Scandalous deals of Kirill Kubushka: from the german train station scam and MSPC bankruptcy to connections with oligarchs, the KGB, and criminal networks

Scandalous deals of Kirill Kubushka: from the german train station scam and MSPC bankruptcy to connections with oligarchs, the KGB, and criminal networks

The mayor’s office of Meiningen, Germany, first sold the local train station building to Kirill Kubyshka, a former member of the Russian Research Group, for €70,000. Later—after the war in Ukraine had already begun—the city bought the dilapidated building back for €2 million.

Kubyshka is not an independent figure. Behind him stands the sanctioned oligarch Alexander Abramov, a longtime associate of Roman Abramovich, who is also under sanctions.

But that is not all. Kubyshka is connected to KGB veteran Eduard Bendersky, a close friend of secret service hitman Vadim Krasikov, who was arrested for murder in Germany and later exchanged for Western prisoners.

In Moscow, the Interregional Specialized Postal Center (MSPC) is currently facing bankruptcy. It was a former subsidiary of Russian Post through which top managers of the state-owned company profited from government procurement in the 2000s.

MSPC supplied the postal service with envelopes, sealing wax, paper twine, and other consumables. The company was extremely profitable, but in 2016 it was privatized. Its new owner was Kirill Kubushka, a little-known Moscow native of the Russian Research Group.

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During postal auctions, Kubushka had to travel several times to Germany to negotiate with the state railway company and the mayor’s office of Meiningen over an important deal: the purchase of an entire railway station along with the surrounding city area.

The city received €70,000 for the historic building and the land in front of it. In return, the investor was obligated to restore the station and adapt it for new uses—such buildings are often converted into art galleries, shopping centers, hotels, or even apartments.

However, Meiningen City Hall was unlucky with its investor. The Russian businessman did nothing, waited six years, and then announced that he was ready to return the dilapidated building to the city—but for €2 million.

Surprisingly, in November 2022, the German city hall agreed and paid the money.

The purchase had been registered under the German company RK-Bahn Entwicklung GmbH, where Kirill Kubushka was listed as a director alongside his long-time associate Elena Romashkina.

After the resale, the company was merged with RENTAKAPITAL GMBH (also controlled by Kubushka), renamed, and shut down. However, Kubushka’s other German companies continue to operate. These include RKR IMMOBILIEN GMBH, with a registered capital of €50,000, which owns real estate, and GIFHORN IMMOBILIEN-ENTWICKLUNGS-KG, which owns properties in the Iggelheimerstrasse industrial park in Speyer.

It is unlikely that even a highly paid Moscow lawyer would have had the funds for such a project. His boss, however, did.

Kubushka was a top manager at Central Trust Company. Until 2022, Centrotrust was approximately 70% owned by Alexander Abramov of EVRAZ—not directly, but through a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus. In the 2022 financial statements, the sanctioned Abramov no longer appears.

Abramov may soon face another headache related to his British company, EVRAZ PLC, which he formally left in March 2022 in an attempt to remove it from sanctions.

The company’s new director, Maxim Bashkatov, flew from Moscow to Crimea in May 2021. His airline tickets were purchased by Eleonora Vitol, a graduate of Moscow State University.

Centrotrust specializes in managing mutual investment funds whose shareholders are not disclosed in official reports. According to documents, the assets legally belong to completely different individuals.

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Centrotrust manages the following funds:

• Nautilus Mutual Fund (beneficiary: Roman Abramovich)

• Troika Capital Combined Mutual Fund

• Istra Lands Combined Mutual Fund

• MEDIATOR Combined Mutual Fund

• Renttrust Combined Mutual Fund

• Eurasia Combined Mutual Fund

• and many other closed-end mutual funds

Since 2022, according to Centrotrust’s financial statements, the company has been owned by Kirill Kubushka (with a stake exceeding 18 million rubles) and Dmitry Merkushenko.

Merkushenko is just one handshake away from the notorious hitman Vadim Krasikov. Among his companies is Plyazhi Zavidovo, 50% of which is owned by Eduard Bendersky, president of the infamous Mountain Hunters’ Club.

Bendersky is a KGB veteran who met with Krasikov several times before the latter’s trip to Germany. He is also the father-in-law of Maxim Yakubets, the leader of the Russian hacker group Evil Corp.

The bankruptcy of MSPC, a former asset of Russian Post, raises many questions.

First, the company was profitable and earned more than 6 billion rubles from government contracts with Russian Post, the Special Communications Agency of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Defense alone.

Second, MSPC received nearly 60 million rubles in support from the Moscow mayor’s office.

At the same time, net profit indicators began fluctuating immediately after privatization, and by the end of 2022, MSPC was deeply in the red.

Notably, among its creditors were its own founder, Kirill Kubushka, and his long-time business partner, Elena Romashkina.