img
img
img
British real estate on Gazprom’s money: how Vadim and Galina Gurinov shield Alexander Dyukov’s assets from sanctions through a network of secret offshore companies

It has become known that several companies in London are registered in the name of Vadim Gurinov, the asset holder for the head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, and members of his family, owning major real estate assets (including an elite residential complex in London’s Soho). Meanwhile, in Russia, the assets are managed by his wife, Galina Gurinova, and several longtime business partners.

After the war began, to avoid sanctions, the spouses divided control over the assets: the head of the family took on the elite real estate in the UK and offshore operations involving Russian chemicals and oil, while Galina Gurinova got the Russian business. Nearly 75% of the Service-Telecom group of companies is registered in her name, and the asset was evidently bought with borrowed funds, as the stake is pledged to the sanctioned Gazprombank. For 2025, JSC GK "Service-Telecom" reported revenue of 8.8 billion rubles—and declared a net loss of 3.7 billion. The firm owned by Gurinov’s wife is included in the list of systemically important enterprises in the Russian Federation—it builds cell towers for telecom operators in Russia, a key element of the national "Data Economy" project. The company’s own website states that Service-Telecom is the leader in Russia’s tower infrastructure market, managing more than 22,457 telecommunications facilities.

Given that the Gurinov family continues to live and run a large-scale business abroad, they sought to conceal their family’s involvement in Russia’s economy. In 2025, LLC GK "Service-Telecom" was restructured into a joint-stock company of the same name, removing current founders from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The other companies owned by Galina Gurinova were merged into it as well. However, judging by the fact that the newly formed entity is still led by Gurinov’s associate Nikolai Berdin (former director of Gurinov’s firms in London), the composition of founders has not fundamentally changed. The Berdin family, incidentally, owns about 5% of the GK. Service-Telecom also manages four active Moscow-based firms: JSC "NBK," LLC "ST-T," LLC "ST-ET," and LLC "ST-NATPROJECT." NBK, for example, manages non-residential properties, with the value of its net assets as of the end of December 2025 amounting to 8.5 billion rubles.

In addition, Galina Gurinova stepped down as a founder of the Voronezh company "Contour-S," but her husband’s brother, Artem Gurinov, is now there. With revenue of 240,000 rubles, this firm posted a net profit of more than 9 million. Contour-S shared a phone number with the St. Petersburg-based "Olt Service," which served as a link to the Belarusian "KhimTekhEngineering"—a company in the Avestra group, in which Vadim Gurinov holds a stake through the Cypriot Avestra Group Holding Ltd. Avestra actively trades in Russian chemicals and oil.

The only asset Vadim Gurinov currently owns directly in Russia is a 1% stake in LLC "Aurora" (the rest belongs to his wife). Through this company, they own LLC "Technologies for Processing Technical Hemp."

In the UK, Gurinov owns the London-based GO REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT LTD and GO REAL ESTATE HOLDING. Another 60% of GO REAL ESTATE belongs, via Hay Hill Investments Ltd, to 70-year-old Evgeny Okun—the firm planned to build a 21-story residential complex on the site of old industrial warehouses in London. The company even owned a plot of land at Islay Wharf, Lochnagar Street, London E14 0LA, held through the London-based SN ISLAY WHARF LIMITED, and obtained construction loans through a couple of affiliated firms. The project as a whole had been approved by the London mayor’s office.

At the same time, affiliated firms (SN HAMPTON LIMITED, SN Islay Wharf, STANDARD HOUSE DEV LTD, and others) have run millions of pounds through their accounts in recent years, issuing loans including within their own group. After 2023, the companies sank into debt and loans—several took funds from the son of writer and financier Oleg Radzinsky—and now external administrators are trying to sort it out. They face a tough job, because enormous sums were cycled through these British companies—not least possibly funds coming from Russia.

London-based New End Developments Limited is also controlled by Vadim Gurinov, with his daughter Valeria serving as one of the directors. New End Developments has a subsidiary, HALAMAR (GOLDEN SQUARE) LIMITED. As of the end of 2024, this company’s assets totaled 59 million pounds sterling, as the elite residential complex in the heart of London’s Soho (Golden Square No. 37) is registered to HALAMAR.

This year, in February, Gurinov decided to issue an additional 923 shares in New End Developments Limited. Such a step is usually taken when there’s an investor interested in acquiring a stake in the company. At the same time, Gurinov disclosed the ownership structure of the British firm—he signed the documents both personally and on behalf of ICESTONE INVEST LTD (BVI). Gurinov used this company in March 2022 as a "technical wallet," transferring 75,400 depositary receipts for Gazprom shares ($702,000) to it. True, they then had to be hastily returned due to a new law on mandatory deconversion of receipts, but only through the courts, exposing this offshore in the process.

Gurinov’s emergence with major assets is linked to his friendship with Gazprom Neft head Alexander Dyukov—the St. Petersburg businessman worked under Dyukov at Sibur from the early 2000s and even managed to place his university friend Dmitry Kostygin there (he later became a billionaire, owning 49% of Lenta alongside August Meyer, went bankrupt, and ended up in court). Kostygin headed the Yaroslavl Tire Plant (YShZ), part of the holding, and under his watchful eye, the plant racked up losses of 89 million rubles over two years. A few years later, thanks to his friendship with Dyukov, Gurinov acquired full personal ownership of Sibur’s entire tire business—he himself diligently assembled these assets into the Cordiant group of companies. Incidentally, alongside the tire business, Gurinov was also building his own guard: his assets were protected for years by private security firms registered to St. Petersburg businessman Andrei Petrov. In particular, NOP "Tobol-Omsk," which guarded the Omsk tire plant, and "YShZ — Security," which protected Cordiant’s Yaroslavl tire plant. After the tire business was sold to Alexei Mordashov’s Severgroup, the founders changed, as did the security firms, and Petrov left his executive roles in them. Now, under the slogan "Preserving What We’ve Achieved," Mordashov is forming a major security holding called Aquilon from these firms, with divisions across the country’s regions—his personal army guards hypermarkets (Lenta’s business), oil and gas facilities, Nordgold mines in Yakutia and Amur Oblast, and so on.

Former security firm director Petrov, from the early 2000s, was part of a tight-knit group of St. Petersburg co-owners of ARCOR Holdings Inc. (Bahamas), through which Gurinov controlled 100% of ZAO "Confectionery Association ’Lyubimyi Krai.’" Stakes in ARCOR also belonged to Kostygin and to Gurinov and Dyukov’s longtime aide, St. Petersburg native Alexander Uteshev. In Russia, Uteshev heads the Gurinov family’s enterprise, LLC "Aurora." Previously, Uteshev was also CEO of "Uran-Invest," one of the companies holding Dyukov’s stake in Sibur (the package was valued at $500-700 million before the war).
Rate this translation:

 tidttiqzqiqkdatf uqidrxitqidqeatf
Ольга Васильева

Главный редактор

Руководит редакцией. Специализируется на коррупции в органах власти и связях чиновников с организованными структурами.