In an attempt to influence the outcome of the parliamentary elections in Armenia, Russia launched an unprecedented campaign against the incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. One of its notable episodes was the offer by blogger Mika Badalyan to all Armenians residing in Russia to travel to their homeland at his expense to vote. This is not the first election in which Badalyan has orchestrated schemes. Two years prior, he became involved in Russia's campaign against Moldovan President Maia Sandu. Badalyan works for the non-profit organization 'Eurasia,' founded by fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who has become an indispensable associate for the Kremlin on a range of sensitive issues in recent years. An international criminal, crypto magnate, naval commander, and preacher of Eurasianism – 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' has examined Ilan Shor's financial empire and found the first evidence that funds for his ventures also come from structures associated with Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. We tell the story of one of the most notable informal Kremlin agents and those who finance him. Member of the Board of Trustees of ANO 'Eurasia,' philanthropist Ilan Shor. Press conference dedicated to the launch of the public patriotic movement 'Victory 9/45' for May 9, February 12, 2025. Photo: Vasily Kuzmicheonok / Moscow Agency. 'Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Ilan Shor, CEO of A7 company,' modestly introduced himself a meticulously clean-shaven 38-year-old man in a baggy business suit. 'Together with PSB Bank and with the support of VEB.RF, we have essentially created an international settlement center – a platform that currently operates on bill mechanisms, also utilizing high-tech financial instruments.' Vladimir Putin listened to Shor, a businessman of Moldovan origin, via video link from the Far Eastern branch of the 'Russia' national center, where he had just arrived as part of the tenth Eastern Economic Forum, held in early September 2025 in Vladivostok. Putin's schedule was packed – albeit more ceremonial: speaking at a major plenary session, talking with the military, touring a grand exhibition on the history of the Far East, and opening several new enterprises, including 'A7.' Mika Badalyan. Photo: Telegram / Mika Badalyan. In general, the privilege of personally presenting one's business to the president at such forums is usually distributed through governors or presidential envoys. Local businesses can gain some protection from this: if a company personally launched by Putin encounters problems, it would cause a scandal of sorts. However, the 'International Settlement Center,' as Shor called his enterprise, was not threatened by local law enforcement or officials. Unofficially, the businessman had received Putin's blessing for its launch long ago. The public meeting was more for show. In his native Moldova, Shor was sentenced to 15 years for the 'scam of the century' – siphoning approximately one billion dollars from the country's banking system offshore – and was placed on the international wanted list. The businessman is under sanctions from the European Union, the UK, and the US. Furthermore, in Russia, until recently, he was a persona non grata. Since 2016, he was banned from entering the country for national security reasons. As 'Kommersant' reported at the time, citing government sources, the ban was due to Shor 'corrupting everyone he sees.' However, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this very talent became necessary for the Russian authorities. Since 2023, Shor has been visiting Moscow again; in 2024, he announced he had received a Russian passport and publicly reported his successes to Putin. Over the past few years, this international scammer has built an entire empire in Russia. He created an alternative currency transfer system for the Kremlin that helps Russia bypass sanctions. He manages a shadow fleet that transports Russian oil. He finances media outlets and bloggers who promote Russia's interests abroad and openly bribes Moldovan voters to alter his country's course towards European integration. In 2026, he attempted to apply some of the technologies developed in Moldova to the elections in Armenia. According to numerous media sources, Shor was introduced to Putin by none other than Roman Abramovich. 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' has found confirmation that funds for Shor's various projects indeed come, in part, from structures associated with the Russian billionaire. Stand of the payment service A7 payments at the Expoforum Congress and Exhibition Center. Petr Fradkov and Chairman of the Board of Promsvyazbank Ilan Shor, CEO of A7, June 3, 2026. Photo: Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik / Scanpix / LETA. 'Everything is as old as the world: he is paid a tithe, and he keeps track according to his books.' In the early 1990s, newly elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree on free trade. Citizens were granted the right to trade anything anywhere: improvised stalls began to appear in squares and underpasses – made from newspapers, cardboard boxes, or overturned beer crates. A flow of 'shuttle traders' traveled from Russia to Turkey and other countries. They went with envelopes of cash and returned with checkered bags filled with goods scarce in Russia. Since then, much has changed in domestic and international trade: spontaneous markets have become a thing of the past, customs and tax rules have emerged, and Russians have almost stopped using cash. International currency transfers have become simple, cheap, and fast. You log into your internet bank, upload a contract for the purchase of goods, send the payment, and track its status in real-time. Typically, within a day, the money is in your partner's account, no matter where in the world they are. Everything changed with the start of the war. '— Money gets stuck in correspondent banks, the compliance procedure is made infinitely complex: they request so many documents that each transfer takes months. You go to the bank, and it simply rejects your deal and your payment,' says a representative of a major business association involved in food exports, detailing his clients' problems in a conversation with 'Novaya-Europe.' 'This all started in the first months of the war in Ukraine, and the situation worsened with the increasing number of banks targeted by sanctions. Nevertheless, international trade has not stopped; Russia is now among the top twenty countries by import-export turnover. According to the interlocutor of 'Novaya-Europe,' gradually all his client companies have managed to establish relationships with foreign partners and banks, so resolving issues with stalled payments has become less frequent. Some needed to open branches and representative offices in friendly countries and obtain separate bank accounts there; some figured out the multitude of existing schemes themselves: bills of exchange, agency arrangements; finally, some resort to the help of non-banking intermediaries, so-called 'platforms.' Ilan Shor became the owner of one of the largest platforms that works with the most difficult clients – this is about 'A7.' It can assist both entirely legitimate Russian businesses purchasing household goods abroad and those under sanctions acquiring directly prohibited items. Such platforms (often disguised as legitimate banks) existed in Russia before. Businessmen used such services to evade taxes, transfer profits offshore to distribute them as bribes, or simply to circumvent currency controls. Ilan Shor made a name for himself even then. — There are now a million schemes for international transfers, some are made on the fly, some are invented by the banks themselves. But major players need someone to handle the administration,' a shadow banker who was involved in grey currency operations in Russia before the sanctions told 'Novaya-Europe.' He personally knows Shor from before the war and is confident that 'Shor now provides a turnkey service to major players in Russia and their foreign partners – primarily oil producers and importers of sanctioned goods. — He's not just involved in one thing; he's involved in absolutely diverse matters,' the source explains. 'He's like a Jew with a notebook; he sits, writes, and keeps track of everything happening around him. That is, he's a single point of entry into very, very diverse platforms that exist in different corners of the world, not just in Russia. He has infrastructure and relationships everywhere. He hasn't invented anything new; everything is as old as the world: he's paid a tithe, and he keeps records according to his books.' Ilan Shor at the headquarters of the 'Shor' party in Chisinau, Moldova, February 22, 2019. Photo: Dumitru Doru / EPA. Shor's unique selling proposition, which distinguishes him from other intermediaries, is, according to the interlocutor of 'Novaya-Europe,' that influential people have vouched for him to other influential people. Until recently, Shor lived in Israel, where he was hiding from criminal prosecution by Moldovan authorities. There, he met Roman Abramovich. — It's one circle, how to explain? Shor's wife, singer Jasmin, is best friends with Tatyana Navka (figure skater and wife of Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov. – Ed.). Abramovich and Shor bonded over their shared Jewish background. All these people, in essence, belong to the same circle and interact with each other. They become useful to each other. Then they part ways. According to the interlocutor of 'Novaya-Europe,' Abramovich personally introduced Shor to Vladimir Putin and vouched for his trustworthiness. — He is young and energetic, works 20 hours a day,' says the shadow banker. 'I visited him; he has a work study, we ate there, received guests there – to save time. It's a tough life, in general, but he simply enjoys all of it.' Banker, Naval Commander, Media Magnate, Buyer of 'Live Souls' in Moldova The platform 'A7,' which Shor publicly presented to Putin in the fall of 2024, accounted for approximately 12% of the entire foreign trade of Russian business, according to his own estimates. One of the group's most high-profile projects is the stablecoin A7A5. By that time, the Russian authorities' attitude towards cryptocurrencies had changed. While in 2014, when the industry was just emerging, the Russian Central Bank declared all crypto operations illegal, in July 2025, the head of Rosfinmonitoring, Yuri Chikhanchin, officially reported to Putin that Russia had begun using cryptocurrencies for international settlements. It is known that cryptocurrencies are used to pay for hard-to-obtain Western goods, for example, by 'Rosatom' and 'Rosselkhozbank.' Russian special services also use crypto to settle accounts with their agents. In addition to stablecoins, the 'A7' platform offers other methods for paying for goods abroad. For example, to purchase a car in Germany, an 'A7' call center employee first suggested to a 'Novaya-Europe' correspondent, who called posing as a potential client, to use an agency scheme. 'You transfer rubles to the 'A7-Agent' account and provide us with an invoice from the German recipient. We will find a route through our infrastructure, and the money will arrive within five days,' she offered, without going into details about the 'route.' The platform also issues its own securities – bills of exchange. The company positions them both as an investment tool (with a yield of 10% per annum) and as a way to obtain currency in various countries. In theory, the cash scheme works like this: a bill of exchange is purchased at an 'A7' office in Russia or Kyrgyzstan. Abroad, the holder of the bill of exchange scratches off the protective film, scans the QR code in a Telegram bot, after which a courier arrives with cash. However, according to information on the A7A5 bot, cash can only be obtained in Istanbul and Dubai. This entire sophisticated shadow system of international payments is not the only service Shor provides to the Russian state. As 'Verstka' investigation showed, Shor is also involved in financing a shadow fleet: funds from his structures go to companies that own tankers – carriers of Russian, Iranian, and Venezuelan sanctioned oil. In early 2026, the US military established a naval blockade of Venezuela and engaged in a veritable chase of several vessels that, according to them, were violating the regime. One of these ships, flying the flag of Guyana, changed its registration to Russian in the midst of the pursuit, and the new owner company fell within Ilan Shor's financial control perimeter. However, the Moldovan businessman's activities in Russia are not limited to using shadow schemes to mitigate the consequences of Western sanctions for the country's leadership. Simultaneously, Ilan Shor is one of the most public figures in political campaigns that, on the contrary, contribute to escalating relations between Russia and Europe. View of an election poster featuring the image of candidate for Member of Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Ilan Shor and the inscription in Romanian and Russian 'Ilan Shor for the people' on the wall of a residential building in Chisinau, February 13, 2019. Photo: Daniel Mihailescu / AFP / Scanpix / LETA. Eurasia Versus Europe Until recently, in his native Moldova, Shor held the position of an oligarch: he made money through proximity to power and then invested it in political projects to make even more money. Shor inherited his business from his father – he received a chain of Duty Free shops, but he also learned early on how to build and maintain the right connections. Evidence of Shor's ability can be seen, for example, in the fact that in 2011, two former and one future president of Moldova, as well as an impressive delegation of Russian stars like Nikolai Baskov and Philipp Kirkorov, arrived in Chisinau for the wedding of the then 24-year-old businessman and Russian singer Jasmin. Shor had close ties with former Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat (with his participation, the businessman, for example, obtained the Chisinau airport under concession – a deal that was later deemed corrupt, and the Moldovan authorities tried for a long time to reclaim the airport). Political and business contacts linked Shor with Vladimir Plahotniuc – one of the country's richest men and one of the most influential figures in Moldova in the 2010s. Plahotniuc is currently in custody in connection with the organization of the embezzlement of one billion dollars from Moldovan banks in 2014. According to the investigation, Shor was one of the accomplices in this scheme, and a criminal case against him began to be investigated in 2015 – around the same time Shor actively entered politics. He was elected mayor of the small town of Orhei, into whose development Shor began to invest a lot of personal money. In 2016, he headed the 'Equality' party, which he soon renamed in his honor, and it became known as 'Shor.' Former Prime Minister and head of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Filat at a press conference in Chisinau, Moldova, December 4, 2019. Photo: EPA. Shor's direct presence in Moldovan politics lasted four years. In 2017, he was sentenced to prison, but the sentence was deferred until the end of the appeal. However, when pro-European politicians came to power in Moldova in 2019, Shor left the country and fled to Israel. According to documents obtained by The Washington Post journalists from Ukrainian intelligence, Russian special services became interested in his activities. Since then, Shor's political involvement has been under their control. In 2022, Moldovan authorities accused him of attempting to organize mass riots. Shor denied his ties to Moscow. In 2024, Shor continued to participate in Moldova's political life from Russian territory. In 2024, the Moldovan politician registered the non-profit foundation 'Eurasia' and became its main sponsor. Over the past two years, according to accounting reports, this organization has spent 24 billion rubles (about 300 million dollars) on launching a media school for aspiring bloggers from the post-Soviet space, distributing grants to activists, and organizing introductory trips for youth from post-Soviet countries to Moscow. Shor himself stated that the foundation was needed to 'preserve traditional values' and counter 'Western attacks' that sought to impose 'ideologies alien to many generations.' However, according to numerous journalistic investigations and Moldovan police materials, in reality, 'Eurasia' was used to massively buy votes in presidential and parliamentary elections in Moldova and in the referendum on joining the EU. Shor remotely organized street protests in Moldova and attempted to participate in presidential and parliamentary elections and the referendum on European integration. The businessman hired 50,000 'Eurasia Ambassadors' in Moldova and paid them for participating in protest actions and campaigning. These individuals had cards remotely issued to them in Russia's 'Promsvyazbank'; the 'Eurasia Ambassadors' also acted as couriers transporting cash from Moscow to Chisinau – some of them later received fines and prison sentences for vote-buying offenses in Moldova. The UK, USA, and EU have imposed sanctions against 'Eurasia.' However, pro-European forces won all elections in which Shor attempted to participate. Similar methods were used by 'Eurasia' employees in the recent elections in Armenia. 'Novaya-Europe' has studied the financial underpinnings of Shor's extensive empire in Russia and can for the first time reveal some of the sponsors of this campaign. Businessman Roman Abramovich. Photo: Kirill Zykov / Moscow Agency. The Jewel in Shor's Financial Empire According to documents, the 'Eurasia' fund was founded and has since been headed by Nelly Parutenko, a long-time associate of Ilan Shor in his political activities in Moldova and former treasurer of his now-banned party. The businessman himself is listed among the trustees on the organization's website. He does not hide his involvement in 'Eurasia's' activities and comments on everything happening with the fund during public events and on his social media. 'Eurasia's' ties with the Russian authorities are also evident. The board of trustees of this organization is headed by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, and the management board is headed by United Russia deputy Alena Arshinova, a politician from Transnistria. Notably, the executive director of the fund, accused of interfering in elections across the post-Soviet space, is Evgeny Azizov, who worked in Russia's electoral system for many years. Chairman of the Board of ANO 'Eurasia' Alena Arshinova, Moscow, October 29, 2025. Photo: Artur Novosiltsev / Moscow Agency. Until now, many media outlets reported that the sources of the fund's financing were unknown. However, 'Eurasia' published a publicly available report for 2024 on the website of the Russian Ministry of Justice. It lists the organization's donors. The most notable donor to the fund is the company 'Diamand Estate.' (In the Ministry of Justice report, the donor company is named 'DiamanT Estate,' but this is either a technical error or a deliberate distortion. There are no companies with this name in the Russian registry of legal entities; however, there is a company called 'Diamand Estate,' and its own reporting can reveal information about transfers to the 'Eurasia' fund.) 'Diamand Estate' is affiliated with Shor himself; essentially, it's his financial hub, his piggy bank. This company finances all his known ventures: in addition to 'Eurasia,' it includes cryptocurrency projects in Kyrgyzstan and his television channels in Moldova. The company has a small authorized capital; most of the money comes in as loans and is immediately distributed as loans to various projects by 'Diamand Estate' itself. In 2025, over a trillion rubles passed through this company's accounts. As of the end of 2025, the company had 121 billion rubles in outstanding long-term loans and 36 billion in short-term ones (i.e., those the company must repay within the next year). In its report, the company names its creditors. Ilan Shor during a congress of supporters of the Moldovan political bloc 'Pobeda' (Victory) on Poklonnaya Hill, Moscow, Russia, August 16, 2024. Photo: Irina Buzhor / Kommersant / Sipa USA / Vida Press. Among the companies whose money ends up in Shor's accounts, two are directly linked to Roman Abramovich. For example, over 7 billion rubles came into the Moldovan businessman's 'piggy bank' from the Kachkanar Mining and Processing Plant – a metallurgical enterprise belonging to the 'Evraz' group. The Russian billionaire is the largest shareholder of the group; according to the latest available data for 2021, he owned a blocking stake of 28%. In 2025, the company reported that he remained among the owners but did not disclose the size of his stake. In addition, as much as 65 billion rubles came from the company 'Business Broker Finance.' This is a mysterious company that has existed since 2008 but has shown zero assets and conducted no activity until recently. In 2023, its director and founder changed – both positions were taken by Denis Ippolitov, who, according to data leaks from the Russian tax authorities, also works at a children's art school in Klin, teaching pottery. And since 2023, hundreds of billions of rubles have been processed through the company's accounts – also in the form of loans. One of the sources of money that arrived there and ultimately went to 'Diamand Estate' is the metallurgical company 'TK MS Trade.' It was registered in 2022 and by 2025 (in its third year of existence) became one of Russia's top 100 firms by net profit. Its owners are unknown, but it is managed by Evgeny Murlyk – a manager at 'Evraz.' According to leaks from state bodies, which 'Novaya-Europe' has reviewed, Murlyk maintained ties with 'Evraz' at least until 2024. In the press office of Roman Abramovich, 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' was told that 'Mr. Abramovich is a minority shareholder of Evraz and does not participate in the day-to-day activities or management of the company. Therefore, neither Mr. Abramovich nor his representatives possess information regarding the matters set forth in your inquiry and are not involved in them, thus they cannot comment.' 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' also sent a request to the 'Evraz' press service but received no response. Among Shor's other creditors are structures associated with Arkady Rotenberg, one of Putin's closest businessmen. Two companies transferred at least 381 million rubles to 'Diamand Estate.' (These are only the amounts reflected in the financial statements as of the end of 2025; in reality, the funding amount may be significantly higher). Security Service officers, European bankers, Russian state actors – who else transferred money to Shor and 'Eurasia'? 1. State-owned 'Promsvyazbank' 55 billion rubles. PSB is among the top five largest banks by capital in Russia. Since 2018, it has been state-owned and has become a pillar for the Russian defense sector. The bank is headed by Petr Fradkov, son of Mikhail Fradkov – a former Prime Minister and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, who has been close to Putin since the mid-1990s. PSB is Shor's official partner in the 'A7' platform; the bank owns 49% of this company. 2. Shor's partner from Moldova, Viktor Gutsulyak. Amount unknown. Viktor Gutsulyak is a former Moldovan security official who moved to Russia. He worked in the Center for Combating Corruption, the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and the Customs Service, and then left Moldova due to suspicions of money laundering. Later, Gutsulyak, for example, participated in a scheme to purchase aircraft for Shor. 3. Banker Mark Weinstein, whose license was revoked by the Central Bank for 'questionable operations.' Amount unknown. 'Eurasia's' funds were also donated by several former shareholders of 'Russobank,' a small bank from the third hundred Russian banks. In 2018, its license was revoked for conducting 'questionable transactions,' i.e., money laundering. Since then, key owner Mark Weinstein has moved abroad and now uses the name Moriel Carmi. According to the UK's company registry, he is an Israeli citizen living in France. In Europe, he is developing a new financial product called Banxe. Without knowing the service owner's history, it appears to be a reputable fintech startup. The service clearly makes efforts to seem so: Banxe was mentioned in a column by a Russian-speaking expert on the American Forbes website, in a blog post on the well-known cryptocurrency site CoinMarketCap, and its regularly updated Instagram has 4.3 thousand followers. Amidst the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions, Russian citizenship could be toxic for the UK's financial industry. Moreover, by changing his name, Weinstein conveniently shed the unpleasant baggage of his bank's money laundering history in Russia. He has indeed managed to establish good relations with European regulators: according to his project's website, one of his British legal entities, Tompay Ltd, has an electronic money operator license, and another, Polish, is authorized to provide cryptocurrency services (but not in Britain). A source from the banking market, personally acquainted with both Weinstein and Shor, tells 'Novaya Gazeta Europe' that these two businessmen are on very different levels: he is not sure if Shor is even aware of Weinstein's existence. Donations to the 'Eurasia' fund, in his opinion, may be related to the fact that 'Shor is very 'big,' and Weinstein, with his new service, wants to 'get in on it.' 4. 'Shchekinoazot' 1.1 billion rubles. A systemically important enterprise in the Tula region, the controlling stake of which, according to the latest available data, is held by local businessman Boris Sokol. He has well-established ties with the Tula authorities: at least in 2022, the deputy director of 'Shchekinoazot' was Vladimir Lebedev, the retired head of the FSB Directorate in the Tula region. Until recently, the region was headed by Putin's former bodyguard, Alexei Dyumin. 5. Andrey Goncharenko 328 million rubles. A mysterious Russian millionaire. A former business partner of the Rotenberg brothers and a manager from the 'Gazprom' orbit. An investigation by the American publication The Washington Post claims that in Moldova, Goncharenko carried out FSB instructions: following the instructions of Russian special services, he participated in a complex deal to buy back the Chisinau airport, which Shor himself had controlled for a long time. Mark Weinstein, Alexey Polunin, Denis Ippolitov, Viktor Gutsulyak, as well as representatives of Ilan Shor, Arkady Rotenberg, Andrey Goncharenko, 'Shchekinoazot,' 'Promsvyazbank,' and the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation did not respond to 'Novaya Gazeta Europe's' requests for comments sent by email. Among the recipients of funds in 'Diamand Estate's' reporting are, among others, several companies associated with cryptocurrency projects in Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong intermediaries involved in importing goods into Russia, from food products to coal, electronics, and precious stones, the aforementioned 'Eurasia' fund, and the company Telesistem TV, which owns two of the largest pro-Russian television channels in Moldova linked to Shor. In 2022, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the channels' broadcasting licenses were suspended and then revoked. From Shor's 'piggy bank,' funds also went to the company that published 'Komsomolskaya Pravda' in Moldova. In 2023, the publication's website was blocked by the country's authorities. Ilan Shor inspects goods during the opening of the Moldovan trading house 'Eurasia' store in Moscow, Russia, September 17, 2024. Photo: Sergey Ilnitsky / EPA. He was a rich man, and then they took it all away One of the companies paying for the international political adventures Shor participates in at the Kremlin's behest is the Kachkanar Mining and Processing Plant (KMOK) in the Sverdlovsk region. This is a large enterprise built during the Soviet era in the late 1950s. The metals mined at the Kachkanar deposit are used to produce pig iron and steel, which are then used in the production of railway rails and wagons and are essential for the construction of high-rise buildings and oil and gas facilities. Despite the enterprise's wealth and the political weight of its main owner, the company cuts corners on worker safety. For example, in 2024, there were three fatal accidents at KMOK: as the management itself admits, it was partly due to faulty equipment. A telling incident occurred in 2018 when Nikita Maksimov, a 27-year-old assistant machine operator, died at KMOK: an excavator boom fell on him. The tragedy was attributed to a combination of factors: worn-out equipment, overtime, poor supplies. Reading employee reviews of work at Kachkanar, one can find numerous complaints about low wages and old equipment, which, as one comment notes, leads to 'fatal production accidents.' When asked if Shor himself became much richer through all these operations, another shadow banker interviewed by 'Novaya-Europe' cannot answer definitively. — I had four banks in Russia – was I a rich man? But then they took everything away. Shor has 'A7' today, but tomorrow they might take it away, and he'll have nothing. How much he has to his name now: how many houses, yachts, and so on – I don't know. — Essentially, Shor is now doing what bankers prosecuted for participating in the 'Laundromat' (an international financial scheme to withdraw over $20 billion from Russia – Ed.) did,' the interlocutor of 'Novaya-Europe' chuckles. 'He simply provides a service to the Russian special services themselves.' Shchekino Chemical Plant. Photo: maps.yandex. When asked why Shor takes such high risks if there are no guarantees for him in Russia, the interlocutor of 'Novaya-Europe' also answers philosophically: — In Russia, he was a persona non grata, and now he's become persona number one. But it's a double-edged sword. After all, he doesn't just help Russia: he sells foreign goods, raw materials. Essentially, Western companies need him no less than the Russian state does. And what will happen after the war ends – perhaps he will devise new services that Europeans will need. He was one way, then he changed, became another. Today like this, tomorrow differently. Indeed, Shor's services are already being used not only by Russian state actors but also by Putin's political opponents. In May 2026, politician Sergey Boyko from Navalny's team held a stream on his personal YouTube channel about how to leave Russia and avoid everyday problems. He himself was forced to emigrate back in 2021 when a Russian court declared FBK structures extremist organizations: 'We talked about the 'A7' transfer system that Russian oligarchs built to move money out of Russia. It will work for you too! Since Russian oligarchs built something – use it! It's also a normal, working option.'