Secret merchant of death: how Russia circumvents sanctions and builds up military strength - investigation
Author: Alexey Chibisov and Anastasia Zazulyak
An investigation by Channel 24
For years, the Kremlin has been building intelligence networks around the world in order to be able to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, wage wars of conquest, and carry out coups, but at the same time not bear responsibility for any crimes. Such architecture was built by presidents, diplomats, and numerous undercover intelligence spies.
Friendship with the Germans, influence on Georgia, and the creation of Armenian proxies
The terrorist is directly involved in the Russian military-industrial complex
UAE, Türkiye, and Iran: how Russia bypasses sanctions thanks to Bagdasarov
Stopping Bagdasarov's schemes is a critical task for the whole world
One of these scouts is Semyon Bagdasarov, through whom the Kremlin purchases spare parts for stolen Boeing and Airbus, trades oil with the UAE and also provides its petrochemical industry with raw materials from Turkey. At the same time, the activity of this character is carefully hidden, and for society, he is only a propagandist and a former State Duma deputy, as well as the head of the Center for the Study of the Countries of the Middle East and Central Asia. However, the latter position just serves as a cover for many schemes, because the activities of a 68-year-old criminal have no more in common with science than the UOC-MP has with religion. Moreover, Bagdasarov is an adviser to the director of JSC NPO High Precision Complexes.
The editors of Channel 24 became aware of this after analyzing more than 16 thousand letters from his email, broken by the hacktivists of the Cyber Opposition team.
After carefully examining each document, we found out how Bagdasarov was involved in unleashing wars by Russia in many countries of the Middle East, Africa, and directly in Ukraine, and also exposed a number of large-scale schemes for the Kremlin to circumvent sanctions restrictions. Read more about everything in our material.
Attention! Today the enemy vilely cyberattacked the website of Channel 24. We repulsed the attack and quickly identified the "hole" through which the occupiers climbed. The attack took place just before the publication of our extensive investigation into a high-ranking Russian GRU officer. The publication of our material was scheduled for next week, however, all things considered, we believe that it is important to publish the text version now. Watch the investigative film on air and on YouTube Channel 24 afterward.
SEE ALSO Iranian gambit: Ukrainian hackers hacked the mail of ex-State Duma deputy Bagdasarov
First of all, it should be noted that for most people Bagdasarov is associated with propaganda TV shows and openly anti-Western rhetoric. He positions himself as an expert on the East and a prototype of Zhirinovsky, who is characterized by harsh statements. Behind the screen of a scandalous figure is a well-balanced head of a large intelligence network, the owner of several companies engaged in the theft of land in the Moscow Region and the Krasnodar Territory, as well as a conductor of Russian expansion around the world.
How Russia supplied terrorism to Africa, and what do Bagdasarov and the head of the Ismailis have to do with it?
The official biography of Bagdasarov in open sources says that he left military service in 1995. However, there is a possibility that the “reserve colonel” is still working for Russian intelligence and for the Kremlin elites who are involved in military coups in many states.
Judging by the correspondence of Putin's henchman, Bagdasarov was very actively engaged in the dense development of a huge pro-Russian agent network 14 years ago. Most likely, Bagdasarov began this activity back in the 90s, at least then Yeltsin in a secret order awarded him the Order "For Personal Courage". At the same time, it was about carrying out a secret mission in "remote regions of Tajikistan and Afghanistan."
Therefore, it is not at all surprising that after the official end of military service, the occupying terrorist headed the department for cooperation with Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan of the relevant ministry of Russia. A sort of espionage-diplomatic position.
In the future, the connections of the "expert on the Middle East" only expanded, and already in 2009, he was building relations of the gas station country not only with Asia but also with many African countries. Of course, we are not talking about official diplomatic relations, but about local bandit-political clans.
Moreover, a very interesting pattern can be easily traced: in almost every African country where Russia established business through Bagdasarov, coups subsequently took place, wars were unleashed, and “Wagnerites” detachments also appeared.
For example, in communication with the Director of Diplomatic Affairs of the Ismaili Imamat Shafik Zahedin at the end of August 2009, Bagdasarov, through the Aga Khan IV Foundation (the leader of the Ismaili movement in Shiism), wanted to agree on resolving controversial issues regarding the activities of "some famous Russians" in Mali.
In fact, the Aga Khan Development Network was founded to fight poverty in Asia and Africa, but the relationship of its representatives with Bagdasarov and the Russians for some reason (what a surprise) concerned the mining of phosphorite ores in the former French colony.
Judging by the correspondence, representatives of the spiritual leader of the Ismailis were unhappy that the Russians came to their market and tried to remove them from production.
However, this state of affairs did not suit the Russians at all, so Bagdasarov demanded from Shafik that his confidant in Mali, Viktor Astrein, meet with a representative of the Ismailis named Ahmad.
It is still unknown whether Russia was involved in these events, but in 2012, a few years after such dialogues and the deployment of the Kremlin business, a military coup took place in Mali. Moreover, from that moment on, the country finally plunged into the chaos of confrontations between various groups, which are still supported by the mercenaries of the Wagner group.
Bagdasarov was engaged in similar activities in Jordan, Zimbabwe, Qatar, Syria, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Libya, and Lebanon, as well as in many other countries where Russia stuck its tentacles to gain geopolitical influence, as well as to enrich the Moscow elites through the sale of minerals.
To extract rare elements, the Russians usually used front companies for this, which, at least at first glance, could not be associated with the Kremlin at all. For example, the Panamanian "Rockden Holding" as of 2010 led as many as five projects in three African countries. Moreover, other firms were recorded on this company - in Liechtenstein, Zimbabwe, and Hong Kong. Financial settlements were carried out through the Swiss bank UBS.
Subsequently, already in 2013, references to weapons appeared in the correspondence. So, Bagdasarov corresponded at that time with State Duma deputy Alexander Babakov and hinted to him that in African countries there are many Soviet-made weapons in need of modernization. Most likely, they talked about expanding cooperation with local juntas also in this market.
At the same time, Bagdasarov somehow oversaw "dirty deeds" in many other countries, and also acted as the organizer of Moscow's agreements with representatives of other Middle Eastern states whose interests overlapped with Russia's. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that after the deployment of a number of projects in Africa, the Kremlin subsequently needed a private army of mercenaries. For this, the Wagner group was created.
This is how a figure who positions himself as an expert in the fight against terrorism became a person who carries this terrorism beyond the borders of Russia to other states. And in order to finally secure this image for him, it is worth adding a certificate of meetings with representatives of the officially recognized terrorist group Kataib Hezbollah dated February 2023.
Friendship with the Germans, influence on Georgia, and the creation of Armenian proxies
In addition to organizing "work" on the Black Continent, Bagdasarov was simultaneously engaged in agents to spread the influence of the Kremlin in other areas. He repeatedly communicated and organized official meetings with representatives of Germany, in particular with employees of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
At the same time, for some reason, Putin’s henchman paid special attention to those involved in defense issues before the negotiations, for which he even studied the autobiography of the German attaché (where did he get such documents from?).
It is impossible to establish what the Russian terrorist talked about with the Germans, but contacts with representatives of the Foundation were stable and lasted for many years. In 2016, when the Russians had been bombing Syria for more than a year, and Berlin was suffering from an influx of refugees, the Bavarian delegation invited Bagdasarov to the next meeting. At the same time, Martin Pabst, an expert on the East and the author of articles on the Syrian conflict, was brought to the talks.
In his activities, Bagdasarov paid special attention to Asian countries that were in the orbit of Russian interests. As an expert on the Middle East, he wrote memos to deputies, FSB officers, and GRU officers with recommendations on Russia's actions in other states.
At the same time, the "Orientalists" entered into the documents a lot of historical manipulations and inventions, and almost everywhere insisted on the need for military invasions.
For example, under the pretext of combating the supply of drugs to Russia, in 2009 he advised to redeploy the occupation contingent in Tajikistan from Dushanbe to the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Okrug. At the same time, the "expert" directly pointed out that this would interfere with the activities of the Americans at the base in Batken in Kyrgyzstan (as a result, Washington had to withdraw from this region).
In another letter sent to Oleg Safonov, Deputy Director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Bagdasarov generally insisted on the de facto occupation of the entire Fergana Valley, suggested putting pressure on Tajikistan by "nightmare" migrants, and also indicated that Russia should pursue a more aggressive policy in Central Asia.
Bagdasarov also took part in the creation of pro-Russian authorities in Georgia. In 2010, when Mikheil Saakashvili's party ruled in Sakartvelo, Agassi Arabyan, head of the Javakh diaspora in Russia, expressed to the deputy his thoughts on how to overthrow the government in this country. And this, unfortunately, led to a certain effect.
In addition, in 2010, the figure took care of the creation of the international organization "Union of Armenian Reservists and veterans" - a kind of Russian proxy that should oppose Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as "correctly" educate young people.
It is clear that, according to the author's intention, this organization should have included not only the citizens of Armenia. And in the event of an aggravation of the conflict between Yerevan and Baku, these characters were supposed to participate in hostilities.
Whether the members of this "Union" fought against Azerbaijan in 2020 is unknown.
However, before the start of the Second Karabakh War, representatives of the "Democratic National Party" associated with Bagdasarov sent him a letter with a request for the production of 500 UAVs for the needs of the Armenian army. At the same time, some of these drones were supposed to go to groups of Kurds with whom Turkey is fighting in Syria.
What did the FSB officers rely on when preparing for the occupation of Crimea, and why do Russians need Kherson?
It cannot be ruled out that Bagdasarov has or had agents in Ukraine.
At least in March 2014, before the Russian invasion of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas, he sent memos assessing Ukraine's mobilization capabilities to FSB officers, State Duma deputies, and GRU officers.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the "expert" wrote such an analytics based on his distorted view of the world. However, in all likelihood, he relied on data received from certain sources in our state.
Bagdasarov pointed out that on the territory of the peninsula, it was necessary to mobilize all military units that would betray Ukraine, and also offered to launch a preventive strike on the Kherson region by the forces of "Crimean self-defense."
Already in July 2014, the activist did not quote "Crimea's self-defense", but used phrases like "the army of the southeast." In addition, he advised creating problems for the United States in the Middle East so that Washington could not concentrate on helping Ukraine.
Information about the contacts of Bagdasarov and other Russian agents in Ukraine, the editors of Channel 24 handed over to the relevant services.
It is quite possible that at that time Bagdasarov was communicating with someone from the pro-Russian opposition, and after the failure of Moscow’s military campaign in 2014, he harbored a grudge against the sources of distorted information.
At least, before the start of a full-scale invasion, among his working notes was a text in which he spoke very sharply about all "Medvedchuk's prostitutes." Moreover, he even criticized the FSB officers and Putin himself for an inadequate assessment of the capabilities of Ukraine and called the intention to start a full-scale war a military adventure.
Bagdasarov - a participant in the Syrian massacre
After several consultations about the war against Ukraine, Bagdasarov returned to his more usual business - work on the Middle East. So, in 2015, he sent a letter to Sergei Mironov’s assistant and the head of the Just Russia party, Ruslan Tatarinov, analyzing the consequences for the gas station country of a possible lifting of sanctions from Iran. At the same time, Bagdasarov pointed out that Moscow should develop a clear plan to disrupt the agreements between Washington and Tehran since in this case, Russia would lose the lion's share of the oil and gas sales market.
At the beginning of Russia's invasion of Syria, Bagdasarov also advised intelligence officers, deputies, and other Kremlin officials on various geopolitical issues. This is evidenced, for example, by a letter with questions from a member of the Russian Security Council, Oleg Safonov, from which it follows that the Kremlin actively cooperated with the Kurdish rebels.
For such activities in the destruction of tens of thousands of civilians, as well as in creating a wave of the refugee crisis in Europe, he, along with other war criminals, even received the medal "Participant in the military operation in Syria."
The terrorist is directly involved in the Russian military-industrial complex
It is worth noting that already in 2014, Bagdasarov allegedly did not hold any official positions and allegedly was not directly connected with the Kremlin. After his deputyship, a non-profit organization "Center for the Study of the Countries of the Middle East and Central Asia" was created to cover the oversight of the agent network. In this company, the former parliamentarian arranged for his children the positions of leading specialists.
However, already at that time, as follows from the correspondence, he was an adviser to the general director of NPO High-Precision Complexes OJSC, a group of companies subordinate to the Rostec state corporation.
According to open data, "High-precision complexes" are engaged in the development, production, and modernization of military equipment. It is this structure of the Russian defense industry that is related to the creation of the Iskander-M operational-tactical complex, the Pantsir S-1 air defense system, Kornet anti-tank missile systems, and many others.
By the way, despite the fact that the joint-stock company was subjected to sanctions by the EU, the USA, Canada, and many other companies at the beginning of the Russian aggression, this did not prevent many countries from buying their products from the Kremlin terrorists. Bagdasarov, judging by his correspondence, was primarily concerned with cooperation with the UAE. On the side of the Emirates, General Wagid Hasan Ibrahim Al Zaaki spoke.
The mediator in the negotiations between Russia and Abu Dhabi was Luai Yousef (Bagdasarov's assistant during his deputyship). It was he who organized meetings with high-ranking officials of the Emirates and Saudi Arabia for his boss since at least 2009.
Subsequently, Yousef became the representative and coordinator of the activities of the World Union of Muslim Scholars in the Russian Federation and the CIS countries, and in letters for 2018 he generally indicated himself as the head of the representative office in Russia of the Qatari oil and gas company AIPC.
Bagdasarov is still working in the Russian defense industry, like his boss, General Alexander Denisov. However, both, unfortunately, do not appear on the US and EU sub-sanction lists.
UAE, Türkiye, and Iran: How Russia bypasses sanctions thanks to Bagdasarov
It is clear that after the start of a full-scale invasion and the imposition of completely painful sanctions on Russia, the Kremlin’s curator of geopolitics in the Middle East instantly received a new task from his leadership – to work to circumvent restrictions through third countries. And in this he, it is worth noting, has achieved some success. Of course, this did not help Russia start the actual production of Armata tanks, but it strengthened its ability to survive during the sanctions.
Already in March 2022, judging by the correspondence, Moscow began to move towards rapprochement with Tehran. Despite the fact that a few years ago Bagdasarov noted that Russia would never be able to compete in the Iranian market with China and Western countries, he apparently did not have any special options for finding allies.
So the head of the "Center for the Study of the Countries of the Middle East and Central Asia" began to receive letters from Russian companies with a list of Iranian companies, cooperation with which could bring them benefits. Bagdasarov's task was to establish interaction between countries and ensure communication between corporations.
In parallel with this, through Bagdasarov, Russia has already begun to buy a lot of things from the Iranians for its needs. Numerous requests from Russian companies to order spare parts and service gas turbines and other units rained down on the mail to the director of the Center, because the manufacturers of these products refused to cooperate with the terrorist country.
Thus, the supply of all kinds of parts for BORZIG compressors, General Electric and Siemens gas transmission units was taken up by Iranian companies. For example - Parsian Engineering Solution Group.
The Russians began to actively help their partners with the construction of gas liquefaction infrastructure. Not the last role in this was played by State Duma deputy Alexander Babakov.
In addition, the Russians began to enter the Iranian market and supply Tehran with the goods that it needed. Such cooperation greatly strengthened both countries, especially in matters of weapons.
However, not by Iran alone. Through Bagdasarov, the Russian giant Sibur was able to at least partially replace the supply of raw materials needed for the petrochemical industry, as well as get spare parts and equipment from leading world companies. Turkish PETROTURK took part in this, as evidenced by a letter found in the mail from the director of the Center.
However, companies from the UAE have gone much further, giving the Russians the opportunity to sell gems they mined in African countries, participating in the resale of Russian oil products, and also happily supplying spare parts for stolen Boeing and Airbus aircraft.
On September 20, 2022, almost 7 months after Russia officially stole leasing aircraft from the world's leading manufacturers, Omar Jalil, CEO of Jet Aviation FZC from the UAE, sent a letter to Bagdasarov with a proposal to familiarize himself with the list of spare parts available for purchase and immediate delivery.
See the document with a list of parts for Airbus aircraft that Russia bought through the UAE:
Inside the article:
https://www.slideshare.net/24tvua/a320-stocklistpdf
In the future, Bagdasarov forwarded requests to Jalil from representatives of Rossia Airlines for some of the necessary spare parts for the maintenance and repair of the stolen aircraft.
In addition, the United Arab Emirates helped the Russians to at least partially replace the European market in the sale of oil and its products. So, on November 16, 2022, Bagdasarov received a confidential letter with a proposal from TSIRAN INTERNATIONAL FZC on the possibility of reselling Russian oil products.
Karim Akallal, CEO of North Green Oil and WEST NORD OIL COMPANY LLC, addressed the head of the Center for the Study of the Countries of the Middle East and Central Asia with a similar proposal to pump Russia with petrodollars. In the letter, the manager noted that he has oil storage facilities in the ports of Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and is also ready to buy more than 1.1 million tons of oil products from Russians every month.
It is clear that this could not compensate the Russians for the losses from the loss of the European market, but for them, in this case, every ton of energy sold is extremely important.
Not without the UAE and the market for the sale of minerals. So, on February 25, 2023, a man named Yuri offered Bagdasarov to organize the trading of diamonds through an unnamed company from the UAE from African countries.
On the same day, this unidentified person sent two more letters regarding the mining of tin, tantalum, and tungsten in the Congo, as well as gold in Uganda.
A few days later, Bagdasarov's post office received settlements for trading tin and tantalum through the United Arab Emirates.
Raiffeisehbank, Ardishinbank and hangouts in Dubai
The most regrettable is the fact that as long as Bagdasarov continues to establish undercover connections and use existing ones, interfere in the affairs of other countries, and carry terrorism around the world, there are no serious problems in life for him.
He is still not under US and EU sanctions (only included in the sanctions lists of Ukraine and Latvia), and the only inconvenience for him can only be called the absence of Schengen visas and the inability to send his seriously ill son to elite clinics in Germany.
However, he is easily compensated for the latter with doctors from expensive institutions in Dubai.
And in general, in order not to experience problems with settlements abroad (because Russian banks were cut off from SWIFT due to sanctions), Bagdasarov opened accounts for the whole family in the Armenian Ardishinbank.
Moreover, the service of the bank, which agreed to open accounts for a representative of a terrorist country, was so cool that even plastic cards were delivered to the entire Bagdasarov family by courier to Moscow.
In addition, it becomes clear from Bagdasarov's correspondence that he has accounts with the "daughter" of the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank. The very one that never left the Russian market, but received billions of bloody dollars, since it turned out to be almost the only financial institution capable of sending money abroad via SWIFT. What perfectly sponsored Russian terrorism,
And although there is no direct evidence that Bagdasarov used the services of Raiffeisen Bank after the start of a full-scale invasion, on September 2, 2022, he sent the details of his family's cards in Ardishinbank to 66077@raiffeisen.ru.
None of the Bagdasarov family is in poverty. His children, who live in Dubai, spend crazy money by Russian standards, own real estate in the Emirates, and have offshore companies in Seychelles and beyond.
The illegitimate daughter of the secretary Linda Alam Eddin goes to one of the Moscow schools, and the mistress herself is fully supported by the 68-year-old terrorist.
Stopping Bagdasarov's schemes is a critical task for the whole world
So, from the criminal’s correspondence, it is quite clear that he is a very influential person and one of the pillars of the Russians’ circumvention of sanctions. Of course, there are many such curators of intelligence networks in the Kremlin, but if their illegal activities are stopped, it will become increasingly difficult for Moscow to find alternative options for violating restrictions.
And for this, it is extremely important that Bagdasarov appears on the sanctions list of the US and the EU, and companies from Asia and Africa at least receive warnings from Washington for cooperation with terrorists.
Although Russia is not able to completely replace the exit of foreign companies from its market, receive the necessary sanctioned goods in full, and also earn huge sums to finance the war in the future, sanctions circumvention mechanisms directly affect the prolongation of the war in Ukraine.
Each deal extends Moscow's ability to fire missiles at Kyiv, bombard the Sumy region, or strike at the Kherson region. Each agreement on the supply of spare parts for hijacked aircraft allows the Russians to at least pretend that nothing has changed in their lives, to travel and continue to enjoy life, and not to put pressure on their government to stop the aggression. Moreover, this directly affects the cost of American and European taxpayers, as the Kremlin increases its power due to the circumvention of sanctions, and the allies have to spend more money to support Ukraine.
So the recipe for the victory of the entire civilized world in this war is very simple: real restrictions, along with increased military support for Kyiv.