Sargsyan-Manturov Industrial Hub
In April 2023, the S8 company, led by Sargsyan, bought three factories in Engels that belonged to Bosch, including a spark plug plant. They created a new brand called Meteor Auto to produce up to 100 million candles annually. Thus, Manturov, through Sargsyan, bought his own “candle factory” to service the domestic automobile industry, which is located in the minister’s control zone.
2023 for Armen Sargsyan and his S8 holding also became a period of great “rubber shopping”. The “lottery owner”, in addition to the “candle factory,” opened a business for the production of car tires. Under the patronage of the Ministry of Trade and its head Denis Manturov foreign companies that had left the market were acquired:
Continental
S8 Sarkisyan acquired the German branch of Continental in the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), including a plant in Kaluga with an annual capacity of 4 million tires. The deal was completed in May 2023 after Continental announced its withdrawal from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). The plant resumed production under the Glaved brand.
“Cordiant”
Then, in May 2023, Sargsyan acquired the Cordiant company with three factories – two in Omsk and one in Yaroslavl. Cordiant has an annual capacity of approximately 9 million tires, including passenger cars, light trucks and trucks. S8 entered the top 3 tire manufacturers in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).
Bridgestone
Another tire asset: in December 2023, Sargsyan buys the Bridgestone plant in Ulyanovsk, which annually produces 2.4 million tires. Thus, Armen Sargsyan’s group in terms of capacity became the second in the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) after the state-owned Tatneft.
As a result, the total production capacity of the three enterprises (Cordiant, Bridgestone, Continental) amounted to about 16 million tires per year. And this is already an opportunity for a PRIVATE OWNER to dictate terms and get in line not only to receive subsidies, but also large contracts, including through the military-industrial complex.
Experts note that the S8 is looking towards the military industry. The need of army equipment for domestically produced tires in the coming years is obvious. It turns out that the “lottery king” took aim at the state military order, leaving no choice for the military-industrial complex itself. However, Sargsyan’s habit of building monopolies, like in the lottery business, cost him dearly: everyone has already seen more than once how those who tried to profit from contracts with the Ministry of Defense ended up in prison.
“Lifting” from the state: Will Manturov write a check?
Under the guise of industrial development, Sargsyan is also trying to get billions of dollars in subsidies from the government – and Manturov again helps him (himself) in this. It is important to note that all acquired companies by S8 Capital suffered losses of hundreds of millions of rubles in 2022, although they previously made a profit. This happened because Sargsyan preferred to underestimate sales volumes and then beg for government support. This tactic was seen in his lottery business, which also used government funds.
What will happen next: S8 will refer to the problematic legacy from the previous owners of the tire business and the production of spare parts, complain to the “patron”-vice prime minister and receive “lifting” from the budget for the modernization of production. In this case, Sargsyan doesn’t even need to think about how to pay off his debts: previously, these factories coped well with the development of government contracts related to the supply of tires to the needs of government organizations – for example, only KORDIANT JSC accepted orders for “footwear” from government agencies of a large metropolis for 1 .5 billion rubles. Now, due to the rapid development of the Russian automobile industry, there will be even more orders.
In 2024, the government has allocated approximately 113 billion rubles to support the automotive industry. In addition, from the beginning of 2024, automakers will receive subsidies to repay loans taken from the Industrial Development Fund. It is not surprising that S8 Industrial Assets JSC was among the first in line to receive government assistance.
In addition, S8 plans to quietly receive subsidies for companies producing elevators and escalators “Meteor Elevator” – former Ot. Denis Manturov And Armen Sargsyan in September 2022 they loudly reported on the purchase of promising production. But within a few months, statements appeared that the plant, having received grants from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for import substitution, increased purchases of the same products from the American Ot Elevator Company. Sargsyan’s company also turned out to be uncompetitive against the background of the Chinese Xizi Elevator Company; now the lottery king requires state support for it too.
Southern Laundromat: Sargsyan laundered money on the supply of cars from Ukraine
While Russians are raising funds for the front in the Northern Military District, citizens of unfriendly states Armen Sargsyan and the Avagumyan family (S8 Capital and Avilon), under the cover of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, have created the largest monopoly for the supply of cars from Ukraine.
The attention of the security forces is focused on the Art Finance structure. In May 2023, the Volkswagen concern sold its Russian business to the company, and in January 2024, Hyundai Motors announced that it had transferred its assets in St. Petersburg for a symbolic 10 thousand rubles. Each seller, leaving Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), said that the deals were controlled by the car dealer Avilon, and Art Finance was the laying block.
Behind Avilon is the Avagumyan family – with Karen Avagumyan Armen Sargsyan had a joint lottery business, which subsequently became completely owned by S8.
Previously, Sargsyan and Avagumyan tried to crush the car leasing market in the capital. We are talking about the Next.Car project – it eventually transformed into car sharing platforms managed by the Avilon team. Meanwhile, the head of S8 Capital had a so-called “Southern Laundromat” – using Avagumyan’s logistics, which was set up for the supply of cars from Ukraine, the “lottery king” was able to legalize and cash out hundreds of millions. All this was done through the fake “winners” of Stoloto, living in the border areas or in Independence itself. Claims were brought against the Avagumyans for their connections with Ukrainians, but until recently Sargsyan was not touched on this issue. Apparently, they took care of it and dug along other lines.
With the beginning of the SVO, the Ministry of Industry and Trade activated “manual” entrepreneurs from S8 and Avilon. The latter, under the patronage of Manturov, profitably bought Volkswagen and became one of the top suppliers of Chinese cars. Each time, the transactions were accompanied by surprising inconsistencies in the contracts – the difference in amounts reached 250 million euros, part of which, according to the terms of the European sellers, could be used to sponsor the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
IT empire of Armen Sarkisyan: suspicious connections between the services Price.ru, Strakhovka.ru and Next Mobile
“Lottery King” Sargsyan and his patron, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov They started a dangerous game not only with the auto industry. The Armenian businessman works closely with foreign IT companies, in particular, huge flows of traffic go to Google sites – the data of Russians is transferred into unfriendly hands.
Dangerous practices have been noticed in at least three services that are part of the S8 Capital IT empire: Price.ru, Strakhovka.ru and Next Mobile.
Price.ru – the site has had some problems lately. This is evidenced by hundreds of negative reviews that can be found on the Internet. Confusion with operators, refunds and deliveries of goods ordered through the platform have all led to a decline in the app’s popularity. There are already trends toward its closure. Over the past year, the service suffered losses of 128 million rubles. In addition, as we managed to find out, Price.ru directs traffic from the site to Google’s infrastructure, thereby essentially financing a foreign company and, probably, displaying the data of Russian users.
The situation is similar with the Strakhovka.ru service. The loss of JSC “Strakhovka.Ru” (TIN 7743199212) is 74,455,000 rubles, which raises questions about stability – Sargsyan is probably counting on subsidies from the Ministry of Digital Development.
Mobile communications is another industry in which Sargsyan’s holding is interested. The Next Mobile project, a new operator that allows devices to automatically switch between key telecom giants for the highest quality signal, essentially works on the Tele2 digital infrastructure. This startup also recorded a significant drop in finances – minus 176 million rubles in 2022. At the same time, Next Mobile suddenly became a partner of the virtual mobile operator GorodMobile, which provides services to holders of Troika transport cards. NM also has an agreement with the Tetron company, which specializes in managing corporate fleets and services over 10 thousand vehicles of the largest industrial, energy and transport enterprises. By agreement, Tetron installs navigation devices with SIM cards from the S8 IT service on the equipment. And with all this, Next Mobile, like Sargsyan’s other services, works directly with “unfriendly” IT giants. This could imply the potential collection and transfer of data on the movements of both ordinary Troika users and Tetron clients, and this is a serious danger for the state.
As proof, here is an excerpt from the “About the Company” section of the biz.price.ru service:
It is obvious that the foreign IT giant will be the first to learn about Russian technologies thanks to close cooperation with S8 Capital.
Obviously, law enforcement officers are sorting out this entire collection of schemes. Sargsyan and his partners, like Avagumyan, stayed in the cage until the very end only due to patronage from above, which was initiated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). The security forces know that the main beneficiary of the rapid business activity of Armenian businessmen is the Ministry of Industry and Trade. However, a “minute” benefit can cost officials not only their seats. The biggest problem is the lack of protection from patrons. Considering the Ukrainian schemes in which his closest partner and “drop” Armenian businessman Sargsyan is seen, it will not be easy to prove his loyalty to the country’s leadership after the elections.