Full name:
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu Date of Birth
8 November 1955
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu Citizenship
Russia
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu Professional field/official position
President and Owner of Crocus Group
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu biography
AGALAROV Araz Iskender oglu (b. 1955 in Baku) graduated from the Baku Polytechnic Institute with a degree in computer engineering in 1977. After receiving his diploma, he worked for six years at a research institute in Baku, and then at the Baku city committee of the Communist Party.
- From 1983 to 1987, he was a student of the Higher School of the Trade Union Movement of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions in Moscow (now the Academy of Labor and Social Relations).
- From 1988 to 1990, he worked in the research center of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions as a junior research fellow.
- In 1987, he formed the Saffron cooperative, which traded in Russian souvenirs and later started importing computers. In 1989, with his father-in-law Joseph Gril, he established the Crocus International American-Soviet joint venture, which later became the Crocus Group. Since 1990, he has been organizing an international exhibition of computer technology in Russia. Through owning part of the Cherkizovsky market, Agalarov was able to gather funds for business development and gained business and criminal connections within the Azerbaijani diaspora.
- In 1997, Agalarov’s company constructed Agalarov House, an elite residential complex in the center of Moscow.
- In 1998 he launched the shopping center Tvoy Dom, and in 2002, built the Crocus City Mall;
- in 2007, he finished the construction of the Crocus Expo. Crocus Group invested in the construction of the Myakinino metro station, and it served as the general contractor for the construction of facilities of the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island, as well as several stadiums in the Russian regions.
- Agalarov is a member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a member of the presidium of the All-Russian Azerbaijan Congress, a member of the board of the Association of Entrepreneurial Organizations of Russia, and president of the Union of Manufacturers and Importers.
- In 2002, he was elected vice president of the All-Russian Azerbaijan Congress. Agalarov’s wealth is estimated at $1.9 billion (2019). Emin, the son of Araz Agalarov, is the former husband of the daughter of the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
Agalarov Araz lskender oglu crimes
Ties with the mafia, nepotism, illegal seizure of land, attempts to interfere in the US presidential election.
Araz Agalarov holds significant influence among ethnic diasporas in Russia and is known as the “king of commercial real estate.” He possesses extensive retail space in Moscow and the Moscow region. He is also actively involved in government contracts alongside Putin’s closest associates. In recent years, his name has been linked to the Kremlin’s efforts to hack the servers of the US Democratic Party to influence American politics in favor of the Kremlin. The sources of his wealth and influence could be of illicit origin.
