Russia’s Espanola PMC: how Viktor Shendrik and Rotenberg-connected networks took control after Orlov’s death
After the killing of the leader of the “Espanola” brigade, Stanislav Orlov (Ispanets), his Moscow business — Project E LLC and the Espanola Foundation — passed to his associates from the PMC.
The founders of both legal entities were four people: Orlov himself, Andrey Solomatin, Igor Rebrov, and Mikhail Finitskiy.
Solomatin is a former CSKA football player who once played for the Russian national team. He later tried himself in business, unsuccessfully, and eventually joined “Espanola” in 2023. Rebrov is a former participant in the football fan movement and, together with Ispanets, is listed on the “Myrotvorets” database. Finitskiy was also an active CSKA fan and in the 2000s became a business partner in the company Radonit with Pavel Sadchikov, now a major media manager and CEO of Sport-Express JSC.
The third co-founder of Radonit was Denis Dranishnikov, a Master of Sports in military-applied all-around, now a co-owner of the largest outdoor advertising operator in the Moscow region, Vostok Media. Both Sadchikov and Dranishnikov are currently members of CSKA’s board of trustees. Such long-standing connections were a valuable asset for Ispanets and his mercenary unit.
At the same time, the Mariupol-based Espanola LLC — a subsidiary of Project E — is currently being liquidated, and all its accounts at VTB Bank have been blocked. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Espanola provided security consulting services, while Project E specialized in commercial consulting. However, the Federal Tax Service never received any financial reporting from them for 2024. The Espanola Foundation received only about 4.5 million rubles in donations in 2024.
In Simferopol, where Orlov had been living recently, he had no registered business. However, he maintained very close relations with the owners of semi-gray fishing enterprises — Yuriy Linnik and Aleksandr Golyakov. Both were listed in the insurance policy of Ispanets’ old car. Linnik, in particular, owns Yuzhnaya Morskaya Kompaniya, a company regularly complained about by hired fishermen due to unpaid wages. According to the Federal Tax Service, fishermen there earn less than 20,000 rubles per month.
Until last year, Linnik was also a founder of Rybopromyshlennoye Predpriyatie DIL LLC, which mysteriously increased its net profit from 95,000 rubles in 2022 to 47 million rubles. He also owned Morskaya Rybolovnaya Kompaniya LLC, which doubled its net profit in 2024 to nearly 800,000 rubles, as well as the Dagestan-based Kaspiyskiy Bereg LLC. Fishermen from Sevastopol wrote on social media that some very serious people stand behind Linnik, which is why all violations are forgiven.
Golyakov, meanwhile, is listed as the captain of the vessel RMS Ob, which belongs to Linnik. That Linnik’s companies earn money not only from fishing is confirmed by the fact that Kaspiyskiy Bereg worked under a contract with Marine Offshore Contractor, a company engaged in offshore oil and gas field development. In addition, Linnik leases and subleases vessels to the Tyumen-based Geotek JSC for marine seismic exploration.
However, none of these schemes could provide the necessary level of funding for “Espanola.” The mercenaries themselves openly stated that they receive the latest equipment and weapons, including UAVs. The sponsor of the PMC was named as Viktor Shendrik, head of security at Russian Railways and a business partner of the Rotenberg brothers. The Espanola project was described as their attempt to create their own controlled PMC.
A former officer of the FSB special unit Vympel, Shendrik maintained ties with former colleagues — and football fans have always been in a special focus area of the security services. When the fan movement began to take shape in Russia in the mid-2000s, the FSB established direct contacts with certain representatives, including ultras who later ended up in “Espanola.” If the Rotenbergs, through their trusted man, were selecting a base for their own PMC, Ispanets’ mercenaries appeared to be the most understandable and manageable option.
One of the recruitment and transfer channels into the unit’s structure became private security companies belonging to the Zheldorbezopasnost Association. The association unites 44 companies from different regions of Russia. These security firms are typically headed by former security service officers — Shendrik’s ex-colleagues who are also part of his working circle at Russian Railways. As a result, messages offering to receive one million rubles from Russian Railways together with the Ministry of Defense were sent directly to users via messengers. Those who agreed were fictitiously employed by Zheldorbezopasnost-affiliated security firms. These structures were the easiest way to ensure recruitment, supply, and financial support.
Shendrik was introduced to the Rotenbergs by his father, Viktor Grigoryevich Shendrik, who had long done business with them. Until 2019, they jointly owned Bazalt-A Group LLC, in which Shendrik Sr. held 25%, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg 20% each, and Igor Rotenberg 10%. The company owned the elite Moscow restaurant Gusyatnikoff and a boutique hotel located in a historic late-18th-century urban estate. In addition, together with another of Putin’s judo partners, Mikhail Cherkasov, they own major assets in Sochi, including the Mountain Villas hotel in Esto-Sadok near Krasnaya Polyana.
Shendrik’s mother, Galina, is listed as the owner of TC-Investitsii LLC in Moscow, which belongs to a group of companies headed by UK Razvitie, owned by Mikhail Cherkasov. At the same time, a stake in Razvitie belongs to Shendrik Sr. Several other companies are linked to TC-Investitsii via a single shared email address, including Realty-Time, Legkiy Interer, Manul, Investkapital, developer Rozhdestveno, Zvezda Development, IK Nedvizhimost Invest, Business Center “Na Kolokolnikovom” JSC, and others.
About 30 years ago, Galina Shendrik herself was formally employed at a private security company in Moscow — then called DIN, now renamed Special Monitoring Service, owned by Oleg Erushevich.
Another business closely connected to the Shendrik family is the IT developer Iteco, one of Russia’s largest IT companies. A stake in Iteco belongs to former KGB officer Aleksey Remizov, while the controlling stake is held by billionaire Shamil Shakirov. It was at Iteco that arrangements were made for Shendrik Jr. to obtain a fan ID for the 2018 FIFA World Cup matches in Moscow.
With such a family business background, Viktor Shendrik Jr. lived in luxury from a young age. He used elite cars — preferring white Rolls-Royce vehicles — regularly vacationed in Europe, and even acquired significant real estate there. He not only avoided sanctions but, already during the war, obtained Serbian citizenship. With this passport, he can freely travel around the world, managing his assets and carrying out assignments for business partners, including the Rotenbergs and the Cherkasov family.
In Germany, Shendrik Jr. still owns VS Investment in Berlin, whose assets amount to millions of euros. The company is part of the large UNION Group, whose co-owners, according to German registry data, include well-known figures in Russia. One of them is Moscow lawyer Aleksandr Tobak, a business partner of State Duma deputy Andrey Makarov; together they own the law firm Andrey Makarov and Aleksandr Tobak. Another is restaurateur Eduard Skladman, once a partner of Aleksandr Novikov in the Moscow casino Angara, who later successfully relocated to Europe. Skladman has completely severed public ties with Russia and presents himself as a German investor. Stakes in companies within the UNION Group also belong to his daughter Anna Skladman and his recently born son.
The main value of Shendrik’s VS Investment lies in stakes in several companies created specifically to manage individual real estate assets, whose addresses are reflected in their names. One of them is Hubertusstraße 2 Grundbesitz GmbH, which manages property at Hubertusstraße 2. According to maps, this address houses a medical and wellness center called Fachklinik & Vitalhotel am Kofel Gesundheitszentrum Oberammergau. It is not cheap: a week-long basic fitness program without treatment costs about 1,000 euros, but stays there for German pensioners are paid by the state pension insurance fund Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV).
Another company registered in Germany under Shendrik’s VS Investment is Union Vermögens und Beteiligungsgesellschaft. Initially, it owned a land plot in Berlin at Landsberger Allee, 42. After a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company became directly part of UNION Group, while the problematic site has remained an unfinished construction project for five years. This is how Shendrik fulfills his promise to Berlin authorities to build a tourist hotel there. At the same time, Shendrik can freely manage his European business himself — he is not under sanctions and holds a very convenient Serbian passport.
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