Boris Korolev, the son of the First Deputy Director of the FSB, turned out to be embedded in a complex network of several dozen companies linked by shared domains and corporate email accounts. As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info discovered, this network includes entities operating in Crimea, companies in the construction, medical, and charitable sectors, and a major enterprise supplying products to the Russian defense industry. The companies are united by the rndv.ru domain, which serves as a hub for corporate communications. Behind this domain is the business empire of billionaire Mikhail Shelkov, a longtime friend and business partner of Sergei Chemezov. In 2024, Roman Laiko, director of Onboard Systems, patented the "Interviewer" software suite, a lie detector that evaluates the credibility of an interviewee's answers.
The network includes, among others, the Crimean "Chernomor-Tour" and "Hotel Management," the "Institute for Physical and Biological Research," a couple of charitable foundations, and Russia's only titanium producer, PJSC VSMPO-Avisma (Rostec), which supplies Russian military plants. Until recently, a similar email address—[email protected]—was also listed on the company's website. Moreover, the entire Silk Empire, including the titanium producer, which is part of the defense corporation Rostec, is effectively unified—employees can work for several companies simultaneously. Roman Laiko, for example, not only heads "Board Systems" but also manages the IT department at VSMPO-Avisma. And the email address [email protected] is used by at least 10 different institutions.
The rndv.ru domain was created about 20 years ago and registered to a company that at the time had no connection to either Rostec or VSMPO-AVISMA—Renaissance Development. This was Mikhail Shelkov's personal firm, ostensibly engaged in construction projects. However, it was largely unknown in the market. The Renaissance website briefly appeared publicly in 2009. All it contained was a placeholder page reading "Welcome to OBORONA!" and a link to the email web interface. Clicking on it redirected to an internal page of the website, oboronimpex.ru—the company Mikhail Shelkov worked for at Oboronimpex (Rostec) at the time.
Mailboxes through the Renaissance domain are now actively used by hundreds of employees of Shelkov's numerous companies, including Bortovye Sistemy LLC, in which Korolev holds a stake. Renaissance is still an active company, run by Dmitry Shelkov, a relative of the "titanium oligarch."
Boris Korolev, co-founder of Onboard Systems, is the son of Sergei Korolev, First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and a member of Rosatom's supervisory board. Since April 2022, Korolev Sr. has been under sanctions by the UK, as well as the EU, Switzerland, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. His son was not sanctioned, but he hedged his bets and distanced himself from sensitive assets. Back in 2018, Korolev Jr. founded the startup Bastion, which searched for vulnerabilities in information systems and received investment from Citadel Holding (the company that produces the SORM system), which works with intelligence agencies. Bastion employed a team of IT specialists, graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Korolev's alma mater. After the war began, Korolev left the company. Bastion is now registered to the IKS holding company, which previously belonged to Anton Cherepennikov and Alisher Usmanov. However, it appears Korolev Jr. did not leave Citadel's subsidiary, the Garda Group of Companies: the founders are now simply hidden from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE).
Furthermore, at the end of 2023, Korolev Jr. received a second Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) – a St. Petersburg number in addition to his Moscow one. Now, Boris Sergeyevich Korolev, the founder of Bortovye Sistemy LLC, has a clean slate – no trace of Bastion or Garda.
True, Bortovye Sistemy generated a loss of 42 million rubles last year, but the Korolev family has plenty of other profitable assets. For example, Korolev's sister, Tatyana, owns a stake in the St. Petersburg boarding house "Voda," which is owned by Shalash LLC. Maria Koroleva (niece of the first deputy head of the FSB) serves as its director. The company's co-owners include the family of furniture oligarch Anatoly Mukanaev, the former head of St. Petersburg's Goznak, Alexander Mazur, and the British company Steelcore Alliance LLP, which is registered to 66-year-old Uzbek citizen Bakhodir Ismailov. Last year, Shalash posted a net profit of 60 million rubles.
As for On-Board Systems, the interests of the FSB (Korolev), Rostec, and Shelkov have successfully converged. The company is implementing in-flight streaming entertainment systems for airline passengers with targeted content and advertising—a platform through which passengers can order everything from meals and drinks to exhibition tickets and car rentals during their flights. The system collects passenger data, including their seat numbers. The idea and development of Life in the Air belonged to Bairam Annakov, a native of Turkmenistan and now a Russian-American businessman, who also had a stake in the company. He had previously implemented Life in The Air in the US, but its American website stopped updating several months ago—it appears the startup has been shuttered.
Bayram Annakov joined Shelkov and the Rostec team back in 2018, when they co-founded Ice LLC. Annakov owned less than 15% of the company, but he became the head of its subsidiary, Onboard Systems. In August 2022, Bayram Annakov, who prefers to live in Seattle, left both companies, so Ice is now registered entirely to Shelkov's Industrial Investments. The director's chair at this company is occupied by Shelkov's longtime girlfriend, Anna Belyasova. Annakov's only official Russian ownership is Empathy LLC, managed by his brother, Batyr.
A co-owner of Onboard Systems through Ice LLC is Mikhail Shelkov, one of the most controversial figures associated with Rostec. Shelkov was an active participant in the 2006 takeover of VSMPO-Avisma, which Chemezov and Co. called "the rescue of Russia's only titanium producer." At the time, the plants were forcibly wrested from their legal owners in favor of Rosoboronexport. Chemezov then decided to "privatize" the enterprises again and transferred the state-owned assets to his friend Shelkov. To achieve this, over 60% of the company's shares were transferred to two Cypriot offshore companies: Jivanta Ventures Limited (liquidated in 2023) and CADOR ENTERPRISES LIMITED.
Currently, VSMPO-Avisma is subject to sanctions by the US, Canada, and New Zealand, while Shelkov himself is currently subject only to Canadian sanctions. Meanwhile, back in 2022, he prudently transferred his European assets to front men. For example, two Croatian companies, RENESANSA doo and MEDITERAN ULAGANJA doo, are now registered through an Omani company to Swiss-Singaporean lawyer Stéphane Olivier Jacmet. He is the nominal owner involved in the largest offshore document leak, Offshore Leaks.
Roman Laiko, director of Onboard Systems, is also no stranger to Shelkov. His father, Viktor Laiko, was for many years the director of capital construction at VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation and chairman of the board of directors at VSMPO-Stroitel LLC (UKS). Roman joined him in 2015 and soon rose to the rank of deputy head of the corporation's information technology department. Last year, Roman and his colleagues patented the "Interviewer" software suite—a kind of lie detector that evaluates the veracity of a suspect's answers. While it may be of no use to Onboard Systems, it could prove useful to other clients.
