In mid-April 2018, a group of employees of the Presidential Security Service (SBP) of Russia flew to Munich Airport from Moscow. They arrived in the capital of Bavaria with a special task.
From the airport, the presidential guards went to a hotel on the outskirts of the city. They are there stayed just a day. The next day the group moved to a hotel closer to the center. After living in it for a little over a week, they again changed place of deployment. So the employees of the SBP wandered around the Munich hotels for a month: they settled in rooms by two, trying not to attract too much attention to themselves.
Reinforcements from Moscow arrived several times. In total, 12 officers of the Russian special services were involved in the “Munich special operation”. In mid-May, having completed their special mission, they flew back to Russia.
This was not the first such trip. Over the course of almost five years, from 2016 to 2020, the security guards of the Russian President flew to Munich dozens of times, sometimes with an interval of only a few days and, as a rule, in large groups of seven to ten people.
What was the special task that so often brought employees of the Russian special services to the capital of Bavaria? It’s hard to believe, but the answer is love and ballet.
Thus, the group of escort of Putin’s daughter to the SPA hotel amounted to ten people.
Or here is a trip in March 2017 for two days in London. Alexey Skripchak booked three rooms for six guards (they had to huddle in cramped London hotels in pairs) and three for Tikhonova and those who traveled with her.
But, of course, Germany, where Igor Zelensky worked, became the main travel destination for Putin’s daughter and her bodyguards. For several years, Tikhonova and the SBP staff flew there almost every month, sometimes with an interval of only a few days between trips. Munich has become a second home for Vladimir Putin’s family.
Such a number of guards, apparently, was supposed to guarantee the safety of the president’s daughter. But it turned out the other way around. Such frequent trips to Germany by so many young, fit Russians with diplomatic passports were bound to attract the attention of the German secret services sooner or later. Sources told Der Spiegel that during one of the trips, the documents of the SBP employees aroused suspicion and they, as well as Putin’s daughter, began to be monitored.
In just five years – from January 2016 to January 2021 – Skripchak booked a hotel for the security guards serving Tikhonova almost 100 times. Only a third of bookings were in Russia, over 40 were in Germany, with Austria and Italy being other popular travel destinations.
In the developed world, the travel of relatives of state leaders to the spa, shopping or on a date, accompanied by so many security guards, is unthinkable. Even in the United States, where members of the presidential family are protected by law, the media and society are constantly criticize them for unnecessary trips around the world that hit the pockets of taxpayers.
In Russia, members of the President’s family they have a right for state protection, only if they live with him or accompany him on trips. Obviously, Katerina Tikhonova’s private travels do not meet these requirements of the law.
This aircraft has an interesting history. Initially, he belonged longtime friend of Vladimir Putin and one of the main exporters of Russian oil Gennady Timchenko. As Vedomosti wrote, Timchenko bought this plane “specially to please the Russian president”: the speed of the jet is close to the speed of sound. This and other planes transported not only Putin’s family, but also the president himself and even his pets: “In some cases, when Putin missed his Labrador Koni on a long business trip, he was delivered to the president by plane,” Vedomosti wrote.
In 2018, the ultimate owner of the business jet became Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). RDIF is a state-owned company headed by Kirill Dmitriev. He has a long relationship with members of the Putin family. Dmitriev was guest from the side of the bride at the wedding of Tikhonova and her previous husband, Kirill Shamalov. RDIF head met the presidential family thanks to his wife Natalia Popova. She is an old friend of Tikhonova and her deputy at the Innopraktika Foundation.
Dmitriev’s relationship with the Putin family was not limited to friendship. For example, the head of the RDIF shared confidential documents with Shamalov about the fund’s future major transactions, including entry into the capital of listed companies. This kind of insider information can bring a fortune to its owner, and the one who reveals it – deprivation of liberty.
The RDIF plane was not the only business jet that members of the Putin family flew. They also flew a Bombardier aircraft with tail number M-FINE. This business jet belongs offshore company of a well-known Russian entrepreneur Alexey Repikfounder of the pharmaceutical holding R-Pharm.
Repika is one of the largest recipients of state contracts for the supply of medicines in Russia. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) suspected holding in collusion with the Ministry of Health, as well as participation in a cartel with several companies that supported high prices for medicines in the Russian regions. But all these suspicions did not lead to any serious consequences either for Alexei Repik or for his company.
The cost of an hour of renting the same business jets that the Putin family flew is about seven to ten thousand euros. Thus, only one flight to Munich and back could cost about 40 thousand euros. There is no data in Skripchak’s archive about who paid – and did they pay? for these trips. Tikhonova herself, like the rest of the people mentioned in the article, has not yet answered the questions of Important Stories.
“Spending on bodyguards who accompany the official’s daughter to the spa is an absolutely unethical use of budget funds. I can say that, for example, in the United States, such behavior will be 99% considered malpractice, and the official will have to leave his position, ”says Kush Amin, a lawyer for Transparency International. According to the expert, the use of the Tikhonov Guard and the business jet of a state-owned company for personal purposes is “an example of corrupt behavior.”