Family values: FSB chief’s nephew tied to corrupt businessmen including Putin’s old judo partners

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“Soul of Russia” and the FSB chief’s brother

In November 2023, the Center for Culture, Sports, and Youth Activities of the Peniki rural settlement in Russia’s Leningrad Region hosted an exhibition of paintings called “Soul of Russia.” The opening drew minimal media or public attention. After all, few knew that the artist, Mikhail Bortnikov, is the brother of FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov.

Mikhail Bortnikov had been interested in painting since childhood. Even after enrolling at the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command School, he continued his hobby, “painting pictures for the officers’ club, military headquarters, and battalion locations.” Later he built a career in the army and the Emergencies Ministry, returning to painting only after retirement. He lives near Peniki, meaning the exhibition opened within walking distance of his home.

After leaving military service but before entering retirement, Bortnikov worked as deputy CEO of JSC Hotel Moskva. During that period, the asset was part of Igor Leytis’s Adamant conglomerate, one of Russia’s real estate giants. Leytis’s business was assisted by “authoritative businessman” Vladimir Golubev, also known as Barmaley (nicknamed after a Soviet-era cartoon villain).

Still, Mikhail Bortnikov’s work history is far less interesting than that of his son.

Graft in medical contracts

In August 2022, the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg found former regional parliament deputy Roman Koval guilty of large-scale bribery. Case materials show that he lobbied for businessman Mikhail Likholetov as part of an effort to secure contracts to supply equipment and materials to medical institutions.

The kickbacks amounted to 20% of the contracts’ value. Koval was sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security colony, while Likholetov, who paid the bribes in cash and cars, remained free thanks to his cooperation as a witness. Likholetov continued winning government contracts, and as The Insider has discovered, in 2024 Likholetov’s Wholesale Medical Company appointed Dmitry Bortnikov — the son of Mikhail Bortnikov and the nephew of FSB head Alexander Bortnikov — as director for special projects.

Coincidentally, it was the FSB’s Economic Security Service (SEB) that detained Koval, and it was the FSB that oversaw the investigation of the St. Petersburg medical procurement embezzlement case in which Likholetov ultimately retained his freedom to do business. In another coincidence, the SEB was once headed by future FSB Director Bortnikov, and during the events described, it was led by his current deputy, Sergey Korolyov, who enjoys good relations with Bortnikov’s nephew (as he did with the leaders of the Tambov-Malyshev gang, where he was known as Boltai-Noga).

Procurement records show that, even after the scandal, Wholesale Medical Company continued supplying medicines to state healthcare institutions, amassing state contracts worth 10.8 billion rubles ($130.1 million). Its main client was the St. Petersburg Health Committee. The firm also won tenders in Moscow, Chuvashia, and the Vologda Region.

The official salary of the company’s new director for special projects is relatively modest — just over half a million rubles ($6,000) a month. However, his position allows him to control contracting schemes from the inside, a task that Dmitry Bortnikov has proven adept at navigating in the past.

The nephew's career

The Insider traced the career path of the FSB Director’s nephew. In 2000, at age 23, Dmitry Bortnikov took a job at the St. Petersburg Land Resources and Land Management Committee, but he stayed in the post only six months. After that, he changed jobs frequently: Alfa Bank, a flower shop, a vodka factory, a surveying company.

In 2006, at a time when his uncle headed the FSB’s Economic Security Service, Bortnikov joined Gazprom Neft as head of the legal department of Okhta Business Center, a branch of the state company. In 2010 he moved to construction firm SPbRenovation, owned by the late Mikhail Kenin, whose close connections included Sergey Shoigu and the Vorobyov family.

From 2014 to 2017, Dmitry Bortnikov was a civil servant, serving as assistant to the head of the Federal Service for Alcohol and Tobacco Market Regulation. At the time, the agency was led by Igor Chuyan, who fled to Montenegro after being accused of embezzling 30 billion rubles ($361.5 million). Chuyan acted in the interests of Arkady Rotenberg and left his post after another Putin ally, lawyer and banker Nikolay Egorov, accused him of financial fraud.

Dmitry Bortnikov was also linked to one more businessman close to Rotenberg. Between 2018 and 2020, he worked as adviser to the CEO of Joint-Stock Company Pipe Freight Company, owned by major state contractor Alexander Karmanov. Karmanov is close with the Rotenberg brothers, and like Putin himself, Karmanov practiced judo with them starting from his youth in Leningrad.

Last but not least, Dmitry Bortnikov was also tied to the Yadrovo landfill and the Central Ring Road construction project. In 2019, he briefly held a 15% stake in OOO DEP No. 17 and Soyuz Avtodor, road repair firms that received 8 billion and 126 billion rubles in state contracts, respectively ($129.0 million and $2.0 billion at the time). He also did business with the stepson of oligarch Alisher Usmanov. However, their joint venture, Russian Agricultural Company, co-owned with Nathan Viner, has since been liquidated.