Originally Syndicated on March 17, 2023 @ 11:13 am
Table of Contents
Associates of Vladimir Putin
Dmitry Gorelov is one of the associates of Vladimir Putin who is involved in corrupt schemes and has ties to criminal organizations. After being born in Moscow, he went on to complete his education at the Leningrad Military Medical College in 1973. He joined the KGB in 1977 and rose through the ranks to the rank of colonel during his time there. Beginning in 1977, he worked in the department of foreign relations of the General Directorate of Health in Leningrad.
Along with a biophysicist from Leningrad named Sergei Kolesnikov, Dmitry Gorelov started working in the medical equipment sector in 1989. In 1991, he established the company Petromed, which was responsible for the importation of medical supplies and worked in collaboration with the Committee on Foreign Relations of the government of St. Petersburg, which Vladimir Putin chaired at the time. In 1996, he joined forces with other individuals to establish CJSC Biotechnological Consultancy.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, he was in charge of Petromed Holding and became a shareholder in Rossiya Bank, also known as the Bank of Vladimir Putin’s Friends.
The father of Vladimir Putin’s ex-son-in-law
In 2006, Gorelov and Nikolai Shamalov, the father of Vladimir Putin‘s ex-son-in-law, purchased a controlling stake in the Vyborg Shipbuilding Factory. Gorelov was the company’s president at the time (VSZ).
In June of 2000, he was presented with the honorary title of “Honored Health Worker of the Russian Federation” as a result of a decree issued by the President of Russia. His son, Vasily Gorelov, currently serves in the role of general director of Rosinvest LLC, which is a co-owner of the Vyborg Shipyard.
Favouritism
Gorelov, like many of Vladimir Putin’s other gangster-era acquaintances and business partners in St. Petersburg, saw a significant improvement in his financial situation after Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia. According to Dmitry Gorelov’s entry in the 2011 Russian Forbes ranking of the wealthiest businessmen in Russia, his fortune was estimated to be worth $500 million. Gorelov brought attention to himself in 2011 when it was revealed that Putin’s opulent palace outside Gelendzhik was built with money that was supposed to be used for the acquisition of tomography scanners for Russian hospitals. Gorelov was the one who leaked the information.
Bribery
Sergey Kolesnikov, Nikolai Shamalov, and Dmitry Gorelov allegedly used the assets of Petromed, which were transferred to offshore companies in the Virgin Islands and Panama and intended for the purchase of medical equipment for Russian hospitals, to finance the dealings of Bank Rossiya, according to documents provided by a former business associate ofVladimir Putin and Gorelov. These deals included buying Gazprom stock, acquiring the Gazprom Media Group, and acquiring the Sogaz insurance firm.
In 2005, Vladimir Putin made the initial reformation of the healthcare system a personal announcement. Tomography scanners were specifically mentioned as one of the high-priced pieces of medical technology that were slated to be purchased in accordance with the plan. As it turned out, government agencies purchased medical equipment at rates far above those allowed by the federal budget. These purchases were made at the expense of the federal government.
An investigation conducted by Reuters in 2014 uncovered a systemic scheme for the misappropriation of taxpayer money. Petromed, which in turn purchased the medical equipment from the British corporation Greathill, was the entity that sold the equipment to government agencies.
Shamalov and Gorelov ended up being the land’s most recent owners, as well as the original ones. It is important to emphasize that Greathill did not develop medical equipment; rather, they purchased it from Siemens at costs that were double the original cost. It is important to remember that Shamalov functioned as the regional director for Siemens in St. Petersburg.
They sent a combined total of $84 million in revenue to Swiss accounts from the sale of equipment to the government that was valued at at least $195 million. followed by Reuters’ research into several bank records. At the very least, 48 million dollars were transferred from these accounts to the accounts of the company that was involved in the building of Vladimir Putin’s palace.
Associations with criminal organizations
In addition, Gorelov’s biography featured his involvement in many criminal organizations. Alexander Petrov was the General Director of the Vyborg Shipyard, which was co-owned by the Gorelovs, father and son. He was the righthand man of the notorious mafia boss Ilya Traber, also known as “Antikvar,” and it is likely that he was a former killer for the Vyborg brigade of the Tambov organized crime group.
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