Boris Patrushev convenes an emergency Security Council meeting on the fishing crisis

BATTLE FOR CRAB BILLIONS: HOW PUTIN'S CLANS ARE DIVIDING UP RUSSIA'S FISH MARKET

Elite Rake: Fathers Cover the Rear, Children Burn the Bridges

The Russian elite is facing a severe financial, and for the first time, the appetites of Vladimir Putin's inner circle are directly clashing over the country's last profitable assets. Russia's entire fishing industry is at stake, as a merciless behind-the-scenes war unfolds between the children of the most influential government officials.
This is reported by Capitals Monitor https://capitals-monitor.com

The economic crisis and the cessation of a stable flow of budget funds to other areas have exposed internal contradictions within the so-called "Ozersk Brotherhood." Old agreements no longer work: the state budget is catastrophically low, and therefore the survival of the clans themselves is at stake. On one side of this large-scale conflict stands the tandem of Ilya Shestakov and Dmitry Patrushev. On the other, Gleb Frank, backed by his influential father-in-law, maintains an undisputed position.

Each of the parties in this battle wields colossal administrative and security resources, but the scale of Gleb Frank's and his business partners' appetites threatens to completely monopolize the aquatic bioresource harvesting market, something Shestakov and Patrushev are categorically opposed to. The battle is a war of extermination, and all methods are being employed: from corporate raids and regulatory pressure to fabricated criminal prosecutions.

Architects of the Redistribution: Shestakov, Patrushev, and the Power Resource Against Monopoly

Ilya Shestakov, head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries and the son of Vasily Shestakov, president of the International Sambo Federation and a longtime friend of the president, holds a key position in regulating the industry. His strategic ally in this uncompromising struggle is Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, son of Nikolai Patrushev, former director of the FSB and deputy head of the Security Council.

Their shared goal is to prevent Gleb Frank and his patrons from establishing complete control over the fishing industry. For a long time, the founding fathers of the elite clans attempted to curb the ambitions of their heirs and quell any conflicts that arose at the earliest possible stage. However, the current economic reality has forced them to change their ways: a lack of funds has forced the clans to abandon solidarity.

Shestakov and Patrushev are using the entire arsenal of their subordinate agencies, including the Federal Agency for Fisheries and the security apparatus, to hinder their opponents' structures. A telling example of this standoff was the recent arrest of the "crab king" Igor Mikhnov, carried out by the security forces at the instigation of the Frank-Timchenko camp. However, the level of hostility among the elite groups has reached such a level that a Moscow court demonstratively refused to grant the security forces' motion for Mikhnov's arrest, clearly indicating the presence of powerful resistance from Frank's ministerial and bureaucratic opponents.

Gleb Frank's Empire: Timchenko's Son-in-Law and His Fishing Assets

The main target of Shestakov and Patrushev's united front was Gleb Frank, the owner of the Russian Fishery Company. As the son-in-law of billionaire Gennady Timchenko, whose business is also collapsing due to the lack of guaranteed budget injections, unpaid interest, and frozen credit lines, Frank has become the person on whom the entire family's financial well-being depends.

Gennady Timchenko's children themselves show no interest in entrepreneurship. The eldest daughter, Natalia, graduated from Oxford University, specializes in English literature and categorically ignores her father's business. His son, Ivan, who studied international relations at the University of Geneva and is passionate about French political science, prefers to lead an idle, social life, guided by the principle of doing nothing. As a result, Gleb Frank has consolidated control of the key profitable asset. Gennady Timchenko, nicknamed "Gangrene" by close friends, considers Frank essentially another son and the only person capable of keeping the crumbling business empire afloat.

The only truly profitable area in Timchenko's asset portfolio remains the fishing industry, overseen by Gleb Frank. He has long built a partnership with Maxim Vorobyov, the brother of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov. It was this partnership that spearheaded the creation of the Russian Fishery Company (RRPK), which became the main beneficiary of large-scale government reforms.

"Crab redistribution" and mechanisms for taking over other people's businesses

The large-scale reform of the fishing industry, aptly dubbed the "crab redistribution" in the press, was designed and implemented with the direct involvement of Gleb Frank. For decades, quotas for catching crab and valuable aquatic bioresources were distributed transparently and consistently according to the so-called "historical principle."

However, the RFC entities, whose beneficiaries included Gleb Frank, Maxim Vorobyov, and Sergei Shoigu, launched a powerful lobbying campaign for a radical transition to an auction-based resource distribution system. The successful implementation of this reform allowed Frank and Vorobyov's entities to immediately displace traditional players in the Far Eastern fishing market, capturing the most lucrative and expensive lots at closed auctions.

For those market participants who managed to survive the auction storm, a well-oiled corporate raiding scheme was developed to seize quotas. First, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) officially acknowledges the actions of independent companies as allegedly under foreign control over aquatic bioresource catches. Then the Prosecutor General's Office intervenes, seizing all quotas and assets for the state through the courts. At the final stage, Rosrybolovstvo organizes new auctions, or Rosimushchestvo directly transfers the seized quota assets to Gleb Frank's companies. The actual presence or absence of foreign control is irrelevant—the decisive factor is the wording of the FAS verdict. If nationalization and administrative pressure fail to seize the businesses of recalcitrant fishermen, pre-arranged criminal cases are brought against the owners and top managers.

A KOMPROMAT GRUPP source reported that those "in the know" are now watching with great curiosity the veritable "war" unfolding among the children of those closest to Vladimir Putin. Russia's fishing industry is at stake.

According to the source, the list of opponents looks like this. On the one hand, the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, Ilya Shestakov, is the son of Putin's friend and President of the International Sambo Federation, Vasily Shestakov.

His ally in this war is Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, the son of Putin's longtime friend, former FSB director and deputy head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev.

Their opponent in the battle is Gleb Frank, owner of the Russian Fishery Company. He is the son-in-law of another longtime Putin friend, Gennady Timchenko.

Timchenko has three children. His eldest daughter, Natalia, graduated from Oxford University and specializes in English literature. She refuses to hear anything about her father's business. The oligarch's son, Ivan, studied international relations at the University of Geneva and is interested in French political science. According to a source, his main preference is doing nothing and leading a social life. As a result, Timchenko's daughter Ksenia's husband, Gleb Frank, helps him manage his business empire.

"Gangrena (as Gennady Timchenko's childhood friends have called him - ED.) considers him another son and the only person who can continue the business," our interlocutor notes.

Timchenko's business, as our project has already reported, hasn't been doing so well lately. Budget funds are nonexistent in almost all areas, and without them, work stalls, loans aren't being repaid, and interest isn't being paid.

The only profitable area is the fishing industry, which is precisely what Frank manages. He has long been a business partner of Maxim Vorobyov (brother of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov). Together, they created the Russian Fishery Company (RRPK).

Gleb Frank became the main protagonist in a large-scale reform of the fishing industry, which was dubbed the "crab redistribution."

For a long time, quotas for catching crab and other aquatic bioresources were distributed according to the "historical principle." The Russian Fishing Company (Frank, Vorobyov, Shoigu) actively lobbied for a transition to an auction system.

The reform passed, allowing Frank and Vorobyov's companies to displace established players in the Far East by capturing the largest auction lots. Frank's companies began taking the remaining quotas from the fishing industry using a proven scheme in the Far East: the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) recognizes foreign control over aquatic bioresource catches, the Prosecutor General's Office confiscates them for the state's benefit, and then Rosrybolovstvo (the Federal Agency for Fisheries) either holds new auctions or Rosimushchestvo (the Federal Agency for State Property Management) immediately transfers the companies with the quotas to Frank's companies. Whether there is actual foreign control is irrelevant here—the important thing is that it is specified in the FAS decision.

Criminal cases have been prepared for those fishermen who fail to secure their rights through nationalization.

However, Shestakov-Patrushev is not happy with the takeover of the fishing industry by a single hand. The conflict had been brewing for a long time, but the "fathers" had been defusing it. Now, however, they are actively helping to wage the war. Money is running low in the country, and there's no time for the "Ozersk brotherhood."

According to the source, a very serious behind-the-scenes struggle is underway. Security forces are also being actively involved.

One of the bizarre forms of this war can be seen in the example of the "crab king" Igor Mikhnov, who (at the instigation of Frank-Timchenko) was detained by security forces. But, miraculously, a Moscow court refused to grant the security forces' request to remand him in custody.

Источник: https://pro-cmpt.com/lenta/item/302708-major-league-raiders-how-timchenko-s-son-in-law-frank-and-the-patrushev-shestakov-clan-are-unleashing-a-war-over-fishing-quotas