IStories Have Identified the New Wife of Vladimir Putin’s “Secret Banker”
Daria Popova is a model and the co-owner of a company linked to Putin’s close associates. And her husband is the head of Gazprombank, Andrey Akimov
While the head of Gazprombank, Andrey Akimov, is navigating life under sanctions imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom, his spouse — 32-year-old model Daria Popova — travels around Europe with her Cypriot passport, attends fashion shows, and appears on the covers of glossy magazines in Europe and the U.S. Two sources informed IStories that Akimov and Popova are in a common-law marriage and have a daughter.
Popova owns apartments in a residential complex on the Golden Mile, a stone’s throw from the Kremlin. In 2021, she received a 50% stake in a company that had recently finalized a major deal with the state controlled Sberbank. The firm was linked to Akimov and Vladimir Putin's close friends.
The state banker had previously conducted some low level, and as it turned out, shady business with these individuals: selling oil and gas enterprises with licenses obtained by dubious means and developing real estate projects worth billions of rubles. All of which were financed by the state controlled Gazprombank.
We learned about Andrey Akimov's business and his association with Putin's friends through our involvement in the global investigation “Cyprus Confidential,” based on leaked documents from Cypriot registrars and consultants. Access to the documents was made possible thanks to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and German-based Paper Trail Media. Our investigation also utilizes data from earlier leaks — the “Panama Papers” and the “Pandora Papers.”
The first part of our investigation — exposing the overseas property owned by the head of Gazprombank and his close associates — is available here.
Popova: Akimov's wife
Akimov and Popova have been together since around 2017 — by which time the head of Gazprombank had parted ways with his previous spouses.
“At the moment, I feel happy and harmonious, I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of and wanted,” Popova told the Lithuanian fashion magazine L'Officiel Baltic in April 2023. Gracing the cover, the 32-year-old revealed that she had dreamed of a modeling career from a very young age, but circumstances changed when she started a family, now however — she “wants to become perfect.” In 2023, Popova also appeared on the covers of the American Vulkan Fashion Book and the French Malvie Magazine.
Popova comes from the Krasnodar region. In 2007, she worked for several months at the Kolos livestock breeding facility, and in 2014-2015 she was a stewardess at Aeroflot. We did not detect any significant income being earned by Popova during that time. Circumstances changed after 2015 however when Popova acquired two Moscow apartments (250 square meters and 81 square meters respectively) in the Barkli Plaza luxury residential complex, just a kilometer from the Kremlin. The exclusive development boasts facades made of precious marble, restaurants, boutiques, and a business center occupied by various state-owned companies. The value of Popova's apartments in Barkli Plaza are estimated to be worth in the region of 600-700 million rubles ($6.5-7.6 million) (based on the price of similar offerings).
In 2017, the model acquired a Cypriot passport, which allows her to travel freely around the world. In several social media posts, Popova is seen gallivanting around Paris, Rome, and Milan. One photo in particular shows her being embraced by the famous Italian designer, Domenico Dolce.
In 2021, Popova acquired half of the Moscow-based company Manufaqtury. Initially, Manufaqtury was established by the developer Imperiastroy to better manage the corporation’s large business quarter. IStories discovered that the head of Gazprombank Akimov, his deputies, and Putin's cronies — Gennady Timchenko and Sergey Ivanov — were heavily involved in this company.
Ivanov: Akimov's partner
Sergey Ivanov is a former intelligence officer and retired colonel general, who has served as the Minister of Defense, Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary of the Security Council, and Head of the Presidential Administration. In 2010, Ivanov's son — also Sergey — became the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprombank. According to acquaintances, Akimov developed a good relationship with the Ivanovs: mentoring the younger Ivanov as a financier, hiring him as an assistant at the age of 24 and imparting much of his knowledge onto the youngster. Later, as IStories discovered, he joined the property development business established by Akimov and his deputies. Through offshore and Cypriot companies, they acquired a share in Imperiastroy — the developer of the Poklonka Place business quarter, located five kilometers from the Kremlin.
Poklonka Place consists of four towers ranging from 13 to 20 floors, and a separate six-story building. In total, the business complex covers over 140,000 square meters and includes a private park.
The developer of the business complex, Imperiastroy, was owned by the Cypriot firm Caravagio Consultants. Its co-owners were Akimov, two of his deputies, and Ivanov Jr. In December 2009, Caravagio reported receiving a 10-billion-ruble (around $345 million) loan from Gazprombank.
The general designer and contractor of Poklonka Place was the company Tashir, owned by Samvel Karapetyan. Its developer, Imperiastroy, has been owned by the Cypriot firm Caravagio Consultants since 2010.
From 2008, the owners of Caravagio were the Cypriot company Gatehall and Fomen Worldwide, based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). According to Cyprus Confidential, the former was controlled by firms owned by Karapetyan and his partner, Vartan Vartanov. From 2007, the latter was controlled by several BVI-based companies: Sergey Ivanov’s Shavon Holdings, Andrey Akimov’s Luffield Ventures, the deputy chairman of Gazprombank Alexey Matveev’s Siret Investments, and Alexander Muranov’s Agrim Investments, who is also a Gazprombank deputy.
Construction of Poklonka Place was completed in 2014. By that time, the commercial real estate rental market had significantly declined under the influence of international sanctions following the annexation of Crimea and decreasing oil prices. However, state-owned banks did not lose focus on Poklonka.
In 2016, Ivanov Jr. became the senior vice president at Sberbank. Coincidentally, in 2017, the bank leased nearly 40,000 square meters in Poklonka Place for use by its structures, finalizing one of the largest deals in Moscow's office market history. Rent for this new office space was estimated at 840 million rubles ($14.5 million) per year at that time. Then, in 2020, Sberbank completed the largest rental deal of a flexible office space — a coworking area in Poklonka Place — by leasing 5,000 square meters through Manufaqtury (although Ivanov Jr. was no longer working there by that time).
Timchenko: Akimov's partner
According to their website, Manufaqtury received 2.5 billion rubles ($33 million) of investment capital in 2020-2021. Most of this money came from a fund belonging to Putin’s managerial friends, closely associated with Gennady Timchenko.
In 2021, the investment fund WS Capital injected 2 billion rubles into Manufaqtury, subsequently acquiring 90% of the company. Then, later that year, the fund transferred a 50% stake to Daria Popova. The owner of the fund was Denis Norenko, who previously controlled the Gazprombank-affiliated group “Russian Projects and Investments.” The fund's director was Alexander Muravitsky — who formerly headed the firm Kordex, through which Putin's friend Gennady Timchenko owned a stake in the Russian insurer Sogaz.
Muravitsky also served as the general director of Elbrus, one of the firms in the chain of ownership of Putin's palace in Gelendzhik. By 2009, the company had fully secured the firm Rirus, which owned the palace and oversaw its construction. Rirus was associated with Putin's St. Petersburg buddy, Nikolai Shamalov. Elbrus belonged to the BVI-based Crystalball Global, which itself belonged to Mischositos Investment from Panama. The beneficiary of the latter was Putin's childhood friend, Petr Kolbin, who owned assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars but led a modest lifestyle, acting upon the request of his higher ups and not considering himself a businessman. He transferred luxurious properties to Putin's relatives and close associates. This led to the assumption that Kolbin held assets in the interests of the Russian president.
IStories discovered that Akimov ran a long-standing business with Timchenko; with those participating in it subsequently becoming co-owners of the development company that created Manufaqtury.
In March 2004, a scandal erupted in the Russian government. The Minister of Natural Resources, Vitaly Artyukhov, issued 62 licenses for subsoil exploration just a few hours before his dismissal. This was despite the prime minister's request not to sign any documents. Licenses were granted not only to major oil companies but also to firms owned by a little-known entrepreneur, closely connected to the minister and his family.
In the final hours of his tenure, Minister Artyukhov issued several licenses for subsoil plots, including to the firm FPK Vybor, owned by entrepreneur Vartan Vartanov. It was co-owned by a company named TPK Trade-Invest (30%), which coincidentally also belonged to Vartanov. In turn, a 24% share of TPK was acquired by FES Artyukhov and Partners, which itself belongs almost entirely (90%) to the former minister Artyukhov. The firm was previously owned by his grandson Arthur, as well as Lyudmila and Gayane Artyukhova. Vartanov also served as the chairman of the board of Rosdorbank, which belonged to the Artyukhov family.
In the long history of corruption involving high-ranking Russian officials, this was one of the most blatant cases of using one’s official position for personal gain. “It seems to me that the ministry descended into chaos on the last day,” stated Yury Trutnev, Artyukhov's successor at the Ministry of Natural Resources, cautiously choosing his words. In 2004, he threatened Artyukhov with an official investigation, prosecution, and license revocation. However, time passed, the investigation found nothing of note, licenses were not rescinded, and the former minister emerged unscathed. The reason for this only emerged through offshore leaks.
IStories discovered that shares in certain enterprises bearing dubious licenses quickly ended up in the hands of Gazprombank's chairman Akimov and President Putin's friend Timchenko through a chain of Cypriot and offshore firms. These shares were then promptly sold to state-owned companies and the country’s largest private gas producer, Novatek, the co-owner of which is also Timchenko.
In total, between 2007 and 2010, Timchenko, Akimov, a little-known businessman close to the generous minister's family, and their intermediary earned over $200 million from selling oil and gas enterprises with shady license agreements. Most of the funds were provided by the state controlled Gazprombank, which lent $120 million to the intermediary of these deals.
How Timchenko and Akimov profited off licenses
In 2004, the outgoing minister Artyukhov issued numerous licenses, including to the firms Pechora Neftgaz and Petra Invest-M, thereby granting exploration rights to several subsoil plots in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO). At the time, both companies were owned by Fabius Financial Corp of the British Virgin Islands, with Vartan Vartanov, a close associate of the minister's family, listed as the beneficiary according to offshore leaks.
By 2006, almost 75% of shares held in firms with license privileges were transferred to the Cypriot company Silktone. The following year, offshore companies belonging to Akimov (Lodge Management) and Timchenko (Hallmead International and Cavar Investments), from the British Virgin Islands, seized control of Silktone. In addition, one of the licenses held by Petra Invest-M was transferred to the newly established NGP Ortyagunskoye, coincidentally owned by the same trio: Timchenko, Akimov, and Vartanov.
In late 2007, the licensed firms Pechora Neftgaz and NGP Ortyagunskoye were purchased by the state-controlled Gazprom Neft for approximately $20 million.
In 2008, the Fabius and Silkstone owned NGP Vostochno-Yarainerskoye and NGP Severo-Karasevskoye (which held licenses for the exploration of Yamal subsoil plots) were sold to a Rosneft-affiliated structure, Ilya Sherbovich’s company UCP, for $40 million. NGP Severo-Karasevskoye was eventually acquired by the state-owned Zarubezhneft.
Between 2007 and 2010, three additional enterprises with dubious licenses — Tayliksneftegaz, Petra Invest-M, and Oiltechproduct-Invest — were sold to Novatek for approximately $140 million. These companies, owned by Timchenko, Akimov, and Vartanov through a chain of offshore companies, were licensed to explore Yamal subsoil plots with estimated reserves of 860 billion cubic meters of gas and 500 million tons of oil. Initially, these companies were sold to an intermediary — Cyprus-based Dedaci Enterprises — a structure within Sherbovich’s UCP fund (UCP Oil and Gas Private Equity Fund) based in the Cayman Islands. The companies were then gradually acquired by Novatek.
The Cypriot structure of UCP (Dedaci) purchased the firms with questionable licenses with the help of a $120 million loan from Gazprombank in 2008, as per their report.
Generals: Akimov’s partners
According to leaked documents from Cyprus Confidential, the companies belonging to Akimov, Timchenko, and Ivanov Jr. (including those which owned Imperiastroy) worked jointly alongside the offshore companies of three high-ranking state security officials, as well as a family trust of two former KGB/FSB directors. Why is there such a high concentration of generals and Putin's friends around Akimov?
The state banker Akimov, together with his current deputy, Alexey Matveev, and the former deputy chairman of Gazprombank, KGB Major General Farid Kantserov, invested in another world class business center — “Nakhimov” the 13-story complex on Sevastopolsky Prospekt in Moscow. The retired major general participated in this business via three companies based in the BVI (Betria Holdings, Amure International, Eritrea Group), and his family's Farid Trust. In 2008, Gazprombank sought to buy the Nakhimov business center (which was valued at $110 million), but the deal fell through. In 2013, the business center was eventually sold to the state controlled Transneft under the management of Putin's friend, retired FSB Major General Nikolai Tokarev. This was the largest office real estate deal that year.
According to Cyprus Confidential, another intriguing family trust — the Phifrica Trust — was linked to the group of companies associated with Akimov and his partners. Its beneficiaries were relatives of two former state security heads: the last chairman of the KGB, Lieutenant General Vadim Bakatin (died in August 2022), and the former Director of the FSB, Army General Nikolai Kovalyov (died in 2019).
Tatiana and Elena Kovalyova, Ekaterina, Dmitry, and Vadim Bakatin were listed as beneficiaries of the trust until it was liquidated in December 2014. Vadim Bakatin's youngest son, Dmitry, who was cited as the trust’s founder, ran a well-known business associated with Gazprombank. In 2021, Bakatin and Gazprombank sold shares in the iron ore company IRC for $96 million.
An individual familiar with the president’s inner circle, reminded IStories that Akimov was involved in a system closely linked to the intelligence services: from 1987 to 1990, he headed the Soviet Donau Bank in Austria. Foreign Soviet banks at the time supported, among other things, secret currency transactions and the supply of Western goods and technologies in circumvention of the embargo against socialist countries.
This work was supervised by the KGB and the East German “Stasi,” which had a secret department for commercial coordination (KoKo) in the Ministry of Trade of East Germany. When the German parliament, the Bundestag, investigated the activities of KoKo in the early 1990s, the report cited Donau Bank — which partnered with firms affiliated to the secret department.
Akimov's acquaintances insisted that he did not serve in the KGB but did cross paths with Putin and Timchenko in the early 1990s. Either way, all three have a shared background. In 1990, Timchenko began his career as an oil trader at an enterprise created by order of the KGB. Putin served in the KGB in East Germany and interacted with the Stasi. The manager of Timchenko’s main offshore companies formerly directed firms affiliated with the KoKo department.
“Akimov is one of them; someone they understand,” concluded our source familiar with Putin's inner circle.
Akimov did not respond to IStories’ inquiries about his businesses and Daria Popova and threatened legal action. Popova and other individuals mentioned in this article did not respond to our requests.
Translated by Sasha Molotkova