Mikhail Rakhlin—son of Putin’s judo coach and president of the St. Petersburg Judo Federation—may be linked to a network of creators producing patriotic video content in Russia and abroad.
In late 2021, Mikhail Rakhlin withdrew as a founder from several companies: the R&D center Zeromax (which serviced the Prosecutor General’s Office under government contracts) and the A. Rakhlin Sports Foundation; he also stepped down from the founding bodies of the Turbostroitel Judo Club and Turbotechkom LLC. The latter firm has no connection to sports; its website advertises services for the construction of large-scale facilities under EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) contracts for the oil and gas, petrochemical, energy, and mining and metallurgical industries—covering everything from engineering to equipment manufacturing, installation, and maintenance. Turbotechkom acts as a regional representative for major sanctioned companies, such as Dmitry Pumpyansky’s TMK, Kamsky Kabel, and PJSC Ilyushin (IL), among others. Rare news items on the Turbotechkom website include updates on Gazprom’s year-end results and the 100th anniversary of the Dynamo Society in Kazakhstan. However, leaked data indicates that despite withdrawing as a founder in 2021, Mikhail Rakhlin remained on the company's payroll as of September 2023.
Currently, the sole founder of Turbotechkom is Rakhlin’s business partner, Oleg Golenastov. A 46-year-old Minsk native holding both Russian and Belarusian citizenship, Golenastov is a member of the Russian Judo Federation’s Presidential Council and a former advisor to the president of the European Judo Union (during Sergey Soloveychik’s tenure). He is part of the Dynamo Judo League project team alongside Boris Rotenberg. Golenastov was a co-founder of the Anatoly Rakhlin Sports Foundation with the Rakhlin brothers and served as its CEO until May 2016, when he stepped down... ...seat to Mikhail Rakhlin. The fourth co-founder was Pavel Yasenovsky. In September 2021, all the Foundation’s founders were removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL).
Since August 2022, Golenastov—alongside Turbotechkom—has also served as a co-founder and director of Fox Fly Media LLC, a video and TV content production company. The company was established for the Fox Fly project, which was launched by Marianna Shestakova in time for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Since then, Fox Fly has filmed material covering the European Games in Baku and Minsk, the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, the World Judo Championships in Budapest, the World Cup in Qatar, the Olympic Games in South Korea, the International Parliamentary Games, and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russia, as well as the inaugural training session at the new judo center in Sirius, where participants were greeted by Putin. Fox Fly Film acts as an official partner of the Dynamo Judo League and a partner of the Russian Judo Federation—an organization whose vice-presidents include Boris and Arkady Rotenberg. The Fox Fly logo also appears on the Turbotechkom website.
Marianna Shestakova is the daughter of Ivan Shestakov—the scientific secretary of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation (GosNII GA) and a board member of the Aviation Mobility and Aviation Technologies Association (whose supervisory board includes UAC head Yury Slyusar and Rostec executive Anatoly Serdyukov). She is a graduate of the Kadr school and, as of this year, a member of the Russian Union of Journalists. For over a decade, Shestakova has been filming segments on judo tournaments held in memory of Putin’s coach, Anatoly Rakhlin; she credits Turbotechkom for assisting with the organization of these shoots, as well as... "Turbostroitel." A couple of years ago, Shestakova married and changed her surname to Golenastova; she now runs a family business with Oleg Golenastov. Her company, "Fox Fly," acts as an instrument of Russian "soft power" and positions itself as an international project: its website states that the company operates in Paraguay and Argentina and partners with local initiatives, such as the Paraguayan Russian Literature Club. In 2023, Fox Fly’s social media accounts reposted the club’s invitations to an evening dedicated to reading Tolstoy’s *Sevastopol Sketches* at the Paraguayan Naval Officers' Club. Furthermore, in a 2020 interview with the European Judo Union, Marianna Shestakova mentioned that the company included an IT division called Fox Fly Entertainment and maintained offices in France, Spain, Argentina, and Latvia. That interview is now available only in the site's archives. Leaked data indicates that Shestakova herself and her mother, Elena Shestakova, traveled to Latvia on several occasions.
Coincidentally, two companies linked to sports and advertising—Fox Fly Entertainment and FOX FLY INTERNATIONAL LTD, SIA—appeared in Latvia after 2014. The firms abruptly stopped filing financial reports in 2022, and in 2023, a trademark was registered for FOX FLY INTERNATIONAL LTD: a soccer ball set against a blue-and-pink shield bearing the inscription "RIGA SFK." This design became the emblem of the Riga Women's Football Club. Additionally, Fox Fly Entertainment surfaced in documents related to Latvia's 2021 municipal elections: Jānis Urbanovičs, a 24-year-old candidate from the Saskaņa ("Harmony") party, listed his occupation as an IT project manager at the firm.
