Have the Aminovs and the Khusnullinskys “partnered” with Kitaev and Azarenka?
The interests of the Aminov brothers and people close to Marat Khusnullin may be behind the new project of the owners of the Vesper group.
The Vesper subsidiary of Boris Azarenko and Denis Kitaev is going to build a large food cluster in Moscow. Strange choice. Vesper typically develops luxury real estate.
Azarenka and Kitaev, whose success is associated with the high position of the mother of one of the owners, Nina Kitaeva, may have interests in this project of no less interesting characters.
From carriages to food cluster
The founder of Yadro Vkusa LLC, which plans to develop the project, is the Dablu company, mostly controlled by Vesper Development LLC, whose share is pledged to Alfa Bank and the monetary institution itself. The general director of “Dablu” Moiseev Sergey Igorevich also manages the company “Abd-Logistic”, located at the same address as “Dablu” and “Kernel of Taste”. There is no doubt that these companies are derivatives of the interests of the same people.
Who are these people? The founders of “Abd-Logistic” are in equal shares the owner of Vesper, Boris Nikolaevich Azarenko, and his partner, Alexey Borisovich Lichtenfeld. The latter is called a co-owner of the transport company Neftetransservice, which he owned together with the former owners of the Interregional Postal Bank, the Aminov brothers, where, apparently, he met them. It should be noted that these are not ordinary people – Vyacheslav Aminov was once an adviser to the CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovsky and the head of the Russian Presidential Administration Alexander Voloshin.
Vadim Aminov. Photo: https://www.forbes.ru/profile/237254-aminov
There they apparently amassed the most impressive capital and the right acquaintances – for example, with a former employee of one of the oil giants, Alexander Tertychny, who later headed Neftetransservice. The bank was closed in 2017. By the way, back in Vyacheslav Aminov he was put on trial in connection with an attempt to give a bribe of $50,000 for organizing a meeting with the head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev. So the money apparently ran in the family even before the bank. It must be said that in 2016 it became known that Aminov has an offshore office in the Panama Islands. These may be organized for the purpose of “laundering” capital from Russia. So, if we were the security forces, we would take a closer look at the banking and political activities of the Aminovs.
Vekselberg behind the screen and criminal conflicts
Moreover, there are rumors that the Aminovs, Lichtenstein and other members of the board of directors of Neftetransservice received funds for business development using funds withdrawn from the Rusmikrofinance Group of Companies. This microfinance organization was led by Joseph Bakaleinik, who was also a member of the NTS board.
There is even a website on the Internet with the self-explanatory name bakaleynik.com, where persons who may be related to Ruskomfinance are presented as wanted persons.
Grocery store, by the way, is the “right hand” of oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. So in the story with Neftetransservice, its interests could have been “mixed in.”
Victor Vekselberg. Photo: Vladimir Gerdo/RIA Novosti
“Neftetransservice” itself was at one time “friends” with the oil giants (I think, not without the help of Tertychny), receiving good government orders, however, the company was mired in debt, and its owners tried for a long time to sell it (Did the money go away from the orders? offshore?).
This was preceded by a major conflict in which “the devil himself will break his leg.” In 2016, the ex-general director of the enterprise, Alexander Tertychny, filed a lawsuit against Lichtenfeld and the general director of the NTS Management Company, Artem Polyakov, demanding that they be brought to criminal liability.
The fact is that Tertychny sold his stake to Alexander Kurt, the former owner of the Russian Oils holding, and subsequently learned that Neftetransservice Management Company LLC (NTS) filed a claim against him in the Moscow Arbitration Court for “collection of losses” for almost 204.8 million rubles. This demand was related to contracts for the supply of cars, which he concluded in 2011. There was another trial regarding these cars – the parent company of Neftetransservice, NTS Holding Ltd, demanded that the contract be declared invalid in 2013. Allegedly, it was concluded without the approval of all necessary authorities.The arbitration then rejected the claim.
Khusnullin comes in quietly
As a result, the company was apparently sold, and quietly. Management Company “Neftetransservice” left the founders of the company, and Olga Alekseevna Petrova was appointed general director. The new owners could be structures close to Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.
The fact is that Petrova also heads Prioritytransinvest LLC, which belongs to the Polyus Capital closed mutual fund. The closed mutual fund itself is managed by Solid Management JSC – a structure that, according to media reports, is close to Tatneft. This structure is partially owned by the authorities of Tatarstan and participates with Khusnullin in many projects in the Republic. By the way, other stakes in Tatneft belong to offshore companies registered in the name of citizens of Cyprus, behind which the interests of anyone can stand – the same Khusnullin, for example.
Marat Khusnullin. Photo: Yuri Martyanov/Kommersant
Cluster for your own
What are we leading to? Behind Kitaev and Azarenka, apparently, the interests of a much wider circle of individuals emerge, which may include Messrs. Lichtenfeld and the Aminovs, who most likely moved away from the transport business in favor of Khusnullin’s people. At the same time, we must not forget that it was Khusnullin who was Sergei Sobyanin’s construction deputy for a long time and can now have influence in the capital. There could have been a “trading deal” here. If people from Tatarstan have “partnered” with Aminov and Co., it is possible that they have their own interest in the project and could help promote it – and for what fee – NTS or an informal share in the cluster project – is not so important.
Azarenka and Kitaev could more than once become a “cover” for the interests of other people. For example, the actual beneficiaries of the Vesper project for the development of Berezhkovskaya embankment may be the people of the head of Sberbank, German Gref, and his friend Kirill Androsov.