Chapter 12: The Battle Begins
1. ‘Vystuplenie I diskussiya na Munchehnskoi konferentsii po Voprosam Politiki Bezopasnosti’, February 10 2007, www.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24034
2. Carl Schreck, ‘Putin Castigates US Foreign Policy’, Moscow Times, February 12 2007
3. Charles Clover, Catherine Belton, Dan Dombey and Jan Cienski, ‘Countdown in the Caucasus: Seven Days that Brought Russia and Georgia to War’, Financial Times, August 26 2008; Peter Finn, ‘A Two-Sided Descent into Full-Scale War’, Washington Post, August 17 2008; see also Dan Bilefsky, C.J. Chivers, Thom Shanker and Michael Schwirtz, ‘Georgia Offers Fresh Evidence on War’s Start’, New York Times, September 16 2008
4. Clover, Belton, Dombey and Cienski, ‘Countdown in the Caucasus’
5. Charles Clover, ‘The Message from Moscow: Resurgent Russia Bids to Establish a New Status Quo’, Financial Times, August 12 2008
6. Stefan Wagstyl, ‘Medvedev Signals He will Meet Obama Soon’, Financial Times, November 13 2008
7. FT Reporters, ‘Russia Halts Missile Plans for Eastern Europe’, Financial Times, January 28 2009
8. Strobe Talbott, ‘A Russian Reset Button Based on Inclusion’, Financial Times, February 24 2009
9. Stefan Wagstyl, ‘Obama Signals Backing for Medvedev’, Financial Times, July 6 2009
10. Charles Clover and Daniel Dombey, ‘Russia Hails New US Tone on Missiles’, Financial Times, March 3 2009
11. Stefan Wagstyl, ‘Obama and Medvedev Agree Arms Deal’, Financial Times, July 6 2009
12. ‘Medvedev Hopes his Visit to Silicon Valley will Boost Russian Business’, RIA Novosti, June 24 2010
13. ‘Obama Tries Burger Diplomacy with Medvedev’, Agence France-Presse, June 24 2010
14. Author interview with Kolesnikov, September 2011
15. Catherine Belton, ‘Medvedev Plan could See Putin’s Return’, Financial Times, November 5 2008
16. Charles Clover, ‘Putin is Booed at Martial Arts Fight’, Financial Times, November 20 2011
17. Charles Clover, Courtney Weaver and Catherine Belton, ‘Tens of Thousands Protest Against Putin’, Financial Times, December 10 2011
18. Catherine Belton, ‘Prokhorov Pushes to Exploit Shift in Mood against Putin’, Financial Times, February 29 2012
19. Author interview with Russian tycoon, February 2012
20. Charles Clover, ‘Putin Turns up Nationalist Rhetoric’, Financial Times, February 23 2012; see also Charles Clover and Catherine Belton, ‘I Will Transmit This to Vladimir’, Financial Times, May 5 2012
21. Neil Buckley, Charles Clover and Catherine Belton, ‘Tearful Putin Claims Election Victory’, Financial Times, March 4 2012
22. Charles Clover, ‘Protestors Defy Troops on Moscow Streets’, Financial Times, December 6 2011
23. Catherine Belton, ‘Navalny Charged with Large-Scale Embezzlement’, Financial Times, July 31 2012
24. Author interview with former close associate of Abramovich, June 2017
25. Author interview with Russian billionaire, July 2018
26. Lucia Ziobro, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI’s Boston Office, ‘FBI’s Boston Office Warns Business of Venture Capital Scams’, Boston Business Journal, April 4 2014; Kyle Alspach and Michael B. Farrell, ‘FBI Warns of Russian Investors; Tells State Tech Firms that Venture Capitalists May Seek to Give Sensitive Data to Military’, Boston Globe, April 8 2014
27. Peter Baker, ‘Medvedev Aims to Lift Ties with US Business’, New York Times, June 23 2010
28. By the end of Medvedev’s presidency, Timchenko, for instance, had soared up the rich list compiled by Forbes every year with an estimated fortune of $14.1 billion. The wealth he commanded had surged partly due to his acquisition of Russia’s second-biggest gas producer, Novatek, after the 2008 financial crisis.
29. Author interview with Pugachev, September 2014
30. One example was in 2004, when Pugachev claimed Putin had asked him for an emergency $100 million in financing to finance the building of apartments for the military.
31. Author interview with Pugachev, March 2015
32. Elena Mazneva, ‘Nazval Khozyaina. Odin iz krupneishikh Podryadchikov Gazproma Stroigazmontazha Raskryl Vladetsa’, Vedomosti, December 9 2009; author interview with Pugachev, March 2015
33. The pipeline was named Nord Stream. ‘Stroigazmontazh Vyigral Tender na Stroitelstvo Uchastka “Gryazaovets–Vyborg (597–917km)” Severo– Yevropeiskovo Gazoprovoda’, AK&M, May 26 2008
34. Author interview with Pugachev, March 2015; documentary evidence
35. Ibid. Rotenberg did not respond to a request for comment.
36. Stroigazmontazh became Gazprom’s biggest contractor. In 2011 it was receiving nearly a sixth of Gazprom’s total $53 billion investment programme, while critics pointed out that the state gas giant’s pipeline costs were many times higher than those of any of its European contemporaries.
37. Catherine Belton, ‘Businessmen are Serfs in Putin’s Russia, Warns Sergei Pugachev’, Financial Times, October 8 2014
38. Ibid.
39. Author interview with Pugachev, September 2014; court documents
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. ‘President Rossii Prizval Perestats “Koshmarits” Maly Biznes’, RIA Novosti, July 31 2008
43. Belton, ‘Businessmen are Serfs in Putin’s Russia’
44. Author interview with Russian tycoon, June 2015
45. Author interview with Pugachev, September 2014
46. Author interview with Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of Tsentr AST, June 2015. See also: Yegor Popov, Ivan Safronov, Yana Tsinoeva, ‘Kakov Flot, Takov I Prikhod’, Kommersant, March 5 2015, and Yegor Popov, ‘Sudostroenie ushlo v glukhuyu oboronu’, Kommersant, March 1 2016 – for figures on overall fall in shipbuilding: The newspaper notes a 41 per cent drop in ship production in 2014, and a further 23 per cent in 2015.
47. See for example Alexander Shvarev, ‘Sud Izuchit Khischeniya na Severnoi Verfi’, Rosbalt, November 28 2014
48. See Alexander Burgansky, ‘Rosneft: Paradigm Shift’, Renaissance Capital, October 3 2017
49. ‘Support for Putin Sinks to Lowest Point in 12 Years, Poll Says’, Moscow Times, December 4 2013. Also see: ‘Pollster Says Approval for Putin at 12-Year Low’, Moscow Times, January 25 2013
50. Author interview with senior Western banker, August 2014
51. ‘Russia Issues Dark Warning to Ukraine against EU Trade and Cooperation Deal’, Associated Press, September 21 2013
52. ‘Ukraine’s EU Trade Deal will be Catastrophic, says Russia’, Kazakhstan Newsline, September 23 2013
53. Roman Olearchyk, ‘Ukraine Students: ‘Youth of the Nation … for Euro Integration’, Financial Times, November 28 2013
54. Roman Olearchyk, ‘Kiev Streets Erupt in Clashes with Police’, Financial Times, January 19 2014
55. Simon Shuster, ‘Exclusive: Leader of Far-Right Ukrainian Militant Group Talks with TIME’, Time Magazine, February 4 2014; see also Neil Buckley and Roman Olearchyk, ‘Fringe and Extremist Groups Carve Role in Ukraine Protests’, Financial Times, January 30 2014
56. Neil Buckley and Roman Olearchyk, ‘Ukraine Commemorates Bloody Events that Led to War’, Financial Times, February 20 2015
57. FT Reporters, ‘Ukraine Crisis: Pretext and Plotting Behind Crimea’s Occupation’, Financial Times, March 7 2014
58. Kathrin Hille and Neil Buckley, ‘Vladimir Putin, Strongman of Russia Gambling on Western Weakness’, Financial Times, March 7 2014
59. Author interview with Yakunin, March 2014; Catherine Belton, ‘Putin Ally Accuses US of Trying to Destroy Russia’, Financial Times, March 7 2014
60. Author interview with Yakunin, March 2014
61. Author interviews with senior banker close to the Kremlin, March 2014; see also Neil Buckley and Roman Olearchyk, ‘Crimea Tensions Echo Georgia of 2008’, Financial Times, March 1 2014; Roman Olearchyk, Jan Cienski and Neil Buckley, ‘Russia Wages Media War on Ukraine’, Financial Times, March 4 2014; Belton, ‘Putin Ally Accuses US of Trying to Destroy Russia’
62. Belton, ‘Putin Ally Accuses US of Trying to Destroy Russia’
63. Mattathias Schwartz, ‘Who Killed the Kiev Protestors? A 3-D Model Holds the Clues’, New York Times Magazine, May 30 2018
64. Buckley and Olearchyk, ‘Ukraine Commemorates Bloody Events that Led to War’, Financial Times, February 20 2015
65. Ibid.
66. Author interviews with senior banker close to the Kremlin and with former senior Kremlin official, March and April 2014
67. Author interview with former aide to Gorbachev, March 2014
68. ‘Obrascheniye Presidenta Rossiskoi Federatsii’, March 18 2014, www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603
69. In this context, Putin also said: ‘In the case of Ukraine our Western partners crossed a red line. They behaved crudely, irresponsibly and unprofessionally. They knew very well that millions of Russians live in Ukraine and in Crimea … Russia turned out to be on a threshold from which it could not back down.’
70. ‘Obrascheniye Presidenta Rossiskoi Federatsii’, March 18 2014, www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/20603
71. Dana Priest, James Jacoby and Anya Bourg, ‘Russian Disinformation on Facebook Targeted Ukraine Well Before the 2016 US Election’, Washington Post, October 28 2018
72. Neil Buckley, ‘Russia Relies on Destabilisation to Achieve Strategic Ends in Ukraine’, Financial Times, July 15 2014
73. Neil Buckley, Stefan Wagstyl and Peter Spiegel, ‘How the West Lost Putin’, Financial Times, February 3 2015
74. US Department of Treasury, ‘Treasury Sanctions Russian Officials, Members of the Russian Leadership’s Inner Circle, and an Entity for Involvement in the Situation in Ukraine’, March 20 2014, https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl23331.aspx
75. Ibid.
76. Richard McGregor, Peter Spiegel and Jack Farchy, ‘US Targets Vladimir Putin’s Inner Circle’, Financial Times, March 20 2014
77. Andrew Jack and Roman Olearchyk, ‘Pro-Russia Separatists Strengthen Grip’, Financial Times, April 14 2014; and Neil Buckley, Roman Olearchyk, Andrew Jack and Kathrin Hille, ‘Ukraine Crisis: “Little Green Men” Carefully Mask their Identity’, Financial Times, April 16 2014
78. Neil Buckley, ‘Russia Relies on Destabilisation to Achieve Strategic Ends in Ukraine’, Financial Times, July 15 2014
79. Geoff Dyer, Peter Spiegel and Kiran Stacey, ‘US Sanctions Target Major Russian Companies’, Financial Times, July 17 2014
80. Peter Spiegel and Geoff Dyer, ‘EU and US Toughen Sanctions on Russia’, Financial Times, July 30 2014
81. Buckley, Wagstyl and Spiegel, ‘How the West Lost Putin’, Financial Times, February 3 2015
82. Roman Olearchyk, ‘Weapons Withdrawal Agreement raises Hopes of End to 18 Months of Bloodshed’, Financial Times, October 2 2015
83. ‘Death Toll Up to 13,000 in Ukraine Conflict, Says UN Rights Office’, Radio Free Europe, February 26 2019
84. Author interview with Kremlin official, November 2017
85. Author interview with Pugachev, September 2014
86. Author interview with senior banker with connections to the security services, February 2016
87. Author interview with Russian tycoon, September 2015
88. Author interview with Yakunin, March 2014
89. Author interview with former Timchenko partner, November 2014
90. Hille and Buckley, ‘Vladimir Putin, Strongman of Russia Gambling on Western Weakness’
91. Ibid.
92. Kiran Stacey and Peter Spiegel, ‘No 10 Denies Putting City’s Interests First’, Financial Times, March 4 2014; Caroline Binham, ‘Sanctions Proposals Threaten London’s Role as Global Legal Hub’, Financial Times, April 10 2014
93. Author interview with Pugachev, April 2015
94. Ibid.
95. Alex Barker and Peter Spiegel, ‘Ukraine PM Warns EU Against Putin’s Divide and Conquer Tactics’, Financial Times, March 19 2015
Chapter 13: Black Cash
1. For the fullest account of how the leak came about, see Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier, The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of how the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money, One World, 2016
2. Luke Harding, ‘Mossack Fonseca: Inside the Firm that Helps the Super-Rich Hide Their Money’, Guardian, April 8 2016
3. Bank Rossiya registration documents downloaded from egrul Russian corporate website show that Roldugin became a Bank Rossiya shareholder in a 2005 share emission, acquiring a 3.96 per cent stake for 375 million roubles; see also Yelena Vinogradova, Ivan Vasilev and Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Millioner ot Muzyki’, Vedomosti, April 4 2016
4. For the fullest account of the ICIJ findings related to Roldugin, see Luke Harding, ‘Sergei Roldugin, the Cellist Who Holds the Key to Tracing Putin’s Hidden Fortune’, Guardian, April 3 2016; Roman Anin, Olesya Shmagun and Dmitry Velikovsky, ‘The Secret Caretaker’, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, April 3 2016
5. Author interview with tycoon close to Putin, April 2016
6. Ibid.
7. Steven Lee Myers, Jo Becker and Jim Yardley, ‘It Pays to be Putin’s Friend’, New York Times, September 28 2014
8. See Yelena Vinogradova, Ivan Vasilev and Rinat Sagdiev, ‘Millioner ot Muzyki’, Vedomosti, April 4 2016
9. Anin, Shmagun and Velikovsky, ‘The Secret Caretaker’
10. The tycoons were Arkady Rotenberg and Suleiman Kerimov. Ibid. The Panama Papers showed that Roldugin was the owner of two offshore firms: Sonette Overseas from 2007 to 2012, in the BVI, and International Media Overseas (IMO), in Panama. He was represented in both by two St Petersburg businessmen affiliated with Bank Rossiya’s top management, Oleg Gordin and Aleksandr Plekhov. Plekhov and Gordin both held shares in two other BVI companies linked to the network, Sandalwood Continental and Sunbarn Ltd. The Roldugin-linked Sandalwood received the rights to 4 billion roubles ($59 million) and $200 million in two complex deals for a payment of just $2 from companies owned by tycoon Suleiman Kerimov; the documents showed that Sunbarn Ltd was to receive a $185 million loan for ten years at 2 per cent interest from close Putin ally Arkady Rotenberg. The OCCRP story said it was not clear whether this agreement was ever enacted, as there were no other documents relating to it.
11. Ibid.; Harding, ‘Sergei Roldugin, the Cellist Who Holds the Key to Tracing Putin’s Hidden Fortune’
12. Anin, Shmagun and Velikovsky, ‘The Secret Caretaker’
13. The son of Putin ally and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev, Dmitry Patrushev, was appointed senior vice president at VTB in 2007. He graduated from the FSB academy the year before, according to his official biography. The son of Patrushev’s successor as FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, Denis Bortnikov, was appointed deputy chairman of VTB North West in 2007.
14. Luke Harding, ‘Revealed: The $2 Billion Offshore Trail that Leads to Vladimir Putin’, Guardian, April 4 2016
15. Harding, ‘Sergei Roldugin, the Cellist Who Holds the Key to Tracing Putin’s Hidden Fortune’
16. Vladimir Soldatkin, ‘Putin Says Panama Papers Leaks are Attempt to Destabilise Russia’, Reuters, April 7 2016
17. Harding, ‘Sergei Roldugin, the Cellist Who Holds the Key to Tracing Putin’s Hidden Fortune’. The $231 million in loans from Rotenberg to one of the Bank Rossiya/Roldugin-connected companies, for instance, was given shortly after Rotenberg was granted a state contract to build part of a $40 billion gas pipeline linking Russia across the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.
18. Anin, Shmagun and Velikovsky, ‘The Secret Caretaker’
19. Author call to Igora reception desk, November 2018
20. Jack Stubbs, Andrei Kuzmin, Stephen Grey and Roman Anin, ‘The Man who Married Putin’s Daughter and then Made a Fortune’, Reuters, December 17 2015
21. Ibid. The year before the wedding, Timchenko also transferred to Kirill an ornate $3.7 million villa perched on a clifftop overlooking the beach at Biarritz for an undisclosed sum.
22. ‘Zemanovce sponszorovala pavucina firem napojena na Putinova pravnika’, iDNES.cz, November 3 2018
23. Filip Novokomet, Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, ‘From Soviets to Oligarchs: Inequality and Property in Russia, 1905–2016’, National Bureau of Economic Research, August 2017, http://www.nber.org/papers/w23712. The Russian central bank recorded $534 billion in outflows after it began recording data in 1994.
24. Ibid. Inequality between Russia’s rich and poor also accelerated. According to Credit Suisse, by 2014 Russia’s wealth inequality was the world’s highest, with the top 10 per cent holding 85 per cent of household wealth (compared to 75 per cent in the United States).
25. Tatyana Likhanova, ‘Chelovek, Pokhozhy na Millera, stroit dachu, pokhozhuyu na Dvorets v Petergofe’, Novaya Gazeta, No. 39, 9–15 June 2009, http://novayagazeta.spb.ru/articles/5210/. Gazprom vociferously denied that the palace had anything to do with Miller, but in 2009 local journalists found evidence of a connection: a notice tacked to a fence surrounding the development named the palace’s builder as one of Gazprom’s biggest contractors, Stroigazkonsulting. The firm was one of the crony companies that received tens of billions of dollars in pipeline construction contracts from Gazprom every year. It was co-owned by the daughter of another of Putin’s closest comrades, Alexander Grigoryev, the former head of the St Petersburg FSB. According to Kolesnikov (author interview), the other co-owner of Stroigazkonsulting, a Jordanian named Ziyad Manasir, was also a cashier for the Putin regime.
26. Roman Anin, ‘ “Dacha Yakunina” ushla v Offshory’, Novaya Gazeta, June 17 2013. Anin, an investigative reporter at Russia’s independent Novaya Gazeta, dug up ownership documents for the plot of land occupied by the mansion, and found that Yakunin had owned it from 2007 to 2011. It had then been transferred to a Cyprus company, the ownership of which was difficult to trace, but which had a direct link to a company run by Yakunin’s son. The mansion was estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, while Yakunin’s official salary was estimated at $1.5 to $2.5 million per year.
27. Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martenyuk, ‘Putin. Itogi. Zimnaya Olimpiada v Subtropikakh’, Moscow, 2013, https://www.putin-itogi.ru/zimnyaya-olimpiada-v-subtropikax/
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.; Aleksandra Mertsalova, ‘Maloe Koltso Postroit Kompaniya Timchenko’, Izvestia, June 9 2012; Novoye Vremya, ‘Sochi-2014: Doroga v Spisok’, Forbes, February 18 2013; ‘Timchenko Oprovergayet Poluchenie Podryada po Druzhbe’, RIA Novosti, February 5 2014
30. Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martenyuk, ‘Putin. Itogi. Zimnaya Olimpiada v Subtropikakh’, Moscow, 2013, https://www.putin-itogi.ru/zimnyaya-olimpiada-v-subtropikax/; Ilya Arkhipov and Henry Meyer, ‘Putin Buddy Gets $7 Billion of Deals for Sochi Olympics’, Bloomberg, March 19 2013
31. Arkhipov and Meyer, ‘Putin Buddy Gets $7 Billion of Deals for Sochi Olympics’; ‘Benefitsiary Olympiady. Reiting-2014’, https://www.rospres.net/finance/13802/, January 30 2014
32. Author interview with senior Russian banker, January 27 2018
33. Timchenko’s wife and daughter were awarded the Order of Friendship for ‘strengthening friendship and cooperation with Russia’. Yakunin was weighed down with an entire armoury of awards: he’d received the Medal of Pyotr Stolypin, the tsarist-era reformer, for his work ‘deciding strategic tasks for the socio-economic development of the country’; the medal for ‘Irreproachable Labour and Excellence of the First Degree’ for his ‘contribution in developing Russia’s transport system’; the Order of Alexander Nevsky, a Russian grand prince canonised for fighting off German and Swedish invaders, for helping prepare the Olympic Games; the Order of Friendship, and numerous others. For Rotenberg there was the Order of Sergei Radonezhsky, one of Russia’s most venerated saints, for his assistance restoring a cathedral; the Order of Friendship; and an Honourable Gramota for his preparation of sportsmen for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Author interview with Russian tycoon who told me of Rotenberg’s desire to acquire a personal coat of arms, March 2015
34. Author interview with three people familiar with the situation, May 2013, January 2018, October 2018
35. Dmitry Velikovsky, Olesya Shmagun and Roman Anin, ‘Iz Strany Vyveli 700 Milliardov Rublei. “Novaya Gazeta” otvechayet na Vopros: Komu Dostalas Eta Grandioznaya Summa’, Novaya Gazeta, March 19 2017; Luke Harding and Nick Hopkins, ‘How Dirty Money from Russia Flooded into the UK – and Where it Went’, Guardian, March 20 2017
36. Author interview with senior banker, January 2018; Yury Senatorov, ‘Sledy Dvukh Milliardov Vyveli na Khishcheniya’, Kommersant, August 15 2019; Ilya Rozhdestvennsky, ‘Obysky u krupneishevo Podryadchika RZhD’, Vedomosti, August 15 2019
37. Jack Stubbs, Andrey Kuzmin, Stephen Grey and Roman Anin, ‘Russian Railways Paid Billions of Dollars to Secretive Private Companies’, Reuters, May 23 2014
38. Irina Reznik, Evgeniya Pismennaya and Gregory White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’, Bloomberg, November 20 2017
39. Ilya Rozhdestvennsky, ‘Obysky u krupneishevo Podryadchika RZhD’, Vedomosti, August 15 2019
40. ‘The Russian Laundromat’, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, August 22 2014, https://www.reportingproject.net/therussianlaundromat/russian-laundromat.php
41. Harding and Hopkins, ‘How Dirty Money from Russia Flooded into the UK’
42. Dmitry Velikovsky, Olesya Shmagun and Roman Anin, ‘Chi 700 Milliardov rublei Vyvodili iz Rossii Cherez Moldaviyu’, Novaya Gazeta, March 19 2017; Matthias Williams, ‘Moldova Sees Russian Plot to Derail Money Laundering Probe’, Reuters, March 15 2017
43. ‘Dvoyurodny Brat Premer-Ministra RF Vladimira Putina, Igor Putin, Voshel v Sovet Direktorov Russkovo Zemelnovo Banka’, RIA Novosti, April 16 2012
44. ‘The Russian Laundromat Exposed’, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, March 20 2017, https://www.occrp.org/en/laundromat/the-russian-laundromat-exposed/
45. Author interview with senior Russian official, October 2018
46. ‘The Russian Laundromat Exposed’; Harding and Hopkins, ‘How Dirty Money from Russia Flooded into the UK’; Velikovsky, Shmagun and Anin, ‘Chi 700 Milliardov rublei Vyvodili iz Rossii Cherez Moldaviyu’
47. ‘Dvoyurodny Brat Premer-Ministra RF Vladimira Putina, Igor Putin, Voshel v Sovet Direktorov Russkovo Zemelnovo Banka’, RIA Novosti, April 16 2012. Grigoryev and Putin had already been partners in an earlier venture, a construction company named SU-888, which received billions of roubles in state contracts in Moscow and in Russia’s far east. They’d first connected when Igor Putin chaired a pipeline construction outfit that worked as a key subcontractor for companies owned by the president’s closest business allies, Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg.
48. ‘U Promsberbanka Smenilis Aktsionery, a v Sovet Direktorov Voshel Kuzen Putina’, banki.ru, October 24 2012
49. Tatyana Aleshkina, ‘Zerkalniye Sdelki Deutsche Banka Svyazali s Vyvodom Deneg Cherez Promsberbank’, RBK Daily, December 16 2015; Ed Caesar, ‘Deutsche Bank’s $10 Billion Scandal’, New Yorker, August 29 2016; Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’; author interviews with senior banker, January and June 2018
50. See findings by New York State Department of Financial Services, which fined Deutsche $425 million over the mirror trades for a description of the scheme: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/ press_releases/pr1701301
51. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’
52. Author interview with Wiswell colleague, January 2017
53. Author interview with former senior Deutsche banker, September 2015
54. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’
55. New York State Department of Financial Services: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/ press_releases/pr1701301
56. Author interviews with former trader on equities desk at Deutsche Bank Moscow, May 2017
57. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’
58. Ibid.; author interview with former senior Russian banker, January 2018
59. Author interviews with Roman Borisovich, April and June 2017
60. Author interview with senior Russian banker with ties to the security services, May 2017
61. Author interview with former senior Deutsche banker, May 2017
62. The mirror trades converted rouble cash into dollars in a way that allowed it to disappear from company books, turning it into untraceable black cash, a process known in Russia as obnalichivaniye.
63. Author interview with former senior Deutsche banker, May 2017
64. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’
65. Author interview with senior Russian banker, January 2018
66. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’; author interviews with senior Russian banker, January 2018 and June 2018
67. Grant D. Ashley, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Senate Subcommittee on European Affairs, Washington DC, October 30 2003, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/eurasian-italian-and-balkan-organized-crime
68. See Declaration of Robert A. Levinson (former FBI agent specialising in international organised crime) in United States District Court for the District Court of Delaware for further info on Ivankov case, https://www.deepcapture.com/wp-content/uploads/Ivankov-Case.pdf
69. Reznik, Pismennaya and White, ‘The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much’
70. Author interviews with senior Russian banker, January and June 2018
71. Ibid.
72. See for example Leonid Nikitinsky, ‘Who is Mister Dvoskin?’, Novaya Gazeta, July 22 2011
73. Author interview with former senior Russian banker, January 2018
74. Author interview with former interior ministry investigator, September 2012; author interviews with senior Russian banker familiar with Dvoskin, January and June 2018; Anastasia Stognei and Roman Badanin, ‘Federalny Reserv: Rassledovanie o tom, kak FSB kryshuet banki’, Proekt media, August 1 2019
75. Author interview with former senior Russian bankers, July 2019 and June 2018
76. Olga Plotonova, ‘11 Per cent Organizatsii ne Platit Nalogov’– Sergei Ignatyev, Predsedatel Banka Rossii’, Vedomosti, February 20 2013
77. Author interview with former FSB officer, June 2014; author interview with senior Russian banker with ties to the security service, May 2016
78. Author interview with senior Russian banker with ties to the security service, May 2016
79. Catherine Belton, ‘Austria Link to Moscow Bank Killing’, Financial Times, May 27 2007
80. ‘Murdered Russian Central Banker’s Visit to Estonia’, US Embassy cable, Part of WikiLeaks datadump, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06TALLINN1009_a.html; see also: Nico Hines, ‘Russian Whistleblower Assassinated After Uncovering $200 Billion Dirty Money Scandal’, Daily Beast, October 10 2018
81. Natalya Morar, ‘Vyshie Chinovniki Uvodyat Dengi Na Zapad’, New Times, May 21 2007
82. Catherine Belton, ‘Austria Link to Moscow Bank Killing’, Financial Times, May 27 2007
83. The Diskont Bank scheme had involved a simpler route. Hundreds of millions of dollars were zipped offshore from a web of Russian front companies through Diskont Bank’s correspondent account with Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank. The Austrian interior ministry launched its own investigation, and found that more than $112 million from three offshore companies had been transferred through Diskont’s account in Raiffeisen to another fifty offshore firms in the space of four days shortly before it froze the account. Alexei Frenkel, the banker serving a 19-year jail sentence for Kozlov’s killing, has claimed he was set up to be the fall guy for the murder by Dvoskin and Myazin. See: Sergei Khazov-Kassia, ‘Pismo iz Labytnangi. Bankir Frenkel obvinyayet General FSB’, Radio Svoboda, August 7 2019
84. Luke Harding, ‘Russian Millions Laundered via UK Firms, Leaked Report Says’, Guardian, February 26 2018
85. Bruun and Hjejle, ‘Report on the Non-Resident Portfolio at Danske Bank’s Estonian Branch’, September 19 2018
86. Catherine Belton, ‘Tax Scam Points to Complicity of Senior Russian Officials’, Financial Times, April 13 2012
87. Author interview with senior Russian banker, June 2018
88. Full text of ‘Russian money laundering: hearings before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, US House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, first session, September 21, 22, 1999’
89. Ibid.
90. Andrew Higgins, Ann Davis and Paul Beckett, ‘Money Players: The Improbable Cast of Capitalist Converts Behind BONY Scandal’, Wall Street Journal, December 30 1999; Robert O’Harrow Jr, ‘3 Firms Links to Russia Probed’, Washington Post, October 21 1999; Paul Beckett and Ann Davis, ‘Fourth Firm, Sinex Bank, Called a Focus in Laundering Inquiry’, Wall Street Journal, October 15 1999
91. Testimony of Jonathan M. Winer, Former Deputy Assistant US Secretary of State, US House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services, March 9 2000
92. Higgins, Davis and Beckett, ‘Money Players’
93. Bonner and O’Brien, ‘Activity at Bank Raises Suspicions of Russia Mob Tie’. Mogilevich’s men had artificially pumped up its stock price, filing false accounts, and later Mogilevich and his closest associates were indicted for defrauding investors.
94. Timothy L. O’Brien and Raymond Bonner, ‘Career Singed in Global Bank Fires’, New York Times, August 23 1999; Testimony of Jonathan M. Winer, US House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services, March 9 2000
95. Testimony of Jonathan M. Winer, US House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services, March 9 2000
96. See Chapter 10
97. According to a former Western official and a former Mogilevich associate
98. Author interviews with three former Mogilevich associates, March and April 2018
99. Ibid., and FBI report on Mogilevich empire obtained by author
100. Author interview with former Mogilevich associate, April 2018
101. FBI report on Mogilevich empire. Mogilevich had always insisted he was no more than a businessman. He’d been so sure of himself he even told associates that one day he wanted to make the Sunday Times rich list. ‘He is just the bogeyman the West likes to connect to everything,’ Mogilevich’s lawyer Zeev Gordon told me.
102. Author interview with former Mogilevich associate, July 2018
103. Testimony of Jonathan M. Winer, US House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services, March 9 2000
104. Author interview with Winer, December 2018
105. Timothy L. O’Brien and Raymond Bonner, ‘Banker and Husband Tell of Role in Laundering Case’, New York Times, February 17 2000
106. Tom Hays, ‘Bank of New York to Pay $38 million in Fines’, Washington Post, November 8 2005
107. Author interview with Yury Shvets, May 2018. Mogilevich’s links with the Russian foreign-intelligence service had even been mentioned in conversations between the Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma and the head of the Ukrainian security service, which were taped and then leaked after the Ukrainian official who made them fled to the US. In one of the conversations dated February 10 2000, the head of the Ukrainian security service, Igor Smeshko, told Kuchma how Mogilevich had been a ‘special agent of the KGB, from the first department, the PGU [the foreign-intelligence arm]’. He told of how ‘when the Soviet Union collapsed, before the KGB had created department K [the arm of the security services that oversaw corruption and banking transactions – and in fact played a big role in facilitating black-cash transfers], when one colonel … tried to arrest Mogilevich, he was beaten about the head and told: “Don’t go there! This is the top ranks of the PGU.”’
108. Testimony of Jonathan M. Winer, US House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Financial Services, March 9 2000
109. Author interview with former Mogilevich associate, March 2018
110. Author interview with Galeotti, October 2018
111. Caroline Binham, ‘Trail of Dirty Money from Danske Bank leads to London Laundromat’, Financial Times, October 3 2018
112. Author interview with independent expert on money laundering Graham Barrow, November 2018
113. Binham, ‘Trail of Dirty Money from Danske Bank Leads to London Laundromat’
114. Author interview with Graham Barrow, November 2018
115. Author interview with British MP, September 2018
116. Author interview with former senior KGB officer, August 2019
117. Roman Anin, ‘The Russian Laundromat Superusers Revealed’, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, March 20 2017
Chapter 14: Soft Power in an Iron Fist
1. Author interview with Malofeyev, April 23 2014
2. Ibid.
3. Sevastyan Kozitsyn, ‘Na Volniye Khleba. Avtor IPO “Irkuta” pokkinul MDM Bank radi svoevo biznesa’, Vedomosti, February 15 2005; Bela Lyaub, ‘Marshall Vlozhitsa v Oteli’, Vedomosti, April 18 2006; Anastasia Golitsyna, ‘Sborshchik Kontenta. Marshall Capital Partners skupaet Provaiderov’, Vedomosti, June 25 2007
4. Gyuzel Gubeidullina and Maria Dranishnikova, ‘“Aktsionernaya Stoimost Nutriteka Uletuchilas” – Konstantin Malofeyev’, interview, Vedomosti, June 7 2010
5. See the foundation’s website for board members: www.fondsvv.ru/about#about_directora
6. Oleg Salmanov and Igor Tsukanov, ‘Nezavisimiye na Svyazi. Gosudarstvo menyaet chinovnikov v sovetakh goskompanii na nezavisimykh direktorov’, Vedomosti, January 12 2009
7. Timofei Dzyadko and Igor Tsukanov, ‘Direktor Gostelekoma. Rukovoditel Rostelecoma, na baze kotorovo obyedinyayutsya krupneishie gosudarstvenniye telekommunikatsionniye kompanii, budut byvshy investbankir iz Marshall Capital’, Vedomosti, July 14 2010
8. Timofei Dzyadko, Irina Reznik and Igor Tsukanov, ‘Kak Kupili Telekomy. Stats krupneishim minoritariem dochek Svyazinvesta Gazprombanku, Vozmozhno, Pomog sam Rostelecom’, Vedomosti, September 20 2010; Vladimir Lavitsky and Inna Erokhina, ‘Rostelecom zafiksiroval Novovo Aktsionera’, Kommersant, September 7 2010
9. Author interview with Yurchenko, June 2014; see also Igor Tsukanov and Timofei Dzyadko, ‘Yevgeny Yurchenko Protiv Marshalov Svyazi’, Vedomosti, September 15 2010
10. Author interview with Yurchenko, June 2014
11. See the excellent Orysia Lutsevych, ‘Agents of the Russian World: Proxy Groups in the Contested Neighbourhood’, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House, April 2016, www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2016-04-14-agents-russian-world-lutsevych.pdf
12. Author interview with Malofeyev, April 23 2014
13. Lutsevych, ‘Agents of the Russian World’
14. Author interview with former senior Soviet foreign-intelligence officer, May 2018
15. Lutsevych, ‘Agents of the Russian World’
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ-fXZbV9_4
17. Lutsevych, ‘Agents of the Russian World’
18. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
19. Valery Litoninsky, ‘Nazvali sebya Vlastyu: Noviye Nachalniki Donetska’, korrespondent.net, May 19 2014
20. Boris Gont, ‘Donetskaya Respublika 2005 I DNR 2014: ot fashistov k MMM-schikam’, Bukvy, May 16 2015
21. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
22. V Rosii Vidayut Pasporty Gromadyan Donetskoi Respubliki, tsn.ua, March 1 2012, https://tsn.ua/politika/v-rosiyi-vidayut-pasporti-gromadyan-doneckoyi-respubliki.html
23. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
24. Jan Cienski, ‘Oligarch Tries to Stamp Kiev Authority on Restive East’, Financial Times, March 7 2014
25. Roman Olearchyk, ‘Ukraine Tensions Rise as Two Die in Donetsk Clashes’, Financial Times, March 14 2014; Jan Cienski, ‘Russian-Speaking Activists Demand their Own Referendums’, Financial Times, March 17 2014; Neil Buckley, ‘Ukraine’s Ousted President Demands Regional Referendum’, Financial Times, March 28 2014
26. Roman Olearchyk, ‘Turchynov Blames Russia for Unrest in East Ukraine’, Financial Times, April 7 2014
27. John Reed, ‘Donetsk Governor Plays Down Rebel Threat’, Financial Times, April 25 2014; John Reed, ‘Mob Storms State Security HQ in Donetsk’, Financial Times, May 3 2014; Guy Chazan, ‘Separatists Urge Russia to Annex Donetsk’, Financial Times, May 13 2014
28. Darya Aslamova, ‘Vice-Premyer Donetskoi Narodnoi Respubliki Andrei Purgin: Ukraina postavila na Donbasse Krest. Yei lyudi zdyes ne nuzhny’, Komsomolskaya Pravda, July 8 2014
29. Courtney Weaver, ‘Donetsk Chaos Leads to Split in Separatist Ranks’, Financial Times, May 31 2014
30. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
31. Aleksandr Vasovic and Maria Tsvetkova, ‘Elusive Muscovite with Three Names Takes Control of Ukraine Rebels’, Reuters, May 15 2014
32. Arkhipov, Meyer and Reznik, ‘Putin’s Soros Dreams of Empire as Allies Wage Ukraine Revolt’, Bloomberg, June 16 2004
33. Ibid.
34. ‘Marshal Malofeyev. Kak Rossiisky Raider Zakhvatil Yugo-Vostok Ukrainy’, The Insider, May 27 2014 (citing a biography written by Strelkov taken from emails hacked by a group calling itself ‘Anonimny International’)
35. Vasovic and Tsvetkova, ‘Elusive Muscovite with Three Names Takes Control of Ukraine Rebels’
36. Arkhipov, Meyer and Reznik, ‘Putin’s Soros Dreams of Empire as Allies Wage Ukraine Revolt’
37. Ibid.
38. Courtney Weaver, Kathrin Hille and Neil Buckley, ‘Pretext and Plotting Behind Crimea’s Occupation’, Financial Times, March 7 2014
39. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
40. Dmitry Volchek, ‘Operatsiya “Dary Volkhov”. Kak RPTs stala otdelom administratsii Putina’, Radio Svoboda, March 10 2018
41. ‘Marshall Malofeyev. Kak Rossiisky Raider Zakhvatil Yugo-Vostok Ukrainy’, The Insider, May 27 2014, cites phone calls between Strelkov and Malofeyev intercepted by the Ukrainian security services.
42. Author interview with Malofeyev, April 23 2014; Arkhipov, Meyer and Reznik, ‘Putin’s Soros Dreams of Empire as Allies Wage Ukraine Revolt’; Courtney Weaver, ‘Oligarch Emerges as Link Between Russia and Rebels’, Financial Times, July 25 2014
43. EU sanctions issued July 30 2014, Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 826/2014
44. Weaver, ‘Oligarch Emerges as Link Between Russia and Rebels’
45. Arkhipov, Meyer and Reznik, ‘Putin’s Soros Dreams of Empire as Allies Wage Ukraine Revolt’
46. Author interview, April 23 2014
47. www.fondsvv.ru/about#about_directora
48. Author interview with Geneva money man, May 5 2014
49. See Chapter 2
50. Author interview with Batozsky, January 2015
51. Author interview with Carpenter, September 2015
52. Author interview with former senior Russian foreign-intelligence officer, May 2018; see also Roman Shleynov, ‘Kak Knyazya Aleksandra Trubetskovo zaverbovali v Svyazinvest’, Vedomosti, August 15 2011; Shchegolev served undercover as a correspondent for Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS
53. Author interviews with Geneva money men, December 2012 to April 2015; see Chapter 12
54. Author interview with former senior Russian foreign-intelligence officer, May 2018; see also Shleynov, ‘Kak Knyazya Aleksandra Trubetskovo zaverbovali v Svyazinvest’
55. Goutchkov sat on the board of Infra Engineering, the company that was receiving more than 80 per cent of Rostelecom’s contracts. Vladislav Novy, ‘Svayzisty Podklyuchili Diplomatichesky Kanal. Eks-Glava MID Igor Ivanov voshel v Sovet Direktorov “Infra Engineering”’, Kommersant, August 7 2012
56. Shleynov, ‘Kak Knyazya Aleksandra Trubetskovo zaverbovali v Svyazinvest’
57. Andrew Higgins, ‘Foot Soldiers in a Shadowy Battle Between Russia and the West’, New York Times, May 29 2017
58. See Neil MacFarquhar, ‘How Russians Pay to Play in Other Countries’, New York Times, December 30 2016; and ‘Martin Nejedly: Zemanovci volici jedi gothaj, foie gras je pro jine’, interview with Nejedly, denik.cz, October 4 2014
59. ‘Zemanovce sponszorovala pavucina firem napojena na Putinova pravnika’, iDNES.cz, November 3 2018
60. Higgins, ‘Foot Soldiers in a Shadowy Battle Between Russia and the West’; Ondrej Soukup, ‘Hackeri odhali “otce” proruskych akci v Cesku. Na organiszaci demonstraci ve stredni Evrope dostal 100 tisic eur’, Hospodarske Noviny, March 13 2017
61. Andrew Higgins, ‘Out to Inflame EU, Russians Stir up Fringe’, New York Times, December 25 2016; for more details read Dezso Andras, ‘A Glorious Match Made in Russia’, Index, September 28 2014, https://index.hu/english/2014/09/28/a_glorious_match_made_in_russia/
62. Author interview with Geneva money man, May 5 2014
63. Author interviews with Geneva money man, December 19 2013, and July 21 2014, a second Geneva money man confirmed Bionda’s role in setting up the deal as well as his initial role in introducing Total to Timchenko, December 20 2013, the story was confirmed by a third Geneva associate, March 2014. Total declined to comment.
64. See website for Economic Council of Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce: https://www.ccifr.ru/ekonomicheskij-sovet/sostav/
65. See cable from US ambassador to Moscow, William Burns, discussing the Institute’s creation: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW375_a.html
66. Author interview with former senior Russian foreign-intelligence officer, May 2018
67. Ibid.
68. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08MOSCOW375_a.html
69. Author interview with de Pahlen, May 12 2014
70. The loan was given by First Czech Russian bank, a Czech bank that at the time of the loan (2014) was majority-owned by a Russian named Roman Popov, who previously worked as the deputy head of the finance department of Stroitransgaz, a Russian pipeline-construction company acquired by Timchenko in 2007. The bank continued to be the main financial institution servicing Stroitransgaz’s accounts after Timchenko acquired the company in 2007 until the end of 2014 (after the loan was extended), according to a Stroitransgaz spokesperson (Andrei Krasavin, ‘Radikalniye Svyazi’, Kompaniya, March 28 2016). Popov retained his position as head of the bank, while Stroitransgaz’s president Viktor Lorents (before and after Timchenko’s acquisition of the company) owned a 25 per cent stake in the Czech bank. Timchenko’s lawyers said Timchenko played no role in the bank’s decision to extend the loan to Front National.
71. Karl Laske and Marine Turchi, ‘The Third Russian Loan of Le Pen’, Media Part, December 11 2014
72. Agathe Duparc, ‘Les Casseroles de Konstantin Malofeev, oligarque Russe soutien du Front National’, Media Part, February 21 2016
73. Author interview with Antonio Fallico, June 2014
74. WikiLeaks cable: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09ROME97_a.html
75. Author interview with de Pahlen, May 12 2014; Bernard Odehnal, ‘Gipfeltreffen mit Putins funfter Kolonne’, TagesAnzeiger, June 3 2014
76. Author interview with Malofeyev, June 2015
77. James Marson, ‘Deepening Ties Between Greece and Russia Sow Concerns in the West’, Wall Street Journal, February 14 2015; Sam Jones, Kerin Hope and Courtney Weaver, ‘Alarm Bells Ring over Syriza’s Russia Links’, Financial Times, January 28 2015
78. Robert Coalson, ‘New Greek Government has Deep, Longstanding Ties with Russian Eurasianist Dugin’, Radio Free Europe, January 28 2015
79. The Malofeyev associate is Alexei Komov, Russia’s representative to the US ‘pro-family’ conservative movement, the World Congress of Families, and Malofeyev’s right-hand man in his Vasily the Great charitable foundation. See Anton Pospelov, ‘Miroviye Elity. Beseda s Poslom Vsemirnovo Kongressa Semei v UN Alekseem Komovym’, Pravoslavie.ru, September 5 2013; Tizian di Giovanni and Stefano Vergine, ‘3 Million for Salvini’, L’Espresso, February 28 2019; Alberto Nardelli and Mark di Stefano, ‘The Far-Right Bromance at the Heart of Italy’s Russian Oil Scandal’, BuzzFeed, July 12 2019
80. Di Giovanni and Vergine, ‘3 Million for Salvini’; Nardelli and di Stefano, ‘The Far-Right Bromance at the Heart of Italy’s Russian Oil Scandal’
81. Di Giovanni and Vergine, ‘3 Million for Salvini’
82. The deal was first reported by the L’Espresso journalists. BuzzFeed’s Alberto Nardelli followed, publishing a tape recording of Savoini’s conversation in October 2018 discussing the deal: see ‘Revealed: The Explosive Secret Recording that Shows how Russia Tried to Funnel Millions to the “European Trump”’, BuzzFeed, July 10 2019
83. Author interview with former senior KGB officer, August 2019
84. Nardelli, ‘Revealed: The Explosive Secret Recording that Shows how Russia Tried to Funnel Millions to the “European Trump”’
85. Sam Jones and Valerie Hopkins, ‘Austrian Vice-Chancellor Filmed Seeking Covert Deals’, Financial Times, May 18 2019
86. Author interview with Geneva associate, March 23 2014
87. The US Department of Justice was reported in November 2014 to have launched a money-laundering probe into whether Timchenko transferred funds from corrupt deals into the US financial system: Christopher M. Matthews and Andrew Grossman, ‘US Money Laundering Probe Touches Putin’s Inner Circle; Federal Prosecutors Investigating Financial Transactions Involving Billionaire Gennady Timchenko’, Wall Street Journal, November 5 2014. The probe did not appear to yield any results. In an interview with Russian state news agency ITAR-TASS, Timchenko said he couldn’t travel to Europe because he had ‘serious reason to fear a provocation by the US secret services. Believe me, this is not an invention, but absolutely concrete information which I can’t tell you the details of for obvious reasons’: Andrei Vandenko, ‘Gennady Timchenko: Za Vsyo v Zhizni Nado Platits. I za znakomstvo s rukovodtsvom strany to zhe’, August 4 2014, ITAR-TASS, https://tass.ru/top-officials/1353227
88. Author interviews with Geneva associate, July 21 2014; October 1 2014; December 9 2014. Timchenko said Bionda had no connection to any of his activities in China.
89. Vandenko, ‘Gennady Timchenko: Za Vsyo v Zhizni Nado Platits. I za znakomstvo s rukovodtsvom strany to zhe’
90. Author interview with Geneva associate, March 19 2014
91. Author interview with another Geneva associate, March 28 2014
92. Author interview with Geneva associate, March 16 2015
93. Author interview with another Geneva associate, March 28 2014
94. Author interview with Geneva associate, February 25 2013
95. Jesus Rodriguez, ‘Gerard Lopez, manual para hacerse millionario’, El Pais, December 27 2015
96. Through a company he owned called Sunray Energy, Bionda had long held a stake in the Lotus Formula One racing team. The smashed-up bumper he kept in his office, the other half kept thousands of miles to the east in Putin’s gymnasium, was a memento from one of the races. The car was being driven by Vitaly Petrov, the son of a Russian business partner of Ilya Traber, the alleged Russian mobster who’d worked closely with Putin when he controlled the St Petersburg port and oil terminal, when it crashed into a barrier at the Monaco Grand Prix. The young Petrov was so close to the Putin regime that Putin had also taken his car for a spin when Russia first held a Formula One race, in St Petersburg in 2010. In some ways, Petrov was part of the family. The Genii group through which Bionda held his stake in the Lotus Formula One racing team was founded Lopez.
97. Catherine Belton, ‘In British PM Race, a Former Russian Tycoon Quietly Wields Influence’, Reuters, July 19 2019. Since the publication of this article, Temerko’s lawyers have said it was ‘inaccurate’ and ‘defamatory’. Reuters said in a statement: ‘We stand by the story’. The article cites Temerko as saying his relations with people in the Russian security services were ‘formal’ and not ‘personal’. He denied having any ongoing links with the Russian security services.
98. Banks’s future wife, Ekaterina Paderina, had been saved by a local MP, Mike Hancock, who nearly ten years later became embroiled in scandal when it emerged that one of his parliamentary aides, another young Russian woman, was deported from the UK because MI5 suspected she was a Russian spy.
99. Public statement on NCA investigation into suspected EU referendum offences, September 24 2019
100. Adam Ramsay, ‘National Crime Agency Finds “No Evidence” of Crimes Committed by Arron Banks’s Brexit Campaign’, OpenDemocracy, September 25 2019. In addition, Transparency International UK tweeted in response: ‘It has been clear for some time that the rules on political donations provide weak protection against funds from overseas, but the interpretation taken by law enforcement in this case makes it non-existent.’
101. Caroline Wheeler, Richard Kerbaj, Tim Shipman and Tom Harper, ‘Revealed: Brexit Backer’s Golden Connection’, Sunday Times, June 10 2018
102. The fund, Charlemagne Capital, became one of a select group of foreign investors participating with the Russian Direct Investment Fund in a lucrative offering of shares in the state diamond monopoly Alrosa one month after the UK’s referendum on leaving the EU. The Alrosa shares were sold at a discounted price in an offering conducted at lightning speed. Regulatory filings show Mellon owned a 19.4 per cent stake in the fund at the time of the deal (Charlemagne Capital Limited OPD – Charlemagne Capital – Replacement, Regulatory News Service, September 30 2016). Mellon relinquished his position as a non-executive director at the fund at the end of 2016 when the fund was merged into the Cayman Islands-registered Fiera Capital (Charlemagne Capital Limited Scheme Effective, Regulatory News Service, December 14 2016).
103. Author interview with Yakunin, June 2013
104. See Josh Craddock, ‘Russia Positions Herself as “Light to the World” During Pro-Family Conference’, Aleteia (an online Catholic news organisation), September 23 2014; Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘A Rose by Any Other Name: the World Congress of Families in Moscow’, http://anton-shekhovtsov.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-rose-by-any-other-name-world-congress.html?m=1. The World Congress of Families pulled its name from the event at the last minute because of the US sanctions regime, but all of its leaders still showed up. See also Casey Michel, ‘How Russia Became the Leader of the Global Christian Right’, Politico, February 9 2017
105. Craddock, ‘Russia Positions Herself as “Light to the World” During Pro-Family Conference’
106. Author interview with Narusova, June 2014
107. Author interview with Yakunin, November 2016
108. Ibid.
109. Author interview with Malofeyev, April 2014
110. Author interview with Yakunin, February 2017
111. Author interview with Yakunin, November 2016
112. Author interview with Yakunin, February 2017
113. Joseph Biden, ‘Brookings Hosts Vice President, Joe Biden, for Remarks on the Russia–Ukraine Conflict’, Brookings Institution, May 27 2015, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/20150527_biden_transcript.pdf
114. According to transcripts of wiretapped calls obtained by the author that were part of the Spanish prosecutors’ case. See also: Anastasia Kirilenko, ‘Intercepted Calls Expose Ties between the Tambovskaya Gang, head of FSB’s Economic Security Service, and the Prosecutor of St Petersburg’, The Insider, January 8 2019. To Michael Carpenter, then Biden aide on Russia, the investigation was a real watershed for understanding how Putin’s Russia worked. ‘It was a key moment that underlined the fusion of Russian organised crime with structures of the state.’ (Author interview, January 2018)
115. See wikileaks cable reporting on Grinda: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10MADRID154_a.html
116. Author interview with Anton Surikov, September 2009
117. Author interview, January 2018
118. Author interview with former senior Western intelligence officer, October 2016
119. Author interview with Frank Montoya Jr, July 2019
120. Author interview with Temerko, June 2016
Chapter 15: The Network and Donald Trump
1. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
2. Ibid.
3. ‘In a narrow circle they were open, and they were working on ways for reform. The cracks were already visible. These were very interesting times,’ said Tchigirinsky.
4. He’d met Bruce Rappaport, the Swiss banker through whom so much Soviet oil money ran, in Geneva. He met Marc Rich, the controversial metals trader with whom the Soviets also dealt in the twilight years of the Soviet Union, and was introduced to Alfred Taubman, the owner of Sotheby’s auction house, with whom he became firm friends. Tchigirinsky also said he’d arranged a historic first meeting between the new Israeli ambassador to Russia, the legendary General Haim Bar-Lev, the first Soviet ambassador to Israel, Alexander Bovin, and his mentor Mikhail Milshtein, the former Soviet military-intelligence chief, at Milshtein’s Moscow dacha.
5. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
6. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, July 2018
7. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
8. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019
9. A cable, dated February 12 2010, from the US embassy in Moscow downloaded by WikiLeaks spoke of Luzhkov’s alleged ties with the Solntsevskaya group: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10MOSCOW317_a.html
10. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, October 2019
11. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, April 2019
12. Ibid.; author interview with Martin Greenberg’s wife, May 2019, who confirmed that her husband had travelled to the Soviet Union with Alfred Luciani and that both men had worked on drafting Atlantic City’s casino regulations: Greenberg went on to serve as president at the Golden Nugget. Author interview with Guy Michaels, a former law-firm colleague who confirmed that Greenberg had subsequently gone on to represent bondholders in Taj Mahal restructuring. Luciani did not respond to a request for comment.
13. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, April 2019
14. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
15. Ibid.; see also Nikolai Sergeyev, ‘Umer Glava Evikhona’, Kommersant, April 11 2014, for official confirmation of their partnership
16. Official registration information for the translation agency OOO Linkon shows Tchigirinsky was a partner too.
17. ‘Chapter 11 for Taj Mahal’, Reuters, July 18 1991
18. Julie Baumgold, ‘Fighting Back: Trump Scrambles off the Canvas’, New York Magazine, November 9 1992
19. Ibid.
20. ‘Taj Mahal is Out of Bankruptcy’, New York Times, October 5 1991; for further details of the restructuring see court discussion of prepackaged bankruptcy agreement before the state of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, available online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/trump-archive/docs/trump-financial-stability-hearing–vol-iv-6-18-1991.pdf
21. Josh Kosman, ‘Icahn, Ross Saved Trump Brand from Taj Mahal Casino Mess’, New York Post, November 25 2016; see also court hearing above for Icahn role
22. For representation by Martin L. Greenberg of bondholders: see court discussion of prepackaged bankruptcy agreement before the state of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, available online: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/trump-archive/docs/trump-financial-stability-hearing–vol-iv-6-18-1991.pdf
23. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, April 2019
24. Baumgold, ‘Fighting Back’
25. Robert L. Friedman, Red Mafia, pp.132–3, Little, Brown, 2000; see also ‘The Tri-State Joint Soviet-Émigré Organized Crime Project’, https://www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/russian.pdf
26. Jose Pagliery, ‘Trump’s Casino was a Money Laundering Concern Shortly After it Opened’, CNN, May 22 2017; see also treasury documents on settlement between US Department of Treasury’s FinCEN and Trump Taj Mahal Associates, obtained by CNN: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3727001/Responsive-Docs-for-17-205-F-Pagliery.pdf; also good on this is Seth Hettena, Trump/Russia: A Definitive History, pp.25–7, Melville House, 2018
27. FBI Report on Mogilevich empire obtained by author
28. Affidavit of Lester McNulty, special agent of the FBI, in United States District Court Southern District of New York, March 31 1995
29. See Hettena, Trump/Russia, p.27; and Hettena blog for fragment of FBI document on Ivankov’s visits to Taj Mahal: https://trump-russia.com/2017/10/06/the-russian-gangster-who-loved-trumps-taj-mahal/
30. The film Na Deribasovskoi khoroshaya pogoda, ili Na Braiton-Bich Opyat idut Dozhdy can be found online on Yandex.ru
31. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
32. In 2008 Forbes estimated his fortune at $2.5 billion
33. Ekaterina Drankina, ‘Moskovskaya Neftyanaya Vykhodit na Rynok’, Ekspert, April 24 2000
34. Matthew Swibel, ‘The Boomerang Effect: Billionaire Tamir Sapir Earned a Bundle Exploiting Russia. Now Crony Capitalism is Getting the Better of Him’, Forbes, April 17 2006
35. Motoko Rich and William Neuman, ‘$40 Million Buys Ex-Cabby His Own Corner of 5th Avenue’, New York Times, January 10 2006; Dan Morrison, ‘A Man of Many Interests’, Newsday, December 31 2000
36. Cherney told me in a May 2007 interview that they’d always had to cooperate with elements of the KGB – there was no other way to get ahead in business then: ‘They would force you to sell through state structures. You had to pay the state racket. What was the black market then? It was just grey business. I was outside the system, but I always went along the edge of the law.’
37. In a September 2019 interview with Russian state television channel NTV, Kislin boasted of his friendship with Trump, claiming that he’d fed him borscht several times and telling of how he’d given Trump the loan for 700 TV sets in the seventies. www.ntv.ru/video/1771880
38. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
39. Author interview with Yury Shvets, former senior KGB officer from foreign-intelligence department, May 2018. Agalarov declined to comment.
40. One of Agalarov’s business partners later said that another part of his business in the nineties tied Agalarov directly to ‘quasi-government agencies in Russia’. Agalarov was organising trade conferences in the former Soviet Union, which the partner said was ‘a sensitive mixture of politics, negotiation and money’.
41. ‘Leila I Emin’, Izvestia, February 6 2006 – in which Agalarov is named as a shareholder in the Cherkizovsky market; for an excellent description of Cherkizovsky and how it operated see Andrew E. Kramer, ‘Huge Profits Spell Doom for a 400-Acre Market’, New York Times, July 28 2009
42. One of the main Cherkizovsky owners, Telman Ismailov, was seen deep in discussion with Arif when Arif was arrested in Turkey in 2010 for hosting a yacht party with underage prostitutes: ‘Telman Ismailov Popal v Skandalnuyu Istoriyu v Turtsii’, Trend, October 4 2010. The newspaper reported Ismailov was called in by police to testify in the case. Also among those on the yacht were Arif’s Kazakh business partners ‘the trio’ of Kazakh businessmen, led by Alexander Mashkevich, behind ENRC.
43. Author interview with Shvets, May 2018
44. Jon Swaine and Shaun Walker, ‘Trump in Moscow: What Happened at Miss Universe in 2013’, Guardian, September 18 2017
45. Author interview with Shvets, May 2018
46. See United States General Accounting Office, ‘Suspicious Banking Activities: Possible Money Laundering by US Corporations Formed for Russian Entities’, October 2000. A November 28 2000 letter from Citigroup’s global counsel, Michael A. Ross, to the US General Accounting Office confirms that Kaveladze is the person directing these suspicious money flows. It states that Citigroup did not detect any illegal activity in the Kaveladze-related accounts, which he began to open from October 1991, but that it has since closed all of them, pointing out insufficiencies in the bank’s procedures which failed to detect ‘questionable activity’; see also Raymond Bonner, ‘Laundering of Money Seen as “Easy”’, New York Times, November 29 2000
47. Press release: ‘Levin Releases GAO Report on Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering in US Banks’, November 29 2000; for the KGB ties of the Latvian banker, see Knut Royce, ‘’San Francisco Bank Linked to Laundering Probe at Bank of New York’, Center for Public Integrity, December 9 1999
48. Letter from Citigroup’s global counsel, Michael A. Ross, to the US General Accounting Office, November 28 2000
49. Ibid.
50. Author interview with former Kremlin official, June 2018; author interview with former senior Russian intelligence officer, May 2018
51. Author interview with person familiar with the matter, May 2018
52. Royce, ‘San Francisco Bank Linked to Laundering Probe at Bank of New York’; Sam Zuckerman, ‘Russian Money Laundering Scandal Touches S.F. Bank’, San Francisco Chronicle, September 23 1999; Robert O’Harrow Jr, ‘3 Firms Links to Russia Probed’, Washington Post, October 21 1999: Andrew Higgins, Ann Davis and Paul Beckett, ‘Money Players: The Improbable Cast of Capitalist Converts Behind BONY Scandal’, Wall Street Journal, December 30 1999: $8 million had been transferred through Benex out of accounts at the Bank of New York into accounts at the Commercial Bank of San Francisco. In addition, the Nauru-registered Sinex Bank, through which many of the payments to Benex were first transferred from Russia, had a correspondent account at the San Francisco bank.
53. Author interview with Shvets, May 2018
54. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019; author interview with former Mogilevich associate, March 2018, who said: ‘After the Department of Justice closed down the Bank of New York scheme they began to send money through the Trump organisation. The Trump organisation had channels that could never be open to the Russians or Seva at that time … The money the Russians had access to was a lot bigger than any US investor by that time … The Russians didn’t give a damn about whether the money was safe. Trump could give them access no one else could. For Mikhas and Seva a couple of hundred million dollars is not much money. But for Trump it’s a lot of money. A hell of a lot of money.’ Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
55. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019
56. Garten told the FT in relation to Bayrock: ‘When you do due diligence you act in good faith and try to look at all relevant material, but there’s only a certain degree that you can look at things. You can do as much as possible, but you are limited to public records.’ Tom Burgis, ‘Dirty Money: Trump and the Kazakh Connection’, Financial Times, October 19 2016
57. Timothy L. O’Brien and Eric Dash, ‘Is Trump Headed for a Fall?’, New York Times, March 28 2004
58. Ibid.
59. Timothy L. O’Brien, ‘Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership’, Bloomberg, June 21 2017
60. Author interview with Sater, May 2018. He was vague about when this first meeting with Trump was – first he said 2000, then 2001. In a January 23 2008 deposition for a New York Times legal case, he said his first meeting with members of the Trump Organization was in 2001, or ‘more than likely beginning 2002’. Later lawsuits filed by Jody Kriss, the former Bayrock finance director, said Sater joined Bayrock in 2002.
61. Author interview with two former Mogilevich associates, March and July 2018
62. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
63. United States v. Felix Sater, Criminal Docket No. 98 CR 1101, letter from DoJ filed under seal to Judge I. Leo Glasser, August 27 2009
64. See also court documents related to charges against Sater: United States of America against Felix Sater, signed by Zachary Carter, United States Attorney Eastern District of New York; transcript of sentencing against Sater (there named John Doe, and in the transcript as ‘Felix Slater’) before the Honorable I. Leo Glasser, United States District Senior Judge, October 23 2009; Complaint and Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrants, Leo Taddeo Affidavit, April 1998; press release from United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York, ‘19 Defendants Indicted in Stock Fraud Scheme that was Protected and Promoted by Organised Crime’, March 2 2000, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/trump-archive/docs/press-release-doj-howard-safir-bayrock.pdf
65. Further details of the scheme mentioning A.R. Baron involvement in United States of America against Frank Coppa et al.; for link with Bank of New York/Benex scheme, see Glenn R. Simpson and Paul Beckett, ‘UK Probe Possible Link Between Russian Case, A.R. Baron’, Wall Street Journal, September 24 1999
66. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
67. Author interview with Shvets, May 2018; author interview with former Mogilevich associate, March 2018
68. United States v. Felix Sater, Criminal Docket No. 98 CR 1101, letter from DOJ filed under seal to Judge I. Leo Glasser, August 27 2009
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
71. Friedman, Red Mafia, pp.55–7
72. United States v. Felix Sater, Criminal Docket No. 98 CR 1101
73. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019; Kalmanovich was assassinated in November 2009. Around that time, Sater ended his cooperation with the FBI.
74. Author interview with former Mogilevich associate, March 2018
75. Author interview with former Mogilevich associate, July 2018
76. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
77. Ibid.
78. See Chapter 13. In 2018 Myazin was convicted for embezzling funds from the Promsberbank connected to the Moldovan and Deutsche Bank schemes, while Dvoskin remained free. See also Leonid Nikitinsky, ‘Who is Mister Dvoskin?’, Novaya Gazeta, July 22 2011
79. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Arif was also connected with Aras Agalarov, through Azeri co-owners of the Cherkizovsky market, who were associates of his.
83. Mashkevich started out in business in the late eighties as a vice president at Seabeco, the trading firm set up by Boris Birshtein, named by the FBI and Swiss intelligence as an associate of the Solntsevskaya. (A former Mogilevich associate claimed the trio continued to work with the Solntsevskaya.)
84. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
85. Ibid.
86. Andrew Rice, ‘The Original Russia Connection’, New York Magazine, August 7 2017
87. Ibid.; Felix Sater deposition, April 1 2008, in Trump v. O’Brien
88. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
89. O’Brien, ‘Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership’
90. The first story on the Trump/Bayrock interest in the project was Tom Stieghorst, ‘Trump Eyes Oceanfront Land Aventura Firm to Market Project in Lauderdale’, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 12 2003. Trump is described as the developer, while Bayrock is just mentioned as partner. But later, when it all went pear-shaped, the truth emerged: Trump was only there to take a licence fee, and was not the developer: Michael Sallah and Michael Vasquez, ‘Failed Donald Trump Tower Thrust into GOP Campaign for Presidency’, Miami Herald, March 12 2016. (Bayrock purchased land for $40 million, and then received a further $139 million loan for construction.)
91. Glen Creno and Catherine Burrough, ‘Trump Raises Stakes: Camelback’s Glitzy Boom Continues’, Arizona Republic, November 13 2003; Sater deposition, April 1 2008, in Trump v. O’Brien, p.60, also makes it clear that Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale were the first projects Bayrock proposed to Trump. ‘Q: You said you introduced certain opportunities to Mr Flicker and Mr Reese [Trump Organization executives]. Initially what opportunities were those? A: Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix. And we discussed generally which areas countrywide and worldwide the Trump Organization was interested in expanding into and what were the opportunities for mutually working together on these various opportunities.’
92. Michael Stoler, ‘Parking Lots and Garages go the Way of the Dinosaurs’, New York Sun, February 16 2006; the Bayrock 2007 prospectus has more details on the project
93. Trump discloses the 18 per cent stake he owns in Trump SoHo in a 2007 deposition he gave in Donald J. Trump v. Timothy L. O’Brien. See: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2430267/trumps-lawsuit-on-net-worth.pdf See also: O’Brien, ‘Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership’
94. Copy of Trump Casino Holdings LLC Petition for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, filed November 21 2004
95. Author interview with Blum, December 2018. Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, did not respond to a request for comment.
96. Tom Burgis, ‘Tower of Secrets: The Russian Money Behind a Donald Trump Skyscraper’, Financial Times, July 12 2018
97. Jody Kriss and Michael Ejekam v. Bayrock Group LLC et al., United States District Court, Southern District of NY. The initial version of Kriss’ racketeering lawsuit is available: www.documentcloud.org/documents/3117825-Qui-Tam-Complaint-With-Exhibit-a-and-Attachments.html#document/p1. See also: Andrew Rice, ‘The Original Russia Connection’, New York Magazine, August 7 2017. The lawsuit was subsequently amended twice in which some of these specific claims were removed. Bayrock settled the lawsuit in February 2018. See: ‘Trump-Linked Real Estate Firm Settles Suit by Ex-Employee’, Bloomberg, February 23 2018
98. Ibid.; Marc Champion, ‘How a Trump SoHo Partner Ended Up with Toxic Mining Riches from Kazakhstan’, Bloomberg, January 11 2018. The claim about Bayrock accessing cash accounts from a chromium refinery in Kazakhstan was also later dropped from the lawsuit after allegations that it had been obtained improperly.
99. Craig Shaw, Zeynep Sentek and Stefan Candea, ‘World Leaders, Mobsters, Smog and Mirrors’, Football Leaks, The Black Sea, December 20 2016
100. Jody Kriss and Michael Ejekam vs Bayrock Group LLC et al., United States District Court, Southern District of NY. The initial version of Kriss’s racketeering lawsuit is available: www.documentcloud.org/documents/3117825-Qui-Tam-Complaint-With-Exhibit-a-and-Attachments.html#document/p1; O’Brien, ‘Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership’
101. Ibid.
102. Robyn A. Friedman, ‘Trump Puts Stamp on Project; Father and Son Add Famous New Yorker as Partner to Build Sunny Isles Towers’, South Florida Sentinel, January 30 2002
103. Nathan Layne, Ned Parker, Svetlana Reiter, Stephen Grey and Ryan McNeill, ‘Russian Elite Invested Nearly $100 Million in Trump Buildings’, Reuters, March 17 2017
104. Ibid.
105. For good accounts of Shnaider’s career, see Tony Wong, ‘Meet the Man Behind Trump Tower’, Toronto Star, December 4 2004; Heidi Brown and Nathan Vardi, ‘Man of Steel: Alex Shnaider Became a Billionaire in the Dimly Lit Steel Mills of Eastern Europe. How Will He Handle the Glare of the Western World?’, Forbes, March 28 2005; Michael Posner, ‘The Invisible Man; But for the Car, it Might Be’, Globe and Mail, May 27 2005
106. 1995 FBI report on Mogilevich empire obtained by author
107. Bayrock prospectus 2007
108. See Chapter 2
109. FBI report on Mogilevich empire
110. The Swiss intelligence report, obtained by the author and dated June 2007, notes Birshtein’s ‘close connections’ with the Solntsevskaya organised-crime group. (A 2005 lawsuit filed in Ontario by Birshtein’s son, Alon, claims that in 1995, while he was residing in Belgium, Birshtein became the subject of an international criminal investigation. ‘Russian, American, Swiss and Belgian police suspected that the Defendant was a member of the Solntsevskaya Mafia … They believed he was an accomplice of a notorious Russian gangster named Sergei Mikhailov’, a copy of the lawsuit says.
111. Charles Clover, ‘Questions over Kuchma’s Advisor Cast Shadows’, Financial Times, October 29 1999
112. Mark MacKinnon, ‘Searching for Boris Birshtein’, Globe and Mail, December 29 2018. When reached by telephone, Birshtein declined any further comment to me. The Birshtein lawyer cited in the Globe report, Gavin Tighe, said he was no longer instructed by Mr Birshtein when this author contacted him for further comment.
113. Alain Lallemand, ‘Coordination. Des Retards, des délais dépasses, des incohèrences’, Le Soir, January 18 2017
114. Burgis, ‘Tower of Secrets’
115. Ned Parker, Stephen Grey, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Roman Anin, Brad Brooks and Christine Murray, ‘Ivanka and the Fugitive from Panama’, Reuters, November 17 2017
116. Ibid.
117. Ibid. In an interview with Reuters, Nogueira said he could not recall making any of the claims on the recording, and denied laundering cash through the Trump project or handling drugs money.
118. Ibid. The criminal case against Altshoul for mortgage fraud was dropped a year later; the case against Kavalenka was also dropped in 2005 after the main witnesses, alleged prostitutes, failed to turn up in court.
119. Donald Trump, ‘Mr. Trump Strongly Defends his Good Name’, Wall Street Journal, November 28 2007
120. Bayrock prospectus 2007
121. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, July 2018
122. Jody Kriss and Michael Ejekam v. Bayrock Group LLC et al., United States District Court, Southern District of NY
123. Ibid.
124. In Iceland, FL Group went bankrupt. But in Delaware, one of its property arms, FLG Property I, continued to operate, documents obtained by the author show.
125. Sallah and Vasquez, ‘Failed Donald Trump Tower Thrust into GOP Campaign for Presidency’, Miami Herald, March 12 2016
126. According to documents obtained by author.
127. O’Brien, ‘Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership’
128. Ben Protess, Steve Eder and Eric Lipton, ‘Trump Organization will Exit from Its Struggling SoHo Hotel in New York’, New York Times, November 22 2017
129. Gary Silverman, ‘Trump’s Russian Riddle’, Financial Times, August 14 2016
130. Cribb, Chown, Blackman, Varhnham O’Regan, Maidenberg and Rust, ‘How Every Investor Lost his Money on Trump Tower Toronto (but Donald Trump Made Millions Anyway)’, Toronto Star, October 21 2017
131. Author interview with Blum, December 2018
132. Felix Sater deposition, April 1 2008, in Trump v. O’Brien
133. Ibid.
134. ‘Ispaniya Vernet Rossii Khranitelya Kompromata’, Rosbalt, June 10 2013
135. Author interview with Sater, May 2018
136. Nikolai Mikhailev, ‘Rossiya Umenshilas v Razmerakh’, RBK Daily, March 14 2012
137. Alan Cullison and Brett Forrest, ‘Trump Tower Moscow? It was the End of Long, Failed Push to Invest in Russia’, Wall Street Journal, November 30 2018
138. Irina Gruzinova, ‘Milliarder Aras Agalarov: “Ya ne umeyu zarabatyvats na gosudarstvennikh stroikakh”’, Forbes Russia, March 11 2015
139. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
140. Author interview with senior Moscow banker, January 2017
141. Anthony Cornier and Jason Leopold, ‘Trump Moscow: The Definitive Story of How Trump’s Team Worked the Russia Deal During the Campaign’, BuzzFeed, May 17 2018
142. Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman, ‘Trump Associate Boasted that Moscow Business Deal “Will Get Donald Elected”’, New York Times, August 28 2017
143. ‘Read the Emails on Donald Trump Jnr’, New York Times, July 11 2017
144. Jo Becker, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, ‘Russian Dirt on Clinton? “I Love it,” Donald Trump Jnr. Said’, New York Times, July 11 20217
145. Ibid.
146. Philip Bump, ‘A Timeline of the Roger Stone–Wikileaks Question’, Washington Post, October 30 2018
147. Ibid.
148. David Filipov and Andrew Roth, ‘ “Yes We Did”: Russia’s Establishment Basks in Trump’s Victory; Russians Couldn’t Help Gloating a Bit Over Trump’s Win’, Washington Post, November 9 2016
149. Andrew Osborn, ‘Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy “Almost Exactly the Same as Putin”, Kremlin Says’, Reuters, November 10 2016
150. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019
151. Author interview with senior Russian official, February 2017
152. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019; Donald Trump, Open Letter, ‘There’s Nothing Wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a Little Backbone Can’t Cure’, Washington Post, September 2 1987. Accessed from: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4404425/Ad-in-The-Washington-Post-from-Donald-Trump.pdf
153. Sater deposition, April 1 2008, in Trump v. O’Brien
154. Ibid. Sater said Bayrock paid $250,000 to the Trump Organization for the Trump Tower project in Phoenix ‘to kick off the contract with them for services rendered’ as well as an ‘ongoing monthly’ payment for development services – though he said he could not remember how much this payment was. Garten, the Trump Organization general counsel, did not respond to a request for comment on how much the Trump Organization received in such fees from Bayrock, or whether similar arrangements were in place for the Bayrock projects in Fort Lauderdale and Trump SoHo.
155. Transcript of full interview of Millian with ABC News, July 2016
156. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019
157. Author interview with Zatulin, October 2016
158. Author interview with Yakunin, July 2016
159. Author interview with Yakunin, November 2017
160. Ibid.
161. Shane Harris, Josh Dawsey and Ellen Nakashima, ‘Trump Told Russian Officials in 2017 He Wasn’t Concerned About Moscow’s Interference in US Election’, Washington Post, September 28 2019
162. Sharon LaFraniere, Nicholas Fandos and Andrew E. Kramer, ‘Ex-Envoy to Ukraine Testifies “False Claims” Propelled Ouster’, New York Times, October 12 2019
163. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
164. Transcript of Trump–Putin press conference, Helsinki, July 16 2018, www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/58017
165. Ibid.
166. Author interview with Galeotti, February 2018. See also Simon Shuster, ‘How Putin’s Oligarchs got Inside the Trump Team’, Time, September 20 2018
167. Author interview with former close associate of Russian billionaire, June 2017
168. Author interview with senior Western banker, May 2013
169. Author interview with senior Russian businessman, March 2017
170. Author interview with Tchigirinsky, May 2018
171. Author interview with Graham, May 2018
172. Author interview with former close Abramovich associate, May 2017
173. Author interview with former close associate of Russian billionaire, June 2017
174. ‘Kremlin Says Mueller’s Russia Investigation is Pointless’, Reuters, May 29 2018
175. Author interview with Shvets, August 2019
176. Knut Royce, ‘FBI Tracked Alleged Russian Mob Ties of Giuliani Campaign Supporter’, The Center for Public Integrity, December 14 1999. Royce details how Kislin gave $14,250 in direct donations to Giuliani between 1994 and 1997, as well as hosting fundraising events. He also describes a 1996 Interpol report which shows that Kislin’s Trans Commodities traded metals for Mikhail Chernoy, the reputed Russian mobster. Kislin boasted of his personal friendship with Trump, claiming in a September 2019 interview with Russian state TV channel NTV that he’d fed him borsch several times: https://www.ntv.ru/video/1771880
177. https://www.ntv.ru/video/1771880
178. Ibid.
179. Darren Samuelson and Ben Schreckinger, ‘Indicted Giuliani Associate Attended Private ’16 Election Night Party for “Friend” Trump’, Politico, October 11 2019. The article mentions a photo Parnas posted of himself with Trump at the White House in May 2018. Trump dismissed its significance, ‘because I have a picture with everyone’.
180. Aubrey Belford and Veronika Melkozerova, ‘Meet the Florida Duo Helping Giuliani Investigate for Trump in Ukraine’, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, July 22 2019
181. See also Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Josh Dawsey and Paul Sonne, ‘How Two Soviet-Born Emigres Made it Into Elite Trump Circles’, Washington Post, October 13 2019
182. Aram Roston, Karen Freifeld and Polina Ivanova, ‘Indicted Giuliani Associate Worked on Behalf of Ukrainian Oligarch Firtash’, Reuters, October 11 2019. For the amounts splurged by Parnas and Fruman, see Michael Sallah and Emma Loop, ‘Two Key Players Spent Lavishly as They Dug for Dirt on Biden’, BuzzFeed, October 9 2019
183. Vicky Ward and Marshall Cohen, ‘“I’m the Best Paid Interpreter in the World”: Indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas touted windfall from Ukrainian Oligarch’, CNN, November 1 2019
184. Matt Zapotosky, Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger, Josh Dawsey, ‘Prosecutors Suspect Ties between Ukrainian Gas Tycoon, Giuliani Associates’, Washington Post, October 23 2019
185. Opening Statement of Ambassador William B. Taylor to House Intelligence Committee, October 22 2019
186. Author interview with former senior Russian banker, September 2019
187. Author interview with senior Russian businessman, March 2017
Epilogue
1. For the best account of what happened to Shestun, see Arkady Ostrovsky, ‘A Russian Tale: The Rise and Fall of Alexander Shestun’, The Economist, December 22 2018; see also Shestun’s official biography for details of his nineties-era business career: cyclowiki.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Vyacheslavovich_Shestun
2. Ostrovsky, ‘A Russian Tale’
3. Author interview with senior Russian banker, June 2018
4. Anna Krasnoperova, ‘Arestovanny Aleksandr Shestun Rasskazal o Korruptsii v FSB’, The Insider, June 26 2018, https://theins.ru/news/107934
5. ‘Tebya pereedut katkom – general FSB ugrozhayet v Administratsii prezidenta’, pasmi.ru, April 20 2018, https://pasmi.ru/archive/208765/ (with audio and video recording)
6. ‘FSB Schitaet Gubernatora Vorobyova Opasnee Banditov’, Pasmi.ru, November 11 2018, https://pasmi.ru/archive/223752/ (also with audio recording)
7. Ibid. Lalakin was the head of the Podolsk group in the Moscow region that the former head of Promsberbank, Alexander Grigoryev, and Ivan Myazin had worked with on the Moldovan and mirror-trade schemes.
8. Author interview with Kremlin insider, February 2017
9. Author interview with Russian tycoon, February 2017
10. Aleksei Navalny, ‘Kto Obyedaet Rosgvardiyu’, FBK, August 23 2018
11. Author interview with Russian tycoon, September 2019
12. Author interview with Western lawyer, September 2019. Until Crimea, Putin had repeatedly pledged to make Russia the fifth-largest world economy by 2020. It seemed on track to do so. In 2011, the Centre for Economic and Business Research predicted Russia would attain the number four slot by 2020 (see Philip Inman, ‘Brazil passes UK to Become World’s Sixth Largest Economy’, Guardian, December 26 2011). In 2013, Russia ranked as the world’s number 8 economy, according to the IMF. In 2019, it was number 11.
13. Author interview with former senior government official, April 2019
14. ‘Korotko o tom, skolko milliardov I na kakie strany tratit Rossiya’, Telekanal Dozhd, November 15 2018. See also: Andrei Biryukov and Evgeniya Pismennaya, ‘Russia Dips into Soviet Playbook in Bid to Buy Allies Abroad’, Bloomberg, October 23 2019. By 2022, Russia was expected to double annual export lending to foreign countries to $6bn, Bloomberg reported, a return to the days of Soviet practices.
15. Author interview with Milov, September 2018
16. Author interview with Khodorkovsky, July 2016
17. Author interview with senior Russian banker, June 2018
18. Author interview with Russian tycoon, January 2019
19. Author interview with senior Russian banker, January 2019
20. Author interview with Pugachev, July 2015
21. Author interview with Pugachev, September 2014
22. Author interview with Pugachev, January 2019