A gift to Putin on the anniversary of "SVO": Russian oligarch Malofeev buys Forbes Ukraine

The owner of the Ukrainian version of Forbes, businessman of Armenian origin Artur Granz, sells the publication to Maksym Krippi, a confidant of Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. The parties are in the phase of active negotiations, Malofeev demands from Crippa to speed up, as the Ukrainian Forbes should be a "gift" to Vladimir Putin for the anniversary of "SVO".

About the details of the deal on the purchase of Ukrainian Forbes by Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev in an exclusive investigation by journalists of 360UA.NEWS

For the Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, the acquisition of Forbes Ukraine is a chance to get into the narrow circle of those close to Vladimir Putin, such as propagandist Margarita Simonyan. Malofeev, the owner of the Russian media holding "Tsargrad", sponsor of the "Russian Spring" has been pounding the thresholds of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation for a long time with a request to launch his own political project of a conservative-patriotic direction, but he never received Putin's "blessing".

At the same time, Malofeev, under the control of the Second Service of the FSB, managed to achieve significant success in working with the "Orthodox" and Russian patriotic environment, residents of the DNR/LPR TOT, and the so-called "dobrobats". As a result, Malofeev was given the opportunity to lead his people to the Duma .

But the level of media competition on the "patriotic field" in the Russian Federation is quite high, and taking into account the capabilities of other players, Malofeev is somewhere at the "third echelon" level, and the only chance to break into the "higher league" is to bring to Vladimir Putin what they could not bring others: iconic American brand Forbes. And if not global, then at least Ukrainian.

We will remind you that recently the Russians practically managed to take over the global Forbes brand through Magomed Musayev, a tycoon close to the Kremlin, but the deal, which had actually been signed, collapsed after the publication in The Washington Post. “I just bought global Forbes. You understand that when you have the key to the world's most prestigious brand in your hands, this key will give me access to anyone," says Musaev in one of the recordings published by WP. Musaev's merits were highly appreciated in Moscow as well: according to the report of the TG channel Obraz budeschos , "the purchase of Forbes is a recognition that one honest person was able to do more than the entire Russian diplomacy in recent years."

Forbes Ukraine is not the first Ukrainian media to catch the eye of Maxim Krippa and Kostiantyn Malofeev. Since the beginning of the year, the Kripp-Malofeyev connection has already been acquired by three major Ukrainian media: Delo.ua, Glavkom and AIN.UA.

Media resources Delo.ua and Glavkom were registered for Ukrainian citizen Snopko Tetyana Davydivna, a communications specialist who has been working with Maksym Krippa and his partner Maksym Polyakov for more than 10 years. It is not difficult to guess that Tatiana is a "pound", given Snopko's background: a hired manager with a residence in one of the "Khrushchevs" in the sleepy Dnipro district.

After the information about Tetiana Snopko's relationship with Maxim Krippa got into the media , Forbes Ukraine decided to find a new "pound", more prestigious and less connected to Maxim Krippa, in order to sign the purchase agreement. But the ultimate beneficiaries remained the same: Kripp and Malofeev.

Among the Ukrainian establishment, Maksym Krippa is known as a representative of the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, for a long time he worked in the structures of the Russian oligarch as a sales manager and promoted his projects in Ukraine. It was Malofeev who helped his CEO to partially circumvent gambling bans in the Russian Federation, which enabled the unhindered operation of illegal online casinos of the Vulcan brand by Maxim Kripp and his namesake Polyakov. Detailed information about Vulkan's work in Ukraine and Russia in the investigation of the OSINT resource Black BOX: " Maxim Krippa and the casino "Vulk@n". How a partner of a Russian oligarch buys Ukrainian mass media "

Konstantin Malofeev's son Kirill is a Russian cyber sportsman (Likkrit), who played for the Virtus.pro team of Oleksandr Kokhanovsky and Anton Cherepennikov. Cherepennikov was involved in the development of "Citadel" system , which helps Russian special services track Internet users and tap phones.

It was for Malofeev Jr. that in 2020, the Russian oligarch wanted to buy the Dnipro Hotel in Kyiv, where they planned to hold e-sports competitions . Then the "Ukrainian IT expert Kokhanovsky" was chosen for the role of "pound", and the winner in the auction was "Smartland" LLC, registered in Brovary at 130 Kyivska Street, which, according to the YouControl belongs to Maksym Krippi.

Regarding interesting coincidences, it is worth noting the presence of three companies registered in Ukraine under the name "Citadel" in the asset portfolio of Maxim Krippa: LLC "CITADEL ARCHITECTS" (44240381), LLC "CITADEL INNOVATION" (41748785), LLC "CITADEL RIVERSIDE" (42526910). It is interesting that one of the trusted persons in Ukraine is ex-deputy from the People's Front Valery Babenko, who is directly related to cyber security technologies and information protection.

At the same time, Maksym Crippa himself tried to enter Ukrainian politics, running for the Kyiv City Council in 2015 from the Samopomich party, and in the Ukrainian media you can find enough information about Crippa's investments in e-sports and other startups. But at the same time, Maxim Krippa's e-sports teams still feature athletes from Russia, and his Vulkan online casino continues to operate in the Russian Federation, albeit illegally. Therefore, the purchase of Ukrainian media resources fits well into the development strategy of Crippa-Malafeev's political project in Ukraine.

Regarding the sale of Ukrainian Forbes, which may soon become part of Konstantin Malofeev's Tsargrad Russian media holding, Artur Grants should pay attention to the list of countries that have already imposed sanctions against Malafeev . After all, the sale of Forbes Ukraine to Krippi, through any intermediary, is a direct participation in the expansion of Tsargrad. Accordingly, Granz can spend the funds received for Ukrainian Forbes exclusively "in the swamps".