Wars generally stimulate two industries, ammunition and cigarettes

Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Sadly, Russian people smoke a lot. Even though cigarette use has been declining over the past few years, as recently as 2022 Russia ranked first in Europe and sixth in the world in terms of the number of tobacco product users – according to WHO data × .

Until recently, the lucrative Russian market was shared by four global tobacco corporations: Philip Morris (in recent years operating under the Altria Group Inc. brand), Japan Tobacco, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Brands. Due to the war and sanctions, British American Tobacco, which produced 24% of cigarettes sold in Russia, announced its withdrawal from the country. However, the withdrawal probably did not actually take place: the cigarette factories in Russia were bought by a company from Abu Dhabi, which is owned by three former BAT top managers. The only company that really left the Russian market was probably the British Imperial Brands. It controlled about 5.5% of the cigarette manufacturing market and sold its assets two months after the war broke out to people from the Russian company Megapolis. Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco stayed to make money in Russia, letting their exclusive seller in our country, the Megapolis group of companies, which now controls about 70% of the cigarette sales market, enrich itself as well.

This company is owned by two Russians – Igor Kesaev and Sergei Katsiev – who have long and firmly settled in the Forbes magazine’s ranking of the country’s wealthiest individuals. Their tobacco business generates annual revenue of over RUB 1 trillion and brings its owners billions of rubles in profit , as follows, for instance, from the company’s 2023 report × .

Unfortunately, Russia not only has a lot of smokers, but also a lot of drinkers. By coincidence, the same two businessmen are also the largest sellers of alcohol in the country. They own the country’s biggest chain of alcohol stores – the Red&White and Bristol stores – with more than 25,000 locations across Russia. The combined chain’s 2023 revenue is RUB 1.15 trillion, billions of which have turned into the personal profits of Kesaev and Katsiev.

It would seem that these two are very talented businessmen. But it is not just that. Ever since the 90s, when Kesaev and Katsiev started their business, smuggling or other machinations with tariffs and fees have played a huge role in the alcohol and tobacco business. Foreign control, as well as the investigation of major economic crimes, is the prerogative of the FSB. But as far as we can tell, these two have never had any problems with the “kontora” as the Russian security agency is traditionally called by the public. This is probably because Kesaev and Katsiev secretly spend millions of dollars on the maintenance of the country’s top security officers, including the family of Nikolai Patrushev, the longtime head of the FSB and a crony of the Russian president.

In other words, a substantial part of the money on which Patrushev and other Chekists live came from the world’s tobacco and alcohol producers. Neither the numerous crimes of the Chekists inside Russia, nor the war they unleashed against Ukraine, have undermined the willingness of Western companies to keep paying them tribute.

Support us

Part one

In the early 90s, Kesaev launched an official business – his company Mercury began importing Chinese consumer goods and Western cigarettes into Russia. In 1993, the company signed its first official cigarette supply contract with Philip Morris Corporation. At the same time, in 1993, Kesaev’s partner was his fellow countryman Sergei Katsiev, a lecturer at MGIMO. Before that, Katsiev had worked at the Soviet diplomatic mission in Libya, and before going into business – at the USSR Trade Mission in the Netherlands.

In the mid-90s, the tobacco business suffered some decline – at that time, the authorities allowed duty-free cigarette imports for a number of organizations, including the Russian Orthodox Church, which crippled the usual importers.

At the time, Kesaev relied on his other businesses, the Jupiter Insurance Company and Moseksimbank (Moscow Export-Import Bank). These structures provided insurance and settlements for Russian arms trade abroad. This was how the businessmen established contacts with law enforcers and defense industry managers.

In 1998, Kesaev created the Megapolis group of companies for the cigarette trade, which could once again be used to make profits in a competitive environment. Within 10 years, the company was able to seize a significant share of the tobacco trading market, becoming the sole seller of cigarettes of the Western corporations Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco. Over the years, the cigarette market in Russia has developed as follows: Western corporations produce cigarettes at their factories in the country, but can only sell them almost exclusively through Megapolis, in which they hold minority stakes.

Kesaev and Katsiev have been known to have ties to law enforcement officials and use their support to take over competitors. For example, a former tobacco merchant anonymously described to Forbes how he received an offer from Kesaev to buy out his contract with a Western tobacco company, and when he refused the deal, tax and law enforcement agencies came to him with their inspections.

“I was told directly that they had already reached an agreement with everyone, so all that was left for me to do was to take the money and walk away,” the tobacconist recalled.

Kesaev’s former business partner believes that his relationship with law enforcement agencies, primarily the FSB, dates back to the 90s, when the tobacco business was impossible without smuggling, and that, in turn, was impossible without the involvement of the Chekists guarding the border. “[Despite that] Kesaev is very talented and efficient. He gets up at 5:00 a.m., he does sports (among other things, Kesaev was known to be a fan of extreme downhill skiing – Proekt),” adds his former partner.

Gradually, Kesaev and Katsiev’s business began to expand beyond cigarette trade. In 2005, the businessmen began investing in the construction of the Mercury skyscraper in Moscow City. 

In 2007, Kesaev and Katsiev bought the Dixy chain of grocery stores. In 2014, a state ban on cigarette sales at street kiosks began to take effect – this had been a significant channel of profit. Apparently fearing the consequences, the entrepreneurs decided to diversify their business at the expense of alcohol, which they knew a lot about since the 90s. At that time, Kesaev and Katsiev already owned the Bristol regional chain of alcohol stores. 

Cigarette and alcohol sales traditionally generate a large amount of cash , according to Proekt’s interlocutor in Megapolis × . According to our interlocutor in Megapolis, at one point there was so much cash that a separate vault for it was set up in a section of the Turboholod plant owned by Kesaev and Katsiev near Moscow’s Sokolniki Park.

Over the years, Kesaev and Katsiev’s fortune has been steadily growing. In 2024 Forbes magazine placed Kesaev on the 29th place in the national ranking of the wealthiest individuals with a net worth of $5.5 billion (Katsiev placed 72nd with $1.9 billion). This means that in the first two years of the war, Kesaev has more than doubled his fortune (it was $2.6 billion in 2022). The reason for this impressive success is not only alcohol and tobacco, but also some high-ranking friends.

Part two

The phone number of Vladimir Anisimov, the longtime chairman of the board of the Degtyaryov Plant and vice president for security of the Mercury Group, is listed in one of the phone apps used by Moscow escort girls to communicate with each other as follows: “Black list. Gets wasted and does not pay, old fart, allegedly FSB officer, refuses to use a condom” .

We will leave the truthfulness of most of the characterizations given here to Anisimov unassessed, but the words “FSB officer” are no lie, albeit not accurate enough to describe the hero’s importance. For many years Anisimov was one of the closest people to former FSB director and secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev.

Anisimov once trained as a tractor driver, but eventually went to serve in the KGB in Karelia. There, in the early 90s, he became first a driver and then an aide to Nikolai Patrushev, who then headed the security service in this border republic. Anisimov’s acquaintances used to call him in a chummy manner by his patronymic – “Gavrilych” . These details were recounted by two people who knew Patrushev and his subordinates from their service in Karelia in the 1990s × .

Time passed, Patrushev was promoted to Moscow, but he did not forget about his aide. The former driver made a dizzying career in the capital, which he owed almost exclusively to his proximity to Patrushev. At the beginning of Putin’s reign, Anisimov worked as deputy director of the FSB and head of its internal security service – that is, as Patrushev’s “eyes and ears.” “Gavrilych” became notorious in September 2004, when, on behalf of his boss, he became one of the heads of the secret headquarters of the operation to liberate the school in Beslan, which had been seized by terrorists. All of the worst mistakes that the Russian authorities made in Beslan are tied to Anisimov’s name.

He did not show his face to journalists, but directed the actions of the negotiators who tried to free more than a thousand hostage-taken children and adults.

In particular, it was Anisimov who forbade his FSB colleague, then President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov, to negotiate with the militants , a member of the parliamentary commission investigating the attack, former State Duma member Akhmed Bilalov, told one of the authors years later. Most likely, Zyazikov himself did not want to go to the school either, as he was hiding in his residence in Nazran during the entire terrorist attack, but in his testimony the Ingush leader directly named Anisimov as the person who gave him the order not to show his face in Beslan × . The investigation revealed that the militants were prepared to release 150 hostages from the school in exchange for Zyazikov’s arrival.

Even the official investigation had a lot of questions for Anisimov – what was his role in the headquarters, from whom he received his orders, and so on. But “Gavrilych” was not punished for the deaths of three hundred hostages during the assault.

Anisimov was also engaged in whitewashing the Chekists and hiding the truth about the dark pages of the FSB activities. For example, in late 2004, Channel One released a feature film Personal Number about valiant FSB officers who prevented a terrorist attack and freed hostages from a circus seized by terrorists. According to the filmmakers, the raid against civilians was ordered by Lev Pokrovsky, an oligarch living in Great Britain (an obvious reference to Boris Berezovsky). In the same movie Pokrovsky is indirectly accused of the bombings of apartment blocks in Moscow in September 1999.

The film was commissioned by the “Veterans in the Service of the Fatherland” foundation, and the production budget amounted to $7 million (for comparison, the blockbuster film Night Watch, released the same year, cost $4.2 million), which was provided by the companies owned by Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Slipenchuk and Sergei Gordeev. Vladimir Anisimov acted as the chief consultant for this propaganda piece.

Anisimov had known Kesaev since at least 2003, when both received Orders of St. Sergius of Radonezh from the Orthodox Church. The reason for this award was very symbolic – it was for the construction of the church of the preacher Platon the Studite in the village of Podomo near Arkhangelsk. The construction was initiated by FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev, and it was in this village that his father Platon was once born.

In 2005, Anisimov was apparently transferred to the active reserve, to the so-called “podkryshniki” – that’s how they call the “seconded staff” who work independently of the special service, but in its interests. This is how “Gavrilych” ended up working alongside Kesaev.

Since at least 2009, General Anisimov has been a member of the management of Kesayev’s companies (as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Degtyaryov Plant and Vice President for Security of the Mercury National Distribution Company). It was while working for Kesaev that Anisimov became the subject of Telegram posts about his debts to escort girls in 2022.

However, it would be a mistake to think that Anisimov is Kesaev’s only connection to Russia’s top security officers.

Part three

Karelia, which has been repeatedly mentioned above, is something of a sacred place for today’s Chekists. In addition to its border status, it is also important to them because it is where Yuri Andropov, the idol of the special services, began his service. Later, Patrushev and many of his subordinates also climbed the career ladder there. Karelia is also important because it is home to the Valaam Monastery, favored by the authorities and patrons of the arts – it occupies several islands in Lake Ladoga. Opposite the monastery, on the western shore of Ladoga, stands the town of Lakhdenpokhya. For most of its Soviet past, Lahdenpokhya was a poor town with only logging and wood processing as its economic activities. Under Putin, not much has changed in the economic sense, but Lahdenpokhya has definitely got noticed by the higher ups. An estate registered to Yuri Kovalchuk and land registered to billionaire Roman Abramovich appeared in the vicinity of the town, just opposite Valaam. Putin himself sometimes stops at the former , as TV Rain previously reported × .

Local have Fetyulina’s number saved in their contacts as “Alyona Patrusheva”. An acquaintance of the MP knows that Alyona had relations with one of the Patrushev brothers – either Nikolai or the elder Victor (more about him below). The fact that Fetyulina is listed as an advisor to the president of the Monolit foundation also points to this possibility. . It was as an employee of Monolit that Fetyulina, together with Viktor Patrushev, organized a combat sambo tournament in Lakhdenpokhya in memory of FSB General Valentin Chuikin (head of the FSB under Director Nikolai Patrushev, who died in a plane crash in 2004). In addition, the foundation’s advisor held a celebration in honor of Prophet Elijah in Lakhdenpokhye, a concert of the Viktor cover band performing songs by Kino, as well as a bell ringing festival. Alyona Fetyulina refused to answer Proekt’s inquiry about her relations with the Patrushev family × .

The Monolit foundation is the brainchild of Kesaev and Patrushev. Foundations through which extra-budgetary expenditures on special services are financed are a fairly common practice in Russia. Back in 2001, Kesaev co-founded the FSB National Foundation (which later operated under the name of the National Foundation for Support of Law Enforcement Agencies and shut down in 2012). Another co-founder of that foundation was Valery Sokolov, an instrument scientist close to Patrushev . Novaya Gazeta St. Petersburg claimed that Sokolov also used to work for the KGB × . Sokolov was listed as an advisor to FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, and the scientist’s son Alexei Sokolov, who started out in the FSB, eventually became Patrushev’s advisor on the Security Council. In 2014, Alexei Sokolov was appointed deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Development to oversee the creation of the “sovereign Internet.” Finally, Sokolov Sr.’s wife Irina, who like Patrushev graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute (now Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University), was president of Kesaev’s foundation. At one point she was employed as an aide to State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov (a classmate of Patrushev), and in that position she was involved in the so-called “check reform,” which obligated Russian entrepreneurs to buy check machines that were manufactured by the Sokolov family and their partners. 

Kesaev and Katsiev established Monolit in 2003. Its first president was Vladislav Petrov, a military sailor by training. Yury Khalturin, a former officer of the FSB’s 3rd Directorate for Military Counterintelligence , according to Novaya Gazeta × and the third “builder” of Patrushev’s family church, became Monolit’s vice president. Khalturin is currently listed as a co-owner in some of Kesaev’s business projects. Since 2019, the president of the foundation is Vasily Astashkin, former head of the social and welfare service of the FSB; the executive director is Sergei Bezhenov, former head of the fuel and energy complex of the FSB. Kesaev himself became honorary president of the foundation.

What is the purpose of these foundations, which are so closely linked to the Patrushev family and the top brass of the FSB? They are a way to conceal expenses for the needs of the “kontora”. The foundation’s assets are more than RUB 2 billion, which is a lot for such a non-profit organization in Russia. Novaya Gazeta previously reported that not only Kesaev, but also the state-owned Gazprom and Rosneft are dumping money into Monolit.

Monolit does not publicize its activities much, but it has published several reports in the Moscow municipal newspaper Budni Sokolnikov. According to these documents, about a third of the foundation’s expenses were administrative costs . in 2009 they amounted to RUB 32 million × , and the rest was spent on financial aid to the families of ordinary FSB officers.

But that’s not all. Since 2006, Kesaev and the Monolit foundation have jointly owned the M. V. Frunze Health Center in Sochi. According to local residents, in the Soviet years this health care resort used to accommodate cosmonauts, and now it is known as a vacation spot for FSB veterans and generals. 

The board of directors of the Health Center included at least as of 2010 × Viktor Patrushev, the elder brother of the high-ranking Chekist, who represents the interests of his relative in many projects dear to the family Viktor Patrushev is a member of the public board of the Dynamo LO volleyball club, and his son Alexei is the club’s president. In 2010 Victor worked as an advisor to the Chairman of the Central Council of the Dynamo Society, he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Center of Northern Convoys foundation, the museum of which has an exposition about his father Platon Patrushev. In 2007, Viktor Patrushev was a member of Nikolai Patrushev’s New Year expedition to the South Pole, for which he was later awarded the Order of Friendship together with the son of the FSB director. In 2012, Viktor Patrushev worked as president of AO Nord, which is owned by a family of St. Petersburg gangsters × .

However, Kesaev’s ties with the FSB do not end here either. There was at least one episode when Russia’s main cigarette trader literally made the top officials of the FSB dollar millionaires. In 2007, the FSB pulled off a simple but very lucrative deal , first reported by Novaya Gazeta × . Since Soviet times, the FSB had owned a departmental kindergarten and the surrounding territory in the Odintsovsky district of the Moscow Oblast, the most expensive area near the capital.

“Kontora” transferred this land to the balance of the municipality, which in turn ceded the plot for use to the Kalchuga 4 cottage nonprofit partnership, established by the generals of the secret service. A couple of months later, the land was divided into 22 plots and underwent a privatization procedure: FSB executives, starting with Director Alexander Bortnikov and his two deputies, became the owners. By the spring of 2008 the plots were already bought out by the companies of Igor Kesaev, all the transactions cost him a total of almost $50 million. So, under the guise of ordinary land transactions, Kesaev transferred an average of $2.5 million each to two dozen FSB generals. And this was for land that never actually belonged to these generals and for which they did not pay the market price.

In 2012, Kesaev transferred the ownership of this land to his name, and now the businessman’s mansion stands on this territory – quite close to Vladimir Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

While Kesaev and Katsiev were busy with ensuring personal enrichment of the Checkists, another plot was developing in their lives. Since 2005, the businessmen have become prominent players in the Russian defense industry, traditionally associated with the security services. That year, Kesaev and Katsiev took control of the Degtyaryov Plant in Kovrov , whose shareholders (the plant’s management and an investment company) were battling in court over the controlling stake × . First of all, despite its losses, the plant transferred RUB 180 million to the Monolit foundation. Vladimir Anisimov, Patrushev’s former aide, became Chairman of the Board of Directors, and other important law enforcement officials joined the plant’s board.

On its website, the company lists only civilian products – motorcycles and motorized cultivators. However, military production is much more important for the company – it manufactures the Kord large-caliber machine gun, the Pecheneg machine gun, the Vladimirov tank machine gun, the Kornet anti-tank system and the Strela surface-to-air missile system, as well as a whole line of other man-portable air defense systems and grenade launchers. All of these products are actively used by the Russian army in its aggression against Ukraine. For the war years of 2022 and 2023, the plant increased its revenue by 30% ( it is now RUB 30 billion).

In April 2022 – shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine – Kesaev fell under the EU sanctions. A month later, the military plant rushed to announce that Kesaev had withdrawn from its ownership, but this is most likely not true. “Gavrilych” and trusted lawyers of Kesaev and Katsiev still sit on the board of directors.

Part four

Despite Kesaev’s involvement in the war, sanctions imposed against him and his close ties with FSB top brass, Western companies are not ready to abandon the Russian market and their profits from it.

In March 2022, Philip Morris said it was considering leaving the Russian market (9% of its global production). However, two years later this has not been done. On the contrary, in 2023, the net profit of Philip Morris’ legal entity in Russia – AO Philip Morris Izhora – × increased from RUB 48 billion to RUB 56 billion.

Japan Tobacco legal entity in our country – J.T.I. Russia × is even more dependent on the Russian market – it represents 20% of its global production. The company’s net profit in Russia is also growing – from RUB 43 billion in 2022 to RUB 47 billion in 2023. According to the 2023 report, Megapolis sold half a trillion rubles worth of products from Japan Tobacco factories in Russia.

Until recently, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco could also claim a part of Megapolis’ profits from the sale of their cigarettes. The reason is that in 2013, the foreign giants became co-owners of 20% of Megapolis’ shares each . Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco each owned 20% in the Dutch Megapolis Distribution BV, which in turn was the owner with the Russian company Megapolis. The Russian businessmen received $1.5 billion for selling this stake × . At that time it was presented as a success of Russian entrepreneurs who attracted Western partners to their business at a favorable moment for themselves.

However, in August 2024, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Oblast granted the claim of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to suspend the corporate rights of the Dutch Megapolis Distribution B.V. in its Russian subsidiary. This was a very quick operation – just 2 months before the government had put Megapolis on the list of economically significant organizations, meaning that according to the law “On Peculiarities of Regulation of Corporate Relations in Business Entities that are Economically Significant Organizations” × Kesaev and Katsiev’s business was recognized as being “of significant importance for ensuring economic sovereignty and security.” Under wartime law, the Russian state can restrict the rights of foreign shareholders in such businesses, which the court did. Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco have now been stripped of their voting rights as well as their right to receive dividends from Megapolis.

Other international companies have not abandoned cooperation with Megapolis either. The firm of Kesaev and Katsiev continues to be a distributor of Red Bull (beverages), Lavazza (coffee) and Reckitt Benckiser (primarily Durex and Contex condoms). United company DKBR, which specializes in alcohol, has a wide range of foreign spirits that are imported into Russia, partly through a parallel import scheme i.e. through intermediary countries without the manufacturer’s consent × . These companies, as well as Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco, did not respond to Proekt’s multiple inquiries.

Surprisingly, the cooperation of Western tobacco producers with Kesaev continues even in Ukraine, which the Russian army is fighting with his weapons. There, Russian businessmen control virtually the entire tobacco market.

Richard Mark Taylor-Duxbury is a lawyer who represents clients in civil disputes. The only business he previously owned was a small dog walking company.

It is a similar case with his colleague, 81-year-old Richard Dorian Fenhalls. He is a former bank executive and founder of a consulting firm who appears to have a long history of working with Kesaev. In 2009, Fenhalls advised Sibir Energy for two months . This came to light after the Strand Partners consulting company filed a lawsuit against Fenhalls, its former co-owner × . It was at this time that a deal was being prepared for Kesaev to sell his stake in that company to Gazprom. During these two months of consultations, the Briton received $11.7 million. The fact that both Britons act as nominees in the Ukrainian Megapolis was confirmed to Proekt by a source in the company.

On December 5, 2022, detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine detained Boris Kaufman on charges of creating a criminal organization and bribing officials. Two days later, Kaufman was granted bail in the amount of more than $3 million, and he was released from the pre-trial detention center. Against the background of criminal cases and special attention to Tedis-Ukraine, a new distributor, DL Solution, appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and not only received contracts with Western corporations, but also quickly took the second spot (after Tedis-Ukraine) in the market. The director of the new company and the chief accountant had recently worked at Tedis-Ukraine , as Forbes Ukraine found out × .

Finally, a Ukrainian retail chain that sells tobacco products is also linked to Kesaev. A significant part of cigarettes in Ukraine is sold by the local company Cigar House Fortuna – they have hundreds of branded Tabakerka stores, their products are also supplied to 15 thousand other retail outlets. This company is formally controlled by Odessa businessmen formerly associated with the Party of Regions. But the truth is that until July 2024, the same Ukrainians, together with the Megapolis company, owned a legal entity of the same name in Russia – Fortuna Cigar House . In July 2024, this share in the company was transferred to other Ukrainians residing in Russia but also associated with Yanukovych × .

Part five

In 2016, Igor Kesaev fell in love with a Ukrainian woman – Olga Klimenko. The model, “Miss Blond 2013”, moved to Moscow, the couple registered their marriage – this was reported by Super.ru in 2019 – × and at the same time Klimenko-Kesaeva became the host of the Yes, Chef! cooking show on the World Fashion TV channel owned by her husband.

In late May 2022, Olga’s native Zhytomyr Oblast was subjected to another massive missile attack. Klimenko herself posed on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival on May 25 of that year before the world premiere of the movie Elvis. Kesaev and his wives, both current and former, as well as Katsiev’s family, are very fond of foreign countries.

On June 29, 2023, an interesting event took place at the famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence. There was a screening of the Russian documentary The Perfect Museum. The Return of the Renaissance, which tells about the Renaissance sculptures that were damaged during World War II and taken to the USSR. The movie was made with the support of Stella Kesaeva’s Stella Art Foundation. Stella is the ex-wife of the main owner of Megapolis. The foundation exists with his money. Since the beginning of the war Stella has had time to visit Cannes and Monaco.

Monaco is also home to a model and socialite known under the online alias Lara Lieto. Larisa Tyaka (that’s her real name) is known to tabloids as the former fiancée of American actor Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for playing the lead role in The Pianist. According to the tabloids, the girl was introduced to the actor by a certain oligarch with whom Lara’s father works. This is an easy puzzle: Larissa is the niece of Stella Kesaeva, and the model’s father is Nikolai Tyaka, who in different years worked in Mercury, Megapolis and at the Turboholod plant, home to the alleged cash storage. It was Nikolai Tyaka, along with Sergei Katsiev, who in April 2022 became buyers of the Russian tobacco business of the British company Imperial Brands.

Kesaev himself attracted the attention of the Finnish Ministry of Defense by buying the entire island of Kotasaari in the Puumala municipality , which is 65 kilometers from the Russian border × for €700,000 and building a helipad there, hidden behind high ramparts. The interest stemmed from the fact that the Russian oligarch had hidden the helipad from the local authorities by presenting them with a plan that simply did not include it. There are also three houses built on Kesaev’s island – the main, guest and staff houses, as well as two separate saunas.

Taking into account Kesaev’s ties with the FSB, Finnish military experts became alarmed: in their opinion, Kotasaari could be used by Russian special services if necessary – it is too well hidden from prying eyes. Kesaev bought the Finnish land as a Cypriot citizen. However, the Cypriot passport did not help him: in April 2022, after Kesaev was placed on the EU sanctions list, his ownership of Finnish land was frozen. In the same month, the oligarch was also stripped of the Cypriot passport he had bought because of the sanctions.

However, the sanctions did not affect Kesaev’s important hobby – he loves yachts. Before the war, it was known for sure that the billionaire owned two luxury boats – Sky and MySky. However, after 2022, they were both renamed – to Totem and Pearl respectively.

The Sky yacht, which has been renamed to Totem

The MySky yacht, which has been renamed to
Pearl

Reuters journalists wrote that Kesaev secretly tried to sell at least one of them (the 51-meter superyacht MySky). We do not know if he succeeded in getting rid of it. However, Pearl has now been discovered by us in Genoa, Italy, and a short time after we sent an inquiry to Kesaev’s company, the yacht was on its way to Saudi Arabia.

What we can say about Totem is that it most likely still belongs to the billionaire. For example, Larisa Tyaka, a relative of the Kesaev family, vacationed on it this summer, posting photos on Instagram. Despite this, the yacht visits the EU countries, as if it is not afraid of sanctions. For example, this year it is wintering in the Greek port of Piraeus near Athens.

Sergei Katsiev, on the other hand, likes the USA more. There in the city of Portland, Oregon, he owns an old house worth $1.7 million. The house, built in 1925, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Katsiev’s wife and their children are American citizens – according to leaked documents from the Migration Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs – × , their daughter Irana got her MBA in Portland, and together with her husband Marat Magkeev they work as vice-presidents of the Bristol alcohol store chain.

Editing – Roman Badanin
Fact checking – Katya Arenina