministry of Defence’s procurement organization dealing with food, clothing, and fuel. Recently, Umyerov and his team wanted to make it the main organization for weapons as well, effectively liquidating the specialized "DPA".
Zhumadilov reacted as expected but not in the expected manner. He publicly declared xenophobia "towards Crimean Tatars and Muslims."
It is noteworthy that the original article did not contain the words "Tatars" or "Muslims" at all (you can check it yourself by searching the page). Nor was there any mention of the Mejlis. It only spoke of close ties with Turkey, which poses risks to war-torn Ukraine due to Turkey’s tolerance of Russia and tense relations with our main ally, the USA. Thus, Zhumadilov decided to toxically portray the article with a "xenophobic" spin.
But this is not the case. And you will understand why now. Since we will give you a complete breakdown of who is a business partner with whom in this group.
Umyerov, Seitkhalil, Mambetov
The leader is Rustem Umyerov. He is a businessman important to the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. He became a deputy from "Holos" (the party of Oleksandra Ustinova), and at the beginning of the invasion, he proved himself in the eyes of Yermak as a successful arms supplier. He was even included in the group of negotiators with the Kremlin, led by his good acquaintance David Arakhamia.
Umyerov’s business revolved around the telecommunications sector. The current Minister of Defence worked in the mobile operator "Astelit" (now "Lifecell") since the 2000s. Initially, it was a joint venture between oligarch Rinat Akhmetov and the Turkish mobile operator "Turkcell".
Umyerov headed one of the departments of the mobile operator, where Lenur Mambetov was the head of the legal department (interview).
Concurrently, Umyerov engaged in international business. In particular, from 2013 to 2016, the company "Astem capital iç diş ticaret anonim şirketi" was registered in Turkey. Rustem Umyerov appeared as a board member, and his brother Aslan Omer Kirimli (previously also named Ruslan Umyerov) was the chairman of the board of directors. Additionally, the current Minister Rustem Umyerov owned "Astem Technologies OÜ" in Estonia, "Infranet LLC" in Uzbekistan, and "Icapital investments Malta ltd" in Malta.
These last three companies are no longer operational, but before they became inactive, Umyerov transferred them to Mambetov, indicating the closeness of these individuals. Seitkhalil was the head of the Estonian company.
In Ukraine, Umyerov also had companies. Part of these companies includes the word "Astem" in their names, which could be an acronym from the names of the brothers ASlan and rusTEM. For example, there is LLC "Astem" in Kyiv. It was initially owned by Rustem and later transferred to Refat Umyerov.
The company "Astem" has owned real estate in Crimea at the address Bakhchysarai, Bazarna St., 1, since 2013. At this address was the coordination office of the "Astem group" of the Umyerov family. This same address was registered for his Russian company LLC "Eurasia Engineering" by Snaver Seitkhalil from 2014 to 2016. This same Seitkhalil heads the board of the charitable foundation "Astem foundation". The latter is the founder of another charitable foundation, "Crimea’s National Welfare Fund", headed by Lenur Mambetov.
Therefore, it is clear that the minister’s advisors Mambetov and Seitkhalil are his business partners through and through. No xenophobia. It is normal when representatives of one ethnic group have a common business.
Dmytro Klimenkov, Rustem Umyerov, Arsen Zhumadilov.
The Russian company of Seitkhalil LLC "Eurasia Engineering" had the number +7 (978) 836-29-53. The same number was used by the Russian-registered LLC "Krymstroyservice plus". One of its co-founders was Rustem Aliyev. A person with the same full name headed the Ukrainian-registered LLC "KMBA". In different years, this LLC was owned by a person with the same name as the brother of the current Minister of Defence Umyerov - Ruslan, who later renamed himself Aslan. And this firm was managed, besides Ruslan Umyerov, by Refat Umyerov and the current head of "SRO" Arsen Zhumadilov, who raised the complaint about xenophobia.
Klimenkov
Dmytro Klimenkov also worked in the telecommunications field. In the 2010s, he led a project for the construction of the GSM mobile network for "Ericsson". He is also a co-founder of the religious organization "Muslim Religious Community ’Unity of Muslims’ in the Desnyanskyi District of Kyiv". One of the co-founders of the community is Aidar Rustamov. He is the mufti of Crimea and the head of the Muslim Spiritual Board of Crimea. In turn, the Spiritual Board and Umyerov’s "Astem Foundation" are part of the "Crimean Front".
Klimenkov is also a co-owner of a house in the village of Chayky near Kyiv and land adjacent to the territory where the "Birlik" mosque, the Muslim Spiritual Board of Crimea, and the "Birlik" center are located.
Fathers-in-law
Finally, if you see angry comments online directed at investigators, know that they may be authored by people close to the Ministry of Defence. Crimean poet and public figure Seit-Yahya Kazakov is Umyerov’s father-in-law. Mykhaylo Mishchenko from the Razumkov Center is Klimenkov’s father-in-law.
Once again. No xenophobia. Pure business grouping.
Author: Yuriy Nikolov
Source: "Nashi Hroshi"