Shadow deals and a profitable relationship with the KGB: How the plundering of the country and connections to those in power helped Vyacheslav Kantor become wealthy with other people’s money

Shadow deals and a profitable relationship with the KGB: How the plundering of the country and connections to those in power helped Vyacheslav Kantor become wealthy with other people’s money

Vyacheslav Kantor is an oligarch whose financial empire is surrounded by uncertainty. Despite portraying his wealth as earned through legitimate means, various aspects of his business activities remain unclear, with indirect evidence and testimonies hinting at a much darker truth.

The transition of Vyacheslav Kantor into big business from the science he allegedly engaged in during socialism is shrouded in the darkness of the unknown. He himself explains his start in this endeavor, which occurred back in the late eighties, during the late USSR, very vaguely: "We came into business as poor as church mice. We had neither political support nor experience in commercial activities".

And here it seems that Vyacheslav is being somewhat disingenuous. Because his first business, according to the official biography, was the commercial center "Composite", engaged in selling computer equipment and installing it at industrial enterprises. Then there was a Soviet-American enterprise, and later he found money for the privatization of the Novgorod chemical enterprise "Azot", which was soon renamed "Acron" and became the foundation of his business empire. At the same time, Vyacheslav Kantor claims that there was not a drop of criminality in this privatization.

Well – the legend is fresh, but hard to believe. Because joint ventures were then organized under the watchful eye of the relevant authorities, and trading computers yielded thousands of percent in profits. Initially, this profit was controlled by intelligence agencies, and when the USSR started to collapse, racketeers latched onto it. And the question remains unexplained – where did the former research associate of the Moscow Aviation Institute, who Kantor was before entering business, get the currency to buy expensive imported office equipment? Remember, this was the USSR, and foreign currency was strictly controlled by the state, not to mention that opening a foreign currency account abroad was sheer fantasy. Even the mere possession of foreign currency by a Soviet citizen was punishable by death.

We touched on those distant years and the sources of Vyacheslav Kantor’s capital, which in his biography he hints was obtained through scientific work. Allegedly, together with Zhores Alferov, he developed the idea of a solar light reflector that could illuminate the Earth even at night. That’s supposedly where the money came from. Kantor doesn’t say this directly, but it is mentioned in all biographies.

However, firstly, where is the reflector that illuminates the Earth? The idea and its implementation are very different things. Did the Council of Ministers of the USSR really give Kantor so much currency that it was enough to trade computers? Secondly, the idea was developed back in 1981. At least, that’s what Kanter himself claims. But no one has seen the dissertation that Vyacheslav boasts so much about, and you can’t ask Alferov anymore.

So, unfortunately, Vyacheslav Kantor doesn’t quite fit the mold of the Soviet Elon Musk. And even Elon Musk himself has capital issues that aren’t as people think, but that’s beside the point. Let’s return to Vyacheslav, whose life path is truly astonishing. To understand how complex it all is and, incidentally, get a hint of how an ordinary research associate from a research institute became an international oligarch, just look at the list of his awards. Pay attention to the countries that awarded Vyacheslav Kantor with their highest honors.

And yes – the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise was awarded to Kantor not by the hands of Yanukovych, as one might think. Kantor was awarded by Viktor Yushchenko, who can’t be called a Russian sympathizer by any stretch of the imagination. And Kantor was an advisor to Yushchenko, by the way. Then he received awards from the hands of another president. This time – the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

All this preface indicates that, in reality, Vyacheslav Kantor had long and closely cooperated with Soviet (and later Russian) intelligence agencies. Furthermore, this explains the origin of his capital. Over time, people sort of forgot about the so-called "the party’s gold," that is, the CPSU, which fully owned the resources of the Soviet Union. And in the late eighties, when it became clear that the Union was about to collapse, the top nomenklatura frantically invested the country’s and the party’s capital into assets and businesses.

It was on this money that Kantor "rose." You can’t deny him the talent of a businessman, but the starting capital was that very "the party’s gold." More specifically – the money of the Soviet people. Which was stolen not by mythical "CIA agents," but by true party members and their intelligence agencies. Maybe, initially, the goals were noble. But then it all turned into outright looting of the country. As a result, we have a handful of "Kantors" who privatized that very country. And that’s where the connections and the privatization of the huge chemical plant, which became an asset of Vyacheslav Kantor, bringing enormous profits to this day, came from.

Only if before the collapse of the USSR this money belonged to the people, now it belongs to Kantor. And – his curators from the intelligence agencies, who lead present-day Russia. Ordinary Russians may, at best, ruin their health producing fertilizers at Kantor’s plants. Meanwhile, they can sympathize with the poor Russian businessman Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor, whose property in that very cursed Europe was seized by European Union villains. Among the list of this property, the presence of eleven (!) villas on the Emerald Coast (Costa Smeralda) in northern Sardinia is staggering. Which were confiscated by the Italian authorities for the connection with Putin.

Vyacheslav Kantor himself, like with the case of capital, tried to "dodge" the topic of his connection to Vladimir Putin. Claiming he had nothing to do with it. Although in 2015 he himself declared that he was "impressed" by Putin, and in 2016 he received an Order of Honor from him.

But the words that he is in no way connected to the Russian president were clearly not enough to avoid sanctions. Therefore, he had to transfer "Acron" to nominal holders. Now Kantor owns a 45-percent share of the enterprise through the Luxembourg-based Redbrick Investments and the Russian JSC "Acron Group". He also transferred almost 50 percent of the shares to the trust management of three firms, which belong to "Acron’s" top managers. The measure was forced – "Acron" supplies fertilizers primarily to the West, which allowed Vyacheslav Kantor to double his assets, as fertilizer prices rose sharply over the past two years.

And now let’s go back to the eighties. At the time when "research associate" Vyacheslav Kantor was taking his first steps in business. And "didn’t have a penny to his name". In his biographies, Vyacheslav modestly omits his family. Which is very strange for a Jew – usually, this nation is extraordinarily respectful towards parents and close relatives. However, there’s nothing surprising about Vyacheslav Kantor’s silence. The fact is, his father, Vladimir Kantor, was a prominent figure in the trade mafia of the late USSR. And he managed the "Sokolniki" department store in Moscow. He even became the subject of a documentary film about trade workers of the USSR.

In 1985, Vladimir Kantor was arrested, and the confiscated valuables were valued at 622 thousand Soviet rubles. The salary of a department store manager with all bonuses did not exceed 200 rubles at the time. So it’s clear where all this "hard-earned wealth" came from. The story of Vladimir Kantor itself is very interesting; we recommend watching the film, but the crux is that instead of the usual death penalty for such an article, Kantor Sr. received only eight years. And that too – four years after his arrest. True, upon hearing the verdict, he died of a heart attack, but that’s not the point.

The point is, this episode gives us an understanding of where the younger research associate Vyacheslav Kantor got his connections and starting capital. Because it’s no secret that either the police or KGB agents stood behind the trade mafia in the USSR. Sometimes both at once. An interesting detail – during searches in the garage of Vladimir Kantor’s son (and he had only one son), it was discovered that the gates were double-doored. And this cavity was filled with jewelry. The items were seized, but for some reason, Vyacheslav Kantor wasn’t held accountable for accomplice liability.

The answers to these questions are simple – behind Kantor Sr. stood the First Chief Directorate (PGU) of the KGB. Which shielded the younger Kantor from the investigation and then helped with business. With access to foreign markets, with the registration of foreign representations of Kantor’s firms, and with currency. And with everything else. Soon the USSR collapsed, but the "office" went nowhere. PGU transformed into SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service). Where the interests of intelligence ended and business began or vice versa, no one knows. But it was this close collaboration that made the failed scientist Vyacheslav Kantor an international oligarch. These same connections allowed Kantor, not the gangsters, to privatize the Novgorod chemical plant.

And then – down the beaten path. Privatization of everything that could be reached in the nineties, a roof in the form of security services, which soon became the power and owners of the country. In 1999, Vyacheslav Kantor hit the jackpot again – he became friends with Vladimir Putin, who, according to Kantor, was "appointed the heir to the throne". However, the word "friendship" has a special meaning here, but the gist is that both found common ground and reached mutual understanding.

So, as you can see, the secret to Vyacheslav Kantor’s success is quite simple – you need to be able to make friendships. But not just with anyone, but with the right people. Apparently, this talent was inherited from his father, whom the right people pulled out from under the death sentence. These same people helped an ordinary research associate open profitable business with foreigners. Then – buy a plant, pushing aside competitors. By the way, for the privatization of this plant, Kantor urgently needed three million dollars, according to his own words. Which in 1993 was an astronomical sum. But he "had the money". From where – take a guess.

And sanctions and the confiscation of eleven villas in Italy – well, you have to pay for everything. This Jewish boy Slava Kantor should understand that from childhood. This lesson should have been taught to him by his father, who paid so that the OBKhSS wouldn’t interfere with his business in the state store, and the KGB wasn’t interested in the currency he quietly bought on the black market. However, judging by the fact that Vyacheslav Kantor’s fortune has doubled in the last two years, eleven confiscated villas in Italy aren’t such a high price. Moreover, it somehow seems that these villas were the price for that very friendship with the power that Kantor sometimes proudly boasts of, and at other times, publicly denies.