From the GRU to Putin Team: how former intelligence officer Chernykh, through the STK company, turned crushed stone trading into a garage of luxury Rolls-Royces and Mercedes under sanctions

From the GRU to Putin Team: how former intelligence officer Chernykh, through the STK company, turned crushed stone trading into a garage of luxury Rolls-Royces and Mercedes under sanctions

A collector of luxury cars has emerged in the Urals. As journalists discovered, an entire garage of Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz AMG, BMW, and Lexus vehicles has been assembled in Yekaterinburg by the aggregate company “STK,” owned by the Chernykh family — Anna (50%) and her son Aleksandr (50%). The company has interesting business partners, while the head of the family, Chernykh, has a serious background linked to the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate).

In total, there are 19 records on the Fedresurs (Federal Register) indicating leasing agreements in favor of STK, with the subject of these contracts being exclusively automobiles. Some of the data has been hidden — the company attempted to conceal exactly which vehicles it purchased. However, in several entries, the publishers forgot to remove VIN numbers, which allowed our project to determine that the company trading in crushed stone and sand is massively purchasing luxury cars rather than KAMAZ trucks. For example, there is a black Rolls-Royce Cullinan with license plate E013EE196. STK leased it from “Reso-Leasing” and insured it with PJSC “SAK Energogarant” (part of the Energogarant group, founded by former USSR Minister of Fuel and Energy, ex-president of RAO UES of Russia Anatoly Dyakov).

This Rolls-Royce previously belonged to Mihail Kholodtsov, a deputy of the Krasnodar Regional Legislative Assembly and beneficiary of OAO “Krasnodar Meat Processing Plant,” while the “beautiful” license plate was used until 2023 by a certain Oleg Krikun. STK is also linked to a luxurious purple Rolls-Royce Cullinan with plate K013KK96. In addition, STK leased a ROLLS-ROYCE SPECTRE and two Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles (black and gray), which were regularly parked nearby. These cars used the already familiar plate E013EE196 and its “twin” E013EE96. These and several other Mercedes vehicles were purchased from the St. Petersburg company “Interleasing,” owned by the family of the late billionaire Vladimir Kogan, who owned the UralSib Bank. All the Mercedes models were produced in mid-2022, meaning they were imported into Russia in violation of sanctions.

STK is profitable, but since 2021 its profit has been steadily declining (from 102 million rubles to 34.4 million). Meanwhile, a single Rolls-Royce Spectre — even used — costs around 50 million rubles. And STK is purchasing such cars in batches (and obviously not for itself). Interestingly, despite falling net profit, the company’s revenue has been steadily growing and reached 6.3 billion rubles in 2025 — such low profitability suggests possible tax optimization schemes.

The point is that STK is not an ordinary company. The head of the Chernykh family, a former GRU officer, works with one of the long-standing partners in the oil sector.

STK closely cooperates with LLC “Scientific Research and Design Institute of Oil and Gas ‘PETON’,” owned by billionaire brothers Polyakov — a major contractor of Gazprom Neft.

The second non-metallic company of Aleksandr Chernykh — “Russtroiservis” — cooperates with the St. Petersburg-based “Gazprom Podzemremont Urengoy.”

Aleksandr Chernykh is active in public life: he is president of the Sverdlovsk regional Muay Thai Federation and the “STK-Dobro” Foundation, and regularly appears in local media. Even during the war, STK launched joint projects with Putin Team, and the company directly cooperates with the “Defenders of the Fatherland” foundation.

The elder Chernykh is a former GRU special forces officer: he served in Germany in a reconnaissance and sabotage group. His unit was formed on the basis of the Kirovograd Airborne Assault Brigade of Special Forces and the Naitimen Guards Airborne Special Forces Brigade.