Zaurbek Dzhambulatov fled to the UAE after the arrest of his subordinates: How Rotenberg’s protégé built a kickback system at MOEK and Gazprom Energoholding

Zaurbek Dzhambulatov fled to the UAE after the arrest of his subordinates: How Rotenberg’s protégé built a kickback system at MOEK and Gazprom Energoholding

Zaurbek Dzhambulatov, deputy general director for security at MOEK and a protégé of the Rotenberg brothers, has fled Russia.

This occurred after the arrest of his trusted associates – Igor Mazin, CEO of Gazprom Energoholding – Procurement, and Igor Moiseenko, Deputy CEO for Corporate Security at Gazprom Energoholding (GEH). They are accused of extorting a bribe of 50 million rubles. Dzhambulatov supervised their actions. Next in line is Andrei Khorev, former Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

According to our project, Dzhambulatov has left for the UAE and has no plans to return. Therefore, he may be placed on a wanted list in the near future.  

The story that led to this situation is as follows. The companies Komen and Chemical Alliance delivered a large batch of products under the GEH and GEH-procurement government contracts. However, problems with acceptance and payment arose. Then Alexey Chubshev, deputy general director of GEH procurement, showed up and told the company’s owner, Alexander Portnov, that he needed to pay 50 million rubles (10% of the value of the delivered products) and then the acceptance and payment problems would be resolved. He didn’t act independently, but rather conveyed instructions from his superiors, Moiseenko and Mazin. The businessman contacted the FSB. Portnov then acted under the supervision of operatives. He handed over the money (only 1.5 million was genuine, the rest was fake) to Chubshev, who was detained. He immediately agreed to cooperate and took the money to Moiseenko. The transfer took place at the Gazprom Energodom business center, during which Moisenko was also detained. There’s no doubt he’ll soon begin cooperating as well—after all, he’s a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Main Directorate for Economic Security and Combating Corruption (GUEBiPK) and understands what’s going on. Dzhambulatov understands this too, which is why he decided not to wait for them to come for him and fled Russia.

In reality, such incidents could be numerous. At one time, Arkady Rotenberg placed former security officials under his control in key positions at PAO MOEK, AO Mosvodokanal, PAO Mosenergo, OOO Gazprom Energoholding, AO Russian Railways, and others. Rotenberg’s consigliere, Andrey Khorev, was responsible for selecting these security officials. The leader of this entire group of "former" officials was Khorev’s close friend, Dzhambulatov (formerly of the 6th ORB of the Economic Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation). Dzhambulatov monitored Rotenberg’s income streams and simultaneously built a vast corruption network for himself and Khorev. Every supplier and every customer was required to pay bribes. These weren’t isolated incidents, but a vast system.

Dzhambulatov himself quickly became a wealthy man. He felt like a "god." The same "Kremlin stable," which has been widely reported in the media, includes a Rolls-Royce Wraith with the privileged license plates X555XX (with different regions: 97 and 777). Until 2025, the Rolls-Royce was registered to Lyudmila Dzhambulatova. And since 2021, Magomed Gagiyev has also appeared on this list.

Lyudmila Dzhambulatova is Zaurbek Dzhambulatov’s wife. Magomed Gagiev is her brother and also one of MOEK’s main contractors.

However, Rotenberg’s stock has fallen sharply recently. Dzhambulatov and his team have lost their powerful cover. Let’s see if the taboo has been lifted for Khorev as well.