Structures linked to Russian billionaire and philanthropist Roman Abramovich provided loans totaling 13 billion rubles for the activities in Russia of Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor. That is according to Novaya Gazeta Europe, which reviewed 2025 financial documents of the company Diamand Estate. Among Shor’s other creditors, the outlet names Vladimir Putin’s childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg and businessman Andrey Goncharenko, whom The Washington Post previously described as an associate of Russia’s FSB.
The company Diamand Estate had previously been linked to Ilan Shor. According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, nearly all of its activity in practice comes down to financing the Moldovan businessman’s numerous projects.
Funding through Abramovich-linked structures
The outlet says that Evraz KGOK, the Kachkanar Mining and Processing Plant, which is part of Roman Abramovich’s Evraz group, issued Diamand Estate a loan of more than 7 billion rubles in 2024.
In addition, in 2025 Diamand Estate received 60 billion rubles from the firm Business Broker Finance. According to that company’s reporting, in 2024 it received two loans totaling 6.3 billion rubles from TK MS Trade. The owners of TK MS Trade are undisclosed, but the company is headed by Yevgeny Murlyk, a manager at Evraz.
Loans from Rotenberg-linked structures
Among Diamand Estate’s creditors were also companies that the publication links to Vladimir Putin ally Arkady Rotenberg. The company, for example, received a loan of 221 million rubles from Center-M, which is said to act in Rotenberg’s interests. Novaya Gazeta Europe and other media outlets had previously reported on it.
Diamand Estate’s reporting also lists interest payments on a loan from Mashinter, an operator of road cameras in Crimea. Until 2022, the firm belonged to businessman Yevgeny Roytman, whom media had previously described as “Rotenberg’s man.” According to the report, Mashinter was also involved in the financial infrastructure of Russia’s shadow fleet.
Another alleged sponsor of Diamand Estate was former Rotenberg brothers business partner Andrey Goncharenko, whose ties to Shor had previously been reported by Moldovan media. The Washington Post said Goncharenko carried out FSB assignments in Moldova.
Who Ilan Shor is and what projects are being financed
Ilan Shor is a Moldovan oligarch sentenced in his home country to 15 years in prison for involvement in the “theft of the century”, a scheme that siphoned roughly $1 billion from the country’s banking system. In 2016, the newspaper Kommersant reported that Shor had been declared persona non grata in Russia because he allegedly
“corrupts everyone he sees.”
Shor has lived in Russia since 2023. In 2025, he publicly presented the A7 platform to Vladimir Putin, a project he is developing together with Promsvyazbank, a core bank for Russia’s defense sector. A7 and the related A7A5 project are under sanctions in all key Western jurisdictions for helping to circumvent sanctions.
According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, money from Diamand Estate went, among others, to Shor-controlled blocked pro-Russian television channels in Moldova, an advertising agency selling integrations in Russian social networks on the Moldovan market, and Kyrgyz companies linked to the A7 payment system. The publication says Shor created this system to conduct international payments from Russia under sanctions, and that it is used by many Russian companies, including sanctioned manufacturers of combat drones for the war in Ukraine.
In addition, Diamand Estate allegedly finances the non-profit organization Eurasia, which took part in attempts by Shor to organize protests and bribe voters ahead of the 2024 elections in Moldova. For that, the organization was placed under sanctions by key Western jurisdictions. According to the outlet, the Eurasia foundation also participated in political campaigning during the recent elections in Armenia.