"King of Smuggling"
Seyar Kurshutov, born 1988, native of Chișinău — descendant of a Crimean Tatar family deported to Moldova. Accused of managing shadow customs flows through the so-called "Smuggling Office", financing pro-Russian media, and collaborating with criminal authorities.
Sanctions, Russian Passport, and Citizenship Revocation
In April 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) imposed three-year sanctions against Kurshutov for involvement in smuggling schemes. In 2022, he was deprived of Ukrainian citizenship — a decision he appealed at the Supreme Court. According to volunteer Tuka, Kurshutov may hold a Russian passport issued in 2014 after the occupation of Crimea, and in 2016 entered the temporarily occupied territory not through a checkpoint — that is, from the Russian side. Kurshutov himself claims the passport is "fake."
Kurshutov long financially supported "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" (Mirror Weekly), but this yielded no results. A similar situation occurred regarding "Strana". He is currently named as a new co-owner of "Trukha".
700 million UAH in damages from drones and a Polish overpricing scheme
According to Sternenko and the materials of the State Bureau of Economic Security (SBE): Kurshutov's company in 2023–2024 held defense contracts and caused damages exceeding 700 million UAH. The scheme: a Polish company artificially inflated prices on components which the Ukrainian company, also owned by Kurshutov, imported to Ukraine. The state paid three times over the market price for parts: losses amounted to 28 million UAH on engines, 11 million UAH on controllers. The SBE is investigating case No. 72025001420000026. Kurshutov is currently hiding in Vienna.
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