Two businessmen associated with Tatarstan were introduced to the board of directors of Danone, taken over from the French

The board of directors of Danone Russia JSC, which came under the control of the Federal Asset Management Agency the day before, included, among others: nephew (sister’s son) of the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov Jakub Zakriev, director of the department of the oil and processing industry of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia Vladimir Skvortsov and Yakov Khachanyan and Mingazov mintimer.

Yakov Khachanyan is the son-in-law of Ravil Ziganshin, General Director of PSO Kazan. PSO Kazan is a large construction company that has built many buildings in the capital of Tatarstan, including the Kazan Water Sports Palace, the Samara football stadium, etc. In 2022, the Investigative Committee interrogated its main owner Ziganshin on charges of tax fraud – illegally obtaining VAT refunds from the budget of 172 million rubles.

Khachanyan himself, according to several media reports, was put on the federal wanted list for robbery: sAccording to one version, Khachanyan is suspected of taking a watch from one of his debtors. IN In 2021, he flew to Kazan from Dubai, passed passport control, after which the police tried to detain him. He jumped into the car, which was allegedly dragging the policeman on the asphalt, and fled. As a result, Khachanyan was then detained.

Mintimer Mingazov is the owner of a large enterprise for the production of cheese and other dairy products “Vamin” in Tatarstan. The company’s revenue in 2020 amounted to about 9 billion rubles. Mintimer Mingazov’s father, Vagiz Mingazov In 2011-2014, he was a member of the Federation Council, as well as the owner of the Vamin dairy holding. In 2012, five banks accused VAMIN of fraud in obtaining loans and illegal withdrawal of assets, on the basis of which criminal proceedings were initiated. In 2013, the VAMIN holding company declared bankruptcy and ceased to be an asset of Mingazov. In 2016, the Arbitration Court of Tatarstan upheld VTB’s claim to declare bankruptcy of Vagiz Mingazov himself. His debt to the bank amounted to 409 million rubles. Until 2019, Mingazov Sr. remained a member of the State Council of Tatarstan.

According to Mintimer Mingazov, his company Vamin has nothing to do with his father’s holding company except for the name – in 2014, after his father’s bankruptcy, he created his own production, and then bought up part of the assets that previously belonged to Vagiz Mingazov.

Danone ceased operations in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine and planned to sell the company. As a result, the company intended to write down assets of up to EUR 1 billion.

According to Financial Times sources, Danone’s attempts to sell the Russian unit were actively thwarted by Dmitry Patrushev, Minister of Agriculture and son of Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close associate of Vladimir Putin.

Taimuraz Bolloev, who had already headed Baltica from 1991 to 2004, became the president of the brewing company Baltika, which was practically nationalized simultaneously with the Russian branch of Danone. Bolloev trained judo with Putin and admitted in an interview that the president was, in fact, the “godfather” of the brewery.