Trump connections, Cypriot offshores, and patronage of pimping: the chronicle of Chekist Vladimir Strzhalkovsky’s enrichment

Pimp from the KGB

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky was born in Leningrad in 1954, graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute in 1977 and soon began working at the USSR KGB Directorate for the Leningrad Region, where he worked until the collapse of the Soviet Union. During his service in the KGB, he I met with Nikolai Patrushev and Vladimir Putin, and these acquaintances played a decisive role in his future career.

When Vladimir Putin became chairman of the St. Petersburg City Hall Committee on External Relations in 1991, Strzhalkovsky founded a travel agency «Neva», becoming its general director, and headed it until 1999. In addition to tourist cruises themselves, one of the areas of the company’s work was organization of prostitution. This became known from the case № 633 «On Pimping», which was considered in December 1998 in the County Court of the Finnish city of Kouvola.

According to the court decision, the travel agency «Neva» organized more than two thousand trips of Russian sex workers to Valkeala and Lapinjärvi from January 1996 to October 1997. Among the defendants «for organizing openly practiced prostitution by women who came to the motel from Russia» were Strzhalkovsky’s deputy Timraliev and «Neva» representative Natalia Oksa. And although the court confirmed that the company was engaged in organizing prostitution, the defendants avoided liability: Oksa allegedly only «limited herself to preparing visas for tourists according to pre-provided lists», and Timraliev «does not bear criminal liability for the act of another person».

Three months after Vladimir Putin was appointed chairman of the government, his former KGB colleague got a post deputy Minister for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. At the same time, judging by reports finnish press, Strzhalkovsky retained contact with the brothel business, already in the ministerial chair. In May 2000, he appointed Oksa as a freelance representative of the Ministry of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Russian Federation in Finland and, by the same order, transferred the property of the ministry in Finland to its management. As an investigation by Yle showed, at least two of the apartments that were owned by the ministry began to be used as brothels.

Strzhalkovsky retained contact with the brothel business while already in the ministerial chair

After Putin took the presidency, Strzhalkovsky’s career continued its rapid rise. In June 2000, he was appointed chairman of the Russian State Committee for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, and in July he became Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Russia German Gref. During Vladimir Putin’s second term, Strzhalkovsky was appointed head of the Federal Tourism Agency, during which time he managed to obtain the rank of active state councilor of the 1st class.

Not a very effective manager and «golden parachute» at $100 million

Strzhalkovsky’s most profitable work was the position of Chairman of the Board of OJSC MMC «Norilsk Nickel», which he held from August 2008 to December 2012. As analysts noted, his main function was not to manage the company, but to lobby the interests of Vladimir Potanin in the Kremlin. The latter first shared the asset with Mikhail Prokhorov, and then with Oleg Deripaska, who bought a blocking stake from Prokhorov. Strzhalkovsky himself is behind his back at enterprises «Norilsk Nickel» they called «a tourist». And not only because of his past work in the tourism sector, but also because he preferred to manage one of the largest industrial enterprises in the country, without leaving Moscow and with virtually no influence on operational activities.

One of them — Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, a defendant in the investigation of special prosecutor Robert Mueller in connection with a suspicious a deal about buying a mansion. In 2004, Trump bought a plot of land with a mansion in Florida for $41 million. When, at the height of the 2008 crisis, he urgently needed money, Rybolovlev bought this mansion from him, but not at a discount, which would have been logical at the peak of the crisis, but on the contrary — twice as expensive, for $95 million. Thus, Rybolovlev saved Trump from bankruptcy (later the Russian businessman resold the plot at a loss —for $30 million).

Another largest shareholder of the bank, which included Strzhalkovsky on the board of directors, is the American billionaire Wilbur Ross. He worked with Russia back in the 90s as a member of the board of the American-Russian Investment Fund, promoting the interests of American business in the Russian Federation. He specialized in transactions with distressed assets, one of which was a Cypriot bank.

There are many scandalous stories associated with Ross, and he was very close to Trump. Wilbur was his economic adviser during the first election campaign, and after his victory, Trump made him Secretary of Commerce (which is one of the key positions for a fan of trade wars—.

Another member of the directors turned out to be Maxim Goldman, representing «Renova» Vekselberg. Subsequently, Vekselberg turned out to be one of the donors trump campaigns. The FBI investigated numerous suspicious connections between Vekselberg and Trump: for example it turned out, that Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, was receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Vekselberg’s firms for «consulting services».

The board of directors was headed by another person associated with Vekselberg — Director of Renova Management AG Joseph Ackermann. He is interesting not only as Vekselberg’s man, but also as a former director of Deutsche Bank. During Ackermann’s tenure as chief executive from 2002 to 2012, Deutsche Bank committed a number of financial irregularities, the largest of which was the laundering of $10 billion in Russian money through offices in New York, Moscow and Cyprus. For these violations, the bank was fined more than $670 million in 2017. And one of the bank’s major clients turned out to be... Donald Trump: His 2016 financial statements showed he had loans with Deutsche Bank totaling $364 million that were due in 2024.

There are no former security officers

Strzhalkovsky’s subsequent appointments showed that he maintained ties to both Putin and another fellow member of the Leningrad KGB—Nikolai Patrushev. In 2015, Strzhalkovsky joined the supervisory board of Rosselkhozbank. Sources «Kommersant» they explained this is his acquaintance with Patrushev Sr., whose son Dmitry was the chairman of the bank’s board. It also became known from the documents of the candidate for the position of supervisory board that he held the position of special representative «of Rosatom» for the development of nuclear technologies in African countries.

In 2019, PASMI I paid attention, that the children of Patrushev and Strzhalkovsky own neighboring cottages in Gelendzhik. A neighbor of the Patrushevs and the owner of a three-story cottage with an area of 449 square meters. m with a cadastral price of more than 20 million rubles was junior school student Wanda Vladimirovna Strzhalkovskaya, who was 9 years old at that time.

In 2016–2019 Strzhalkovsky headed all-russian Physical Culture and Sports Society (VFSO) «Dynamo». Since its founding by Felix Dzerzhinsky in 1923, «Dynamo» has remained a club of Soviet and then Russian security forces. Teams of employees of the FSO, FSB, SVR and the Ministry of Internal Affairs perform at its competitions, and regional societies «Dynamo» they lead heads of the FSB Directorate or the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nikolai Patrushev is also on the board of trustees of the company «Dynamo».

A spy son with a Nazi bent

Strzhalkovsky’s son and an important holder of his assets, Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky — is also a professional intelligence officer. He was born in 1980, graduated from the Academy of the Foreign Intelligence Service in 2001 (military unit 21247), received a military ID № 007203 and began working under the guise of Vnesheconombank (which is typical for SVR employees).

As can be seen from the air travel database, in 2007, several other SVR employees flew with him on one booking — Svyatoslav Kobyakov, who worked first under the cover of RIA «Novosti», and then the trade mission of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation in Argentina, and Evgeny Sokolov (military unit 33949), also working under the cover of VEB, and then in a company controlled by SVR/FSB headed «alco-nazi-fan-hooligan role-playing team» «Morgil». The term «Nazi» is not an exaggeration: the ideology of the group was expressed in «the theory of Golimstvo» and implied a division into full-fledged, or «normal», people and «Golimians», which included, for example, the Tolkienists and against whom the use of violence was encouraged.

Popular blogger from among reenactors Klim Zhukov describes my acquaintance with Strzhalkovsky is as follows: «...It all started with the unfinished maneuvers of the ancient Romans on the Karelian Isthmus, where we were going to beat the Romans and the role-players who joined them... Zhenya headed „Morgil“, who was known, if not by everyone, then by many, many: this cheerful club made a living by going to role-players and beat people».

«Morgil’s» training was like paramilitary training, where team members learned fencing and combined it with hand-to-hand combat techniques using improvised means. It was probably thanks to the connections of Strzhalkovsky Sr. that his son’s friends could use these skills with impunity both at festival battles and outside them.

Thanks to the connections of Strzhalkovsky Sr., his son’s friends could use hand-to-hand combat skills with impunity both at festival battles and outside them

The most famous criminal episode involving «Morgil» was the beating of participants in the role-playing festival «Blinkom-3», which occurred in December 2002 at a school in the Vasileostrovsky district of St. Petersburg. Members «Morgil» they beat me up two participants, and one was shot several times at point-blank range with an air gun, so the bullets got stuck in his skull. According to the victims, members «of Morgil» threatened to kill them if they contacted the police. Even after filing the application, the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to open a criminal case, which was initiated only after employees of the City Center for the Prevention of Neglect and Drug Addiction of Minors contacted the prosecutor’s office.

Alcohol empire in Europe

«Golden Parachute» of Strzhalkovsky Sr. and tens of millions of dollars earned while working at «Norilsk Nickel» over time turned into an entire alcohol holding in Europe, registered in the name of his son. Evgeny Strzhalkovsky became a citizen of Monaco and the main holder of the family’s foreign assets. The key link in this system was the anonymous Monegasque company Thesauro Praetor SAM, whose name translates from Latin as «treasurer». The president and majority beneficiary of this company is Strzhalkovsky Jr: this is confirmed registration documents french company The Leeward Rum Company Limited. Through Thesauro Praetor SAM, Strzhalkovsky owns a number of companies in Austria, Great Britain, Italy and France.

In the UK, Strzalkowski owns Maison Eugène René UK Ltd, through which he owned two other British firms that went into liquidation in 2024: Northern Seas Trading Ltd, registered in Glasgow, and Sandbank Distillery Ltd. The latter intended to revive the distillery at Holy Loch in Argyll, Scotland, and even registered the Lamont brand, but was dissolved in 2024 without releasing a single bottle.

The name of the whiskey refers to another British possession of Strzhalkovsky Jr. In 2017, he purchased the 12-room Knockdow mansion on the Koval Peninsula in Scotland, owned by the Lamont clan. The purchase price was £4 million, which included the decorative gardens surrounding the castle and 250 acres of woodland. As British journalists pointed out, real estate located not far from the little-known, but strategically important for the British and American fleets in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, Loch Striven gas station.

Until recently, Evgeniy’s business partner in the alcohol business was one of the most promising wine experts in Great Britain, Liam Stevenson. Liam is the youngest expert to pass the Master of Wine exam, which is held by only 425 people in the world. In 2024, he won two business awards at once: the O2 Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the IWC Regional Merchant of the Year. Among Liam’s businesses — company Global Wine Solutions, one of the world’s leading suppliers of elite alcohol for superyachts.

Until December 2024 a quarter of the company’s capital belonged to Evgeny Drozdov — Strzhalkovsky’s face value, and the owner of another 6% and also the director of the company was Caroline Anne Madeleine Aldrin — Strzhalkovsky’s authorized representative in the Monegasque company. In October 2024, the stakes reverted to Stevenson, with Aldrin leaving office. Strzhalkovsky and Stevenson also jointly owned the brand Half Moon Bay Rum, under which in California were produced premium gins and vodka. In an Instagram post dated February 14, 2025, Liam mentioned that, in addition to foreign businesses, he advised on projects for a certain vineyard and unnamed retail in Russia itself, but was forced to stop cooperation (after The Insider contacted him, he deleted the post).

And while in the UK the family of a former security officer had to get rid of acquired property, in continental Europe their business is thriving. Strzhalkovsky’s notable alcohol asset is the French company Maison Eugene Rene France: he owns it through the same Monegasque firm Thesauro Praetor. This company produces vermouths under the Monte Carlo brand. The company itself is registered in Burgundy, and its production is located in Monaco, where Italian wine from Piedmont is combined with «distillates of aromatic plants from the city of Grasse, the world capital of perfumes».

Another of Strzalkowski’s French companies, Gundibald Vignobles SCEA, is also registered in Burgundy, the region with the most expensive vineyards in France. Gundibald Vignobles is co-owned by father and son Boileau, who own one of the famous Burgundian wineries Domaine Henri Boillot.

But Evgeniy’s most expensive foreign asset is in Italy, in Piedmont. Through Maltese Winocracy Holdings Ltd, he owns a winery Svabin. Although representatives of the brewery, in response to a request from The Insider, rejected the continuation of the connection with Thesauro Praetor, there is reason to believe that subsequent transactions were only intended to hide the real beneficiary. The brewery is now owned by Romanian citizen Ivan Marciuc, born on April 6, 1975. Judging by the statutory documents of the related company Taiseiko Operations sro, until recently Ivan bore the surname Marchuk, had Russian citizenship and registration on Nakhimovsky Prospekt in Moscow.

Like Strzhalkovsky, Marchuk is passionate about military-historical reconstruction. From 1998 to 2011, Ivan led the military history clubs «Way of the Sword» and «Iwakiri» and is one of the co-founders «Sengoku», an association of reenactors of Japanese culture. Dozens of Marchuk’s friends on the social network «Vkontakte» directly connected with Strzhalkovsky.

For example, Ksenia Oya is the administrator of the International Association of Historical Medieval Battles (HMBIA) associated with Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky. And Vitaly Gryzlov was the captain of the Bear Paw team, who played at the Buhurt Prime group tournament in Monaco, and received awards from the hands of Strzhalkovsky. In 2020, an association «Sengoku Jizai» of which Marchuk is a member received a diploma from the organization «Valor of the Ages», whose vice-president is the same Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky.

In addition to Ivan Marchuk, until 2022, Svabin’s management included another reenactor with a Russian passport — Ivan Borovikov, as well as his mother Natalya. Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky himself, registered on Instagram under the nickname duguay__trouin, remains a subscriber czech brewery.

Bars and restaurants of Strzhalkovsky

Through the same Thesauro Praetor, Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky owns Trinity Irish Bar not far from Karlsplatz.

Evgeniy’s mother and Vladimir Strzhalkovsky’s first wife, Natalia Ivanovna Strzhalkovskaya, have registered assets in Russia. Until May 2018, Natalia owned a stake in the St. Petersburg yacht club: she owned 30% in LLC «Russian Yachting». Strzhalkovskaya’s participation occurred at a time when two other co-owners of the yacht club — vice-president of the All-Russian Sailing Federation Vladimir Loginov and founder of the restaurant chain «XXX» Dmitry Sokolov — complained to various authorities about an attempt at a raider takeover of their business.

Now Natalia Strzhalkovskaya is a restaurateur who owns establishments in some of the most luxury locations in Moscow. Through the company «Fitz», she owns the beer restaurant The Michael Collins on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, the Sean O’Neill pubs on Kuznetsky Most and «Dublinets» on Nikolskaya, the De Torino bars on Myasnitskaya and Tomi Negroni on Malaya Bronnaya, as well as the Fiorentini bistro on Lev Tolstoy Street.

Strange Strzhalkovsky hotels

But the most important figure in the structure of foreign property of the Strzhalkovsky family is the second wife — Irina Vladimirovna Strzhalkovskaya, nee Kochergina. In 2003, she worked at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise «Network of President Hotels and Health Resorts of Rus’», which was later transformed into the Federal State Unitary Enterprise «President-Service» of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.

Her current life is also connected with hotels, but in a fundamentally different capacity. She is the owner of a hotel group V-hotels Group, presumably named after the first letter of Vladimir’s name. The parent company, V-Hotels Group Limited, which is owned and operated by Irina herself, is registered in Cyprus, and luxury hotels are located in Italy and Greece. Irina is also a citizen of Cyprus and holder of a «golden passport» of Montenegro.

In Italy, Irina owns three luxury SPA hotels in the resort area of Abano Terme, 10 km from Padua: Premiere Abano, President Terme and Terme Antoniano. Five star Premiere Abano with 112 rooms, the building was completely restored in 2021 to «create a new impression of luxury». Ten minutes away is another five-star hotel President Terme, with spa areas, swimming pool and two restaurants. A more modest four-star Terme Antoniano boasts only 165 rooms and a thermal park with five swimming pools.

Since 2016, through the already mentioned companies Terme Antoniano SPA and President SRL. Irina owns an unnamed share of up to 50% in the capital of the Italian company three SPA hotels in the same resort town of Abano Terme: Hotel Quisisana Terme, Hotel Terme Salus and Hotel Atlantic Terme.

Publicly V Hotels they call it itself an international company whose shareholders are Russians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Cypriots, Swiss and Italians. But in practice, the owner of the group’s hotels is Irina Strzhalkovskaya. For example, in Premiere Abano SRL. Strzhalkovskaya directly owns 89%, and she owns another 11% through the Cypriot company Namtok Limited. In President SRL. Irina owns 23% directly, and the remaining 77% belongs to her through another Cypriot company, Vocis Investments Limited.

In Greece, the V-Hotels chain owns two hotels on the island of Corfu. They are owned by the Cypriot company Bolentaco Limited, whose sole shareholder is Irina. Panorama Sidari located ten minutes walk from the Ionian coast. The hotel complex has three stars and has 180 rooms in 12 buildings. Almyros Beach Resort & Spa it has the usual five stars, a luxurious level and location on the first line, and also has 12 buildings with 180 rooms. It is difficult to estimate the value of these assets, but we are talking about tens of millions of euros. Irina is director management team HMBIA: the vice-president of the organization is Evgeny Galushin, Irina Kamaeva is responsible for PR, and Ksenia Oya deals with administrative issues. Former coach of Evgeniy Strzhalkovsky Sergei Myasishchev, whose students are known for unsportsmanlike fighting and rule violations, became the head of the marshals committee and monitors the fighters’ compliance with regulations.

Strzhalkovsky himself is content with a modest role chapters monegasque organization. Her honorary representative is Evgeny Drozdov, head of the investment department of Strzhalkovsky’s Thesauro Praetor piggy bank. Control of both organizations is only an intermediate goal: HMBIA intends to by 2026, join the Federation of Non-Olympic Sports (GAISF).

Probably, participation in the historical sport helped Strzhalkovsky get closer to Albert II, Prince and Head of State of Monaco, who personally presented prizes for tournament winners. Among those who accepted the award was, for example, the deputy head of the specialized department of the FSSP of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod region, Alexander Nikitin speaker for the Nizhny Novgorod club «Bern».

Perhaps his acquaintance with the sports history club influenced the ease with which Strzhalkovsky was given a Monaco passport, and his production of vermouths received the right to the alcohol trademark. The Monte Carlo brand is active protected by the state and it is managed by a specially created public company Monaco Brands.

Strzhalkovsky Jr.’s love for costumes and armor is expressed not only in fencing, but also in cinema. Evgeniy appears one of the producers russian fantasy series «Eterna». It is an adaptation of the book «Gleams of Eterna» by writer Vera Kamshi, due for release in July 2025. Filming «Eterns» collected star cast«which includes Anton Rogachev (»Heavenly Team«, » Abnormal«, »End of the World«), Viktor Verzhbitsky (»12«, »Night Watch«, » Turkish Gambit«), Viktor Dobronravov (»Soldier«, » Eugene Onegin«, »World Champion) and many others. One of the producers of the film is Mikhail Kitaev, partner of Artem Gabrelyanov, son of propagandist Aram Gabrelyanov. Kitaev and Gabrelyanov Jr. are co-founders of the Bubble studio, which released a series of films about Major Thunder, glorifying the image of Soviet law enforcement officers — in a word, suitable partners for the son of a security officer.

To be fair, the Strzhalkovskys really have noble roots, although not Russian. Their clan belonged to the Polish gentry and was mentioned in the list of clans «Highest Approved Armorial» of the Kingdom of Poland. Vladimir even sponsored release of the book «Strzalkow Coats of Arms Pulkozic. Ten centuries of chivalric», which was written for him by Oleg Naumov, a professor at Moscow State Regional University.

But Vladimir’s passion for aristocratic titles goes beyond pride in his ancestors: like Patrushev, he sees himself in the ranks of the aristocracy. In September 2005, a recent KGB officer got it «hereditary nobility» from Maria Vladimirovna Romanova from the Hohenzollern-Romanov family. And in May 2009 it was erected in the dignity of Knight of the Order of St. Anne, first degree. The order was presented to the former security officer by Alexander Zakatov — personal secretary of the imperial family and director of the office of the head of the Russian Imperial House.

Past sanctions

Neither Strzhalkovsky himself nor members of his family were not only not subject to sanctions, but also avoided the restrictions in force for ordinary Russians. Former employee of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Presidential Administration Natalia became a citizen of Cyprus and continues to own hotels in Italy and Greece. Svrshchik Evgeniy became a subject of Monaco and retained his alcohol assets in Austria, Italy, Monaco, France and the Czech Republic.

The only exception to the sanctions regime was Ukraine’s sanctions against Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, but they do not prevent him from living a luxurious life in Europe. For example, he sold his superyacht Ragnar without any complications. At one time, the 68-meter vessel, capable of passing through ice, created a cozy interior in the style of a British pub, housing water sports equipment, an amphibious ATV, heli-ski equipment and a giant slide. In July 2023, Strzhalkovsky sold the yacht to billionaire Roy E. Carroll at an estimated price of EUR 69,5 million. Carroll named her Q and planned to use her as an auxiliary vessel for his primary superyacht.