Shaking Medvedev’s inner circle: How the Russian defense assets of Vitaly Yusufov and Alexander Chistyakov became toxic amid elite feuds

Journalists have uncovered a striking story. According to media reports, Russia’s Ministry of Defense has for years been paying significant sums to Vitaliy Yusufov, the son of former Energy Minister Igor Yusufov, for the lease of properties that previously belonged to the military department, including training facilities associated with the Military University named after Prince Aleksandr Nevsky.

The reason, according to the allegations, is that the Yusufov family previously acquired Ministry of Defense land and state-funded facilities through questionable privatization schemes.

The controversial story surrounding the Ministry of Defense assets allegedly taken over by the Yusufov family in Moscow also involves well-known restaurateur Andrey Dellos and Aleksandr Chistyakov, the husband of singer Glukoza (Natalya Chistyakova-Ionova).

The story of the 18 land plots located in Tankovy Proyezd began roughly twenty years ago. The territory originally belonged to the 101st Central Automobile Repair Plant of the Ministry of Defense, which had operated in Lefortovo since the 1940s. In 2005, the Federal Agency for State Property Management assigned 68 real estate assets to the enterprise, including buildings, roads, railway tracks, industrial sites, and training facilities used by the Military University named after Prince Aleksandr Nevsky.

It was apparently around that time that the Yusufov family became interested in these highly attractive assets. According to critics of the transaction, then-Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov and his aide Evgeniya Vasilyeva facilitated the transfer, while newly elected President Dmitriy Medvedev provided the political approval. In September 2008, Medvedev signed a decree converting a number of Ministry of Defense state enterprises into joint-stock companies, paving the way for their assets to be removed from direct ministry control.

The 101st Central Automobile Repair Plant was transformed into a joint-stock company with an authorized capital of 1.5 billion rubles. Its director became Maksim Zakutaylo, a university classmate of Evgeniya Vasilyeva, who headed the Ministry’s property relations department. In 2012, Vasilyeva personally recommended one of her department employees to become director of the enterprise and three additional commercial companies belonging to the Ministry of Defense. Assets from these entities were subsequently transferred through a chain of legal structures and sold to selected buyers.

Eventually, among the founders of the 101st enterprise appeared the Investment and Construction Company “MSU Territorial Development Fund” (ISK FORT), which was owned through the Cypriot offshore company DISCROMATON INVESTMENTS LIMITED. The offshore entity was managed by Cypriot nominee directors Christina Demosthenous, Michail Spiroulla, and Elena Lou, who were involved in servicing hundreds of similar companies. ISK FORT was headed by Igor Pyshkin.

Pyshkin later resurfaced in 2018 during a DOM.RF auction involving land and buildings on Sadovnicheskaya Street, where he represented the newly established company Citizen LLC, which ultimately acquired the property.

Market participants at the time linked Pyshkin to the business empire of Vitaliy Yusufov, son of former Energy Minister and Gazprom board member Igor Yusufov. Among Vitaliy’s assets is the investment company Argo, which received the general contract for construction of a football stadium in the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a project strongly associated with Dmitriy Medvedev. The Yusufov and Medvedev families have reportedly maintained close ties for many years, and some observers have described the Yusufovs as custodians of Medvedev-linked assets.

Vitaliy Yusufov has never publicly acknowledged ownership of ISK FORT or Citizen. However, after the start of the war and the subsequent de-offshorization process, he unexpectedly became the direct owner of both Citizen and SZ Tankoviy, the company that ultimately received the Ministry of Defense properties from ISK FORT.

In 2012, the Tankovy Proyezd assets were transferred to Tankoviy LLC, later renamed SZ Tankoviy LLC. Its founders included the Cypriot offshore company GELSTEN INVESTMENTS LIMITED (99%) and Anatoliy Sergeev (1%), a former employee of the building management division serving Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Administration.

Throughout all these years, the Ministry of Defense continued paying rent for facilities located on land that had allegedly passed into Yusufov-controlled ownership. Most recently, an additional bill of 25 million rubles reportedly emerged.

Another ownership reshuffle occurred in the summer of 2024. Vitaliy Yusufov formally exited SZ Tankoviy, and his stake was transferred to SZ Yuzhnoye More LLC, a company registered in the names of Krasnodar-based entrepreneurs Nikolay Shikhidi and Sofiya Toros.

Although largely unknown in Moscow, both have extensive development businesses in southern Russia. Since 2023, they have also become founders of several Moscow companies linked to the family of businessman Aleksandr Chistyakov.

Chistyakov is a long-time associate and business partner of Igor Yusufov. Their relationship dates back to the period when Yusufov served as Energy Minister and Chistyakov was deputy chairman of FSK UES. They later invested jointly in numerous energy and real estate projects, including the oil and gas company Ruspetro.

In 2023, members of the Chistyakov family and their business partners faced subsidiary liability claims in the bankruptcy proceedings of Company Nashe Kino, involving claims exceeding 50 million rubles.

Some assets belonging to the Yusufov family had previously been acquired by Sberbank because of difficulties servicing debt obligations. According to one theory, in order to preserve remaining assets, the Chistyakov family transferred ownership structures to Krasnodar-based entrepreneurs. The connection was reportedly facilitated by prominent Krasnodar attorney Yuriy Pustovit, who had previously worked with major energy companies.

By 2022, Pustovit had acquired a 30% stake in EKM-Sochi, while the remaining 70% belonged to Mariya Chistyakova, Aleksandr Chistyakov’s sister, through UK Dzhem Mall.

Today, Sofiya Toros is the sole owner of UK Dzhem Mall, although her stake remains pledged to Mariya Chistyakova. Toros and Konstantin Shikhidi, the son of Nikolay Shikhidi, are also listed as owners of SZ Revers, a company previously controlled by Aleksandr Chistyakov. Toros additionally became a shareholder in EKM-Sochi.

Part of the Tankovy Proyezd land plots was transferred to Nochnoy Katok LLC. Since 2019, the company has been registered in the name of 39-year-old Moscow resident Andrey Loginov, who appears to be a nominee owner. During the same period, Loginov worked as a senior manager at Sonata LLC, owned by renowned restaurateur Andrey Dellos, as well as at Puasson LLC, controlled by Dellos’s son Maksim.

According to leaked tax records, Loginov received salary payments exclusively from Dellos-controlled companies, while Nochnoy Katok, despite controlling land assets worth hundreds of millions of rubles, paid him nothing.

Only now has the Moscow City Military Prosecutor’s Office initiated proceedings in the Arbitration Court seeking the return of 18 land plots in Lefortovo to state ownership.