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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
According to specialized media, Kazakh billionaire with a highly controversial biography Kenes Rakishev is selling BTA Bank Ukraine. This is Rakishev’s fifth attempt to divest his largest Ukrainian asset, and it appears to be successful — the buyer is a Nova Group affiliated with the founders of Nova Poshta, Vyacheslav Klimov and Volodymyr Poperešnjak.
This deal raises many questions. And not only because the buyer for his Ukrainian asset could be found only on the fifth try. Although this fact confirms the unofficial view of BTA Bank as an extremely toxic asset. And its owner, Kenes Rakishev, also has a very specific biography, both personal and business.
Who is Kenes Rakishev
The Kazakh businessman Kenes Rakishev is primarily known as a personal friend of Ramzan Kadyrov, who awarded him the Order of Akhmát Kadyrov, and Ramzan himself calls Rakishev “his dear brother.”
But this is not all — Rakishev’s connections with Ramzan Kadyrov personally and with the Russian authorities, business, and security services do not end there. At the beginning of the full-scale war, when sanctions began to pile up on Russia, Kenes Rakishev was among those who organized the mass relocation of Russian business to Kazakhstan — already in early spring 2022 a scandal erupted related to a scheme for legitimizing Russian capital: as the media wrote, Rakishev was one of the key organizers of a scheme issuing residence permits for supposedly “refugees” from the Russian Federation. Moreover, these documents were obtained either by people connected to Rakishev or by individuals who own large assets in Russia. This gave the latter the opportunity to move capital out from under sanction pressure.
But that is not all — companies owned by Kenes Rakishev produce armored vehicles that were actively used by militants of his “dear friend and brother” Ramzan Kadyrov in Ukraine: specifically Arlan armored vehicles spotted in the column of Akhmat. In addition, Kenes Rakishev is connected with projects around Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer, in which he is presented as one of the beneficiaries of a strategy to bypass international sanctions.
Kenes Rakishev is involved in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles used for bombing Ukrainian cities — the businessman, through the Fastlane fund, invested in Russian projects related to artificial intelligence and the internet. Among the latest — Cognitive Technologies, which develops drones, with Sberbank among its investors.
Regarding Russian business, after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war Rakishev urgently rewrote the majority of it to front persons, one of whom is his long-time partner Anvar Mamatov.
This fact is confirmed by checks of Russian registries, where Anvar Mamatov began to appear as the owner of dozens of various enterprises that not long ago belonged to Kenes Rakishev.
Rakishev also has business in Kazakhstan. It was there that he became an oligarch, later transferring part of his interests to Russia. But in this case we are interested in Ukraine, where Rakishev had several assets.
Rakishev’s Ukrainian business
Among them is the very BTA Bank, which, in turn, owns corporate rights to ZAT Borysthen and ZAT Modus. True, Rakishev’s stake in the latter is tiny — only 0,58%. The BTA Bank itself occupies 59-th place in the NBU rating with 59-th, its assets are valued at 212 million hryvnias, liabilities — at 125 million. However, perhaps the most precise descriptor of the bank is the Ministry of Finance’s review: “Interesting, on what does this bank even live?”.
Rakishev has another asset in Ukraine — LLC Innovation, but in this firm matters are even more dubious than in the bank — the company’s profitability is minus 84 348,55%. No comment, as they say.
And here we must return to Russia — we are not accidentally stopping so long on Rakishev’s ties with Russian business and Ramzan Kadyrov. In this regard it is worth adding that Rakishev also owns a Russian subsidiary of BTA Bank. And it is worth stopping there no less carefully.
Russian BTA Bank
According to open data, Rakishev’s Russian business was focused mainly on managing troubled assets and real estate, not on ordinary retail banking. LLC BTA Moscow (later renamed Prime Progress): in a publication about Rakishev’s Russian assets it is stated that the company showed losses of tens of millions of rubles for years. In 2024 year its sale was reflected in the consolidated report of Fincraft Group.
The Russian subsidiary of the BTA Bank also owned the Kosmos hotel complex in Moscow, which the bank owned through Batial and Kronos. According to media reports, these companies were sold in 2024 year. The buyer was Galymzhan Ainabaev — a business partner whose family had previously appeared among affiliated persons of the group.
Also in Russia Rakishev had TuranAlem Finance, the Russian subsidiary of BTA Bank, which in recent years also operated at a loss and in June 2025 year was declared bankrupt.
In the former BTA portfolio were logistics complexes in Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk with a total area of about 400 thousand square meters, commercial real estate projects in Moscow, including sites near Paveletskiy railway station and on Poklonnaya Hill. These assets were described by Rakishev himself in an interview with Kommersant in 2018 year. The fate of these assets now is unknown.
From this brief note, one simple conclusion follows: the Russian BTA was for Rakishev primarily a tool of return, restructuring, and further realization of troubled assets. In 2024 year, according to published data, the group sold several key Russian companies, including structures with shares in the Kosmos hotel. But at the same time there are statements that Rakishev retained actual control over the sold assets through nominal owners.
What raises questions
Against this backdrop, the activity of BTA Bank Ukraine and LLC Innovation cannot help but raise questions, as they do not look like assets that generate profit. Yet Kenes Rakishev did not just hold onto them for years; he invested substantial money in them — the charter capital of BTA Bank Ukraine is one and a half billion hryvnias, and in LLC Innovation the charter capital is not simply 166 827 900 hryvnias, this capital has been regularly increased, with the most recent increase dated August 2026 year: the company received more than 40 million hryvnias. At the same time, from the moment of its founding the company was unprofitable, but capital nevertheless grew.
Against this backdrop questions naturally arise. Moreover, it should be remembered that Kenes Rakishev sold his Ukrainian asset only on the fifth attempt. Why did previous buyers, including Belarusian businessman Mikal Vorobey, Kaspi.kz from Kazakhstan, Georgian entrepreneur Rati Tchhelidze, and in 2025 year — Ukrainian businessmen Vyacheslav Mishalov and Dmytro Shevchuk, ultimately refuse the deal? There is no answer to this question.
Now the buyer is a group that controls one of the largest Ukrainian logistics and payment businesses. For Nova, acquiring the bank could become a way to expand the financial infrastructure around NovaPay. In June 2026 year, there were discussions about creating a financial institution based on BTA Bank focused on financial inclusion.
But why the asset had to be offered to several potential buyers and what exactly changed by autumn 2026 year for the deal to finally appear? Public documents that would allow a clear answer to these questions are still insufficient.
There is also no answer to other questions raised by the near-completion of the deal. Who exactly sells the shares and what persons will participate in settlements? What is the price of the deal and does it correspond to the value of the asset purchased? Do there exist obligations with Russian legal entities on the seller or related companies that could matter for sanctions risk assessment?
Separately, one should check what information about ultimate beneficiaries and sources of funds is presented in the framework of the agreement. Publications about links with Russian business and Ramzan Kadyrov, Rakishev’s interests in Russian defense, and participation in sanctions circumvention did not arise from nothing. Therefore, it is logical to assume that BTA Bank’s activities in Ukraine had a completely different purpose than stated, and its sale is a means of moving money to Russia, circumventing sanctions, or hiding assets. Neither the price of the deal nor the route of proceeds is disclosed.
Exit from Ukraine is not the end of the story
Kenes Rakishev has been trying to sell the Ukrainian bank for more than one year. Now the potential buyer is the Nova group, for which a banking license could be strategically valuable. For the seller, the deal is likely to be another step in reducing non-Kazakhstan-based banking assets.
But the Ukrainian asset is owned by a businessman whose public statements, awards, and investigations into financing projects in Chechnya confirm his ties to Ramzan Kadyrov. His Russian business interests are also described in journalistic materials. Therefore, the main intrigue of this story is not that Rakishev is acquainted with Kadyrov. And not even that he is selling a small Ukrainian bank. It lies in what exactly will remain with the seller after the deal and where the money from the Ukrainian asset will go.
A question that Ukrainian regulators and the seller will have to answer: who ultimately will receive the money from the sale of BTA Bank Ukraine and what business connections of Rakishev will remain outside this deal?
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "«Брат» Кадирова і спонсор російської оборонки: казахський мільярдер Кенес Ракішев намагається продати свої активи в Україні". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: HAB Media.
