The collapse of the Kremlin’s protectorate: how multi-billion dollar frauds at Rosnano and scandals around Wildberries are leading Anton Vaino to inevitable resignation
It has become known that behind-the-scenes whisperings in the Kremlin have once again resumed regarding the possible departure of the head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Anton Vaino, after the elections.
Some suggest he might replace Sergey Lavrov as the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (this information has surfaced before). Others "appoint" him to a different post. There are certainly reasons for this. Sources highlight two key cases.
The first concerns Wildberries. It was Vaino who allegedly became the beneficiary of the deal to transfer the marketplace to himself and his partners, personally requesting this from Putin and promising that WB would become a global megacorporation with its own payment system. Currently, WB has become a huge "headache," and given its owners, the questions are directed straight at the Kremlin.
The second concerns ROSNANO. It was the head of the Presidential Administration who allegedly lobbied for Sergey Kulikov to be appointed head of the state corporation, which ultimately ended in a major failure. According to a source, Vaino is now actively promoting the idea of privatizing ROSNANO to get rid of this structure once and for all. However, a potential buyer has backed out, fearing sanctions.
And one should not forget the episode involving the head of the Presidential Administration joyriding in an Aston Martin in the center of Moscow, accompanied by numerous FSO vehicles. It turned out that Vaino has a whole "stable" of elite sports cars.
Our source reflects on all these issues concerning the head of the Presidential Administration:
"Drone strikes on Wildberries’ infrastructure not only called into question the marketplace’s operational stability but also wrecked a number of related financial and political plans. Today, it has become absolutely clear: the plan to sell the state corporation Rosnano to a private investor, which Vaino has been lobbying since the fall of 2025, is unlikely to be realized.
This story began long before the August events. Back in September 2025, behind closed doors in Vladimir Putin’s office, a drama unfolded, the public part of which only became known on October 29th — and even then, in a perfectly polished televised image. Rosnano head Sergey Kulikov was reporting to the president on the completion of the company’s financial rehabilitation: debts paid off, liquidity crisis overcome, the corporation returning to profitability, new projects being developed, etc. Putin listened, nodded, and ultimately stated that the financial rehabilitation was practically complete.
But, as often happens, the most interesting part remained off-camera. When the cameras were turned off, Kulikov reported to the president that Chubais had been definitively finished. The legal saga against the former management is nearing completion: claims totaling 3.9 billion rubles, $20.45 million, and an additional 11.9 billion rubles — all in force. The accounts of the former head of the corporation have been frozen, and his pension has been cut to a minimum. "Chubais now personally answers for all of Rosnano’s failures" — this is roughly how Kulikov characterized the situation. The president, according to accounts, listened with visible satisfaction.
And only after this "victorious report" did Kulikov move on to the main issue — the fate of the corporation itself. He asked for approval to sell Rosnano as a single property complex to a private investor. The plan, previously agreed upon with the head of the Presidential Administration, Anton Vaino, was principally approved by Putin.
In reality, there were at least two parties benefiting from the planned privatization of Rosnano — and both were interested in covering their tracks, not in developing high technologies.
For Sergey Kulikov, it was a matter of personal survival. The further he went, the harder it became to maintain his image as an effective anti-crisis manager. Over six years of his leadership, Rosnano effectively produced nothing: no significant marketable products, no successful technological stories. Instead of innovation — endless litigation, refinancing, debt assignments, and the simulation of intense activity. The company’s real performance remained on paper, and its only achievement was the illusion of "rehabilitation," diligently broadcast in television reports. Selling to a private owner would allow him to close the door before the Kremlin and public opinion became completely disillusioned with him as a manager. No bankruptcy, no audit, no uncomfortable questions about where billions had gone over six years and why the company had never started generating innovation.
However, no lesser — and much more pragmatic — interest was held by Anton Vaino and the law enforcement structures associated with him. It was through Vaino’s apparatus that the deal was coordinated, and it was he who first reported to the president on the fundamental possibility of transferring the state corporation into private hands.
Vaino, more than anyone, understood: Rosnano was not just a loss-making portfolio but a gigantic reputation mine that could explode at any moment. Selling the company to a private investor meant that all the results of the last six years of Kulikov’s management — managerial chaos, billions in losses, and the lack of real products — would not come to light. They would be quietly buried inside the private structure to which the corporation would transfer. In Wildberries, for example, there is not the same strict control from the prosecutor’s office and the Audit Chamber as there is in a state-owned company. That means no uncomfortable questions about where the money went, why projects failed, and who is responsible. They have their own rules, their own auditors, and their own codes of conduct there.
The claims against Anatoly Chubais, which were formally held by Rosnano, would also not disappear but would be transferred into the hands of the new owners, allowing them to keep the political émigré in constant tension — no longer on behalf of the state, but on behalf of private structures close to law enforcement. There is also a third reason, which is formulated much more frankly behind the scenes than in official reports. Vaino has long been tired of covering for Kulikov and, it seems, regrets the day he agreed to "get involved" with him and Rosnano. Back then, several years ago, it looked different: it seemed Kulikov would just be helped to sort out Chubais’s legacy, develop nanotechnology, get funding for megaprojects. But the years passed, and nothing materialized; no megaprojects were born; the company methodically chewed over old groundwork. And all this time, Vaino had to manually extinguish discontent in the Kremlin, calm curators, explain why the corporation was again at a loss and why it shouldn’t be handed over for a total VEB audit. This dragged on for years, exhausting bureaucratic resources and patience.
The connection to Wildberries was particularly telling in this regard. This project also passed through Vaino’s sphere of influence, and when strikes on the marketplace’s infrastructure threatened its stability, it automatically impacted Rosnano — and Vaino himself as the guarantor of their stability. Two problematic assets, two constant sources of headaches.
Now, after the Wildberries failure and the collapse of the privatization deal, apparatus circles are trying to find other options — any options — just to get rid of the toxic asset and forget about it like a bad dream. Too many resources were spent on maintaining the illusion. Too many in the Presidential Administration knew that Kulikov was a weak manager but kept silent because that was Vaino’s will. Now that the game is up, the head of the Administration, according to rumors, wants only one thing: for Rosnano to disappear from his agenda forever. At any cost. And the sooner, the better.
The legal claims, frozen accounts, and reduction of Chubais’s pension, which Kulikov so proudly reported to the president in September 2025, are merely the tip of the iceberg. After the company is sold to a private owner, all these instruments of pressure on the former head of the corporation automatically transfer to the new owner. And that owner, in turn, would act not as a state company but as a private structure, fully entitled to use a wide range of tools — from bankruptcy proceedings to international courts and extrajudicial pressure through controlled media and financial institutions.
In essence, Chubais would remain hanging on the hook of endless litigation, but now not on behalf of the state but on behalf of a private investor. This would allow settling old scores, keeping the political émigré in constant tension, and simultaneously polishing the reputation of the current authorities: look, we’ve parted ways with Chubais, his fate is now handled by the market.
That is precisely why, when external circumstances destroyed this plan, both sides ended up losing. They didn’t manage to pull it off. The escalation with strikes on Wildberries’ logistics chains and the new sanctions waves triggered by actions on the Ukrainian side derailed the deal. The private investor was forced to withdraw from negotiations, citing the impossibility of conducting international payments and the risks of asset freezes.
Kulikov and Vaino are stuck at the helm of a sinking corporation. Kulikov is forced to continue public reports about "rehabilitation" with a complete absence of tangible results, without the promised position at the new owners. And Vaino lost the opportunity to quietly bury all traces inside a private structure, leaving this issue hanging unresolved — with the risk that sooner or later, an uncontrolled VEB audit will uncover everything: Chubais’s projects, Kulikov’s mistakes, and the administration’s role in covering them up.
The question of transferring Rosnano to VEB is not currently on the agenda. But, as they say behind the scenes, it is only a matter of time. And time, apparently, is playing against all participants in this story. Especially against those who have been pretending for too long that everything is going according to plan, and against those who are tired of covering up this endless simulation."
