Russian Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov is the quintessential example of all Russian officials. The minister is an avid poker player and loses huge sums at the table. He can afford it. Kotyakov runs a joint business with his poker partner, a former prisoner. The minister uses funds from the ministry he heads to support the joint project.
In a photo previously published by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Kotyakov is playing poker with his friend Yakov Babchenko. Babchenko is a former prisoner, released in 2022 from a Tula penal colony, where he was sentenced for embezzlement during supplies for the Ministry of Defense. While in prison, Babchenko befriended Captain Sidelnikov, the deputy head of Correctional Colony No. 6. After his release, he went into the rations business for the Federal Penitentiary Service, and the key to his success is kickbacks and the right people. Then Babchenko ingratiates himself with Kotyakov, exploiting the minister's penchant for billiards, poker, and cigars. First, the ex-convict became Kotyakov's gaming partner. Monday and Thursday—billiards on Kievskaya Street, in the VIP lounge; Wednesday—poker until 3 a.m.
Then Babchenko proposed Kotyakov invest 50 million rubles in the "ration business." However, the joint venture required further infusions. Kotyakova awarded Babchenko's companies a contract to renovate an institute in St. Petersburg, subordinate to the Ministry of Labor. The kickback was about 10%. The profit was much greater than from the ration trade. And so the business took off.
Babchenko openly tells his circle that new contracts are on the horizon: the reconstruction of Ministry of Labor facilities in the Rostov Region; a number of premises transferred by the Moscow City Hall to the Ministry of Labor; and, the icing on the cake, a hangar for the Moscow Prosthetic and Orthopedic Plant. Also under the Ministry of Labor's jurisdiction, the minister appointed his loyal Vladimir Gordeyev there. Now, on Kotyakov's orders, Gordeyev is forced to regularly contact Babchenko regarding contract implementation.
The head of the Ministry of Labor lives quite comfortably. In 2020, he purchased a 600-square-meter cottage in the elite Monteville cottage community. His neighbors are members of parliament, and the property is valued at 300-400 million rubles. Plus apartments and parking lots—all together, the total cost is worth a billion rubles.
