A document about the in absentia arrest of Sergei Zivenko, a resident of sunny Miami and a junior partner of the Rotenberg brothers in the alcohol business, has appeared on the Moscow City Court website. He is accused of embezzlement by fraud.
The Rotenberg brothers' junior partner in the firm "ZiRot" (the name is derived from the founders' surnames) was appointed director of Rosspirtprom after the first inauguration of President Putin in May 2000. Following Zivenko's tenure, Rosspirtprom's distilleries were largely driven to bankruptcy, and the distilleries were handed over to the right people for a pittance. Before his dismissal, Zivenko managed to snag the Gzhelka trademark, the most popular vodka brand of the 1990s and early 2000s, from one of these distilleries, the renowned Moscow distillery Kristall, as a consolation prize. Zivenko then successfully liquidated the Kaluga Kristall distillery, extricating himself from a criminal case of deliberate bankruptcy with the help of the Rotenberg brothers, and departed for sunny Florida. He then bottled Gzhelka and his other brands under contract at numerous distilleries, leaving debts in each, before moving on to a new plant—the victim. One of these distilleries was the Syktyvkar Distillery, which filed for bankruptcy against Artelny Traditsii LLC.
In April 2024, a new face appeared among the shareholders of Kaluga Kristall Distillery LLC—namely, the long-forgotten Sergey Zivenko. It would seem like an unexpected move for a man who has lived in sunny Miami for many years. After our project publicized this fact, Zivenko immediately filed documents with the 46th Federal Tax Service Inspectorate to resign from his position. But he simultaneously installed his own men at KLVZ: Igor Gorsky and Mikhail Gumarov. All this occurred against the backdrop of the
bankruptcy of Artel Traditions, a company he controlled, and the testimony of its general director against Zivenko in a criminal case. But at the time, the Rotenbergs were "in the saddle" and stood by their partner.
Gorsky oversaw the plant on Zivenko's behalf. Gumarov is Gorsky's loyal aide, overseeing logistics and the procurement of components.
Under Gorsky, the plant's staffing level was 62% of the enterprise's needs—the rest had fled. According to plant documentation, Gorsky is not listed as a full-time employee, but he was the one who managed KLVZ Kristall. Zivenko communicated with representatives from various offices until the very end.
KLVZ Kristall LLC, which is associated with this company, has been managed since 2022 by Artem Chubukin, who is also the CEO of RSP Real Estate LLC, founded by Norquesto Investments Ltd., an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands that does not disclose the beneficiaries of its companies. According to the Cheka-OGPU, Larisa Zivenko, Sergey Zivenko's wife, worked at RSP Real Estate.
