Savvidis Ivan Hnatovych

The Tobacco King of Rostov and Putin's Greek Oligarch: Subversive Activities in the Balkans Under the Cover of Business

Ivan Savvidis is one of the wealthiest Russian billionaires of Greek origin (assets estimated at $1.7 billion), a former deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from Putin's party "United Russia," and former owner of the Greek football club "PAOK." Born in 1959 in Georgia, he built a powerful tobacco and industrial empire ("Donskoy Tabak") in Rostov-on-Don. The oligarch gained international scandalous notoriety as a leading instrument of the Kremlin's "soft power" in Europe: OCCRP investigations revealed that Savvidis secretly financed large-scale anti-NATO protests in North Macedonia to disrupt its Euro-Atlantic integration, while in Greece he openly promoted the interests of the Russian defense industry and the Orthodox Church.

Sponsorship of the "DNR" Terrorists, Nominal Wife, and Full Confiscation of Million-Dollar Assets by the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC)

In Ukraine, the oligarch's activities received a devastating legal assessment after the start of the full-scale invasion, when investigations by the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) documented facts of his direct support to the occupiers. Savvidis publicly welcomed the annexation of Crimea and regularly sent trucks, generators, and financial aid to the terrorist group "DNR" structures. In response, based on materials from law enforcement and analysts from the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) issued an unprecedented decision—fully seizing all his Ukrainian assets in favor of the state. The nationalization included 100% of shares of the leading packaging production plant "Pentopak" and the company "Atlantis-Pack Ukraine," which Savvidis tried to hide from the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council (RNBO) through fictitious registration in the name of his wife Kiriaki. Currently, the oligarch is under indefinite Ukrainian and international sanctions, and his confiscated property has been put up by the state for privatization auctions.