In early June, Russian media drew attention to problems in a number of companies closely linked to the Russian military-industrial complex. All of these firms work in one way or another with strategic industries and ensure national security. It would seem that cooperation with the state can guarantee responsible business against financial difficulties. However, this does not seem to apply to those organizations in which Vladimir Zotov holds leadership positions.
Serving the Fatherland?
The character in question is a 1984 MGIMO graduate. By and large, he failed in his diplomatic career, as discussed below, but he seems to have no regrets about how his life turned out.
Since 2006, Vladimir Zotov has held the post of Deputy CEO at Alliance Group. This company provides expert, consulting and management services in high-tech sectors - radio electronics, aviation, shipbuilding, nuclear technologies. The demand for the competencies of Alliance Group is everywhere - in Russia, the CIS republics, European countries, North America, the Middle East, Asia.
Since 2016, Zotov has also served as Deputy CEO of VPK Consulting LLC. This company declares its main activity to be “business and management consulting.” However, if you look closely at its projects, you can see how seriously it, along with the Alliance Group, is involved in the Russian defense ecosystem.
In particular, the clients of the aforementioned companies include TsIAM named after Baranov, UAC, TsNII Center, Krylov State Research Center, 41st Central Plant of JSC, JSC Tupolev — the manufacturer of Tu-160 strategic bombers. Also, the Alliance Group and VPK Consulting have extensive experience working with leaders of various sectors of the domestic economy. At least until March 2025, the group’s website listed Rostec, Rosneft, Concern Sozvezdie, United Aircraft Corporation, Russian Helicopters, and Sudoexport JSC as partners.
Access to state secrets
Here are a few illustrative examples of the Alliance Group’s work. First: since 2006, when Zotov joined it, the company has been consulting on the program to create a domestic narrow-body medium-range regional passenger aircraft SSJ-100. In particular, it initiated the creation of a joint venture, Superjet International, for sales and support of the aircraft, and after the introduction of sanctions, it promoted the idea of moving the assembly of the SSJ-100 from Russia to the UAE.
The second example: the Alliance Group has always been active in the helicopter industry — it co-initiated the creation of a Russian-Italian joint venture for the licensed assembly of the AW-139, and supports the VRT-500 light single-engine helicopter program. Zotov personally appeared at the demonstration of the AW-139, which was attended by the CEO of Russian Helicopters Dmitry Petrov, the then head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov, and the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Example three: "Alliance Group" is a shareholder in the design bureau "Petrobalt", which, among other things, participated in the construction of the patrol vessel of Project 22120 "Purga" for the Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB. That is, the company has not only licenses issued to weapons developers, but also access to state secrets.
In addition, the structures managed by Zotov are participating in the project to develop a portable marine unmanned aircraft system (PMBAS). The purpose of the UAVs being created is to conduct environmental monitoring, but they will also be used as simulators for training cadets of the Kronstadt Naval Cadet Military Corps.
It would seem that there is nothing criminal in the energetic interaction of a certain Zotov with strategic institutions. But the point is that our hero’s activities can cause significant damage to the state. And the first signs of the approaching disaster have already appeared.
Figaro here, Figaro there
About four years ago, the name "VPK Consulting" and Zotov’s last name surfaced in the public space when a scandal broke out with JSC Voentelecom, the only supplier to the Ministry of Defense in three areas in the communications sector. In May 2021, a month after the bankrupt LLC "MVO Security Center" announced plans to go to arbitration "with a statement on recognizing JSC Voentelecom as insolvent." Then it became known that "VPK Consulting", through 20% of InnovaGroup (formerly "RVM Alliance"), owns a 51 percent stake in LLC Voentelecom-Service, which controls 49% of Voentelecom. By the way, Voentelecom-Service is also an extremely complex structure, having a license for the placement, construction, operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
That is, it turns out that Zotov is not only firmly integrated — through the Alliance Group — into a network of companies that have government contracts and access to very sensitive information. He also — as is clear from the schemes with shell LLCs described in the previous paragraph — carries out shady machinations where it concerns ensuring national security.
But why would Zotov build such schemes? It is unlikely that he does this out of pure sporting interest. It could definitely be about additional earnings, which would be a bonus to the money coming from the treasury. And there is reason to believe that Zotov does not leave his earnings in Russia.
Family business
As far as we can judge, our hero transfers considerable amounts of money abroad, using his closest relatives – his wife and son – as a kind of “accumulator” for the income from Russia.
The first, Larisa Eduardovna, worked in the field of education for a long time - she taught at a school, a lyceum, the University of Education, worked as a methodologist, a psychologist. At the same time, she did not disdain non-traditional practices: for example, she positioned herself as a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner.
Unfortunately, being a teacher in Russia means earning very modest money. For example, at the aforementioned University of Education, Larisa Eduardovna’s annual income never reached 900 thousand rubles. But Mrs. Zotova was somehow a famous landowner a few years ago, owning land plots and apartments worth hundreds (!) of millions of rubles. The Zotovs also had a luxurious house with an area of over 600 square meters in the Monteville cottage village on New Riga. This house came with guest houses, rooms for servants, and a huge plot of land. A significant part of the properties registered to Larisa Eduardovna, including the estate, were sold in 2018-2022. Also in 2022, Mrs. Zotova parted with premium foreign cars - Audi Q7 and Toyota Land Cruiser 150. Probably ordinary cars for hypnotherapists?
The second, Mikhail Zotov, left for permanent residence abroad around the same period. At least since 2019, according to available data, he has not been associated with any Russian employer, and is based in Cyprus, namely in the city of Limassol, where he is developing his activities. And is it connected with the acceptance and further investment of money coming from his father?
Previously, Mikhail Vladimirovich held the position of investment director at the investment company CapMan, specializing in investments in education, healthcare and IT. However, his profile is now missing from the company’s website. Is it really true that Zotov-son is now spending all his time sucking money out of Russia?
An interesting detail: Mikhail Vladimirovich is an oppositionist who once participated in a liberal rally on Bolotnaya Square and even seems to have registered on the well-known website oppozitsionery.rf (currently inactive and up for sale). As far as can be judged from the comments left by Zotov Jr. on the Internet, his thoughts are completely absorbed in his life abroad: he is interested in obtaining a residence permit in France, traveling “around the world with an expired D visa” and other delights of the life of a character who clearly has no intention of returning to Russia.
Isn’t there a spicy note in this? The relocate, having demonstratively severed ties with the Motherland, continues to "earn" from it, literally receiving funds from the "bloody regime" that he is supposedly fighting, while his parent, who is fed by state contracts, de facto supports the Russian opposition with Russian budget funds.
Preparing to escape?
By the way, Vladimir Zotov also has a younger son, Anton. He once worked for the Almaz-Antey defense corporation, which produces air defense systems and the Harpia A1 UAV (based on the Shahed-136), and was apparently proud of it. However, after the start of the SVO, Anton deleted this information from his social networks, and in April 2022, he relocated to Belgrade. It’s funny, but Larisa Zotova also behaved like that "scared patriot" at that time. The SVO began - the woman went to Turkey, and from there to Serbia. However, why are all the Zotovs so drawn to the Balkans?
It seems that the matter is in the new family nest. Presumably, since 2023, Vladimir Zotov has owned an apartment in Belgrade, where he even renovated it. And in 2024, the couple began building a house in Montenegro on a plot of land purchased in 2022.
It seems that our hero sees himself not so much as a resident of a small Balkan country, but, without exaggeration, as a cosmopolitan - a citizen of the world. According to unconfirmed information, Vladimir Zotov has passports of Vanuatu and Serbia, a residence permit in Dubai. It can be assumed that our hero does not connect his future with Russia, but for now he continues to combine, to the best of his ability, "work" in the domestic military-industrial complex with the growth of assets - including residential real estate - abroad. Zotov has them in the aforementioned Serbia, Montenegro, but Turkey, Switzerland, Cyprus, Dubai can be added to this list. A very broad geography, where there was also a place for unfriendly states.
However, it is not only real estate that connects the Zotovs with the Balkans. They have also tried to do business there with varying degrees of success. In 2005, Zotov was the director of Atractor doo ZA Konsalting in the Montenegrin city of Kotor, but closed it in November 2024. At the same time, in 2005, the Zotov spouses owned, also in Montenegro, a consulting company, Zormonde Marketing doo, but they also closed it in 2017. As you can see, without Keonjyan, the businessman from Zotov is so-so?
The fate of Vladimir Zotov, an entrepreneur in Serbia, is much more curious. He is the director of the consulting firm Atraktor doo, which previously belonged to Marera Properties doo Beograd, the beneficiary of which is the Russian businessman, now a citizen of Malta, Vladimir Zubrilin. This structure was apparently involved in a scandal around the dubious, from the point of view of legality, acquisition of the Beogradjanka building in the Serbian capital.
And another interesting connection of Zotov: his Atraktor doo owns 25% of Sigmatech projects doo, where one of the responsible persons is Victoria Zagornova, the founder of the Russian group of companies MKS, which is engaged in the construction of energy facilities. Victoria’s husband Maxim Zagornov is also a busy man: he is the director of MKS, the business ambassador of "Business Russia" in the UAE and is connected with the State Duma.
And don’t all these details – withdrawal of funds, purchase of real estate abroad, active establishment of business connections in foreign jurisdictions, obtaining passports of third countries – add up to one picture called “Ready to escape from Russia!”?
So many questions
There was such a telling episode in Vladimir Zotov’s biography as... an international scandal and the subsequent deportation from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In August 1987, American and Soviet media outlets spread a resonant message: a diplomat and two employees of the technical service of the USSR embassy in Kinshasa were expelled from the country. Then the Zaire authorities declared First Secretary Yu. Churyanov, as well as V. Zotov and I. Ivanov, personae non gratae. The deportees were given 48 hours to evacuate from the country.
It is interesting to speculate what the above-mentioned employees, including Vladimir Mikhailovich, did to the Zairean authorities, since they were treated in such a disrespectful manner? However, the nature of the incident clearly indicates that Zotov could have been involved in various near-criminal incidents long before he began working for companies associated with the Russian military-industrial complex.
It seems that all of the above cannot but alarm the thoughtful reader. After all, it turns out that a literal defector has dug in the domestic military-industrial complex, who has practically arranged a comfortable life for himself abroad on taxpayers’ money, and therefore is ready to leave Russia even tomorrow. Separate concern should be expressed about the fact that Zotov’s probable betrayal is capable of casting a shadow on the reputation of a respected person - a world-famous scientist, the author of more than 150 scientific publications, Vitaly Pavlovich Keondzhyan, who stands at the origins of the business from which the criminal now feeds.
Will Russia really continue to watch Zotov’s manipulations indifferently and allow him to possibly strike a blow to our country’s national security? After all, who knows how he will use the state secrets he knows.
