A guidebook to Russian wartime oligarchs

How Russia’s richest businessmen profit from the war in Ukraine

Independent Russian investigative outlet Proekt has put out a “guidebook to Russian wartime oligarchs,” which details the “contributions” the wealthiest Russian nationals have made so far to the war in Ukraine. Proekt journalists studied state contracts and other open sources of information, discovering in the process that at least 81 of Russia’s richest businessmen are involved in supplying Russia’s military-industrial complex, its army, and its National Guard, though some deny their involvement with the defense economy and even openly criticize the war. Meduza shares an English-language synopsis of Proekt’s investigation.

The Proekt team’s investigation started by looking at the 2021 Forbes Russia list. Journalists then analyzed publicly available state contracts between companies wholly or partially owned by the people on that list and organizations like military manufacturing plants, Russia’s Defense Ministry, and the National Guard. They focused on the period between 2014 and 2023. Proekt notes, however, that the Defense Ministry and military factories began to classify most contracts as secret in 2017.

Of the 81 businessmen included in the investigation who have been involved in weapons manufacturing, 80 have been sanctioned but only 14 faced restrictions from all of Ukraine’s allies. Another 34 were sanctioned only by Ukraine.

Contracts between the oligarchs’ companies and Russia’s military-industrial complex during the entire period of military conflict in Ukraine (2014–the present) were worth at least 220 billion rubles ($2.4 billion), writes Proekt.

Who profits from the war, and how? A few examples.

In March 2022, the Russian military killed civilian residents in the city of Bucha, outside of Kyiv. Video footage of the events — shot by drones, surveillance cameras, and a Bucha resident, Viktor Shatilo, who filmed the murders on his cell phone from his home’s attic — shows that some people were killed by BMD-2 and BMD-4M airborne infantry fighting vehicles. The latter are produced by the company KBP Instrument Design Bureau, which belongs to the High Precision Systems holding company, part of the state corporation Rostec.

The owners of companies that, according to Proekt’s investigation, produce components for BMD-4Ms, include:

• Viktor Vekselburg is a co-owner of Rusal Ural. The company supplies aluminum powder to the manufacturer of Arkan missiles, with which BMD-4Ms are equipped.
• Igor Kesayev supplies metal casts to the Vologda Optical-Mechanical Plant, which makes sights, including for BMD-4Ms.
• Oleg Deripaska owns Barnaultransmash, which produces UTD-29 motors used in BMD-4Ms. He’s also a co-owner of Rusal Ural, which supplies aluminum powder for the Arkan missiles mounted on BMD-4Ms.
• Vladimir Evtushenkov is a co-owner of an enterprise that develops armor and supplies casts for BMD-4M hulls. His company also supplies microchips to a factory that manufactures sights, including for BMD-4Ms.
• Mikhail Shelkov owns VSMPO-AVISMA, which supplies rolled titanium, probably for tank chassis parts.
• Igor Rotenberg is reportedly associated with the Tulamashzavod factory, which produces 2A27 30 millimeter automatic cannons.
• Dmitry Mazepin owns Uralkhim, which supplies ammonia, ammonium nitrate, and nitric acid for Arkan missiles.
• Yevgeny Zubitsky owns the company Polema, which supplies tungsten parts and molybdenum rods used in tank construction.

Proekt’s investigation also suggests that Russian soldiers with the 234th Airborne Assault Regiment, which has been accused of the murder of civilian residents in Bucha, carried Pecheneg machine guns and Kalashnikov assault rifles. The weapons can be seen in soldiers’ own photos, posted on social media. The guns are developed and produced by a state-owned military research and production firm, known as TsNIItochmash, as well as by the private Degtyarev Plant, which is owned by Igor Kesayev. A company known as Alfastrakhovanie, whose owners include Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, provides health insurance services for TsNIItochmash and property insurance for the enterprise that makes Kalashnikovs.

Fridman and Aven are also part-owners of Alfa-Bank, which provides credit to Tula Cartridge Works, owned since 2017 by Igor Rotenberg, which manufactures cartridges for Kalashnikov and Pecheneg guns. Proekt notes that Alfa-Bank “held open” a line of credit for the factory after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, closing it only in December 2022. Alfa-Bank said it only finances sporting and hunting cartridges intended for delivery to the U.S. Fridman and Aven have tried to challenge the sanctions enacted against them.

The Proekt investigation also mentions the shelling of Vinnytsia in Ukraine, which the Russian army carried out on July 14, 2022. The attack, during which Russia launched three Kalibr missiles at the city, killed 27 people. By Proekt’s calculations, at least seven enterprises owned by Forbes List billionaires were involved in the production of those missiles. Among them are Viktor Vekselberg’s Kamensk-Uralsky Metallurgical Works, which supplies aluminum casts for Kalibr missile production, and Viktor Rashnikov’s Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, which supplies rolled metal to missile manufacturers.

Please, read this message from Meduza’s team:

Dear readers! For nearly a decade, Meduza has delivered reliable information about Russia and the rest of the world. Our reporting is vital for millions of people in Russia, Ukraine, and beyond. In January 2023, the Russian authorities outlawed our work outright, but Meduza’s news coverage continues thanks to support from international readers like you. Don’t let “undesirable” status in Russia silence us. Please, support our work.

Russia’s oligarchs were also financially linked to the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater, says Proekt. On March 16, 2022, Russian troops dropped two FAB-500 bombs on the theater, where a large number of civilians were hiding. The exact number of people killed is still unknown, though the Ukraine authorities say it is close to 300.

In 2017, the Sverdlov Plant in Dzerzhinsk got an automatic line for equipping FAB-500 bombs with explosives. The components for manufacturing those explosives are supplied to the Sverdlov Plant by subsidiaries of Dmitry Mazepin’s Uralkhim firm and by a company called Sibur, which is jointly owned by Vladimir Putin’s friend Gennady Timchenko, Putin’s former son-in-law Kirill Shamalov, and Leonid Mikhelson. The plant purchases aluminum powder for the bombs from Oleg Deripaska’s company Rusal.

Proekt reached out to all of the companies and individuals named in its investigation. The publication cited a spokesperson for Pyotr Aven, Mikhail Fridman, and German Khan, who said that Alfa-Bank decided not to work with defense enterprises “and from the moment that decision was made, consistently, but in compliance with all necessary procedures, exited relationships with those clients.”

Deripaska’s spokesperson said that the oligarch neither owns nor runs any businesses connected to the production or supply of weapons, military equipment, or any other products or services for the defense sector. “A number of peripheral military-industrial assets…that once belonged to Oleg Deripaska’s companies were sold in 2019, long before the start of the senseless war in Ukraine, and are not in any way connected to Oleg Deripaska,” a statement from his spokesperson read.

You can see the full list of wealthy Russians who profit from the war in Ukraine, according to Proekt’s investigation, here (in Russian).

Original investigation by Proekt

Translated synopsis by Emily Laskin