Investigators Linked Ozon's Largest Shareholder to Putin's Inner Circle
The largest stake in Russian marketplace Ozon was acquired using money from the company of billionaire Gennady Timchenko, who is close to Vladimir Putin. This conclusion was reached by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) after studying the corporate and accounting reports of companies involved in the deal.
Investigators claim to have reconstructed a chain of loans totaling more than 51 billion rubles, leading from Timchenko's company to the structures controlling the largest stake in Ozon. On this basis, FBK believes that the official ownership structure of the marketplace does not show the real source of financing for the purchase of shares.
According to Ozon's published reports, the company's largest shareholder is now JSC "O23" with a 34.95% stake. Another 31.8% belongs to Sistema PJSFC, and the remaining 33.25% is distributed among minority shareholders.
How Baring Vostok's Stake Changed Hands
Before the deal, a large stake in Ozon was held by investment structures of Baring Vostok. After the investor left Russia, its stake of about 27.7% was sold. The deal was valued at approximately 38.2 billion rubles.
Subsequently, the shares ended up with JSC "O23". In 2025, Ozon reported that structures associated with Russian investor Alexander Chachava acquired this company. In Ozon's own reporting, Chachava was indicated as the ultimate beneficiary of the respective stake.
Later, O23's stake increased: by March 2026, the company already controlled 34.95% of Ozon and became the marketplace's largest shareholder.
However, the sources of money used for the initial purchase of the stake were not publicly disclosed in detail. The origin of the financing became the main subject of FBK's new investigation.
A Loan of 51.23 Billion Rubles
Investigators found in the reporting of Stratosphere, an investment group associated with Chachava, the receipt in 2024 of a loan of 51 billion 230 million 297 thousand rubles.
FBK claims to have checked the accounting data of Russian legal entities and found only one company that reflected the issuance of a loan of exactly the same amount — JSC "Optima".
According to the investigators, the chain looked as follows: Stratosphere is connected to "Corporation 42", through which "O23", which owned Ozon shares, was controlled. Thus, the Optima loan turned out to be connected with the structures involved in the acquisition of a large stake in the marketplace.
The next stage of the investigation concerns the origin of Optima's own funds. FBK claims that the company received almost the identical amount — the difference was about a thousand rubles due to rounding — as an interest-free loan from JSC "Delta".
According to the investigation, "Delta" belongs to Gennady Timchenko. This allowed the authors to link the source of financing for the deal to one of the Russian billionaires closest to Putin.
FBK Considers Timchenko Part of Putin's Financial Network
Investigators also paid attention to the management of "Optima". According to their data, current and former employees of the company worked in structures associated with Putin's nephew Mikhail Shelomov, businessman Yuri Kovalchuk, and other representatives of the Russian president's inner circle.
FBK calls Timchenko one of the people through whom, according to the foundation, assets and expenses related to Putin and his family are financed. In previous investigations, the billionaire's structures were linked, in particular, to the financing of real estate and other projects that FBK attributes to the interests of the Russian president.
On this basis, the foundation makes a broader conclusion that the Ozon stake was actually acquired at the expense of the financial network of Putin's entourage. At the same time, the documents presented by investigators directly confirm the movement of money between companies, but the conclusion that the final actual beneficiary of the stake is Putin personally is a FBK assessment.
At the time of publication, there were no public comments from Ozon, Alexander Chachava, or Gennady Timchenko on the substance of the new investigation.
FBK also announced that it had appealed to the European External Action Service with a call to impose sanctions against individuals and legal entities that, according to the foundation, participate in the control of this Ozon stake in the interests of Putin and his entourage.
Based on materials from: Anti-Corruption Foundation
