Slidstvo.Info journalists found out that the Russian film company of Volodymyr Zelensky’s former business partners at Studio Kvartal 95 got 99.5 million roubles from the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company before the big war started. After that, the owners of the business in Russia became a Latvian citizen who renovated houses in England and travelled to Norway for work, and a Russian woman, a former employee of the Kvartal 95 company.
FROM DENIAL TO ACCEPTANCE
At the end of 2018, during an interview with Dmytro Hordon, the then future presidential candidate of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky stated that, together with his business partners, he had closed his business in Russia after 2014, which “used to bring in a lot of money and real profits”.
The showman lied at the time. This was established by journalists from the Schemes project in January 2019. They found three companies in Russia that were co-owned by Volodymyr Zelensky and his partners at the time: Andrii Yakovliev, Borys and Serhii Shefirs, and Timur Mindich, who six years later would find himself at the centre of a high-profile corruption scandal.
In 2019, the presidential candidate had to admit that he did indeed have business interests in Russia. Zelensky even explained why these companies should not be closed down: they collect royalties for the distribution of the TV series Svaty. “What should we do? Close them and give our money to the Russians? No!” he exclaimed in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
But five days later, he decided that he personally should not remain in this business: even before the first round of the presidential election, he wrote a statement resigning as a founder of the Cypriot company Green Family, which owned three companies in Russia.
But Zelensky’s business partners continued to control Green Family and its subsidiaries. Journalists from Slidstvo.Info investigated what happened to this business after 2019 and up to the present day: they analysed dozens of extracts and reports, researched the biographies and social media accounts of individuals who are in one way or another involved in the activities of film companies in the Russian Federation.
MANOEUVRES BY CO-OWNERS
As of 20 May 2019 — the day of Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration — the Shefir brothers, Andrii Yakovliev and Timur Mindich’s company, through the Cypriot Green Family Ltd, co-owned three companies in Russia: Vaisberg Pictures, Platinumfilm, and Green Films.
On 17 June, Green Family left the co-founders of Vaisberg Pictures. The business partner of the ‘Kvartal’ people (the name given to the employees and actors of the Kvartal 95 studio), Lithuanian director Marius Balčūnas, who owned a quarter of Vaisberg Pictures, became its sole owner. The company has been showing poor financial results for the last seven years.
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49% of Platinumfilm is still owned by the Cypriot company Green Family. Platinumfilm exists de jure, but has shown no signs of activity since 2018.
The third Russian company, Green Films, was 100% owned by Green Family until early April 2022. Then this share was reduced to 50%. And in the end, the Cypriot company left the ownership structure altogether. This happened on 14 April 2022. But this does not mean that until that date, Zelensky’s associates co-owned Green Films and still remain co-owners of the Russian Platinumfilm. And here’s why.
At the end of 2021, significant changes took place in the parent company, Cyprus-based Green Family Ltd. On 21 December, two Latvian citizens, Roberts and Igors Zalivskis, became its directors. On 30 December, Borys and Serhii Shefir, Andrii Yakovliev and Timur Mindich’s company left the list of co-founders. On the last day of the year, Latvian Igors Zalivskis became the new sole owner of the Kvartal people’s company (more about him later).
But before Zalivskis took control of Cyprus-based Green Family, its Russian subsidiary received funds from the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK — ARSTRBC).
RUSSIAN MONEY
It seems that Shefir, Yakovliev and Mindich did not leave the Russian market empty-handed. Three days before the change of ownership, Green Family’s Russian subsidiary, Green Films, received 99.5 million roubles from All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. At the exchange rate at the time, this amounted to 1.3 million US dollars. The receipt of these funds is confirmed by documents that Slidstvo.Info obtained from a source in the Russian tax authorities.
“As of 31 December, these funds had been spent, and just over 8 million roubles remained in the account, according to Antonina Volkotrub, an analyst at the Anti-Corruption Centre. In other words, they carried out all these transactions very quickly. Indeed, a company that declares revenues of over 110 million immediately showed expenses of over 95 million”.
The parent company, Green Family, collected a record $7.7 million in royalties (as income for granting the right to use intellectual property) in 2021. This amount is 4.6 times higher than in 2020 and 23 times higher than in 2019.
However, Green Family’s reports do not specify who ultimately received these funds. Slidstvo.Info contacted the Office of the President of Ukraine to ask whether Volodymyr Zelensky personally received royalties paid to Cyprus-based Green Family and Russia-based Green Films, and if not, whether he knew where the money went. There has been no response to the request yet. Timur Mindich, Andrii Yakovliev, and Serhii Shefir did not respond to messages and calls from journalists.
Slidstvo.Info managed to speak to only one former co-founder of Green Family, screenwriter Borys Shefir. “You understand, I don’t want to speak to you at all,” he said. “Are you preparing material against the president? But I’m his friend. Am I some kind of idiot to give evidence against him? Does the president know that you are preparing this material? Go and tell him!”
THE LATVIAN HANDYMAN
Russian songs accompanied by guitar and home karaoke are the only things that connect 51-year-old Igors Zalivskis with show business. At least, that is what Slidstvo.Info managed to find when analysing the Latvian’s social media accounts.
Igors seems to be a jack of all trades, but he is definitely not a showman or producer. The new owner of Cyprus-based Green Family is not particularly interested in film production or comedy shows. In the autumn of 2018, he posted a video with a hammer and a plane and said that he was building houses in England.
And in a post from 6 October last year, Zalivskis poses in a jacket branded Oslo VVS-Service. This is a Norwegian company that provides plumbing services. This year, Igors posted an image of himself generated by artificial intelligence. He is wearing work clothes and holding a tape measure and an adjustable wrench.
So it turns out that at the end of 2021, the owner of the Cypriot company of ‘Kvartal’ people, which in turn still owns a stake in the Russian firm ‘Platinumfilm’, became a handyman from Latvia who goes to Norway to earn money. And this is despite the fact that Green Family, which he owns, is not exactly problematic. In 2022, it collected almost a million dollars in royalties.
“Based on his social media accounts, this person is unlikely to have experience in managing such assets, nor the necessary funds to acquire such a company. Therefore, there is reason to believe that this person may be a nominal owner,” concludes Mykola Salimov, a lawyer at the anti-corruption centre “Mezha”.
The other Zalivskis — Roberts, who became the director of Green Family Ltd at the age of 18 in December 2021 — is Igors’ son. Here they are together in a family photo.
It was this photo that revealed to journalists a chain of connections indicating that the new owner, Igors Zalivskis, although seemingly a random person, is in fact not. His family has ties to the ‘Kvartal’ people through one godmother and one handshake.
NORMAL FRIENDSHIP
The woman in the same photo is Elina Botushanska. Investigators found many photos of her with Igors on her Instagram profile. It is unknown whether they are officially married, but they are definitely a couple.
On Elina’s page, journalists found a photo of her with Maryna Razumova. Razumova is the godmother of one of Elina’s sons.
In the comments under one of the videos, Maryna Razumova rejoices in the success of her godson.
Maryna Razumova was also the director of Green Family Ltd. from 2014 to mid-2022. From 2014 to 2019, she managed this company together with Oksana Lazarenko, the wife of Ivan Bakanov, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine and a long-time friend of Volodymyr Zelensky. At that time, the Cypriot company was owned by Volodymyr Zelensky, the Shefir brothers, Andrii Yakovliev, and Timur Mindich’s company.
The fact that the Zalivskis’ son’s godmother has a warm relationship with the Bakanovs is indicated by mutual New Year’s greetings between Razumova and Lazarenko.
Thus, according to Mykola Salimov, a lawyer at the anti-corruption centre “Mezha”, the new owner of Green Family, Igors Zalivskis, may be a front man representing the interests of the previous owners.
But Igors is not the only member of the Zalivskis family who became the owner of the Cypriot company that previously belonged to the ‘Kvartal’ group. In 2023, Elina Botushanska became a shareholder in Gulliver Films. This company, together with Studio Kvartal 95, created a cartoon about Gulliver, which was released in 2021. Before Botushanska, Gulliver Films was owned by the Cypriot company Davegra Limited. According to information from the Pandora Papers leak, Davegra was the nominal owner of the ‘heart’ of the offshore business of Volodymyr Zelensky and his partners and kept secret documents. The director of Gulliver Films was Botushanska’s son’s godmother, Maryna Razumova.
OUR PERSON IN RUSSIA
Now about the Russian company Green Films. Despite the fact that since April 2022 it is no longer owned by Igors Zalivskis through the Cypriot Green Family, the company is still owned by a person associated with Volodymyr Zelensky’s partners. We are talking about Olha Losieva.
“Ms Losieva is no stranger to cinema. We know that in 2021 she received income from Green Films and also headed a company owned by Dmytro Glashkin. In 2015, he managed one of the companies in which Green Family was a co-founder of Vaisberg Pictures. In other words, even a Russian company, not just a Cypriot one, was re-registered to individuals associated with the film business,” notes Antonina Volkotrub, an analyst at the Anti-Corruption Action Centre.
In 2022, Russia’s Green Films reported 135 million roubles in net profit, which is almost 2 million US dollars at the average annual exchange rate. The following years were unprofitable for the company.
So, on the last day of 2021, the Cypriot company Green Family Ltd, which in turn owns the Russian Platinumfilm, got a new owner — Igors Zalivskis. He doesn’t seem like the real owner, because his interests are not in the media business or film production at all. At the same time, Zalivskis’s son’s godmother, Maryna Razumova, worked with Kvartal 95 for many years, so we can reasonably assume that the company continues to be controlled by its previous beneficiaries — Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s business partners. The situation is similar with the second Russian company, Green Films. Its new owner was the director of a company co-owned by members of Studio Kvartal 95. During the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Green Films received almost two million US dollars in net profit, while Cyprus-based Green Family received almost one million US dollars in royalties.
