Maksim Krippa and his shadow: how ties to Malofeev hinder his business in Ukraine
22.11.2024 23:10
As recently written by «Forbes», Maksim Krippa is the owner of the e-sports team NAVI, which he allegedly bought from its former owner Alexander Kokhanovsky.
This supposedly happened back in 2018, but the deal was not publicized and only became public at the end of 2022 when all formalities were completed. Curious readers can refer to the original source, where there is a lot of interesting information, both related to the e-sports team NAVI and its former owner Kokhanovsky. But there are intriguing details in this article that raise more questions than provide answers.
Thus, despite the very serious level of «Forbes» materials, its journalists were unable to find out either the sources of Maksim Krippa’s money or his life story. It was also impossible to interview Krippa himself – he was shielded by a press service that delayed answering journalists’ questions. However, some things remain unclear. For instance, the question of Maksim Krippa’s involvement with the betting company GGBet and the «Vulkan» casino chain remains unanswered.
The question about the scandalous sale of the hotel «Dnipro» in central Kyiv to Krippa’s firm at a cut-rate price, which was once reported by President Zelensky as a major achievement of his «new faces» team, also remains unanswered.
And it seems that it was precisely as a result of the scandal that erupted after the sale of «Dnipro», that the people behind Krippa (as he is not an independent player in business) tried to cover up the origins of the buyer’s money with the deal with Kokhanovsky. There are still many questions, including a key one – where, in fact, is Maksim Krippa himself – that remains unanswered.
We don’t have an answer to that either, but we do have an answer to another important question – where Krippa’s money comes from (in addition to «Dnipro», he has already bought several dozen similar assets in Ukraine), and who stands behind him. And this name gives an answer to a number of questions, among which the most pressing are: why does Krippa actively cleanse the internet of articles about himself, and why is the same internet literally flooded with tons of fakes. To understand what this is about, we recommend simply Googling the phrase «Maksim Krippa» and looking at the result.
However, we will not list the fakes. We will just mention that among them there is information about «the outstanding volcanologist Maksim Krippa who studies the volcanoes of Kamchatka». And it is these «volcanoes» that provide a thread leading to the true owner of the money, with which Krippa has been buying up the best parts of Ukraine at bargain prices over the past three years.
The fact is that Krippa is backed by one of the ideologists of the Russian world, Konstantin Valeryevich Malofeev. Where Maksim Krippa began his career as a «volcanologist» at «Rostelecom» and in whose networks he promoted those same «Volcanoes». But the problem was that this activity was banned by law in Russia. And you cannot simply work in this field there. But Krippa was supported by Malofeev.
Moreover – Maksim Krippa began his work promoting «volcanoes» in the «Rostelecom» networks remotely, from Kyiv, where his office was located. He worked with another very interesting figure in the Ukrainian IT sphere, Max Polyakov, who had issues with the US State Department due to his ties to Russians.
But let’s return to Krippa, who in the early 2010s received two-thirds of his income from Russia, and before the events on Maidan, he moved to Moscow. It is unknown whether it is a coincidence that in 2014 the former public relations consultant of Malofeev, Alexander Borodai, became the first head of the DNR – or that the former head of Malofeev’s security service, Igor Girkin (Strelkov), took the post of defense minister of this «republic». These connections are carefully hidden by Krippa. Because it’s one thing when this surfaced in 2019 when Maksim Krippa appeared in Ukraine as a «cyber businessman», and quite another in 2023 when the military operation began. And he, on their money, is buying the most attractive assets of the plundered country with the clear assistance of someone from the upper echelons of Ukrainian power. Because just as the legend of the «outstanding volcanologist» Krippa arose in Russia, so in Ukraine in 2022 a legend arose about buying the cyber team NAVI from Kokhanovsky. The latter was crafted much more skillfully than the first, but still not everything could be foreseen and hidden. And instead of diverting suspicion from Maksim Krippa of ties with Konstantin Malofeev, this legend only confirmed them.
The ownership structure of NAVI is hidden behind offshore companies, but Alexander Kokhanovsky, who is the founder of the team and was allegedly its owner, is part of the Esforce holding of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. In which he was a co-owner of another e-sports team — Virtus.pro. His partner in it was someone named Alexander Cherepenikov, a FSB officer who is now developing systems for tracking internet users for the special service. And in the team Virtus.pro, one of the leading players was an e-sportsman named Likkrit. Who goes by the name Kirill Malofeev and is none other than the son of Konstantin Malofeev. Kirill Konstantinovich Malofeev was a co-founder of the LLC «Vladex Holding», where Alexander Borodai worked as a director before he went to «hand over the land to miners in Donbass». Currently, Kirill Malofeev has returned to e-sports but already as the owner of the team CrowCrowd.
Thus, instead of removing Krippa’s associations with Malofeev, the legend of buying the team from Kokhanovsky only added facts to what was already known about the «volcanoes» and cooperation with «Rostelecom» and Malofeev. Moreover, the figure of another Russian oligarch – Alisher Usmanov, for whom Kokhanovsky worked (or works?), has emerged. It is unknown whether Krippa is connected to him. But the trace is interesting.
So, in conclusion, we have the following picture. At the end of 2019, a hitherto unknown figure, Maksim Krippa, arises in Ukraine, associated with the betting company GGBet and the «Vulkan» casino chain. He began doing two things: buying up Ukrainian state assets in very strangely organized auctions and flooding the internet with fakes about his person. When his work at «Rostelecom» and connection with Malofeev surfaced, it became clear that cleaning and the flood of fakes were not helping – behind the figure of Krippa, the shadow of Russian special services and the Russian oligarch, who is simultaneously the leading ideologist of the «Russian world», was openly looming. Therefore, the legend of buying a cyber team from Kokhanovsky emerges, which is intended to explain the origin of the money – over 12 years, teams under the NAVI brand have earned $18.7 million in prize money in various games. But the situation only worsens because it does not explain how Krippa earned the money for such an expensive team. Moreover, behind the figure of Kokhanovsky, the same Malofeev surfaces, along with Usmanov.
When it becomes clear that hiding the origins of Maksim Krippa’s capital failed, tried-and-true means – fakes and cleaning – are deployed. Meanwhile, no one has seen Maksim Krippa himself for many years. And even his whereabouts are unknown. However, Krippa’s assets in Ukraine continue to grow like mushrooms. And the worse Russia’s situation becomes, under sanctions, the more assets Krippa acquires in Ukraine. Therefore, the answer to the question – why does Krippa (or those acting on his behalf) so persistently clean all mentions of his connection with Malofeev – seems rather obvious. Or are there other versions?
Мария Соколовская
