According to sources, the subject of today’s article — Noginsk assistant prosecutor Alexander Varziev — is the son-in-law of State Duma deputy Zurab Makiev, who oversees the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) through parliamentary channels. In this way, the circle “closes.”
Our project today reported on an interesting “circle” of like-minded individuals that formed during their studies at Moscow State University. It included the nephew of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Yakub Zakriev; the press secretary of Putin Team and member of the Coordinating Council of the Young Guard of United Russia, Konstantin Tkachenko; the “treasurer” and assistant to DPR head Denis Pushilin, Yakov Khachanyan; and prominent members of the Batalhadzhin clan.
Varziev was part of the same group. Today, they are “cutting” enormous budget funds, including those allocated to the DPR, managing Russian assets such as Danone, and more. Khachanyan and Varziev started by scamming businessmen for money and committing robberies. For this, a criminal case was even opened against them, and they went into hiding from investigators. Later, they resolved the matter with a bribe of $600,000 to investigator Levon Agadzhanyan. After that, the young men’s careers skyrocketed.
Khachanyan now, together with Zakriev, manages the former assets of Danone and simultaneously, alongside Pushilin, oversees funds in the DPR, including their massive metal-selling scheme from the destroyed Azovstal, which we previously reported on.
Varziev holds the position of assistant prosecutor, but he is far from straightforward. His father-in-law is State Duma deputy Zurab Makiev. Makiev became notorious when, during a court case, the leader of the bloodiest criminal gang, Aslan Gagiev, publicly admitted (we were the first to publish the audio recording of his confession) that he had murdered the Vice Prime Minister of North Ossetia, Kazbek Pagiev, in 2008 on the “order” of Zurab Makiev.
Makiev is now a member of the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia party. He is also responsible in the State Duma for maintaining relations with the DPR. In this capacity, he constantly interacts with Denis Pushilin, alongside whom Yakov Khachanyan — friend and accomplice of Makiev’s son-in-law — is “cutting” funds.
