Mafioso in the senator’s seat: how crime boss Ilya Traber pushed Alexander Yaroshuk into the Federation Council
In this photo, Ilya Traber (known as "The Antiquarian," the gray-haired man on the right) is shown at the grave of "crime boss" Abakar Darbishchev, alongside a man widely known in criminal circles as "Sanya Kaliningradsky." Sources have now revealed the identity of "Sanya." It turns out he is a member of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Senator Alexander Yaroshuk.
Abakar Darbishchev was a close associate of Ilya Traber. He was responsible for Traber’s security during his visits to Moscow and also carried out strong-arm operations — in particular, he organized the elimination of Alexander Petrov, the so-called "boss of Vyborg."
On October 1, 2025, officers from the FSB and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow raided Darbishchev’s home in the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo. He did not survive the forceful detention — he was simply beaten to death. For more than 100 days afterward, investigators refused to release the body. Traber personally tried to intervene in the situation, and even then it should have been clear to him that he was no longer "all-powerful." Traber … was unable to resolve the matter.
When the body was finally released at the end of January 2026, Traber and Vladimir Danilenko ("The Antiquarian’s" right-hand man) arranged a farewell ceremony for Darbishchev at the memorial hall on Partizanskaya Street in St. Petersburg. On January 28, the day of the ceremony, all surveillance cameras both inside the hall and on Partizanskaya Street were disabled. A great many "serious people" came to pay their respects to Darbishchev.
On January 29, Danilenko flew with the deceased’s body to Dagestan, where he was to be buried. Traber remained in St. Petersburg; he did not want to appear during the ceremony, which he knew would certainly be filmed by operatives. Traber later flew to the grave together with a few of his closest associates, who were also friends with Darbishchev. One of them was the prominent United Russia member Senator Alexander Yaroshuk. That is him, sitting on the bench next to Traber.
Yaroshuk served in the Navy, then founded the company "Bautsentr," and built a political career. He was the mayor of Kaliningrad for a long time, later a State Duma deputy, and in 2021 became a senator.
According to the source, Yaroshuk simultaneously led another life. He is a loyal associate of "The Antiquarian," has carried out his assignments on multiple occasions, and is well known in criminal circles. In turn, it was Traber who helped Yaroshuk advance in his political career. Now one of them is in pre-trial detention, while the other sits in the Federation Council.
