From Fashion to Titanium

“Since I was born in the beautiful Russia... I wanted to work with models and for them... Since childhood, I dreamed of making this world a little better... At 19, it was already absolutely clear to me that I wanted to dedicate myself to fashion,” — Russian national Anna Belyasova confided on her website.

She describes her success story: in 2008, when she was just 20 years old, Belyasova according to her website founded a modeling agency in Moscow — Casta Model Management (Casta Models). She sent girls to photo shoots at editorial offices, to fashion shows, fashion weeks. At her university, she created a French club for students who were interested in fashion and famous fashion designers.

But in 2011, at the age of 23, Belyasova, as IStories discovered, unexpectedly began working for the company of the largest Russian state industrial corporation Rostec, which plays a central role in Russian military complex. In 2023, she joined the board of directors of one of the world’s largest titanium producers — the Russian corporation VSMPO-Avisma. Belyasova now also heads the company Promyshlennie Investitsii (Industrial Investments), which owns the lion’s share of VSMPO-Avisma.

IStories reports how a love of fashion and a modeling business are connected to a giant of the defense industry.

Manicure and Rostec

As IStories found out, the dramatic turn in Belyasova’s life happened around 2011. She was looking for manicurists and pedicurists for a beauty salon in Moscow’s residential Cheryomushki district and worked at a coffee trading company as manager in 2010 — and suddenly moved into the Rostec company Prominvest (at that time Oboronimpex) which handled foreign currency operations and Rostec investments. Until 2010 it was headed by Mikhail Shelkov and years later — owned by him.

Shelkov had worked for the company of Rostec state corporation from 2000s, since it was called Rosoboronexport. Shelkov was a banker, and Rosoboronexport needed a specialist in settlements in “soft” (volatile) currencies. Shelkov got acquainted with the head of state corporation Sergei Chemezov — a retired colonel general, longtime friend of Vladimir Putin, and his KGB colleague: Chemezov and Putin worked together in Dresden in the 1980s. When Putin came to power, Chemezov became one of the most influential men in his circle. In 2004, Chemezov headed Rosoboronexport, and in 2007, after a series of transformations and consolidations of defense assets, — Chemezov became a director of Rostec.

By 2012, Chemezov decided to transfer the Russian titanium monopoly VSMPO-Avisma to Shelkov. By then, Rostec had forced its previous owners to sell the company, which was saddled with nearly a billion dollars in debts to state banks. Shelkov received 65.7% of VSMPO-Avisma.

In 2013, Belyasova, then 25, was listed as an employee of VSMPO-Avisma’s Moscow office (the titanium giant’s two main plants are located in Sverdlovsk Oblast and Perm region of Russia). In the leaks regarding the Russian mobile numbers, Belyasova’s number was mentioned as the “assistant to Shelkov.” At first, her salary was relatively modest (about 150,000 rubles per month, around $1800 at the current rate), but it quickly changed.

The modeling agency

In 2014, Anna Belyasova launched a Spanish website (annabelyasova.es), presenting herself as the director and founder of the Moscow modeling agency Casta Model Management (Casta Models): she wanted “to make Moscow an open city for the foreign models.”

The Russian corporate registry data and information about Belyasova’s employment do not confirm that she founded the agency — officially it was transferred to her from the well-known Russian model scout Vladislav Metreveli. He was the sole owner and CEO of Casta Model Management until 2016. Then the ownership changed and new stakeholders emerged: Belyasova (49%) and Konstantin Svaresky (51%), a business partner of Mikhail Shelkov and director (since the early 2000s) of many of his companies. The same year, the agency became the owner of the company organizing the Miss Volga beauty pageant.

Since the time Casta Model Management Instagram noted that the model agency is based not only in Moscow, but also in Barcelona.

Mikhail Shelkov was strongly connected to Spain: he owned a mansion in Barcelona, which was sold shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. From 2015 to 2023, Belyasova repeatedly traveled abroad with Shelkov and his two children: mainly to Barcelona, but also to Seville, Granada, the Seychelles, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Chicago, Paris, and Milan, and after the war began, mostly to Istanbul and Dubai. Together, they made more than 70 flights (five with Shelkov’s children).

Svaresky and Belyasova appeared among the owners of Casta Model Management briefly in 2016. The same year, the agency was fully transferred to Andrey Serdtsev, an employee of the Tornado private security company. This security firm was wholly owned by Shelkov’s companies, and Serdtsev had previously been listed as CEO of Shelkov’s Russian Investment Alliance.

Since February 2025, the modeling agency is officially fully owned by Polina Kondratikova — on the Casta Model Management website, she is listed as manager of the international department.

The income growth

The Shelkov’s VSMPO-Avisma continues to pay off debts to state banks, receiving new loans from them. In 2023, the company came under U.S. sanctions. Its main shareholder — Shelkov’s company Promyshlennie Investitsii (Industrial Investments) — reported in its 2023 financial statements that the loss from the revaluation of VSMPO-Avisma shares, due to their declining value, exceeded 113.7 billion rubles (around $1,3 billion). And in 2025 the former CEO of the VSMPO-Avisma and Shelkov’s former partner Mikhail Voeyodin was arrested in Russia on charges of embezzling funds from VSMPO-Avisma, with investigators assessing the damages at 4 billion rubles (around $42 million).

Meanwhile, Anna Belyasova’s income has grown significantly in recent years. In 2021, she was appointed CEO of Shelkov’s company (Industrial Investments), which owns more than 65% of VSMPO-Avisma. By 2023, she joined the board of directors of the Russian titanium monopoly. It looked odd. At that time, the board of directors included Shelkov himself, Rostec head Sergey Chemezov, his deputy for the state corporation since 2016 Dmitry Lelikov (a former banker, working in the state corporation’s leadership since 2004), VSMPO-Avisma CEO Dmitry Trifonov, and metallurgists: Maksim Smirnov, with more than 30 years of top-management experience in corporate finance, over 15 of them in metallurgy, and Anton Vishnyanenko, with more than 24 years of top-management experience in corporate finance.

In 2017, at VSMPO-Avisma’s Moscow office, Belyasova was earning nearly a million rubles a month (around $17.000). In 2022 — more than 3.5 million rubles a month (around $51.000) (42.8 million rubles a year from the Moscow office of the VSMPO-Avisma and its shareholder — Industrial Investments, or around $628.000), and in 2024 — more than 11 million rubles a month (around $118.000) (a total of 133 million rubles a year ($1,4 million) from Industrial Investments compant and VSMPO-Avisma).

“There are mostly high-status people sitting In the boards of directors of state-connected companies, — former top public officials or industrialists, bankers, financiers, and so on. Board members vote as the state instructs (in VSMPO-Avisma case, Chemezov is the conduit for state decisions). The introduction of an unknown person into the board often becomes a way to provide that person with a steady income, and the payments do not depend on the effectiveness of the enterprise,” a businessman with more than 20 years of experience in communicating with Russian state-controlled companies told to iStories. He noted that Belyasova’s appointment could not have happened without the approval of the Rostec state corporation.

Anna Belyasova and Mikhail Shelkov did not respond to IStories’ questions, including whether they are partners. The VSMPO-Avisma press office and Casta Model Management also did not provide any comments.