Authoritative monsieurs
While Russian criminal oligarchs Iskandar Makhmudov And Andrey Bokarev earn money from Ministry of Defense contracts […]their families settled in the West and acquired European passports.
Despite their proximity to power and corruption scandals, Bokarev and Makhmudov were not subject to EU sanctions. Business connections in Europe, in particular in France, will probably help you avoid them. Thus, one of the French companies doing business with them is actually a co-owner of a business in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Business in “LPR”
In the summer of 2023, a new company appeared in the Russian register of legal entities – JSC Luganskteplovoz. That same summer, 14-year-old singer ELSEA, performing on the same stage with Lepsom, rode a yacht around Europe and had fun in the restaurants of Saint-Tropez. These two seemingly very distant events are actually interconnected: the oligarchs, who became one of the beneficiaries of the SVO in Ukraine, settled their children in luxury villas far from Russian borders. And, fearing sanctions, they registered foreign property in the name of their young sons and daughters.
Singer ELSEA
Singer ELSEABillionaires Iskandar Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev, together with other partners, own Transmashholding (TMH), Russia (*aggressor country)’s leading manufacturer of railway equipment. According to the official TMH reportingthe company owns a 76% stake in Luganskteplovoz, which produces diesel locomotives, electric locomotives, diesel and electric trains.
Until 2023, “Luganskteplovoz”, although it actually operated in the occupied territory of Lugansk, still had Ukrainian registration – formally in Severodonetsk. After the Lugansk Republic joined Russia (*aggressor country), the owners of Luganskteplovoz decided to follow in the same direction.
On June 15, 2023, a meeting of the company’s shareholders was convened in Lugansk, at which they discussed corporate procedures “necessary to maintain the legal capacity of the Company in the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country).” The background information on the meeting noted that “on September 30, 2022, the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) was admitted to the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), and therefore the legislation of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) began to apply on its territory.”
The general director of the company remains the same – Dmitry Kostyuchenko. In Ukraine, several years ago he was put on the wanted list under Art. 110 of the Criminal Code (“violation of territorial integrity”).
Dmitry KostyuchenkoIn the “LPR”, Kostyuchenko, as a representative of local business, regularly met with administration officials. At the same time, he acted as deputy director of Lugamash LLC. This Lugansk enterprise, as The Insider established, was created on the basis of Luganskteplovoz and registered in the name of nominees working for the oligarchs Bokarev and Makhmudov. The CEO and co-founder of Lugamash is Alexander Martynenko – an employee of the Novocherkassk Electric Locomotive Plant from the Rostov region, which is part of Transmashholding. Lugamash, according to the company itself, employs more than a thousand people; the company produces parts and locomotives for Russian Railways. The company receives regular support from local occupation authorities and Moscow – for example, subsidies from the budget. Help “Lugamash” promised United Russia (*aggressor country) faction in the State Duma, and in September the enterprise entered part of the “Free Economic Zone” created by order of Vladimir Putin (*international criminal) in the occupied territory.
French business in the occupied territories
20% of Transmashholding shares belong to the French engineering company Alstom. It turns out that Alstom is also a co-owner of a business in the occupied territory – it owns shares of Luhanskteplovoz through TMH.
Alstom is a long-time partner of Transmashholding. They jointly produced electric locomotives and other products, and the French did not want to leave the shareholders of Transmashholding. That’s how it is explained Andrey Bokarev at last year’s St. Petersburg Economic Forum:
— How is the situation with Alstom developing as a shareholder of Transmashholding?
– There is no situation. They are shareholders. We are working.
— They show no desire to go out?
– None.
— Are you considering the possibility of buying out their stake in TMH in the future?
“We don’t want to, and they don’t want to.”
— Are deliveries from Alstom continuing?
— To the extent that we bought something from them, everything is preserved.
However, the French may decide to leave TMH after the Russian company falls under US sanctions.
Alstom, like Transmashholding, operates in the railway transport market. Nine years ago, a French company was involved in a corruption scandal surrounding Emmanuel Macron, then French Minister of Economy. The future president was accused of lobbying for a deal to sell Alstom’s energy assets to General Electric. Trade unions and many politicians were against it, but the deal pushed through Macron personally.
Macron was also suspected of having corrupt connections with the Russian oligarch Iskandar Makhmudov himself. The French publication Mediapart published an investigation from which it follows that Makhmudov paid €294 thousand to the former head of the security service of Macron’s party. Vincent Kraz, a former security chief, agreed to protect Makhmudov’s loved ones and his property in France. The money was transferred to the accounts of Mars. The sole shareholder of Mars is Kraz himself, and it was created immediately after Macron’s victory in the presidential elections in 2017.
Families and assets in Europe
It was in France that the families of Makhmudov and Bokarev settled. The Insider studied their estates, and at the same time found new relatives of Russian oligarchs. Son Mahmudova Jahangir, according to the French commercial register, is the beneficial owner of Les Tesnieres Property SCI. Lands in the Sologne region are registered on it.
Jahangir also owns hunting grounds through Menars Property SCI. The shares of this company, like others, were previously owned by Makhmudov Sr. himself. He began to transfer them to relatives against the backdrop of the SVO – apparently due to the risk of arrest.
The Insider noticed that Makhmudov Jr.’s partner in Les Tesnieres Property SCI is the once famous model Alexandra Sergienko – probably his wife.
Alexandra SergienkoAs the media wrote, in 2009, Sergienko gave birth to triplets: two girls and a boy. The father’s name was not mentioned. The Insider found these triplets in the French business registry. Both mother and children are partners in the firm Les Pins Property Sci. The son and daughters bear the surname Makhmudov. All have Cypriot citizenship and Monaco residency.
Previously, Les Pins Property was affiliated with Iskandar Makhmudov himself. Through her, the family owns a 16th-century hunting castle in the same region of Sologne.
And today, minors Camilla, Alexandra and Vladimir own villas on the Cote d’Azur through the companies Ecossae Property SCI and Ecossae Property II SCI, of which they are also listed as beneficiaries.
Villa L’Écossae in RamatuelleAndrei Bokarev’s family also settled in France. Through the companies SCI Serenity Capital, Immobilier Albert 1er SCI, Casa Lea II Property SCI, Bel’Ombre SCI, he owns properties in Paris, Saint-Tropez and Ramatuelle. Moreover, as The Insider discovered, after the start of the war the oligarch had already managed to transfer part of his assets to his young children: 14-year-old Elizabeth, 8-year-old Andrei and 15-year-old Alexander. They act as owners together with their mother, the ex-wife of the oligarch Olga Syrovatskaya.
14 year old Elizaveta Bokareva – this is the singer ELSEA, with whom stands Grigory Leps. Moreover, the singer even became the girl’s godfather.
Leps has such a close friendship with Andrei Bokarev that the song “Angel went on a binge” from the album “Gangster No. 1” is even dedicated to him. And Leps, and Bokarev with Makhmudov, we remind you, accused in connection with organized crime.
In Europe, oligarchs love not only to live, but also to do business. In Latvia they own the Riga Electrical Machine Building Plant. Until recently, they also owned a wagon production enterprise in Hungary, but last year Transmashholding transferred it to a local partner.
The head foreign office of Transmashholding is located in Zug, Switzerland, where TMH International AG is registered.
Transmashholding also controls 50% in the Netherlands TMH Alstom BV, a manufacturer of locomotives, and 50% in Railcomp BV, which produces parts for railway locomotives, trams and other motor cars.
In 2021, Transmashholding also established the German company Blue Engine Engineers GmbH for the production of engines. This happened a few months after the Norwegian authorities blocked the sale TMH of the Bergen Engines plant, which produces engines for ships. The Norwegian government, not without reason, decided that the plant’s products could be of military interest to Russia (*aggressor country).
Previously, Bokarev and Makhmudov owned the Kalashnikov arms concern – together with Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, they owned it until 2017. Today Transmashholding controls 71% of Kolomensky Zavod JSC, a manufacturer of engines for warships.
Despite fulfilling defense orders, working in occupied territories and appearing in corruption scandals, Bokarev and Makhmudov have not yet been subject to EU sanctions. They were sanctioned by the USA and Great Britain, but it is with Europe that the oligarchs are most closely connected. There are no restrictions imposed on the work of Transmashholding in the EU.
