The Insider has found that the father of Saeima deputy Jūlija Stepaņenko, Sergei Fedotov, is the majority owner of two companies in the Moscow Region. One of them produced concrete anti-tank barriers known as “dragon’s teeth” for the Russian military. According to public declarations for 2022 and 2024, Fedotov has given Stepanenko nearly 240,000 euros and an apartment in Riga worth 180,000 euros since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The father of Jūlija Stepaņenko, the leader of Latvia’s Sovereign Power (Suverēnā vara, SV) party, is Russian businessman Sergei Fedotov. He owns majority stakes in two companies in Solnechnogorsk, outside Moscow — Forma ZhBI LLC and PLK Forma LLC. Both are family businesses. Sergei’s wife, Irina Fedotova, and his daughter, Anna Makarovskaya, are also listed as shareholders.
Stepaņenko previously said that her father lives in Russia and provides financial support to her family, but she did not disclose his identity. Her financial declarations list two large gifts from him worth a combined 419,598 euros. In October 2022, she declared 239,598 euros in cash, and in January 2024 she was gifted an apartment in Riga from her father worth 180,000 euros.
The Insider identified Stepanenko’s father as 72-year-old Sergei Alexeievich Fedotov, a businessman from Solnechnogorsk.
Fedotov owns 73.45% of PLK Forma and 72.68% of Forma ZhBI. The latter manufactures concrete, mortar, reinforced-concrete products, and landscaping elements, while PLK Forma is involved in construction and in the management and leasing of commercial real estate, including industrial, warehouse, and office space.
It is a sizable family business. From 2021 through 2024, Fedotov’s two companies generated annual revenue of 550 million to 680 million rubles ($6.9 million to $8 million). In 2024, they earned nearly 120 million rubles ($1.4 million) in net profit. However, the figures fell sharply in 2025, when combined revenue dropped to 235 million rubles ($2.8 million) and a small loss replaced the previous profit.
Fedotov’s businesses were not limited to civilian construction. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Forma ZhBI reported that it had produced around 2,000 “dragon’s teeth” and tetrapods — concrete anti-tank obstacles. They were sent to Russian-occupied parts of Donbas and Russia’s Belgorod Region, which borders Ukraine and saw multiple incursions by Ukrainian-backed armed groups in 2023 and 2024. The company also said it supplied stoves to the Russian military.
In August, Fedotov’s company was visited by Viktor Bout, an arms dealer who was convicted in the United States in 2011 before being released in a 1-for-1 prisoner swap for WNBA player Brittney Griner in 2022. The visit took place during Bout’s campaign for the State Duma as a candidate from the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR). Footage aired by Russian television showed Fedotov giving Bout a tour of the business and sitting beside him. During the visit, Bout said Russia was “sometimes in a hybrid war, sometimes in an open war” and called for bureaucratic obstacles to be removed so that important infrastructure could be protected.
In an interview with The Insider, Fedotov confirmed that he is indeed Jūlija Stepaņenko’s father. He also confirmed that he transferred all of his Latvian assets to his daughter after the country’s border was closed to Russian citizens.
“I honestly bought an apartment [in Riga] so I wouldn’t have to bother my daughter and so I could see my grandchildren more often. I paid taxes, but when it became impossible to travel there, I gave the apartment to my daughter,” Fedotov said.
“I would like to remind you that I was born in Latvia, lived there for almost 25 years, graduated from university, worked under the [Soviet] job-assignment system and was drafted into the army by the Riga military enlistment office as a reserve officer. I served in military construction units and built purely civilian facilities.
After that, there was nowhere to return to because the political situation had changed. For some reason, I had already become an occupier and so on. So I was forced to stay here in the Moscow region and start my own business, which is what I still do today.
All that time, I traveled to Latvia without any problems. I had a long-term visa. My parents, grandparents, and aunt are buried there.
Today I have been deprived of the ability both to see my daughter there and to visit the graves of relatives.”
On Sept. 5, The Insider tried to speak with Stepaņenko at a campaign tent in Riga. She declined to comment, saying she gives interviews to national media but that, given the current geopolitical situation, she needed to consider whether she should speak to a foreign outlet.
Stepaņenko has led Sovereign Power since 2022 and is the Sovereign Power/Young Latvians Union alliance’s candidate for prime minister. She campaigns on “family values,” opposes financial aid to Ukraine, and has said both sides in the conflict bear responsibility for the start of the war.
In its 2025 report, Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) named three parties that it said had worked most actively to deepen the isolation of Russian-speaking residents: Stability!, Sovereign Power, and the Latvian Russian Union. The VDD assessed that their activities contributed to Russia’s strategic objectives.
Latvia’s parliamentary election is scheduled for Oct. 3. According to the latest SKDS poll, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs’ United List leads with 15.2%, followed by Stepaņenko’s Sovereign Power/Young Latvians Union alliance with 11.8%. The Progressives, Latvia First, New Unity, and the National Alliance follow.
