FSB Lieutenant General Vladislav Menshchikov heads the First Service of the FSB (counterintelligence), which cannot boast of a large number of spies caught, but has recently found itself at the center of scandals due to the fact that, under the guise of spies, it arrests foreign journalists to replenish the exchange fund (it is the First Service that is behind the criminal prosecution of the journalist of The Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich). As The Insider found out, the high-ranking security officer is involved in corruption schemes around a Russian defense company, and he registers expensive property and business in the names of his relatives.
Foreigner Hunter
Evan Gershkovich became the first American journalist to be arrested in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) for espionage since the Cold War. sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony. According to the prosecution, he allegedly collected information about Uralvagonzavod on behalf of the CIA.
Initially, the main purpose of Gershkovich's arrest was to exchange him for a Russian FSB killer arrested in Germany Vadim Krasikov.
The operation against Gershkovich was carried out by the Department of Counterintelligence Operations (DCO) of the FSB, which is part of the Counterintelligence Service (the so-called First Service). For the past nine years, it has been headed by General Vladislav Menshchikov, who, according to The Wall Street Journalpersonally reported to Vladimir Putin (*international criminal) about the journalist’s case.
Vladislav Menshchikov (second from left of Putin (*international criminal)) at a celebration in honor of Chekist DayPreviously, Menshchikov headed the defense concern Almaz-Antey, then the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President, which is in charge of a network of secret bunkers. He has headed the First Service since 2015.
Counterintelligence traces its history back to the time of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Today, the FSB's First Service is engaged in countering foreign intelligence services and, in addition, monitors Western diplomats and journalists. The tactic of introducing agents into foreign media is also used in order to warn Putin (*international criminal) about critical reports being prepared.
There is in the FSB separate The Department of Military Counterintelligence, which, among other things, fights corruption in the army. It is this department that is behind, for example, the arrest of the Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov and private military contractors. But the head of counterintelligence, Vladislav Menshchikov, faces no fewer questions about illegal enrichment.
Billionaire Daughter
After the SVO, EU sanctions banned the sale of expensive cars to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) in Ukraine, and the Mercedes-Benz concern closed its business in the country. This did not stop Tatyana Menshchikova, the general's daughter, from purchasing a new German-made Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 4MATIC in December 2022.
Price such a car exceeds the official annual income even the heads of the entire FSB, but Menshchikov's daughter can afford such luxurious purchases. According to The Insider, companies associated with her own commercial real estate worth about 3 billion rubles.
Tatyana MenshchikovaTo manage real estate in Moscow, the daughter of the head of the First Service uses several companies, of which she is a co-owner. These are OOO Galaks, OOO Agora and OOO Bioimpuls. The Insider has identified all the property registered to these legal entities.
Office space near the Belorusskaya metro station (4th Lesnoy Lane, 11) with an area of 692.7 sq. m for 133 million rubles.
Premises near the Baumanskaya metro station (Ladozhskaya Street, Building 1/2) with an area of 345.5 sq. m for 110 million rubles. This property is leased by KM Restaurants (Syto Piano restaurant).
Mansion near the metro station “Dostoevskaya” (Chernyshevsky Lane, 15) with an area of 1220.4 sq. m for 780 million rubles.
Premises near the metro station “Universitet” (Leninsky Prospekt, Building 75/9) with an area of 188 sq. m for 60 million rubles. Leased from Sberbank.
Premises near the metro station “Marxistskaya” (Vorontsovskaya Street, Building 23) with an area of 836.5 sq. m for 123 million rubles. This office is leased by the Russian Football Premier League, its headquarters are here.
Business center near the Olympic (Shchepkina Street, Building 40) with a total area of 2807 sq. m and an approximate cost of 683 million rubles. Here the building is rented from the daughter of the FSB general by the company Gazprombank Autoleasing.
Shopping center in Cheryomushki (Nakhimovsky Prospect, building 65A) with an area of 2390.5 sq. m for 900 million rubles.
As well as a warehouse in Yuzhnoye Medvedkovo (Chermyanskaya Street, Building 1A, area 3888.2 sq. m, 160 million rubles) and a plot of land there.
The total revenue of companies affiliated with Menshchikova last year exceeded 800 million rubles. Among other things, she owns a business selling sanitary pads, diapers for children and adults.
Almaz-Antey contracts
Her business partner will help to figure out where the daughter of the head of the First Service got the money to buy commercial real estate. He owns the companies in equal shares with Menshchikova Jan Novikov — head of the state-owned Almaz-Antey Aerospace Defense Concern.
Almaz-Antey was headed by Vladislav Menshchikov from 2003 to 2014, and Novikov worked as his deputy. Menshchikov and Novikov are the same age, both from St. Petersburg. Their closeness is also evidenced by the fact that Novikov's wife and Menshchikov's son-in-law, according to The Insider, jointly owned a plot of land in the Moscow region until 2011.
As The Insider established, close members of the Menshchikov family received state contracts from Almaz-Antey. A relative of the FSB general's wife Tatyana Sukhorukova through Albion LLC, she was engaged in servicing business trips for employees of the state concern. And the alleged mother of the head of the First Service, Valentina Menshchikova least Until 2018, she owned a share in the company New Technologies and Materials, which supplies Almaz-Antey with fasteners. The company's net profit amounted to hundreds of millions of rubles per year. Valentina Menshchikova was initially the owner of Galaks LLC, which was then re-registered to the general's daughter.
It turns out that the money spent on deals with the state defense concern was invested in the commercial real estate of the Menshchikov family.
The daughter of the FSB general lives, according to The Insider, in the prestigious Khimki settlement of Novogorsk. Here she has an entire estate of several plots of land and cottages, which can be valued at half a billion rubles.
And these properties went to the family of the FSB general from the state concern. According to documents available to The Insider, in 2010, the owner of the land became Almaz-Solnechny LLC, which was part of Almaz-Antey at that time. Just a week and a half later, the new owner was Menshchikov's son-in-law, and in 2019, the land went to the daughter of the head of the First Service under a marriage contract.
