A leaked email exchange between officials of Capital Group with a discussion of the seating plan for the opening ceremony of OKO Tower, which took place on October 16, 2012, sheds light on the personal connections of Doronin, Tio and Berman. An email sent by Elena Vlasenok, an employee of the PR division of Capital Group, to Dinara Lizunova, Vice-President of the firm includes a list of guests and their seating arrangements. The seating plan is for a separate VIP area, composed of 12 tables, most of them reserved for one of the three shareholders.
The two best tables are reserved for Doronin – table 1 for such guests as Michael Gross, General Director of Morgans Hotel Group, Jeffery McCarthy, managing partner of SOM architectural bureau and Alena Doletskaya, a Russian journalist, editor and publisher. Doronin himself was seated at table 2 together with Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Arkady Novikov, a Russian entrepreneur and Igor Kesaev, a Russian tobacco distribution and weapons production magnate. Two of Doronin’s guests are presently under international sanctions. Dmitry Peskov is sanctioned by the UK, the European Union , Canada, Japan, Ukraine, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and the US for publicly defending the Kremlin’s aggressive policies and supporting attempts to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Igor Kesaev is sanctioned by the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Ukraine, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand for funneling revenue to fund Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine and for his close connections with the Russian regime.
The tables reserved for Tio have a guest list that is no less interesting. Tio was seated under table 3 together with Marat Khusnullin and Natalia Sergunina. Khusnullin, who at that time was Deputy Mayor of Moscow in charge of real estate and construction, is sanctioned by the EU, UK, Ukraine, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. Sergunina was and still is Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy and Land and Property Relations. She had been the object of numerous anti-corruption investigations by independent Russian journalists and anti-corruption activists, many of which have uncovered highly suspicious transactions that benefited Sergunina and Capital Group. Sergunina was also singled out by Alexey Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, for her role in undermining democratic institutions and free elections in Moscow.
Table 6 was reserved for Tio’s guests Valery Kashaev, aka ‘Kosha’ (a well-known member of the Baumanskaya criminal organization, who had served time in jail for armed robbery) and Gavriil Yushvaev, aka ‘Garik Makhachkala’ (also one of the leaders of Baumanskaya criminal organization, who served a jail sentence for robbery). Below is a photo of Yushvaev and Doronin taken at the event.
Another table reserved for Tio was table 7, which seated Moscow officials Alexander Fokin (Chief Inspector of Municipal Real Estate and Member of the Moscow Government), Anton Kulbachevsky (Head of Department of Natural Resources and Protection of Nature of Moscow Government) and Alexander Kibovsky (at the time Member of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Culture of Moscow) and Berl Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia.
Table 10, reserved for Pavel Tio, accommodated Oleg Sheikhametov (a Moscow entrepreneur, member of the Solntsevskaya criminal syndicate, notorious for the 500,000 USD bribe he gave to Colonel Mikhail Maksimenko of the Russian Investigative Committee, which led to a jail sentence for the latter while Sheikhametov avoided arrest by fleeing the country), Lev Kvetnoi (Russian billionaire with diverse business interests, known to be involved with Solntsevskaya criminal syndicate) and Oleg Knyazev (presently Prime-Minister of Astrakhan region of Russia and at the time – a banker, associated with such Russian oligarchs as the aforementioned Lev Kvetnoi and the internationally sanctioned Andrei Skoch and Alisher Usmanov).
Tio’s seating plan appears to have followed this logic: important officials who were responsible for providing construction contracts and development permits to Capital Group were placed at one table with Tio, while Moscow officials of Jewish descent were gathered at one table with the Chief Rabbi of Russia. Leaders of Baumanskaya and Solntsevskaya criminal organizations were seated at separate tables and away from each other.
These leaked documents provide additional evidence of the close connection that exists between Doronin, Tio, Berman, corrupt Russian officials (many of whom are presently under international sanctions) and the Russian mob.
