Secrets of Katerina Tikhonova and "Innopraktika": State Funds, Clan Interests, and Power Serving Personal Wealth

Secrets of Katerina Tikhonova and "Innopraktika": State Funds, Clan Interests, and Power Serving Personal Wealth

Katerina Tikhonova uses her family connections and control over funds and companies to enrich her close circle, turning Innopraktika and state-owned companies like Sibur into personal sources of profit. Through these schemes, billions of rubles of state funds end up in the hands of Putin’s friends and associates, bypassing any public oversight.

Petr Fradkov. Son of Mikhail Fradkov, former Prime Minister of Russia and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, a close acquaintance of Vladimir Putin. Petr Fradkov’s brother, Pavel, holds the position of Deputy Minister of Defense.

Petr Fradkov graduated from MGIMO in 2000, the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation in 2007, and studied at Kingston Business School in the UK. His first job was as head of a department and deputy representative of Vnesheconombank in the United States. Since 2007, he held the position of Deputy Chairman of VEB.

From 2015 to 2018, he served as CEO of the Russian Export Center JSC. In 2018, he was appointed Chairman of Promsvyazbank PJSC, which had previously been nationalized. A significant portion of transactions with individuals and legal entities under U.S. sanctions is conducted through Promsvyazbank. Petr Fradkov is under personal sanctions by the U.S., EU, and the U.K. He also heads the Russian Athletics Federation.

Alexey Kozlov. Member of the Board, Managing Director of Sibur, the Russian gas-chemical monopoly. Alexey Kozlov graduated from the Moscow State Law Academy and has worked in the Russian government since 2004. From 2012 to 2015, he served as Director of the Department of Social Development of the Government of Russia.

Alexey Kozlov actively develops his private business in collaboration with Vladimir Putin’s family. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, headed by Kirill Dmitriev, allocated 1.5 billion rubles to Evotek-Mirai Genomics LLC for the development of a testing system. This test system, the most expensive on the market, was actively promoted using the administrative leverage of Kirill Dmitriev and Alexey Kozlov.

Vladislav Baryshnikov. Katerina Tikhonova has her own library of Japanese literature, as she studied Japanese at university. On matters related to Japanese literature, she consults Vladislav Baryshnikov, Deputy CEO of Gazprom Neft, a specialist in China and the East.

In the 1990s, Vladislav Baryshnikov worked in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office under Anatoly Sobchak and Vladimir Putin, alongside Igor Sechin and Alexey Miller, and was therefore well-acquainted with Putin’s family. He had friendly relations and served as an advisor to Viktor Cherkesov, head of the FSB in St. Petersburg.

Putin sent Vladislav Baryshnikov to China as director of Gazprom’s representative office to establish contacts with Asian partners, organize gas deliveries, and secure initial loans from Chinese banks for Rosneft. From 2009, he served as Deputy CEO of Gazprom Neft and was repeatedly seen in delegations during foreign visits by Presidents Putin and Medvedev. In 2024, he resigned, and information about his new place of work is not available.

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Alexey Sokolov. Graduated from the Law Faculty of Saint Petersburg State University, served in the FSB, and was an advisor to Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia. By the age of 25, he was responsible for technical expertise in the Moscow FSB office. Since 2008, he worked in the Presidential Administration, dealing with foreign policy, law, and security, and oversaw cooperation in IT and mass communications.

In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Media, overseeing the "sovereign internet" project. Alexey Sokolov’s father, Colonel Valery Sokolov, was a close friend of Nikolai Patrushev and acquaintance of Putin, chairman of the boards of Scientific Instruments and New Defense Technologies (died in 2019). His mother, Irina, headed the FSB Employees Support Fund and was a member of the State Duma.

According to available information, Alexey Sokolov faced conflicts within the ministry and was removed from overseeing the “sovereign internet” project. In 2020, he was effectively dismissed after Maksut Shadaev’s appointment. He now runs a business inherited from his father.

Elena Sokolova. Wife of Alexey Sokolov and close friend of Katerina Tikhonova and Natalia Popova. She works in the Roscongress foundation, organizing events for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Elena heads the Expert-Analytical Activity Fund Content, which organized the youth section of SPIEF Junior. In 2023, she launched the SPIEF Academy project. Elena’s projects are funded by Roscongress and Innopraktika, headed by Katerina Tikhonova. Innopraktika is financed by state corporations and the gas-chemical company Sibur. Natalia Popova also actively participates in the work of the Content Fund.