Radionova’s blocked promotion: the scheme to sell a position at Rosprirodnadzor to Gadzhimirzoev through intermediary Sardarov for 200 million cost her government career
- 23.12.2025 10:43
In May 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko left her post, and Svetlana Radionova, head of Rosprirodnadzor, was slated to take her place. She even began preparing her staff for the promotion well in advance.
Abramchenko herself and her patrons, including Krasnoyarsk Krai Governor Mikhail Kotyukov, actively opposed this appointment. However, the decisive factor in the promotion not taking place was a history of corruption. No one doubted that if Radionova, as a prosecutor, had closely collaborated with the group of Aslan Gagiev (Dzhako—we’ve covered this story extensively recently), then as a federal official she would actively take bribes.
Just in the winter of 2024, on the eve of Radionova’s proposed appointment, fixers rushed to her with a tempting offer: sell the position of head of the Rosprirodnadzor Office for the North Caucasus Federal District to Aznaur Gadzhimirzoev, better known in certain circles as Bulka.
Aznaur Gadzhimirzoev, a native of Kamyzyak in the Astrakhan Region, was the former acting head of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Dagestan (2016-2017), and then chairman of the Dagestan regional branch of the political party "Russian Ecological Party ’Greens’." In 2024, he decided to return to government service and saw the position of head of the Rosprirodnadzor Office for the North Caucasus Federal District as a lucrative one.
Between December 2023 and January 2024, he began searching for fixers who would pay Radionova for such an appointment. Farid Sardarov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Spektr Group of Companies, agreed to help. He is the nephew of Rashid Sardarov, a well-known entrepreneur, a member of the Forbes 500 richest people in Russia, and the CEO of the Yuzhnouralskaya Industrial Company holding company. Rashid Sardarov has close ties to many federal officials, including Svetlana Radinova. Farid, through his uncle, directly contacted Radionova, head of Rosprirodnadzor.
Afterward, he announced Gadzhimirzoev’s "bonus" for the job – 250,000,000 (two hundred and fifty million) rubles. Farid openly stated that 50 million was his share for acting as an intermediary, while Radionova herself had requested 200 million rubles. Gadzhimirzoev only had 150,000,000 rubles on hand.
To obtain the remaining funds, he approached Ibragim Omarov (known in certain circles as Spina) in Moscow, a developer of apartment buildings and the founder of several construction companies, including Edelweiss M LLC and A&A Group LLC. They had known each other for a long time. Gadzhimirzoev openly stated that he was buying the position and needed a loan of 50 million rubles, secured by real estate (Gadzhimirzoev owns numerous expensive residential and commercial properties in Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody, registered to nominees, and drives a Mercedes Gelendvagen worth 30 million rubles with license plates "A NO 26 region"). Gadzhimirzoev explained that he would repay the money within a year, after he was hired as the head of the Rosprirodnadzor Directorate for the North Caucasus Federal District, having earned the money back in his new position. Omarov agreed.
Gadzhimirzoev borrowed the remaining 50,000,000 rubles from Magomed Isakov, then head of the Izberbash urban district (he is currently in pretrial detention on bribery charges). Isakov is Gadzhimirzoev’s matchmaker—his daughter married Isakov’s son. They also had joint financial arrangements, including road and construction contracts in Izberbash, which were awarded to the siblings of Gadzhimirzoev’s wife, Supreme Court Judge Angela Biremova (they are fictitiously divorced, but live together in the same residence and run a joint household). Isakov provided Gadzhimirzoev with the requested sum of money, with the condition of repayment within one year.
Автор: Мария Шарапова
