FSB Lieutenant General Vladislav Menshchikov heads the FSB’s First Service (counterintelligence), which cannot boast of a large number of spies caught, but has recently found itself at the center of scandals due to the fact that it arrests foreign journalists under the guise of spies to replenish the exchange fund (it is the First Service that is behind the criminal prosecution of The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich). As The Insider has found out, the high-ranking security officer is involved in corruption schemes around a Russian defense company, and registers expensive property and business in the names of his relatives.
Foreigner Hunter
Evan Gershkovich became the first American journalist arrested in Russia for espionage since the Cold War. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison colony. According to the prosecution, he allegedly collected information about Uralvagonzavod on behalf of the CIA. Initially, the main purpose of Gershkovich’s arrest was to exchange him for the Russian FSB killer Vadim Krasikov, who was arrested in Germany.
The operation against Gershkovich was carried out by the Department of Counterintelligence Operations (DCO) of the FSB, which is part of the Counterintelligence Service (the so-called First Service). For the past nine years, it has been headed by General Vladislav Menshchikov, who, according to The Wall Street Journal, personally reported to Vladimir Putin about the journalist’s case.
Previously, Menshchikov headed the defense concern Almaz-Antey, then the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President, which is in charge of a network of secret bunkers. He has headed the First Service since 2015.
Counterintelligence traces its history back to the time of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Today, the FSB’s First Service is engaged in countering foreign intelligence services and, in addition, monitors Western diplomats and journalists. The tactic of infiltrating foreign media outlets is also used to warn Putin about critical reports being prepared.
The FSB has a separate Department of Military Counterintelligence, which, among other things, fights corruption in the army. It is this department that is, for example, behind the arrest of Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov and private military contractors. But the head of counterintelligence Vladislav Menshchikov faces no fewer questions about illegal enrichment.
Billionaire Daughter
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU sanctions banned the sale of luxury cars to Russia, and Mercedes-Benz closed its business in the country. This did not stop Tatyana Menshchikova, the general’s daughter, from purchasing a new German-made Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 4MATIC in December 2022.
The cost of such a car exceeds the official annual income of even the head of the entire FSB, but Menshchikov’s daughter can afford such luxurious purchases. According to The Insider, companies associated with her own commercial real estate worth about 3 billion rubles.
To manage real estate in Moscow, the daughter of the head of the First Service uses several companies, of which she is a co-owner. These are OOO Galaks, OOO Agora and OOO Bioimpuls. The Insider has identified all the property registered to these legal entities.
Office space near the Belorusskaya metro station (4th Lesnoy Lane, 11) with an area of 692.7 sq. m for 133 million rubles.
Premises near the Baumanskaya metro station (Ladozhskaya Street, Building 1/2) with an area of 345.5 sq. m for 110 million rubles. This property is leased by KM Restaurants (Syto Piano restaurant).
A mansion near the Dostoevskaya metro station (Chernyshevskogo Lane, 15) with an area of 1220.4 sq. m for 780 million rubles.
Premises near the Universitet metro station (Leninsky Prospekt, Building 75/9) with an area of 188 sq. m for 60 million rubles. Leased by Sberbank.
A premise near the Marksistskaya metro station (23 Vorontsovskaya Street) with an area of 836.5 sq. m. for 123 million rubles. This office is leased by the Russian Football Premier League, and is its headquarters here.
A business center next to the Olympic (40 Shchepkina Street) with a total area of 2,807 sq. m and an approximate cost of 683 million rubles. Here, the building is rented from the daughter of an FSB general by the company Gazprombank Autoleasing.
Shopping center in Cheryomushki (Nakhimovsky Prospekt, Building 65A) with an area of 2,390.5 sq. m for 900 million rubles.
And also a warehouse in Yuzhnoye Medvedkovo (Chermyanskaya Street, Building 1A, area 3888.2 sq. m, 160 million rubles) and a land plot there. The total revenue of firms affiliated with Menshchikova last year exceeded 800 million rubles. Among other things, she owns a business selling sanitary pads, diapers for children and adults.
Almaz-Antey contracts
Her business partner will help to figure out where the daughter of the head of the First Service got the money to buy up commercial real estate. Menshchikova and Yan Novikov, the head of the state-owned Almaz-Antey Aerospace Defense Concern, own the companies in equal shares.
Almaz-Antey was headed by Vladislav Menshchikov from 2003 to 2014, and Novikov worked as his deputy. Menshchikov and Novikov are the same age, both from St. Petersburg. Their closeness is also evidenced by the fact that Novikov’s wife and Menshchikov’s son-in-law, according to The Insider, jointly owned a plot of land in the Moscow region until 2011.
As The Insider established, close members of the Menshchikov family received state contracts from Almaz-Antey. A relative of the FSB general’s wife, Tatyana Sukhorukova, was engaged in servicing business trips of employees of the state concern through Albion LLC. And the alleged mother of the head of the First Service, Valentin Menshchikov, owned a share in the New Technologies and Materials enterprise, which supplies Almaz-Antey with fasteners, at least until 2018. The company’s net profit amounted to hundreds of millions of rubles per year. Valentina Menshchikova was initially the owner of Galaks LLC, which was then rewritten to the general’s daughter. It turns out that the money spent on transactions with the state defense concern was invested in the commercial real estate of the Menshchikov family.
The daughter of the FSB general lives, according to The Insider, in the prestigious Khimki settlement of Novogorsk. Here she has an entire estate of several plots of land and cottages, which can be valued at half a billion rubles.
And these properties went to the family of the FSB general from the state concern. According to documents available to The Insider, in 2010, the owner of the land became Almaz-Solnechny LLC, which was part of Almaz-Antey at that time. Just a week and a half later, the new owner was Menshchikov’s son-in-law, and in 2019, the land went to the daughter of the head of the First Service under a marriage contract.