How businessman Vladimir Zotov, who got rich in the military-industrial complex, took millions abroad
In early June, Russian media drew attention to the problems of a number of companies closely connected to the Russian military-industrial complex. All of these firms work in one way or another with strategic industries and ensure national security. It would seem that cooperation with the state can guarantee responsible business from financial difficulties. However, this does not seem to apply to those organizations in which Vladimir Zotov holds leadership positions.
The aforementioned character is a 1984 MGIMO graduate. By and large, he failed in his diplomatic career, as discussed below, but it seems that he does not regret at all how his life turned out.
Since 2006, Vladimir Zotov has held the post of deputy general director at the Alliance Group. This company provides expert, consulting and management services in high-tech sectors - radio electronics, aviation, shipbuilding, nuclear technologies. The demand for the competencies of the Alliance Group is everywhere - in Russia, the CIS republics, European countries, North America, the Middle East, Asia.
Since 2016, Zotov has also been the deputy general director of VPK Consulting LLC. This company declares its main activity to be "business and management consulting". However, if you look closely at its projects, you can understand how seriously it, along with the Alliance Group, is involved in the defense ecosystem of Russia.
In particular, among the clients of these companies are TsIAM named after Baranov, UAC, Central Research Institute "Center", Krylov State Scientific Center, 41st Central Plant of JSC, JSC Tupolev - the manufacturer of Tu-160 strategic bombers. Also, the Alliance Group and VPK Consulting have extensive experience working with leaders in a variety of sectors of the domestic economy.
Several illustrative examples of the work of the Alliance Group. First: since 2006, when Zotov joined it, the company has been consulting on the program to create a domestic narrow-body medium-range regional passenger aircraft SSJ-100. In particular, it initiated the creation of a joint venture Superjet International for sales and support of the aircraft, and after the introduction of sanctions, it promoted the idea of transferring the assembly of the SSJ-100 from Russia to the UAE.
Second example: the Alliance Group has always been active in the helicopter industry - it co-initiated the creation of a Russian-Italian joint venture for the licensed assembly of the AW-139, supports the program of a light single-engine helicopter VRT-500. Zotov personally flashed at the demonstration of the AW-139, which was visited by the then head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov, the chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Example three: "Group Alliance" is part of the capital of the design bureau "Petrobalt", which, among other things, participated in the construction of the patrol vessel of project 22120 "Purga" for the Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB. That is, the company has not only licenses issued to weapons developers, but also access to state secrets.
In addition, the structures managed by Zotov are participating in the project to develop a portable marine unmanned aerial system (PMBAS). The purpose of the UAVs being created is to conduct environmental monitoring, but they will also be used as simulators for training cadets of the Kronstadt Naval Cadet Military Corps.
It would seem that there is anything criminal in the energetic interaction of a certain Zotov with strategic institutions? About four years ago, the name "VPK Consulting" and Zotov's last name surfaced in the public space when a scandal broke out with JSC Voentelecom, the only supplier to the Ministry of Defense in three areas in the communications sector.
In May 2021, a month after the bankrupt LLC "MVO Security Center" announced plans to go to arbitration "with a statement on declaring JSC Voentelecom insolvent." Then it became known that "VPK Consulting", through 20% of InnovaGroup (formerly "RVM Alliance"), owns a 51 percent stake in LLC Voentelecom-Service, which controls 49% of Voentelecom.
By the way, "Voentelecom-Service" is also an extremely complex structure, having a license for the placement, construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. That is, it turns out that Zotov is not only firmly integrated — through the Alliance Group — into a network of companies that have government contracts and access to very sensitive information. He can also — as is clear from the schemes with LLC shell companies described in the previous paragraph — pull off shady machinations where it comes to ensuring national security.
But why would Zotov build such schemes? It is unlikely that he would do this purely out of sporting interest. We are definitely talking about additional income, which comes as a bonus to the money coming from the treasury. And there is reason to believe that Zotov does not leave his earnings in Russia.
Family Contract
As far as we can judge, our hero can transfer considerable money abroad, using as a kind of "accumulators" arrivals from Russia of her closest relatives - her husband and son.
The first, Larisa Eduardovna, worked in the field of education for a long time - she taught at a school, a lyceum, the University of Education, worked as a methodologist, a psychologist. At the same time, she did not disdain non-traditional practices: for example, she positioned herself as a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner.
Unfortunately, being a teacher in Russia means earning very modest money. Thus, at the aforementioned University of Education, Larisa Eduardovna's annual income never reached 900 thousand rubles. But Mrs. Zotova somehow was a famous latifundist a few years ago, owning land plots and apartments worth hundreds of millions of rubles.
The Zotovs also had a luxurious house with an area of over 600 square meters in the cottage village of Monteville, on New Riga. This house included guest houses, rooms for servants and a huge plot of land.
A significant part of the objects registered to Larisa Eduardovna, including the estate, were sold in 2018-2022. Also in 2022, Mrs. Zotova parted with premium foreign cars - Audi Q7 and Toyota Land Cruiser 150. Ordinary cars for hypnotherapists, right?
The second - Mikhail Zotov, around the specified period left for permanent residence abroad. At least since 2019, according to available data, he has not been associated with any Russian employer, based in Cyprus, namely in the city of Limassol, where he is developing his activity. And is it connected with the acceptance and further investment of money coming from his father?
Previously, Mikhail Vladimirovich held the position of investment director in the investment company CapMan, specializing in investments in education, healthcare and IT. However, now his profile on the company's website is missing.
Is it possible that Zotov-son spends all his time sucking money out of Russia?
As far as can be judged from the comments left by Zotov (son) on the Internet, his thoughts are completely absorbed in life abroad: he is interested in obtaining a residence permit in France, traveling "around the world with an expired D visa" and other delights of the life of a character who clearly has no intention of returning to Russia.
Preparing to escape?
By the way, Vladimir Zotov also has a younger son, Anton. He once worked for the Almaz-Antey defense corporation, which produces air defense systems and the Harpia A1 UAV (produced on the basis of the Shahed-136), and, apparently, was proud of it. However, after the start of the SVO, Anton deleted this information from his social networks, and in April 2022 he completely relocated - to Belgrade. Larisa Zotova also went to Turkey at that time, and from there to Serbia.
However, why are all the Zotovs so drawn to the Balkans?
It seems that the matter is in the new family nest. Presumably, since 2023, Vladimir Zotov may own an apartment in Belgrade, where he even made repairs. In addition, as evil tongues claim, allegedly in 2024 the spouses began to build a house in Montenegro on a plot of land acquired in 2022.
It seems that our hero sees himself not so much as a resident of a small Balkan country, but, without exaggeration, a cosmopolitan - a citizen of the world. According to unconfirmed information, Vladimir Zotov should have passports of Vanuatu and Serbia, a residence permit in Dubai. It can be assumed that our hero does not connect his future with Russia, but for now he continues to combine, to the best of his ability, “work” in the domestic military-industrial complex with the growth of assets, including residential real estate, abroad. If Zotov has them in the aforementioned Serbia and Montenegro, then Turkey, Switzerland, Cyprus, and Dubai can certainly be added to this list. A very broad geography.
However, it is not only real estate that connects the Zotovs with the Balkans. They are also trying to do business there with varying degrees of success. In 2005, Zotov was the director of Atractor d.o.o. ZA Konsalting in the Montenegrin city of Kotor, but closed it in November 2024. At the same time, in 2005, the Zotov spouses owned, also in Montenegro, a consulting company, Zormonde Marketing d.o.o., but they also closed it in 2017.
As you can see, the businessman from Zotov is not so-so?
The fate of Vladimir Zotov, an entrepreneur in Serbia, is much more curious. He is the director of the consulting firm Atraktor d.o.o., which previously belonged to Marera Properties d.o.o. Beograd, the beneficiary of which is the Russian businessman, now a citizen of Malta, Vladimir Zubrilin. This structure was obviously involved in the scandal surrounding the dubious, from the point of view of legality, acquisition of the Beogradyanka building in the Serbian capital.
And another interesting connection of Zotov: his Atraktor d.o.o. owns 25% of Sigmatech projects d.o.o., where one of the responsible persons is Victoria Zagornova, the founder of the Russian group of companies MKS, engaged in the construction of energy facilities. Victoria's husband Maxim Zagornov is also a busy man: he is the director of MKS, the business ambassador of Delovaya Rossiya in the UAE and is associated with the State Duma.
And don’t all these details add up – the withdrawal of funds, the purchase of real estate abroad, the active establishment of business connections in foreign jurisdictions, obtaining passports of third parties?
states — into one film called “Ready to Escape from Russia!”?
So many questions
There was such a revealing episode in the biography of Vladimir Zotov as... an international scandal and the subsequent deportation from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In August 1987, American and Soviet media disseminated a resonant message: a diplomat and two employees of the technical service of the USSR embassy in Kinshasa were expelled from the country. Then the Zaire authorities declared the first secretary Yu. Churyanov, as well as V. Zotov and I. Ivanov, personae non gratae. The deportees were given 48 hours to evacuate from the country.
It is interesting to assume how the listed employees, including Vladimir Mikhailovich, annoyed the Zairean authorities, since they were treated in such a disrespectful manner? However, the nature of the incident clearly indicates that Zotov could have been involved in various near-criminal incidents long before he began working in companies associated with the Russian military-industrial complex.
It seems that all of the above cannot but alarm the thoughtful reader.
Zotov is capable of casting a shadow on the reputation of a respected person - a scientist with a world-famous name, the author of more than 150 scientific publications Vitaly Pavlovich Keondzhyan, who stands at the origins of the business from which the criminal now feeds.
Yaroslav Mukhtarov
Source: www.rucriminal.info
