A state-funded “special stable”: how AP head Anton Vaino legalized a private fleet of elite sports cars through special UDPR bases
Journalists have identified that a series of sports cars and luxury vehicles bearing the 057 license plates from the so-called “special garage,” financed by the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (UDP RF), are linked to Anton Vaino, head of the Presidential Administration.
In one of the photos, he appears to have been driving personally, accompanied by vehicles from the Federal Protective Service (FSO) and traffic police (DPS).
Despite public attention surrounding luxury car convoys in Moscow escorted by FSO and DPS, little appears to have changed. Just a day after the controversy, a similar convoy was again observed in Moscow streets, this time featuring an Aston Martin under the same type of escort. The same vehicle had previously been seen alongside a Lamborghini moving through the city with FSO and DPS protection.
Previously, we reported on the “special stable,” where officials and top managers of state corporations keep their luxury cars, noting that many of the cars have the number 057 in their plates. We assumed these were the signature numbers of the special stable — LLC “FGUP Avtobaza No.2” of Armen Sarkisyan. Some cars with the 057 number were registered to this LLC. But we were mistaken. At FGUP Avtobaza No.2, sports cars with other notable numbers, such as 007, are registered. The 057 number has been used by Anton Vaino’s family for more than 15 years. In fact, in 2011, a MERCEDES-BENZ ML GLE with the 057 number was registered to Vaino’s mother, Tatyana Ezhevskaya. Later, this number was transferred to a Tesla.
Vaino’s stepfather, Viktor Ezhevsky, is the policyholder of a Mercedes Brabus AMG with a license plate containing 057. This car is located in the special stable.
As for other exclusive cars with 057 plates, their registration is more complicated, but there is no doubt that they belong to Vaino. The same Aston Martin bears the 057 plate. Its insurance policy is under Ekaterina Dedova, an employee of Rostec. Vaino not only serves on the Supervisory Board of the state corporation Rostec but is also very close to Sergey Chemezov, who previously lobbied for his appointment as Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia. We found a photo of this Aston Martin showing the driver. Although the photo is low-quality and blurry when zoomed in, if dark glasses are added to the driver, he strongly resembles Vaino.
A state-funded “special stable”: how AP head Anton Vaino legalized a private fleet of elite sports cars through special UDPR bases
Regarding the Lamborghini that raced with the Aston Martin, Vaino was likely driving it. In 2024, the director of the “State Products and Services” division of Sberbank, Petr Dneprovskiy (a close friend of Herman Gref), registered a 2022 Ford Mustang under his name. In the documents, the license plate field was left blank. Only in May 2025 did Dneprovskiy insure the Mustang, at which point the license plate became visible. A year later, this license plate appeared on the Lamborghini, which formally belongs to Dneprovskiy.
A state-funded “special stable”: how AP head Anton Vaino legalized a private fleet of elite sports cars through special UDPR bases
A state-funded “special stable”: how AP head Anton Vaino legalized a private fleet of elite sports cars through special UDPR bases
However, during the races with the Aston Martin under FSO and DPS protection, Dneprovskiy was clearly not behind the wheel, as he is not entitled to such an escort — only his boss, Gref, is. It seems that on this day, Vaino and Gref decided to take their “birds” from the “special stable” for a spin.