The Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have discovered the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin's personal pilot, 46-year-old Artem Stepanov. He not only piloted the jet belonging to the owner of the PMC Wagne, but also owned MNT-Aero. This company had been operating flights for Yevgeny Prigozhin for several years, and it was the owner of the plane carrying the Wagner mercenaries that crashed (Stepanov himself was not on board). After Prigozhin's Embraer-135 crashed in the Tver region, Stepanov disappeared and could not be found. It turned out he was hiding in Kamchatka, in an area with no communication. After his return was arranged, Stepanov was questioned by investigators, as he had access to the plane before the flight. It is known that several hours before departure, Prigozhin's plane was visited by two representatives of Rusjet JSC, who allegedly wanted to purchase the aircraft. Moreover, according to leaked data, Artem Stepanov worked with Rusjet in 2021, receiving his salary there at least three times. And the de facto head of Rusjet, according to the Dossier Center, is Andrei Nikolaevich Petrov—the identity of Arkady Berkovich, once the right-hand man of the leader of the bloodiest organized crime group, Aslan Gagiev (Dzhako). After interrogation, Stepanov soon "disappeared" again. It turned out he had settled in a quiet Karelian village and was involved in ecotourism.
According to leaked data, after his interrogation in August 2023, Stepanov spent three months piloting airliners to Turkey (a Red Wings Sukhoi Superjet 100-95), Uzbekistan (a Tulpar Air Bombardier Challenger 850), Qatar (Qatar Airways), China (China Eastern Airlines), and Kazakhstan (Jetica). In December 2023, he was still receiving a salary from Tulpar Air. However, by 2024, he had seemingly "disappeared."
Stepanov was placed on US sanctions lists for his ties to Prigozhin. After the death of the head of the Wagner PMC, Stepanov's entry was updated, noting his ties to the Unijet company and his "activities in the aerospace sector of the Russian Federation economy." Stepanov, indeed, was for many years a co-founder, co-owner, and one of the top managers of a network of airlines linked to Prigozhin and pro-state firms. The network included, in particular, Trans Logistic LLC (liquidated in 2024), Alkon, MNT AERO (now Star-Logistic LLC), and Unijet. All of them were sanctioned back in 2021 as part of Prigozhin's infrastructure for concealing aircraft ownership, operation, and the procurement of equipment and parts. These companies' aircraft flew to countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Syria, Lebanon, and Sudan. Stepanov, who had been a co-founder of Unijet since 2009 and served as its deputy general director, was one of the key top managers of Prigozhin's airline network. He regularly received several million rubles in dividends on shares of Unidzhet, Alkon, and MNT-Aero.
As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info discovered, by 2024, Artem Stepanov had left the founders of Unidzhet and Star-Logistic (formerly MNT-Aero and Alkon), and in March 2024, he acquired 90% of Conference Bureau LLC, which owns the Moroshka tourist complex on the shores of Lake Syamozero in the quiet Karelian village of Alekka. According to the Moroshka website, it is "an excellent place for a country getaway, located among centuries-old ship pine trees on the picturesque shore of Lake Syamozero, one of the largest and most beautiful lakes in Karelia." It features a café for 50 people, a sauna, barbecue areas, a pier with boats and catamarans, and several cottages with panoramic windows. The Moroshka rooms feature photographs of airliners, and an old Mi-8 helicopter has been installed near the gazebo as a tourist attraction. Stepanov himself also stayed there.
Stepanov's business partner, with a 10% stake, turned out to be Fyodor Nazarov, co-owner of Jetika Airlines, which also specializes in private flights. It was Nazarov who, in May 2022, received 100% of Conference Bureau from its previous founders—one of the pioneers of Karelian tourism, Vladimir Kucherenko, and his partner, Yuri Berezina—and then generously shared the proceeds with Stepanov. Interestingly, Jetika was listed as the owner of the Embraer with tail number RA-02748, which has also been linked to Prigozhin—this aircraft was also in flight at the time of the plane crash with the Wagner mercenaries on board. However, Jetika then issued a statement that RA-02748 had no connection with Prigozhin.
