"We ourselves allowed Putin to live like that." The factory in Siberia was squeezed and resold for the president's yacht

Russian President Vladimir Putin could be the beneficiary of the offshore company Mischositos Investment SA, which in 2011 earned $ 1.12 billion on the resale of shares of the Yamal LNG liquefied gas plant, the investigation of the Dossier Center said . The same company paid for the construction of the Graceful yacht, which, as investigators believe, is used by the Russian president. The author of the investigation, Ilya Rozhdestvensky, spoke more about this scheme of the editorial office of Siberia. Realia.

In the investigation of Alexei Navalny , published back in March this year, Graceful is called the "Putin's previous yacht" for 10 billion rubles. The investigation itself is dedicated to another yacht - Scherazade ("Scheheerezada"), which the authors consider belonging to Putin on a number of indirect features.

Scheheerezada costs several times more than 75 billion. That is why it takes the 14th in the list of the largest yachts in the world, and Graceful-only 129th place. However, there is no reason to consider it miniature. According to the site vodabereg.ru dedicated Yachts, travel and outdoor activities, Graceful length - 81.5 m, width - 15, boat height - 6.65 m.

There are three tiers on the yacht, there is a two-tier bedroom for the owner with the exit to a separate terrace and to the sea, five guest cabins (2 bedrooms of the VIP UK), the pool (15x3 m), the bottom of which rises and forms an open area in case the place for the dance floor, as well as the helicopter, is necessary. There are simulators on the open deck. However, most of the information about the interior is unknown - these are the terms of the confidentiality agreement, which was signed by the owner of the yacht with the German shipbuilding company Blohm + VOSS, on the pier of which work was carried out on the internal arrangement of the vessel.

"After the purchase of Scheheerezada, Graceful was rewrived to a friend of Putin Gennady Timchenko," the investigation of Navalny said. The history of the construction of the yacht began with Timchenko, for which, judging by the materials of the investigation of the Doseier Center, the surroundings of Vladimir Putin squeezed one of the largest gas fields in Russia, and then the worship of it re -released.

"Timchenko - Putin's financier"

In September 2006, the security forces came to the office of Tambeneftegaz in Salekhard. Employees of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the search seized all the documents. The co -owner of the company and former KGB officer Nikolai Bogachev at that time was already abroad and did not answer phone calls. A few months before the police visit, he sold part of Gazprombank Tambeneftegaz, but the license to develop the South Tembean gas field transferred to another company-Yamal LNG. Gazprombank filed an application for unlawful transfer of the license, after which a criminal case was opened. It was about fraud for 148 billion rubles. Nikolai Bogachev was not a suspect, but later, under the pressure of the security forces, he was forced to sell Yamal-SSG along with a license.

“Nikolai Bogachev owned the field and was ready to develop it, but he had competitors - these are Gazprom and Novatek,” says Ilya Rozhdestvensky . -At some point, surveillance is installed behind him. He is made in every possible way to understand that the company will be taken away, whether he wants it or not. There will be a criminal case or something else-it doesn’t matter. He sold the Tambeneftegaz company on the conditions that they dictated to him. But the main value is not in the company, but in a license to develop a field. And Bogachev founded a new company and took the license, as if telling them: "You wanted the company, I gave it to you, and there was no talk of a license." It was a slightly naive step, but the person tried to keep his asset. However, in the end, he gave two companies: both Tambeneftegaz and Yamal LNG.

The Yuzhno-Tembeisky gas field in Yamal in volumes in Russia is second only to Urengoy and, according to experts, has stocks of 1.3 trillion tons. The deposit is located on the shore of the Ob lip, which allows you to transport gas by sea. To do this, it is cooled to a liquefied state, reducing the volume by about 600 times. Tankers deliver raw materials to foreign ports.

The buyer of Bogachev’s assets was Russian entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov, but the investigators consider him only an intermediary who repeatedly helped Gazprom to control and return the necessary assets. Later, part of the Yamal LNG bought the structures of one of Putin’s closest friends - Gennady Timchenko. At the same time, Gazprombank belonged to 25.1%. In 2009, the bank sold its part to Putin’s other friend-Peter Kolbin, and in 2011, Novatek bought the shares of Timchenko and Kolbin, after which he began to develop the company with foreign partners.

- The company Novatek is most likely aware of this transaction and its features, because exactly since then and to this day one of the major shareholders of the company is Gennady Timchenko. This is Putin's friend and his financier, because, probably, Timchenko’s employees are standing for building complex offshore schemes. At the same time, liquefied natural gas and Novatek, which is engaged in it, as well as Yamal LNG, actually did not fall under sanctions. There are some formal sanctions that make it difficult to prey and development of deposits. But in general, liquefied natural gas does not even stand on the agenda in the sense that Europe should refuse it. This company continues to supply gas to Europe and bring money to the Russian budget. The company "Novatek" helped Vladimir Putin to enrich himself. They bought Yamal LNG, as well as a license to develop a field at an inflated value. Thanks to this, Peter Kolbin, and therefore Vladimir Putin, has this billion dollars, ”says Ilya Rozhdestvensky.

"Kolbin owns everything"

Vladimir Putin showed interest in the Yamal LNG project several times. For example, in 2009, the Prime Minister approved the sale of a share in the company that previously owned by Gazprombank. In 2014, Putin was the initiator of the construction of the plant at the field, and three years later admired the "modern production complexes" and recalled how "he was in every possible way to support this project." The president, according to him, was inspired by the idea of obtaining raw materials in the Arctic in the conditions of permafrost. The construction of the plant was completed in 2017. And in the same year, workers at one of the Yamal LNG facilities were starving for several days due to a delay in the salary for four months.

Journalists managed to track how the cost of Yamal LNG assets changed with the resale of Putin's NOVATEK Putin.

To resell the share of Peter Kolbin, the offshore Cyprus company Varix Enterprises Ltd. The company acquired 25.1% for $ 78.5 million, and sold Novatek shares for $ 526 million, receiving $ 416.4 million. According to the similar scheme of the share of the Yamal LNG, three companies associated with the Timchenko Gennady: Orsel Consultants Ltd, Innecto Ventures Ltd and Aldi Trading Ltd. The total profit of the four companies from the resale of Yamal LNG amounted to $ 1.12 billion. Later, the money was withdrawn through other offshore firms.

- Is the transaction on the resale of "Yamal LNG" legal in itself? It seems to me that there is still a violation of the law here, ”says Ilya Rozhdestvensky. - This is not such a violation when people in masks come to the office and put everyone in the floor, after which the case is initiated within the framework of the Russian Criminal Code. This is not the transaction for which they should immediately put everyone, as is usually the case in Russia. But! This is the deal that should be paid attention to. See, for example, you bought a table. In three years, nothing happens to him, he does not become better. But after three years you sell it several times more. This is a clear scam, because nothing can rise in price in three years, if it is not a collection wine. Moreover, the transaction takes place with the involvement of persons who can have a political effect. In European law, there is such a thing as the Political Exposed Person, or a politically significant person. The entire project on Yamal LNG was personally approved by Putin, but this is not even the most important thing: they were controlled by Kolbin, which is directly related to Putin. The president’s close friend certainly falls under this definition and is a person who needs to take a closer look at.

Over the years, natural gas rolled up in international markets, however, according to experts, this could not substantiate the resale of Novatek assets so profitable for Kolbin and Timchenko. For example, the General Director of the Finspertiza Agwan Mikaelyan noted that the price when buying a share of Kolbin from Gazprombank in 2009 was "inadequate". Vitaly Kryukov from the FED "Capital" estimated the market value of a share of $ 325 million - six times higher than the amount for which it went to Kolbin. Moreover, at the time of resale of Yamal LNG, there was no factory at the field, so the raw materials were not sold.

“For example, the Japanese market is not very connected with Yamal LNG,” Ilya Rozhdestvensky explains. - To transport liquefied natural gas from Yamal to Japan is expensive and difficult: the most logical route is the Northern Sea Route, but it is available either a limited time of the year or a icebreaker is needed, which increases logistics costs. Therefore, Japan is involved in the development of the Sakhalin-2 project. In addition, products for products do not so linearly affect the cost of the enterprise. In 2011, they didn’t get anything on Yamal at all, so it would be pointless to lay current gas prices in the project price. Who could predict in 2011 with absolute accuracy, what will be the prices at the time the plant was under construction in 2017? In addition, who could predict who and how would buy LNG and in what ratio there will be purchases of LNG to the supply of ordinary pipeline gas? The most important. The cost of the project is not the cost of its products. Dozens of factors are always laid in the company's price: what is built from production capacities, what is the debt load of the company, what equipment depreciation, how difficult it is to extract resources and so on. To assess the value of companies, a detailed audit is carried out. At the same time, we see that from 2008 to 2011, none of the factors fundamentally changed: the field is not being developed, the plant is not being built, nothing happens. Yes, gas prices have grown up, but there is nothing to sell at these prices. And what prices will be by the end of the construction of the plant, at that moment it is unknown.

It turned out that the four companies participating in the resale of Yamal LNG and the withdrawal of money from accounts belong to the Panama Mischositos Investment SA, it was possible to communicate with the help of the publication of the so -called "Panama archive" - the leakage of the Panama registrar Mossack Fonseca. Journalists found that the beneficiary of Mischositos Investment SA was Peter Kolbin. Accordingly, he benefited from the activities of several companies that previously associated only with the Gennady Timchenko.

“A document confirming that Peter Kolbin formally is the beneficiary of Mischositos Investment SA, the source handed over to us,” says Ilya Rozhdestvensky. - This is a rather funny story. I can’t tell everything, but I myself came to him the first. This happened for a long time, even before the start of the war, when I was engaged in another large history, also related to Vladimir Putin. I wrote to a certain circle of people who could have information. He offered to answer questions or meet to talk, but everyone refused. Then the war began. And I thought - what if you're lucky now? And I again wrote a certain number of people: "Guys, the end of the world is near, nothing worse with you will happen. Maybe it's time to stop hiding assets associated with Putin? Maybe it's time to talk already?" To my surprise, one person responded. He worked with the Gennady Timchenko, but in the company of Peter Kolbin. At the same time, he never saw Kolbin in this company. This once again confirms that he is not a real businessman, but a face value. As a result, we had an interaction with the source, he transmitted a document with which we were able to confirm that Kolbin owns everything. I think we would already be able to confirm this with the help of indirect data, but it turned out much better.

- Why is Putin in general Kolbin? After all, Timchenko is also his friend, it would not be easier to control the assets through him?

- Rich people keep money in different assets: they buy different currencies, invest in different companies and so on. Rich, but corrupt people find different ways to hide their assets: distribute them according to various offshores and jurisdictions, create different trusts. That is, they do not fold all eggs in one basket. From this point of view, it is justified to use several denominations. In addition, it seems to me that the role of Timchenko is not so much denominations as the organizer of complex business schemes, as I have already said. Plus, he is quite famous, the media write about him, he is in sight. Therefore, you need a certain amount of less noticeable nominal nominal nominal. Here is one of them - controlled by Vladimir Putin and his environment Kolbin.

"If it is grunting like a duck, this is a duck"

Mischositos Investment SA paid for the construction of the Graceful yacht ("graceful"), which, according to the media, was used by Vladimir Putin. Graceful was built in 2014 at the shipyards of the Sevmash plant, but some parts were completed in Germany. According to the Finnish publication Yle.fi, in particular, the company owns one of the payments for 120 thousand euros for the construction of the interior part of the yacht in Hamburg. In addition, the customer of the construction of the vessel was Olneil Assets Corp, which belongs to Mischositos Investment SA

The approximate cost of GraceFul is about $ 100 million, and its repair and maintenance requires up to 10 million annually. On the 82-meter vessel there is a helicopter site , as well as a dance floor that is transformed into the pool. The movements of the yacht coincided with the schedule of Vladimir Putin: in particular, she was noticed in Sochi when the president was in the Bocharov stream residence. In 2021, Graceful went to Hamburg for another repairs, but shortly before the start of the war returned to Kaliningrad. On February 7, 2022, Bild turned to this fact, suggesting that the owner was afraid of the arrest of the vessel - even then the American media wrote about the possible invasion of Russia to Ukraine. This is another indirect evidence that its owner knew that it would definitely take place.

“The yacht stood in Kaliningrad most of the time from the beginning of the war,” says Ilya Rozhdestvensky. - She was repaired there, because she was also repaired in Hamburg, but she had to run until the end of the repair. And, judging by the documents that I have at the disposal, they used the equipment purchased in Europe during the repair. This is funny, because the yacht itself is under sanctions. After the repair, she went for a short while to St. Petersburg, where in the city of Lomonos the structures of Gennady Timchenko built a pier for her. Then she returned to Kaliningrad again.

The yacht is owned by the Argument company, the founders of which are the head of the Presidential Administration and the former head of the Department of the Presidential Security Service (part of the Federal Security Service (FSO) Alexander Kolpakov and the head of the military unit 1473 FSO Oleg Kuznetsov. The wives of the same people were issued by the companies participating in the construction of the Presidential Palace at Cape Idokopa . The Argument is the Board company, which belonged to the Cyprus Navolution Ventures Ltd. This is the offshore, among others, participated in the resale of Yamal LNG.

- Did we manage to track the connection between Putin, the sale of Yamal LNG and the yacht? Well, look. There is a Panamanian company on which all transactions for the resale of shares of Yamal LNG converge. All money comes to the same company from resale. The same company finances the construction of a yacht through its structures. Can we say that this is exactly the same money that came from the sale of Yamal LNG? No, we can't. Perhaps the company had some more funds: the remains of accounts or something else. But both processes occur at the same time, with the same head structure, in the interests of the same person. It turns out that it looks like a duck, grunts like a duck, and swims like a duck. This is probably still a duck, says Ilya Rozhdestvensky.

"Fighted together at a rural disco"

Putin's peer Peter Kolbin died in 2018, but the causes of death were not publicly disclosed. He was a co -owner (10%) of the Swiss company Gunvor along with Gennady Timchenko. In 2014, the US Tramchenko Ministry of Finance imposed sanctions, considering that Vladimir Putin personally extracts the benefits of Gunvor. Putin and Kolbin have been familiar from childhood: Father Kolbin told how Petka and Volodya Bok on the side fought with local at a rural disco.

After school, Peter Kolbin began to work as a butcher and, as numerous sources indicate , lived relatively modestly and was not like an oligarch, although in 2011 his fortune was estimated at half a billion dollars. In 2015, according to the Rain TV channel, Gennady Timchenko and Peter Kolbin sold three apartments in the elite regions of Moscow and St. Petersburg to the full namesake of grandmother Alina Kabaeva-Anna Zatsepilina. The media call Kabaev the unofficial wife of Putin.

“In addition, the connection of Putin and Kolbin can be traced through the son of Kolbin,” says Ilya Rozhdestvensky. – Владимир Колбин – довольно интересный персонаж, потому что, по сути, это простой питерский мент. На рубеже веков он работал в петербургском РУБОПе. Это не рядовой сотрудник милиции, а вообще-то борец с организованной преступностью. Не устану шутить эту шутку, что если не можешь победить преступность, то надо ее возглавить. Владимир Колбин, судя по всему, так и поступил, потому что в какой-то момент он тоже стал человеком, работающим на Владимира Путина. Во-первых, он работает в структурах Тимченко – в хоккейном клубе "СКА". Во-вторых, он проводит сделки в интересах окружения Путина. Например, в прошлом тексте мы описывали , как Колбин провел сделку с СОГАЗом – крупнейшим российским страховщиком, а потом проспонсировал сделку по покупке телеканала СТС. Его купила Национальная Медиа Группа, которую и возглавляет Алина Кабаева. Кроме того, сын Петра Колбина – тот самый человек, который в том числе спонсировал строительство так называемого "дворца Путина" под Геленджиком. Также он связан с виноградниками, которые находятся вокруг дворца. Компания называется "Дивноморье". То есть связей с семейством Колбиных просто десятки.

– Я думаю, Путин записывает активы на друзей, поскольку друзья детства – не самый плохой вариант: давно знакомы, что-то прошли вместе, можно друг на друга положиться. Я думаю, Путин мыслит примерно так. С другой стороны, мы просто нашли этих друзей детства, мы знаем об их капиталах, которые непонятно откуда взялись. Этот Петр Колбин, виолончелист Сергей Ролдугин. Но я практически уверен, что есть люди, которые никакими узами дружбы с Владимиром Путиным не связаны, но при этом тоже являются номиналами. Пока мы не можем их отследить за счет того, что они дрались вместе на сельской дискотеке. Мы их пока не нашли, но когда-нибудь найдем.

Журналисты "Досье" выявили связь между Петром Колбиным и яхтой Graceful, работая над другой большей историей об окружении Владимира Путина. Текст выйдет в ближайшем будущем, но подробностей авторы не сообщают. Пока не удается отследить, куда ушли остальные деньги от перепродажи "Ямал СПГ". Для этого расследование должны провести правоохранительные органы западных стран, которые могут получить доступ к банковской тайне.

– Текст читается, видео смотрят, коллеги цитируют, с вами вот разговариваем. На что-то большее рассчитывать было бы сложно, – говорит Илья Рождественский. – Вряд ли российские власти после такого расследования арестовали бы яхту или самого Путина. Вряд ли российские правоохранительные органы бы этим заинтересовались. За последние лет 10 я не помню ни одной подобной ситуации. Нам остается лишь продолжать работать и искать, куда Владимир Путин прячет свои деньги именно сейчас. В таком случае можно надеяться на эффект, что эти деньги арестуют. У него не две яхты, а шесть, о которых известно, скажем так, официально, а еще одна у Светланы Кривоногих (предполагаемая мать дочери Путина. – С.Р.) . У него несколько дворцов, самый большой из которых в Геленджике.

– Почему он так живет – наверное, этот вопрос нужно задать психологам. Потому что мы ему позволили так жить. Потому что у человека была возможность много красть. Он выстроил окружение по принципу мафии. И почему бы главе клана не жить вот так, как он живет сейчас? Продвигаясь по карьерной лестнице, он полюбил роскошь: летать на частном самолете, большие дома и так далее. Он привык так жить за 30 лет. Но главное, повторюсь, в том, что мы все позволили ему так жить.