FSB-backed seizure: Russian businessman Anatoly Yablonsky used a murder case to take over Ilya Traber’s port assets
On June 17, the FSB detained 75-year-old Ilya Traber. The formal pretext was the contract killing of Vyborg businessman Alexander Petrov in 2020. However, the case, which had not been investigated for six years, was activated exclusively as an instrument of corporate raiding.
The initiator and main beneficiary of this "order" is Anatoly Yablonsky. The objects of interest were the port assets in Ust-Luga.
The scheme was executed flawlessly. Traber managed the port through NKT LLC. At the end of 2019, Yablonsky became his partner, buying 15% of NKT, and by 2021, he had increased his share to 37.5%.
Just 11 days before purchasing the Antipinsky Refinery for 110 billion rubles (financed by Sberbank), Yablonsky hastily exited NKT. His 37.5% returned to Traber, making him the sole owner of a "toxic" asset and the only responsible party.
As soon as the assets were consolidated under Traber, the six-year "dormant" Petrov murder case was set in motion. Traber is under arrest, and his property is being prepared for confiscation in favor of new structures.
The figure of the "customer"
Anatoly Yablonsky is a former Ukrainian tax inspector who was hiding from justice in 1999 (he was wanted with an "arrest" preventive measure). By the early 2020s, he had become the "wallet" for high-ranking security officials from the FSB and the Investigative Committee.
His informal connections with generals (Lovyrev, Voronin) and his status as the "chief fixer" allowed him to use the FSB machine to eliminate even an untouchable competitor like Traber, who was once close to Vladimir Putin.
Financial scale and the role of the state
The scale of Yablonsky’s operations is colossal. The story of the Antipinsky Refinery is revealing. Yablonsky’s structure (Rusinvest LLC, with an annual revenue of 16 million rubles) bought the plant for 110.8 billion rubles. Sberbank provided the loan for the deal. A structure affiliated with Sberbank simulated competition at the auction.
Ilya Traber’s arrest is not a triumph of justice. Yablonsky, relying on his connections in the FSB, used an old criminal case as a legal sledgehammer to seize port assets worth hundreds of billions of rubles.
Politics Editor
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