Authors of the Malign Influence Operations newsletter drew attention to the connection between Sokolov and Tonkacheev. According to their data, both graduated from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago in 2005 and met through the alumni community.
In 2006, Tonkacheev became CEO of the international investment company Eastfield and proposed that the shareholders appoint Sokolov as first vice chairman and global chief financial officer. Another Russian businessman, Valery Pokatilov, was a member of Eastfield’s supervisory board in 2005–2007; the Czech publication Vox Pot called him a former KGB officer.
In 2008, Sokolov and Tonkacheev left Eastfield and founded IFG Basis. Tonkacheev states on LinkedIn that he worked at the company until August 2013, and the Russian LLC “IFK-Basis” was liquidated in 2013; at the same time, in 2015, at an event of the Carnegie Moscow Center, he was still introduced as the company’s managing director.
According to leaks, Sokolov continued to work at IFG Basis at least until 2022. In December 2023, IFG Basis Capital was registered in Cyprus; its sole shareholder became Bronislava Gorelik, whom the Armenian Hetq called Sokolov’s mother.
Another structure connected to Tonkacheev later intersected with Sokolov’s business: in 2013–2019, he was an adviser to the CEO of GIF Capital. In 2022, GIF Capital served as corporate secretary for Cypriot companies later used in the deal to buy Viva Armenia from MTS, and in September Dynamic Frontier Holdings, owned by Sokolov, completed the purchase of 100% of the shares of the company managing the Teghut copper-molybdenum mine — the second largest in Armenia.
Before the deal, the main creditor and one of Teghut’s owners was Russia’s VTB, which, as Agentstvo writes, for many years financed structures linked to Deripaska. Since 1997, Tonkacheev held senior positions in the financial divisions of Siberian Aluminum, and by 2001 he became CEO of Basic Element; in 2019–2021, he headed GOST Hotel Management, which Forbes linked to Pavel Ezubov, Deripaska’s cousin.
The context for this story was the joint declaration signed in Washington in August 2025 by the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the development of a transit route project through Armenia — Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP).
