The Insider published an FBK investigation into the deal involving Ozon’s stake, which after Baring Vostok’s exit from Russia ended up with O23, a company created shortly before the deal. The stake’s formal ultimate owner was named as investor Alexander Chachava, and the deal price was estimated at about 38 billion rubles.
FBK writes that according to O23’s filings, an unnamed joint-stock company had been listed as its owner since August 2024, and Alexey Egorov was the director. By matching identical loans between companies managed by Egorov, the investigators concluded that O23 belongs to JSC “Corporation 42”, and that, in turn, belongs to the investment group “Stratosphere”.
According to the foundation, “Stratosphere” received loans and borrowings totaling 51 billion 230 million 297 thousand rubles in 2024. The investigators compared this amount with the accounting reports of Russian companies and said that a nearly mirror transaction was found at JSC “Optima”: according to them, this company was the one that gave the money to “Stratosphere”.
FBK further links “Optima” to the company “Delta” and claims that it was from it that “Optima” received almost the same amount in the form of an interest-free loan. The investigation says that “Delta” belongs to Gennady Timchenko, whom the foundation calls one of Vladimir Putin’s holders of funds.
The foundation also cites data on ties between “Optima” employees and the president’s inner circle: current director Darya Brylyakova worked in structures associated with Mikhail Shelomov and Yury Kovalchuk, former director Anastasia Yuldasheva worked at Shelomov’s company “Accept”, and chief accountant Zhanna Tsapleva worked at Svetlana Krivonogikh’s company. Based on this chain, FBK concludes that the Ozon stake was purchased with Timchenko’s money.
The investigation was published after a series of attacks on Ozon’s infrastructure. Ukrainian drones first attacked the marketplace’s logistics complex on August 22 in Chapayevsk, Samara region; the next day the strike hit a facility in Orenburg, and on the night of August 24 drones attacked Ozon warehouses in Dagestan, Adygea, Krasnodar Krai, and Stavropol Krai.
Fires broke out at facilities near Krasnodar and Makhachkala, and operations were halted. On August 24, Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing property of companies to be transferred to temporary state administration if the authorities deem that they are not sufficiently protecting critical facilities, including from drones.
Three days later, the government created a subcommittee headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, which will assess the security of important facilities, oversee their restoration, and prepare measures to ensure the uninterrupted operation of individual sectors. The government will be able to decide on the transfer of property to temporary administration at Putin’s instruction.
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