Who We're Targeting
Today's sanctions programs fail to target many of the most corrupt and criminal members of Russia's elite. It's time to hold them accountable.
1. Sergei Roldugin
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
Most Russian musicians have modest incomes, even if they rise to rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as Sergei Roldugin did.
But Roldugin has parlayed his friendship with Putin into a fortune estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, Western investigative journalists have reported.
In fact, Roldugin was at the center of a scheme to move $2 billion from Russia — much of it assumed to be Putin’s — through shell companies and into Western bank accounts, property and other assets, according to the leaked documents known as the Panama Papers. Some of the money flowed through the shell companies back into Russian property, according to Western journalists.
The Panama Papers are 11 million documents from Panama’s Mossack Fonseca law firm that someone leaked to news organizations in 2015. They documented how political leaders and tycoons from a number of undemocratic countries used shell companies to launder money by moving it to the West, where it would be safer, and then — sometimes — back to their homelands.
In their reporting on the Russia disclosures in the Panama Papers, Western journalists said it appeared that Putin used Roldugin as one of his front men to hide and manage his fortune.
The papers disclosed a money trail that started in Russian state banks, ran through Mossack Fonseca and Swiss law firms, and ended up in shell companies in the West that were wholly or partially owned by Putin friends and associates, including Roldugin. Although Putin’s name was not on the documents, journalists concluded that Roldugin and the others were helping him move money to the West.
The Panama Papers showed that Roldugin controlled assets worth more than $100 million, Britain’s Guardian reported. This included a 12.5 percent stake in Russia’s biggest television advertising company, Video International, and a 3.2 percent stake in Bank Rossiya, the financial institution that caters to Putin’s inner circle.
Not bad for a guy who says he’s only a cellist and conductor.
1. Sergei Roldugin
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
Most Russian musicians have modest incomes, even if they rise to rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as Sergei Roldugin did.
But Roldugin has parlayed his friendship with Putin into a fortune estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, Western investigative journalists have reported.
In fact, Roldugin was at the center of a scheme to move $2 billion from Russia — much of it assumed to be Putin’s — through shell companies and into Western bank accounts, property and other assets, according to the leaked documents known as the Panama Papers. Some of the money flowed through the shell companies back into Russian property, according to Western journalists.
The Panama Papers are 11 million documents from Panama’s Mossack Fonseca law firm that someone leaked to news organizations in 2015. They documented how political leaders and tycoons from a number of undemocratic countries used shell companies to launder money by moving it to the West, where it would be safer, and then — sometimes — back to their homelands.
In their reporting on the Russia disclosures in the Panama Papers, Western journalists said it appeared that Putin used Roldugin as one of his front men to hide and manage his fortune.
The papers disclosed a money trail that started in Russian state banks, ran through Mossack Fonseca and Swiss law firms, and ended up in shell companies in the West that were wholly or partially owned by Putin friends and associates, including Roldugin. Although Putin’s name was not on the documents, journalists concluded that Roldugin and the others were helping him move money to the West.
The Panama Papers showed that Roldugin controlled assets worth more than $100 million, Britain’s Guardian reported. This included a 12.5 percent stake in Russia’s biggest television advertising company, Video International, and a 3.2 percent stake in Bank Rossiya, the financial institution that caters to Putin’s inner circle.
Not bad for a guy who says he’s only a cellist and conductor.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
2. Ivan Savvidis
Known for: Sponsoring Pro-Russia Political Operations in the Balkans
Greek-Russian billionaire Ivan Savvidis used dirty tricks to try to prevent Greece’s neighbor — once called Macedonia and now known as North Macedonia — from laying the political groundwork in 2018 to join the European Union and NATO.
U.S. intelligence agencies discovered the sabotage, which was aimed at helping Russia achieve the strategic objective of keeping another Balkans country out of the Western political and military alliances.
Savvidis, a former member of Russia’s parliament, or Duma, whose business empire spans Russia and Greece, tried to sabotage two steps in the process by which Macedonia could join the EU and NATO. The first step was Macedonia changing its name to one that would overcome Greece’s longstanding opposition to its neighbor joining the alliances. Greece had objected that an EU- and NATO-recognized country named Macedonia might one day lay claim to Greece’s northern Macedonia Province.
To keep Greece’s neighbor out of the Western alliances, Savvidis would also need to prevent the Greek Parliament from signing off on North Macedonia joining. Greece could have blackballed its neighbor because EU and NATO members must approve new candidates unanimously.
Savvidis paid hundreds of Macedonians to stage violent protests in the capital of Skopje in the summer of 2018 against a referendum to change the country’s name, according to U.S. intelligence intercepts of his communications. The referendum preceded a vote in Parliament, which passed the name change.
Despite a good working relationship with Russia, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras supported the idea of Macedonia joining the EU and NATO if it changed its name. With the disclosure of Savvidis’s interference in the process strengthening his resolve, Tsipras persuaded the Greek Parliament to accept North Macedonia’s name change, paving the way for it to join the Western alliances.
2. Ivan Savvidis
Known for: Sponsoring Pro-Russia Political Operations in the Balkans
Greek-Russian billionaire Ivan Savvidis used dirty tricks to try to prevent Greece’s neighbor — once called Macedonia and now known as North Macedonia — from laying the political groundwork in 2018 to join the European Union and NATO.
U.S. intelligence agencies discovered the sabotage, which was aimed at helping Russia achieve the strategic objective of keeping another Balkans country out of the Western political and military alliances.
Savvidis, a former member of Russia’s parliament, or Duma, whose business empire spans Russia and Greece, tried to sabotage two steps in the process by which Macedonia could join the EU and NATO. The first step was Macedonia changing its name to one that would overcome Greece’s longstanding opposition to its neighbor joining the alliances. Greece had objected that an EU- and NATO-recognized country named Macedonia might one day lay claim to Greece’s northern Macedonia Province.
To keep Greece’s neighbor out of the Western alliances, Savvidis would also need to prevent the Greek Parliament from signing off on North Macedonia joining. Greece could have blackballed its neighbor because EU and NATO members must approve new candidates unanimously.
Savvidis paid hundreds of Macedonians to stage violent protests in the capital of Skopje in the summer of 2018 against a referendum to change the country’s name, according to U.S. intelligence intercepts of his communications. The referendum preceded a vote in Parliament, which passed the name change.
Despite a good working relationship with Russia, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras supported the idea of Macedonia joining the EU and NATO if it changed its name. With the disclosure of Savvidis’s interference in the process strengthening his resolve, Tsipras persuaded the Greek Parliament to accept North Macedonia’s name change, paving the way for it to join the Western alliances.
Known for: Sponsoring Pro-Russia Political Operations in the Balkans
3. God Nisanov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
God Nisanov, an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, likes to talk about how he and his partner Zarakh Iliyev rose from being humble immigrants to self-made billionaires.
But Nisanov, whom Forbes has dubbed Russia’s real estate king, omits from his narrative the role that corruption has played in the creation of his property-based empire in Moscow.
Nisanov, who is from a small town in Azerbaijan, arrived in the Russian capital in the mid-1990s after obtaining a law degree in his homeland.
In addition to Iliyev, an Azeri friend, another of Nisanov’s early partners in Russia was Ilgam Ragimov, a longtime friend and judo partner of Putin who is also from Azerbaijan.
Nisanov started small, building retail markets close to Moscow subway stations, which generated heavy foot traffic. Over time he converted the markets into shopping centers. He also created sprawling, bazaar-like wholesale goods complexes. Later he acquired or built hotels, mostly in Moscow.
The properties include Russia’s largest wholesale complex — the Sadovod — plus the European and Lotus City shopping centers and the Radisson Royal and Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya hotels.
The Sadovod boasts 8,000-plus shops or stalls spread over hundreds of acres. But much of what’s for sale is illegal knock-offs — fake Nikes, fake Pierre Cardins and the like. The complex generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in rental fees and other income for Nisanov, who certainly knows about the illegal activities there.
Nisanov ran another wholesale complex — the Cherkizovsky — that authorities shut down in 2009 because of name-brand fakes and hundreds of illegal immigrants working there.
Sadovod is also a place where sellers duck taxes, especially on alcohol, and launder money by sending it overseas, authorities say.
The question that will continue hovering over Nisanov is how much of his fortune comes from illegal activities. While no one will ever know the precise amount, the short answer is: a lot.
3. God Nisanov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
God Nisanov, an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, likes to talk about how he and his partner Zarakh Iliyev rose from being humble immigrants to self-made billionaires.
But Nisanov, whom Forbes has dubbed Russia’s real estate king, omits from his narrative the role that corruption has played in the creation of his property-based empire in Moscow.
Nisanov, who is from a small town in Azerbaijan, arrived in the Russian capital in the mid-1990s after obtaining a law degree in his homeland.
In addition to Iliyev, an Azeri friend, another of Nisanov’s early partners in Russia was Ilgam Ragimov, a longtime friend and judo partner of Putin who is also from Azerbaijan.
Nisanov started small, building retail markets close to Moscow subway stations, which generated heavy foot traffic. Over time he converted the markets into shopping centers. He also created sprawling, bazaar-like wholesale goods complexes. Later he acquired or built hotels, mostly in Moscow.
The properties include Russia’s largest wholesale complex — the Sadovod — plus the European and Lotus City shopping centers and the Radisson Royal and Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya hotels.
The Sadovod boasts 8,000-plus shops or stalls spread over hundreds of acres. But much of what’s for sale is illegal knock-offs — fake Nikes, fake Pierre Cardins and the like. The complex generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in rental fees and other income for Nisanov, who certainly knows about the illegal activities there.
Nisanov ran another wholesale complex — the Cherkizovsky — that authorities shut down in 2009 because of name-brand fakes and hundreds of illegal immigrants working there.
Sadovod is also a place where sellers duck taxes, especially on alcohol, and launder money by sending it overseas, authorities say.
The question that will continue hovering over Nisanov is how much of his fortune comes from illegal activities. While no one will ever know the precise amount, the short answer is: a lot.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
4. Sergei Shoygu
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
In Sergei Shoygu’s seven years as Russia’s defense minister, he has instituted a sweeping modernization of military equipment that has turned the country’s armed forces into a much more formidable force than a decade ago. And it isn’t over yet.
Shoygu’s is also presiding over a realignment in missions, strategies, tactics and training that is making the Russian military more capable. This includes embracing the Gerasimov Doctrine, whose overriding theme is that warfare now is a combination of military and non-military approaches, including cyber war. The doctrine takes its name from General Valeriy Gerasimov, whom Shoygu appointed as armed forces chief of staff in 2012, shortly after becoming defense minister.
Shoygu’s goal is to have 70 percent of Russia’s military hardware be new by 2020 — an objective that appears to be generally on track. The new equipment poses a threat not only to Russia’s neighbors but also to the West.
As defense minister, Shoygu signed off on the hybrid warfare tactics that Gerasimov used to seize Crimea in the spring of 2014. He also signed off on Gerasimov’s plans for supporting Ukrainian separatists beginning in the summer of 2014 and Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015.
Shoygu has used the Ukraine and Syria conflicts as petri dishes to test new Russian military equipment and tactics. The Syrian intervention has been brutal. Russian air strikes against many non-military targets — including schools and hospitals — have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The new, longer-range artillery that Russia deployed in Ukraine alarmed NATO, whose artillery is of much shorter range. It prompted the United States to begin accelerated development of artillery with ranges that will surpass Russia’s.
Vladimir Putin has been so impressed with Shoygu’s performance as defense minister that Russian news organizations have declared Shoygu to be Putin’s choice to become president when Putin bows out in 2022. This means Russia’s neighbors and the West will face years of another hard-liner like Putin who won’t hesitate to order the Russian military into combat against countries near and far.
4. Sergei Shoygu
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
In Sergei Shoygu’s seven years as Russia’s defense minister, he has instituted a sweeping modernization of military equipment that has turned the country’s armed forces into a much more formidable force than a decade ago. And it isn’t over yet.
Shoygu’s is also presiding over a realignment in missions, strategies, tactics and training that is making the Russian military more capable. This includes embracing the Gerasimov Doctrine, whose overriding theme is that warfare now is a combination of military and non-military approaches, including cyber war. The doctrine takes its name from General Valeriy Gerasimov, whom Shoygu appointed as armed forces chief of staff in 2012, shortly after becoming defense minister.
Shoygu’s goal is to have 70 percent of Russia’s military hardware be new by 2020 — an objective that appears to be generally on track. The new equipment poses a threat not only to Russia’s neighbors but also to the West.
As defense minister, Shoygu signed off on the hybrid warfare tactics that Gerasimov used to seize Crimea in the spring of 2014. He also signed off on Gerasimov’s plans for supporting Ukrainian separatists beginning in the summer of 2014 and Russia’s military intervention in Syria in 2015.
Shoygu has used the Ukraine and Syria conflicts as petri dishes to test new Russian military equipment and tactics. The Syrian intervention has been brutal. Russian air strikes against many non-military targets — including schools and hospitals — have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The new, longer-range artillery that Russia deployed in Ukraine alarmed NATO, whose artillery is of much shorter range. It prompted the United States to begin accelerated development of artillery with ranges that will surpass Russia’s.
Vladimir Putin has been so impressed with Shoygu’s performance as defense minister that Russian news organizations have declared Shoygu to be Putin’s choice to become president when Putin bows out in 2022. This means Russia’s neighbors and the West will face years of another hard-liner like Putin who won’t hesitate to order the Russian military into combat against countries near and far.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
5. Yuriy Chayka
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption
If you want a government position in Russia that is tailor-made for helping your family become rich through corruption — without having to face any consequences — then the country’s top prosecutor position is for you.
As prosecutor general, you can look the other way to help your family and friends get rich through corruption and crime. You can also order regional prosecutors to file phony charges against your network’s political and business enemies. And you can use your position to help your family and friends seize others’ businesses.
Yuriy Chayka, at 18 years on the job one of Russia’s longest-serving prosecutor-generals, has done all of these.
As the Russians say, “Family comes first.” The two he has helped most are his sons Artem and Igor. Artem became a near-billionaire by stealing others’ companies and Igor by rigging government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
With their father watching their backs, neither has faced prosecution.
The United States has sanctioned Artem because of his connections with gangsters and the murder of a man whose business he stole.
But father Yuriy and brother Igor remained unsanctioned. Yuriy is long overdue because of his history of his use of his office to enrich public officials, gangsters and his sons.
Artem’s most notorious ploy was seizing a shipping company in Irkutsk in the early 2000s with the help of prosecutors and judges who knew better than to cross his father, Western journalists say. No charges were filed in the murder of the company’s chief executive, who resisted the takeover.
Using similar strong-arm tactics, or rigging auctions of state-owned businesses that were being privatized, Artem has also acquired salt and sand mines, construction companies, brick manufacturers, and other businesses.
Greece’s Pomegranate Hotel, whose rooms go for thousands of dollars a night, was built with part of the income, as were villas in Greece and Switzerland.
Yuriy travels often to Greece, where he is pampered at the hotel his son erected through corruption and crime.
5. Yuriy Chayka
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption
If you want a government position in Russia that is tailor-made for helping your family become rich through corruption — without having to face any consequences — then the country’s top prosecutor position is for you.
As prosecutor general, you can look the other way to help your family and friends get rich through corruption and crime. You can also order regional prosecutors to file phony charges against your network’s political and business enemies. And you can use your position to help your family and friends seize others’ businesses.
Yuriy Chayka, at 18 years on the job one of Russia’s longest-serving prosecutor-generals, has done all of these.
As the Russians say, “Family comes first.” The two he has helped most are his sons Artem and Igor. Artem became a near-billionaire by stealing others’ companies and Igor by rigging government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
With their father watching their backs, neither has faced prosecution.
The United States has sanctioned Artem because of his connections with gangsters and the murder of a man whose business he stole.
But father Yuriy and brother Igor remained unsanctioned. Yuriy is long overdue because of his history of his use of his office to enrich public officials, gangsters and his sons.
Artem’s most notorious ploy was seizing a shipping company in Irkutsk in the early 2000s with the help of prosecutors and judges who knew better than to cross his father, Western journalists say. No charges were filed in the murder of the company’s chief executive, who resisted the takeover.
Using similar strong-arm tactics, or rigging auctions of state-owned businesses that were being privatized, Artem has also acquired salt and sand mines, construction companies, brick manufacturers, and other businesses.
Greece’s Pomegranate Hotel, whose rooms go for thousands of dollars a night, was built with part of the income, as were villas in Greece and Switzerland.
Yuriy travels often to Greece, where he is pampered at the hotel his son erected through corruption and crime.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption
6. Sergei Ivanov, Jr.
Known for: Son of Former Presidential Administration Head Sergei Ivanov
A longstanding pattern in Russia is a perpetuation of corruption from one generation in a family to the next.
The idea if you are a top politician functionary or oligarch is to use your influence to ensure that your children and grandchildren become rich and powerful as well.
A prime example of someone who has benefited handsomely from the perpetuation of corruption is Sergei Ivanov Jr. He has happily ridden the coattails of his father, Sergei Sr., a Vladimir Putin crony, to a career non-connected Russians can only dream of. The United States sanctioned Ivanov Sr. in 2014 for supporting Russia’s seizure of Crimea and support for eastern Ukrainian separatists.
Junior’s career has been based on blatant nepotism — using his father’s clout to gain successively better business positions for himself at ages where candidates without connections would never have been considered.
Ivanov Sr. became Putin’s friend when the two worked for the KGB in the 1980s. After Putin became president in 2000, Ivanov Sr. filled a series of top positions — defense minister, deputy prime minister and presidential chief of staff, which he left in 2016 to become environmental minister.
Cashing in on his father’s name, Ivanov Jr.’s meteoric rise began immediately after he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2002. At the age of 22 he became head of the petroleum giant Gazprom’s international exports division. At 24, he had jumped into a Gazprom vice presidency.
He became chairman of the board of the Sogaz insurance company in 2011 and senior vice president of Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, in 2016. A year later, at the age of 36, he became president of the country’s biggest diamond miner, Alrosa.
Ivanov Jr. announced that one of his initiatives would be promoting Alrosa’s diamonds as Russian. Not a smart idea, the industry trade publication JCK News commented in 2018. Russia’s seizure of Crimea, support for the eastern Ukrainian separatists, and interference in the Brexit referendum and U.S. presidential election of 2016 would prevent many Western consumers from buying Russian diamonds, JCK contended.
6. Sergei Ivanov, Jr.
Known for: Son of Former Presidential Administration Head Sergei Ivanov
A longstanding pattern in Russia is a perpetuation of corruption from one generation in a family to the next.
The idea if you are a top politician functionary or oligarch is to use your influence to ensure that your children and grandchildren become rich and powerful as well.
A prime example of someone who has benefited handsomely from the perpetuation of corruption is Sergei Ivanov Jr. He has happily ridden the coattails of his father, Sergei Sr., a Vladimir Putin crony, to a career non-connected Russians can only dream of. The United States sanctioned Ivanov Sr. in 2014 for supporting Russia’s seizure of Crimea and support for eastern Ukrainian separatists.
Junior’s career has been based on blatant nepotism — using his father’s clout to gain successively better business positions for himself at ages where candidates without connections would never have been considered.
Ivanov Sr. became Putin’s friend when the two worked for the KGB in the 1980s. After Putin became president in 2000, Ivanov Sr. filled a series of top positions — defense minister, deputy prime minister and presidential chief of staff, which he left in 2016 to become environmental minister.
Cashing in on his father’s name, Ivanov Jr.’s meteoric rise began immediately after he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2002. At the age of 22 he became head of the petroleum giant Gazprom’s international exports division. At 24, he had jumped into a Gazprom vice presidency.
He became chairman of the board of the Sogaz insurance company in 2011 and senior vice president of Sberbank, Russia’s largest financial institution, in 2016. A year later, at the age of 36, he became president of the country’s biggest diamond miner, Alrosa.
Ivanov Jr. announced that one of his initiatives would be promoting Alrosa’s diamonds as Russian. Not a smart idea, the industry trade publication JCK News commented in 2018. Russia’s seizure of Crimea, support for the eastern Ukrainian separatists, and interference in the Brexit referendum and U.S. presidential election of 2016 would prevent many Western consumers from buying Russian diamonds, JCK contended.
Known for: Son of Former Presidential Administration Head Sergei Ivanov
7. Valeriy Gerasimov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
As the general in charge of Russia’s armed forces since 2012, Valeriy Gerasimov drafted or approved plans for the Kremlin’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, support for the separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine, intervention in the Syrian war, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Russia’s military intelligence service, or GRU, hacked Democratic National Committee emails, then gave them to Wikileaks, which made them public in the fall of 2016 to help Donald Trump — Russia’s preferred candidate — defeat Hillary Clinton for the presidency. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 members of the GRU in the hacks, which Gerasimov must have ordered. Meanwhile, Mueller accused Russia’s civilian spy agency of hacking the Clinton campaign’s emails.
The European Union, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein sanctioned Gerasimov for masterminding Russia’s seizure of Crimea and support for the eastern Ukrainian separatists. But, inexplicably, the United States has yet to sanction Gerasimov, who gained notoriety by leading the Russia’s military’s response to the Second Chechen War.
The GRU’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails fits with a new military strategy that Gerasimov devised that analysts call the Gerasimov Doctrine.
Its central tenet is that today’s warfare is a combination of military and non-military approaches. ““The very rules of war have changed,” Gerasimov has written. “The role of non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.”
This means a non-military approach is the preferred way to win a war now, he wrote. This is especially true since Russia’s military might, even with recent modernizations, still lags that of the United States and NATO.
The Gerasimov Doctrine’s underlying objective is to sow chaos in an enemy country, keeping it in a permanent state of internal conflict and unrest, the general has written.
The bottom line is that Gerasimov has devised, and is implementing daily, a dangerous new total-war strategy against the West.
7. Valeriy Gerasimov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
As the general in charge of Russia’s armed forces since 2012, Valeriy Gerasimov drafted or approved plans for the Kremlin’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, support for the separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine, intervention in the Syrian war, and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Russia’s military intelligence service, or GRU, hacked Democratic National Committee emails, then gave them to Wikileaks, which made them public in the fall of 2016 to help Donald Trump — Russia’s preferred candidate — defeat Hillary Clinton for the presidency. U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 members of the GRU in the hacks, which Gerasimov must have ordered. Meanwhile, Mueller accused Russia’s civilian spy agency of hacking the Clinton campaign’s emails.
The European Union, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein sanctioned Gerasimov for masterminding Russia’s seizure of Crimea and support for the eastern Ukrainian separatists. But, inexplicably, the United States has yet to sanction Gerasimov, who gained notoriety by leading the Russia’s military’s response to the Second Chechen War.
The GRU’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails fits with a new military strategy that Gerasimov devised that analysts call the Gerasimov Doctrine.
Its central tenet is that today’s warfare is a combination of military and non-military approaches. ““The very rules of war have changed,” Gerasimov has written. “The role of non-military means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.”
This means a non-military approach is the preferred way to win a war now, he wrote. This is especially true since Russia’s military might, even with recent modernizations, still lags that of the United States and NATO.
The Gerasimov Doctrine’s underlying objective is to sow chaos in an enemy country, keeping it in a permanent state of internal conflict and unrest, the general has written.
The bottom line is that Gerasimov has devised, and is implementing daily, a dangerous new total-war strategy against the West.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Aggressive Operations Against the International Community
8. Igor Chayka
Known for: Son of Russia’s General Prosecutor Yuriy Chayka, Theft of State Funds
Big Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg spend billions of dollars a year providing services like trash disposal to their residents.
It’s a gold mine if you can figure out a way to rig the municipal-services contract bidding process.
Igor Chayka has.
He doesn’t have to pay bribes to get a contract or threaten rival bidders with violence so they drop out of the running.
He simply capitalizes on his status as the youngest son of one of Russia’s most powerful and ruthless people — Prosecutor General Yuriy Chayka.
Knowing that Igor Chayka is submitting a bid for a contract prompts anyone with any sense who might have wanted to bid to forget the idea. Experience has shown that bidding against a Yuriy Chayka family member is asking for trouble.
Everyone in Russia knows Yuriy’s reputation of using his office to help his family and friends amass fortunes. They are also aware that prosecutors far from Moscow who don’t want to cross him have used their positions to help his oldest son, Artem, steal businesses, including state-owned companies that were being privatized. Recognizing his strong-arm tactics, the United States has sanctioned Artem.
In addition to trash disposal, Igor Chayka has won contracts for planting greenery in public areas, refurbishing dilapidated park equipment, and producing and installing highway and street signs.
Some of the work has been shoddy. An outdoor skateboard arena in one park had to be closed three days after its debut because its surface contained sizable pockmarks that could have felled the boarders.
In addition to the municipal work Igor has received, Russian Railways, one of the country’s largest state-owned companies, has given him hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for stone crushing and producing sleeper cars. No surprise, given that the head of Russian Railways runs in the same elite circles as Yuriy Chayka.
Despite the fact that Igor Chayka makes his money without competition off the backs of taxpayers, the United States has yet to sanction him — an oversight that needs to be corrected.
8. Igor Chayka
Known for: Son of Russia’s General Prosecutor Yuriy Chayka, Theft of State Funds
Big Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg spend billions of dollars a year providing services like trash disposal to their residents.
It’s a gold mine if you can figure out a way to rig the municipal-services contract bidding process.
Igor Chayka has.
He doesn’t have to pay bribes to get a contract or threaten rival bidders with violence so they drop out of the running.
He simply capitalizes on his status as the youngest son of one of Russia’s most powerful and ruthless people — Prosecutor General Yuriy Chayka.
Knowing that Igor Chayka is submitting a bid for a contract prompts anyone with any sense who might have wanted to bid to forget the idea. Experience has shown that bidding against a Yuriy Chayka family member is asking for trouble.
Everyone in Russia knows Yuriy’s reputation of using his office to help his family and friends amass fortunes. They are also aware that prosecutors far from Moscow who don’t want to cross him have used their positions to help his oldest son, Artem, steal businesses, including state-owned companies that were being privatized. Recognizing his strong-arm tactics, the United States has sanctioned Artem.
In addition to trash disposal, Igor Chayka has won contracts for planting greenery in public areas, refurbishing dilapidated park equipment, and producing and installing highway and street signs.
Some of the work has been shoddy. An outdoor skateboard arena in one park had to be closed three days after its debut because its surface contained sizable pockmarks that could have felled the boarders.
In addition to the municipal work Igor has received, Russian Railways, one of the country’s largest state-owned companies, has given him hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for stone crushing and producing sleeper cars. No surprise, given that the head of Russian Railways runs in the same elite circles as Yuriy Chayka.
Despite the fact that Igor Chayka makes his money without competition off the backs of taxpayers, the United States has yet to sanction him — an oversight that needs to be corrected.
Known for: Son of Russia’s General Prosecutor Yuriy Chayka, Theft of State Funds
9. Zarakh Iliyev
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
Zarakh Iliyev came of age in the 1980s, when the planned economy of the Soviet Union prohibited capitalist-style free enterprise.
But money could be made in the illegal gray economy — buying and selling goods on your own, out of the authorities’ sight.
When he was 17 in 1983, Ileyev left his village in Azerbaijan for Moscow, where he started by selling gray-market alcohol.
The stroke of luck that opened the door to him becoming a billionaire was the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Suddenly Russia and every other Soviet republic was capitalist, giving ambitious and ruthless people a way to become rich.
When Iliyev’s friend from Azerbaijan, God Nisanov, arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s, the two decided to develop property together.
In those free-wheeling days, you could make your fortune quicker by engaging in corruption rather than relying on growing your business by legitimate means alone. The money that Iliyev and Nisanov piled up included a large dose of the illegitimate.
The partners started by building retail markets close to subway stations, where there was a lot of food traffic, then converting the markets into shopping centers.
The main source of their shady income was wholesale goods complexes. Although the rental income that Iliyev and Nisanov obtained from the shop and stall owners there was legitimate, a lot of the merchandise was illegal knock-offs such as fake Nike shoes.
Authorities tried to stop the illegal sales, but couldn’t. Finally, in 2009, they shut down Iliyev and Nisanov’s Cherkizovsky complex because of the knock-offs problem and because they were a magnet for illegal immigrants.
Another problem with the wholesale goods complexes was that they became money-laundering centers for sending money overseas.
Although Iliyev and Nisanov still operate shopping centers and have added hotels to their portfolio, they still derive much of their income from Russia’s largest wholesale complex — the Moscow-area Sadovod — where a mix of legal and illegal activity occurs.
9. Zarakh Iliyev
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
Zarakh Iliyev came of age in the 1980s, when the planned economy of the Soviet Union prohibited capitalist-style free enterprise.
But money could be made in the illegal gray economy — buying and selling goods on your own, out of the authorities’ sight.
When he was 17 in 1983, Ileyev left his village in Azerbaijan for Moscow, where he started by selling gray-market alcohol.
The stroke of luck that opened the door to him becoming a billionaire was the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Suddenly Russia and every other Soviet republic was capitalist, giving ambitious and ruthless people a way to become rich.
When Iliyev’s friend from Azerbaijan, God Nisanov, arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s, the two decided to develop property together.
In those free-wheeling days, you could make your fortune quicker by engaging in corruption rather than relying on growing your business by legitimate means alone. The money that Iliyev and Nisanov piled up included a large dose of the illegitimate.
The partners started by building retail markets close to subway stations, where there was a lot of food traffic, then converting the markets into shopping centers.
The main source of their shady income was wholesale goods complexes. Although the rental income that Iliyev and Nisanov obtained from the shop and stall owners there was legitimate, a lot of the merchandise was illegal knock-offs such as fake Nike shoes.
Authorities tried to stop the illegal sales, but couldn’t. Finally, in 2009, they shut down Iliyev and Nisanov’s Cherkizovsky complex because of the knock-offs problem and because they were a magnet for illegal immigrants.
Another problem with the wholesale goods complexes was that they became money-laundering centers for sending money overseas.
Although Iliyev and Nisanov still operate shopping centers and have added hotels to their portfolio, they still derive much of their income from Russia’s largest wholesale complex — the Moscow-area Sadovod — where a mix of legal and illegal activity occurs.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Money Laundering
10. Igor Shuvalov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption
Igor Shuvalov, who was deputy prime minister to Vladimir Putin and Dimitri Medvedev when each was prime minister in the 2000s, has been a lightning rod for accusations of corruption-based extravagance and insensitivity toward the plight of ordinary Russians.
Shuvalov, a lawyer turned politician, has amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars on a government salary of $140,000 a year, Western journalists have reported. He became head of the Russian development bank Vnesheconombank after leaving the deputy prime minister’s post in 2018.
His lofty perch in the power structure has helped him obtain board member or chairman positions in the oil giant Gasprom, the Rostam atomic energy corporation, Russian Railways, the shipping company Sovkomflot, the plane maker United Aircraft Corporation, and other companies.
One of Shuvalov’s most notorious extravagances was flying his wife’s prized corgis to dog-show competitions around the world on his private jet. Britain’s Daily Mail quoted one of the corgis’ handlers as saying flying the dogs business class in an airline would be “too uncomfortable for them.”
Shuvalov angered Russia’s rank-and-file with a comment in 2016 that mocked their struggle to get by. On an official visit to Kazan, in southwestern Russia, he told reporters: “We were today shown apartments that are [215 square feet] in size. . . . It seems ridiculous, but people purchase them, and they are very popular.”
The small apartments he was talking about contrast with multi-million-dollar apartments that Shuvalov owns in London, a beachfront Dubai residence, a castle in Austria, and multiple luxury properties in Russia.
Russian anti-corruption activists and Western journalists have reported on a series of multi-million-dollar transactions that Shuvalov has made through shell companies. One was a $50 million loan in 2004 to a then-minor oligarch named Asher Usmanov, who used it to obtain a 13 percent stake in the Anglo-Dutch company Corus Steel. Usmanov, who went on to become one of Russia’s richest men, paid a 40 percent interest rate on the loan, Western journalists have reported.
10. Igor Shuvalov
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption
Igor Shuvalov, who was deputy prime minister to Vladimir Putin and Dimitri Medvedev when each was prime minister in the 2000s, has been a lightning rod for accusations of corruption-based extravagance and insensitivity toward the plight of ordinary Russians.
Shuvalov, a lawyer turned politician, has amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars on a government salary of $140,000 a year, Western journalists have reported. He became head of the Russian development bank Vnesheconombank after leaving the deputy prime minister’s post in 2018.
His lofty perch in the power structure has helped him obtain board member or chairman positions in the oil giant Gasprom, the Rostam atomic energy corporation, Russian Railways, the shipping company Sovkomflot, the plane maker United Aircraft Corporation, and other companies.
One of Shuvalov’s most notorious extravagances was flying his wife’s prized corgis to dog-show competitions around the world on his private jet. Britain’s Daily Mail quoted one of the corgis’ handlers as saying flying the dogs business class in an airline would be “too uncomfortable for them.”
Shuvalov angered Russia’s rank-and-file with a comment in 2016 that mocked their struggle to get by. On an official visit to Kazan, in southwestern Russia, he told reporters: “We were today shown apartments that are [215 square feet] in size. . . . It seems ridiculous, but people purchase them, and they are very popular.”
The small apartments he was talking about contrast with multi-million-dollar apartments that Shuvalov owns in London, a beachfront Dubai residence, a castle in Austria, and multiple luxury properties in Russia.
Russian anti-corruption activists and Western journalists have reported on a series of multi-million-dollar transactions that Shuvalov has made through shell companies. One was a $50 million loan in 2004 to a then-minor oligarch named Asher Usmanov, who used it to obtain a 13 percent stake in the Anglo-Dutch company Corus Steel. Usmanov, who went on to become one of Russia’s richest men, paid a 40 percent interest rate on the loan, Western journalists have reported.
Known for: Kremlin Ties, Corruption