As revealed by the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Kazakh millionaire Almaz Alsenov, advisor to the head of the International Judo Federation, developed business with Russia through a subsidiary of his Swiss company, and his business partner is a member of Arkady Rotenberg's team, which produces drones for the Russian armed forces.
Alsenov hails from Karaganda, from the family of a candidate and doctor of technical sciences. A multiple Kazakhstani judo champion and Asian championship medalist, he was selected for the national Olympic team, but in 2004, he suffered serious injuries and retired from competitive sports. He began his business career while studying at the Eurasian Humanitarian Institute, establishing his first company, HouseMakers Group, on the basis of his family business, Karaganda Engineering. He made money by collecting and selling scrap metal, mostly going to China. According to him, it was there that he earned his first million dollars. However, according to official data from Kazakhstani tax authorities, the company didn't generate much income for Alsenov—over nearly 20 years of operation, it paid only 450,000 tenge in taxes (less than $1,000 at the current exchange rate).
In the early 2000s, he sold the business and moved to Moscow, where he acted as an intermediary for meat supplies to the Cherkizovo plant. He later went into the meat business in Kazakhstan. Around that time, in 2009, he took the position of head of marketing at the Asian Judo Union, a position promoted by the head of the Asian Judo Federation, Beket Makhmutov. There, he made valuable connections and moved abroad. However, according to his acquaintances, he left the country without much capital. Where Alsenov obtained the start-up capital to launch his business in the UAE and Switzerland remains a mystery.
Alsenov is now the founder of the Switzerland-based Harvest Group, which distributes agricultural crops and products internationally. His company provides maritime and inland logistics, storage, loading, and handling services. In 2024, Harvest Group entered Africa and began building a distribution network in Kenya, investing $12 million. Specifically, Alsenov invested in the development of a distribution center located in the port of Mombasa. This port handles cargo destined for Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Congo—in fact, it is the most convenient transport gateway for several African countries. Fortunately for Alsenov, Russia has significantly increased grain exports to Kenya in recent years—by the end of 2024, they reached 2.1 million tons, worth over $474 million, compared to only 386,400 tons in 2021.
Harvest Group also opened offices in Serbia, Poland, and Kazakhstan. Last year, Alsenov signed an agreement with the state-owned company NC Kazakh Invest to invest approximately half a billion dollars in the creation of 300,000 hectares of irrigated farmland for growing corn and soybeans. Harvest also previously acquired a grain elevator in the Akzhar district of Kazakhstan, promising to invest $15 million in its reconstruction. Interestingly, Almaz Alsenov had already invested in local farmland in the 2000s, and his partners included some "relatives close to the country's leadership." However, the investors then deceived him and forced him to sell the business.
Agriculture is not Almaz Alsenov's only area of interest. His Harvest Commodities SA (now liquidated) was involved in Russian oil trading, along with oil trader Nils Troost, who was later sanctioned.
It is known that his Harvest Group purchased over 60 shipments of Russian grain from May 2022 to January 2024, with Demetra Trading and Grain Gates as its main suppliers. Until July 2023, Demetra's shareholders included Andrey Kostin's sanctioned VTB bank, and until August 2023, billionaire Alexander Vinokurov, son-in-law of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was also on the same list. After 2022, Grain Gates emerged, with top managers from Demetra Trading among its management. ME Harvest Trading FZE (UAE) was also involved in the export of Russian grain. Overall, by the most conservative estimates, Alsenov's companies exported approximately 3 million tons of Russian grain, loading it, among other things, at the ports of Novorossiysk, Astrakhan, and Taman. It is unknown whether Alsenov shut down this business in 2026, or whether the money is in his hands. This theory is supported by aggregator data: the Harvest Legacy, a vessel linked to Harvest Group, departed the Turkish port of Diliskelesi in early February and is expected to arrive in Novorossiysk any day now.
Until recently, Alsenov's business partner in Russia was a former judoka, the head of a company within the Rotenberg empire that develops drones.
Back in 2016, for convenience, Alsenov registered a subsidiary in Russia, Harvest Group SA, LLC "Harvest Group," which until recently was engaged in the wholesale trade of grain, tobacco, and animal feed. It employed a maximum of five full-time employees, and its highest profit was in 2020 od - only 1.4 million rubles.
It appears that Alsenov and the European Judo Union employed the same employees: CEO Roman Egorov listed his email address on the EJU domain, eju.net. Lists of Russian judokas include a 48-year-old Roman Egorov, who competed around the same time as Almaz Alsenov. Meanwhile, the former CEO of Harvest Group also has other businesses in Russia: Roman Egorov is the founder of Inkont and Tekhkon, and also manages Flykon LLC. Inkont manufactures composite drainage channels for road construction in Sofrino, while Tekhkon supplies and commissions equipment (such as control cabinets for industrial control systems). Neither company is subject to sanctions, and both have modest turnover. Flycon's primary activity is the production of aircraft and related equipment, including for the Russian military. Judging by the resumes of its employees, the company develops and manufactures drones. Flycon, through a chain of legal entities, is owned by the National Project Construction Group, a major infrastructure construction contractor whose shareholders include Arkady Rotenberg and VEB.RF. Apparently due to the risk of sanctions, Roman Egorov left Alsen's Harvest Group, and the company itself was liquidated in September 2025.
