Putin’s sparring partner and strategic supplier Vasily Shestakov hunts in Spain, unhindered by Western sanctions

The president of the International Sambo Federation and a former sparring partner of Vladimir Putin, Vasily Shestakov, went on a hunting trip to Spain in late November 2025, killing six animals, including several rare subspecies of Spanish ibex. On March 2, the Telegram channel of the Safari hunting club, of which Shestakov is a member, posted six photos from the trip, along with an extended description of his activities in Europe.

According to the club, Shestakov managed to shoot a Besisian and a southeastern Spanish ibex, a Ronda ibex, a Gredos ibex with 84-cm-long horns, a mouflon, and a Cantabrian chamois. The club specified that the shots were fired from distances ranging from 100 to 311 meters.

Shestakov (b. 1953) has known Vladimir Putin (b. 1952) since the late 1960s, when both trained at the Turbostroitel sports club in Leningrad and competed for the city judo team. They even co-authored two books on judo. After Putin became president of the Russian Federation in 2000, Shestakov was elected to the State Duma three times, serving from 2003-2016. Since 2009 he has headed Russia’s International Sambo Federation. His son, Putin’s godson, serves as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and leads Russia’s Federal Agency for Fishery.

Despite his proximity to Putin, Shestakov is not under Western sanctions (although Ukraine did impose sanctions on him in 2018 as a former member of parliament). According to the independent investigative outlet Proekt, companies affiliated with the Shestakovs belong to a narrow circle of entities controlling supplies for Rosrezerv — the state strategic reserve of food and other essential resources. Shestakov’s daughter, Yulia Gorshenina, owns a controlling stake in the meat-processing company Cherepanovsky, which has supplied canned meat to Rosrezerv since at least 2012. Cherepanovsky receives loans from Yuri Kovalchuk’s Bank Rossiya. Until 2015, Shestakov’s son-in-law owned TD Krasagromol — a butter manufacturer that also works with Rosrezerv.

As Proekt reports, access to Rosrezerv tenders is available only to entities affiliated with the handful of selected clans in Putin’s entourage, including the families of Shestakov, the president’s other former sparring partner Arkady Rotenberg, former Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, and Rostec head Sergei Chemezov. Smaller players can access the strategic agency only through intermediaries from this circle.

The current head of Rosrezerv, Dmitry Gogin, is a Rotenberg appointee. Shestakov and Rotenberg, who first crossed paths on the tatami at Turbostroitel, also both sit on the supreme council of the National Union of Judo Veterans.