Safe houses: FSB counterintelligence chief behind arrest of Evan Gershkovich is a secret billionaire rentier

RU

Hunting foreigners

Evan Gershkovich was the first American journalist to be arrested in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War. He was sentenced to 16 years in a strict regime colony after officially being found guilty of gathering information about the Uralvagonzavod factory on orders from the CIA. From the Russian side, however, the initial objective of Gershkovich's arrest was not to thwart a plot cooked up in Langley, but to exchange the accredited correspondent for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian FSB assassin detained in Germany.

The operation against Gershkovich was carried out by the FSB's Counterintelligence Operations Department (DKRO), part of the Counterintelligence Service, known as the First Service. For the past nine years, this department has been led by General Vladislav Menshchikov, who, according to The Wall Street Journal, personally reported the journalist's case to Vladimir Putin.

Previously, Menshchikov led the Almaz-Antey defense concern, and then the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President, which oversees a network of secret bunkers. He has been in charge of the First Service since 2015.

The FSB's First Service is responsible for countering foreign intelligence services and monitoring Western diplomats and journalists. They also use the tactic of infiltrating agents into foreign media to alert Putin about upcoming critical reports.

The FSB has a separate Military Counterintelligence Department, which fights corruption in the army and handles cases like the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and private military contractors whose lifestyles appear far more opulent than their official salaries would seem to allow. However, Vladislav Menshchikov may also soon face significant scrutiny over allegations of his own illegal enrichment.

Billionaire daughter

Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU sanctions prohibited the sale of luxury cars to Russia, leading Mercedes-Benz to cease its operations in the country. Despite this, in December 2022, General Vladislav Menshchikov's daughter, Tatiana Menshchikova, purchased a brand-new German-made Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 4MATIC.

The price of such a vehicle exceeds the official annual income of even the head of the entire FSB. However, Menshchikov's daughter is able to afford such extravagant purchases. According to The Insider, companies linked to her own commercial real estate are valued at around 3 billion rubles ($34,948,047).

The First Service chief's daughter uses several companies she co-owns to manage real estate in Moscow. These are Galax LLC, Agora LLC, and Bioimpulse LLC. The Insider has established all the property registered to these legal entities.

Office space near Belorusskaya metro station (11 4th Lesnoy Lane) with an area of 692.7 sq. m, valued at 133 million rubles ($1,549,084).

Premises near Baumanskaya metro station (1/2 Ladozhskaya Street) with an area of 345.5 sq. m, valued at 110 million rubles ($1,281,234). This property is leased by KM Restaurants (the restaurant “Syto P’yano”).

Mansion near Dostoevskaya metro station (15 Chernyshevsky Lane) with an area of 1,220.4 sq. m, valued at 780 million rubles ($9,085,112).

Premises near Universitet metro station (75/9 Leninsky Prospekt) with an area of 188 sq. m, valued at 60 million rubles ($698,855). It is leased by Sberbank.

Premises near Marksistskaya metro station (23 Vorontsovskaya Street) with an area of 836.5 sq. m, valued at 123 million rubles ($1,432,652). This office is leased by the Russian Football Premier League, serving as its headquarters.

Business center near Olimpiyskiy sports complex (40 Shchepkina Street) with a total area of 2,807 sq. m, valued at approximately 683 million rubles ($7,955,741). Gazprombank Auto Leasing leases this building from the FSB general's daughter.

Shopping center in Cheremushki (65A Nakhimovsky Prospekt) with an area of 2,390.5 sq. m, valued at 900 million rubles ($10,483,404).

A warehouse in Yuzhnoye Medvedkovo (1A Chermyanskaya Street) with an area of 3,888.2 sq. m, valued at 160 million rubles ($1,863,611), along with a land plot in the same location.

The total revenue of the firms affiliated with Menshchikova exceeded 800 million rubles ($9,318,056) last year. Among other entities, she owns a business selling women's sanitary pads and diapers for children and adults.

Almaz-Antey contracts

To trace the source of funds that enabled the daughter of the First Service chief to acquire substantial commercial real estate, one need only look at her business partner: Yan Novikov, the current head of the state-run Aerospace Defense Concern Almaz-Antey. Novikov shares equal ownership in various firms with Menshchikova.

Vladislav Menshchikov, the FSB First Service chief and the father of real estate mogul Tatiana, led “Almaz-Antey” from 2003 to 2014, with Novikov serving as his deputy. Both men, who are the same age and come from St. Petersburg, share a longstanding and close relationship. This connection is further underscored by the fact that, according to The Insider, Novikov's wife and Menshchikov's son-in-law co-owned a land plot in the Moscow region until 2011.

The Insider discovered that Menshchikov's close family members received government contracts from Almaz-Antey. Tatiana Sukhorukova, a relative of the FSB general's wife, managed business travel services for state concern employees through Albion LLC. Valentina Menshchikova, believed to be the mother of the First Service chief, owned a stake in New Technologies and Materials, an enterprise supplying fastening products to Almaz-Antey until at least 2018. This company's net profit reached hundreds of millions of rubles annually. Valentina Menshchikova originally owned Galax LLC, which was later transferred to the general's daughter. It appears that funds from state defense concern contracts were funneled into the Menshchikov family's commercial real estate investments.

According to The Insider, the general's daughter lives in the prestigious Novogorsk gated community in Khimki. There she owns a whole estate of several land plots and cottages, worth up to half a billion rubles ($6 million).

These assets were acquired by the FSB general's family through state concern Almaz-Antey. Documents reviewed by The Insider reveal that in 2010, the land was transferred to Almaz-Solnechny LLC, which was part of Almaz-Antey at the time. Just a week and a half later, Menshchikov's son-in-law was registered as the new owner. By 2019, the land had been transferred to the First Service chief's daughter under a marriage contract.