VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have identified the companies used to channel millions of euros by Boris Abaev and Alexander Kukuliev, co-owners of the mobile advertising traffic purchasing platform BIDIZ (whose major clients include Sberbank, Rostelecom, and VK). While they earn revenue in Russia by helping to advertise pro-government entities subject to sanctions, they simultaneously conduct business in the US and Europe. Abaev and Kukuliev were originally helped in their rise by billionaire Oleg Boyko; it was his Finstar Financial Group that provided $3 million in funding to the young entrepreneurs' company, Rocket10, in 2016 and pledged to integrate their technologies into its ecosystem. Public records indicate that Finstar only divested from Rocket10 in 2024. Boyko is under sanctions in several countries, including Poland; last year, Poland refused to remove him from its sanctions list, citing classified information regarding his ties to Russian intelligence agencies. A Polish Interior Ministry document states that the billionaire may have laundered money—sourced from both Russian government agencies and organized crime groups—through his fintech projects.
Since 2019, Boris Abaev and Alexander Kukuliev have operated a venture capital fund, Betastage Capital, focusing on digital technology and mobile gaming; the fund’s website states that it makes investments ranging from $50,000 to $1 million. In 2020, it was reported that the fund held $5 million in capital and planned to raise an additional $20 million in a second round. Gennady Lurie and Michael Levin serve as partners in the fund alongside Abaev and Kukuliev. Despite its claimed "international" scope, the Betastage fund appears to invest exclusively in startups founded by individuals from Russia. For instance, in 2021, it funded 3S Money, a UK-based online banking service for international business with Russian roots; the company was founded by Ivan Zhiznevsky, Andrey Dikushin, and Evgeny Dyugaev. The company operates through several legal entities: 3S MONEY CLUB LIMITED and New Digital Holdings Limited (UK), 3S Capital Partners B.V. (Netherlands), 3S Money (Luxembourg) S.A., 3S Money Club Limited (UAE), and 3S Money Limited (Hong Kong). Essentially, 3S Money provides businesses with multi-currency accounts and enables the receipt and transmission of large international payments via banking infrastructure across various countries. However, at a finance forum in 2023, a participant claimed that the previous year, 3S Money had routed large volumes of US dollars to Russia through the UK’s ClearBank. While the company’s website currently states that it does not work with businesses from Russia or Belarus, pages regarding payments to these countries remain on the site.
Additionally, Betastage Capital’s portfolio includes Viewst, a US-based service for automating the creation of advertising banners and creative assets; its founder, Victoria Duben (Potapova), is also a native of Russia. She is a former vice president of Alfa-Bank and the spouse of businessman Sergey Potapov—formerly the deputy director of Akela-N and a founder of TransEngineering, and currently the owner of Inertgaz, a business producing inert medical gases. Potapov continues to conduct business in Russia, counting dozens of state-run medical institutions among his clients. Victoria Duben herself also retains business interests in Russia; she is the sole founder of the Moscow-based LLC Profit Button Rus, a software development company. Its "Floating Button" software was included in the Russian Ministry of Digital Development’s registry (under No. 13858) in 2022, during the war.
Another project in which Abaev and Kukuliev invested through their firm Betastage is PlayPlov Inc., also registered in the US (New York). It is a small developer of simple smartphone games—such as *Unicorn*, *Towers*, and others. The company had a remarkably short lifespan: it emerged in 2020, yet by the summer of 2021, its games had vanished from online stores. The games revealed a curious link to the Uzbek gaming company SAB-GAMES: the designation "SAB Games" appeared in the games' technical data, and some were later released under that company's name. Based in Tashkent, the firm was founded and is led by Anton Stepanov—a 44-year-old Russian entrepreneur and former co-owner of the Moscow-based companies SAB LAB and Alliance GI (both now liquidated). Stepanov is currently registered as an individual entrepreneur in St. Petersburg.
To be continued.
