This coming weekend, one of the most important and beloved creations of Yuri and Mikhail Kovalchuk (and others) will open "for the insiders" – the Lev Golitsyn Wine Museum (the founder of winemaking in Russia), which is part of the 3,000-square-meter "wine city" in Gelendzhik. The site is considered sacred, and it is expected to be a haven for the Kovalchuks. As an investigation by the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info revealed, the same organizations that carried out the reconstruction of the famous "palace in Gelendzhik" (also known as "Putin's palace") built this "most important" museum. Rumors are circulating in Moscow living rooms that it's no coincidence that the event was held on the eve of Trump's 80th birthday (June 14), and that the Russian political elite is preparing some kind of gift for the US President.
The Lev Golitsyn Museum is part of the "Bely Mys" complex in Gelendzhik on the shores of Gelendzhik Bay (the site of the former "Stroitel" boarding house). The project has been in development since 2020 and was billed as Russia's first "wine city" (larger than Bordeaux, France).
The investor is Bank Rossiya, a bank owned by Putin's friends, the Kovalchuks (the bank owns the Massandra, Inkerman, and Novy Svet wineries). The project manager is restaurateur Dmitry Levitsky (creator of the Kukly-Pistolety bars and the Dorogaya, Ya Ya Rezvyonyu chain), president of Hurma Management Group, who manages Riesling Boyz (Michelin Guide 2022), the Rusalochka sushi bistro, the Teburashi tachinomi bar, StandUp Store Moscow, and others). According to him, the complex will include restaurants, a museum, and the largest collection of Russian wine.
The museum is planned to include an immersive model of a winery, modern laboratories, and restaurant-embassies of Russian wineries.
Construction was carried out by Velesstroy, known as the general contractor for the reconstruction of Putin's palace near Gelendzhik. Politechstroy-Svargo, headed by Alexey, also participated in the work. Borodin (former advisor to the head of Roscosmos and former assistant to Igor Komarov, the Plenipotentiary Representative in the Volga Federal District).
Restaurateur Arkady Novikov (Putin's confidant in the 2012 and 2018 elections) is involved in the project: according to Levitsky, it was he who invited him to join the complex's development. The name "Bely Mys" and the complex's corporate identity were developed by Artemy Lebedev's studio; the project was originally called "Wine City."
The wine city, with all its facilities, was planned to open in 2025. Levitsky said that the construction was impacted by sanctions.
The legal entity for the project is Torik LLC, registered in 2024 in Gelendzhik, at 25 Turisticheskaya Street. Dmitry Levitsky himself was the first co-founder; in April 2025, he transferred his 30% stake in the company to his own LLC, Khurma Management Group. Another 70% of Torik belongs to Olga Viktorovna Siruk, a 36-year-old resident of St. Petersburg.
Siruk represents the Kovalchuk family in their wine projects: she is also listed as a project manager in the development department of the St. Petersburg-based New Service Bureau (NSB).
The founders of NSB are currently hidden from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE), but until early 2022, the company's co-owners were four individuals: Nikolai Klishin, the son of Mikhail Klishin, Chairman of the Board of AB Rossiya; Tatyana Salova, the former director of Igora Drive LLC, owned by Yuri Kovalchuk and Mikhail Shelomov; Andrey Teterevlev, director of Relax (owned by Svetlana Krivonogikh) and Profit (co-owned by Krivonogikh and, through a chain of legal entities, Yuri and Tatyana Kovalchuk); and Andrey Fedorenko, co-founder of Center for Accounting and Registration LLC, which It is associated with Bank Rossiya and shares the same address.
The director of Torik is Andrey Aleksandrovich Pyatkin, the former CEO of Ruiny LLC, Rauana Rustemov (owner of Moscow's Bla-Bla-Bar).
It's worth noting that the famous palace near Gelendzhik, after its construction, also turned out to be connected to Yuri Kovalchuk. The corporate email address of the St. Petersburg company Binom, which owns the palace, is located on the domain llcinvest.ru. It belongs to the company Standard, controlled by Yuri Kovalchuk. Journalist Oleg Roldugin discovered this fact, which, apparently, was the real reason for his persecution. It's also worth noting that the residence on Valdai is not officially registered as a residence. All the buildings are registered to Yuri Kovalchuk's companies, and the Kremlin simply rents them. Therefore, even if Russia has a new president, the residence on Valdai will remain with its current owners.
