“Canned goods” from Riga: Russia’s elites, oligarchs, and military contractors are quietly dodging sanctions in Latvia

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A second homeland for the Rotenberg brothers

A data leak disclosing information about individuals with dual citizenships and foreign residence permits has helped The Insider uncover the fact that the family of Elena Ruziak — chief manager of the Rotenberg family's foreign assets held under proxy names — possesses Latvian documents.

The Ruziak family’s Latvian ties come as no surprise: for some of Putin’s closest oligarchs, Latvia has become a second home. The Rotenbergs have even married Latvian citizens.

A previous investigation indicated that Arkady Rotenberg, one of Vladimir Putin's key “wallets” — trusted individuals who mask ownership of assets and accounts that, in fact, are controlled by the Russian president — registered part of his property under the name of Latvian citizen Marija Borodunova. The Insider has now found additional evidence of Borodunova's personal connection to the Russian oligarch.

Rotenberg frequently uses a private jet with the tail number RA-73555. The Insider has been able to confirm that Borodunova also uses this plane. She traveled with her two daughters to the Maldives aboard the jet in March of last year, and later that summer, they also used the plane to visit Turkey. In 2022, she used the aircraft to accompany Rotenberg to Gabala, Azerbaijan.

The Insider also found that the Rotenbergs continue to maintain control over the Latvian company IMNI. This company is registered under the Cypriot firm QUINHON INVESTMENTS LIMITED, whose beneficiary, via another offshore entity — Velidom Ltd. — is Cypriot national Markos Piperides. Piperides, a long-time proxy for the Rotenbergs, has managed their assets for years, The Insider’s research can confirm.

Velidom had already come under journalistic scrutiny. As noted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), this offshore company was part of the ownership chain for an Austrian chalet, which Arkady Rothenberg gifted to Maria Vorontsova — Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter.

The Latvian firm IMNI, also controlled through Velidom, owns a mansion located at Rubīnu Street 7 in the “millionaire village” of Priedkalne just outside the country’s capital, Riga. The Insider was able to confirm this via data obtained from Latvia’s Land Registry (Cadaster).

IMNI board member Marta Bērzkalna, a Latvian fashion model, married Roman Rotenberg — son to Boris Rotenberg and nephew to Arkady Rotenberg — in 2010.

However, the mansion is not the Rotenbergs' only asset in the country. Their “emissary” in Latvia, Denis Pospelov, is registered as the owner of AFI Investīcijas — a company trading bonds on international markets.

While Pospelov holds a Russian passport, another long-time Rotenberg asset manager, Vadim Burtsev (Vadims Burcevs), has Latvian citizenship. He owns the Latvian company MC Finance, which deals in car leasing and mortgage lending.

These financial avenues help the Rotenbergs bypass sanctions. Through Latvian companies involved in lending, the oligarchs may be able to make purchases in Europe — such as acquiring a chalet in Austria for Putin's daughter.

Not all Rotenberg family members are subject to EU sanctions. The Insider found that Boris Rotenberg Jr. crossed the land border between Russia and Finland in 2023. Arkady’s daughter, Liliya Rotenberg, also entered the Schengen area through Finland and Estonia in 2022 and 2023. Restrictions placed on ordinary Russians seemingly do not apply to the children of the elite. Boris holds Finnish citizenship, while Liliya likely holds a German passport. The Insider was able to confirm that her son Domenic, Arkady Rotenberg’s grandson, is a German citizen.

The Gazprom-KGB connection

Latvia's commercial register reveals that Russian state energy giant Gazprom holds a 34% stake in AS Latvijas Gāze — a natural gas company dealing with the importation and sale of natural gas, with clients in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland. The firm’s official website proudly states: “In the household segment, AS «Latvijas Gāze» is the largest and most important natural gas trader in Latvia.”

In 2023, Latvijas Gāze generated nearly €160 million ($176 million) in revenue. Last year, it distributed €110 million ($121 million) in dividends to shareholders from retained earnings, with Gazprom’s share amounting to approximately €37 million ($40.75 million).

Gazprom holds the largest stake in Latvijas Gāze, owning 34% of the company's shares. Other shareholders include Germany's Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18%), Latvia's Rietumu Banka (29%), and ITERA Latvija (16%).

The beneficiary of ITERA Latvija is Juris Savickis — a former KGB officer who, like Putin, served in East Germany during the Cold War.

War profiteers

Several Russians are listed as the minority shareholders of Rietumu Banka — one of Latvia’s largest banks. The Insider identified Oleg Belkov, co-owner and CEO of the “Bell” shipyard (ООО «Судостроительная Верфь “Бэлл”»), which manufactures Russian military vessels. Prior to his role at Bell, Belkov headed another shipbuilding plant — “Vympel” — which also specialized in military boats. Last year, however, a Russian court handed Belkov a three-year suspended prison sentence for the “contraband of military equipment” — he had illegally transported two patrol boats to the UAE, intending to sell them.

Another shareholder is Sergey Pasters, co-owner of Russia's Armator LLC (​​ООО «Арматор») a company involved in defense contracts. It supplies boiler burners for military ships at the Zvezdochka Ship Maintenance Center. A 2022 investigation also revealed that Pasters owns a port business in the Baltics.

Yury Korkishko, a Russian with a 16% stake in the Latvian company Fiber Optical Solution, is the co-founder of Optolink RPC LLC (ООО НПК «Оптолинк») which was sanctioned by the U.S. in July 2023. Optolink mass-produces high-precision fiber-optic gyroscopes used in navigation systems. One of Korkishko's clients is JSC NPO “High-Precision Systems”, a leading Russian weapons manufacturer specializing in tactical ballistic missile systems including the Iskander-M and Pantsir-S1, as well as the Kornet man-portable anti-tank guided missile. Other Korkishko clients include the Kalashnikov Concern, along with the Ural Optical-Mechanical Plant, which makes optical tracking systems for combat aircraft.

Until the end of 2023, one of the owners of the Latvian company VS Energy Latvia — which held energy assets in Ukraine — was German citizen Marina Yaroslavskaya, the wife of Yevgeny Giner, president of Moscow’s CSKA football club and one of the partners of Rostec, Russia’s sprawling state-owned defense corporation. Giner holds a 49% stake in Technopromexport — a Rostec subsidiary that has been involved in several large-scale infrastructure and energy projects, including the construction of power plants in Iran. VS Energy Latvia’s current beneficiary is Valt Vīgants, who previously managed operations linked to State Duma Deputy Speaker Alexander Babakov.

The Insider has verified that Ivan Sadhchikov, a key figure in corruption schemes linked to the Tactical Missiles Corporation, still owns a house in the Latvian village of Amatciems. These schemes involved his partnership with Rostislav Zorikov, the son-in-law of the corporation's head, Boris Obnosov.

Sadchikov’s wife Svetlana is the daughter of the late former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko. According to data obtained by The Insider, Svetlana Sadchikova continued making trips to the EU via Lithuania even after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A previous investigation by The Insider identified the family’s luxury property holdings in France.

The military-criminal oligarchs Iskandar Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev remain shareholders of the Riga Electrical Machine Building Works (RER). Customs statistics obtained by The Insider reveal that products from the Riga plant are now being shipped to Russia not only directly, but also via Turkey in cases where sanctions prevent goods from moving across the border unimpeded.

Putin's seaside cronies from Jurmala

Tatjana Krivenko, a former State Duma MP from the ruling United Russia party — which is de facto headed by Vladimir Putin — declared joint ownership of an apartment in Latvia’s resort town of Jūrmala with her husband, film director Valery Fokin.

Given that both Fokin and Krivenko are listed as debtors for property taxes in Jūrmala, it appears they have retained ownership of the apartment.

Fokin served as an official representative of Putin during Russia’s presidential elections in 2012 and supported the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Among the other notable property owners in Jūrmala is oligarch Mikhail Fridman — one of Russia’s wealthiest businessmen and co-founder of Alfa Group. Fridman, currently under international sanctions, has seen his assets seized in multiple countries. These include his two-level Jūrmala residence, which spans 600 sq. m. (6,500 square feet) and is valued at €5.6 million ($5.88 million).

Another prominent property owner is Andrey Bolotov, the former son-in-law of Nikolai Tokarev, a former KGB colleague of Putin and the current president of the Russian pipeline company Transneft.

Despite owning an offshore contractor that secured multi-billion ruble contracts from Transneft, Andrey Bolotov has avoided sanctions. The profits from these deals enabled Bolotov to acquire both an apartment in Jūrmala and an EU passport, as he and his ex-wife became Cypriot citizens in 2014 (before their divorce).

The Insider also confirmed that the family of Natalya Timakova still owns a house in Jūrmala, with the property registered in the name of her new husband, Alexander Budberg.

Timakova is the director of development at the Skolkovo School of Management and is the former press secretary to Russia’s ex-president Dmitry Medvedev. Once touted as a pro-Western reformer, Medvedev has reinvented himself as one of Moscow’s most vocal war hawks — and a frequent author of social media rants threatening both Ukraine and the West with nuclear annihilation. Medvedev recently floated the idea of reducing Kyiv to a “giant grey melted spot” if Ukraine were allowed to use Western long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia. Another post predicted the United States would collapse in an “imminent new civil war” amid the November presidential elections.

An investigation by The Insider observed that the former president’s scandalous posts often coincide with wine deliveries from his Italian vineyards — which, notably, are routed to Moscow via Latvia.