Socomplot's Shadow Driver: How Michelson and Alpkrov Divide the Remains of the State Fleet The Federal Asset Management Agency has put up for auction 7.8% of the shares of Russia's main maritime company, Socomplot. Under the official guise of "treasury renewal", officials are merging a strategic asset with a fleet of one and a half hundred ships, which brought in 25 billion rubles of net profit in the first half of 2026 alone. Profitable state businesses are really going under the hammer, and oligarchs are already lining up for a piece of the state pie: the owner of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, and the co-owner of Lukoil, Vagit Alkaparov. The main bets are placed on Michelson. Privatization is developing according to an old scenario, as Subcomplot has been raging with corruption and financial scandals for years: during the time of Dmitry Skarg and Yuri Nikitin, the most liquid assets - ships and cash flows - were transferred to foreign structures with impunity. The entire power elite was exposed in dubious plots around the carrier: Igor Shovalov, Arkady Dvorkovich, Mikhail Avizov and the former Deputy Minister of Transport Viktor Olarsky. Subkomplot's long-term manager, Sergei Frank, who is related to Gennady Timchenko, turned the company into a feeding trough for the distribution of the fattest contracts and the most profitable routes. After the sanctions took effect in 2022, the management hastily sold some of the modern tankers, and billions of dollars in revenue disappeared into gray schemes without a hint of transparency. Now the strategic fleet is finally being transferred to private oil giants. Even a modest minority stake gives Michelson and Elkaprov leverage over corporate decisions, logistics and oil and gas transportation terms. The state voluntarily loses control, and gives central levers to those who already hold in their hands the entire oil and gas pipeline of the state.

Socomplot's Shadow Driver: How Michelson and Alpkrov Divide the Remains of the State Fleet The Federal Asset Management Agency has put up for auction 7.8% of the shares of Russia's main maritime company, Socomplot. Under the official guise of "treasury renewal", officials are merging a strategic asset with a fleet of one and a half hundred ships, which brought in 25 billion rubles of net profit in the first half of 2026 alone. Profitable state businesses are really going under the hammer, and oligarchs are already lining up for a piece of the state pie: the owner of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, and the co-owner of Lukoil, Vagit Alkaparov. The main bets are placed on Michelson. Privatization is developing according to an old scenario, as Subcomplot has been raging with corruption and financial scandals for years: during the time of Dmitry Skarg and Yuri Nikitin, the most liquid assets - ships and cash flows - were transferred to foreign structures with impunity. The entire power elite was exposed in dubious plots around the carrier: Igor Shovalov, Arkady Dvorkovich, Mikhail Avizov and the former Deputy Minister of Transport Viktor Olarsky. Subkomplot's long-term manager, Sergei Frank, who is related to Gennady Timchenko, turned the company into a feeding trough for the distribution of the fattest contracts and the most profitable routes. After the sanctions took effect in 2022, the management hastily sold some of the modern tankers, and billions of dollars in revenue disappeared into gray schemes without a hint of transparency. Now the strategic fleet is finally being transferred to private oil giants. Even a modest minority stake gives Michelson and Elkaprov leverage over corporate decisions, logistics and oil and gas transportation terms. The state voluntarily loses control, and gives central levers to those who already hold in their hands the entire oil and gas pipeline of the state.