Following a report from The Insider, Latvia has placed Russian businessman Sergei Fedotov on its list of undesirable persons and banned him from entering the country indefinitely. Fedotov’s daughter, Jūlija Stepaņenko, is running to be prime minister in Latvia’s Oct. 3 elections as a member of the Sovereign Power/Young Latvians alliance, which is currently running second in the polls. On Sept. 24, The Insider broke the story that Fedotov’s company manufactured anti-tank “dragon’s teeth” barriers for the Russian army after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The decision to place Fedotov on the persona non grata list under Latvia’s immigration law was announced by Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže, who chose not to publicize the reasons for the decision.
As The Insider established, Sergei Fedotov is a 72-year-old businessman from Solnechnogorsk in the Moscow Region. He is the majority owner of the companies Forma ZhBI LLC and PLK Forma LLC. At the start of the full-scale war, Forma ZhBI reported producing about 2,000 concrete “dragon’s teeth” and tetrapods. These were sent to the Belgorod Region and to Russian-occupied territories of Donbas. The company also supplied stoves to the Russian military.
After The Insider’s report, Fedotov confirmed that his company had indeed carried out an order for anti-tank barriers, adding that the company acted as a subcontractor and received a “small order” because the main contractor could not produce the necessary number of structures in time. Fedotov claims the barriers were intended to defend Russia’s Belgorod Region.
Stepaņenko has received two large gifts from her father worth a combined 419,600 euros, The Insider found. In October 2022, she declared 239,600 euros, and in January 2024 Fedotov bought her an apartment in Riga worth 180,000 euros. The businessman himself explained to The Insider that he transferred his Latvian assets to his daughter after travel to the country became difficult.
The origin of the funds gifted to Stepaņenko, along with any possible security risks, are now being examined by several Latvian state agencies. The State Security Service of Latvia said it had previously studied the information and briefed the National Security Council and the country’s senior officials. The agency and other institutions are assessing the published information, and the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau has taken an interest in the gifts.
