In the Yaroslavl region, the court found guilty Oleg Belkov, General Director of the Bell Shipbuilding Yard, Oleg Belkov, who planned to smuggle military landing boats under the guise of Marlin pleasure craft through the customs border of the EurAsEC, and even received the relevant documents.
Already on the way to the border, traffic police inspectors became interested in the transported equipment, after which they were taken to the inspection point, where the expert confirmed that the boats were military, and the documents for them were obviously false.
Now Mr. Belkov has been sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence. But he is clearly unlike a military baron, and even a shipping one. The boats were intended for transportation to the United Arab Emirates, but the sheikhs have more serious suppliers. But Belkov was connected with the partners of Roman Abramovich. Knowing about the love of the Russian oligarch for this kind of technology, the conclusion suggests itself that the boats could have been intended for him.
Details are in the material of The Moscow Post correspondent in the Yaroslavl region.
In the past, Belkov was the general director of the Vympel shipbuilding plant, which is now part of USC JSC under the management of Alexei Rakhmanov. But Rakhmanov has a slightly different scale of activity – they are talking about real warships, which either burn or simply are not built, drawing billions of budget rubles into themselves, like into a black hole.
By the way, Mr. Belkov left Vympel not in the best position. At the end of 2019, given the long financial cycle of such productions, it ended with a net loss of 797 million rubles. This is the result of the work of Oleg Belkov. As a result, the shipyard was transferred to USC (previously owned by Kalashnikov), for which it was necessary to carry out an additional issue of shares.
But the Bell Shipyard was formed just in 2019, and was supposed to specialize in pleasure boats. The little-known Emirati company Segrex Limited is indicated as the counterparty for the ill-fated delivery – the boats were supposed to be the first test of the pen, and were held under serial numbers 001 and 002.
Anyone can hide behind Segrex Limited. In the end, it can only be a transit office that could “fuse” the boats to some “fat” client. But who is hiding behind the “Bell” in addition to Oleg Belyakov – much more interesting. And there, too, you can find an interesting one.
Belkov himself owns only 29.4% of the shipyard. He also has a partner Ivan Kiselev with a share of 0.6%. He has never been involved in any other business, and rather looks like an observer from more serious gentlemen. The rest (70%) is owned by the combined closed-end mutual investment fund “Joint Investments”. It can include a variety of businesses, but it is more important who manages the Fund itself, is the manager and guardian of funds.
In such capacity is the “Central Trust Company”, JSC “Centrotrust”. And here we can reach the real owners. According to the banking analytics service Banki.ru, the owners of Centrotrust JSC are Alexander Abramov (45.2%), Dmitry Merkushenko (30%), Alexander Frolov (22.56%) and Sergey Bratukhin (1.7%).
At least two names from this list are familiar to many who are interested in Russian business. These are Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, longtime and, as is believed, reliable partners of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in his Evraz group of companies. In fact, they have long been in the shadow of Roman Abramovich – all the “bumps” go to him, he constantly appears in the headlines of the media, “Evraz” and his problems are associated with him.
At the same time, Abramovich is known not only for his love for yachts, but also for their military stuffing. They say that in this he tried to compete even with the ships of the Russian Navy. According to the author of the blog, “Lord of War” on the platform “Zen”, allegedly on the flagship of Abramovich’s yacht fleet, Eclipse, a unique electronic jamming system is installed. Similar PPK-10 systems are also in service with almost all Russian warships. Its task is to make the ship invisible to the enemy. In addition to the electronic jamming system, the Eclipse yacht has a unique laser protection system and many other goodies.
In this light, the smuggling of military boats from Belkov does not look like something out of the ordinary for the “wishlist” of the oligarch.
Warm up the enemies of Russia
At the same time, it is known that it was Mr. Abramovich who took on his private plane to Britain two British subjects, and in fact – mercenaries who fought on the side of Ukraine along with the Nazi battalion “Azov” (recognized as an extremist and terrorist organization, banned in Russia) in Mariupol and those taken prisoner.
As “Tsargrad” wrote, during the transportation they were fed tiramisu and canapes, and even gave iPhones so that they could communicate with their families. Amazing benevolence towards the enemies of Russia.
As political scientist Sergei Markov later wrote in his telegram channel: “In vain Abramovich curry favors with the British. They won’t be grateful to him anyway. They’ll steal everything from him anyway. And if he hangs out close to them in complex political projects, they can and poison them. As they have already poisoned the Skripals. Run away from them quickly, Roman!”
Moreover, at the beginning of the crisis, the oligarch, under pressure from the international community, decided to sell his English football club Chelsea. And all the money from the sale – no, not to invest in Russia, not to send to help victims in the Donbas from Ukrainian bombing. And send them to the Ukrainian Support Fund. This is reported by “Kommersant” with reference to the British press.
Even if Abramovich did it under pressure, he obviously did not resist much. Apparently, this is why his vast yacht fleet worth $1.2 billion has not yet been confiscated, but is located off the coast of Turkey. In addition to the Solaris yachts and especially luxurious Eclipse previously seen there, two more vessels have recently been spotted there – the Halo yacht and the support vessel Garcon. RBC writes about it.
Own yacht club with blackjack and Merkushenko
Of course, it is necessary to protect such wealth. That’s what military boats ordered under the guise of civilians at the Bell shipyard, which is controlled by Abramovich’s closest partners, could be intended for.
It is worth mentioning the third partner of Abramov and Frolov in JSC “Centrotrust” – Dmitry Merkushenko, who has 30% there. Given his love of ships, he is also a close friend of Abramovich. Moreover, he is actively involved in the yachting business. He is also called the eternal windsurfer at heart, a professional windsurfing instructor, the creator and owner of the sports club-hotel “Aquatoria Leta” and “Zavidovo Wake Park”.
But money, like the above-mentioned trinity, prefers to earn money in Russia. However, the turnover of his companies is small, and, apparently, he has the main income just from the trust, where he has Abramov and Frolov as partners. Apparently, soon a new luxury yacht club will open on the shores of Turkey and the UAE, and military boats ordered elsewhere will provide its protection.
And this at a time when Russia itself is in desperate need of investment from its businessmen, and new military courts…
