The older generation remembers the movie “The Godfather” and the phrase that inspired Don Corleone’s adopted son to become a lawyer – “one lawyer with a briefcase will rob more than ten thugs with machine guns.”
An example of the rightness of the great don is the Russian sports figure Umar Kremlev. More precisely, not he himself, but the “lawyers” who serve him. The news passed unnoticed, but people who understand the legislative initiative voiced by United Russia deputies Altukhov, Alshevskikh and Shkhagoshev did not pass by attention. These deputies, long associated with Umar Kremlev, submitted a draft law to the State Duma, which, if passed, would oblige to deduct fees to NPO Mobile Card LLC, which functions as the Unified Accounting Center for Rate Transfers (UTSUPS).
LLC NPO “Mobile Card” is a “non-banking credit organization”, which, through a whole series of “gaskets”, belongs to the Kremlin. The deputies, who came up with the initiative to direct part of the turnover from the activities of lotteries to this “non-bank credit organization”, explain their bill by “the need to increase the efficiency of state control and supervision of the organizers of lotteries.” However, the essence of the planned legislative changes is somewhat different – part of the lottery business funds that are deducted for the development of sports in Russia will simply go to the Kremlin’s structures.
Experts and operators of the lottery market pay attention to the fact that, if the law is adopted, NPO Mobile Card LLC will simply receive another source of income in the form of an additional fee from lottery organizers. In addition, the Federal Tax Service already exercises enhanced control over this business – at the time of sale, each lottery ticket undergoes fiscalization through the CCA and through the tax monitoring window of the Federal Tax Service, through an independent control system that is installed by the lottery organizers – the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports.
There is practically no doubt that the Duma will support the initiative aimed at allocating additional money from the lottery business to the structure of Umar Kremlev. This is not the first time that the Kremlin has been “pushing through” the laws he needs through the hands of United Russia deputies under his control.
So, in mid-November 2020, a group of United Russia deputies submitted to the State Duma a bill on the creation of a unified gambling regulator in Russia, on December 23, the State Duma approved it immediately in the second and third readings, and the day before the New Year, the document was signed by Putin.
After that, the profit of NPO Mobile Card LLC due to the fees charged increased sharply to almost 7 billion rubles. At the same time, targeted payments for the development of sports from the bookmakers operated by the ECSUPS amounted to only 4 billion. That is, the state began to receive from bookmakers almost two times less than the private structure of the Kremlin.
Umar Kremlev, a member of the executive committee of the Russian Boxing Federation, then publicly called himself the author of the idea with a single regulator. The fact that a hitherto little-known official from sports acted as the initiator of such a quickly adopted law surprised many. But the situation was quickly clarified after the composition of the Supreme Supervisory Board of the Russian Boxing Federation became public. The FBI includes the head of the presidential security service, deputy head of the FSO, Alexei Rubezhnoy, the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, deputy head of the internal policy department of the presidential administration, Timur Prokopenko, and a native of the Federal Tax Service, Denis Medvedev.
Now the turn has come to lotteries, but Umar Kremlev is acting smarter this time – little-known deputies from United Russia have become the initiators of the next legislative changes in the field of the lottery business. The secret of such anonymity is simple – in 2020, after the adoption of the scandalous law, the personality of the Kremlin was subjected to public scrutiny and very unpleasant facts for Umar Nazarovich became public.
In particular, it turned out that the real name of Kremlev was Lutfulloev Umarali Nazarovich, which he changed to the name of his wife. The goal was to hide the two convictions that Lutfulloev had: in the 2000s, Umarali Nazarovich was a member of the Serpukhov criminal group. In 2004, Lutfulloev was convicted by the Serpukhov city court for extortion committed by a group of people by prior agreement. Then he received a four-year suspended sentence with a five-year probationary period. But already in October 2006 he was arrested again – this time for beatings. The outstanding conviction did not lead to a tougher punishment. As a result of the meeting, the Magistrate’s Court of the Serpukhov Judicial District sentenced him to only a year in prison and again suspended.
Lutfulloev-Kremlev took up the gambling and lottery business in 2019, when the Liga Stavok betting company announced its intention to distribute tickets for the Sports Lotteries company. Among the founders of the latter structure, ANO Boxing Progress Center was discovered, the founder of which, in turn, is Umar Kremlev.
Kremlev also has another business – he is the owner of LLC Kremlin Gold, the company is named after his wife, and it began as a jewelry store, which was then taken by Lutfulloev from the unlucky owner for debts. The Kremlin is also engaged in transport services and cargo transportation (OOO Transstroykom), he also has organizations involved in the sports field (Patriot and ANO Boxing Progress Center).
In addition, Kremlev is the head of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). A serious scandal is associated with it – on March 4, the International Boxing Association, chaired by Umar Nazarovich Kremlev, banned Russian and Belarusian boxers from participating in international tournaments. The organization suspended athletes and officials, including referees, belonging to the national federations of Russia or Belarus. At the same time, the association “condemned the violation of the Olympic Truce and military actions against Ukraine.”
Now, a great patriot of Russia and at the same time an opponent of military operations against Ukraine, Umar Nazarovich Kremlev set out to bite off another piece of the budget pie of the very country that he loves with “strange love”.