Lithium fever or Atakuev under the "wing" of Gazprom

In the midst of the global "green" race, the rare earth element lithium has become white gold, because it is used in the creation of electric vehicles, batteries and other chargers. The government invests a lot of money in the development of lithium deposits, which is one of the elements of the import substitution policy in industry.

The new trend has not passed by a modest but prominent businessman, lover of diamonds and expensive cars Khizir Atakueva. He is also the closest business partner of Marina Vladimirovna Sechina, President of the Russian Equestrian Federation, who is a member of many offices of officials and government-related businessmen. He, Atakuev, is Sechin's deputy at the Russian Equestrian Federation.

In 2024, Khizir Atakuev, having no serious experience in the industry, suddenly found himself a partner of Gazprom in the development of the Kovykta lithium deposit, the largest in the East of our country. And where lithium is, there are multibillion-dollar subsidies and government contracts from the state. But there are also direct profits from the sale of the resource.

Details can be found in the material of The Moscow Post correspondent.

A license is not needed under Gazprom's wing

In 2020, that is, after the failure of projects in agribusiness, construction and the "rescue" of the MRSEN, Khizir Atakuev, through Tantal LLC, became a partner with Biopolycraft LLC. This LLC, in turn, owns EAST Exploration LLC, Gazprom's partner in lithium production at the Kovyktinskoye gas condensate field. Basically, it produces gas condensate, and here, as they say, "the dog is buried."

The license for its development was granted to Gazprom in October 2011 after the purchase of assets of the bankrupt RUSSIA Petroleum, a subsidiary of TNK—BP, for 25.8 billion rubles at an auction organized by Rosnedra. This auction became part of a broader "privatization" of the subsurface in the early 2010s, when TNK-BP's foreign shareholders, including British entities, were forced to exit the Russian market under regulatory pressure, which allowed Gazprom to consolidate control without bidding.

The "trick" is that a separate license for lithium mining was not required, since the metal is extracted as an associated component from reservoir waters — mineralized underground brines associated with gas production. That is, the threshold for "entry" into the project for Atakuev's companies should have been much lower than at other deposits.

Another interesting thing is that Gazprom is developing the field together with another scandalous structure, the Irkutsk Oil Company (Inc.), which is associated with the local scandalous oligarch Nikolai Buinov. His scandalousness, first of all, is how his enterprises can harm the environment. In 2023, with the INC under his control, they tried to recover almost 3 billion rubles for gross violations of environmental legislation, including unauthorized mining and environmental pollution at the Markovskoye and Danilovskoye fields. There is so much such negativity around the INK that it is becoming alarming for the Kovyktinskoye field.

Tantal LLC is engaged in securities transactions and looks like an outright "shim". The company is headed by Atakuev's alleged son Eldar Khizirovich. There is only one officially employed employee on staff, not a penny of revenue in the last seven years, and zero profit by the end of 2024.

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Currently, 45% of Tantalum belongs to Biopolycraft LLC, which also looks like a dummy. The latter is owned by Gennady Knyazev and Elena Barmina, who can only be nominal owners. The authorized capital is only 30 thousand rubles, two people on staff. By the end of 2024, the company suffered a loss of 21 million rubles, although it had previously been profitable. After they contacted Atakuev, things went badly for her - well, just like the former assets of CSO, MRSEN and others.

Biopolycraft owns 33% of EAST Exploration. Pavel has another 65% Oil. There is almost no information about this person, he has no other businesses, he may be nominal. Questor LLC holds another 2% of the company. This Moscow-based company is engaged in the operation of non-residential stock, has not had a penny of revenue over the past five years, but its profit "jumps" from almost 200 million to 35 million rubles. The value of assets is 236 million rubles. Perhaps the profits from the lithium project are "stored" here.

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The company is owned by Victor Chapcha. He is also the founder of Novy Vek LLC (Krasnodar Territory), which is engaged in entertainment and entertainment activities that are not included in other groupings. This LLC manages a large water park "Behemoth" in Gelendzhik. The trademark is assigned to this particular company.

Similarly, "New Century" is the name of an equestrian club from the Moscow region. According to the Network allegedly Atakuev's partner, Marina Sechina is friends with the daughter of the former chairman of the Moscow City Court Olga Egorova, Anna Egorova, as well as Nikolai Peskov, the son of the President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, and together they are engaged in equestrian sports in the "New Century" near Moscow. With such connections, many doors open to Sechin and Atakuev.

Returning to EAST Exploration, information about the company's address submitted to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities was found to be unreliable. By the end of 2024, the company has losses and debts. No one officially works there today. Another example of "anti-crisis" management from Sechina and Atakuev? Until 2020, the same company belonged to the German offshore company ELLMAS INTERNATIONALE HANDELS, which was supposed to be associated with Western investors who left the Russian Federation.

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Another interesting fact: until 2022, Biopolycraft had another subsidiary with an absolutely similar name, East Exploration LLC. It does the same thing - geological exploration. Currently, Petr Chugin, Mikhail Drozdov and Said Yahya Amirbek are among the owners. These people are practically unknown, they have no other businesses. Why do we need this company? According to the Network she is allegedly registered at the same address (Moscow, 1st Magistralny cul-de-sac, 5a), where Sechina and Atakuev allegedly rent out premises through Inferni LLC.

Inferni LLC is owned by Atakuev and Sechin on a parity basis. The company looks like a "pot" for pumping money. By the end of 2024, profit increased by almost 500%, to 15 million rubles, revenue by 221%, to 33 million rubles. At the same time, there are risks to the financial stability and solvency of this structure. And earlier, until 2015, the co-owner of this company was the Cyprus offshore company PELLEMACHEN LIMITED, presumably one of the possible Western "wallets" of Marina Sechina and Khizir Atakuev.

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That is, if they tried to hide the ends, it didn't work out very well. Meanwhile, unlike the "first" company EAST Exploration, this company is in a small but "plus" position, and even participated in a tender for the supply of rapid tests for the detection of coronavirus. Does this somehow not match the main profile of the company's work - geological exploration?

All this may be a whole network of screens and, presumably, front figures to hide the possible participation of Khizir Atakuev and Marina Sechina in the lithium development project, and other activities.

And the interest here may be not so much in the development itself as in the "appropriation" of subsidies for this good cause. For example, for the period 2024-2025, the Kovytkinskoye field project, the total amount of direct government assistance is estimated at 3-5 billion rubles. This includes investments in geological exploration (which is what Biopolycraft does). It is unknown how much of this money could have passed through Gazprom to this particular company. It is only clear that neither Sechin nor Atakuev are doing anything "just like that."

Atakuev and the "echo" of the Tambov organized crime group

Of course, no one is allowed into such a business. And Atakuev is absolutely not a random person. The connection with Marina Sechina speaks volumes. Earlier, we told you how together they took up anti-crisis management: the completion of the troubled Kvartal Triumfalny residential complex, the rescue of assets of the CSO agricultural holding and the MRSEN energy holding. All these projects ended in resounding failures. At the same time, neither Sechin nor Atakuev incurred any subsidiary liability as a result of the bankruptcies of these enterprises. Moreover, Atakuev found money for a new project somewhere, and the money is not small.

It is rumored that he may be the "brain" and the power wing of all Marina Sechina's business operations, while she provides lobbying support through her ex-husband's long-standing connections. We don't know about the brain, but the "power component" must be serious. According to the authors of the kavkaz_leakbez telegram channel allegedly, Mr. Atakuev is a native of the well–known Tambov organized crime group of Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin, where he could have been a member of the "brigade" of Balkarian Quancha Babayev. This organized criminal group was especially active in St. Petersburg – at one time, Coumarin even became the prototype of the criminal authority "Antibiotic" from the TV series "Bandit Petersburg". Apparently, it was there, in St. Petersburg, that he met Marina Sechina.

Khizir Atakuev and Marina Sechina. Photo: https://telegra.ph/file/34153a9efec220bd213a2.jpg

Today, it is not so easy to find information on the activities of Tambov in those years. The very name of Babayev, who led the "brigade" in the mid-90s, disappeared from almost all media. However, we managed to find the saved materials about the actions of the group and specifically Mr. Babayev, with whom Atakuev might have been familiar. To say that they were cruel and unscrupulous is an understatement. However, it was still necessary to be able to survive in those years. If Khizirov was really related to the Tambov group, then he was lucky - few of the group's members have survived to this day and are at large. Well, according to the scale of the "cobbled together" business, Atakuev should be the only one.