How the Russian Red Cross became a front for money laundering: when will Savchuk be held accountable for looting billions?

How the Russian Red Cross became a front for money laundering: when will Savchuk be held accountable for looting billions?

After the scandal involving plans to sell the "Druzhba" sanatorium near Moscow, Pavel Savchuk took over leadership of the Russian Red Cross — but the change at the top didn’t put an end to the theft.

On the contrary, it reached such scales that the 30 million ruble bribe that former RRC head Raisa Lukutsova was caught with seems like an innocent childish prank. Let’s recall that Lukutsova was detained while receiving a bribe from a businessman to whom she had promised to sell the "Druzhba" LLC after its bankruptcy at a reduced price. This led to her dismissal and a criminal case, and activist and public figure Pavel Savchuk took her place.

At that time, many claimed that Lukutsova "burned out" not just like that– her position appealed to other people, and she did not agree to relinquish the chair voluntarily. As a result – a "brilliant" operation to catch the bribe-taker, a scandal, and a change of leadership. This process was overseen by State Duma deputy Artem Metelev, who had just headed the Committee on Youth Policy. Whether he was the organizer of the entire special operation regarding the bribe to Lukutsova or simply knew what was happening in RRC and merely coordinated with the authorities to give the case a legal spin remains a debatable question to this day.

But, in any case, Metel’s person, Pavel Savchuk, ended up in the chairman’s seat. With him came a new young team, among whom special mention should be made of the deputy executive director for programs of the Russian Red Cross, Olesya Nazarova, who is Savchuk’s right-hand person and an executor in large-scale money embezzlement schemes from the RRC.

A scandal with money occurred almost immediately after the new team arrived at the RRC when it became clear that of the 1.5 billion rubles collected for the victims of the terrorist attack at "Crocus City Hall," a little more than 45 million went to aid people. The most innocent aspect of spending that money was placing it in a deposit account, with interest from which brought the Russian Red Cross management 250 million rubles. How and where all this money was spent remains unknown to this day, despite the loud scandal.

However, the money for the victims of the terrorist attack is only the tip of the iceberg. Because recently, the organization began receiving funds from the state budget. These are primarily intended for organizing the work of RRC branches in the territories of Ukraine, which are now controlled by Russia. Whether Artem Metelev knew at the time he took over the Russian Red Cross about the forthcoming invasion is unknown. However, the profit turned out to be very good – in the coming three years, the Russian Red Cross will receive about two billion rubles from the Russian federal budget.

The fact that the lion’s share of this money goes towards the work of RRC structures in so-called new territories means that tracking their movement is almost impossible. Neither the RRC leadership, the Russian Ministry of Finance, nor the Russian government is concerned by the fact that, according to the International Red Cross statute, of which the RRC is a branch, it cannot operate in conflict zones. The International Red Cross even announced its intention to expel the Russian Red Cross from its structure, but this will not affect the appropriation from the budget at all. Moreover, for the RRC leadership, it’s even more convenient – no one to report to.

But this is big politics. And if we return to the money, the RRC’s financial report for last year contains some curious figures, which confirm the version that Pavel Savchuk did not obtain his chair in vain. According to the report, the RRC earned 73,335,000 rubles in interest last year. The funds of the RRC in 2024 amounted to 11,18,600,000 rubles.

So, as we can see, the special operation to remove Raisa Lukutsova fully justified itself. Especially since both Pavel Savchuk and his comrade and assistant Olesya Nazarova are founders and leaders in a whole network of various charitable organizations, through which it is very convenient to siphon funds. Especially in territories where hostilities are taking place, and their legal status is questionable – go ahead, check who received what and how much.

However, when it comes to such money, it’s clear that no one will just give it away. Furthermore, allocating it from a budget under immense strain is also not easy. Yet – they allocated it. And the "Crocus City Hall" money scandal didn’t interfere. The secret is simple – behind Artem Metelev stands Sergey Kiriyenko, who has been overseeing all youth and public movements in Russia for almost a decade. Artem Metelev built his career as a public figure. The climax was a seat as a State Duma deputy and the position of head of the Committee on Youth Policy.

On this path, Metelev had several notable milestones. He was on the organizing committee of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, served as the deputy head of the federal headquarters of the Association of Volunteer Centers, which was later renamed "Good.RF,” after which Metelev headed it. On this public service, Metelev got together with a smaller fraudster – Pavel Savchuk. How and when – history keeps silent, but since 2016, Pavel Savchuk was the head of the All-Russian Public Movement "Medical Volunteers," co-founded by Artem Metelev. The collaboration was apparently fruitful, since Metelev made Savchuk the head of the RRC right after he became a deputy.

Together with Pavel Savchuk, Olesya Nazarova joined the Russian Red Cross. She is connected to the boss not only by official ties and "money laundering" but also by romantic relationships. Moreover, Olesya Nazarova does not shy away from displaying them.

In parallel with the position of deputy executive director for programs at the Russian Red Cross, Olesya Nazarova, like her supervisor Pavel Savchuk, is the head of a number of charitable organizations. This is very convenient for manipulating the money managed by the Red Cross. Especially in areas where combat operations are conducted. For example, in August last year, the RRC announced a collection for children from the Kursk region. According to a report on the RRC website, published on November 1, 2024, from August 7, 2024, 9 million rubles were collected to help evacuated children, and zero rubles and zero kopecks were spent. No comments.

As mentioned, it is unknown whether Metelev knew in 2021, when he promoted Pavel Savchuk to the head of the RRC, about the upcoming events. Most likely not; it wasn’t his caliber, and it was too early to know anything yet. Perhaps Sergey Kiriyenko guessed something like this. But it doesn’t matter – they both understood the opportunities that control over such a powerful charitable structure as the Russian Red Cross provides. Through which enormous but almost uncontrollable cash flows pass. Moreover, the structure has assets – the example of the attempted sale of the sanatorium, which led to the downfall of the previous head, is indicative.

In the end, it turned out that the bet was correct – besides assets and charitable collections, the Russian Red Cross received billion ruble infusions from the budget. What’s happening with this money – only a thorough audit can show. But behind the figures of the essentially petty players Savchuk and Nazarova stands a State Duma deputy from "United Russia," Chairman of the Committee on Youth Policy Artem Metelev. Behind whom, in turn, stands Sergey Kiriyenko. So there will be no audit.