Putin ally Igor Sechin hires escorts for high-paying positions at state-owned oil giant Rosneft using company funds, ACF investigation shows

The Alexei Navalny-founded Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) has published an investigation into the hiring of escorts at the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. According to the obtained data, dozens of young women without relevant experience or qualifications have been confirmed as holding administrative positions with high salaries.

By analyzing Rosneft’s employee records and other documents, ACF’s investigators found that many of these women had previously worked in escort services. Their contact details were discovered on specialized websites and in escort agency databases.

Among the identified cases is the hiring of 21-year-old Anastasia I. as a chief specialist in the Corporate Property Department with an annual salary exceeding 2.4 million rubles (over $24,300). Another woman, 27-year-old Alexandra A., was appointed as an advisor to the company’s business manager, while 21-year-old Alina B. became a second-category specialist in the travel organization department.

A key focus of the investigation is Albina Ivanova, who was hired by Rosneft at the age of 21 with a monthly salary exceeding 300,000 rubles (over $3,000). Over the course of nine years, she received a total of 33 million rubles from the company — more than $335,000 based on the present exchange rate, though the dollar value of her compensation would have been much higher before the start of the war.

For comparison, the average salary in Moscow, Russia’s capital and its largest and most economically developed city, comes in at 140-160,000 rubles ($1,400 to 1,600), according to a recent claim by mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Vladimir Putin was visibly surprised when he heard the statistic.

Additionally, Ivanova was paid approximately 300 million rubles (just over $3 million) by the Independent Petroleum Company (NNK). NKK is owned by Eduard Khudainatov, Rosneft’s former CEO, who was identified in 2022 as the proxy owner of two megayachts — the 459-foot Scheherazade, which has been linked to Vladimir Putin, and the 348-foot Amadea, which the U.S. Department of Justice found is ultimately owned by sanctioned Russian gold mogul Suleiman Kerimov.

According to the investigation, Ivanova took 58 private jet trips with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin — a close ally of Vladimir Putin’s going back to his days in St. Petersburg. Ivanova owns a collection of luxury cars, including two Rolls-Royces, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, and a Porsche Taycan, with a total value exceeding 200 million rubles.

Investigators also uncovered Ivanova’s extensive Hermès handbag collection, estimated at around 104 million rubles, including a crocodile leather model worth approximately 20 million rubles. Last year, she purchased a 205 m² apartment in the elite Kutuzovsky 12 residential complex in central Moscow for over 300 million rubles.

Documents obtained by the ACF indicate that such hiring practices are not isolated incidents. Rosneft has employed dozens of young women without proper qualifications in well-paid administrative roles.

The ACF report notes that Rosneft’s board of directors includes high-ranking government officials such as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Maxim Oreshkin, who have access to information about the company’s hiring policies.