Who paid $200,000 to the so-called “fixer” Vladimir Bartsakin in order to avoid the criminal punishment that threatened him. Both cases were considered in a special order; former investigator Alexander Burchuk, who acted as the organizer, was previously sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, the second defendant received not much less, and the third is allegedly hiding in Germany.

As MK already wrote, on the afternoon of August 19, 2014, an investigator from the Main Investigation Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, armed with machine guns, FSB special forces, as well as employees of the 8th department of Directorate “K” of the SEB of the FSB of Russia ( counterintelligence in the credit and financial sphere) - only about 20 people. One of the bank’s shareholders, Evgeniy Dvoskin, had his mobile phones confiscated, and the entire search, in his opinion, “was of a formal nature, the sole purpose of which was to exert psychological pressure on [him].” Towards evening, the financier was taken to the building of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow for investigative actions, and a few hours after this, a certain Vladimir Bartsakin called the detainee’s guard and, saying that he knew about the difficulties his boss had encountered, invited guests to his place (that is, to where this guard had already been several months ago, but more on that later). Bartsakin informed the arriving guest that Dvoskin had been detained as part of a criminal investigation into the theft of 2 million US dollars and 1.5 billion rubles from a certain citizen Ivanko, and that this Ivanko, through lawyer Vadim Lyalin, ordered a case against the financier from the 8th Directorate of the FSB, but “if necessary” he (Bartsakin) with the help of his friends - “deputy director of the FSB” general Elana Antonova and the “Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow” - can “neutralize the situation.” The FSB offered to pay $500 thousand to resolve the issue. To confirm his capabilities, Bartsakin sent to Dvoskin Alexander Burchuk, who had just become a lawyer, who had previously worked in this same Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow. Burchuk, who arrived, informed the adviser to the chairman of the board of Genbank that the investigator was currently considering the issue of his detention, and that he would subsequently be charged with three crimes, including under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of a criminal community).

As the investigator who was going to interrogate the financier that night would later say during the interrogation, this case was opened against unknown persons carrying out illegal banking activities on the territory of Moscow as part of an organized group using controlled shell companies (Part 2 of Article 172 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) . As part of this case, searches were carried out in various credit institutions, including Genbank, as well as in offices and homes - about 250 employees of various law enforcement agencies took part in the event.

The “fixer’s” proposal was conveyed to Dvoskin by his lawyer Alexander Vershinin, who also came to the State Investigative Directorate. “Realizing the hopelessness of the situation and in order to avoid illegal detention,” he agreed to give 200 thousand, and the remaining 300 after he was released. This is what happened, after transferring the money to Bartsakin, on the night of August 19-20, Dvoskin was released without carrying out any investigative actions with him.

That night, according to the same investigator, they did not interrogate him because of his state of health - an ambulance was called for the financier.

On August 21, Evgeniy Dvoskin was questioned as a witness, and lawyer Burchuk issued his first warrant for this event. On the same day, the financier, “realizing that a crime was being committed against him by Bartsakin in collusion with lawyers Burchuk and Lyalin, as well as law enforcement officers,” wrote to the head of the 9th Directorate (USB) of the FSB a statement of extortion of almost $1 million USA.

The leadership of the FSB Internal Security Service responded to the statement by putting the applicant’s phone under wiretapping.

MK provides excerpts from conversations.

Bartsakin: Listen, I'll do everything positively, don't worry.

Dvoskin: That's it, my life is in your hands.

B: Zhenya, I'm telling you, everything will be fine. I already know more than I can tell over the phone. Let's come, I'll show you the cards. I know who the customer is and what, that is, completely. And through my big man, my friend, we will resolve this issue positively.

D: Will I receive any guarantees after I close all the questions?

B: 100%! Remember I warned you? You didn't listen to me then. That’s in vain, this issue had to be resolved in just a little bit. You didn't listen to me. I warned you, remember, I called that they were interested in you, they ordered you?

D: Yes Yes.

B: But you didn't listen to me. It would have been possible then right away, right away, and nothing would have happened. And now they dug some 1.5 “yards” around the bank, found this operation, and want to dig further. But now everything has been suspended until I return. I come back, meet a person, and everything there will be positive.

After this, Dvoskin visited Bartsakin, discussed with him several times the nuances of resolving his issue, and then invited him to his office - where there had been a search not so long ago.

Vladimir Bartsakin(on the phone): Well, I'm going to meet this friend.

Alexander Burchuk: Yeah.

VB: It will give something. If today he gives, then we meet and work, no, no.

AB: Fine.

Bartsakin arrived at Genbank, where, under the supervision of FSB operatives, Dvoskin handed over the remaining 300 thousand dollars (only 100 were real, the other 200 were “dolls”), which were intended for the “FSB general,” after which the visitor was detained. He, of course, was in shock, immediately agreed to “cooperate” and participate in a further operational experiment with Burchuk and Antonov, but somehow managed to inform the latter, who at that time was in Germany for treatment, that the “Six” had taken him.

Antonov: What's happened?

Bartsakin: Nothing, everything is fine. Alive and well. Everything is fine.

A: What's good!? You scared me, I didn't sleep all night, damn it. What was there? Please tell me, otherwise I'm worried. I've already raised a bunch of people here. What's happened? Which banker?

B: Well, this one, remember when they came to you, when a person was released, and so on? When I brought 200 to you, he came and prepared 300 there. That is, I took it, everything is in my hands - I need to meet, just talk, discuss everything with you.

Elan Antonov never returned from Germany, apparently, he knew what (or who) was waiting for him here. But Burchuk didn’t know yet and came at Bartsakin’s invitation to the very office where Evgeniy Dvoskin asked the former investigator for guarantees that his issue would be resolved and that “what is due to people” would reach them, “so that there would be no offended people.”

“I am now writing a complaint, the prosecutor’s office is requesting a case - we will all look at where the “application” came from, objectively, simply what is on paper. Regarding guarantees - no guarantees. The lawyer cannot give any guarantees. We discuss all this verbally,” Burchuk noted, but then he began to bargain for the fee under the agreement, asking for 500 thousand dollars, received a package with almost 50 thousand and was detained by the same operas.

Initially, the operatives intended to carry out the operation in three stages. The first is documenting Bartsakin’s receipt of the required amount; the second is documenting (with the voluntary participation of the latter) the receipt of money by the “alleged organizer of the crime”; and the third - all the same, only in relation to unidentified corrupt law enforcement officers. But they settled on Burchuk, who for the investigation became the organizer of the extortion of $1 million from Dvoskin for the termination of the criminal case against him.

By the way, six months after the story of extorting money from Dvoskin became, of course, without details, public knowledge, the prosecutor mentioned in the case was transferred from the capital to Tula, where he became the regional prosecutor. The name of this prosecutor also appeared in the well-known scandal about protecting underground casinos - he allegedly reported on impending unscheduled inspections.

Antonov remained in Germany, Bartsakin, who made a deal with the investigation, was taken on bail, and Burchuk was sent to a pre-trial detention center. The latter stated that he was a victim of provocation, and the notorious financier has a personal enmity towards him. The fact is that, as an investigator, Burchuk was involved in the case of 15 million dollars, which were fraudulently stolen from representatives of the Czech company PPFI Investments Ltd by Dvoskin’s “wife’s friend” Ekaterina Alabuzhina, who was subsequently sentenced by the court to 4.5 years in prison. In April 2014, the Moscow City Court heard an appeal against this decision. As Dvoskin indicated in his statement, Mrs. Alabuzhina called him and asked him to transfer 400 thousand euros to Maria Loboda (at that time the top manager of Mosoblbank), who “promised her to resolve the issue of reviewing the case and imposing a more lenient sentence.”

On this occasion, lawyer Tatyana Akimtseva, representing the interests of Burchuk, appealed to the chairman of the Moscow City Court with a request to “pay attention to the actions of Bartsakin, Dvoskin and Loboda, who by their actions discredit the judicial system of the city of Moscow.” The appeal was left without consideration, and Tatyana Akimtseva was killed, so this episode remained unattended.

So, Dvoskin handed over the money, and a month later Ekaterina called him again and said that the verdict had not been changed and had entered into force. Accordingly, the financier began calling Loboda and demanding the money back, to which she replied that she had transferred the money in full to Bartsakin. By the way, Loboda met Dvoskin as “the new owner of the GenBank.”

“When Dvoskin’s guards arrived, she called me and asked for help, saying that they would kill her now,” Bartsakin told the MK correspondent, noting that he drove up, called Dvoskin and somehow vouched for her.

Then, after some time, Bartsakin, as he says, from Burchuk, learned about the search at Genbank... The financier’s guards arrived, Bartsakin went to “FSB General” Antonov. What happened next is known.

Alexander Burchuk stopped “butting heads” with the investigation and fully admitted his guilt. After this he was released under house arrest.

At the same time, from the PTP (tapping of telephone conversations) of the persons involved in the case, it follows that the searches at Genbank were allegedly due to the fact that Dvoskin was ordered, and “50%” there is confidence that one of the customers is the owner of the payment system Delta LLC Kay" Andrey Novikov.

Dvoskin: Tell me, is the situation clear, how is it?

Bartsakin: The situation is clear. What are they accused of? Basically, those FSB people said that you allegedly brought your three or four rich investors.

D: Yes.

B: They were asked to deposit money in some banks, two or three banks, which were already, so to speak, under license revocation. (We are talking, as follows from further dialogues, about the banks Priroda, which lost its license in January 2014, and Ascania, which lost its license in August 2014. One of the founders of the latter is Konstantin Beloborodov. - D.B.)

D: Yes.

B: Allegedly, in this way you set up all the people who trusted you and who invested money under your recommendations. Then those people cashed out the money and ran away. Accordingly, the bank’s license was taken away, and those depositors are offended by you for recommending them there. Allegedly you are in cahoots with those people.

D: Yes.

B: That's about it.

D: Yes, but even that is not true. But even if this is so, this is not a criminal case.

B: It’s not criminal, and has nothing to do with you at all.

D: Automatically, everything is clean in the bank that services the Pension Fund - there are no complaints against this bank. It turns out that all this bullshit is custom-made.

B: Yes, customers who were wronged by these banks

D: But I don’t offend anyone and I don’t do anything.

B: They think that you brought them there on purpose and tricked them on purpose. You are not at gunpoint, not at gunpoint, no one forced them. But they shout something completely different: “We can’t get it from that bank, but from Zhenya we will get it and take this money; if he doesn’t want to sit, then we will take it.” That is, they ordered the FSB like this.

There is this Ivanko, who is offended and says that he was allegedly cheated. Then there is Novikov, who cheated those investors who invested money directly on your orders - supposedly you said, guaranteed. "Delta Key" - what kind of bank is this?

D: I have never heard of any of these names and have never heard the name of such a bank.

Financier Dvoskin allegedly owed Novikov a significant amount, but did not pay it back. The latter began to contact someone and somewhere, including Directorate “K”, but in the end, in October 2014, he himself found himself under investigation. According to the Investigative Committee, he organized the kidnapping of a Chechen financier and demanded 109 million rubles from him. According to another version, Novikov’s problems began after he acquired the Financial Settlement Center (FSC) in Astrakhan last summer, and after some time, several Delta Key clients stated that the money they transferred did not reach the addressee.

Dvoskin: Who is Novikov?

Burchuk: Novikov - "Delta Key". Novikov ran to the “K-shniks” and ran to complain with the piece of paper they came to you with. A diagram was drawn - and there he lost 2 million dollars.

D: I'm talking about this.

B: You said you had nothing to do with this. Accordingly, Andrei said that there might be problems, because he definitely went to the K-Schniks. If this was an order, then why does it turn out that a case was filed against you against Novikov?

D: I pray to God that Beloborodov will be detained. Because he is the only person who can give sane testimony and say that I had nothing to do with this bank.

In general, after some time, Novikov, with the participation of operatives of the 6th service, found himself under investigation and was placed in custody, and his wife, since the problem was connected with the Chechens, through intermediaries, as the press reported, turned to the authorized representative for help the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in Ukraine Ramzan Tsitsulaev, who attracted lawyers. But then, for some reason, Novikov allegedly agreed to plead guilty to kidnapping and extortion, and his wife, as part of an operational experiment, went with the money to meet Mr. Tsitsulaev. During the operation to transfer money to a Chechen official, MUR operatives arranged a “heap of mala” in the restaurant with his guards, thereby the plenipotentiary was able to escape.

In March 2015, the Central Bank revoked the license of Delta Key Bank for failure to comply with anti-money laundering legislation, and in August, for the same reasons, from the Astrakhan Federal Financial Center.

Maxim Yuryev

[...] The former investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, who was recognized as the best investigator in the capital, and now lawyer Alexander Burchuk, businessman Vladimir Bartsakin and banker Evgeny Dvoskin, who accused them of extortion, met in court. [...]

I met with Vladimir Bartsakin shortly before the verdict [...].

The conflict with the notorious banker Evgeny Dvoskin did not happen by chance, according to my interlocutor. “It was pure provocation from start to finish, but I wasn’t the target, other people were the target,” he said. By the way, it has not yet been really possible to prove the criminal nature of Dvoskin’s business; the problems that arose with him were solved thanks to the capabilities of other “solvers” very quickly and so “reinforced concrete” that the same investigators who opened criminal cases on the facts of illegal cash withdrawals or money laundering, They themselves sometimes went to prison.

“Dvoskin himself is actually even, as they say, cleaner than many who are in serious business, and you will be surprised, but now he is doing more good than harm - this is so that you understand the essence of what is happening as a whole,” one told me on condition of anonymity from major officials. - The same businessman Bartsakin, running a legal business, will not escape the services of Dvoskin’s semi-legal “cash out” offices, unless of course he wants to save his business. Today, entrepreneurs cash out at 5-10% of the amount and they desperately need it.”

Vladimir Bartsakin confirms this. For example, one of the entrepreneur’s companies makes money from sand trading. It has 260 trucks on its books, which transport sand purchased from a quarry to the nearest reinforced concrete products. Each driver needs to be given 20 thousand rubles per day for diesel fuel alone, which is no less than 5 million rubles for the entire fleet, and with all sorts of associated expenses the amount reaches 7-10 million rubles per day. And this despite the fact that the salary fund of this company is about 150 million rubles and this money is also issued in cash. In the accounting department, the amounts for “cash out” are hidden under inflated fuel costs or they have to attribute non-existent losses to the reporting.

“Nowadays, opening plastic cards in any bank is not reliable,” says Vladimir Bartsakin. - This seems to be a serious Home Credit Bank, but it has a hole of 7 billion rubles. Just imagine, we have a salary project there. And at one point, the license was revoked, like Mosoblbank’s, and the employees’ salaries were burned. People generally end up with millions, billions, which are serviced in these banks, not to mention the oil workers who deposit astronomical sums into their accounts. In general, having money in the bank is always a certain risk,” states Bartsakin.

As a result, one way or another, businessman Bartsakin and banker Dvoskin knew about each other’s existence, but they were brought together, as often happens, by a woman - a certain Maria Loboda. The lady herself at one time aroused the interest of investigators as part of investigations into land scams in the Moscow region, when she headed the company “Your Financial Trustee” (VFP). Over time, the investigators' interest in her waned. It turned out that Maria Loboda took 350 thousand euros from Dvoskin, promising to solve the problem of the banker’s friend, Ekaterina Alabuzhnaya, whom the court sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for stealing $15 million from the Czech corporation PPF Investment. “She took $200 thousand from me for one real estate transaction and still hasn’t returned it, she just left a receipt and that’s it,” recalls Bartsakin.

“One of my friends was involved in Alabuzhnaya’s case, he told her - return the money, and she replied that she was working with Dvoskin and did not intend to give anything away,” says Vladimir Bartsakin. - As I understand it, Dvoskin decided to pay for her so that she would be released faster. “In general, Loboda took the money, did nothing, and they began to demand that she return the funds, and she turned the tables on me, saying that I received the money, although I did not take anything and was not particularly interested in this matter,” says my interlocutor .

Soon Maria Loboda arrived at Vladimir Bartsakin’s home, accompanied by Dvoskin’s guards, with a clearly not happy expression on her face. “She begged me to borrow $200 thousand, but I refused, since she did not repay her previous debts,” says the businessman. “Then Dvoskin’s security came into play. I talked to him on the phone, and we agreed to give the young lady a month to solve all her problems,” recalls Vladimir.

Maria Loboda did not return the money even a month later, continuing to blame everything on Bartsakin. “He finally decided to take revenge on me,” says the businessman. - It was a fabrication of the case that allegedly Dvoskin was searched, allegedly he was arrested at the State Investigative Directorate, he called an ambulance there four times, and he sent the guys to me so that I could help resolve this issue. Accordingly, I sent the guys to Antonov, but it was all a fiction, imagine, everything was written from the first minutes, even telephones were tapped in advance and these recordings are in the case materials, i.e. offering me money, they have already involved the special services to promote the case.”

According to Vladimir Bartsakin, the target was not him at all, but his acquaintance Antonov, a man with connections to the Investigative Committee and the FSB. Allegedly, Antonov was owed 10 million euros by a certain banker Devyatkin, who decided not to repay the debt, but simply put the “borrower” in jail, paying a much smaller amount for someone else’s efforts.

Banker Konstantin Devyatkin became famous in the late 2000s in the wake of the deliberate bankruptcy of Zelenograd ZelAK-Bank. This story has every chance of going down in the history of modern Russia as an example of how you can steal almost half a billion rubles from the state and Russian taxpayers and go unpunished. As the investigation established, back in November 2008, the 48-year-old president of OJSC CB ZelAK-Bank, Konstantin Devyatkin, knowing that the value of the net assets of Management Systems LLC at the time of the transaction was less than the value of the purchased bills, acted contrary to the legitimate interests of OJSC ZelAK -Bank” purchased promissory notes from Uzbek citizen Mirzaeva at a price of 368 million rubles. The transaction amount amounted to almost 400% of the bank's own funds. As noted in the materials of the criminal case, this “resulted in causing significant harm to the rights and legitimate interests of ZelAK-Bank LLC and the depositors of the credit institution.” As a result, the bank was left with not only its own funds, but also no borrowed funds; conducting any banking operations became impossible, resulting in bankruptcy.

And already in 2014, as banking experts note, Mr. Devyatkin acquired the Navigator bank using stolen money from ZelAK-Bank. This credit institution was also bankrupt, the money was withdrawn and cashed through controlled shell companies. The total damage from this scam exceeded 5 billion rubles.

Both in the case of ZelAK-Bank and in the case of Navigator, the investigation stubbornly did not see any crime in Mr. Devyatkin’s actions. But until that very well-connected person, Elan Antonov, became the victim. At Navigator Bank, 10 million euros disappeared from one of his accounts. It is noteworthy that Mr. Antonov received this money for resolving the problems of foreign investors in Moscow.

Things did not work out for the company WTE Wassertechnik, part of the Austrian holding EVN. WTE won the tender for the construction of an enterprise for the production of sodium hypochlorite in the South-West of Moscow, which was intended for the serious modernization of Mosvodokanal OJSC's drinking water supply to almost the entire capital. However, the capital government refused to accept the enterprise into operation. Then the Russian representatives of WTE turned to the “almighty” Elan Antonov for help.

A tranche of 10 million euros for solving the problems of Austrian businessmen was transferred to the accounts indicated by Antonov in the Navigator bank. Elan Antonov was no longer destined to see this money - the Navigator bank was neatly bankrupted by Mr. Devyatkin, and he refused to give up the stolen funds. Surprisingly, in the midst of a showdown between Antonov and Devyatkin over 10 million euros, a criminal case appears against Antonov and Bartsakin. [...]

Genbank, whose shares are owned by the authorities of Sevastopol, Crimea and Evgeny Dvoskin, could not be merged into a controlling stake.

The authorities of Sevastopol ended up transferring their 25% stake in the bank to the Crimean Republic, which also owns 25%.

“The only basis for the transfer of 25% of the shares of the credit organization was the appeal of the Republic of Crimea in June of this year to Sevastopol. The appeal presented the argument that our colleagues considered it appropriate to have only one state shareholder. There were no other arguments,” Deputy Governor of Sevastopol Ilya Ponomarev explained the refusal.

Note that according to the Central Bank, the GenBank network has 199 branches. The owners of 50% of the bank are eight individuals with shares of less than 10%. One of them is reputable financier Evgeny Dvoskin, who owns 7.2% of the bank.

Mr. Dvoskin is called a real bandit. After all, he was sitting in the same cell with thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed “Yaponchik”. According to the FBI, after Yaponchik returned to Russia, Dvoskin maintained close relations with him. A wreath from a businessman was delivered to the farewell ceremony for Yaponchik.

Dvoskin

According to the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, in 2004-2005, a group of fraudsters managed to cash out 235 billion rubles and 66 million euros through the banks Rodnik, AKA Bank and Project Lending Bank.

Back in 2006, scammers cashed out 75 billion rubles through Komus Collection, and in 2007, through Falcon Bank - about 100 billion rubles. In 2006, a group of “shadow financiers” seized control of the Dagestan banks Rubin and Antares, passing through them 88 billion rubles, which was several times more than the annual budget of Dagestan. The most interesting thing is that in all these cases, Evgeny Dvoskin’s involvement in money laundering was never proven...

Evgeniy Dvoskin

The Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District even opened a criminal case against Dvoskin. He was suspected of beating the chairman of the board of the Intelfinance bank, Mikhail Zavertyaev, and while the latter was in the hospital, 11.7 billion rubles were illegally cashed out through his credit institution.

In mid-2008, Mr. Dvoskin became a “person involved” in a scandal of international proportions. The dubious financier was arrested in Monaco by the US FBI with the assistance of Interpol. Let us note that Evgeniy Slusker (later he took his mother’s surname, becoming Dvoskin) left for the USA back in 1990. Over the next decade, he was detained by the police 15 times for various minor crimes, but was released due to lack of proof of guilt!!!

In 2001, he was expelled from the United States for violating immigration laws, and only two years later the American authorities put him on the wanted list on charges of fraud and money laundering. By that time, Dvoskin was already living quietly in Russia.

The current shareholder of Genbank was wanted in connection with securities fraud involving several American companies totaling $2.3 million in the late 1990s. After the investigation was completed, the financier returned to Russia.

Let us emphasize that in his homeland, Dvoskin became a defendant in two criminal cases at once, one of which was about illegal banking activities. In particular, Dvoskin was suspected of fraud of 10 million rubles and extortion. The investigation was carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, but the case never came to court.

OCG of Governor Aksenov?

The main “desirer” of Genbank is the head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, who, against the backdrop of all the latest scandals, lobbied for additional capitalization of Genbank by 10 billion rubles at the expense of the state.

Let us note that the economic situation in Crimea is, to put it mildly, unstable. In July 2015, the “chief tax officer” of Crimea and Aksenov’s closest associate, Nikolai Kochanov, was arrested. He was charged with giving a bribe in the amount of 300 thousand rubles. to an employee of the local FSB for concealing the negative results of an inspection of a mining enterprise.

Sergey Aksenov

The arrest was associated with an investigation into the theft of budget funds allocated for the establishment of the work of tax inspectorates in Crimea. Some defendants in this case have already fled abroad. Rumor has it that the former head of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vladimir Levandovsky, may also be involved in the fraud.

Moreover, at the end of 2015, FSB officers in Crimea detained an organized criminal group, which included the head of the administration of Feodosia Dmitry Shchepetkov and his deputy Makar Makarov. Both of them are Aksenov’s close associates!

Does Mr. Aksenov have anything to do with the organized crime group and Dvoskin? Sergei Aksenov, according to various sources, had close ties with the criminal group “Greeks”, created in Crimea by the Savopulo brothers, and then was part of the powerful organized crime group “Salem”. Moreover, Aksenov could have been involved in the murders of the Greeks’ competitors, and then in the deaths of his former comrades.

To confirm this, we must remember how in 2009, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Mikhail Bakharev released information according to which Sergei Aksenov was not only involved in an organized criminal group, but even had a nickname - “Goblin”!

Dmitry Ovsyannikov, Acting Governor of Sevastopol

There is evidence that Aksenov was involved in the raider seizures of the bus station in Simferopol, a number of residential buildings, the Evpatoria sanatorium “Iskra” for children with cerebral palsy; structures close to Aksenov were involved in the attempt to seize the sanatorium “Mountain Sun”.

By the way, Aksenov was accused of trading weapons with the Crimean Tatars. The German publication DerSpiegel conducted an investigation about Aksenov.

In particular, it said that the “Aksenov case” provides an opportunity to look into his “vast commercial empire.” The names, addresses and details of his companies, some of which are registered to relatives, take up nine pages.

It seems that the authorities of Sevastopol, led by Kremlin-installed Dmitry Ovsyannikov, are in no hurry to transfer the shares of Genbank to the Crimean authorities, whose leadership is involved in corruption and has connections with organized crime groups.

As Kommersant learned, the name of the notorious financier Evgenia Dvoskina, whom several years ago unsuccessfully tried to prosecute in several countries, today appears in two criminal cases at once. Regarding one of them - about illegal banking activities - Mr. Dvoskin was interrogated as a witness. And after the financier agreed to pay the “fixers” $1 million for not bringing him to justice as an accused, he also became a victim, since he turned out to be a victim of fraudsters.

Today, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow will consider the petition of the investigative department for the Central Administrative District of Moscow of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the arrest of lawyer Alexander Burchuk, a former investigator for particularly important cases of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, who investigated a number of high-profile cases over the years. Mr. Burchuk is a suspect in a case of fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation): the investigation considers him an accomplice in the extortion of $1 million from the adviser to the chairman of the board of Genbank, Evgeniy Dvoskin.

As Kommersant learned, the extortion story was preceded by the initiation of a criminal case by the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow on illegal banking activities under Art. 172 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Kommersant’s sources link it with cashing). As part of this investigation, on August 19, FSB officers searched the office of Genbank CJSC at 12 Ozerkovskaya Embankment. Note that this year the bank changed owners; since May of this year, the position of chairman of the board of directors has been occupied by the financier’s wife, Tatyana Dvoskina. After the search, Evgeny Dvoskin was detained and taken to the Main Investigation Department on Novoslobodskaya, where he was interrogated as a witness. According to some reports, the case involves causing damage in the amount of $2 million and 1.5 billion rubles.

About a week and a half after the interrogation, Evgeniy Dvoskin himself turned to law enforcement agencies with a statement about extorting $1 million from him for not being brought to justice as a defendant in a “banking” case. He named one of the participants in the crime as Vladimir Bartsakin, a well-known “fixer” in the financial market, whom he met when he was trying to return €400 thousand, given by Mr. Dvoskin, according to him, to assist in mitigating the sentence of Ekaterina Alabuzhina, who received 4 .5 years in prison in a high-profile case of theft of $15 million from the Czech company PPFI. The verdict was upheld, and the financier demanded his money back from Mr. Bartsakin, who had it. He failed to achieve this. And after Mr. Dvoskin was detained and the Genbank was searched, Mr. Bartsakin called him again, saying that he knew about the financier’s problems, and also that he had been under development by the FSB for a long time. Further, Mr. Dvoskin argued, Mr. Bartsakin undertook to settle the case for $1 million, and to help him sent lawyer Alexander Burchuk, who, as a former investigator of the State Investigative Directorate, who was also involved in the case of Ms. Alabuzhina, was supposed to give weight to the promises of the “fixer.” According to financier Dvoskin, later Mr. Burchuk regularly told him that he would soon be detained, so the financier first decided to pay.

At the same time, the “fixer” demanded $200 thousand immediately, assuring that otherwise the financier would be charged under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organized criminal community). Mr. Dvoskin agreed, and his security officers gave Mr. Bartsakin the entire amount in cash. However, the next day, the recipient demanded another $300 thousand, threatening the financier with arrest during interrogation at the Main Investigation Department, which was scheduled for August 21 (Mr. Dvoskin recorded the negotiations). In turn, the “fixer” promised the financier the intercession of a certain “FSB deputy director Elan Antonov.” The financier realized that the demands would not stop further and turned to the investigative authorities. During the transfer of $100 thousand at the GenBank office, Mr. Bartsakin was detained by FSB officers. Lawyer Alexander Burchuk was also detained. The Department of the Investigative Committee for the Central Administrative District opened a criminal case against both, but Mr. Bartsakin was not arrested, but was released on his own recognizance.

Mr. Burchuk’s defense noted to Kommersant that this was his first lawyer’s case. Tatyana Akimtseva, who represents his interests, is sure that he was only fulfilling his duty as a lawyer and became a victim of both provocation on the part of Mr. Dvoskin himself, since he was leading the “Alabuzhina case,” and a “set-up” on the part of Mr. Bartsakin.

Evgeny Dvoskin and his lawyer Alexander Vershinin categorically refused to make any comments on both criminal cases.

On November 23, 2007, Lieutenant Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Sharkevich was racing in a car in the center of Moscow, trying to break away from two minibuses. Next to Sharkevich lay a package containing €400,000. Not far from the Udarnik cinema, he suddenly stopped his Lexus 460 next to an astonished traffic police inspector; not even a minute had passed before the SUV was blocked by minibuses, from which special forces soldiers of the Federal Security Service jumped out. The special forces pulled Sharkevich out of the car, handcuffed him and began beating him. An hour and a half later he was already in pre-trial detention center No. 1 (in “Matrosskaya Tishina”). “While I was sitting in the cell, investigators of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation seized all the materials regarding Evgeniy Dvoskin from the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then the same investigators took all the operational materials on Dvoskin from the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who were accompanying the banking cases,” says Sharkevich. According to Sharkevich, the package of money was thrown to him in the Lexus 460 by Dvoskin’s driver, after which the chase began.

A month earlier, on October 23, in the village of Trusovo near Moscow, in the house of financier Dvoskin, employees of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, investigating illegal banking transactions, conducted searches as part of a money laundering case. As Sharkevich says, Dvoskin turned to him for help - he asked him to resolve problems with the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Why to Sharkevich? He himself claims that at that time he was a secret employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a “fixer.” Businessmen who had problems with the law turned to him for help. He allegedly conveyed information to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which made decisions. “My legend: a question-solving, corrupt, well-connected law enforcement officer,” says Sharkevich. He undertook to solve Dvoskin’s problems, but in the end he himself ended up in the dock and received three years in prison.

“They didn’t need Sharkevich, they wanted to throw me off,” Major Dmitry Tselyakov, a former chief operative of the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was involved in the “Dvoskin case” at that time, tells Forbes. Tselyakov was arrested in June 2008 at the request of Incredbank Vice President Pyotr Chuvilin, who claimed that Tselyakov and a group of employees extorted a bribe from bankers, promising protection from the “Dvoskin group.” Major Tselyakov was sentenced to six years in prison. The “Banking Group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was disbanded in 2009. How did financier Evgeny Dvoskin win this war and what is he doing now?

In November 2015, it is 20 degrees Celsius in Simferopol, residents are walking around the city in a relaxed manner. Dvoskin has no time for rest; he has been working since early morning in a spacious office at the GenBank, 50% of which belongs to the state. At the end of March 2015, Dvoskin became a shareholder of Genbank (now his stake is 7.2%), the post of chairman of the board of directors is occupied by his wife Tatyana. The Moscow financier who moved to Crimea makes all the key decisions at GenBank, where since 2013 he has held the modest position of advisor to the chairman of the board.

A native of Odessa, Evgeniy Dvoskin (he turned 49 in 2015) emigrated with his parents to the United States in the late 1970s. He returned to Russia in 2001 and spent a year looking around. “And then I started doing business in the financial sector with the money I earned in an American investment company,” he explains vaguely. Dvoskin formed a small “private lending fund,” invested money in real estate projects, in trading operations, and, according to him, financed the initial creation of the telecommunications company Yota. Funds for the development of the company were attracted by the Telconet Capital fund, whose shareholders were not disclosed.

At the beginning of 2013, Dvoskin’s acquaintances wanted to buy Genbank and asked the financier to conduct an audit. The bank then belonged to a large group of individuals, one of the co-owners was Yulia Tymoshenko's son-in-law Artur Chechetkin (4.7%). Dvoskin’s acquaintances eventually abandoned the idea of ​​buying Genbank, and he himself remained at the bank. “I really liked the team. I capitalized the bank, removed the shortcomings, the outflow of clients stopped, and those who had already left returned,” Dvoskin says rather vaguely about his work in Moscow.

Crimea is a different matter. The first branch of GenBank was opened here on April 4, 2014; now the bank has about 170 branches and approximately 600 ATMs on the peninsula. In August 2015, the governments of Crimea and Sevastopol became shareholders of GenBank - they each owned 25%. Evgeniy Dvoskin says that he came to Sevastopol in March 2014 to support friends from the Crimean Berkut who were returning from the Kyiv Maidan. “It was after the referendum and the entry of Crimea into Russia, when Ukrainian banks closed, that we decided to open the first branch here,” says the financier. — People are accustomed to banking services, but at one point they were deprived of it. The ATMs were filled with some kind of liquid, the cards were pulled out, all the archives about loans and deposits were taken away.”

Peninsula of Opportunity

Before joining Russia, 37 banks (1,200 branches) operated in Crimea. In the spring of 2014, all Ukrainian banks left Crimea, and their Russian subsidiaries, Sberbank and VTB, also closed their operations. On May 6, the National Bank of Ukraine introduced a ban on the work of Ukrainian banks on the peninsula, and although the Central Bank of the Russian Federation allowed them to operate without a Russian license until January 1, 2015, on May 7 all Ukrainian banks stopped conducting operations. Payments have stopped. “This bacchanalia lasted for about three months—no taxes to pay, no money to transfer, it was a very difficult period,” recalls Anatoly Maksimenko, chairman of the Union of Employers of Feodosia.

In March 2014, the former subsidiary of the Bank of Moscow, the Russian National Commercial Bank (RNCB), began working in Crimea; in April, Genbank notified the Central Bank of the opening of a branch in Crimea. It was difficult to work, because the majority of the population at that time did not have Russian passports; legal entities were registered in Ukraine.

During the transition period, the Central Bank allowed banks some liberties. Genbank, for example, came up with temporary codes that were assigned to local enterprises instead of TINs.

The former first deputy prime minister of the Crimean government, Rustam Temirgaliev, assures that the peninsula was not left without banking services at all. “Ukrainian banks did not close immediately, everything happened in parallel,” he says. — They agreed with Russian banks on the sale of assets, documents, and mutual settlements. Representatives of Ukrainian banks are disingenuous when they say that they had serious problems in Crimea - most of the banks in Ukraine sold their business to Russian banks.” And only Privatbank of Igor Kolomoisky, the largest Ukrainian bank in Crimea, left the peninsula without reaching an agreement with anyone. Negotiations on the purchase of the business with Privatbank were conducted by RNKB. Russian bankers handed over databases of Crimean clients to the Deposit Insurance Agency. The DIA began paying Crimean depositors of Ukrainian banks through a specially created Depositor Protection Fund, which received control of the Privatbank network (337 branches). In total, the fund paid 27 billion rubles to depositors (233,000 people) through three authorized banks (Genbank, RNKB and the Black Sea Bank for Development and Reconstruction), with a bank commission of 1.5%.

The Depositor Protection Fund leases out some of the Privatbank branches. GenBank rents every fifth of its branches from the foundation. The bank opened its first branches in Crimea in the former offices of Credit Agricole Bank, a subsidiary of the French Credit Agricole Group. Genbank bought the Crimean business from the French, and later branches from Pivdenny Bank and Kredobank (owned by PKO Bank Polski) were purchased. “They understand that investors’ money will have to be returned sooner or later, which is why they sold the business to us,” says Dvoskin. The money received, according to Dvoskin, was transferred by Ukrainian banks to the DIA as part of mutual offsets.

At the first branch of GenBank in Sevastopol, Dvoskin recalls, there was a queue of 896 people to open accounts. “Entrepreneurs needed to conduct commercial activities; you couldn’t take a suitcase with money for goods to Ukraine,” says the financier. — We carried out settlements through banks with correspondent accounts in Ukraine, through Ukrainian ones in Russia. Over time I had to become more and more creative.” By the end of the summer of 2014, 20,000 legal entities opened accounts in the Crimean branches of GenBank.

In the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian hryvnia and the ruble were used in parallel in Crimea, which gave bankers additional opportunities to earn money. It was planned that the transition period would last until January 1, 2016, but in the end the Russian ruble became the only currency on the peninsula as of June 1, 2014. According to Rustam Temirgaliev, the accelerated transition to the ruble was a necessary measure: “We would not have been able to cope with the ruble and hryvnia money supply at the same time; its excess could lead to uncontrollable processes.”

In September 2014, Genbank became one of four authorized banks of the Pension Fund and Social Protection of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. According to the bank's reporting as of September 1, 2015, deposits of legal entities from the beginning of the year increased by 70%, individuals - by 60%, the loan portfolio increased by 30%, the bank's assets amounted to 24.9 billion rubles (as of January 1, 2014, assets amounted to 7.8 billion rubles), equity capital - 1.77 billion rubles. The bank is growing rapidly, but in October 2015, the RAEX agency (Expert RA) downgraded GenBank’s credit rating from “high” (A) to “satisfactory” (B++) with a negative outlook. Among the reasons given were lending to legal entities with “signs of lack of real activity” (about 70% of the loan portfolio), lack of guarantees and guarantees for almost 70% of the loan portfolio and an operationally unprofitable banking business (net interest and commission income did not cover the bank’s expenses for six quarters in a row ). “All Crimean companies are new, recently registered, without credit histories. You can take any bank in Crimea and confidently say that it issues loans to enterprises without real activity,” explains Dvoskin, laying out documents on the table. “The Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation checked us and found no violations.” According to him, after the decision of the governments of Crimea and Sevastopol to become part of the shareholders of Genbank, a Central Bank inspection came to the bank; 80 people worked for two months and did not make a single comment.

At the signing of an agreement in August 2015, under which Crimea and Sevastopol each received 25% of the bank’s shares free of charge, the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, said that this would “contribute to the development of programs to support businesses and producers, and will also provide an opportunity to launch a mortgage lending program " At the same time, it was stated that the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol did not bear budgetary costs. In October, Aksenov sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, asking for assistance in resolving the issue of recapitalizing GenBank to 10 billion rubles using DIA funds. Insufficient capital does not allow GenBank to increase lending volumes. “We have issued loans for 8 billion rubles and cannot increase this volume further, although we have collected applications for another 3 billion rubles,” says Dvoskin. “At the same time, we attracted 15 billion rubles, on which we need to pay interest, hence the losses.”

The supporting bank of the governments of Crimea and Sevastopol is unlikely to remain aloof from the financial flows that flow under federal and local programs. For example, the budget of the federal target program “Socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol until 2020” is set at 708 billion rubles. “Budget money should go through the treasury, but exceptions are possible,” says Yuri Yudenkov, professor at the Faculty of Finance and Banking at RANEPA. “You can create a situation and show the ineffectiveness of such work and move these flows to the local Crimean level.”

Yudenkov is confident that the Central Bank should strengthen supervision over banks in Crimea. “Historically, resort areas have been a major source of cash; government strictness must be exercised in such places,” the expert is confident. According to former employees of the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Evgeny Dvoskin was a great specialist in transactions with large sums of cash.

According to the analytical banking portal Kuap.ru, from August 2014 to August 2015, Genbank was among the top 10 banks in terms of cash turnover to assets, this ratio ranged from 2 to 4.7 (the bank issued cash through the cash register from 15 billion rubles up to 45 billion rubles per month). What does it mean? “Genbank’s cash turnover is extraordinary,” says Dmitry Miroshnichenko, leading expert at the Development Center Institute of the National Research University Higher School of Economics. — Perhaps such high figures can be justified by the structure of the economy in Crimea, where life is heavily dependent on cash. But we should not forget that legal high cash turnover can easily become a disguise for illegal transactions, although this is difficult to prove.”

Cult of cash

In July 2008, the Kommersant newspaper published an article “Especially grave transfers. An Odessa resident was caught in Monaco, seizing Russian banks.” The material said that “a major financial fraudster Evgeny Dvoskin, wanted by the United States and Russia, was arrested in Monaco, accused in absentia of “conspiring to commit fraudulent acts and laundering proceeds from crime.” Allegedly, Dvoskin joined the Jumbera Elbakidze group, specializing in large cash-out operations. According to Kommersant, Dvoskin had been wanted by the FBI since 2003 in a case of securities fraud and money laundering amounting to $2.3 million, and from 1990 to 2000 he was arrested in the United States 15 times, including for hooliganism, robbery, tax evasion, taxi theft.

Dvoskin talks about his past extremely reluctantly. “At the age of 13, I moved to the United States with my family, they lived poorly, so I had to work a lot at different jobs,” the financier recalls. “I grew up on the street and absorbed all the worst, there were violations of the law.” At some point, he decided to start all over again, he says, he worked for a year at a drug rehabilitation center, and in the mid-1990s he got a job as a broker at an investment firm. There he carried out the operation for which he was arrested in Monaco. “It was a case against the investment company where I worked,” explains Dvoskin. — In one of the transactions, I bought and sold shares on the same day, which was not allowed by the rules. There were no injuries, all clients received a profit. I was interrogated and released."

Returning to Moscow, Dvoskin went to court and won the case against Kommersant and the author of the article. In 2010, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow recognized the allegation that Dvoskin had joined Jumber Elbakidze’s group and large cash-out transactions as unreliable and ordered the Kommersant Publishing House and the author of the article to pay Dvoskin 10,000 rubles each in compensation for moral damages.

Before the Crimean history, Dvoskin did not own banks. Although, as a former employee of the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs assures, Dvoskin appeared in the cases of shadow financiers-cashers who gained control over dozens of banks through management or the purchase of shares for front structures. Cash transactions were carried out through these banks, which inevitably led to the revocation of the license. The total amount of such operations, according to former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, reached 500 billion rubles. A source close to the Central Bank recalls that in 2004-2007, the Banking Supervision Committee regularly discussed banks associated with Evgeny Dvoskin. “The banks of this group had their licenses revoked, and both the Department of Banking Supervision and the Department of Financial Monitoring and Currency Control had questions about them,” says Forbes’ source.

The “Banking Group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs collected information about the cash market and Dvoskin for two years, but did not find any real evidence of his participation in illegal schemes. During a search of his country house in October 2007, weapons and ammunition were found. According to Dvoskin, the weapon was a dummy and the cartridges were planted; he himself was abroad during the search. After the search, as Dvoskin says, the “fixer” Alexander Sharkevich contacted him, offering to solve the problems with the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for $1 million. “I had no goal of putting Dvoskin on trial,” says Sharkevich. “On the contrary, I had to gain his trust and help him within the framework of the legend, to be useful to him.” Sharkevich is confident that Dvoskin was and remains one of the most valuable sources of information about corruption in the Russian banking sector. In the fall of 2007, according to him, he three times refused Dvoskin’s offer of $1 million for help, but his driver still threw the ill-fated €400,000 into Sharkevich’s car. “Without waiting for people running towards me with headphones to detain me, I just left,” he recalls.

In March 2009, at a closed court hearing, Sharkevich was acquitted of taking a bribe, but was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in a general regime colony for possession of cartridges for an award pistol, of which more were found during a search than allowed by law. In November 2010, after a review of the case and new court hearings, the final sentence was set at 3 years of general regime - by that time he had already served two years and 10 months in a pre-trial detention center.

Former employees of the “banking group” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs talk about Dvoskin’s high patrons in the FSB, thanks to whom he was able to emerge victorious in the confrontation with the police. In the Sharkevich case, Evgeniy Dvoskin was under state protection - he was guarded around the clock by FSB officers.

Closed club

“In essence, the banking system of Crimea is GenBank and RNKB; others are no longer allowed there,” says Professor Yudenkov. “A very hectic business is starting there; it is better if it is serviced by its own banks that have connections with the local elite.” The Central Bank has already revoked the license of six out of 28 Crimean banks. “Formally, all these banks had grounds for revoking their license,” says a source close to the Central Bank. — The question arises why they were allowed there, because it was possible to immediately establish increased requirements for banks in Crimea. However, large banks refused to work there, as they decided to save face in front of the West. As a result, the first conquerors, as once in America, turned out to be enterprising people who were inclined to take risks.”

Preferential tax and customs zones are now being formed in Crimea; many entrepreneurs on the mainland are exploring opportunities to do business in Crimea. “Already, investment agreements worth 47 billion rubles have been signed with the government of Crimea, applications for 800 billion rubles are being considered,” Dvoskin describes the scale of activity. “In two years we will see rapid development of all industries here.” By the end of 2015, GenBank management plans to move its headquarters from Moscow to Simferopol - this is where Evgeny Dvoskin’s main business is now.

The brainchild of the controversial financier Evgeny Dvoskin, which after 2014 became one of the systemic banks of Crimea, will still be saved from bankruptcy. But this will be done not by the Central Bank, which twice refused to pump GenBank with federal money, but by Rossiya Bank, owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, a defendant in Western sanctions.

Information that it is too early to “withdraw money” from GenBank accounts and “hide it under the mattress” because “The investor will be Rossiya Bank,” first appeared today at 19:53 in one of the Crimean telegram channels.

At 21:48, Sobinbank, part of the Rossiya joint-stock bank group, would become an investor in the Crimean GenBank JSC, its partner, the Kryminform agency close to the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, reported with reference to the GenBank press service. The message emphasizes that the entry of the investor “will in no way affect the continuity of all types of banking operations.”

Later, RBC sources reported that “one of the largest banks in Crimea will be saved with the help of the Rossiya group.” According to them, The Central Bank intervened in the situation, we are talking about saving a bank that is systemically important for the region, through which money from the Crimean federal target program is pumped. According to another source, Genbank “has some capital shortfalls, but these are not critical to the continuation of its activities and were due to an underestimation of credit risk.”RBC's interlocutor indicated that Genbank itself is liquid. It services its obligations without interruption and has billions of rubles in its accounts with the Central Bank. However, according to the source, in this situation, the Bank of Russia, introducing a new investor, decided to act to preempt the potential emergence of problems.

Meanwhile, back in mid-July, the media wrote about the Central Bank’s reluctance to pump federal money into GenBank. Despite the interest of the Crimean government in this, which additional capitalization would help finance necessary projects, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation sends check after check to the GenBank, Kommersant reported on July 10. The publication recalled that the co-owner of the bank is financier Evgeny Dvoskin, whom Russian and international authorities have repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to bring to justice for fraud.

According to the publication, Genbank, 50% of which belongs to the governments of Crimea and Sevastopol, is asking for 5 billion rubles, and may ask for 10 billion. However, after Genbank applied at the end of 2016 for an increase in capital, the bank was subject to an inspection by the Central Bank, which lasted several months. As a result, nothing catastrophic was found in the bank, but immediately after it the regulator began a new inspection with the participation of the same people.

“Currently in Crimea there is a catastrophic shortage of banks; basically all lending comes from RNKB and Genbank,” explained the source of the publication. — At the same time, the largest bank in Crimea, RNKB, is very conservative and does not lend to a number of important areas for the region, which, in turn, is compensated by the activities of the GenBank. However, the low capital adequacy standard limits GenBank from lending to Crimean enterprises.”

Judging by GenBank’s reporting for the first quarter of 2017, the bank’s business is not going well, the publication’s experts say. The bank's loss - 74 million rubles - is associated not with lending, but with the low efficiency of transactions with financial assets and foreign currency.

The main shareholder of Rossiya Bank (39.8%) is dollar billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk, a close associate of Vladimir Putin. Besides him, andThe shareholders of Rossiya Bank are the companies of another friend of the president, Gennady Timchenko, and the metallurgical oligarch Alexei Mordashov.In March 2014, Rossiya Bank was included in the US sanctions list. After this, Vladimir Putin opened a bank account into which his presidential salary is transferred. Yuri Kovalchuk personally also came under Western sanctions, after which Rossiya Bank opened a network of branches in Crimea, becoming not only the only large mainland bank to do this, but also entering the retail banking market of the Russian Federation for the first time. In 2016, the Crimean authorities