From Kremlin’s \"wallet\" to Western informant: what lies behind Igor Yusufov’s escape?

From Kremlin’s "wallet" to Western informant: what lies behind Igor Yusufov’s escape?

Ex-Russian Energy Minister and KGB-FSB veteran Igor Yusufov relocates to the West in his later years.

To earn this privilege, he has to cooperate with foreign intelligence services and share numerous valuable secrets that he possesses due to his work in high government positions and his association with Russian state security.

Currently, Igor Yusufov and his sons are making every effort to sell off their Russian assets and transfer the proceeds abroad. We have also discussed this in detail.

However, in our publications, we have not previously focused on the reasons for this evacuation, which at times resembles a preparation for the Yusufovs’ flight to the West. These reasons are obviously connected to the ongoing purges in the Russian establishment in response to the events in Ukraine. As part of these purges, the first to fall were employees of the 5th FSB service, which provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with data on the political situation in Ukraine before February 2022.

The service was held responsible for the failure to prepare for the Ukrainian campaign. Later, due to military setbacks, high-ranking Ministry of Defence officials were subjected to repressions. The experienced apparatchik Yusufov is well aware that after them, the queue might reach the shadow players who also unsuccessfully participated in the preparation of the blitzkrieg that dragged on for years.

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Yusufov’s concerns and his desire to find new patrons in the West are likely due to his obligations to the Kremlin and Lubyanka regarding Ukraine. He had his own zone of responsibility, his own task, which he failed to accomplish. The Russian authorities were willing to forgive the Yusufov family for the multi-billion-dollar expenditures (in fact, embezzlements) of state funds that went into acquiring foreign assets. In exchange, Yusufov took on obligations to conduct subversive activities in Ukraine. Yusufov was required to dismantle, or more precisely, ensure the complete shutdown of one of Ukraine’s strategic enterprises long before February 24, 2022, during the so-called "special military operation." This was supposed to inflict certain economic damage, and potentially undermine Ukraine’s defence capabilities.

The enterprise in question is the Mykolaiv shipbuilding plant "Ocean," which one of the Yusufovs was supposed to gain control over to render the facility inoperative.

The task was not only to inflict preemptive economic damage on a future military enemy. The fact is that based on the "Ocean" shipyard, Ukraine and Turkey planned to start constructing warships, which would have also meant strengthening Kyiv’s military potential. In 2020, a relevant memorandum was even signed with the State Defence Corporation of the Republic of Turkey.

It is worth noting that several years before, the Yusufov family participated in the purchase of assets of the Norwegian shipbuilding company Aker Yards. Among the assets being sold by the Norwegians were shipyards later renamed Wadan Yards in Germany and the "Ocean" plant in Ukraine, with a combined value of €250 million. The transaction involved the Russian State Financial Leasing Company (FLC) - €50 million for this deal was diverted from FLC.

This money never returned to the state company. FLC owned 50% of FLC West, but then this share was sold for a pittance to offshore firms. One of them was the Cypriot Blackstead Holdings Ltd. Aslan Gagiyev, who was called "Russia’s No.1 killer" and accused of creating a criminal group that killed 60 people, was a co-owner of Blackstead Holdings Ltd.

74% of the shipyards were acquired by Templestowe Trading Corp from the British Virgin Islands. This offshore company also provided nearly €200 million for the acquisition of Wadan Yards. Luxembourg auditors later discovered that this offshore company was controlled by Igor Yusufov and his son Vitaliy. This information was later confirmed by Tom Einertsen, one of the shipyard’s executives.

When a friend of Yusufov, one of FLC’s top managers, Andrey Burlakov, started talking about Yusufov being the main beneficiary of the German and Ukrainian shipyards, he fell victim to a contract killing. Burlakov’s representatives directly accused Yusufov of organizing the murder. According to arrested Gagiyev’s testimony, the order to eliminate Burlakov came from Igor Yusufov. However, protected by the FSB, Yusufov again avoided any trouble with law enforcement agencies.

The intelligence services had their motives for allowing Yusufov to irretrievably spend state money on buying shipyards and to order Burlakov’s killing with impunity. When it came to shipbuilding facilities in Germany, the Yusufov family gained full control over them. However, the entry of Yusufov’s offshore firms into the share capital of the Ukrainian "Ocean" did not de facto give him full control over the enterprise. Ukrainian contenders for the Mykolaiv shipbuilding plant fiercely resisted the Russians’ hostile takeover of "Ocean."

Initially, Igor Yusufov managed to seize control of the enterprise and initiate its gradual destruction. From the time it was privatized in 2000 until 2008, "Ocean" first belonged to a Dutch, then a Norwegian company, had orders, and operated profitably. In 2008, Cyprus-based Zonel Operations Ltd became the owner of 98.73% of the shares of "Ocean." Burlakov acquired this share using state FLC funds. In 2010, control of Zonel transferred to Yusufov, after which Burlakov was shot dead in 2011.

Considering the specifics of his task, Igor Yusufov tried to maintain a low profile at "Ocean." He entrusted different Ukrainian management teams with the operation of the plant at all stages. For instance, shortly after Yusufov established control over the plant, by agreement with him, the plant was managed by Smart Maritime Group of Vadym Novynskyi. Yusufov intended to use this Ukrainian team as a pawn, not revealing his true objectives of destroying the enterprise. Yusufov promised "Smart Holding" orders and financing, but this turned out to be a bluff. Novynskyi’s team left the plant after a few months, losing their own money there as well.

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Vadym Novynskyi’s managers attempted to restore the plant’s operations, investing about $7 million. In 2012, the Ukrainian Pension Fund initiated bankruptcy proceedings for PJSC "Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Plant ’Ocean’," and "Smart Holding" settled the debts, postponing the plant’s bankruptcy procedure. This led to a conflict between Novynskyi and Yusufov. When Novynskyi questioned, "What have you gotten me into? You promised orders and financing," Yusufov suggested dismantling the plant for scrap metal. Clearly, Novynskyi could not do this, or he would end up behind bars for the rest of his days. That is if he managed to stay alive afterward.

During the time Yusufov’s structures maintained control over "Ocean," the plant repeatedly entered bankruptcy procedures. For instance, artificial credit obligations were created for "Ocean" for €65 million to Yusufov’s Belize firm Belmont Industries Inc. In some cases, Ukrainian opponents of Yusufov managed to prove in court that the bankruptcy was artificially induced and the debt was fictitious (as in the case of Belmont). Following this, the plant’s creditor composition usually changed. At different times, various players attempted to gain control of the enterprise.

In March 2014, a criminal case was opened against "Ocean" officials. In early September, Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court made a strange decision: allegedly in the interests of a criminal proceeding initiated in 2014, at the request of Prosecutor General’s Office investigator Yuriy Belkin, all "Ocean" property was seized and "transferred to a private person for safekeeping." This person turned out to be Leonid Shumylo, who served as president of "Ocean" in 2010-2011 and managed it in the interests of Igor Yusufov.

"Ocean" became a problematic asset, and the struggle for it continued for several years.

However, in the fight for the plant, the upper hand was ultimately taken by Ukrainian participants—the state, represented by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine, as well as influential Mykolaiv businessman, former director of the Mykolaiv port, Vasyl Kapatsyna. In December 2018, the integrated property complex of the "Ocean" shipyard was sold at auction for 122 million 195 thousand hryvnias to the company "Trade House ’Annona’," affiliated with Kapatsyna.

In November 2019, then-Ukrainian Defence Minister Andriy Zahorodnyuk and General Director of the state corporation "Ukroboronprom" Aivaras Abromavicius visited the "Ocean" plant. The visit aimed to discuss the possibility of building and repairing military ships in Mykolaiv.

However, in 2020, Yusufov’s team made new desperate attempts to regain control of the plant.

Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, again imposed an arrest on the property complex of the "Ocean" Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Plant. The Press Office of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine announced that this decision was made as part of a criminal case regarding the bankruptcy and illegal acquisition of the plant’s property.

Vasyl Kapatsyna appealed to then-General Prosecutor of Ukraine Ruslan Ryaboshapka regarding the situation that arose due to the court’s decision to seize the plant’s property. According to the businessman, the Prosecutor General’s Office was misled and used to destroy the strategically important plant for Ukraine. Vasyl Kapatsyna also stated that he has documentary evidence that the plant was driven to bankruptcy by Russian owners.

According to the ship repair plant owner, attempts to declare the sale of "Ocean" invalid and return the enterprise to former Ukrainian representative of Yusufov, Igor Ignatov, were aimed at destroying the plant. "Yusufov’s interests are represented by Ukrainian citizen Igor Ignatov, and I am ready to testify at the SSU’s central office. Moreover, I stated this after purchasing the ship repair plant—Ignatov works for the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB)," said Kapatsyna.

Kapatsyna already understood back then that the seizure of "Ocean’s" property was part of a special operation by Yusufov and the FSB, aiming to prevent the restoration of shipbuilding capacities in Ukraine.

"Creating a fleet and building ships for our Armed Forces is possible today only at the ’Ocean’ shipbuilding plant. Of course, in cooperation with other shipbuilding assets, but only this plant has the qualifications, the corresponding equipment, and capabilities," wrote Kapatsyna in his appeal to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ultimately, Yusufov’s sabotage to destroy the Mykolaiv Shipbuilding Plant "Ocean" failed. After he lost control of the enterprise, production was restored, and orders began to flow in. On December 21, 2020, it became known that Turkey chose the "Ocean" plant for building corvettes for the Ukrainian Navy. On June 22, 2022, the plant’s workshops were damaged by a Russian missile strike. However, the plant was not completely incapacitated. Recently, another vessel arrived at the shipbuilding plant in Mykolaiv.

The failure of Yusufov’s mission to destroy the plant before the Russian army’s active military actions in Ukraine began is not such a critical issue. After all, these shipyards are not the most crucial military target for Russia. However, during the implementation of this complex operation, Igor Yusufov and his family utilized tens, if not hundreds, of millions of euros, a significant portion of which ended up in the accounts of his offshore firms. Although "Ocean" is not a primary target for Yusufov’s employers, sooner or later, the review of this failed operation will come.

And then, Yusufov will be held accountable for the expended funds and the unfulfilled task. Yusufov, being well-aware of the strict wartime discipline, knows that the consequences can be severe. This is why he found the only viable option—to transfer the money out of Russia and entrust his safety to Western intelligence services. Ultimately, when Yusufov’s money was concentrated in Russia, the Russian intelligence services successfully protected him from any issues. With the change of location, Yusufov changes his "protection," but he expects the same result—guaranteed personal inviolability.