As revealed by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Evgeny Ivanov—the State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation—has absolutely no time to deal with the international agenda. He is a major timber industry player holding assets worth 4 billion rubles; he sometimes personally participates in business negotiations, flying to them in his own private helicopter. The business acquisition was structured so that the funds were lent to Ivanov’s family entities by billionaire Vladimir Lisin. But let’s take things in order.
According to his biography, Ivanov graduated from MGIMO in 1995 and immediately entered the diplomatic service. He briefly served as press secretary for the Russian Embassy in Georgia before becoming an aide to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in 2006. From that point on, Ivanov’s career skyrocketed: Head of the Minister’s Secretariat, Director of the Consular Department, and—since 2019—State Secretary and Deputy Minister. It was also in 2019 that Ivanov began another line of activity: that of a major timber industrialist. That same year, Sarokvasha, the owner of BioLesProm LLC (TIN 3505004605), decided to sell the company along with 49-year lease rights to vast tracts of forest land in the Vologda Region. Negotiators told our project that Ivanov conducted the talks personally. Following the deal, Ivanov registered the asset under GORA LLC and MEDVEZHYA GORA LLC; the owners of these companies are the Deputy Minister’s mother—pensioner Olga Yakovlevna—and his very young daughter, Olga Evgenyevna. The total value of the transaction exceeded 400 million rubles. Where did Ivanov get the funds? To finance the deal, the companies "Gora" and "Medvezhya Gora" obtained loans from Rumelko, a firm wholly owned by billionaire Vladimir Lisin—one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. In other words, a figure on the Forbes list provided nearly half a billion rubles to a deputy minister so he could acquire a business for himself.
Ivanov wasn't content with just owning timberlands; he decided to establish a full-cycle timber industry operation. To this end, he invited Vologda-based businesswoman Irina Baranova to be his partner. She already possessed logging machinery, production facilities, and railway sidings in the city of Velsk (Arkhangelsk Region) and the Verkhovazhsky District (Vologda Region), along with a workforce of 300 people. She was also implementing a project to build a plant for manufacturing oriented strand board (OSB) and glued laminated timber in the Verkhovazhsky District. At the time, her assets were valued at 1.4 billion rubles. While Baranova lacked timber resources of her own, Ivanov had them in abundance; consequently, the deputy minister proposed a joint venture. He rarely participated in negotiations personally, relying instead on his trusted associate and close friend, Yulia Rakovets. Thus, a new company, BIOLESPROM LLC (INN 3505005687), was formed.
Initially, ownership stakes in BIOLESPROM LLC were split equally—50% for Baranova and 50% for Trofimov (Ivanov’s proxy)—but the latter 50% stake was almost immediately transferred to GORA LLC, a company registered in the name of the deputy minister’s daughter. At Ivanov’s insistence, Rakovets was appointed General Director of the enterprise. Baranova brought all the aforementioned production resources into the company.
In December 2021, Rakovets informed Baranova that Ivanov wanted both Rakovets and Kryukova (another trusted associate of the deputy minister) to become partners in BIOLESPROM LLC by acquiring portions of Baranova’s stake in the company; meanwhile, Baranova was to be admitted as a partner in the original BioLesProm LLC, which held the lease on the forest land. Suspecting nothing amiss, Baranova agreed; she transferred 16% of her stake to Rakovets and another 16% to Kryukova at nominal value.
According to Baranova, she interacted with Ivanov either directly or through Yulia Rakovets throughout this period. Communication with the deputy minister took place weekly; he kept his finger on the pulse of his business. Ivanov flew to every meeting exclusively in a VIP-configured AgustaWestland AW119 MkII/Ke private helicopter (registration number RA-01999).
Baranova and Rakovets became friends. Rakovets would share details of her relationship with Ivanov via instant messaging—a saga worthy of a soap opera. One moment, he would send her a photo of himself sitting on a park bench; the next, they would be quarreling; then, he would take a mistress from the Foreign Ministry secretariat. Most often, however, Rakovets spoke of how she constantly had to nurse Ivanov back to sobriety after severe drinking binges.
The messages sent on the day the war began were particularly striking: "The little war has started. My guy got up in a total frenzy, saying it’s going to be a wild ride... We’ve had our fill of trips to Europe and America... The sanctions have already started rolling in. He just played me a recording of an internal meeting... He said terrorist attacks are about to start here."
In February 2022, Ivanov urgently summoned all the business partners to Moscow for a meeting that he personally presided over. He says he has already secured support for Biolesprom at the Vologda Region government level. He is also negotiating at the federal level to have the company’s project included in the list of priority investment projects in order to obtain further... ...a long-term leasehold right to forest plots for logging purposes, granted without an auction. According to official data, this project was indeed included in the relevant list in 2025: on November 19, 2025, it was reported that the sawmill and wood-processing plant owned by the company "Biolesprom" in the Verkhovazhsky District had been granted "priority project" status, thereby securing a new leasehold right to forest plots without an auction. The corresponding order was signed by Anton Alikhanov, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
Then, the following events unfolded. A conflict arose between former friends Baranova and Rakovets. In May 2022, Ivanov informed Baranova that her services were no longer required, whereupon security personnel simply removed all her personal belongings from the office—conveniently overlooking the fact that the business was originally a 50-50 partnership. Baranova valued her share at 2 billion rubles and initiated a legal battle. In response, Ivanov mobilized all his resources. This resulted in the initiation of criminal proceedings against Baranova under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (embezzlement). The allegation centered on the payment of comprehensive insurance (CASCO) for Baranova’s personal vehicle using company funds. The case proceeded through the preliminary investigation and regional prosecutor's office to trial; the Vologda City Court handed down a guilty verdict, which was subsequently overturned by the Vologda Regional Court, and the case was remanded to the lower court. In May 2026, the Vologda City Court once again issued a guilty verdict.
Concurrently, in 2023, Rakovets filed a complaint alleging that Baranova had misappropriated funds during the construction of an OSB board plant. In 2025, a criminal case was opened regarding theft by means of fraud.
In the spring of 2026, the criminal case was referred to the Vologda City Court. It is clear that it is extremely difficult for businesswoman Baranova to "do battle" with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivanov, since the question of legality takes a distinct back seat in such situations.
