Deputy Prime Minister Patrushev asked Putin to allow online sales of wine. A bank associated with it runs Russia's largest winery

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev suggested that Vladimir Putin return to considering bills on the online sale of Russian wine through the Russian Post infrastructure and marketplaces, Kommersant writes with reference to Patrushev’s letter dated May 21. He also proposed legalizing advertising of Russian wine in places of its production. Rosselkhozbank, connected to Patrushev, now manages the largest winery in Russia, Kuban-Vino.

The government introduced a bill on an experiment in the online sale of Russian wine to the State Duma back in April 2023, but it was not considered then. The document assumed that Russian Post would receive the right to conduct the experiment: the operator would be able to store wines belonging to sellers without a license, and the list of wines available for sale would have to be determined by the Ministry of Agriculture. Now, as follows from Patrushev’s letter, they want to include marketplaces in the scheme. It is proposed to check the age of buyers using the Unified Biometric System and the Max messenger.

Russian Post told Kommersant that the company has already completed preparations and is ready to begin the experiment. The publication's interlocutor, familiar with the situation, said that Patrushev's initiative was supported. Patrushev himself, in an address to the president, writes that online sales and advertising will allow Russian producers, including small farm wineries, to sell products directly to consumers amid limited demand.

Alcohol advertising is now generally prohibited in Russia. A group of deputies submitted a bill to the State Duma in November 2023, which makes an exception for Russian wine producers and allows them to place advertisements on outdoor structures in certain regions, but it was also not considered. The “location of production” advertising language could open the door for wineries to promote alcohol in the regions where their production sites are located.

Dmitry Patrushev is the son of Putin's aide and former FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, one of the president's closest associates. In 2010–2018, Patrushev Jr. headed Rosselkhozbank, then until 2024 he was the Minister of Agriculture and at the same time served on the supervisory board of Rosselkhozbank. After Patrushev’s appointment as Deputy Prime Minister, the Ministry of Agriculture was headed by Oksana Lut, whom the Project called his protege. Lut worked with Patrushev for many years: at VTB, where he was vice president in 2006–2010, at Rosselkhozbank, and then at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Now Rosselkhozbank, through RSHB-Finance LLC, manages Kuban-Vino, the largest winery in Russia. In 2025, the company produced more than 90 million bottles of still and sparkling wines, and the vineyard area of ​​the Yuzhnaya agricultural company, part of the group, reached 9,464 hectares. This is more than Abrau-Durso and Massandra combined. According to SPARK data studied by The Insider, the value of the assets of the winery’s two legal entities—Agrofirm Yuzhnaya LLC and Kuban-Vino LLC—is 24.5 billion and 21.6 billion rubles, respectively.

Kuban-Vino was confiscated in the spring of 2024 from the former owners of the Chelyabinsk holding Ariant, Yuri Antipov and Alexander Aristov. In March 2026, the head of the Federal Property Management Agency, Vadim Yakovenko, named the Kuban-Vino group among the largest privatization transactions of 2025: according to him, its sale brought in 19.9 billion rubles. However, according to SPARK, in November 2025, the owner of Agrofirm Yuzhnaya LLC and Kuban-Vino LLC, instead of the Russian Federation, became Capital LLC, which is wholly owned by Rosselkhozbank. Rosselkhozbank itself is under the control of the Federal Property Management Agency. In fact, the state sold the winery to the structure of another state asset.

The director of Capital LLC is Boris Petrov from the Novgorod region. The Telegram channel “Drunk Master” drew attention to the fact that his father, Anatoly Petrov, was known in the region as a crime boss nicknamed Beefsteak. In 2016, Novgorod media wrote that Petrov Sr. combined membership in United Russia and the mandate of a city Duma deputy with the role of “overseer” for the Novgorod region; his detention in the Moscow restaurant “San Remo” was shown in the program “Vesti. Duty department."

Rosselkhozbank's wine portfolio can expand even further. As The Insider found out according to SPARK, on ​​June 4, the Russian Federation became the owner of Sideko LLC, which, through Terroirs Yuga LLC, owns Myskhako LLC and Raevskoye LLC, and is also the owner of OP SAUK-DERE LLC, which owns Sauk-Dere Winery LLC. Previously, these assets belonged to the former deputy of the legislative assembly of the Krasnodar region from United Russia, Alexey Sidyukov. The claim for their conversion to state revenue was satisfied on April 10, 2026, but changes were made to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities only this week.

So far, these wineries have directly become the property of the Russian Federation. However, previously nationalized agricultural assets, including Kuban-Vino, were transferred to the structures of Rosselkhozbank. By analogy with this scheme, they can also find themselves in the perimeter of the bank. These wineries produce wines under the brands “Likuria”, “Myskhako”, “Raevskoye” and “Sauk-Dere”. According to SPARK data studied by The Insider, the value of their assets at the end of 2025 was 8.7 billion rubles.