A controlling stake in gold miner Yuzhuralzoloto and its affiliated companies was purchased at auction by BTS-Most Holding, RBC reported. According to The Bell, Chechen billionaire Ruslan Baysarov was among the founders of that company.
The deal covered a 67.85% stake in Yuzhuralzoloto and other legal entities. Last summer, a court nationalized those assets from Konstantin Strukov, a United Russia lawmaker in the Chelyabinsk regional parliament. The Prosecutor General’s Office filed its suit shortly after FSB searches at the company.
At the time, Kommersant reported that Strukov had been detained while allegedly trying to leave the country on his private jet, and published a photograph from the cabin with security officers. The newspaper estimated the value of the nationalized assets at more than 200 billion rubles.
Russia’s Federal Agency for State Property Management put the package up for auction with a starting price of 162 billion rubles. The lot was sold only on the fourth attempt, with Baysarov’s structure offering 93.16 billion rubles.
The report notes that in 2019 Forbes ranked Baysarov 187th among Russia’s 200 richest businesspeople, estimating his fortune at $500 million. His main assets were described as stakes in Bamtonnelstroy-Most, which receives major bridge-building contracts, and the Tuva Energy Industrial Corporation, which is developing a coal deposit in Tuva.
The outlet Proekt has described Baysarov as closely connected to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. In a 2011 interview, Baysarov denied being Kadyrov’s “wallet” but said they were friends. Vedomosti reported that Baysarov made large donations to the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, and that the Chechen leader lobbied for a loan to Baysarov’s company for the construction of a ski resort in the republic.
As another example, Proekt cited a 2010 deal in which Baysarov acquired 20% of Igor Altushkin’s Russian Copper Company amid what was described as an attempted hostile takeover. According to the outlet, Altushkin’s problems then disappeared, and he was told to provide financial support for social and sports projects in Chechnya.