RUssland’s domestic political life does not take place in parliaments, but in courtrooms. These days in the Meshchansky district court in Moscow. On the third floor, opposition figure Ilya Yashin is being tried; He is to be imprisoned for up to ten years for having “knowingly spread false information” about the Bucha murders during the Ukraine war. One floor below another process has now come to an end.
The main defendants, the brothers Sijawudin and Magomed Magomedov, are to be sentenced to 19 and 18 years, respectively, in strict camp detention. In the trial against Yashin, the state authorities defended their sovereignty over the interpretation of the war against critics. In contrast, the Magomedows were always loyal, well connected and very wealthy. Her downfall shows that money and contacts are useless when disgraced, when lines are crossed that are unclear.
Forbes magazine ranked the Magomedovs among the ten “richest family clans in Russia” in 2017, putting the younger brother’s fortune at $1.3 billion and the older one at $450 million. Hardly anything of this is likely to remain after garnishments and forced sales. The 54-year-old Sijawudin Magomedow and his brother, who is a year and a half older, have been in custody since spring 2018. The trial did not begin until April 2021. In addition to the brothers, four other men have now been sentenced to prison terms of between seven and twelve years. They are regarded as bycatch, so to speak, but are necessary for the logic of the prosecution.
Independent observers: No evidence of “criminal organization”
The focus is on allegations of an “organized criminal organization”. That sounds like a mafia, but in this case it’s supposed to be a company. The younger Magomedov’s “Summa” holding company worked in the fields of logistics, construction, telecommunications, raw materials and agriculture. Their companies built stadiums for the 2018 World Cup, roads, ports, railway lines, renovated Kaliningrad Airport. “Summa” was founded in order to “systematically” steal budget funds, so the accusation; the state was deprived of more than 170 million euros. The trial files grew to around 830 volumes, and 1092 witnesses were questioned. It took the three judges six trial days to take turns reading out the verdict.
They found the guilt at the beginning and arrived at the sentences on Thursday afternoon. Independent journalists who followed the trial saw no evidence of “particularly serious fraud,” let alone an “organized criminal organization,” despite the crowd. Nevertheless, human rights defenders would not think of classifying the Magomedovs as political prisoners like the war opponent Yashin. Because useful connections shaped the rise of the brothers from Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan in the North Caucasus. For years, Russia’s business community has been puzzling over what caused their downfall, who “ordered” the case against the brothers.
Ziyavudin Magomedov was linked to Arkady Dvorkovich, who advised Dmitry Medvedev during his presidency (2008-2012) and later, when Medvedev was again Putin’s prime minister, as his deputy, in charge of business areas corresponding to those of “Summa”. No support came from Dvorkovich, now President of the World Chess Federation, nor from Medvedev. As Putin’s deputy in the chair of the National Security Council, the latter is so shrill against Kyiv and Washington that it seems as if he wants to make people forget his earlier advances to the West – and his powerlessness to protect his own companions.
The Magomedovs dropped powerful contacts
No help came from Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. According to research by anti-corruption fighter Alexej Navalnyj, Sijawudin Magomedow paid for his honeymoon on a yacht off Sardinia in 2015 and temporarily employed Peskov’s son. In the case, Peskov claimed that the state closely controls how budget funds are used and that the arrest was not a “one-off action”.
The older brother was a member of the upper house of parliament from 2002 to 2009 and led the “Night Ice Hockey League” from 2016. In it, Putin appeared regularly with a celebrity selection. Magomed Magomedov also sat on the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society, an elite club headed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu. This side also dropped the Magomedovs.
Nevertheless, a number of prominent advocates appeared in court, pleading as “guarantors” for the brothers to be transferred from custody to house arrest. Among them were a former head of Dagestan and businessman Gennady Timchenko. But not even this Putin companion, who got rich in the commodities and pipeline business, was successful. The court even made Timchenko wait and answer meaningless questions. The brothers remained in custody.
State enrichment and long prison sentences
Putin’s spokesman said the case between the two had no political background. But state structures are its beneficiaries: key holdings went to state-owned companies such as Transneft, Rostec and Bank VTB. There is some evidence that Sijavudin Magomedov’s shares in the large logistics company FESCO are now going to the nuclear company Rosatom. The assets confiscated by the state from the Magomedows’ environment account for a multiple of the alleged damage amount.
State enrichment thus occurs alongside the deterrent effect of long prison sentences, which also threaten loyal forces. This leads to overlaps that would have been unlikely until recently: In the Meshchansky Court, the Magomedovs now met Ilya Yashin during breaks in the session. He told journalists that they exchanged information about Moscow’s remand prisons. The Magomedovs gave him “figs from Makhachkala”.
