The Docier Center discovered that the sister of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Natalia Stenina, deposited 12 billion rubles with Gazprom Bank in 2022. Based on information leaks studied by journalists, Stenina received only 1 billion rubles in interest on her deposit. A year ago, she had 6 billion rubles in her account at the same Gazprom Bank.
At her official place of work (since 2017, Stenina has been listed as advertising director of Ticadom, part of Emin Agalarov Group), Sister Mishustina, according to leaks, receives from 25 thousand to 60 thousand rubles per month. With this income, it will take 15 thousand years to accumulate the amount sent to the deposit.
In 2013-2015, Stenina also received $10.1 million from the private group UFG, of which Mishustin was a partner during a break from government service. But this is ten times less than the deposit.
The file indicates that Stenina was married to Alexander Udodov, a businessman linked to Mishustin, from 2008 to 2020. Journalists discovered that this marriage may have been fictitious. Leaks indicate that even after the official divorce, Stenin continued to live with her first husband and the father of her two children, Sergei Stenin. He used cars officially owned by his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law, and was registered in the same apartments as Natalia Stenina.
Stenin’s son, Mikhail, posted joint photos of his parents taken in 2013 on social media. By then, Mishustina’s sister had been married to Udodov for five years. Now Stenin Jr.’s profile has been closed. On VKontakte.
At the same time, journalists could not find any intersections between Stenina and Odudov during all the years of marriage in information leaks. They had different addresses in Moscow, and there were no shared cars and no shared air travel.
“Not once in my life have I seen Ododov in the company of Natalia Stenina,” Kirill Cashore, Ododov’s former business partner, told Dossier. He added that Udodov was always with other women during his marriage to Stenina. “If a person is married, they won’t act conspicuously — for show,” says Kashore.
Kirill Kachur in 2013-2014 was an investigator of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Moscow Region. He then created the law firm Comprehensive Legal Defense. According to Kashore, one of the company’s clients was the former general director of the Merlion network, Vyacheslav Simonenko. The network owners and the head of the security service were accused of orchestrating an assassination attempt on him. However, in the end, Simonenko himself was accused of false conviction.
A criminal case was opened against Kashore and several law enforcement officers. They were initially accused of organizing the criminal prosecution of businessmen and then extorting bribes for their release. The investigation named Kashore as the organizer of the criminal community.
Kasur left Russia. A Russian court arrested him in absentia and included him on the international wanted list. The Russian Ministry of Justice declared him a “foreign agent.”
Those involved in the so-called Merlion case who remained in Russia received long prison sentences. Simonenko was thus sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Kashore describes the Merlion case as fabricated. He claims that Orlen Rousseff’s family was pursuing him, and he is one of the people involved in the “Bulgarian spies” case. Rousseff and his accomplices were tried on charges of collaborating with Russian intelligence services. During the trial, it became known that the defendants in the case discussed the kidnapping and murder of Bellingcat investigative journalist Hristo Grozev and The Insider founder Roman Dobrokotov.
The file indicates that Stenina’s brother would not approve of such behavior. In an unpublished draft of his autobiography, reviewed by journalists, Mishustin recounts, among other things, how in his youth he “protected his sister from admirers.”
Dossier wrote that the marriage of Stenina and Udodov was necessary by Mikhail Mishustin to legitimize the transfer of assets from the businessman to the official’s family. In particular, Sister Mishustina from Udodov received a gift of real estate on Nikolina Gora on the Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway in the Moscow region. Open Media noted that the property on Nikolina Gora was not mentioned in Mishustin’s ad; The owner is listed as “Russian Federation” in the register. Stenina owns several of the most expensive properties in the Moscow region and central Moscow.
About the close relationship between Udodov and Mishustin in 2020 I notice And Alexei Navalny. He described Udodov as a “tax fraudster” involved in VAT refund schemes.
“Ododov is a person who has been by Mishustin’s side all his life and sells his powers on the market. In all projects in which Alexander Ododov is involved, Mishustin’s share is also ‘protected,'” Kirill Cashore told Dossier.
Kashore and Udodov had a common business – the German company VG Cargo. The company was established in 2006, and Kashore became co-owner in 2017. VG Cargo was based at Frankfurt Hahn Airport and was a cargo handling agent for Aeroflot.
German prosecutors suspected VG Cargo of laundering money through the airport company. However, the investigation was closed in 2021. A commentary for the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which participated in preparing the material, said that this decision was taken due to the lack of sufficient grounds to initiate a criminal case. The Public Prosecutor’s Office did not provide any further details.
Based on VG Cargo reports, its revenue in 2021 was €11 million and its profit was €3 million. The company continued to operate after the start of the great war between Russia and Ukraine.
Just a few weeks after the war began, a former VG Cargo employee told Dossier that military aid went to Ukraine via Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. The goods were brought in by plane, loaded into trucks and sent to Ukraine. Journalists discovered that VG Cargo processed dual-use goods and advanced technologies for Ukraine.
Udodov remained a co-owner of VG Cargo until the end of 2022. The businessman was subjected to personal US sanctions over his relationship with Mishustin, but before that he managed to transfer control of VG Cargo to Sheer One Investments from Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, the company appears to still be linked to Udoudov. In particular, with the help of VG Cargo, Udodov tried to arrange supplies of art and antiques to Russia, including from the USA, although by that time he had no official connection with the company.
Cashore claims that in the fall of 2022, Udodov offered him to sell his stake in VG Cargo, but he was not satisfied with the price. However, in the end, Sheer One Investments also acquired Kachur’s stake. According to him, the deal was completed using forged documents. German prosecutors opened a criminal case.