Media: The private military security company "Convoy" in Crimea is financed by a structure under the supervision of Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg

The Russian private "military security" company "Convoy", supported by the so-called "boss" of Crimea, which was annexed to the Russian Federation, Sergei Aksyonov, received millions of rubles from the structure of friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin - oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, as well as from the Russian bank VTB. in which the Russian state owns almost 70 percent of the shares. This is stated in the investigation of the Dossier Center, a non-commercial project of Russian opposition leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky, published in mid-August.

Thus, according to documents obtained by journalists during the investigation, on October 16, 2022, the "Ai-Petri" sanatorium donated 120 million rubles to the "Cossack" company "Convoy" (which is about 12 million dollars).

The private "military security" company "Convoj" was founded in January 2015, according to the published material. According to investigators, in 2018 the "Ai-Petri" sanatorium was privatized and became the property under the control of oligarch Arkady Rotenberg.

 Payments were received from the VTB account

In addition, on September 28, 2022, as "Dosije" writes, 100 million rubles were transferred from the VTB charity fund account to the "Convoy" account, and on October 5, 2022, an additional 100 million rubles (or about $10 million) were transferred. , also from the account of VTB, a majority state-owned Russian bank. According to the statements published by journalists who participated in the investigation, a number of other tranches were transferred by fuel companies that are in no way connected to the private military security company.

Neli Šatova, general director of the "Management Company of Infrastructure Projects" associated with the sanatorium, did not comment on the information provided to her by journalists. Rotenberg himself has not yet responded to the published claims of the Dossier investigation. The file center also sent a request to the press service of VTB about the size and purpose of donations to Convoy, but did not receive a response.

Journalists: The combat area of the private military security company is located in the Kherson region

According to investigators, "Convoy" has a base in Crimea near the village of Perevalne. At the beginning of 2023, there were 261 people in the headquarters of the private military security company, and by the summer of this year, about 400 fighters, writes "Dosije". According to published information, the combat area of the private military security company is located in the Kherson region. In general, the organization is a "spooky mix of mercenary, commercial and carnivalesque Cossack ideology," says a text presenting the results of the investigation.

On June 10, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu signed an order according to which all "volunteer units" on the front in Ukraine must sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation by July 1.

The authorities of the Russian Federation refer to private military companies as, among others, "volunteer units". Under current legislation, private military companies are banned in Russia, so Russian officials prefer the definition of "volunteer unit".