How the head of RUSNANO went to "war" with Minister Siluanov

"All situational allies — Vaino and Mishustin — turned away from Kulikov"

Source: www.rucriminal.info

On March 24, investigators from the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized documents from the Russian Ministry of Finance, which unpleasantly surprised the head of the ministry, Siluanov. The seizure was related to a criminal case initiated against former top managers of RUSNANO, which was first reported by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. The investigators were in a hurry, because on March 27, the court was scheduled to consider the investigator’s petition to extend the arrest of Chubais’s ex-deputies.

As Rucriminal.info found out, on April 1, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Finance was not just surprised, but shocked by the fact that RUSNANO allowed a technical default on bonds issued by RUSNANO and secured by state guarantees. Considering that Rusnano had the funds to pay, the default was a demonstrative jab at the Ministry of Finance by Rusnano CEO Kulikov. And it caused a storm of indignation among Minister Siluanov. This is not just a default on Rusnano loans, the situation is such that a default on Rusnano loans puts the entire borrowing market under Russian government guarantees, the total amount of which exceeds 1 trillion rubles, at risk. In the Russian economy, the provision of government guarantees is a form of government support used to support systemically important borrowers. The prerogative of making a decision on supporting certain issuers belongs exclusively to the President of the Russian Federation. It is noteworthy that the conflict between Rusnano and the Ministry of Finance arose back in 2021, when the Chairman of the Management Board of Rusnano, having secured the support of the head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Anton Vaino, demanded that Rusnano’s old debts in the amount of 202 billion rubles be closed, including those loans that were not secured by government guarantees. Having received a refusal and an order to go to work, Kulikov essentially issued an ultimatum to the Russian Ministry of Finance, issuing a series of reports about the possible bankruptcy of Rusnano and threatening to default on the company’s loans. The threat worked and the state provided Rusnano with support in the amount of up to 45 billion rubles, but the relationship between Rusnano and the Ministry of Finance was finally spoiled.

According to the VChK-OGPU, the response to Rusnano arrived very quickly: documents about a 12-day vacation on a 54-meter yacht of Kulikov and Vaino suddenly surfaced on the Internet. According to the published documents, the vacation took place in 2012 and cost about 300 thousand dollars.

The criminal case initiated in 2025, in which Boris Podolsky, Artur Galstyan and Marina Kasenkova were the defendants, was initiated with the aim of also attacking the Russian Ministry of Finance, which had approved the financial reporting restructuring scheme.

Despite the fact that Siluanov has plenty of opponents, nevertheless, the direct attack on the country’s financial system forced all of his situational allies, primarily Vaino and Mishustin, to distance themselves from Kulikov’s actions. And apparently, having thought about what happened, Rusnano will independently close the issue with payments and refer to some technical difficulties.

A source of the VChK-OGPU explained why there were problems with initiating a case against the former management of RUSNANO, the damage to which exceeds 45 billion rubles. And the problem was not in Anatoly Chubais, but in another person.

According to the source, the main intrigue and struggle around the case was due to the status of Arkady Dvorkovich, who during the period of the events under investigation was the Deputy Prime Minister and headed the Board of Directors of Rusnano. It was Dvorkovich who helped Chubais push through changes to the Rules for the Provision of State Guarantees, approved by a government decree of 2010. Thanks to these changes, Rusnano began to falsify reporting, introducing the company’s debts to banks and bondholders, secured by state guarantees, not debts at all, but part of the company’s capital.

The reporting drawn up in this way made it possible to receive new loans (which the Russian Federation will pay off), as well as issue 6 bond issues, for a total of more than 40 billion rubles.

The source said that after the battles "at the top", the investigation made a decision: the case materials say that Dvorkovich was misled by the management of RUSNANO, which provided him with incorrect information.

As for Chubais, according to the source, only one person can make a decision on him and without his go-ahead, the former head of RUSNANO will forever be only a "defendant" in cases without status.

Initially, the case was opened on January 28 by the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation based on the materials of the FSB Directorate for Internal Affairs. On the same day, operatives and investigators came to dozens of addresses with searches, interrogations were conducted. However, in the midst of the events, the command "stand down" was given. It turned out that the decision to initiate the case was canceled. Moreover, according to the source, the go-ahead came from "a very high place".

As a result, law enforcement officers left apartments and houses without completing the search, all those being interrogated were released. There were still big questions about how to formalize everything.

But the next day, January 29, the go-ahead came from "even higher up", the case was reopened and they started searching and interrogating again.

Sources to the VChK-OGPU on the essence of the charges in the new Rusnano case with damages of 45 billion rubles:

"At first, the financial policy of Rusnano was quite balanced: the company’s activities were based on long-term business plans and multi-year forecasts of cash flows, receipts from project exits were taken into account and discounted.

Such a policy forced investments to be extremely cautious and set strict requirements for the investment block, which Chubais did not like.

Chubais very systematically defeated the "financial opposition", having first transferred the financial block from under the management of Yakov Urinson to another of his deputy, and made Urinson himself an adviser. Within a year, both the chief accountant Makshakov and his deputy Kovshenkov were fired from the company. And Boris Podolsky, who came from STS, became the new curator of the financial block. How he came to RUSNANO deserves special attention.

Chubais’s wife Avdotya Smirnova met Boris on the channel STS, where he was the CEO. Boris took her to the jury of the project "STS lights a superstar".

Chubais was looking for partners for the privatization of OOO UK Rusnano and then his wife suggested Borya to him. And Chubais agreed.

It was Podolsky who built a completely new financial block on a completely new personnel basis. A new financial director, Artur Galstyan, came and Artur brought with him Marina Kasenkova, who was essentially responsible for the company’s accounting and reporting.

Now Chubais’s ideas were given the green light and the machinations with the debt began. The machinations allowed to hide the real financial results of the company and attract new funds by issuing bond loans and credits.

The scale of the financial catastrophe became obvious already at the beginning of 2014, when RUSNANO was on the verge of a long-term default. Default was extremely undesirable, because the privatization of the company managing RUSNANO (OOO UK RUSNANO) was at stake, and besides, the “demonstration of unprecedented nano-successes” was supposed to open the way to new state money.

It was at this moment that Chubais, together with the Minister of Economic Development Ulyukaev A.V., Deputy Prime Minister Dvorkovich A.V. (and simultaneously the Chairman of the Board of Directors of RUSNANO) changed the Rules for the Provision of State Guarantees, approved by the RF Government Resolution of 10.09.2010 N 709.

The new rules radically change the borrowing architecture: now newly attracted loans and bond loans can be used to repay previously received loans and bond loans! This is how the construction of the nano-pyramid begins.

According to a letter addressed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov, “based on the results of a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness” of the previous management of RUSNANO, “In 2016, the amount of liabilities of JSC RUSNANO exceeded the value of the company’s assets on the balance sheet, as a result of which the property insufficiency of JSC RUSNANO became obvious, and signs of bankruptcy appeared. “Starting in 2017, JSC RUSNANO, in agreement with the shareholder, changed its accounting policy and, as a result, financial statements: the amount of the company’s liabilities was formally reduced by assigning part of them to the balance sheet section “Additional capital”.

The author of this idea was the company’s financial director Artur Galstyan.

The essence of the idea was to consider the company’s long-term debts to banks and bondholders, secured by state guarantees, not debts at all, but part of the company’s capital! Thus, the value of the net assets of JSC increased sharply.

The level of "frostbite" of RUSNANO managers is striking, who not only seized on this idea, but also actively discussed it at weekly operational meetings in the presence of more than 50 people! The implementation of the idea was entrusted to corporate director Andrey Trapeznikov, who literally pushed through the necessary changes.

The fabricated reporting allowed not only to "use state guarantees" and attract new loans, which the Russian Federation will now pay off. Financial engineering allowed an additional 6 unsecured bond issues worth more than 40 billion rubles."

Timofey Grishin

To be continued

Source: www.rucriminal.info