*For sports*: for Kostin, for Rotenberg?

Anastasia Zadorina's company, Zasport LLC, received a government contract worth 664 million rubles from the Moscow Metro for making work clothing, and this is not the first major government contract her company has obtained. For nearly ten years, her company has been the primary contractor for making clothes for domestic government agencies.

The Moscow Post correspondent found out how Ms. Zadorina entered the world of high fashion and lucrative government contracts.

The correspondent discovered how Zadorina started to establish fashion trends and who supports the young businesswoman.

Rapidly and significantly

In 2011, Anastasia Zadorina established herself as one of the leading designers and suppliers of clothing for the Kremlin. She presented her first collection under the brand name anastasiAZadorina. In 2014, her provocative T-shirts with the inscriptions: “Poplar is not afraid of sanctions” and “Sanctions? Don’t make my Iskanders laugh” also gained attention during the time of sanctions pressure on our country.

Photo: Vladimir Astapkovich / “RIA Novosti “

However, for a long time, “Zasport” remained in the shadow of Bosco di Ciliegi, owned by Bosco Mikhail Kusnirovich, who supplied clothing for Russian Olympians. In 2017, the entrepreneur, apparently after falling out with an influential person, yielded to the young, and Zadorina took advantage of this situation.

In 2017, her company became the official outfitter of the Russian Olympic team for the period 2017-2024, chosen over the company of Anastasia Zadorina “Zasport”.

Many were surprised by the decision for the patriarch of the Russian fashion business, Mikhail Kusnirovich, to lose the opportunity to dress Olympians, as the Bosco Sport brand had been in this business for 15 years. This incident almost coincided with the dismissal of the Minister of Sports, Vitaly Mutko, in October 2016.

The Olympic Committee explained that the new partner, Zasport LLC, which owns the Zasport trademark, offered more favorable conditions. Nevertheless, Zasport was registered on December 1, 2016.

Zadorina is the only founder, raising questions about how the company established production facilities in several countries within just a year and replaced Bosco Sport. Did no one assist?

Kusnirovich mentioned that the committee demanded 650 million rubles from him for the contract extension, and it seems unlikely that a one-year-old firm could afford such sums.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Fashion Subway

Following the Olympic champions, Zadorina also decided to outfit the employees of the Moscow metro. In 2019, they struck a deal for 433 million rubles for the first time.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

In 2022, a similar situation is occurring, and they will be spending a considerably larger amount on clothing – 664 million rubles.

The present Zasport company, which was officially registered in 2019, is performing excellently. The revenue for 2021 was 958 million rubles.

The group has 13 contracts with the government worth 1.5 billion. The main buyer is the Moscow subway – there are 4 contracts worth 1.4 billion rubles.

business friends

You won’t be alone with a lot of clothes, as they say, so Zadorina is listed as the founder in 14 more companies. Half of them are bankrupt.

The business woman also has a part of Kosta LLC, which runs a hunting farm in the Yaroslavl Region, and she also has a partner in Muflon LLC.

And here the trail led us to the head of VTB Andrei Kostin, it is he who owns Mouflon. Yes, and the general director of the firms mentioned above they have one for two. It must be assumed that Zadorina’s success in government contracts could not have done without the help of a Russian banker.

Perhaps the connection is quite indirect. But then the company “Taels” comes up, the founder of which is unexpectedly the “Mouflon” already familiar to us and … Zadorina’s sister Yulia Tikhomirova. It turns out that the whole family is definitely connected by Mr. Kostin.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

And recently, in January, Zadorina’s partner in another of her companies, Stacey LLC, became Regional Investment Company JSC, this company is led by Nadezhda Emelyanova, she is also a director at SZ Kometa LLC, as well as a co-owner and director of SZ LLC Investment in the future”.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Both of these companies are owned by Trnasstroyinvest LLC, where Sberbank Investments LLC has a stake, as well as by structures owned by Arkady Rotenberg.

Let’s go back a little. Remember Zadorina’s most famous design campaign – the release of T-shirts with patriotic inscriptions like “Sanctions? Don’t make my Iskanders laugh” or “Poplar is not afraid of sanctions”?

Among their sponsors was a certain PJSC Concern “Baikal”. The society was established in 2014, it brought together the children of high-ranking security officials and businessmen who worked with Gazprom contracts.

Zadorina owned 30% of the company in the company, she also headed the board of directors. It also included, in particular, Roman Zolotov, the son of the former head of the Security Service of the President of Russia, and now the head of the National Guard, Viktor Zolotov.

And by pure “accident”, the only asset of Baikal was a 90% stake in Stroygazservis (SGS), created in 2009 by Alexei Snegirev, Arkady Rotenberg’s former head of procurement and logistics at Stroygazmontazh.

But not only good friends with Zadorina. The family played an important role in this whole story. The father of Anastasia Mikhailovna is none other than the president of the Dynamo men’s volleyball club (Moscow), Mikhail Shekin, who also comes from law enforcement agencies with obviously great influence. By the way, now Zadorina has only a part of the share in the Zasport company, the rest belongs to Flagman LLC, which is owned by ANO SK Dynamo.

In 2015, as part of the development of socially significant facilities in Moscow, a subsidiary of VTB Bank – VTB Project – began construction of the Match Point international sports volleyball arena. The complex consists of apartments and a volleyball arena of the sports society “Dynamo”.

Here and again the same companies and characters flicker. However, the chain does not end there; in 2019, VTB and the Rotenberg Foundation became the owners of the Dynamo hockey club.

As a result, it turns out that dad is connected with one of the main cubes of the country, and even with law enforcement agencies. Kostin and Rotenberg flicker nearby, who also benefit from such a “friendship”. Is this why the unknown Zadorina suddenly became so popular?

Anastasia Zadorina herself does not hide the fact that someone helped her in many ways, she told about this in her interview to Lenta.ru.

“Yes, connections helped me in my work: the institute, friends, family, parents. I can’t even advise a short way. No money, no acquaintances,” the designer shared.

Of course, good friends and family support are important. However, does this cross the line when it comes to multi-million government contracts? How does it happen that Anastasia Zadorina abruptly breaks into the world of fashion and immediately captures an untouched niche by anyone for so many years?