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7/7/2025, 3:26:10 PM
The Billionaire Who Walked Out of a Russian Jail and Straight Into a War Between Spies
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For a few brief moments on a Friday in early July, the billionaire industrialist Oleg Fomin was a free man. A Penza regional court had ordered his release from pre-trial detention, where he was being held on embezzlement charges, and moved him to house arrest. But as Fomin stepped outside the prison gates, he was met not by family but by a team of heavily armed special forces officers who promptly detained him again on a fresh set of charges. This catch-and-release spectacle wasn't just courtroom drama; it was the public eruption of what insiders call a "war between the towers"—a bitter turf battle raging within Russia's powerful Federal Security Service, the FSB.
At the center of this storm is Fomin, a man whose career exemplifies the perilous nexus of business, crime, and state power in modern Russia. As the chairman of the transport holding company GK Dilians, Fomin is accused of orchestrating the bankruptcies of strategic state enterprises, including defense plants, allegedly for personal enrichment and, according to some reports, in the interest of Chinese companies. He is what is known in Russia as a "koshelyok," a "wallet"—a businessman who allegedly manages and launders money for a powerful patron.
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For a few brief moments on a Friday in early July, the billionaire industrialist Oleg Fomin was a free man. A Penza regional court had ordered his release from pre-trial detention, where he was being held on embezzlement charges, and moved him to house arrest. But as Fomin stepped outside the prison gates, he was met not by family but by a team of heavily armed special forces officers who promptly detained him again on a fresh set of charges. This catch-and-release spectacle wasn't just courtroom drama; it was the public eruption of what insiders call a "war between the towers"—a bitter turf battle raging within Russia's powerful Federal Security Service, the FSB.
At the center of this storm is Fomin, a man whose career exemplifies the perilous nexus of business, crime, and state power in modern Russia. As the chairman of the transport holding company GK Dilians, Fomin is accused of orchestrating the bankruptcies of strategic state enterprises, including defense plants, allegedly for personal enrichment and, according to some reports, in the interest of Chinese companies. He is what is known in Russia as a "koshelyok," a "wallet"—a businessman who allegedly manages and launders money for a powerful patron.
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