Page 14 - bne IntelliNews monthly country report Russia February 2024

By this time, Armen Sargsyan was no longer working at the bank. But in the late 2000s, access to almost free banking resources allowed him to build his first big business - a lottery. In 2009, Sargsyan became the owner of the main state lottery Gosloto, purchasing 49% of its shares from people close to the head of Rossport, Vyacheslav Fetisov. Most likely, the deal could not have happened without the patronage of Sargsyan’s father-in-law, Moscow Deputy Mayor Joseph Ordzhonikidze, who oversaw the gambling business. Sargsyan’s partner in the lottery business was the owner of the Avilon car dealer, Alexander Varshavsky, and he was supervised by the long-time Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko.
Soon after the deal, the government banned all lotteries in Russia, except for two state ones, and Sargsyan, under whose control both were, became a monopolist. Since then, his lottery business has only grown - by the end of 2022, its revenue approached 100 billion rubles.
Most likely, his acquaintance with Mutko led Sargsyan to purchase the Otis and Kone elevator business: the former minister now heads the Dom.rf company, which the government instructed to bring order to the elevator market. Tens of billions of rubles have been allocated for the modernization of elevator facilities. Sarkisyan’s second new business, tire factories, may, firstly, turn out to be complementary with the new business of his partner Alexander Varshavsky. And secondly, the curator of this market in the government, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, who heads the supervisory board of Rostec, may also be no stranger to the businessman. In 2020, Sarkisyan’s legal entity bought a plot of land in the center of Moscow from Rostec for 3.85 billion rubles, and a month later sold it to the real buyer for 5 billion. The difference was issued to an unknown third individual or legal entity in the form of a loan.
Even before the war, Russian business largely consisted of “self-burning” banks, corrupt deals and monetization of connections. But now this part of the business is becoming dominant. It is far from certain that this will make elevators in Russian homes and offices safer, and tires of better quality.
2.5 Russian business and consumer confidence
14 RUSSIA Country Report February 2024 www.intellinews.com