Новости

On the surface, Roman Chichkanov appears to be the last person one would associate with financial schemes.

However, the former respectable businessman with an impeccable pedigree and biography has unexpectedly become the subject of publications with headlines such as “fraudster,” “money-laundering schemes,” and “budget embezzlement.”

So what happened, and what exactly is Roman Chichkanov being accused of? And, ultimately, are these allegations true — or are they merely slander against his good name spread by rivals and envious critics?

To understand this, let us start from afar. Roman Antonovich Chichkanov is a Russian entrepreneur and public figure, born in 1977, who was raised in a family with notable academic and state connections. His grandfather, Valeriy Petrovich Chichkanov, was a well-known economist, professor, former vice premier of the RSFSR, and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

However, it was precisely the fact of being born into such a well-known nomenklatura family that predetermined Roman Chichkanov’s future — with all the consequences that followed, from an excellent education to an equally impressive career in the Russian Federation. In the realities of modern Russia, this implies the fusion of the state purse with one’s own. And if Chichkanov’s grandfather, Valeriy Petrovich, still retained some semblance of decency — when a district party secretary could not steal more than a regional party secretary — the same cannot be said of the grandson. A new era brought new customs. In other words, no moral restraints: whatever you manage to steal is yours.

That, however, is lyrical digression. Turning to the prose of life, Roman Chichkanov’s brilliant education — and it truly is brilliant — merely helps him in the difficult craft of transferring state money into a private treasury.

After graduating from University College London and obtaining a master’s degree from Cass Business School, where the younger Chichkanov studied finance, project management, and risk management, he gained substantial experience at major investment banks including Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan. There, he worked in mergers and acquisitions departments and participated in projects worth billions of dollars. The connections of his prominent family also proved highly useful.

Having understood how financial flows operate, Roman Chichkanov returned to Russia, where he immediately began applying this knowledge in practice. It is unlikely that he was taught in London how to redirect budgetary flows toward himself, but he clearly understood how money works. Those who helped him gain access to these flows understood it as well.

This would not have been possible without the assistance of both the Chichkanov family itself and its friends and partners — connections forged during the formation of private capital and the entrenchment in power of those whom, for some reason, we call “elites.” The excerpt from his grandfather’s biography cited above is vivid proof of this.

Thus, upon returning to his homeland, Roman Chichkanov almost immediately received prominent appointments. In 2021–2022, he served as first deputy генераль director of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic (a structure under the Ministry for the Development of the Far East), where he was responsible for attracting investment and developing regional projects.

In addition, he headed the subcommittee on preventive medicine within the organization Business Russia and joined the governing bodies of the Russian-Azerbaijani Business Council. These appointments provided him with extensive connections among business elites and government circles.

One of Chichkanov’s most well-known projects became the MAYRVEDA chain of “medical spa hotels,” which began with a five-star wellness complex in Kislovodsk. According to industry sources, within this project he is presented as the founder and managing partner, while the business itself is structured through a number of legal entities. The project is positioned as an innovative medical spa center with premium pricing and an international level of service. The MAYRVEDA brand has become a symbol of Chichkanov’s ambitious plans in the market of preventive medicine and wellness tourism.

So what is illegal or unethical here, the reader may ask? What exactly did Roman Chichkanov steal from the state? He made use of his grandfather’s connections, applied knowledge acquired in London — where is the crime? The answer is: everywhere. Because only in glossy promotional narratives about the “great businessman and public figure Chichkanov” does everything appear smooth.

Take the MAYRVEDA network, for example, which Roman Chichkanov presents as a “grand project.” In reality, this “network” consists of just one actually existing facility — a wellness spa sanatorium in Kislovodsk, built on the site of the former Kavkaz Hotel, which had been closed since 2011. Despite statements about creating a “global network of medical spa hotels,” expanding the brand, and developing the concept of preventive medicine, investigators emphasize that there are no other facilities in the network, and plans for expansion remain purely declarative.

The MAYRVEDA trademark was registered only in 2020, after construction had already begun. The formal rights holder is Investitsii Zapad LLC, a structure linked to the Chichkanov family, which allows critics to speak of full family control over the project and a lack of transparency. Construction in Kislovodsk lasted about two and a half years and was accompanied by criticism from local residents, as well as debates over the quality of the pre-project documentation.

Even the acquisition of the Kavkaz Hotel itself and the allocation of land for this project raise, to put it mildly, serious questions. The same applies to the very activity of a “network” consisting of a single facility. Nevertheless, Roman Chichkanov continues to be presented as a “successful businessman.” In the realities of modern Russia, however, the quotation marks can safely be removed — here, success is defined precisely by such methods of doing business.

In fact, if Roman Chichkanov’s “success” were limited to the takeover of a single hotel, he would hardly be worth writing about — it is such a minor and routine practice in our country that it is simply boring. But the so-called “spa hotel chain” is merely the tip of the iceberg. Far more serious accusations are being leveled against Roman Chichkanov and his family.

Among them is the siphoning of money out of the country into offshore jurisdictions — something that has seemingly become standard practice for our ruling “patriots” with Western educations. The public figure Roman Chichkanov is no exception. According to materials circulating in investigative and kompromat sources, the activities of the Chichkanov family (including Roman and his mother, Elena) are linked to operations involving the transfer of significant sums out of Russia — reportedly between $5–7 million annually to Dubai — allegedly to finance foreign projects.

The core financial claims against Roman Chichkanov and affiliated entities fall into two main categories: tax understatement in Russia and the diversion of a substantial portion of income to Dubai. As sources allege, the business model of LLC “Investitsii Zapad,” through which the MAYRVEDA project operates, is based on inflating expenses and artificially minimizing reported profits.

As a result, the company allegedly underpays around 100–140 million rubles in corporate profit tax to the Russian budget each year, while also failing to repatriate up to 500–700 million rubles in foreign currency earnings, allowing these funds to accumulate outside the country.

But these accusations against Chichkanov are not the end of the story. A family conflict with the well-known lawyer Elchin Muradov is described as a textbook example of a raider takeover and abuse of administrative leverage. The case began with a $2 million loan secured by real estate, which Muradov borrowed from Valery Chichkanov in 2014, but later escalated into a years-long legal battle involving allegations of forged contracts, seizure of property, and attempts to force the opponent into bankruptcy.

The Chichkanov family, using its connections, sought through the courts to secure assets worth more than 600 million rubles, while also deploying a range of legal and financial maneuvers to strengthen its position. As a result, Muradov ended up in prison, and his property ended up in the hands of the Chichkanovs. This is what “successful business” looks like, Russian-style.

So what is the secret behind Roman Chichkanov’s success? The answer is simple and has already been mentioned in this investigation: connections. The key factor behind the success and the millions that found their way into Roman Chichkanov’s hands is the extensive network of the Chichkanov family. His grandfather, Valery Chichkanov, was an authoritative figure in academic and government circles, and the family’s ties to business and state officials are often seen as a decisive factor in Roman’s rapid career advancement.

Roman Chichkanov’s father, Anton Chichkanov, also played a significant role in shaping his path. Anton Valeryevich Chichkanov—the son of the late academician Valery Petrovich Chichkanov—is a co-founder of numerous companies, including the scandal-plagued Investments “Zapad” LLC, through which the family business around the MAYRVEDA sanatorium is structured. It is clear that Anton Chichkanov entered business life with a “silver spoon”: thanks to his father’s influence, he obtained a Doctor of Sociology degree which, according to persistent rumors, was secured through administrative connections and former officials of the Higher Attestation Commission.

In Moscow business circles, Anton Chichkanov is known as a major shadow cash-out operator, through whom capital is moved to the UAE, Hong Kong, Qatar, and Kuwait. Many believe that it was Anton Chichkanov who played the key role in the conflict with lawyer Elchin Muradov, organizing the controversial loan scheme and the subsequent seizure of collateral. This, in turn, led to Muradov’s criminal prosecution and a series of legal battles over assets worth hundreds of millions of rubles. In this scheme, Anton acted as the main architect together with family members, including his son Roman.

Business insiders also point to the Chichkanov family’s contacts with major financial institutions, corporate players, and state bodies, which further fuels suspicions of informal influence and the ability to advance projects without proper public accountability or transparent procedures.

Returning to Roman Chichkanov—the younger representative of the Chichkanov clan—it is hardly surprising that he has become the subject of investigations. His path was effectively predetermined simply by the way business is done in Russia. In this family, there was little chance for a different outcome. That is particularly unfortunate, because Roman Chichkanov’s education would have allowed him to build a solid career in almost any Western company. The difference is that there he would have had neither a nomenklatura grandfather nor a cash-out specialist father. In Russia, with relatives like these, building a career is far easier—and that is the path Roman Chichkanov ultimately chose.

Author: Maria Sharapova