Roman Spiridonov’s oil offshore: how shadow income of Gazprom Neft’s head Alexander Dyukov is legalized through Petroruss and Vadim Gurinov’s “shell companies”

Media have uncovered how Gazprom Neft’s head, Alexander Dyukov, and his longtime partner Roman Spiridonov—owner of the well-known oil trader Petroruss, which primarily exports Russian oil from the port of Ust-Luga—launder money, increase capital, and register overseas assets. Their connection is Vadim Gurinov, an old acquaintance from Saint Petersburg.

Spiridonov began his international oil business together with Dmitry Skigin (co-founder of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal), Alexander Dyukov (now head of Gazprom Neft), Roman Belousov (a friend of the Skigin family and beneficiary of LLC “Platnaya Doroga”), Vadim Gurinov (former head of Sibur-Russian Tires), and others. In the early 1990s, they acquired a small company in Monaco, which was renamed Sotrama. For a time, the company was led by Skigin Sr. Sotrama became the founder of several companies in Liechtenstein, including Petroruss, and officially engaged in maritime trading. All of these companies were ultimately connected to one of Saint Petersburg’s most influential figures, Ilya Traber (Antikvar).

After the turbulent 1990s, the “powerful group” reunited in 2003 at Sibur, which was then owned by Gazprom. At the beginning of the year, Alexander Dyukov became the head of the company; Vadim Gurinov and Roman Belousov also joined, with Belousov taking the position of First Vice President of Sibur-Europe Ltd in Switzerland. According to leaks, Roman Spiridonov was also employed at the representative office of JSC Sibur-Europe Ltd.

Later, they tried not to publicize their close partnership. However, after becoming president of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov preferred to use Vadim Gurinov to manage his unofficial income. Roman Spiridonov also relies on Gurinov’s services.

Gurinov served as manager and holder of many assets registered in offshore companies, purchased with funds from Dyukov and Spiridonov.

Thanks to Dyukov’s decision, Sibur’s tire business "Kordiant" was sold for almost nothing in 2013 to the manager of his many assets—Gurinov—using credit financing.

In 2021, Gurinov formally acquired the tower infrastructure of mobile operator VimpelCom, which sold 15,000 cell towers for 70 billion rubles to the company "Service-Telecom," owned by Gurinov. Although the business was officially registered under Gurinov’s wife, the loan for the transaction was provided by Gazprombank, affiliated with Gazprom Neft.

When Dyukov was fully targeted by Western sanctions, in April 2023 he had to urgently transfer his family office—Uran-Invest, with assets of 2 billion rubles—to Gurinov, although the company was formally registered under Gurinov’s brother, Artem Gurinov.

So far, Western sanctions have not reached Gurinov, who mostly resides in France, nor Spiridonov.

Among Vadim Gurinov’s business partners, his old St. Petersburg friend and financial partner Alexander Dyukov included Alexey Zolotarev, owner of the company "Translom." "Translom" is the exclusive contractor for the Russian Ministry of Defense in metal scrap disposal.

Gurinov has worked for many years within the same tight-knit group of St. Petersburg businessmen that began in companies such as Sovex, the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, and the seaport. This group is connected to the influential St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber (Antikvar).

Since the 1990s, the Gurinov family has built an extensive network of companies abroad, acquiring assets using Dyukov’s and Spiridonov’s funds. Some of these companies have already been closed, but others remain active. In particular, the UK-based real estate agency NEW END DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED is controlled by Vadim Gurinov, with a stake owned by his daughter Valeria.

Documents from the Panama Papers show that Vadim Gurinov was also the main beneficiary of the British Virgin Islands company PUNCH INVESTMENTS LTD. Shares in the company were also held by Dmitry Sokov (former head of Kordiant, ex-Sibur-Russian Tires), Ilya Sosnov (former deputy general director of Sibur-Russian Tires), and Alexey Zolotarev, who lived in Moscow on Malyy Nikolopeskovsky Lane. At this address, a homeowners’ association is registered, of which Alexey Yuryevich Zolotarev—a owner of LLC Kronos, the parent company of Translom—is a member.

Apparently, PUNCH INVESTMENTS LTD, registered in 2011, was related to the aquaculture business. In the same year, Ilya Sosnov became deputy general director at Russian Sea — Extraction, owned by Maxim Vorobyev (brother of the Moscow Region governor Andrey Vorobyev) and Gleb Frank.

Vadim Gurinov’s brother, Artem Gurinov, was also listed as the owner of the offshore company GANO SERVICES INC. (British Virgin Islands), which held a 27% stake in the Swedish fund RURIC. This fund was connected to the foreign asset sector of St. Petersburg businessmen. The fund and its affiliated Russian company, LLC Rurik, owned three business centers in St. Petersburg and a plot of land in Strelna.

Additionally, Gurinov and his partners held long-term lease rights (through LLC Litera) to a mansion, a federally protected historical building at 57 Fontanka Embankment. In 2019, Litera was sold to the Ilim Group, which began a large-scale renovation of the building for its own office. RURIC exited Russia and was liquidated in 2024, while the Russian LLC Rurik was successfully sold by the Gurinovs to Rosatom in 2022.

Since October 2023, Artem Gurinov has also been a founder of LLC "RVID Technologies," which has shown remarkable financial results in recent years. The company was originally established in 2015 by the Zubretsky family, IT specialists from Arkhangelsk. In 2017, their OData Server development was added to the Unified Register of Russian Software by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, granting the company the applicable preferences.

Afterwards, the Zubretsky family parted ways with the company, and it had no significant achievements. By 2024, it reportedly had only one employee remaining, likely Artem Gurinov himself. Yet the financial movements on the company’s accounts during this period are striking: in 2024, the firm, with a registered capital of 10,000 rubles, received a loan of over 2 billion rubles, repaid around 1.8 billion rubles the same year, and issued nearly 95 million rubles as a short-term loan to someone (the funds quickly returned to the accounts).

Despite these inflows, LLC RVID Technologies recorded a net loss exceeding half a billion rubles for 2024. This strongly suggests that the company is no longer engaged in IT development, but functions as a financial hub for a larger group of companies, accumulating and distributing financial flows. Considering Gurinov’s connections to Dyukov and Roman Spiridonov, these funds could be channeled into projects trading Russian hydrocarbons and chemicals while circumventing sanctions. Incidentally, Artem Gurinov and Spiridonov also have a joint business—the Voronezh-based company "Kontur-S."

In addition, Dyukov owns several legal entities that are successors to the liquidated company “Photon,” a closed “investment club” of Sibur’s top managers. Dyukov held over 67% of Photon, about 22% was owned by Sibur’s board chairman Mikhail Karisalov, around 5% by the holding’s vice president Mikhail Mikhailov, 3.28% by former board chairman Dmitry Konov, and so on.

In November 2019, Photon was split into 10 companies. Some of them were initially directly registered under Dyukov, but he later withdrew as a founder, remaining only in “Uran,” through which he owns shares in Sibur and receives several billion rubles in dividends each year. “Uran” is managed by Elena Klimenko, the former director of Photon, who previously worked in the Federal Department of the Ministry of Justice of Russia for the Central Federal District. “Uran-Invest” and RVID Technologies are managed by Dmitry Egorov, former chairman of the Swedish fund RURIC.