Thread by @OCCRP

NEW: We've translated a story Roman Anin and our Russian partner, @istories_media, published in March. It shows that a senior newly-appointed FSB official has ties to figures in organized crime.

Roman's apartment was raided by the FSB on Friday night. 1/
occrp.org/en/investigati…

The official at the center of this investigation is Sergei Korolev, who Vladimir Putin appointed to be the FSB’s first deputy director.

Here’s what Roman and @istories_media found 👇2/

➡️ 2004: St. Petersburg police found that Korolev, who then worked in the FSB’s economic division, had close contact with Oleg Makovoz, an organized criminal figure later sentenced to 23 yrs for kidnapping, extortion, and murder. 3/

➡️ 2008: Spanish police identified an official nicknamed "Shakefoot" as an ally of accused criminal Gennady Petrov, who fled to Russia after being arrested in Spain.

As it turns out, "Shakefoot" appears to be Korolev. Read the full story for more: 4/

➡️ 2018: Aslan Gagiev, the head of a criminal group from the Caucasus accused of carrying out many murders, told Austrian authorities that an FSB official — almost certainly Korolev — helped him flee Russia.

Sources told @istories_media that Korolev owed Gagiyev a favor. 5/

So why would Putin promote someone with Korolev’s background?

This is the question @istories_media journalists asked throughout their reporting. 6/

Korolev’s friends and former enemies answered in roughly in the same way:

"Who is not without sin? At least [Korolev] has never betrayed anyone. The president appreciates such people." 7/

We don’t know for sure whether this story is connected to the Friday raid on Roman’s apartment and his interrogation this morning. Formally, Roman is a "witness" in an "invasion of privacy" case that’s related to this separate 2016 investigation. But… 8/ occrp.org/en/investigati…

...that old case was re-opened just two weeks after the Korolev/FSB investigation, described earlier in this thread, was published by @istories_media. Either way, Roman’s opaque and potentially serious legal situation is far from over. 9/

Russia is one of the world’s hardest countries in which to do investigative journalism.

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➡️ Following and donating to @istories_media
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