Putin's friends on Adriatic beaches of Montenegro

A significant part of this wealth is in the hands of accomplices and supporters of the Putin regime. The most expensive residential and recreational complexes, the largest hotels, the most popular casinos, water parks, mountain resorts, moorings for yachts, and the yachts themselves - Russian money is everywhere.  Often involved in the FSB, corruption and crime. In the summer, the Montenegrin authorities allegedly made an attempt to freeze the assets of Russians. But formal and clumsy.  Many of those whose property was seized turned out to be namesakes of deputies or politicians from the Russian Federation.  Instead, the most delicious pieces remained beyond the reach of any sanctions measures.  These unnoticed assets will be discussed later. 

Deripaska, Levitin, Shafranik, Khan or Kolomoisky…

The Montenegrin wealth of the Russian aluminum king Oleg Deripaska has already been described a little here. But it is not superfluous to mention it again. Therefore, he owns land and a complex of private villas in the area of ​​Cape Platamuni, in the construction of which he invested at least EUR 50 million. You can see what it looks like from a bird's eye view in the Radio Liberty video.

In addition, he is one of the co-investors of Porto Montenegro – the most expensive sea resort in Montenegro with a marina for yachts, fashionable hotels, residences, and boutiques.  The project continues to be developed, with investments from the Rothschild family, gold mining magnate Peter Munch, French luxury goods manufacturer Bernard Arnault, Arab sheikhs, etc. However, Deripaska himself said that he was forced to stop investing in Porto Montenegro. We also discovered the name of Yekaterina Lobanova in the property registers of Montenegro. This is the name of Deripaska's current girlfriend, who this year tried to illegally enter the US and give birth to the oligarch's child there. But we cannot say with certainty that this is the same Katya.

Oleg Deripaska, photo: GettyImages

But we can say with certainty that Oleg Mukhamedshin, director of business development of Rusal company, is one of the owners of housing in Porto Montenegro. It was under his name that his boss Oleg Deripaska illegally entered the United States. In addition to Mukhamedshin, more than 100 Russians bought apartments in the Porto Montenegro complex. And the cost of such apartments ranges from hundreds of thousands to several million euros. For example, tennis player Novak Djokovic bought a house here for EUR 10 million. One of his neighbors is the wife of a sanctioned oligarch from the Russian Federation, Andrey Melnichenko (EuroChem Group). Sandra Nikolic, a Serbian by nationality, a former model, bought a 120 square meter duplex here. Usually, a woman lives in London, then in Antibes, then in the Maldives, but when she is brought to her native Balkan lands, she has a place to stay. After all, he can afford it. After being included in the sanctions lists, Andrey Melnichenko transferred a significant part of his assets to Sandra.

Andrey Melnichenko and Sandra Nikolic

The Stratex group of the Russian-Israeli-American businessman Neil (Naum) Emilfarb is probably the largest real estate investor and developer in Montenegro. It includes, for example, the sprawling residential and hotel complex Dukley Gardens in Budva, where the value of real estate is commensurate with that in Porto Montenegro. Payment is also accepted in bitcoins. The group's assets include the city marina Dukley Marina, the nearby Harmonia Hotel, and the mountain resort Dukley Kolasin Resort & SPA. Perhaps the secret of such success is that one of the co-owners of Stratex through a chain of Montenegrin and Cypriot firms is Leonid Levitin, the brother of Igor Levitin, Putin's adviser and figure in all possible sanctions lists.  We already wrote about him when we investigated the assets of the Russian establishment in the Czech Republic and Malta. As we can see, it also lit up in the Balkans. Now, Stratex together with the Montenegrin-Swedish businessman Veselin Mijats have planned to build a new 5-star hotel and a number of exclusive cottages in the area of ​​the villages of Reževići and Drobni (you can view these construction plans on the website of the Montenegrin government). The highlight is that the land and villa of Levitin's longtime partner, Yuriy Kushnerov, co-owner of Yuzhkuzbassugol, are located in the same area.

Putin and Igor Levitin, photo: GettyImages

Meanwhile, another gigantic project was looming nearby, ready to compete with the two described above. And also for Russian money.  In 2021, the Montenegrin government gave permission to a group of investors (V.A.S. Invest, Sagaren Holding Limited, AVA Development, Boticelli Land Development) to build a 5-star hotel with 2 buildings and a cascade of residential villas that will descend from the slope to the sea in Smokvica Bay near Budva. Investors have already spent EUR 25 million on the purchase of land in the area, and are ready to invest 260 million euros in total.  However, this was announced even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and international sanctions against Russian business. And here is such a thing that the origins of V.A.S. Invest is supported by Sergey Shafranik, the brother of the former Minister of Energy and the head of the Tyumen Region Yuriy Shafranik. The latter now heads the company Soyuzneftegaz, which conducts oil and gas production projects mainly outside the borders of the Russian Federation, although a little at home as well. In addition, Yuriy Shafranik heads the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Russia and has good contacts with the Syrian regime of Bashir Assad. On September 5, 2022, Putin awarded Shafranik with the Order of Aleksandr Nevsky.  It is surprising how such a person has not yet been included in any sanctions lists. By chance, Shafranik's brother also found a house on the coast in Reževičy and vineyards in the mountains near the old capital of Cetinje in Montenegro.

Another colorful representative of the old guard - Major General Viktor Ivanenko, the first head of the KGB of independent Yeltsin Russia, is now the owner of the first 5-star hotel in Montenegro, the Splendid Conference & SPA Resort (Becici) with the famous Casino Royal, where one of the Bond episodes was filmed. The hotel is part of the Montenegro Stars Hotel group, under whose auspices there are two more 4-star hotels: Montenegro Beach Resort (also in Bečići) and Blue Star Hotel (Budva). Old Kagebist Ivanchenko is already apparently on a well-deserved rest, but since there are no former agents, he is still a member of the Council of Foreign and Defense Policy - a non-governmental association of influential Russians (including security forces and businessmen), which closely cooperates with the authorities and cultivates imperial sentiments. Now the owners of Splendid have started construction of another fashionable complex of hotels and apartments in Kolasin (it's something like Montenegrin Bukovel). The cost of the project is estimated at 40-50 million euros.

Viktor Ivanenko

In another popular hotel in Budva, Avala, the Russian capital may be intertwined with the Ukrainian capital. Currently, the hotel is owned by the London-registered company Beppler & Jacobson through its Montenegrin "daughter" Beppler & Jacobson Montenegro. They also have another asset – the Bianca ski resort in the already mentioned Kolasin. In total, the objects are valued at no less than EUR 50 million. The owners of the hotel are involved in several lawsuits, both in Montenegro itself and in Great Britain. Here is the case of a lawsuit filed by Caldero Trading Limited, which is owned by Montenegrin businessman Zoran Bečirović. Another one is due to the lawsuit of the Russian-British TNK-BP. From these materials, we learn that the actual owner of Beppler & Jacobson is the former manager of TNK-BP Ihor Lazurenko. At first, he assured that he was making investments in the interests of his boss, co-owner of TNK-BP Herman Khan. But then Lazurenko changed his testimony and said that he bought hotels for the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Even later - what for another Russian businessman, Sergey Sheklanov (who died tragically in 2018). After all, one does not exclude the other.  In the early 2000s, Sheklanov and Kolomoisky actively cooperated in oil trade and beyond. In particular, they jointly controlled the Teamtrend firm, which later appeared in investigations into the withdrawal of funds from Privatbank. There is no direct documentary evidence that Kolomoisky now directly or indirectly owns the Avala and Bianca hotels. Although this, for example, is claimed by a well-known public activist and journalist in Budva, Ljubomir Filipovic.

Ihor Kolomoisky

Police, bandits, chansonniers, deputies…

Another powerful hotel business, connected to the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and criminality, is run by the Zadorin family in Montenegro. It owns a chain of hotels across the country (La Perla; Mimoza) through the companies Zaliv MN I HTP Mimoza. The head of the family, Valery Zadorin, made a fortune from alcohol trade and production. His former sister-in-law Anastasia Zadorina, the daughter of an FSB general, is the owner of the scandalous Russian brand ZA Sport, known for its ultra-patriotic prints ("Topol sanctions are not afraid" and in the same vein). The director of one of the Montenegrin companies of the Zadorin holding is Lilia Kail, the wife of Lev Cherepov, whom Russian media often call a criminal authority from St. Petersburg. At the same time, he is a relative of Valery Zadorin and his brother Pavel. And all together they maintain a close friendship with the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev. For example, Lilia Kail, mentioned above, at one time transferred the house on Rublyovka (this is the "royal village" of the highest Russian officials) to the son of Vladimir Kolokoltsev - Aleksandr. And now he is a neighbor of the Zadorins, who have several houses and lots here.

The Montenegrin non-governmental anti-corruption organization MANS claims that the Zadorins bought up tens of thousands of hectares of land on the shores of the Boka-Kotor Bay through a network of offshore firms. At least by EUR 15 million. They also have a number of restaurants in the Porto Montenegro complex and not only there, a yacht and a villa in Djurasevici near Tivat. In the same area, the once wildly popular Ukrainian idol of Russian chanson Stas Mikhaylov, his colleague in the genre Vika Tsyganova and the late Iosif Kobzon built "Montenegro dachki" for themselves. All this singing brotherhood is now included in the Ukrainian sanctions lists. Valery Zadorin's son Mykhail also plays chanson. And he is also building a 4-star Tara Retreat eco-hotel on the banks of the local mountain river Tara.

The Novosibirsk oligarch, former owner of the coal Belon Holding Andrey Dobrov, whose assets Forbes magazine estimates at USD 550 million, also applied to hoteliers. His company Capital Estate owns three plots of land with a total area of ​​approximately 200,000 square meters. Two of them are near Budva (Kuljace and Bečići), one is near the St.Stephen's peninsula. Just a few days before the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, Dobrov presented to the government of Montenegro a project to build a 5-star hotel on the last of the plots for an investment of EUR 60 million. At the same time, the Montenegrin Prosecutor's Office is investigating the sale of land to a Russian businessman at a several times lower value.  Perhaps he underpaid the country's budget by more than EUR 10 million. There are also questions regarding the transparency of the auction for the sale of the Grand-Lido hotel complex in Ulcinj. It also went to Dobrov.

Andrey Dobrov, photo wikipedia

Konstantin Strukov, the richest man in Chelyabinsk and a regular in the Top-200 richest Russians, as well as the deputy chairman of the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk region and the owner of the Yuzhuralzoloto company is miraculously still not under sanctions. Although he supports Putin's regime both financially and politically.  But just in case, he created a spare airfield in Montenegro, accumulating assets worth at least EUR 50-60 million. 20 million are just his two yachts, Aleksandra and Rêve d'Or, which are parked at the port road in Tivat. The rest is Strukov's Montenegrin real estate, between which you can sail on yachts. One location is two plots of land and a house in the village of Orahovac near the ancient city of Kotor in the bay of the same name. Strukov bought them back in 2005. The second is much larger and newer. These are three plots of land in a rather deserted place with a total area of ​​more than 17,000 square meters (+ another 3,000 square meters of beach for rent). They are issued for the deputy's wife Lyudmila. But the project documents for the construction of a 5-star hotel here, submitted to local authorities, were personally signed by Konstantin Strukov.  Judging by Google Maps, construction is nearing completion; at least the boxes and the roof are ready.

Aquapark in Budva, also built with Russian funds. 53 water attractions on an area of ​​42,000 square meters - in 2016, EUR 13 million were invested in this. Most likely, it was the money of the Russian VTB Bank. The ideologue of the project and one of the directors of Aqua Terra Solutions Kyryll Popov previously headed the real estate department of VTB-Bank. Another thread leads to the same bank. 50% of Aqua Terra Solutions belongs to the Slovak company Advent East Estates, which in turn is owned by a citizen of Russia and Lithuania Dmytro Panurskyi, who at the time of the establishment of the water park was the top manager of the subsidiary bank VTB in Serbia.

The Alexei Navalny Foundation published an entire investigation into the wealth of Moscow prosecutor Denis Popov, from which it follows that the lawyer's wife, Irina, owns a 9-apartment residential complex in Morinje (Bay of Kotorska) and 3 newly built villas in Kolasin (Montenegro's most prestigious mountain resort). The value of this property is estimated at EUR 5-6 million. Navalny's materials refer to the Monte Biser firm. In July 2022, it was renamed Keystone Montenegro. Denis and Irina are now divorced, but the specified property was acquired when they were together. After all, the option with a fictitious divorce should not be rejected either.  And we will add a few touches of our own to Navalny's findings. Irina Popova also owns the company Strojprojekt (it owns 66%), which has a plot of land in the resort village of Petitsa Zabo. A real estate object in Dubrava is also registered to Irina Popova. All this is the southern part of Montenegro. In addition, the company Aquatrol-Grahovo, related to Irina Popova, until recently owned a plot of 10,000 square meters in the ancient village of Grahovo on the way from Kotor to the mountains. But in July of this year, the company was liquidated, and the land, apparently, was sold. The Montenegrin property of the family is watched over by the prosecutor's daughter Tetyana Matovich, who got married here and became a citizen of the country.

...Plus "golden passports"

Oleg Reps, the founder of Forex Club, is the owner of September Hotels, whose network includes three 4-star hotels. The wife of the vice-governor of the Sverdlovsk region Oleg Chemezov owns the Xanadu hotel in Kumbor and a plot of land in the village of Zabljak through the company Lokky Club Monte. The son of State Duma deputy Anatoly Vybornov owns a villa in the resort town of Dobrota. In the city of Dobra Voda, 7 plots of land and several houses were recorded on the land plot of State Duma deputy Aleksey Tkachev - Natalya Krattle. Senator of the Federation Council Sergey Lukin has three apartments in Bečići near Budva - two registered to his son, one to his ex-wife. The sons of the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, and now the head of Roscosmos Yuriy Borisov, are co-owners of a house of 850 square meters near Tivat. The wife of Russian propagandist Roman Babayan owns two real estate properties in Sutomore.

Montenegrin real estate owners are also: Marat Bashirov, Russian political technologist, former acting head of the Council of Ministers of the self-proclaimed LPR (Bechichi); former vice-speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Lyubov Sliska (Budva);  Yuriy Doynikov, ex-head of the Sevastopol City Council (Herceg-Novi); Aleksey Peslyak, director of the MT-Systems company, which produces electronics for the Russian army (Lushtitsa Peninsula); father of North Ossetia's prosecutor Herman Stadler (Lushtitsa) and Deputy Minister of Education of the same republic Alan Alikov (Nishichi); son of a member of the Federation Council from Inusheti Makharbek Didigov (Trebeshin, Igalo);  Aleksey Guryev, vice president in the sub-sanctioned group of Sistema companies (Igalo); the chairman of the board of Unikreditbank Kiril Zhukov-Yemelyanov (Kotor) and many others.

The attractiveness of Montenegro for wealthy Russians lies not only in linguistic and cultural proximity, but also in the fact that here you can buy a "golden passport" for money, which gives you the right to move freely throughout the European Union. In 2021 alone, more than 100 Russians took advantage of this option.  Among them is Irina Strzhalkovsky, the niece of Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, Putin's long-time colleague in the KGB and a shadowy Russian oligarch (several of his businesses in Russia and abroad are registered to Iryna); Vladimir Pravdivyi, founder of the Avito holding (similar to our OLX); Andrey Gorodylov, top manager of a number of Roman Abramovich's companies, former first vice-governor of Chukotka; the wife and children of Vladimir Blotsky, the richest member of the State Duma, a communist and a fishmonger; financial director of the cellular operator Megafon Nikita Orlov and others. To get such a passport, it was necessary to invest approximately EUR 500 thousand (or more) in Montenegro, usually in real estate.

The total value of the property described in the article, even by rough calculations, exceeds half a billion euros. And this is taking into account the fact that we do not claim to have a complete picture. A part of Russian assets in Montenegro, without a doubt, still remains hidden from prying eyes. Another part belongs to not so odious figures, so we ignored them in this review. But even if the property of those mentioned is frozen, Ukraine would feel a certain satisfaction. After all, such a dense concentration of big Russian money in a relatively small area poses a threat to the national security of Montenegro itself. In 2016, there was already a coup attempt in the country with the participation of Russian special services. Who can guarantee that it will not happen again?

And in the next article of the series, we will talk about the Russian "golden rain" in neighboring Croatia.