As Russia continues its genocidal war against Ukraine and escalates its attacks against NATO countries, a Russian businessman whose family has repeatedly been identified as a financial “wallet” for Dmitry Medvedev is trying to build a massive development in the heart of Silicon Valley.
For anyone who needs a reminder, Medvedev served as Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012, temporarily swapping jobs with Putin after presidential term limits prevented Putin from serving a third consecutive term. Putin returned to the presidency four years later, and today Medvedev serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. He has since become one of the Kremlin’s loudest attack dogs, constantly threatening the U.S., UK and Europe with nuclear war and destruction.
Which brings us back to California. Residents of Menlo Park are fighting plans for the new development on the former Sunset Magazine campus, including buildings reaching as high as 458 feet.
The property was purchased for $72 million in 2018 by Russian businessman Vitaly Yusufov, whose father, Igor Yusufov, is a longtime Kremlin insider. He served as Putin’s energy minister, sat on Gazprom’s board, headed Russia’s strategic state reserves agency and previously worked in the state arms export system. Russian reporting has also long alleged that Yusufov has ties to the FSB, the main successors to the KGB.
His son Vitaly has his own history inside Russia’s strategic energy sector. Before going into business, he worked at Gazprom Export and headed Nord Stream’s Moscow office.
For years, Russian investigative journalists have documented the Yusufov family’s financial relationship with Medvedev and his family. The Yusufovs have been described as financial proxies, or “wallets,” with their names appearing around businesses, investments and luxury assets reportedly held or managed in Medvedev’s interests.
Former Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin said Vitaly Yusufov purchased his stake in the bank on Medvedev’s instructions and described the Yusufovs as holding assets in Medvedev’s interests. A Russian investigative outlet documented a much deeper relationship between the two families, including business involving Medvedev’s son Ilya.
In 2018, one of Vitaly Yusufov’s companies invested more than $4 million in a technology venture connected to Ilya Medvedev. The businessman involved told Proekt that although the money formally came from Yusufov’s company, he was told that Ilya was actually his investor. Vitaly was also involved in negotiations alongside Medvedev’s son.
And 2018 happens to be the same year Vitaly Yusufov went shopping in Silicon Valley.
Yusufov traveled to California and was shown the former Sunset Magazine property, purchasing it a few months later for $72 million. Years later, a source familiar with the Yusufov family’s business told Proekt that the California investment had also been made in the interests of the Medvedev family.
That does not establish that Medvedev owns the property, which is legally connected to Yusufov. But the allegation becomes considerably more significant when placed alongside all the other assets and investments connecting the two families.
Another one of those assets is the 74-meter superyacht Universe. Proekt reported that although the yacht was formally connected to the Yusufovs, it was extensively used by Medvedev and his family, with Medvedev reportedly having his own office and secure communications aboard.
The ties between the families have continued as well. The Insider reported that Medvedev’s son, Ilya, and one of Yusufov’s sons traveled together in Europe and that Medvedev’s son flew aboard the family’s business jet. In 2022, the outlet also reported that Ilya Medvedev was working for a company founded and headed by Maxim Yusufov.
Then last year, the Yusufovs surfaced in another Russian business dispute that raised an interesting question about where Vitaly was moving his assets.
Lawyers for Russian billionaire Vadim Moshkovich tried to freeze Vitaly’s bank accounts and alleged in court that he was moving assets out of Russia and into foreign jurisdictions, including the U.S.
Vitaly also previously controlled Osnova Telecom, a Russian telecommunications company that developed communications systems for Russia’s Ministry of Defense, before disposing of the asset.
Yet despite years of reporting on the Yusufovs’ ties to Medvedev, Igor Yusufov and his two sons still had not been sanctioned by the U.S. or EU. Igor was even traveling internationally on a Russian diplomatic passport. And this is the bigger part of the story.
Sanctioning Medvedev does nothing if the network of businessmen, relatives, companies and alleged financial proxies surrounding his wealth can continue operating in the West. Russia’s elite has spent decades using trusted businessmen, family members, shell companies, offshore structures and other proxies to hold assets and move money without putting those assets directly in their own names.
More than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, we are still seeing the consequences. A family repeatedly identified by Russian investigative journalists as holding or managing assets in Medvedev’s interests can own a $72 million property in Silicon Valley and pursue a massive development there, while Medvedev sits on Russia’s Security Council threatening the U.S. with nuclear destruction.
This is the frustration Ukraine has faced for over a decade while pushing the U.S., EU, Canada and other allies to go after the networks surrounding the Kremlin and Russia’s elite. Sanctioning the targeted oligarch, official or company is not enough when the relatives, proxies, shell companies and businessmen holding their assets can continue operating and moving money in the West.
Thank you, Olga! 🩵
Quite a web to unweave. The common thread that warps the weave, is Trumps 2 hr on average, phone call every other week , to Putin. Weave been out smarted , s and it was easy.