POLITICS
In late March, Russia's business community was shaken by the arrest of billionaire Vadim Moshkovich, founder of Rusagro — one of the country's five largest owners of agricultural land. The formal grounds for the arrest was a commercial dispute with another entrepreneur, but by an interesting coincidence, it occurred a few months after Moshkovich filed a lawsuit against Vitaly Yusufov, the son of oligarch Igor Yusufov, who is close to Dmitry Medvedev. The plaintiff's lawyers accused the younger Yusufov of moving assets abroad and called for his accounts to be frozen. The court denied this request — and froze Moshkovich’s accounts instead.
On Apr. 21, the Commercial Court of the Tambov Region held a hearing on the claims of the Rusagro group against Vitaly Yusufov. The proceedings were adjourned until June 4. By then, unless a court decision grants his release, Rusagro owner Vadim Moshkovich will have been in jail for more than three months.
Moshkovich is accused of fraud over a business conflict with Vladislav Burov, a former partner of State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in a company called Solnechnye Produkty. This arrest itself is irregular, as conflicts between companies are normally resolved in commercial courts. Incidentally, Moshkovich's arrest was preceded by his conflict with the family of Igor Yusufov, who is nicknamed “Dmitry Medvedev's wallet.”
Dmitry Medvedev has long had a personal interest in agribusiness, and in 2023, Moshkovich's Rusagro acquired shares in Biotekhnologii from Vitaly Yusufov. According to Moshkovich, the Biotekhnologii elevator contained less barley, wheat, and soybeans than declared. The total damage is estimated at 91.3 million rubles (~$1.1 million).
Excerpt from Moshkovich's lawsuit against Yusufov
The subject of the claims in the present dispute is the claim to recover from Vitaly Igorevich Yusufov in favor of LLC Rusagro Group of Companies losses in the amount of 91,340,435.02 rubles, caused by the violation of assurances regarding the circumstances (quantity and quality of agricultural products stored at the elevator of JSC Biotekhnologii) from the securities purchase agreement dated 05.10.2023.
The amount of losses was determined by the plaintiff by calculation and includes:
3,022,778.79 - cost of missing barley in the amount of 251.26 metric tons
45,647,418.53 - cost of missing 4th class wheat in the amount of 3,053.58 metric tons
25,014,194.68 - cost of missing soybeans in the amount of 544.17 metric tons
7,073,933.43 - reduction of sunflower price due to quality deterioration
36,412,532.84 - reduction of soybean price due to quality deterioration
According to financial statements, the total revenue of JSC Biotekhnologii for 2024 amounted to 324 million rubles ($3.9 million), and the net profit stood at 78 million ($948,000). Therefore, the amount Moshkovich demanded from the younger Yusufov exceeded the company's yearly net profit.
Rusagro's lawyers did not stop there. They tried (and failed) to have the court seize Vitaly Yusufov's personal bank accounts as an interim measure. Interestingly, they chose an original tactic, alleging that the son of Medvedev's “wallet” was moving his assets abroad, including to the U.S.
Excerpt from Moshkovich's lawsuit against Yusufov
Justifying the motion for interim measures on the claim, the plaintiff points out that the defendant is taking steps to withdraw assets from the territory of the Russian Federation under the jurisdiction of foreign states, including the United States. In support of its position, the plaintiff attaches materials placed in the public domain, including on the Internet, from which it follows that V.I. Yusufov is taking measures to sell the companies that belong to him and operate in construction and agriculture.
However, the plaintiffs failed to present strong evidence to back their accusations, presenting only links to commercial pieces on obscure websites Kont (where the piece in question has been removed by the decision of consumer rights watchdog Roskomnadzor) and Repost. The articles do not provide substantial evidence of the withdrawal of funds to the West, only insinuations that money from the sale of Russian businesses was moved abroad. Nevertheless, thanks to Moshkovich's lawyers, this “dirt” from these stories on little-known websites made it into official court documents.
In late December, the 19th Commercial Court of Appeal refused to arrest the accounts of Vitaly Yusufov, and three months later the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow arrested Moshkovich himself. As for the withdrawal of the Yusufovs' assets to the U.S., this information appears to be true — at the very least, a yacht that was registered to Igor Yusufov has been used extensively by members of Dmitry Medvedev's family. After changing its name to “Casino Royale,” the yacht was recently spotted sailing for Florida.
Igor Yusufov and his two sons are not under Western sanctions — this despite the fact that their close ties to Dmitry Medvedev's family have been repeatedly exposed by investigative journalists. At the same time, the elder Yusufov, who does business with Novatek, an entity of Kremlin-friendly oligarchs Gennady Timchenko and Leonid Mikhelson, uses a diplomatic passport to travel around the world, as The Insider previously revealed.
Igor Yusufov
The Insider discovered other evidence of the close ties between the Medvedevs and the Yusufovs. Medvedev's son Dmitry and Yusufov's son Maxim traveled together to Croatia and Italy, according to the Border Service leak. Medvedev's son also flew on the oligarch's business jet M-ANTA (which has since changed hands).
Vitaly Yusufov recently got rid of another of his assets: Osnova Telecom, which developed communication systems for the Ministry of Defense. Since last summer, the firm Icominvest, Osnova Telecom's controlling entity, has been under the nominal control of CEO Alexei Kim.