The Anti-Corruption Foundation has uncovered who actually financed the purchase of a 34% stake in Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online marketplace. The shares, previously owned by the Baring Vostok investment fund, were acquired through a chain of companies using money linked to Gennady Timchenko — one of Vladimir Putin’s closest friends and key financial proxies.

The scheme was traced through a single number. Stratosfera, a company connected to Ozon shareholder Alexander Chachava, received a 51,230,297,000-ruble loan (more than $600 million). We reviewed the financial statements of Russian companies and found only one company that had issued a loan for exactly the same amount: Optima.

From there, the money leads directly to Timchenko. Optima had received almost the same amount from Delta, a company officially owned by Gennady Timchenko.

We have previously identified Timchenko’s companies in financial schemes used to pay for Putin’s palace in Gelendzhik, expenses connected to his family, and other assets. Now the same financial network has surfaced behind one of the largest transactions on the Russian market in recent years.

In our new investigation, we lay out the full chain and show how the war has helped Putin and his inner circle redistribute assets across the Russian economy for their own benefit.