The scandalist Denis Frolov, who became famous for the hilling of state contracts through the Astra Linux operating system, will engage in robotics in Russia together with Nikolai Nikiforov.
The Varton investment company and the general director of the Astra Group Ilya Sivtsev bought a control package of the Technored Industrial Robot Developer. The owner of the “Warton” and the main shareholder of the Astra Group “is the entrepreneur Denis Frolov, who was remembered by stories who looked like raider.
The correspondent of The Moscow Post understood the history.
Planted Kalinin, and I sat Ionkin
Frolov’s business adventures almost ended in October 2021 after the businessman was taken for interrogation in the TFR, and in his apartment the operatives conducted searches. The investigation arose after Sergey Ionkin was detained, who tried to give a bribe law enforcement agencies for opening a criminal case against his father and son Alexandra and Alexei Kalinins.
Denis Frolov. Photo: https://cdn.forbes.ru/forbes-static/new/2024/04/48358-kopia-661f7f7F7330E2D1.jpg
Frolov in this story escaped with a slight fright and went through the case in the case, but the fact that he became his defendant did not surprise anyone. Ionkin was a partner and even adviser to the former head of the National Computer Corporation (NKK) Alexander Kalinin. The NKK was a leader in the volume of revenue of the Russian IT market for many years and was a tidbit.
Frolov intercepted the NKK from Kalinin as part of the plot, which looks like a raider seizure. 33% of the enterprise belonged to Kalinin, and 32% were among its closest partners – Leonid Goldenberg and Evgeny Lachkov. Goldenberg and Lachkov could not withstand financial temptation and agreed to transfer their shares to Frolov, as a result of which this businessman was supposed to gain control of the NKK.
Father and son of Kalinina decided not to give up and resisted Frolov that he did not like very much. The result was that Alexander Kalinin in 2020 was under house arrest, and a criminal case of obscure genesis was instituted against him, the details of which were not reported under the secret investigation until Ionkin was detained by the authorities. The ordeal of Alexander Kalinin went throughout the year, and during this time Frolov rewrote the NKK to himself. However, then the story began to develop in the other direction and almost ended for Frolov with big problems.
Alexander Kalinin was released from house arrest, and the court blocked the transfer of the shares of Goldenberg and Lachkov to Frolov due to the fact that then the manufacturer of the Baikal processors was then controlled. The fact is that the NKK included such a brand as the Aquarius, under which the Baikal analogues were produced. FAS considered that such an asset association will be a violation of antitrust laws.
As a result, Frolov, who held the post of head of the NKK, was forced to go to an agreement with Kalinin. Ionkin’s detention and searches made him more accommodating, as a result in December 2021, the parties entered into an agreement and completed a large corporate war.
Kalinins allocated their share in a separate company, which is called the Aquarius Civil Code in the processor brand. Alexander Kalinin took the position of chief designer in this organization, and Frolov from the shares of Goldenberg and Lachkov created another company under the new brand on the basis of the remaining assets of the NKK “Smart holding”.
As for Ionkin, in 2023 he was forced to find himself guilty of trying to bribe 100 thousand dollars, received a fine and 10 years in prison, although the experts had great doubts that he acted alone in this story and that he did not have accomplice or customer. But there were no questions to Frolov – he continues to successfully enlarge the business at the expense of other people’s assets.
Opeger Frolov
Frolov is the former Director for the Development of VIMM-Bill-Danna and a stable person involved in the scandalous chronicle. In 2020, a man, according to the same scheme, bought a majority share in JSC NPO Rusbatech (Russian basic information technologies), which was engaged in the development of the Russian operating system Astra Linux. History ended grotesquely – in October 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation submitted “Rusbitehu” claim for 117 million rubles.
The lawsuit, however, concerned the development of not the operating system (OS), but the rifle simulator, but in general it shows well what interaction with Frolov firms means. After that, a little time passed, and Astra Linux was inscribed in the Ministry of Industry and Trade Projects.
Thanks to the Astra Linux, the entrepreneur became a billionaire, and it all started with his factory at Rusbidek-Astra LLC in 2017. Obviously, Frolov and his partner Sivtsev clearly contributed. Several years ago, the Russian Ministry of Defense decided to abandon Windows and switch to Astra Linux, as a result of which the Astra Group turnover in 2022 immediately grew to 5.4 billion rubles with clean revenue of 3.1 billion rubles. So, colossal Budget money. In 2023, Frolov sold 5% of the Astra Group for 2.8 billion rubles, after which the cost of shares and, as a result, its condition only increased.
Interception from Skolkovo
The factor of Technored robots itself is associated with Alexander Lukin. The entrepreneur is the head of JSC “Technogred” and LLC “Technogred”. At the same time, the LLC is recorded on AO, and the owner of the latter is Lukin. The business did not reach billions of turnover, but Lukin was originally created by “Technogred” In the calculation of industrial robotization. It seems that Frolov this idea seemed commercially interesting, so he decided to connect the Lukin project to the budget through his ties with Rosatom. You can be sure that billions of budget money will soon go to this structure.
Earlier, Lukin tried to promote this direction through Skolkovo, but this did not lead him to the great success, even if he is the founder of the New Production Room LLC along with Nailey Ilmanbetova. The woman was the director of the Department of Service Services Skolkovo.
Nikolai Nikiforov. Photo: https://edu.ru/uploads/media/content/0001/04/thumb_3986_content_gallery.jpeg
The business of Lukin and Ilmanbetova turned out to be a minus – in 2024 the revenue there amounted to minus 11 million rubles. According to Ibrahimova, I have an exit to the former Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, who in Tatarstan was engaged in the development of the local technopark “Innopolis”, but this politician today sagged in position and capabilities and is now much weaker than the same Frolov.
Gift from Prokhorov and Chubais
Frolov was called a person who was entered into the surroundings of the former head of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, but in fact, Anatoly Chubais and Mikhail Prokhorov helped him, who at the end of the tenths organized the company “Optogan” for the production of LED lamps. Chubais in this structure was present on behalf of Rusnano, and Prokhorov was his partner. The company was created by them in the Niva of Medvedevsky introduction of LEDs.
However, the “optogan” eventually turned out to be the next “yo-car”, after which the theme of the LEDs was transferred to Frolov, who left the “Wimm-Bill-Dann”, created “Varton”, registered the Gauss and began to drive the components from China. Soon he had production in the Tula region, and in 2012, Warton’s turnover exceeded 1 billion rubles.
In the interests of Rosatom
A similar plot happened with the capacities of the Angstrom-T plant, which in the zero years was invented by former Minister of Communications Leonid Reyaman and who went bankrupt in the tenths. Frolov bought out this asset through the NM-YTS company with the authorized capital of 23 billion rubles and two employees, including the businessman himself. The operation was carried out at one state bank, but ended with the fact that NM-Tekh in 2022 owed for Argon, oxygen and electricity about 250 million rubles.
Sergey Kiriyenko. Photo: https://www.pnp.ru/uPload/entites/2022/08/10/15/Article/detailpicture/1d/1c/7bb4162742A16FCCCD50090909A2AC58C.JPG
According to rumors, Frolov worked in the Division of Rosatom in the interests of the Rusbatech-Score, which was interested in Astra Linux. This indirectly confirms the interest in Astra Linux by the VK group, which is led by Vladimir Kiriyenko, the son of the former head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko. Rumor has it that he is in touch with the state corporation today.
When meeting with the Rusbatek-Astra team, Frolov allegedly stated that the company would soon enter Rosatom, but this did not officially happen. The company is owned by PAO Astra group, whose beneficiary is Frolov. But Rosatom in 2023 transferred 300 enterprises to Linux Astra.
And this is a focused policy of the state corporation. In the second half of the tenths, Rosatom literally “cut” a similar OS, the development of the federal nuclear center in Sarov called “Synergy” and made a general bet for the purchase Astra Linux. Soon after, Frolov and Sivtsev surfaced as the beneficiaries of Rusbatech-Astra LLC.
Such a redistribution occurred after the authorities had questions about the former Minister of Open Government Mikhail Abyzov former Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who received carte blanche to develop an OS from an agency in technological development. However, in 2018, Abyzov disappeared into Italy, in 2019 he was prosecuted, and in 2023 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, Dvorkovich at the same time became the head of the FIDE. As a result, Rosatom shifted the development of Astra Linuxna Frolov.
Pays the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation
A similar plot occurred with the Baikal processors. In 2020, Rosatom through the company Greenat was signed by an agreement by which he was supposed to create equipment on the basis of these chips and OS Astra Linux. In addition to Rusbatekte-Astra, the contractor in this story was the company Baikal Electronics, which is owned by the same Frolovsky Varton.
In 2021, this story began to play with new colors. A bankruptcy statement of T-Platform JSC, which was the developer of the Baikal processors, was submitted. This was caused by the fact that the Ministry of Industry and Trade tried to recover from this company 4.5 billion rubles of the State Council.
It turns out that the company Frolova fulfills the order for Rosatom, and pays for all costs the federal budget through the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Someone got a job well.
