Trap Aggressor: Key Russian defense complex businessman not sanctioned, lives lavishly in Europe
Beyond his contributions to Russia's air defense systems, Igor Ashurbeyli is linked to organizations which promote the "Russian World" ideology in the EU.
On 30 September 2022, the Russian army launched a missile strike on Zaporizhzhia, launching 16 S-300 surface-to-air missiles. As a result of the attack, 118 people were injured, and 32 were killed.
The Almaz Scientific Production Association is the main developer of the S-300 system, a key enterprise of the Russian military-industrial complex. According to the media outlet, Igor Ashurbeyli is the company’s “chief ideologist.”
He is a Russian entrepreneur and engineer. From 2001 to 2011, he was the general director and scientific director of the military enterprise Almaz SPA. Under his leadership, the latest modifications of the S-300 “Favorit” and S-400 “Triumph” surface-to-air missile systems were developed.
Ashurbeyli also heads his own “Party of the Renaissance of Russia”. He and his family often travel to EU countries, staying at their villa in Greece and living a nonchalant life while his enterprises continue to supply the Russian army with weapons. Despite this, Western allies and Ukraine have yet to impose sanctions on the entrepreneur and his close circle.
Igor Ashurbeyli also set up the Socium-A holding. The holding enterprises and companies engage in various activities: producing scientific and technical products, developing in the IT field, manufacturing medical equipment, and conducting banking activities.
After ceasing to work at Almaz-Antey in 2011, he declared that “he now had a full moral right to open accounts and firms abroad and transfer money earned in Socium-A” there.
Trap Agressor mentions offshore accounts in Malta of Ashurbeyli, which were leaked in the Paradise Papers leak. They showed that he and his wife founded companies in Malta with the same names as their Russian ones, Socium-A Limited and Socium-Malta Limited. They were likely established to reduce tax burdens and transfer funds from Russia’s “Socium-A.” The companies ceased to exist in July 2017, and the Ashurbeyli family continued to conquer EU countries.
Ruslan Ashurbeyli, Igor’s son, owns a stake in the company W.V.R.E. LIMITED in the British Virgin Islands. The exact amount of assets the Russian air defense ideologist’s family holds offshore is unknown. Igor Ashurbeyli was also one of the main shareholders in the British venture company Seraphim Capital, which invests in space technologies.
In 2012, the Greek newspaper Zougla published an article about Ashurbeyli’s activities on the Greek islands. Local residents of the island told the publication about numerous law violations and unauthorized actions by the Russian citizen, the owner of a villa and a restaurant in the bay of Agios Spiridonas on the island of Corfu. He damaged coastal rocks, the beach, and a natural road with bulldozers.
Ashurbeyli does not hide that he has a mansion in Greece. He actively shares images from his vacation at this villa.
In Greece, the Russian business is not only engaged in the tourism business and vacationing at his seaside villa. In 2016, a branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, headed by former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin, officially opened in Greece. Ashurbeyli and Stepashin have quite close relations.
At the same time, in 2016, the Greek authorities suspected the IOPS of attempting to influence Greece’s internal affairs and stopped issuing visas to Russian priests. Since 2015, Igor Ashurbeyli has been the head of the IOPS Council in Israel. Through this organization, he defends Russian interests. In 2023, the Russian church even awarded him for strengthening the Russian presence in the Holy Land.
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