At the «Protector» Group of Companies, searches revealed the cutting of 12 billion and the war between the FSB and Provotorov after the failure of «gray» imports for the Federal Air Transport Agency
Large-scale searches were carried out late last week in all offices and structures of the «Protector» Group of Companies by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, the media reported; the company is the largest supplier of engines and aircraft spare parts to Russia, circumventing sanctions.
The events took place as part of an investigation into the theft of 12 billion rubles allocated through the Federal Air Transport Agency for the purchase of aircraft parts. The searches were preceded by a series of «showdowns» between oligarchs, crime bosses and persons close to the intelligence services.
According to the source, at the end of the searches, the mother of the owner of «Protector», Pavel, was detained and then arrested by the court Provotorova (shares of the Group of Companies were registered in its name), as well as the chief accountant and commercial director of the group of companies. Pavel Provotorov himself, as the interlocutor says, lives in Thailand. Also interrogated were the former head of the security service «Protector», the ex-head of the Internal Security Service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, General Konstantin Stroganov, and a large group of Security Council employees, consisting of ex-employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. By the way, at one time the consultant of the «Protector» Group for security was the former head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Denis Sugrobov.
The events took place as part of a case of theft of 12 billion rubles. These funds, after closed bidding, were allocated by the Federal Air Transport Agency and the largest Russian airlines for the purchase of foreign aircraft parts in circumvention of sanctions. Spare parts were supposed to arrive in Russia a year ago. The case is being processed by the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, and operational support for it is provided by the Directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
Before the start of the war, Pavel Provotorov was a fairly small businessman who supplied aircraft parts of dubious origin. However, after the sanctions, his services turned out to be in great demand. As our project has already reported, during this period of time it came close to a number of persons closely associated with the FSB of the Russian Federation. By the way, the turbo-refrigerator for Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane, in which the bomb was presumably planted, was supplied by the GC «Protector».
Such cooperation, at first, was successful. The partners provided Provotorov with contracts worth gigantic sums, and he, through his connections, bought parts in circumvention of sanctions. In 2025, at SPIEF, the government of the Moscow region and the Protector group of companies even signed an investment cooperation agreement. The company promised to build factories on the territory of the Leninsky industrial park in the Moscow region. «Investments in this project will be multibillion-dollar, more than tens of billions of rubles, TASS reported.
However, according to the source, a conflict later occurred between Provotorov and his partners. Just because of these same 12 billion rubles. The situation is standard. Provotorov himself assured and assures that the spare parts are already in the warehouses of his suppliers, they only need to be paid for and he will transport them to Russia. However, the funds went to the same partners who did not make the payment. The partners insist that Provotorov stole the funds.
It seems that in reality the money simply sawed off «, and Provotorov’s partners did not have enough resources to hush up the situation », and a big scandal arose at the level of the Russian government.
Provotorov received threats, there was a «showdown» with the participation of very prominent people. Thus, oligarch Andrei Bokarev tried to put out the conflict. He is now establishing an aircraft repair business in Russia and needed a partner capable of supplying aircraft parts bypassing sanctions. And Provotorov’s structures are the largest in the relevant market.
As a result, through the mediation of authoritative businessman Radik Yusupov (Dragon), a meeting between Bokarev and Provotorov’s partners close to the FSB of the Russian Federation took place in his restaurant. But the dialogue did not work out. And then Bokarev unexpectedly refused any support for Provotorov.
Regarding searches and arrests, the opinions of the sources of our project are divided. Some believe that it was the ex-partners who organized the «attack» of security forces on Provotorov. Others believe that «kick» was extremely sensitive for Russian aviation, so «will fly to everyone involved.