The hotel does not hide some of its investors. One of them – Valery Pustarnakov – in 2015 brought there his collection of paintings by St. Petersburg realist artists. But the certificate of registration of Imperio Holdings Limited (also in our possession) indicates that the shares in the company are divided between four Russians: Valery Pustarnakov, Igor Kalaida, Sergey Martynov and Fedor Khomyakov.
These four people are no longer listed in Lazure’s registration certificate, however, in the previous version of this document, the names of relatives of some of them appeared: for example, Martynov’s daughter, Anna, who is listed there as a manager, and Valery Pustarnakov’s brother, Vyacheslav, who not so long ago rested there, in Montenegro.
After the start of the special operation, the accounts of Imperio Holdings Limited in Montenegro could be blocked on suspicion of money laundering, according to our sources. However, we were unable to document this information. Whether the proposed lockdown affected the Lazure Hotel is not known, but it was closed for a month in 2023. from January 4 to February 9– as stated, to “prepare for the season.”
In 2022, the co-owners of the company Fedor Khomyakov and Valery Pustarnakov, according to our source, could not explain to the financial intelligence of Montenegro the origin of at least 30 million euros, which they transferred to IHL accounts. To find out where the Russians got these suspicious amounts from, Montenegrin financial intelligence could turn to Russia for help through Interpol, says the same source for New Europe and Transparency. It also failed to be documented.
However, Russian government agencies have not yet responded in any way to the requests of the international organization. The reason may lie in the fact that all the owners of the Montenegrin company are united by belonging to the national treasure – the state company Gazprom.
Gazinformservice is not only a trusted center of Gazprom, but also concludes government contracts through auctions with the same Gazprom and its subsidiaries – Orenburggaztrans, Gazprom Dobycha Urengoy, Gazprom Mezhregiongaz and others. True, the company often wins contracts for significant amounts as the only supplier. Judging by the descriptions of public procurement, Gazinformservice installs security software and is engaged in system maintenance and quality control. In just five years – from 2014 to 2019 – Gazinformservice
Gazinformservice, as stated on site, was founded by “specialists in information technology and information security, with many years of experience in this field.” Among them is Valery Pustarnakov, who is also on the list of beneficiaries of the Montenegrin company Lazure Montenegro, he was previously listed on the Gazinformservice website, where Khomyakov Jr. works as a general director. Pustarnakov served in scientific organizations of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and at the same time as Igor Kalaida. Together they created another enterprise – “Technological Systems and Equipment” (TSO), which delivers equipment for information security systems.
LLC TSO also has state contracts, and only with Gazprom and enterprises that provide services to Gazprom, for example, with JSC Giprogaztsentr. All these contracts were concluded with TCO LLC as the sole supplier, that is, no competition was held before the decision was made, despite the fact that under these contracts TCO did not always supply unique products: for example, were purchased annual licenses for antivirus “Kaspersky”. From 2017 to 2019, the company, owned by Kalaida and Pustarnakov, earned more than two billion rubles from the supply of information security equipment to Gazprom.
The same Pustarnakov in 2007 established another company – the Ural Center for Security Systems (UCSB). The services it provides are similar to those offered by other companies in this field – technologies for protecting information security and maintaining such systems. The Moscow office of the UCSB is located in the Federation Tower in Moscow City, while the main offices are in Yekaterinburg. Surprisingly, the UCSB calls Gazinforminvest, which belongs to the same person as the center, its official dealer.
The Ural Center concludes contracts both with government agencies, for example, with the MFC or the FSB in the Sverdlovsk Region, and with Gazprom.
For several years of such cooperation with the state corporation, the UTSSB earned more than two billion rubles: the center was the only supplier for regional enterprises “Gazprom” and the parent organization.
But this is not the last company linking the Montenegrin Lazure Montenegro with the Russian energy giant. The Research and Testing Institute for Integrated Security Systems (NII SOKB) cooperates with Gazprom on information security issues. The institute’s flagship product is its own SafePhone platform for managing and securing the enterprise’s mobile ecosystem. The research institute has also created another program, SafeOperator, which automates pre-shift and post-shift medical examinations and monitoring the condition of employees. This company also has a license from the FSB to work with encrypted information, and it is allowed to manufacture and sell “special technical equipment designed to secretly obtain information.”
The Research Institute of the SOKB is headed by a native of Kharkov and a native of the Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Kalaida, the one whose name is also among the owners of the Montenegrin Lazure Montenegro. Judging according to the website of the research institute, Gazprom is almost their main customer: the institute ensured the security of the information system both for the head office and for other enterprises of the state company, and even for Gazprom Telecom. Research Institute SOKB can examine the customer’s facilities, analyze threats to its security, implement and maintain systems. The institute also certifies other companies. On government contracts concluded with Gazprom from 2014 to 2017, the research institute earned more than two billion rubles, and it received almost all government contracts as the only supplier.
NII SOKB is registered and located in the south-west of Moscow in the 9 Acrov business center, where, among other things, several offices of Gazprom Neft are located, in which the company’s structures are responsible for digital solutions and corporate and regional sales. Another company is registered there, in which Igor Kalaida is a co-founder – Alliance Real Estate LLC. Its other founder is Sergey Martynov. During registration, they indicated the rental of real estate as the main activity, adding as additional activities the already familiar Kalaida work with computers and equipment.
Martynov has a daughter, Anna, who is mentioned in the documents of the Montenegrin company Lazure Montenegro as its manager. The girl’s page on VKontakte also states that since 2015 she has been working with IHL (Imperio Holdings Limited). In the same place, Anna jokingly wrote that she had served in the Russian Embassy in Pakistan as the daughter of an intelligence officer. Most likely, her father Sergei Martynov, like Sergei Khomyakov, used to be a member of the special services.
Martynov also partially owns SIS Group LLC, located at the same address and similarly operating in the field of computer security. He shares the company with several co-founders, including Sergey Grudanov, who is its CEO, and among the partners of SIS Group (SIS Group) indicated already familiar to us “Gazinformservis”.
Nauka-Service-Medicine, founded by Khomyakov, allegedly distributes equipment for cardiology, neonatology and intensive care. At the same legal address where Nauka-Service-Medicine is registered, there is another company, NS-Medicine. She, unlike the twin company, really works.
NS-Medicine belongs to the same people as Science-Service-Medicine, with the exception of Fedor Khomyakov: he is no longer among the co-owners of the company. “NS-Medicine” is headed by the son of the brother of its owner Igor Polikarpov – Sergey. The company received government contracts from subsidiaries of Gazprom until 2018, but its official website posted positive reviews from Gazprom branches, also dated 2019 and 2021.
On the supply of medical equipment and consumables, NS-Medicine did not earn much compared to other enterprises owned by close people of Sergei Khomyakov: the total amount of government contracts concluded by it is at least 208 million rubles. “NS-Medicine” presented and on the electronic trading platform of Gazprombank.
In 2004, Nauka-Service-Medicine founded another company, Stroyreanimatsiya, which also sells medical products and equipment. Then, Elena Pimenova and Tatyana Polikarpova, already familiar to us, joined the number of co-owners of the company, and by 2015 Andrey Pimenov himself, who once founded Science-Service-Medicine, was among them. In a little more than ten years, Stroyreanimatsia has concluded about 400 government contracts for a total amount of almost four billion rubles.
However, unlike other companies, it did not cooperate with Gazprom, preferring government contracts with budget organizations: maternity hospitals, clinics and city hospitals.
However, if we calculate the sum of all government contracts concluded by Gazprom with companies close to Sergey Khomyakov, we get a little more than six billion rubles – even without taking into account the proceeds of Stroyreanimatsia, which at least did not conclude contracts with the state company directly. TSO alone, allegedly created specifically for such contracts, earned about a billion rubles from them in one year.
Some apartments were sold to relatives of the owners of Imperio Montenegro: for example, one in January 2023 was received by Tatyana Kalaida, the wife of Igor Kalaida. On the website of a company selling several of these apartments, their can buy for about 600 thousand euros.
Novaya Gazeta Evropa got through to Valery Pustarnakov and Fyodor Khomyakov, but both of them refused to answer our questions.
