European money for Medvedev's winery, Putin's man who threatens EU countries and cities with atomic destruction. “Luxurious vineyards in Italy and receive European subsidies” / Money Route

Business and politicians from Putin's entourage own vineyards and over 2000 hectares of agricultural land in Italy. Moreover, some of them have received subsidies from the European Union during the war, shows several journalistic investigations published by the independent site The Insiderunder the title “Chianti from Medvedev, Montepulciano de Yakunin and Merlot from Mikhalkov.”

• Dmitri Medvedev is, according to France 24, “Putin's challenging chief.” Recently, Medvedev invoked the post apocalyptic film “The Walking Dead,” referring to Russia's ability to hit its nuclear bombs.
• The one whose company benefits from funds funded by European citizens said that Russia is ready for a global war with Western countries, “with the use of our entire strategic (nuclear) arsenal, Berlin, London and Washington.”

The Insider publication writes that, in total, in the last 10 years, the vineyards of some Russian oligarchs, some on the list of international sanctions, have received over one million euros subsidies from the European Union, through the Common Agricultural Policy Fund and the National Plan of Italian recovery and resilience.

EU subsidies for Dmitri Medvedev's Italian Winery

The vineyards of the Russian elite in Italy have long been to the center of resounding scandals in the press and, it would have been thought that, after the beginning of the large-scale invasion in Ukraine, the people in Putin's entourage should have no access to them.

Take European money and during the war

However, as he found, The Insider, the “Putin's friends” wine business blooms. For example, the Italian wine cellar associated with the former Russian president and the current vice -president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev continues to receive subsidies from the EU even during the war. The total value of the support granted by the European Union amounts to 115,032 euros.

Former Russia president, Medvedev has repeatedly threatened EU and NATO countries, cities, leaders and inhabitants, with nuclear blows. He said that Poland, Baltic, UK or US countries risk helping Ukraine. “In this case, none of them will be able to hide neither in the Hill chapter, nor at the Élysée Palace, nor at Downing Street, no. 10. It will be a global catastrophe,” added Medvedev, invoking the nuclear power of Russia.

Most of this amount was granted after the beginning of the Ukraine war, namely 94,200 euros, writes The Insider. The money was paid to the Tuscan winery “Fattoria della Aiola” between 2022-2024. It was purchased in 2012 by the “gift” fund of Ilia Eliseev, a former faculty colleague and business partner of Dmitri Medvedev, who currently holds the position of vice -president of the Gazprombank Board.

The investigations started by Alexei Navalnîi

Since 2017, an investigation conducted by the “Fund for Fighting Corruption” founded by the Russian opponent Alexei Navalnîi has shown that Eliseev appears as a nominal owner of several assets, but the real beneficiary is Dmitri Medvedev.

In 2022, the former faculty colleague of the president was included on the sanction lists of Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and United States. However, in the European Union, he not only was not included in the sanction lists, but continues to receive subsidies from the EU.

The publication “Tochka” has learned that at present Ilia Elisev owns 9% of the Aiola winery, the rest of the participation belonging to Cypriot Dockell Limited, whose sole owner is the Russian citizen Aleksei Șvețov. In Russia, Șvețov manages the company “Finkonsoringk”, which belongs to the Foundation to support the Winter Olympic Sports, an organization associated with Dmitri Medvedev. In 2020, Șvețov received a salary from the company AO “Seim-Agro”, which, at that time, was run by Andrei Medvedev, the cousin of the former president.

The Son of the former Minister of Transport of Russia

Another example, presented in The Insider, is the case of Gleb Frank, the son of the former Minister of Transport and former general manager of the maritime company “Sovkomflot”, Sergei Frank.

On the list of assets acquired by the Frank family, there are also Riecine Italian winery. Through the Swiss Guerine company, the property in Tuscany belonged to Svetlane (Lana) Frank, Gleb's mother.

In 2022, the new owner of an 80% participation in the company 'Agricola Riecine SRL became its winemaker, Alessandro Campatelli. The remaining 20% belongs to the company ex ceres PTE Ltd. from Singapore. The average annual salary of a winemaker in Florence is about 39,197 euros, an amount that would not allow the accumulation of tens of millions necessary to purchase such a property, writes the Russian language publication The Insider.

The properties of former KGB agent and close to Putin in Tuscany

The son of Vladimir Yakunin, the former director of Russia's railways in 2005-2015, Andrei, manages most of his assets from abroad. In the years 1985-1991, Vladimir Yakunin was an agent of the first KGB directorate in New York, working under the Consul's position of the USSR. It was close to Putin through the “Ozero” villas and, together with Iurii Kovalciuk, was among the founders and members of the Board of Directors of the “Rossiya” Bank.

Both the cooperative and the main bank of Putin's elite tied Yakunin not only Kovalciuk and Putin, but also to organized crime. Currently, the main financial “wallet” of the Yakunin family is an anonymous joint stock company – Northern Lights Investment SA. The director of this company is Irina Svinari, a resident of Luxembourg, which previously managed other companies of Andrei Yakunin. At the end of 2024, the value of the assets of Northern Lights Investment amounts to 112.1 million euros.

The most ambitious project of the Viy Greater Europe Hospitality fund was the Antognolla luxury complex, not far from Tuscany.

In 2015, Yakunin's fund bought, for 10.7 million euros, a 12.5% stake in the company that deals with the reconstruction of the Castello Di Antognolla Castle Castle.

Currently, the majority owner is the company mentioned above, Northern Lights Investments, and Andrei Yakunin holds the position of chairman of the Board of Directors. According to the official website of Antognolla, the initial investments amounted to 173 million euros, and on a 560-hectare field around the renovated castle, a luxury tourist complex with 70 rooms, 79 villas and a golf course has been developed.

How was it possible to avoid sanctions?

In order to develop his business in Europe and to avoid sanctions, the main ally of the Russian oligarchs proved to be the Luxembourg businessman Patrick Hansen, who obtained in court the blocking of the registers that indicates the real beneficiaries of the European companies.

According to The Insider, in the 2000s, he developed common businesses with a former KGB officer. In 2015 and 2018, the European Union adopted the fourth and fifth directive against money laundering, which forced the Member States to create a register of real beneficiaries. In many Member States the information about the owners either did not exist or were very limited.

But in 2022, the creation of these registers was blocked by a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, who considered that the broad public access to these registers violates the right to private life.

The applicants in this process were Sovim SA and a person with the initials WM, identified by the publication Luxembourg Times Like Patrick Hansen, the director of the Luxavia airline. According to the International Consortium of Investigation Journalists (ICIJ), Hansen's business partner in the field of private aircraft rental was the former KGB officer Nikolai Bogaw.

The publication “Aghentsvo” mentioned that the former KGB colonel controlled, until November 2006, the development of the South-Tambeisk deposit through the company “Tambeineftegaz”, and after its sale, registered in Luxembourg the company Energy Prize for the development of some deposits in Africa. And the company of his business partner in the British Virgin Islands owned more than $ 3 million not only in Luxembourg and Cyprus, but also in Russia.

Theoretically, the EU regulations oblige the member countries to follow the real beneficiaries that take advantage of the financing. In practice, however, the requests to the Financial Information Unit, the anti-money authority of the Bank of Italy, and to the National Anticorruption Agency have shown that the databases used by these institutions do not even contain information about the final beneficiaries of the Italian companies, let alone about foreign ones.