The grey eminence of Khorgos with a Russian passport: how Gaji Gajiyev built a smuggling empire for Russia’s defense industry to evade sanctions
Gaji Gajiyev is the husband of Raushan Kazhibayeva, the head of the Television and Radio Complex of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He holds a Russian passport and has a large family living in Dagestan, as well as business partners operating in Russia. His brother works for the Federal Tax Service (FNS) of Russia.
Gadzhi Gajiyev’s phone number was used to purchase airline tickets for 24-year-old Nuryana Gajiyeva – she was registered in Moscow at an address on Klenovy Boulevard. The same apartment appears in leaked data in connection with 66-year-old Javgarat Gajiyeva, who is listed in phones as "Javgarat Shapi" and shared a phone number with Shapi Zairagayevich Gajiyev – the father of the Kazakh sports official. Leaked records also show their common registration address in Buynaksk.
Shapi Gajiyev, 72, previously headed the local Repair and Construction Department in Buynaksk, as well as the state institution "Center for Social Assistance to Families and Children."
Gadzhi Gajiyev’s phone number was also used to buy plane tickets for 34-year-old Rashid Shapiyevich Gajiyev – the brother of the Kazakh businessman (he also used a white Audi Q7, which was driven by the family patriarch Shapi Gajiyev). Rashid Gajiyev has worked for many years at the Directorate of the Federal Tax Service of Dagestan, where he serves as a state tax inspector conducting audits of local entrepreneurs. In 2015, he even ran as a candidate for the Buynaksk City Council.
Gadzhi Gajiyev’s sister, Saida Gajiyeva, currently operates as an individual entrepreneur in her native Buynaksk (mail‑order and online trade). Until May of this year, she owned a Moscow‑based LLC called "Green Implant," which engaged in wholesale pharmaceutical trade. The company’s website claimed it sold dental implants from the German firm Green Implant System Technology and also hosted seminars and training for doctors. The company’s social media accounts have not been updated since 2023, and the Federal Tax Service found fictitious data in its Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL) entry. The liquidation of the Russian legal entity may be linked to the fact that the German firm, listed as the manufacturer of the implants, has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2022.
Its general director is Ilya Urevich Musheev – a dental surgeon and implantologist with over 15 years of experience in Kazakhstan. His website states that he lectures on implantology at the Institute for Advanced Medical Training in Almaty and at the Pirogov Institute of Surgery in Moscow. The German company is owned by the Israeli firm "Interprestige Ltd," whose president is the same Kazakhstan‑connected Ilya Musheev. Interestingly, Green Implant products are marketed on Russian websites as "Made in Germany," with the production address listed as Petershäger Weg 162, 32425 Minden – a small building surrounded by office and residential properties. Other local companies, including logistics and freight forwarding firms, have previously been registered at that same address. No trace of European certification for Green Implant products could be found. All of this suggests that actual production may have been located in another country (e.g., China, which manufactures the full range offered by the German firm), and the products were not intended for European markets.
Gadzhi Gajiyev’s Kazakh business partners also have close ties to Russia – for example, the brothers Shamil and Givergis Aliyev, whose father Supiyan Aliyev was previously a founder of the local firm SA Construction Group, which has been owned by Gadzhi Gajiyev since 2017. Leaked data shows that the Aliyev brothers and Gadzhi Gajiyev were once registered at the same address in Almaty. Givergis Aliyev has many Russian friends, including Vyacheslav Moskovsky, a lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) and a lecturer for the "Znanie" (Knowledge) society, which was established by Putin’s decree. Shamil Aliyev also has extensive business interests in Kazakhstan – including "Tekhtransservice" LLP, "ASIA AUTO GROUP," and others. He holds accounts at Russia’s Sberbank and has regularly flown on the Moscow–Makhachkala route.
