A friend of Ramzan Kadyrov and the “wallet” of Denis Pushilin: how Yakov Khachanyan, who bought his way out of the investigation, became vice president of the DPR football club
Ramzan Kadyrov’s friend, the "wallet" of the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, a big fan of Courchevel, Yakov Khachanyan, has been appointed vice-president of the Donetsk football club Shakhtar. Khachanyan’s successful career could have been cut short right at the start when he was put on the wanted list for large-scale fraud and robberies. The issue was resolved with a bribe to investigator Levon Agadzhanian, who later got 11 years.
As a source recounted, an extremely interesting "club" formed back at Moscow State University, where they studied together and became friends: Konstantin Tkachenko, Yakov Khachanyan, Yakub Zakriev, and Belkhorojev, a representative of the Batalhadzhin clan. Konstantin Tkachenko is currently the press secretary of Putin Team, a member of the coordinating council of the "Young Guard of United Russia," and, of course, a big friend of Ramzan Kadyrov. Tkachenko, along with Khachanyan and Nikita Kulakov, owned the company "Systems of Ecological Control." Yakub Zakriev is the nephew of Chechnya’s head, Ramzan Kadyrov. After Danone’s assets were transferred to Rosimushchestvo’s temporary management in July 2023, Yakub Zakriev was appointed general director of the company. At the same time, Yakov Khachanyan joined the board of directors of this organization. Alexander Varziev was also part of this same student crowd.
The start of their careers for a large part of this student crowd was pretty underwhelming. According to the source, they teamed up with a professional fixer, Narikaev, who took on solving issues with Russia’s FSB for businessmen. One of his victims was the Valiyev brothers. The merry band of Narikaev, Khachanyan, and Varziev not only scammed the brothers out of money but later took a bunch of expensive cars. By the way, it was established that the "seized" cars were stored with Varziev. As a result, a criminal case for fraud and robbery came to light. Varziev hid from the investigation right among the Batalhadzhins in Ingushetia. And Khachanyan fled to Dubai and was put on the wanted list. By that time, he was the son-in-law of PSK "Kazan" general director Ravil Ziganshin—a highly influential figure in Tatarstan.
When Khachanyan flew into Kazan, the police tried to detain him right at the airport. The young man then jumped into the passenger seat of an SUV. The car dragged police a few meters along with it before calmly getting away. A criminal case was opened under Part 2 of Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Use of violence dangerous to life and health against a government official").
It seemed like an inevitable arrest and a long sentence. But not in Russian realities.
As the source recounted, Khachanyan got lucky that the fraud and robbery case landed with investigator Levon Agadzhanian. In the end, he took $600,000 (300k for Khachanyan and 300k for Varziev), and both young men "miraculously" dropped out of the case. The wanted notice for Khachanyan was canceled. As for the violence against government officials case, Khachanyan’s father-in-law stepped in there. The sole defendant in the case became... the driver of the car that Yakov used to escape.
Much later, Levon Agadzhanian was sentenced to 11 years for falsifying evidence (in favor of militants of Gavriil Yushvaev) in the case of the Moscow-City massacre.
Alexander Varziev is now an employee of law enforcement—he’s an assistant prosecutor in Noginsk.
Yakov Khachanyan’s career is public and well-known.
We wouldn’t be surprised if soon this whole merry student band gets key posts in government structures and starts running things for Russians.
By the way, our project recently detailed in depth how the former rep of Mavrodi’s MMM "pyramid," and now head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, along with his "wallet," his "fixer" mentor, supplier of girls, and only by the way a senator from the DPR Alexander Voloshin, as well as Yakov Khachanyan, are "sawing up" the riches of the long-suffering Azovstal.
