Meet The Russian-Uzbek Network Behind Uzbekistan’s Gas Sector

A little-known businessman originally from Samarkand, Fozilov is the public face of Eriell and Enter Engineering, oil- and gas-service companies that were selected as general contractors — either together or separately — on major oil and gas projects launched under Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev and valued at around $23 billion. Fozilov, 47, has longstanding business ties with Gazprom, and owns businesses together with the sons of former top officials in Uzbekistan’s state security service (SNB). He is also a business partner of Kirill Matveyev, the son of Gazprombank Deputy Chairman Aleksei Matveyev, chairman of Eriell’s board of directors since 2012. In 2019, Mirziyoev presented Fozilov with a state award “for selfless service” to Uzbekistan. Fozilov is also the president of the Uzbek Ice Hockey Federation.

Filatov, a Russian businessman and president of the Russian Chess Federation, has publicly said he is a 50 percent shareholder in the Cypriot company Altmax Holding, which holds stakes in major Uzbek gas projects launched under Mirziyoev. Filatov, whose wealth was estimated by Forbes Magazine in 2021 at $850 million, says he holds the Altmax stake through a second Cypriot firm, Brighttree Holding, though this cannot be verified with documentary sources. The other 50 percent shareholder in Altmax is Bakhtiyor Fozilov, the Uzbek businessman who is a shareholder in – and the public face of – oil- and gas-service companies Eriell and Enter Engineering, which are contractors in major Uzbek gas projects in which Altmax has stakes. These include the $5.2 billion development of the M25 gas field in the southeastern Surxondaryo region. Filatov, 51, has also invested in businesses controlled by Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a patron of the Russian Chess Federation.

Timchenko, who built a fortune in oil trading, is a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been hit with multiple rounds of U.S. and EU sanctions following the Kremlin’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. The U.S. Treasury Department alleges that Timchenko’s “activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin,” and that Putin “has investments” in Gunvor, the Swiss-based, oil-trading firm Timchenko owned until selling his stake following the Crimea-related sanctions. Putin and Timchenko have denied this and the U.S. allegation that Putin “may have access to Gunvor funds.” Timchenko appears to hold – or to have previously held – a secret 60 percent stake in a joint venture with a subsidiary of Uzbek-state owned Uzbekneftegaz to expand the Gazli underground gas-storage facility at the heart of the Uzbek gas-transport network. The stake is held by a Russian company called Forus, which was founded by a St. Petersburg legal assistant named Aida Chachkhalia, who has other business links to Timchenko.

Chachkhalia has served as a legal assistant at the St. Petersburg law firm Ivanyan and Partners, which has represented Kremlin-linked tycoon Gennady Timchenko. In 2017, Chachkhalia was the listed founder of an obscure Russian company called Forus, which had an initial share capital of around $155. The following year, Forus and a subsidiary of the Uzbek state-owned Uzbekneftegaz created a joint venture called Gazli Gas Storage, with the Russian firm taking a 60 percent stake. Mirziyoev subsequently awarded the joint venture an $850 million project to expand the Gazli underground gas-storage facility – the heart of the Uzbek gas-transport network – and explore and develop hydrocarbons in the nearby oil and gas fields in the southwestern Bukhara region. Chachkhalia, 33, has multiple business links to Timchenko. In 2014-15, she owned the Russian company Millionnaya 5. In 2016 it became a minority shareholder in a Russian fish company in which Timchenko’s son-in-law, Gleb Frank, held the largest stake. Chachkhalia also co-founded the Russian company Karinyan in 2015, holding a 1 percent stake alongside Timchencko’s 99 percent. The company was incorporated to manage Timchenko’s interest in wineries. In 2017, Chachkhalia took over 100 percent ownership of Karinyan.

Inoyatov, 48, is the only son of Uzbekistan’s most powerful and feared general, Rustam Inoyatov, who served as chairman of Uzbekistan’s National Security Service (SNB) from 1995-2018 and is currently an Uzbek senator. Sharif has partnered in a Russian business called Neva Alyans Grupp – the developer of a cottage village near St. Petersburg – with Ravshan Ubaidullaev, a son of another retired senior SNB official, and Bakhtiyor Fozilov, the Uzbek businessman with large stakes in major Uzbek energy projects launched under Mirziyoev and a shareholder of Eriell and Enter Engineering, the oil- and gas-service companies that have a monopoly on contracting work for these and other projects. In 2015-2017, the trio became shareholders in three companies in Russia’s Tula region, investing hundreds of millions dollars in a poultry complex and an oil-extraction plant. Financial filings reveal that all three men have had a financial stake in the operation of Eriell’s largest shareholder, the Cypriot offshore company Erilico Limited.

Ubaidullaev is the son of Umar Ubaidullaev, a former senior official with the Uzbek national security service (SNB). Ravshan is a business partner of Sharif Inoyatov, the son of longtime SNB head Rustam Inoyatov, and Uzbek businessman Bakhtiyor Fozilov, who has large stakes in major Uzbek energy projects launched under Mirziyoev and is a shareholder of Eriell and Enter Engineering, the oil- and gas-service companies that have a monopoly on contracting work for these and other projects. Both Inoyatov and Ravshan Ubaidullaev have had a financial stake in the operation of Eriell’s largest shareholder, the Cypriot offshore company Erilico Limited.

Ubaidullaev is the brother of Ravshan Ubaidullaev, a business partner of Uzbek businessman Bakhtiyor Fozilov, who has large stakes in major Uzbek energy projects launched under Mirziyoev and is a shareholder of Eriell and Enter Engineering. Their father is Umar Ubaidullaev, a former senior official with the Uzbek national security service (SNB). Erkin Ubaidullaev was listed as the ultimate controlling party of a Cyprus company called C.E. Civil Engines, which between 2016 and 2019 received 91 gas pumping and booster compressor units from state-owned Uzbek energy company Uzbekneftegaz subsidiaries for repair work costing $133 million, according to a secret interagency working group commissioned by Mirziyoev. The report by the working group alleges that delays in the repair work by C.E. Civil Engines led to the loss in production of 11.3 billion cubic meters of gas. A separate assessment in a confidential report by Boston Consulting Group said that in 2017-18, the cost of repairs and deliveries of gas turbine engines through C.E. Civil Engines were overpriced by $37 million.

Matveyev, 59, is deputy chairman of the board of Gazprombank, the financial arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom. He has also been a key negotiator from the Russian side on Gazprombank-financed energy projects in Uzbekistan since Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev’s rise to power in September 2016. He also serves as board chairman of Eriell, the oil- and gas-service company that, under Mirziyoev, has secured a monopoly on contracting work on virtually all major Uzbek energy projects over the past seven years. Matveyev’s son, Kirill Matveyev, is a business partner of Eriell shareholder Bakhtiyor Fozilov, the public face of the company. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States, Britain, and Canada imposed sanctions on Aleksei Matveyev, calling him an official who “conducts commercial activities in sectors of the economy that provide a significant source of income for the Russian government.”

Matveyev, 34, is the son of Aleksei Matveyev, deputy chairman of the board of Gazprombank and a key negotiator on Russian-Uzbek gas deals since Mirziyoev rose to power in 2016. According to his Russian social-media profile, Matveyev has worked in executive positions in Eriell, the oil- and gas-service company with a monopoly on contracts for major energy projects under Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev. His father is the chairman of Eriell’s board. Kirill Matveyev also co-owns an Uzbek property-management company called Kinori together with Eriell shareholder and public face Bakhtiyor Fozilov. That company’s official listed contact information is an Eriell e-mail address. He previously served as general director of the professional hockey team Humo Tashkent, which is owned by Fozilov. Kirill Matveyev also serves as vice president of the Uzbek Ice Hockey Federation, which Fozliov heads. In Russia, Matveyev owns a sporting goods wholesaler called Poliparkstarrus, whose general director, Dmitry Sakharov, serves in the same capacity with a company called AMGA Consulting, an Eriell shareholder that shares a Moscow address with companies owned by Kremlin-linked tycoon Gennady Timchenko and his son-in-law, Gleb Frank.