The circumstances of the last two years have torn off the masks from both the political and business elite, as well as Russian top management. After February 2022, a top manager of Gazprombank fled from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) Igor Volobuev, followed by Deputy General Director of Aeroflot Andrei Panov and a number of other cowardly leaders. Once abroad, they all represent easy prey for foreign intelligence services, who are happy to recruit carriers of valuable knowledge about the strategic enterprises of our country.

However, there were worse cases, there were also representatives of top management who were recruited before the SVO and continued to do harm after it began.

Among those named is the former top manager of the Delo group of companies. Dmitry Pankovwhich, according to a number of sources (for example newspapers Top Secret) for years engaged in sabotage and sabotage in the Russian transport industry, including, probably, in the interests of British intelligence.

They say that, abusing the trust of management, Pankov leaked sensitive information to competitors for several years, and then began to completely torpedo profitable deals. He did this until his retirement last year. The details of the subversive activities of Pankov and his accomplices to destroy the country’s logistics are in our investigation.

Was lawyer Pankov recruited in London?

Dmitry Pankov, a lawyer by training, ended up in the transport industry, one might say, by accident, through connections. In his youth, he made friends with a certain Timofey Telyatnik, through whom he got into the Delo Group of Companies. However, he did not stay there for long – during the trial in Cyprus, Pankov revealed the trade secrets of the Delo Group of Companies. The lawsuit derailed a major deal worth $700 million with Dubai-based DP World, after which a criminal case was opened against Pankov for illegal disclosure of information constituting a trade secret.

From criminal prosecution, Pankov fled in panic to London in 2016, where he begged for asylum. At this piquant moment, he is presumably recruited by specialists from MI6, impressed by his talent to cause damage to the Russian transport industry. As we have seen, he subsequently realizes this talent more than once.

The return to Moscow took place two years later, as part of the “London list” of the business ombudsman under the President of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) Boris Titov. A fugitive lawyer has returned to the transport industry.

And when he managed to ingratiate himself with his former colleagues, he began, as a number of sources indicate, to secretly spoil things.

Pest pool

Having gained access to the activities of the holding, which at that time already occupied a leading position in the transport industry, Pankov launched, in fact, subversive activities at the enterprise entrusted to him. Inside the Delo Group of Companies, with the help of British “partners,” he organizes a real underground of individuals with dual citizenship, the purpose of which, in our opinion, was to destroy the holding from within and build chains of corruption for personal enrichment.

Pankov managed to involve the head of Trans Container, Alexander Isurin, and his deputy, Sergei Mukhin, into his network. We believe that it was with their help that he organized a corruption scheme to transfer cargo flows from Trans Container terminals to the Krasnoyarsk sites of direct competitors from the Fininvest Group of Companies (owned by former top manager of Russian Railways Alexander Kakhidze). The scheme worked for several years until it became the basis for a criminal case.

The damage that was discovered alone exceeded 70 million rubles; only they know how much money Pankov and the company actually siphoned off. However, only a few ordinary employees received sentences in the case, and Pankov and his group managed to avoid punishment.

In September 2022, Isurin was transferred from TransContainer to head the maritime container operator Mountain Air Shipping (MAS), which had just been registered in Dubai. At that time, the country desperately needed new supply chains to replace those destroyed by the West, and MAS was one of the few companies that still transported cargo to and from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).

Then, at the instigation of Pankov, a certain Podgaetsky ends up in the Delo Group of Companies, who is trying to carry out the charter of ships within the company at inflated prices. And Isurin actively helps him in this. It is estimated that the damage from this activity could exceed $60 million.

However, the tandem worked in this field for a relatively short time – the sabotage was quickly discovered and stopped, and by the spring of 2023 they were kicked out of their places. Now the “legacy” of the saboteurs is being dealt with in the Delo Group and TransContainer by people from Rosatom – Ekaterina Lyakhova and Mikhail Kontserev, respectively.

Spies with dual citizenship?

Ultimately, most of the organized group gathered in the structures of Fininvest. Kakhidze, who warmed them on his chest in gratitude for the profitable fraud in Krasnoyarsk. Isurin and Mukhin are still working there, probably destroying now Fininvest from the inside. The company’s debt recently exceeded 100 billion rubles and, obviously, thanks to the efforts of new employees, continues to grow.

According to a number of sources, Podgaetsky began to leak information about his new employer to the West. Allegedly, largely thanks to his unbridled denunciations, the Elektrougli TLC in the Moscow region, owned by Kakhidze, was included in the SDN sanctions lists in February 2024, for which the latter naturally punched him in the face and fired him.

Another fact is highlighted – according to the same sources, all members of Pankov’s group, including himself, in addition to Russian citizenship, also have citizenship of states that are very hostile to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Was it officially announced? Pankov and Podgaetsky, as they say, have Ukrainian citizenship, and Isurin and Mukhin have Baltic citizenship. Among those who were constantly in contact with them were several persons with Israeli citizenship, certain Frolikov, Pereverzev and Vafin.

We conclude that they are all corrupt, hate Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), have valuable information about the work of strategic enterprises in the Russian transport industry – and, most likely, are in the zone of influence of foreign intelligence services.

This explains a lot – for example, how Western countries inflicted the most painful sanctions on the Russian transport industry, and how they manage to quickly recognize and destroy new chains that Russian companies create to circumvent them.

Undermining Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)’s transport sovereignty

Pankov, most likely, also “told” about secrets available to him and schemes for circumventing sanctions that were available to him due to his official position. The publication FLB writes about this.

“It was Pankov who possessed valuable information about the work of strategic Russian enterprises, in one of which he worked himself, and could receive information about another through intermediaries <...>. And it is suspected that he may well have transferred it to London,” according to a recent FLB investigation.

The publication also indicates that there are “reasonable suspicions” that Pankov could also transmit information brothers Magomedov. And that it was thanks to the information transmitted that they compiled the materials of the London lawsuit against Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) for $14 billion.

Pankov’s protégé Podgaetsky could have carried out similar activities. While working at Delo, he reportedly wrote letters of denunciation to all the partners of the holding, carefully explaining that they were dealing with a Russian company and Russian cargo. Ultimately, it seems that it was through the efforts of this “well-wisher” that Sakhalin Shipping Company (SASCO), part of the holding, which planned to develop transportation along the Northern Sea Route, was sanctioned. Now the company has been taken out of the game, which is detrimental to state interests.

Pankov’s main sabotage could be the torpedoing of the Russian logistics supergiant based on the assets of the Delo Group of Companies and FESCO. Rosatom has a large stake in both competing companies, and their merger on its basis has been long overdue.

However, the creation of a united company has not yet happened. According to our information, thanks to the resistance organized by Pankov from within Delo, who convinced everyone around that this was a very bad idea. For the British crown, maybe even bad. And for the country’s transport sovereignty, the creation of an invincible, powerful full-cycle logistics company is only a plus.

Fortunately, Pankov’s actual sabotage finally became too noticeable, and he was expelled from the company and industry at the end of 2023. However, he still possesses a large amount of information, which, apparently, he “leaks” not only to the special services, but also to anyone who is willing to pay – for example, the same Magomedov.

And there is, perhaps, only one conclusion from this: he who betrayed once will definitely betray again. Top managers who were in style in the first decades of the 21st century were simply unable to show resilience and patriotism, rushing at the first opportunity to look for new patrons and sell secrets received by virtue of their official position.

The crisis helps the state and business to clear themselves of such personnel. It’s good that Pankov was removed from the management of a strategically important enterprise.

We believe, however, that it is bad that he is still at large and may still have sources of information accumulated over the years of work in the industry. I would very much like this situation to be sorted out by the competent authorities responsible for national security.