The structures of Abramovich and Rotenberg finance the Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor. He helps the Kremlin circumvent sanctions and interfere in elections in the post-Soviet space

He helps the Kremlin circumvent sanctions and interfere in elections in the post-Soviet space

Structures associated with Russian billionaire and philanthropist Roman Abramovich provided loans worth 13 billion rubles for the activities of Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor in Russia. Novaya Gazeta Europe found this out after reviewing the financial documents of the Diamond Estate company for 2025. Shor’s other creditors include Vladimir Putin’s childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg and businessman Andrei Goncharenko, whom the American publication The Washington Post called an assistant of the Russian FSB.

The Diamond Estate company has previously been associated with Ilan Shor. Novaya Gazeta Europe found out that virtually all of its activities boil down to financing numerous projects of the Moldovan businessman.

How Abramovich finances Shor. The Evraz KGOK company (Kachkanar Mining and Processing Plant), part of the Evraz group of Roman Abramovich, provided Diamond Estate with a loan of more than seven billion rubles in 2024.

In addition, Diamond Estate received 60 billion rubles in 2025 from the Business Broker Finance company. That, in turn, in 2024 received two loans totaling 6.3 billion rubles from the company TK MS Trade, according to the reporting of Business Broker Finance. The owners of TC MS Trade are unknown, but the company is headed by Evraz manager Evgeniy Murlyk.

How Rotenberg finances Shor. In addition to Abramovich’s structures, among the Diamond Estate’s creditors were companies associated with Vladimir Putin’s closest associate and childhood friend, Arkady Rotenberg.

Thus, Diamond Estate received a loan of 221 million rubles from the Center-M company, acting in the interests of Arkady Rotenberg. Novaya Gazeta Europe and other publications previously talked about her.

Also, Diamond Estate’s reporting reflects the interest that the company must pay on a loan from Mashinter, a company operating traffic cameras in Crimea, which until 2022 belonged to businessman Evgeniy Roitman. Previously, the media called him “Rotenberg’s man.” Mashinter was also involved in the financial infrastructure of the Russian shadow fleet.

Among the sponsors of the Diamond Estate was also the former business partner of the Rotenberg brothers, Andrei Goncharenko, whose connection with Shor was previously reported by Moldovan media. The American edition of The Washington Post reported that Goncharenko was carrying out instructions from the Russian FSB in Moldova.

Who is this. Ilan Shor is a Moldovan oligarch sentenced in his native country to 15 years in prison for his participation in the “theft of the century,” a scheme to remove nearly a billion dollars in assets from the country’s banking system. In 2016, Kommersant reported that in Russia Shor was declared persona non grata because he “corrupts everyone he sees.” Since 2023, Shor has been living in Russia. In 2025, he publicly presented the A7 platform to Vladimir Putin, which he operates together with Promsvyazbank, the main bank of the Russian defense sector.

A7 and its associated A7A5 project are sanctioned by all key Western jurisdictions for facilitating sanctions evasion.

What other projects does he help the Kremlin with? Money from Diamond Estate was received, for example, by blocked pro-Russian TV channels in Moldova controlled by Shor, an advertising agency selling integrations in Russian social networks on the Moldovan market, as well as Kyrgyz companies associated with the A7 payment system. Shor created this system for conducting international payments from Russia under sanctions. It is used by many Russian companies, including sanctioned manufacturers of combat drones for the war in Ukraine.

In addition, Diamond Estate funds the non-profit organization Eurasia, which participated in Shor's attempts to organize protests and bribe voters ahead of the 2024 elections in Moldova. For this, it was included in the sanctions lists of key Western jurisdictions. The Eurasia Foundation also participated in the political campaign in the recent elections in Armenia.