An elaborate investor

An elaborate investor.

The story of how the son of Dmitry Medvedev preferred a beautiful life to the hike to the front

Roman Badanin, Mikhail Rubin and other authors of the "Project"

September 23, 2022

Many people are perplexed why Dmitry Medvedev once considered liberal into the frenzied hawk of the war in Ukraine. As the project found out, a personal drama is also hidden behind this metamorphosis. The only son of the politician - Ilya Medvedev - of course, did not go to the front, but with the outbreak of the war he lost the millionth investments made for him by Igor Yusufov’s family, the opportunity to travel around the world and a chance to relax on sea open yacht “The Universe”.

Two on a yacht

July 2020. The height of the Pandemia of Coronavirus, throughout the world, the strictest security measures that limit travel and entertainment. In Russia - an increase in mortality and unemployment caused by coronavirus and its economic consequences - mortality in July 2020 jumped by 19.7% in annual terms. The number of unemployed Russians in July increased by 40.6% in annual terms and reached almost 5 million people. The 74-meter yacht “The Universe” worth $ 100 million-such an assessment is given by the specialized resource of Superyachtfan-it goes in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, turning off the transponder, follows from the Vesselfinder specialized project, which is analyzed by the “project” of the specialized service. On board the “Universe” - Ilya Medvedev and Maxim Yusufov, sons of the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and former Minister of Energy, billionaire Igor Yusufov - Forbes magazine estimates the state of Yusufov at $ 1.1 billion, respectively. The acquaintance of Yusufov told about the joint swimming of these two to the “project”. Another interlocutor, familiar with the details of the operation of the yacht, confirmed that Medvedev Jr. was on board the "Universe" at that time. Young people, familiar from school, retired in sea open times from hard time.

What concerns were borne by young children of influential parents? The yacht “Universe” itself will help to understand this. Built by Damen Yachting in 2018, it is decorated with an offshore from the Kaiman Islands Southerner Ltd, the real owner of which is hidden. However, the movements of the yachts in recent years indicate that the owner is most likely from Russia. For example, in 2020, the Universe spent at least 72 days in the port of Sochi, follows from Vesselfinder data. And in 2022, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, no later than March 2, when foreign authorities began to arrest the assets of influential Russians - yachts, houses and planes - the “Universe” left the Italian port of the empire, where at that moment it was anchored, and through Istanbul came to Sochi, where the correspondent of the “project” was convinced by her own eyes, and now.

Two sources of “Project” - a familiar Yusufov family and a person, aware of the operating conditions of the “Universe” - say that it is the Yusufovs who are the owners of the yacht, but the family of Dmitry Medvedev actually uses it. On the “Universe”, the former president and prime minister has an office and special communications, and in the territorial waters of the Russian Federation it is often accompanied by Ships of the Navy.

The “Project” also found many indirect evidence that it was Medvedev who actually used the yacht. The Turkish spotter Yoruk Ishik, who followed the courts passing through Bosphorus, said in May 2022 that the “Universe” probably belongs to Medvedev. In a conversation with the Project, he specified that he made such a conclusion on the basis of information of his source. Turkish observers from NPO Nordic Monitor also called Medvedev the owner of the “universe”. Another source of Project among yacht brothels with reference to the crew claims that the Medvedev family uses this yacht. Finally, an employee of Sochi Marina, where the ship is now guarded, calls her “Medvedevskaya” and “government”.

As the further investigation of the “project” showed, the same principle applies to other assets of the Yusufov family - what is written on them can actually belong to Medvedev and his heir.

The nobles of the Yusufovs ↓

As a businessman's family is related to Dmitry Medvedev

The Yusufov house was strengthened during the period of the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev (2008-2012). In the 90s, Igor Yusufov worked at leading posts at the Ministry of Industry and Rosterrava, and in 2000, when Vladimir Putin became president, he took posts of the Minister of Energy and a member of the Board of Directors of Gazprom. In March 2004, he resigned with the government of Mikhail Kasyanov, but did not fall out of the clip, becoming the special representative of the president in international energy cooperation. This was the Yusufov chair and occupied when Medvedev came to power in 2008.

“Igor Yusufov is a person who then could open the door to the high office in the Kremlin with his foot,” the former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov described the Medvedev presidency. Yusufov Sr. himself tried to refute close acquaintance with Medvedev-in particular, in an interview with Vedomosti in 2011, he argued that he did not have business relations with the president, “they never discussed any commercial issues”. However, there are at least two episodes, the participants of which allow them to doubt the veracity of the words of the former minister.

The first is a scandalous purchase in 2011 by Igor Vitaly’s son Vitaly Bank of Moscow by Andrei Borodin, who fled to London. The seller had no doubt: the younger Yusufov bought his share on behalf of Medvedev, since this family, he believed, is authorized to keep the assets that are part of the presidential interests, Borodin said in an interview with Vedomosti. “He and the president share profit and assets,” Borodin said. The Yusufov package was later sold to VTB.

The second episode - the purchase of the same Vitaly Yusufov by the Business German Wadan Yars - they specialized in the construction of icebreakers and floating drilling rigs - the authorities of Germany for € 40.5 million. The transaction was preceded by negotiations at the highest level: President Medvedev personally promised the chancellor of Germany Angel Merkel, in whose polling station they are located in the polling station Shipyards, replace the "stuffy" investors WADAN YARDS with "high -quality". Subsequently, it turns out that the share in the shipyards at the same time as Yusufov was supposedly owned by the hired killer Aslan Gagiev, whose people shot one of the former investors of the enterprise. The Yusufovs, the father and son, were questioned in the murder case, but the Russian investigation came to the conclusion that it was not related to shipyards. 7 years after the transaction, the Yusufovs sold the shipyard of the Malaysian Genting Group.

It is also known that the Yusufovs helped to solve the housing issues of the Medvedev family. In one of the most expensive places in the suburbs-opposite the Rublevsky residence of Medvedev Sr. in Gorki-9-there are four cottages. In 2011, three of them moved away from the Novoenergo and Incotraid companies indirectly related to the Yusuf, Tekhinpr, which is supposedly registered by real estate in the use of Medvedev. Among the cottages, a three-story mansion stands out in which Medvedev Jr. can live. The conclusion about this can be drawn on the basis of the flowing databases of customers of the company "Hemotest" and "Yandex.Sa", from which it follows that the cooks, clergy, as well as friends of the Medvedev family, ordered these houses for coronavirus. The first to tell the publications “Present” and “Medusa” about this.

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Pupil of the Yusufov house

-He is trying to engage in private business projects, including in the field of digital economy. Well, such things that are now very popular among young people. Moreover, he does this himself and is engaged in pleasure. I have not seen any special successes there yet, but I hope that still ahead is the ex-president, the ex-prime minister, and now the prominent hawk of invasion of Ukraine Dmitry Medvedev answered in 2020 the question of what his only son Ilya was engaged in the air of the service radio station Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Just a year before this interview, a completely different story unfolded in another place in Moscow, giving an idea of ​​“business projects”, which the son of the former president “is engaged with pleasure”. “I sat several times with Ilya Dmitrievich (Medvedev) at the same table. We conducted negotiations with him about investments and current affairs, ”recalls the IT businessman Konstantin Hait. According to him, Business Hight was selected in the interests of Medvedev Jr., now the businessman left Russia and agreed to talk with the “project”. His story is confirmed by another source and financial documentation of High, studied by the “project”.

Hait is the chief architect of the electronic price tags system for retail, devices instead of paper price tags to display information about the price and properties of the goods on the screen located next to the goods themselves. Together with a partner in 2017, he created an IT startup "Compo". Now the company is deeply unprofitable-according to the results of last year, the loss, according to the SPARK-Interfax, amounted to 80.8 million rubles-but at the start it had good prospects. In 2017, the company became a participant in Skolkovo, and already in 2018, the startup found a strong investor represented by VEB Innovation, which was ready to invest in business up to 200 million rubles. "Compo" made plans for export and development. True, in the end, the VEB agreement remained on paper, because the startup had an even more eminent investor then.

“We were worn by the waves of American and Russian startup, until Ilya Dmitrievich Medvedev was directly recommended as a potential investor,” Hait recalls with a smile. According to him, it was arranged like this: negotiations with Medvedev and on his face were led by the eldest of the sons of Igor Yusufov, Vitaly, who is now recorded by most family companies. In terms of meetings, the youngest son of Igor Yusufov, Maxim, joined the investors.

“In my understanding, Ilya Dmitrievich was given to the Yusufov family. This is a large Family Office, with a large number of people in different structures scattered throughout the country, ”says Hayt. “Vitaly instructs Medvedev on the right path in the life of a respectable venture businessman.”

In 2018, compoity entered into an investment transaction with Akominvest, 100% belonging to Vitaly Yusufov. The amount of investment is more than $ 4 million. “It was clearly said to me that your investor is Ilya, and you are answering him,” says Hait. Now he regretfully explains why he agreed: "They are not security forces in masks, but a liberal wing, civilized supporters of European integration."

The Project was convinced that the money to the compolations was really received - they came from different legal entities controlled by the Yusufov family - from Akominvest and from the Digital Garrison. Despite the fact that $ 4 million is not the most impressive amount on a large business scale, Ilya or Dmitry Medvedev could not have such money legally. Medvedev Jr. only graduated from MGIMO, and his father, if he followed his declaration, has earned about $ 1 million since 2012-with the unemployed wife Svetlana, whose annual income has not exceeded 0 rubles since 2012.

However, by the end of 2018, strange things began to happen. In the suburbs, a legal entity was established with an almost identical name - “NGO component”, the owner of which was the same “Akominvest” Vitaly Yusufov. A few months after the conclusion of the investment transaction, in October 2018, when Zapopo has already begun the construction of an electronic price tag factory, Khait was unexpectedly called to Moscow and said that it was decided to “take away the business”, Haite says.

“[They] said:“ You know, Konstantin, we usually don’t do that, but here we like everything so much that we decided to buy this company from you, ”Hight recalls the conversation of October 2018. At the table in front of him were Vitaly and Maxim Yusufov, as well as Ilya Medvedev. The interlocutors did not name the amount, offering to wait. At the beginning of 2019, one of the proxies of Yusufovs told Hayt: “What can you say if we estimate the cost of your share of 0 rubles? Your right to disagree, but we created in Dubna, in a special economic zone, a company called“ NGO Compo ”. The director was appointed there and our team of managers was landed. We only lack engineers, but we are ready to offer your engineers to move to Dubna, especially since you cannot pay salaries, because we stop financing the “compon”. And as you remember, you do not have the right to attract funding outside our organization. - An investment blot forbade this, follows from the words of High. You have a choice: either you can rewrite a share to our Futier Invest LLC and then we will leave you 10% of our future victories, or you yourself understand how you will bankrupt your OF LLC, ”Hayt retells that conversation.

High business was completely seized in the spring of 2019. The firm of Yusufov-Medvedev did not go about the NPO component loss at the end of 2021 reached 161 million rubles, according to the SPARK-Interfax. The mentioned company Futier Invest, which now owns the compo, belongs to the company EM Wai Group, which is controlled by Medvedev Jr. Maxim Yusufov. Medvedev Jr. is really connected with this business-in flowing tax bases he was listed as a person who received income at EM Wai Group, which, in particular, previously wrote The Insider.

The Yusufovs did not answer the proposal of the “project” about the conversation for this article.

Their interest in Silicon Valley

“Compo” was not the only investment of the Yusufovs in the interests of Medvedev Jr., says Hait and confirms a person who is well acquainted with the business of the Yusufov family. “More often than once a week, he (Medvedev-“ Project ”) went either to Innopolis, an experimental city for IT specialists built in Tatarstan, or to Skolkovo to watch someone,” Khait recalls. He claims that with the same goals the son of the former president went abroad-in particular, to the EUROSHOP exhibition in Germany in March 2019 in Germany,-the organizers of the fairs did not answer the question of the “project”, referring to the defense of the data. “Ilya collected a venture holding imprisoned on retail,” says Hait.

To determine which IT projects invested in the Yusufov quite simply. If we study the business structure of this family, it turns out that an IT sector is a rare direction of their investment. The main interests of the Yusufovs in more conservative industries are energy, shipbuilding, real estate, etc.

As the Project found out, in addition to the compo, Vitaly Yusufov invested through his Akominvest company about $ 2 million in the company of the former Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov “Diginavis”.

Nikiforov is the creature of Medvedev, he worked in his office of ministers from 2012 to 2018. Diginavis officers surveyed by the “project” believed that Nikiforov himself acts as an investor, they did not hear about the participation of Yusufov or Medvedev in their business. Hight says that Diginavis was also invested in the interests of Ilya Medvedev. Most of the company's projects by 2022 are in losses - the Marketplais created by Diginavis for the River metal distribution is lost by 11 million rubles. According to the results of 2021, the automobile service Zen.car - for 53 million rubles., Aviation project "Aviation Practice" - 1 million rubles.

However, one of the most interesting investments of the Yusufov family was made not in Russia at all, and it deserves a separate story.

“In January 2018, Vitaly Yusufov arrived with a delegation. Musaev showed him an object in Menlo Park, and I showed the “church”. The Church in question is the old Catholic temple in San Francisco, which investors wanted to turn into coworking space for startupers. In San Francisco. Yusufov did not have any special questions, ”recalls Pavel Cherkashin, a Russian businessman who had long settled in Silicon Valley in California. At that time, he was a partner with Magomed Musaev, another Russian businessman working in California. Now the former partners have dispersed and find out relations in the courts. As Cherkashin recalls, Musaev invited Yusufov as a potential investor in a project called “Willalou Street, 80”. This is the address of the office complex on the border of the cities of Menlo-Park and Palo-Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley. As a result, Vitaly Yusufov acquired this house in the spring of 2018 for $ 72 million, wrote The Wall Street Journal, citing documents and sources.

A source that is well familiar with the Yusufov family business says that this investment was also made in the interests of the Medvedev family. Musaev, with the name of which many now associate the house in Menlo Park, refused to comment on this article. A friend of Musaeva claims that he has nothing to do with the moment Yusufov acquired a mansion, although several businessmen told the project that they discussed joint projects with Musaev on a mansion in Menlo Park until the summer of 2021 and even visited this object at the invitation of Musaev.

“His interest was to, after buying a house by Yusufov, take the right wing to rent,” the acquaintance of Musaev describes the situation. — Но потом выяснилось, что приоритетное право на аренду принадлежит компании Robin Hood, которая уже несколько лет работает в левой части здания». Собеседник признает, что Мусаев сам хотел купить этот особняк, но не нашел средств. В этот момент и появился Юсуфов, с которым Мусаев прежде, по словам его близкого друга, был незнаком.

Илья Медведев очень интересовался американской стартап-культурой , говорят два знакомых семьи бывшего президента. «Главный из них (инвесторов „Компо“), кого Америка реально интересовала, — это, конечно, Илья», — вспоминает Хайт. Илья ездил в Кремниевую долину вместе с отцом во время официального визита в 2010 году , вспоминают двое участников той поездки, и у него была американская виза. Представитель Госдепартамента сообщил «Проекту», что не уполномочен комментировать вопрос о наличии визы у сына Медведева, предложив ознакомиться с указом президента Джо Байдена о санкциях в отношении россиян от 15 апреля 2021 года. Среди прочего документ отдельно оговаривает , что совершеннолетние дети лиц, попавших под американские санкции, не будут допущены на территорию США. Дмитрий Медведев был включен в санкционные списки в апреле 2022 года.

В кого превратился Дмитрий Медведев ночью 24 февраля 2022 года

Третий президент России Дмитрий Медведев, прежде считавшийся относительно либеральным политиком, за последние полгода претерпел колоссальную метаморфозу. На публике он стал ярым сторонником войны с Украиной и противостояния в Западом — гораздо более ярым, чем даже сам Владимир Путин. Один из знакомых бывшего президента считает, что «эту роль Медведев взял на себя по договоренности с Путиным», другой говорит, что «Медведев ебнулся», а третий уверен, что таким образом Медведев хочет вновь застолбить за собой место преемника Путина. Как бы то ни было, за поведением замглавы Совбеза интересно наблюдать даже из сугубо антропологических соображений.

— На 19-й день войны Дмитрий Медведев завел телеграм-канал , где пишет об «оголтелой русофобии Запада», «киевских отморозках» и своей ненависти к «ублюдкам и выродкам», которые «хотят смерти нам, России».

Среди прочих резких высказываний Медведев предлагал ЕС ввести полный запрет на выдачу виз россиянам, чтобы они в свою очередь «не отвлекались» от боевых действий против Украины, предупреждал о перспективе третьей мировой войны и обещал жителям западных стран горе, горящую землю и плавящийся бетон вокруг, если их власти не перестанут накачивать «киевский режим опаснейшими видами вооружений».

Кроме угроз Медведев взял за правило регулярно выступать в, как он сам, видимо, считает, юмористическом жанре. Он часто иронизирует над рекордно высокими ценами на газ в Европе и полагает , что «жовто-блакитная истерика» спровоцировала у европейцев «тяжёлую диарею от страха замёрзнуть», рисует красным маркером «Z» и, не проронив ни слова, ухмыляется в камеру , так он решил поздравить россиян с 1 мая и приближающимся Днём Победы.

Однажды августовской ночью на странице Медведева «ВКонтакте» появился пост , — внимание на запись, которая была быстро удалена, обратила Ксения Собчак –, в котором говорилось, что после «освобождения Киева и всей территории Малороссии от банд националистов, проповедующих придуманное ими же украинство, Русь снова станет единой», и Москва пойдет в новый поход «для восстановления границ нашей Родины, которые, как известно, нигде не заканчиваются». В посте отмечалось, что до присоединения к Российской империи Грузии «вообще не существовало», а Казахстан — это «искусственное государство» и «бывшие русские территории». Власти Казахстана переселяют различные этнические группы, что «можно классифицировать как геноцид русских». «Мы не намерены закрывать на это глаза. Пока туда не придут русские, порядка не будет», — было сказано в конце сообщения. Помощник Медведева Олег Осипов позднее заявил о взломе страницы бывшего президента в «ВКонтакте».

Другая особенность поведения Медведева в последние полгода — он старается делом развеивать слухи, возникающие вокруг его имени. После появления официально не подтвержденных данных о том, что у Ильи Медведева аннулировали американскую визу, его отец обвинил Запад в незаконных санкциях против родственников российских чиновников, и вскоре продемонстрировал Медведева-младшего во время приема того в единороссы. А вслед публикации центра «Досье», согласно которой Светлана Медведева якобы ушла от мужа, что «Проекту» опровергает знакомый этой семьи, Медведев опубликовал видеозапись, где они с супругой вместе поздравляют россиян с Днем любви, семьи и верности.

Примерно тогда же — в середине весны этого года — Илья расспрашивал своих знакомых, на какой деятельности ему следует сфокусироваться в новых условиях, рассказывает знакомый с Медведевыми российский бизнесмен: «IT-бизнес не пошел, а война окончательно перечеркнула его перспективы, теперь Илья думает о социальном предпринимательстве».

* * *

Новое занятие молодому человеку в итоге придумал отец. Летом 2022 года Илью торжественно приняли в «Единую Россию». На новом месте Илья, по его собственным словам, будет заниматься в частности «поддержкой малого и среднего бизнеса, предпринимательства».

Со своим бизнесом Медведеву-младшему придется повременить — по выражению друга семьи, он оказался слишком молод для IT-предпринимательства, и под нажимом отца пошел в единороссы.

Редактура — Роман Баданин

Фактчекинг — Виталий Солдатских