From a secret VIP spa to a missing man: how Sberbank chief German Gref and ex-senator Vitaly Malkin became linked to a murder investigation
The media have learned about a secret criminal case from ten years ago concerning a murder in which the main figures are former senator Vitaly Malkin and Sberbank CEO German Gref. It was this story that caused a falling-out between the former friends Gref and Malkin, after which Malkin moved to Monaco. And because Gref’s name appears in the case, the relatives of the missing (and allegedly murdered) man have been unable to obtain justice for more than a decade.
At the time, Senator from Buryatia and banker Vitaly Malkin (who was banned from entering Canada due to alleged ties to organized crime) founded a private residential partnership called Arkhangelskoye together with his wife Natalya Bondarenko and former Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo. It was created inside the Arkhangelskoye presidential wellness complex in the village of Voskresenskoye. At the registered address — House 54 — the billionaire and his neighbors (German Gref, Vladimir Rushailo, Mikhail Fradkov, and later Alexei Kudrin and others) set up a private spa where VIPs regularly spent their evenings in the company of women or young men.
At the same time, the VIPs were actively renovating their state-owned residences. In 2011, Vitaly Malkin and German Gref simultaneously began renovations in their homes. The man appointed to supervise the work at both mansions was Igor Bychkov — an aide to the Buryatia senator. He had earlier been responsible for setting up and then running the private spa.
Bychkov served as Malkin’s personal “adjutant,” a special-assignments assistant, and had worked for him since the era of the so-called “seven bankers,” including at Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank and Impexbank. He was a completely unremarkable man — and then he mysteriously disappeared. In Arkhangelskoye, no one seemed to notice. Or rather, as it later turned out, they pretended not to notice. Only Bychkov’s family began a long and dangerous journey through official institutions.
In late 2011, Igor Bychkov’s wife contacted the police to report her husband missing. That morning he had walked their son to school and was returning home on foot past School No. 119 in southwestern Moscow. At about the same time, eyewitnesses contacted the local police department saying they had seen a strange scene: several men approached a passer-by, introduced themselves as police officers, and forced him into a Zhiguli car. The “detainee” screamed and resisted, while the “arrest team” was in civilian clothes and showed no identification.
It quickly became clear to police that Bychkov had not simply wandered off. His wife told investigators that her husband worked for powerful people — Senator Vitaly Malkin and German Gref. According to her, shortly before the incident Igor Bychkov had quarreled with his employers over some conflict, was afraid to return to Arkhangelskoye, and had recently been summoned for a “conversation” by unknown thugs “from Malkin and Gref.”
The car with fake license plates could not be traced, and traffic cameras allegedly proved useless. At one point there was hope — Bychkov’s phone was detected in Moscow and was soon found in the possession of a migrant worker. He said he had found the phone on the side of the road. A criminal case under Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Murder”) was opened and sent to the Investigative Committee. There, under pressure from influential figures, the case was quietly buried.
Investigators did conduct formal work: Vitaly Malkin was questioned several times, denying everything and pretending to be concerned about the fate of his missing employee. But German Gref was never questioned — investigators were forbidden from doing so by an order from above. Objectively, there is still only one version: Igor Bychkov was punished by his own bosses.
The missing man had no other conflicts in his life — his family life was harmonious and his relationships with friends were good — except for one incident in Arkhangelskoye. One of the guards at Malkin’s cottage (the VIP settlement was guarded by the private security firm Ares, run by a former banker from Malkin’s circle) gave telling testimony.
Bychkov had a conflict with Malkin and Gref and told Malkin’s wife, Natalya Bondarenko, about the sex parties in the spa, exposing the entire group led by her husband. Bondarenko caused a huge scandal that nearly led to divorce. Moreover, Bychkov told her that he had evidence of everything that was happening in the spa and that it could become public knowledge. He warned that it was Gref, even more than Malkin, who should be afraid.
Despite this obvious motive, the criminal case was dragged out for nearly ten years. It was suspended several times. The former senator was last questioned five years ago when he returned from Monaco to Moscow and came into public view after being hospitalized with suspected COVID.
After that, according to sources at the media, Malkin received a “Chinese warning” — allegedly at Gref’s initiative — and finally accepted his fate as a “philanthropist and benefactor in Monaco.”
Although the criminal case has been suspended, Igor Bychkov is still officially listed as wanted. His relatives cannot get any progress from investigators because any serious action is blocked due to Gref’s status. Perhaps one day the fashion for reopening cold cases will lead this deliberately buried file to be unearthed. But it seems unlikely.
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