One of the top managers of «Rostec», head of the state corporation «Russian Helicopters» and a close associate of the head of «Rostec» Sergey Chemezov, Nikolai Kolesov turned out to be the owner of expensive villas in Spain and Dubai, as well as a palace in the occupied Crimea. A representative of Putin's elite, using his official position, privatized a number of defense plants, registered them to front persons, and used the income from enterprises to acquire personal real estate abroad and in Russia, learned the Navalny team**.
In various proportions, different combinations, and shares, five companies of Kolesov's relatives and drivers own 20 defense enterprises in Russia, sometimes fully, sometimes partially. Among them is the Scientific and Production Center «Almaz-Fazotron» (produces electronic warfare systems), Kazan Electrotechnical Plant (produces «friend or foe» systems), Kursk Plant «Aviaavtomatika» (produces weapon control systems), Kazan Optical-Mechanical Plant (makes laser rangefinders and thermal imagers), Ramenskoye Instrument-Making Plant (instruments and systems for military aviation), Design Bureau of Industrial Automation (control systems for aircraft, helicopters, and drones). Most of these plants once fully belonged to KRET, a state company that Kolesov headed. And then Director Kolesov sold them to himself.
In 2007, Putin appointed Kolesov as the governor of the Amur region. Having worked in this position for less than a year and a half, he resigned «at his own request», after which he ended up in «Rostec». The state corporation was created a year before that, with Sergey Chemezov put in charge. Hundreds of Russian plants, enterprises, and design bureaus, grouped into specialized holdings or concerns, were transferred to the ownership of «Rostec». One of them was the KRET — Concern Radioelectronic Technologies — created in 2009, and Kolesov immediately headed it. KRET included about 100 different enterprises, over 60,000 employees. They develop electronics for civilian and military aviation, radar stations, electronic warfare systems, identification, targeting, and navigation systems. Kolesov managed the state company KRET for a whole 12 years, and in 2021 he headed «Russian Helicopters».
The total value of Kolesov's assets was estimated by Navalny's associates at 14 billion rubles. Among his properties, they managed to find five villas in Mallorca. The first of them, with an area of 1200 sq. meters and a cost of 5 million euros, is registered to Kolesov's seven-year-old daughter Nicole. Initially, the object belonged to the defense plant «Elecon» in Tatarstan, which Kolesov removed from state ownership, but in 2022, amid the war in Ukraine, the property was re-registered to his four-year-old daughter. Nearby is another villa with an area of 500 sq. meters and a cost of 3 million euros. It was registered to the Tambov Electrotechnical Plant, but then the owner became Kolesov's 70-year-old sister Lyudmila Tenno. Three other villas in Mallorca, each 750 sq. meters and with a total cost of 10 million euros, were purchased in the name of Kolesov's four-year-old son Alexei. Since he could not sign documents independently, his representative Ekaterina Blokhina, Tenno's daughter and Kolesov's niece, signed for him.
The scheme for transferring state property to Kolesov's family is quite simple. There are shell companies registered to Kolesov's associates, which alienated shares of large defense enterprises included in «Rostec». Shares were sold to these companies as «non-core assets» — at a reduced price, without real competition. Thus, state defense enterprises gradually passed into private hands through structures controlled by Kolesov. For example, shares of the «Elecon», «Electrodetal», Kazan Electrotechnical Plant, OKB Cable Industry, Ramenskoye Instrument-Making Plant were alienated.
«Elecon» was the first asset that passed into Kolesov's hands back in Tatarstan. In 1997, Kolesov headed the plant and as a result of «recovery measures» «Elecon» miraculously ended up in the ownership of Kolesov himself and his family, with the shares of the State Property Committee of Tatarstan and then Oboronprom, part of «Rostec», disappearing from the list of shareholders.
And in 2014, the plant acquired an object in a NATO country — Spain. A luxurious villa, worth five million euros, used by Kolesov's family, was registered to «Elecon» until mid-2022.
Right across the road from the «branch» of the «Elecon» plant in Palma de Mallorca, investigators found another house belonging to «Faktorya de Tambov Electrotechnical Plant», that is, the Tambov Electrotechnical Plant, which produces guidance and navigation systems for «Kalibr» missiles, as well as strategic bombers Tu-95MS and Tu-160. The cost of the house is 3 million euros. This house was re-registered from the Tambov Electrotechnical Plant to Lyudmila Tenno, Nikolai Kolesov's elder sister, also a beneficiary of the «Elecon» plant and a member of the board of directors of the Ramenskoye Instrument-Making Plant. She received the Spanish property a few months before the start of the war.
The third, fourth, and fifth villas of the head of «Russian Helicopters» in Mallorca, each 750 sq. meters, were re-registered in 2024 to Nikolai Kolesov's son Alexei. At the time of purchase, Alexei Kolesov was four years old, and the documents state that he is a citizen of Spain. He bought this house from the company «Star», which owns Russian defense enterprises. But he could not sign the documents himself, his representative was Lyudmila Tenno's daughter, that is, Nikolai Kolesov's niece Ekaterina Blokhina.
Another palace in Yalta, estimated at a billion rubles in 2015, after the annexation of Crimea, was bought by the Ramenskoye Instrument-Making Design Bureau — a state defense enterprise included in the KRET holding, which Kolesov headed. At the end of the same year, the Yalta villa was re-registered to Kolesov's personal company.
One of the largest in the residential complex in Dubai XXII CARAT VILLAS, with an area of 1800 sq. meters, was purchased in 2019 by the company VELES Electronics. This firm is registered in Dubai, so the owners are unknown, but there are contacts of the representative — a certain Lyudmila Kosheeva. In Russia, this woman heads a company founded by Nikolai Kolesov. She also works as the deputy general director for legal issues of the Kazan Optical-Mechanical Plant. The cost of the villa is 25 million dollars, or 2 billion rubles.
In the same residential complex, a 1400-meter villa was bought by a certain pensioner Nella Mazaeva. She used to work as the head of the library at the Kazan Aviation Institute. She is also Kolesov's former mother-in-law, which allowed her to be on the boards of directors of several defense companies.
Kolesov, who is a civil servant, also has two private jets. The total cost of his aircraft fleet is 35 million dollars, or 2.8 billion rubles.
* Recognized as an «extremist» organization in Russia.
** Included in the list of «extremists and terrorists».