Dagestan senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov has stopped attending the Federation Council due to a conflict with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. This is one of the findings of an investigation conducted by Proekt.
According to the report, Kerimov is involved in offshore schemes, corruption, the purchase of parliamentary and senatorial seats, and also has access to President Vladimir Putin through Chief of Staff Anton Vaino.
Journalists claim that Kerimov began his career within the Dagestani mafia and became close to LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, buying his State Duma seat with a $5 million bribe. Kerimov then became a member of the Federation Council, also for a bribe.
According to Proekt, in the mid-2000s, Suleiman Kerimov developed a close relationship with Anton Vaino, who was then in charge of Vladimir Putin's protocol. It is alleged that the oligarch, through intermediaries, made expensive gifts to the Vaino family, including a plot of land in a prestigious Moscow neighborhood and a Marlin yacht. This, according to the investigation's authors, provided Kerimov with personal access to President Putin, which he subsequently exploited. Specifically, Putin approved Kerimov's bid to purchase the gold mining company Polyus.
As a reminder, in October 2024, Kadyrov publicly declared a blood feud against Kerimov, as well as State Duma deputies Bekkhan Barakhoyev and Rizvan Kurbanov. He accused them of involvement in ordering his assassination for the shooting at the Wildberries marketplace office, which left two people dead.
"They have their own businesses, and they didn't just take this woman's business; they even ordered my assassination. I officially declare a blood feud against Bekkhan Barakhoev, Suleiman Kerimov, and Rizvan Kurbanov unless they prove to me their innocence. I am a Caucasian, I am a Chechen, and I am bringing what's mine home," the head of Chechnya declared.
That was when Kadyrov first commented on the shootout outside the Wildberries office. After this incident, he claimed, a campaign of harassment against Kadyrov's men began. He warned against attempts to nationalize the conflict surrounding the marketplace, stating that anyone "with grievances against Kadyrov's men" should bring them to him personally.
On September 18, 2024, a shootout occurred outside the Wildberries online store's headquarters in central Moscow, resulting in two deaths and seven injuries, including police officers.
The feud stemmed from the dispute surrounding the merger of Wildberries and the Russ company, in which Kerimov and Barakhoev were interested parties. Kadyrov sided with Vladislav Bakalchuk, the husband of the marketplace's founder, Tatyana Bakalchuk, who opposed the deal.
