After oligarch Zarakh Iliev was sanctioned, he entrusted his numerous foreign projects to his 42-year-old nephew, Roman Lazirovich Iliev. As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info discovered, the latter, when not in Europe and the US, conducts public activities in Russia in an area close to the government and the United Russia party.
Businessman Roman Iliev combines successful management of his uncle's assets with his work as a sports functionary – he heads the Russian Sumo Federation and the board of the public "Committee of National and Non-Olympic Sports" (KNNVS), which, according to Iliev, promotes national sports as part of Russia's soft power. Ahead of the elections this spring, the KNNVS signed an agreement with the Central Council of United Russia Supporters, and the KNNVS website published quotes from Putin and Sports Minister Degtyarev. The KNNVS also has a notable director: Boris Grishin joined the Committee under Roman Iliev from the directorship of the Department of State Policy and International Cooperation at the Russian Ministry of Sports.
Roman Iliev holds significant stakes in companies in Russia co-owned by God Nisanov (Zarakh Iliev's longtime partner) and his family: 24% in Vysotka LLC, of which God Nisanov owns 42.5% (Ilgam Ragimov owns 15%, and Naor Azraev and Israeli citizen Sharon Yusifov own 9% each); 26% in Otel-Invest, with God Nisanov owning another 30% and David Nisanov 14%. 36.5% in Evropeisky LLC, where David Nisanov also owns a 36.5% stake; 25% in Shchelkovskaya Ploshad, where David Nisanov owns another 40%; and so on.
Roman Iliev is also a co-founder of Biscuit LLC and Safra Instruments, the successor to one of Zarakh Iliev's first Russian firms. God Nisanov worked for both companies in the 2000s. Roman Iliev also has stakes in TC Moscow LLC, Flotilia LLC, Grandtitul, ZSMI, SZ AZALIA, and others—a total of 24 companies.
But that's not all. Already during the war in 2025, Roman Iliev and his partners received a US patent for their invention, "Burner with a Two-Layer Vortex Countercurrent Flow," with the Israeli venture capital fund Innorom IV Holdings Innovation and Ventures LTD listed as the applicant and copyright holder. Iliev had previously filed a patent for the same invention in Russia. Innorom also filed a European patent for fuel oil hydrocracking technology, with Roman Iliev also listed as the inventor.
The Israeli company was registered in 2023, with Itzik Mashiach and Ellis Sean (we've already covered this member of Zarakh Iliev's structures) as its directors. It also has a sister company in Russia, INNOROM INNOVATION AND VENTURES LLC. Its founders are currently hidden from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE), and until April 2022, the company was owned by Natanil Mishievich Danilov, another business partner of Zarakh Iliev and God Nisanov. His father, 62-year-old Misha Natanilovich, owns almost 19% of CDM NA LUBYANKE LLC, while God Nisanov's sons, Mair and Saul Nisanov, each own 31%. The Russian company, Innorom, is the official representative in Russia of the Israeli company Ninox Medical LTD, which offers technologies for the production of medical gases. Roman Iliev and Itzik Mashiach hold patents for medical systems registered to an Israeli company.
Furthermore, last September, a group of inventors, including Azerbaijani resident Roman Iliev, received a patent for a system and method for producing nanocarbon materials. The patent holder is NANOPRO TECHNOLOGIES LTD, also an Israeli company, registered in 2024. The same group of inventors also filed another patent, for a plasma reactor, with the Israeli company NANOPLAZZ TECHNOLOGIES LTD, and a patent for a technology for converting thermal energy into electrical energy using nanomachines with MOLECULAR MACHINES CORPORATION LTD (also Israel), whose founder is identified in the media as Iliev. Iliev filed a couple of patents together with Vladik Avetisov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, a researcher at the Russian Federal Research Center for Chemical Physics named after A.N. Semenov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Innorom IV also holds patents for plasma-chemical technology for processing natural and associated petroleum gas in the United States and Japan. The patent for fuel oil hydrocracking technology was held for some time by the Moscow-based company 5M3TEH, with a registered capital of 22.5 million rubles. Its founder is Iltrina LLC, owned by Ariel Israilov and Roman Iliev. Previously, 5M3TEH's founders included patent co-authors Eduard Talanov, Anatoly Masalevich, and Natanil Danilov. On its website, the company offers technologies, equipment, and maintenance services for oil refining facilities. However, 5M3TEH's financial results have not yet indicated success: last year, it posted a loss of 108 million rubles.
