For six years, the largest elevator operator in Russia, Moslift, has been headed by Vardan Avakyan. Despite the claims of Muscovites, regular accidents and deaths, he remains at his post. Members of his family earn billions on specialized government contracts. How is his family doing?

Elevators in Moscow get stuck and fall

Incidents with elevators continue to occur in Moscow. On Autumn Street recently collapsed from the 17th floor to the 14th large elevator, the passenger broke his ankle.

– After the incident, the commission came and, without really looking at anything, launched the emergency elevator. It’s dangerous to ride in it. Moslift does not take proper measures to all complaints, the residents were indignant. To protect the neighbors, they posted leaflets on the entrance warning to use this cabin.

Call to “Moslift” and in the socket on the Warsaw highway.

— Why were the requests about the breakdown of the elevator ignored? Yesterday, a cabin with people flew several floors. Mom and two friends got stuck in the morning! – Olga from the locals reports in horror. Life contacted her. The elevators in her house still break down every two weeks.

How does the elevator sound, which has been in the service of Moslift for a long time, and how should it sound. Video © LIFE / VK / A typical elevator electrician

The negative on “Moslift” – and it is now the largest operator and manufacturer of elevators in Russia – has been pouring frighteningly a lot for the past three years. And people are not only dissatisfied with the maintenance of old elevators, almost more often they tell horror stories about new elevators from the Moslift conveyor. Hundreds of them are now being installed in the capital. Production capacities have increased many times in five years – up to 1,500 elevators per year.

– They live their lives! Then they go, then they don’t go, then they stop, then you get stuck in them. From the first floor to get to the tenth, then to the seventeenth – this is from the fantasy section! The second passenger is not lucky! Inna from Maryin is indignant at the new elevators.

In Yuzhny Butovo, new items broke down every two days, the emergency gang was waiting for days. On Leningradsky Prospekt, elevators break down less often, but they shake and the lights go out inside.

Does anyone have the new elevators working normally? Olga asks a question from Nagornaya.

In “Moslift” they are worried about their reputation. To increase the organization’s ratings in Internet services, the director of its department, Konstantin Zolotenkov, personally gave her likes everywhere. His example was followed by other managers of Moslift. At the same time, good reviews from bot accounts are multiplying.

Who runs Moslift

For the past six years, Moslift has been managed by Vardan Avakyan. He has been in this field for two decades. In 2005-2015, he headed the previous Moscow flagship for the production and operation of elevators, the Mos Otis company. This is the Russian “daughter” of the world’s largest manufacturer of elevators and hoists – the American company Otis. The first anniversary of his reign was marked by a fatal incident: elevator doors squeezed the neck of an eight-year-old boy and strangled him. Terms then received two ordinary electromechanics. When Avakyan left Mos Otis, people continued to die in the company’s elevators.

During the Christmas holidays in 2016, in the residential area of ​​Belyaevo, the roof of the cabin and the threshold of the mine were chewed up by a stroller with a baby. The court sentenced two Mos Otis repairmen to 2 and 3.5 years in prison. In the elite LCD “Scarlet Sails” at the height of the seventh floor, the bottom of the elevator fell off, the mother of two children crashed. According to the residents, the cabin was wedged and chatted for a long time. It was produced by Mos Otis, and installed by a particularly close subcontractor – SMU No. 7. The hard worker was again sent to jail.

Employees of the company did not rule out that the austerity business strategy of Mos Otis could be the cause of the tragedies. The media openly assumed that what happened was a consequence of the negligence of the authorities.

– Mos Otis had little in common with the US Otis in terms of quality. The Russian branch had little interest in the low-income maintenance of elevators, so the load on elevator operators grew. And the money direction – the installation of new elevators – was subcontracted to SMU No. 7 to minimize taxes. With this approach, what kind of security! – such reviews were left by former electromechanics of the enterprise.

How the Avakyan family makes money on elevators

Subcontractor SMU No. 7 is owned by Avakyan’s mother, Svetlana Karakashyan. In 2007-2023, this enterprise signed 256 government contracts worth over 5.3 billion rubles, including half a billion with Moslift. Karakashyan owns the twin company SMU No. 7, but with a different TIN. There are fewer government contracts: for 823 million rubles in 2011-2018, almost all of them were concluded with Moslift.

In 2016, anti-monopoly officials uncovered a cartel conspiracy to maintain high prices for the overhaul of the elevator shaft between SMU No. 7 and PG SU-177. The second company was founded by Svetlana Karakashyan. In 2011-2014, the SU-177 company won state tenders for 211 million rubles.

In the 2000s and 10s, Avakyan’s mother was a venerable restaurateur. She invested in the Ysterika karaoke bars on the roof of the European, Dzhelsomino and Taboo shopping centers on Petrovka, the Prince Golitsyn tavern on Staraya Basmannaya, the Prado cafe on Slavyanskaya Square, Stakan on Sretenka, Moncafe on 1st Tverskaya- Yamskoy and “Kalinkin” in Bolshoy Tolmachevsky, as well as Asia Grill in Barvikha. All of them rattled at one time, but are now closed. Svetlana Karakashyan continues to hold shares in the Asia Hall restaurant on Kutuzovsky Prospekt (income up to 70 million rubles a year) and the property management company Domain, which is suing for premises in the basement of a historic house on Tishinskaya Square.

How has Moslift changed after the arrival of Avakyan

After scandals with deaths in Mos Otis elevators, Vardan Avakyan left the industry for a year and a half. And then he headed Moslift. The new order did not suit many. Most of all, Avakyan was criticized by employees who left or were fired. Even the federal media wrote that the top manager transferred the Mos Otis training manuals to Moslift.

“Moslift began saving on security immediately after Vardan Avakyan came to the leadership,” said Vladimir Mitin, the ex-director of the closed branch of Moslift. – They removed qualified electricians, liquidated three branches!

In January 2018, an appeal to the president of the country from thirty-five employees of RSU-1 appeared on the Web – this is a division of Moslift that installs new elevator equipment. They complained that they were forced to write applications for unpaid leave, and the work was given to a subcontractor.

Judging by the public procurement portal, Moslift really then won tenders for 210 million rubles for the installation of new elevators and subcontracted the Incor Systems company. She, in turn, scattered contracts worth 100 million rubles to very small firms. This became clear when Incor Systems went bankrupt, and the bankruptcy trustee canceled the transactions through the court. Incore Sistema and the firms that received the tranches had one owner, Mikhail Savichev, who is now drowning in debt.

Leaks from Moslift quickly ended. The last “leaked” photos of two orders signed by top management. Avakyan allegedly strictly regulated interaction with the media. His deputy allegedly introduced liability for the disclosure of official information. Since then, there have been no public scandals with staff at Moslift.

How Vardan Avagyan’s family lives in Paris and Beverly Hills

– Total area – 544 square meters, plot – 14 acres, six bedrooms, seven latrines. The rooms are furnished with luxury furniture. There are palm trees in the yard, realtors praise.

The wife of Moscow’s chief lifter, Esma Avakyan, recently graduated from the Persian Gulf Medical University. She works in Los Angeles. She has her own clinical laboratory in the most respectable area of ​​the city. When Esma lived in Moscow at the beginning of the 2000s, she worked as a manager at SMU No. 7 of her mother-in-law.

Avakyan’s youngest children were born in the States, now they are studying at a prestigious California school. There is evidence that they have American citizenship. Twelve-year-old daughter Avakyan, judging by social networks, travels a lot. Only this year she visited Lausanne, Courchevel, Venice, London, Sukhumi and Moscow. Among the hotels where she stayed is the five-star Beau-Rivage Palace Lausanne with a room price of 50 thousand rubles per day.

In 2015, Vardan Avagyan and his wife founded the French company SCI G63 and acquired through it for 2.5 million euros a duplex in an elite nine-story building on Ingres Avenue between the Bois de Boulogne and the Ranelagh garden. This is one of the most respectable areas of the capital of France. Avakians can go to the roof of their house and enjoy the exotic garden, which offers a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.

Before heading Moslift, Vardan Avakyan divided his stake in SCI G63 between his wife and eldest son, who was born in Paris. Formally, this company is registered in a historic villa on the banks of the Seine River in Neuilly – this is a suburb adjacent to the Bois de Boulogne. Avakyan’s sister, Gayane Martiniko, lives in this villa, her apartment costs about two million euros. Gayane works for a local real estate agency. Avakian’s second sister, Rosa Sacre, is in charge of the Paris debt recovery department at the Société Générale bank. Her living space on the Rue de Montmorency will cost a million euros. Avakyan’s nephews and nieces have French citizenship, some also have Norwegian citizenship, and one of the sisters also has Italian citizenship.

What Avakyans own in Russia

Despite the fact that Vardan Avakyan works for Moslift, where Moscow owns 100% of the shares, and previously led Mos Otis, where the mayor’s office owned 25%, he never reported on income. Not required by law. Formally, he and his wife are registered in a small-sized three-piece panel on Matveevskaya Street not far from the Moscow Ring Road. The price is a maximum of 15 million rubles.

Esma Avakyan, the wife of the general director of Moslift, owns a studio (worth about 25 million rubles) in one of the three surviving tenement houses of the prominent lawyer Fyodor Plevako. This unusual building is located in a guarded courtyard on the second line of Novinsky Boulevard, a stone’s throw from the Arbat. The modern facade is decorated with panels and bas-reliefs based on Vrubel’s sketches, lancet windows support balconies, friezes are richly decorated with ceramic tiles.

Svetlana Karakashyan, the mother of the head of Moslift, has owned 280 square meters of living space in a tenement house on Povarskaya Street in the Arbat area since 2000. The masterpiece of architecture was erected by order of Princess Meshcherskaya and Countess Miloradovich shortly before the revolution. The coat of arms of the nobility is still preserved above the front entrance. The cost of the Karakashyan choir is under 300 million rubles.

Karakashyan owns a mansion with an area of ​​577 square meters and 20 acres in the Gorki-8 dacha cooperative on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. This village is famous for the fact that near each house there is an English park, a Russian forest or alpine meadows. They say it looks “masterpiece”. Excellent infrastructure in the form of a school, a kindergarten, an ice rink, boutiques and restaurants is attached. Neighbor – Ksenia Sobchak. The price is up to half a billion.

Svetlana Karakashyan also owns a Harley-Davidson Ultra Limited motorcycle, five parking spaces in a residential complex on Leningradsky Prospekt near the VTB Arena and 50 acres in the Kaluga village of Akulovskie Prudy, which was built by her son and partners.

Origins of the family business

Avakyan’s father, Nakhapet Bartegmosovich, was engaged in elevator equipment back in the nineties. It was he who founded SMU No. 7. The heyday of the enterprise fell on the era of Yuri Luzhkov. SMU No. 7 was recognized as an honorary supplier of Moscow, they chose Mos Otis and Moslift as subcontractors.

Vardan Avakyan was not going to continue his father’s work: he studied at the Sechenov Medical Academy, worked at the Department of Surgery for ten years, and in 2002 invested in slot machines “columns”, where you need to knock out “three axes” – such stood in zero even on the streets. But then Vardan got a job as a press secretary at his father’s SMU No. 7 and went to study at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry. A couple of years later he became the CEO of Mos Otis. Vardan Avagyan also completed business courses at the HES Academy in Paris and an executive program at Stanford University. In the American holding Otis, he reached the position of Vice President for Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic countries.