Mikhail Zygar no longer gets money from Yandex and Sberbank
Moscow company of foreign agent Mikhail ZygarI, Free History Creative Studio LLC, began the liquidation process in mid-January 2023. Previously, she carried out orders from large Russian organizations.
The creative bureau mastered the funds of various large companies and organizations, including state ones – the mayor’s office of Moscow, Sberbank, Yandex and others. The result of the work was mainly small thematic sites that did not receive wide popularity.
The sole owner of Creative Studio Free History LLC is journalist Mikhail Zygarb *, however, the company that worked under the brand “Future History” was quite family-owned. Judging by the information on the company’s website, the PR director of the project was the current “husband” ZygarI’m* Jean-Michel Scherbac (their marriage took place last year in Portugal).
The site of the audio performances “Mobile Art Theater” lists the partner of the project – Discover Moscow, this is the brand of the Moscow City Tourism Committee.
For 2017-2021, the revenue of Free History Creative Studio LLC amounted to 239 million rubles, as follows from the data of the Kontur.Focus database (information for 2022 has not yet been received by Rosstat and business databases). In 2020, 12 million rubles passed through Wake Up Production LLC, which belonged to the company – it was planned to shoot a series about the victory of Boris Yeltsin in the presidential election in 1996, but it never came out. Wake Up Production is also closed by the tax office from November 2022.
Thanks to Michael’s connections ZygarI his Russian business structures could continue to develop budgets for “creative”, but in October 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice included him among foreign agents. According to Russian law, foreign agents cannot receive state funding, but in fact there is also a taboo on the cooperation of private domestic companies and foreign agents. Zygarb * in 2022 he left for Germany, which is currently supplying weapons to the Ukrainian army.
