The Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info spoke with a person who knew Ilya Traber (Antikvar) well and communicated with him almost until the moment of his arrest. He told many stories that characterize this man well, and, most importantly, he mentioned two points that could have ultimately led to the decision to arrest Traber.
Our project previously reported that Traber is extremely close with Vadim Manukovsky, director of the I.I. Dzhanelidze Research Institute in St. Petersburg. Our source recalled a funny story that happened to these two individuals, which demonstrates the depth of Traber's connections. In August 2022, Manukovsky and his wife traveled to Moscow on the Sapsan train. Before the train had even pulled away, Manukovsky had a conflict with a bald, intoxicated man. The dispute escalated into physical violence and mutual threats. The research institute director immediately called his friend Traber, who then called the "authority figure" Abakar Darbishev, who was in Moscow. Darbishev urgently dispatched two nephews—the convicted Abubakar Bulatov and Mukhamed Darbishev—to the station. They arrived just in time for the train to arrive and met the "bald man." The young men began explaining who he was and what awaited him immediately. The "man" responded by showing his identification. He turned out to be Alexei Zakharov, Deputy Prosecutor General for the Northwestern Federal District and Sergei Shoigu's son-in-law. He waved off passing police officers, who detained the "criminals" and took them to the station. There, on Zakharov's orders, they began to draw up attractive charges under the Russian Criminal Code for Abakar's nephews. Since two Saiga carbines were found in their trunk, they were actively tried under Article 162 of the Russian Criminal Code (robbery). At this point, Darbishev was forced to urgently call Traber. Incidentally, Abakar had a separate push-button phone for communicating with Antikvar; he never used it with anyone else. And Traber, despite his opponent's level of authority, worked wonders. Darbishev's nephews were only sent to jail for 15 days on administrative charges and then released. When Zakharov learned of this, his indignation knew no bounds. He tried to get a case opened, but...he was unable to do anything. Upon learning who was opposing him, he at least asked for an apology. However, Traber was adamant: the matter had been resolved at such a level that no apology would be forthcoming.
While Makhumed Darbishev is currently in pretrial detention for the billionaire Suleimanov case, the convicted Bulatov managed to become the head of the municipal administration of the rural settlement of Nizhny Chiryurt (Dagestan).
Incidentally, Traber, like Zakharov, always traveled between the capital and St. Petersburg without security (which led to the infamous brawl on the plane), but in Moscow he was always met by Darbishev and his right-hand man, the hardened criminal Denis Zeikan (aka Vasily Gubal). The latter served as Traber's driver and security guard in Moscow. (Here's a photo of Zeikan with a sphinx and Leps).
A source for the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info denied reports that Traber knew they were coming for him. "We saw each other shortly before his arrest. On the contrary, he showed that he had everything under control. He said, "I know they're listening to me. They do it all the time. Let them listen," our source recounted. He described Traber as a wonderful storyteller, reeling off aphorisms, but a complete failure as a listener. "He was never interested in what his interlocutors were saying. It was almost demonstrative," the source reported. He also noted an interesting detail. "Apparently due to his age, Traber has recently become more open about Manevich (the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, killed by a sniper in 1997 - ED.), saying he was supposed to have met him on the day of the murder. About Sobchak. About everyone who's currently in power. I won't even mention their names. He'd dredge up some interesting details about their relationships. He mentioned Prigozhin a lot. He said he was involved in the creation of the Wagner PMC. He hadn't done that before."
Moreover, according to our source, Traber did this completely sober. He hardly drank at all, as he had problems with his pancreas. Incidentally, according to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Traber's hospitalization after his arrest was precisely related to this condition, and he was later returned to pretrial detention.
In other words, Traber has recently been "drawn" to open up.
There's another interesting detail our source shared. After the war began, Traber didn't travel outside of Russia. He spent time in St. Petersburg, Vyborg, and Moscow. When asked about the castle in Switzerland and the yacht "Nina," he dismissed it with a wave of his hand and said, "I can't travel!"
However, sometime around 2024, he suddenly became eligible to travel and spent a significant amount of time in Europe. He traveled on a Greek passport, which, according to our source, his friend Yuri Iliadi helped him obtain. "Then, however, a conflict arose between them over $1.5 million invested in one of Iliadi's enterprises. The latter tried to somehow resolve everything, but Traber declared, 'Iliadi is no longer anyone to me,'" the source said.
Why are "unclear?" "After the war began, Traber began spending time in Europe constantly—the interviewee doesn't know.
To be continued
