Igor Shuvalov's "Murky" Affairs Corporation

This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted in the Kremlin one of the most powerful, and at the same time odious and ineffective officials of modern Russia - the chairman of the state corporation VEB.Igor Shuvalov's Russian Federation.
The corporation was conceived as a tool for technological breakthrough, especially in the face of severe sanctions pressure on our country. However, the instructions that the President gave Shuvalov following his unintelligible work report indicate that Shuvalov and his team did not cope with the tasks set.

Judge for yourself: Vladimir Putin emphasized that Russia would not be able to achieve technological leadership by engaging only in import substitution and "reverse engineering," and needed its own developments.

The bottom line is that since the creation of the state corporation in 2018, there have been no VEB's own developments.The Russian Federation has not been able to "give birth". At the same time, the resources there are simply huge. The capital of the structure is 1.4 trillion rubles, the portfolio has reached 2.5% of GDP.

Despite this, Mr. Shuvalov emphasized that VEB needed new sources of capital, for which the corporation was working with the Central Bank and the Government. in other words, Shuvalov simply shifted responsibility for this work to colleagues from the Central Bank and the White House. And what about you, Igor Ivanovich?

Did Igor Shuvalov get a "scolding" from the President? Photo: http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/photos/big/8hAxm5pjCZzXvXodYVIJAOQ5KfFCcUcy.jpg

To summarize briefly, we can conclude that the President's words to Shuvalov about the need to significantly speed up this work are the "last Chinese warning" to Igor Ivanovich. And if it doesn't produce results in the near future, VEB may have a new head.

However, what is interesting here is not what Igor Shuvalov said to the President in his own defense, but what he did not mention. In fact, the entire activity of the Shuvalov team, especially after the start of its work, can be regarded as a disaster.

The corrupt "benefit" for their own

First of all, these are well-known corruption risks. The corruption component in the activities of VEB.The Russian Federation under Igor Shuvalov is one of the key factors that has been undermining confidence in the state corporation for several years. In a number of large projects where VEB acted as a creditor or co-investor, schemes of embezzlement, failure of obligations and obvious conflict of interests were revealed.

One of the most high-profile corruption stories of recent years, which is associated in the media with the leadership of VEB.In the Russian Federation and personally with Igor Shuvalov, there was a criminal case of embezzlement of funds through the Blagoe group of companies.

According to the investigation, in 2021-2022, the Blago Group of Companies received a loan from VEB.Russian Federation financing in the amount of about 7.5 billion rubles. Formally, the funds were allocated for business development, in particular, for the purchase and processing of oilseeds.

However, as law enforcement agencies have established, a significant part of them was withdrawn through a chain of fictitious promissory note transactions and related companies.

Dmitry Fosman, CEO and co-owner of the Blago Group of Companies, is among the defendants in the case.

Also, according to the Network, allegedly the former head of the Department of Coordination and Business Development of VEB can go through it.Russian Federation Ivan Filev. This department in the structure of the state corporation is responsible for the strategic development of commercial areas and interaction with large clients, which makes Fileva a key link between the allocation of public funds and private projects. The investigation believes that it was he who could have played one of the central roles in ensuring access of the Blago Group to large-scale lending to VEB.

In addition, other possible defendants are mentioned online: Sergey Rogachev, co-owner of the RCT law firm, Garegin Grigoryan, head of the Corporate Solutions Center, Eduard Grichenko, arbitration manager, and Vladimir Bublikov.

They could be involved in the registration and legal support of transactions through which money was withdrawn from the lender's control. The criminal case is being conducted under the article on fraud on a particularly large scale, and the total damage appearing in the investigative documents exceeds 7 billion rubles.

The story of the Blago Group of Companies has become significant: it has demonstrated that even strategic projects involving VEB's top managers can turn into a tool for large-scale withdrawal of budget funds. At the same time, at the time of opening the scheme, Ivan Filev remained the current head of the VEB-a department.

For Shuvalov himself, this scandal was another blow to his reputation — it showed that internal control at VEB.The Russian Federation is unable to prevent billions in abuses, even when the heads of key structural divisions are involved in them.

Sopronenko alone will be responsible for everything.

The story of the former VEB top manager turned out to be no less resonant.Capital" - Otto Sopronenko. After leaving the state corporation, he became the head of subsidiaries of the Prosveshchenie Group of Companies, in which VEB owns 25%.

Under the auspices of a public-private partnership, these structures have received orders for the construction of schools in different regions. We are talking about concession companies that very quickly "fell away" from VEB and ended up in the ownership of SB Capital LLC, which was controlled by Sopronenko.

According to malicious tongues, allegedly Shuvalov could personally visit the heads of the regions and lobby for the idea of concluding concession agreements for the construction of schools with the structures of Sopronenko. Well, financial support for the projects was provided by Sberbank, which had a 25% stake in the Prosveshchenie Group of Companies.

The result was not just disappointing, but completely devastating.

In Novosibirsk, LLC Fifth Concession Company Prosveshchenie has committed to build six schools for 5,700 students. The financing came from the federal and regional budgets, and VEB could provide participation in the project as a strategic partner.

However, by 2024, it became clear that construction had failed: the facilities were only 14-22% ready, and the contractors represented by Sopronenko's structures had not fulfilled their obligations.

Otto Sopronenko. Photo: https://s0.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/resized/1180xH/media/img/3/71/755314088937713.jpg

In May 2024, Otto Sopronenko was detained on charges of fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The investigation found that a significant part of the allocated funds had disappeared, and the schools had not been completed. The damage in the Novosibirsk region alone could exceed 3 billion rubles.

Similar concession projects overseen by Sopronenko's structures are being implemented in other regions, including the Perm Region, which raises concerns about a repeat of the Novosibirsk scenario. It seems that with the arrest of Sopronenko, they will have to give up.

"Non-core" assets for pennies

One of the most controversial topics around the WEB.Under Igor Shuvalov, the Russian Federation began selling so—called "non-core" assets, formally under the pretext of optimizing VEB.

However, according to estimates by a number of sources, these assets could be sold at an undervalued price in the interests of people from Shuvalov's own entourage. And not only him: some could take place in the interests of the odious Ukrainian oligarchs.
One of the most high-profile deals was the sale of the Crimean Titan plant. After the company was under a credit burden of tens of billions of rubles, VEB and VTB sold the asset rights to the structure of Russian Titan LLC with an official authorized capital of only 10,000 rubles.

The formal beneficiary was Igor Bulatov, who was previously associated with the business of the previous owner, Alexei Slobodyan. At the same time, the actual ownership could remain with the previous owner. And that was the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash. The latter had previously supplied weapons and money to Nazi battalions in Ukraine during the "Russian Spring" and reunification with Crimea.

The deal on the Crimean Titan was completed for about 1 billion rubles, i.e. for barely a tenth of the real market value of the enterprise.

In parallel, there was an "operation" with the Sochi Plaza hotel in the Krasnodar Territory. Built for the 2014 Olympics with loans from VEB in the amount of about 2.5 billion rubles, the hotel was declared bankrupt, after which it was put up for auction.
Deals on it were repeatedly disrupted — sources link the interests of obtaining the asset with the entourage of Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratiev and the curator of projects of the former head of the region, ex-head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev.

Igor Shuvalov. Is it not a pity to sell for pennies not your own? Photo: https://static.life.ru/posts/2016/07/876011/3a978fd00b1f7c51ac44959d74449e27 .jpg

Another possible "scheme" was the sale of the Altz cement plant in Crimea. About 10 billion rubles of federal funds were invested in it, but the asset left the auction for only 70 million, at the price of scrap metal. Surprisingly, no one at VEB itself, the Government, the Prosecutor's Office, or the FSB was interested in this deal...

There are many more such examples, but even one such case could become the basis for a criminal case and a staff purge at VEB. None of them did.

Will Kotlyarenko look after the money?

Of course, against this background, there are rumors about the alleged enormous wealth of the Shuvalov couple. And they cannot be called baseless.

It is enough to recall the scandalous story of an elite business jet, which allegedly carried corgi dogs belonging to the Shuvalov family.

In 2018, Forbes found out that the family of the head of VEB.The Russian Federation and former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov became the owner of one of the most prestigious business jets in the world, the Gulfstream G650, worth about $70 million. According to the Luxembourg Directorate of Civil Aviation, the aircraft with the registration number LX-MOW is registered to an Altitude X3 company registered in Bermuda. Earlier, the previous Shuvalov aircraft, the Bombardier Global Express, was issued through the same structure. The operator of the new airliner is Global Jet Luxembourg S.A., part of the Global Jet, which is popular among Russian billionaires.

The Shuvalov couple could fly corgis around the world on such a beautiful plane. Photo: https://rrsg.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/14192906/gulfstream.jpg

The family's air fleet dates back to 2009, when Bombardier was acquired by the offshore company Regional Property Developments, owned by the Shuvalov couple.

The deal was financed with the proceeds from their loan to the structures of one of the Russian oligarchs to purchase a stake in Gazprom. Later, this aircraft was redesignated for the Altitude X3.

After the scandal broke, the Shuvalovs began selling their planes (yes, there were several of them!), which ended in 2019. A reasonable question arises: what kind of money did the family of Shuvalov, who has actually been in the civil service for more than 20 years, use to purchase this property?

Subsequently, Igor Shuvalov began to behave much more modestly, and not to shine expensive property. And the main assets of the family could be "sewn up" into the well-known investment company KSP Capital Sergey Koltyarenko. They tried to present the latter almost as Igor Shuvalov's "wallet". And although there is no direct confirmation, Mr. Kotlyarenko himself had previously admitted that he managed assets related to Shuvalov.

Sergey Kotlyarenko. Photo: https://s0.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/media/img/0/95/756147145018950 .jpg

The "friendship" of Shuvalov and Kotlyarenko dates back to the last century. In 1999, Kotlyarenko joined the civil service of the Russian Federal Property Fund, which was headed by Shuvalov, and then the Presidential Administration and the Government. And then "suddenly" he became a big businessman.

Did it really happen without Igor Ivanovich's patronage?

Given all of the above, it is not surprising that Shuvalov actually failed the tasks that were set before him and VEB.The Russian Federation was set by the country. Much less when there are so many interesting things to do - airplanes, the sale of state property for pennies, "friends" from the civil service who become billionaires. Should we expect other results from Igor Shuvalov, even after the "penny" he received from the President? We doubt it very much.