VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have learned of a truly "wonderful" story. It turns out that for many years, the Ministry of Defense has been paying Vitaly Yusufov (the son of former Energy Minister Igor Yusufov) large sums for the lease of military facilities, including the academic premises of the Prince Alexander Nevsky Military University. This is all because the Yusufov clan illegally acquired Defense Ministry land, along with facilities built with state funds.
As our project has discovered, the scandalous story of the Yusufov clan's seizure of Moscow land from the Ministry of Defense also involves the well-known Russian restaurateur Andrei Dellos and the husband of singer Glukoza, Alexander Chistyakov.
The story of the 18 plots of land on Tankovy Proezd in the capital began about 20 years ago. The territory previously belonged to the 101st Central Automobile Repair Plant of the Ministry of Defense (FSUE 101 TSARZ), which had been operating in Lefortovo since the 1940s. In 2005, the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo) assigned 68 properties to the FSUE—buildings, roads, railway lines, sites, and classrooms at the Prince Alexander Nevsky Military University, among others. Apparently, the Yusufov clan had its eye on these promising assets at the same time. Defense Minister Serdyukov and his assistant, Evgenia Vasilyeva, helped the businessmen secure them, and newly elected President Dmitry Medvedev gave the green light. In September 2008, he signed a decree corporatizing several FSUEs of the Ministry of Defense, whose assets were subsequently removed from the ministry's jurisdiction.
Along with other federal state unitary enterprises, 101 CARZ, with a registered capital of 1.5 billion rubles, was transformed into a joint-stock company. Maxim Zakutailo, a classmate of Yevgenia Vasilyeva, head of the Defense Ministry's Department of Property Relations, became its director. In 2012, Vasilyeva personally offered one of her department's employees the directorship of 101 CARZ and three other commercial firms owned by the Defense Ministry. Afterwards, assets were withdrawn from these firms and sold through a chain of legal entities to the right people. The founders of 101 CARZ eventually included the Investment and Construction Company "Moscow State University Territory Development Fund" (ISK FORT), which was registered to the Cyprus offshore company DISCROMATON INVESTMENTS LIMITED. The offshore company was managed by Cypriot nominees Khristina Demosthenous, Mikhail Spirulla, and Elena Low, who served hundreds of similar companies. A certain Igor Pyshkin became the director of ISK FORT. He also appeared later, in 2018, at a Dom.rf auction for the sale of land and buildings at 62 Sadovnicheskaya Street. Pyshkin represented the newly created Citizen LLC, which ultimately acquired the property.
Market participants had already linked Pyshkin to the empire of Vitaly Yusufov, the son of Igor Yusufov, former Minister of Energy (2001-2004) and member of the Gazprom board of directors. Among other assets, Vitaly owns the investment company Argo, which received the general contract for the construction of a football stadium at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, the brainchild of Dmitry Medvedev. The Yusufov and Medvedev families have been friends for many years. The Yusufovs are believed to be the custodians of Medvedev's assets. Vitaly Yusufov never confirmed that ISK FORT and Citizen were his assets, but after the war began, when deoffshorization began, he suddenly became the direct owner of Citizen and SZ Tankovy (which received the Ministry of Defense's property from ISK FORT).
In 2012, the properties at 4 Tankovy Proezd were transferred to a specially created company, Tankovy LLC (subsequently renamed SZ Tankovy LLC). Its founders were GELSTEN INVESTMENTS LIMITED, another Cypriot offshore company (99%), and a certain Anatoly Sergeev (1%), who worked in the Department for the Management of Buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the PTO of the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation, in the early 2000s.
All these years, the Ministry of Defense has been paying rent for the properties located on Yusufov's land. Only recently did a bill arrive for 25 million rubles.
The founders of SZ Tankovy changed again in the summer of 2024: Vitaly Yusufov formally left the company and was replaced by SZ Yuzhnoye More LLC, registered to a pair of Krasnodar entrepreneurs, Nikolai Shikhidi and Sofia Toros. Both run large-scale construction businesses in southern Russia, yet are completely unknown in Moscow, although since 2023 they have been among the founders of several Moscow companies associated with the family of businessman Alexander Chistyakov (husband of singer Glukoza, Natalia Chistyakova-Ionova). Chistyakov is a longtime friend and partner of Igor Yusufov, dating back to the latter's time as Minister of Energy and the former Deputy Chairman of FGC UES. They then actively invested together in energy and real estate projects.
Specifically, Igor Yusufov and Alexander Chistyakov were business partners in the oil and gas company Ruspetro.
In 2023, the Chistyakov family and their business partners were held subsidiarily liable in the bankruptcy of Nashe Kino Company, with a total of over 50 million rubles at stake. Sberbank also received some of the former energy company's family assets due to his difficulties servicing loans even before the pandemic.
Perhaps, unwilling to lose their remaining business, the Chistyakovs transferred it to Krasnodar businessmen. They were connected by renowned Krasnodar lawyer Yuri Pustovit, who had previously worked with major energy companies. Back in 2022, Pustovit received a 30% stake in EKM-Sochi, while the remaining 70%, through UK Gem Mall, was then owned by Maria Chistyakova, the businessman's sister.
Currently, Sofia Toros is the sole founder of UK Gem Mall—although Chistyakova still holds her entire stake as collateral. SZ Revers, previously founded by Alexander Chistyakov himself, is also registered to Sofia Toros and Konstantin Shikhidi (Nikolai Shikhidi's son). Toros also acquired a stake in EKM-Sochi.
Furthermore, some of the land on Tankovy Proyezd was transferred to Nochnoy Katok LLC. Since 2019, this company has been registered to 39-year-old Muscovite Andrey Loginov, a clear nominee. All these years, Loginov simultaneously worked as a senior manager at Sonata LLC, which belongs to the renowned restaurateur Andrey Dellos, as well as at PUASSON LLC, owned by his son, Maxim Dellos. According to leaked documents from the Federal Tax Service, Loginov received a salary only from the Dellos companies, while Nochnoy Skatok, which owns land worth hundreds of millions of rubles, never paid him a penny.
Just now, the Moscow City Military Prosecutor's Office has initiated a case in the Arbitration Court seeking the return of 18 land plots in Lefortovo to the state.
