The email accounts of Andrey Lugovoy, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Corruption Control, and his entourage were compromised by the Ukrainian hacktivist group Cyber Resistance. The documents that were given exclusively to the InformNapalm, a worldwide intelligence community of volunteers, for the analysis, turned out to be Lugovoy’s communications, parliamentary inquiries, and other data.
LUGOVOY’S BACKGROUND
Andrey Lugovoy was born in Baku on September 19, 1966 to a military family. After completing the Moscow Higher Military Command School in 1987, he was placed to the Kremlin Regiment. The unit has been overseen by the 9th Directorate of the KGB responsible for bodyguarding politicians.
He completed the Advanced KGB Course on Military Counterintelligence in 1990. Then he joined the Russian Federal Protective Service and the President of the Russian Federation’s Security Service from 1991 and 1996. There he looked after the highest Russian government officials.
It is also well known that Lugovoy was given a 14-month prison term by a Russian court in 2004 for orchestrating the escape of Nikolai Glushkov, a staffer of oligarch Boris Berezovsky who fell out of favor.
After completing his prison term, Lugovoy started business of private security. He headed the Ninth Wave group of security firms which provided protection to members of Boris Berezovsky’s family. In 2006, in London, Lugovoy carried out the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210. According to the verdict issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, he was named as the actual perpetrator of Litvinenko’s assassination. In January 2016, British investigators said that Litvinenko’s murder was likely ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.
In 2017, the United States added Lugovoy to the Magnitsky sanctions list. According to the official website of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention of Ukraine, Lugovoy, is now also under sanctions from the EU, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and Ukraine in addition to the US sanctions.
Lugovoy presently holds the following roles, as per the official Russian State Duma website:
- First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Corruption Control.
- Member of the State Duma Commission on Review of the Federal Budget Expenditures for National Defense, National Security, and Law Enforcement Activity.
- Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Commission of the Federal Assembly on Investigation of Facts of Interference by Foreign States in Russia’s Internal Affairs.
As a politician, propagandist, and a member of parliament, Lugovoy caught the attention of hacktivists with his provocative remarks regarding the adoption of the scandalous law on electronic summons for the army on April 11, 2023. The law replaced the requirement to serve the summons to potential draftees in person. Additionally, he proactively advocated for imposing serious restrictions on Russian citizens served with the electronic summons who do not want to take part in the invasion of Ukraine. The restrictions would include access to government medical insurance and various central registries of property (auto tags, loan collateral, etc.).
HACKING LUGOVOY AND HIS ENTOURAGE
Ukrainian hackers compromised the email accounts of Lugovoy, his family and staff. To keep this publication concise, we will only present the translation of a few documents pertaining to Andrey Lugovoy and his legislative activities. We also provide information about his family’s recent expensive trips to the Seychelles, which were likely taken not only for fun but also to open offshore accounts in order to withdraw money from Russia. We’ll also discuss a delicately personal matter for Lugovoy — the diagnosis he received at the beginning of April.
Lugovoy Andrey Konstantinovich (born on September 19, 1966, passport # 45 11 282676) with registered address in Moscow, 7/2 Lyalin Lane, Building 1, Apt 20.
FINANCIALS
It turns out that Lugovoy’s wife is the main breadwinner in the family. Lugovoy’s 2022 tax declaration says that he received 8 million rubles as income, whereas his wife Ksenia Lugovaya had an income of 34 million rubles.
The main source of this income is Bratsk Electric Networks (BES), a power company that is partially owned by Lugovoy’s wife. It sells power to the Irkutsk region of Russia. It is challenging to estimate the dividends Mrs. Lugovaya would have earned had she not transferred in 2018 a stake of about 111,000 BES shares (book value – 85 million rubles) “into the ownership” of Andrey Andreyevich Agafonov.
The hackers discovered Agafonov’s powers of attorney in Lugovoy’s emails, which leads us to conclude that Agafonov is either just Lugovoy’s business partner or more likely, his covert operative who disguises his income and assets.
It seems the main reason why Lugovoy is now advocating for the adoption of a law on cryptocurrencies in Russia is that his wife and business partner move out of Russia the profit from the sales of electricity in the Irkutsk region. His bitcoin mining bill was a central theme of a lengthy interview that The Parliamentary Gazette published on April 28, 2023.
Electricity is very important for bitcoin mining. Lots of electricity produces lots of cryptocurrency, which results in BES sales.
LUGOVOY’S PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRIES
MP’s inquiries and denunciations disguised as inquiries made in plenty by Lugovoy deserve some special attention. Here, for example, is a request dated March 21, 2023 (PDF) for “charitable support” in the amount of 5 million rubles for the construction of a monument. Or a inquiry to the Prosecutor’s office dated February 13, 2023 (PDF), demanding to check the activities of women’s association Soft Power that allegedly “incites Russians to protest” against the “special military operation” in Ukraine. And then, an inquiry to the Prosecutor-General dated December 6, 2022 (PDF) with a demand to designate the Freedom of Russia Legion as an extremist organization and ban their symbols. Also interesting is the request dated April 7, 2023 (PDF) about awarding the so-called Z-volunteers with departmental awards of the Russian Ministry of Defense, listing the aid that they collected for the 58th Russian Army fighting in Zaporizhia Region of Ukraine.
Here also a list of Lugovoy’s delations prepared as parliamentary inquiries:
- Accusatory statement regarding the NGO “Public Commission to Protect the Legacy of Andrei Sakharov” dated December 12, 2022 (PDF)
- Accusatory statement regarding NGO “Privolzhsky Migration Center” dated December 8, 2022 (PDF)
- Accusatory statement regarding NGO “Polish Association Polaros” (PDF) dated November 9, 2022
- Accusatory statement regarding Russian citizen Vera Polozkova after her interview to Yuriy Dud (PDF) dated December 19, 2022
- Accusatory statement regarding Russian citizen Valery Meladze (PDF) dated 9 January, 2023
- Accusatory statement regarding a British citizen Christopher Nigel Donnelly dated November 7, 2022 (PDF)
- Accusatory statement regarding bloggers who participated in the advertisement of Stoneedge clothing brand (PDF) dated April 06, 2023
- Accusatory statement regarding the Auchan supermarket chain about a tax evasion scheme in the Russian Federation (PDF) dated March 01, 2023.
- Accusatory statement regarding NGO “Team against Torture” (PDF) dated January 10, 2023
This is a brief but illuminating summary of Lugovoy’s MP work in the area of reporting various public organizations and individuals to the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office on suspicion of being disloyal to the Putin government.
But now it’s time to turn to the subsequent chapter.
LUGOVOY’S WIFE – 23 YEARS JUNIOR TO HER HUSBAND
Lugovaya Ksenia Alekseevna, born on July 26, 1989 (Russian passport: #4512 892921) is currently registered at the same address: Moscow, Lyalin Lane, 7/2, Building 1, Apt 20. Mrs. Lugovaya visited the Seychelles between March 4 and 14, 2023, according to the email correspondence. This is demonstrated by the hotel reservations and helicopter transfers that Lugovoy’s assistant mailed to her.
- Passenger Itinerary LUGOVAYA (PDF)
- Passenger Itinerary – Lugovaya x 3 (PDF)
- CLS voucher LUGOVAYA (PDF)
- FSS voucher LUGOVAYA (PDF)
InformNapalm researchers found on social media that Ksenia Lugovaya did visit the Seychelles during this time. Open sources reveal that Ksenia Lugovaya, who has been married to Andrey Lugovoi since 2012 and is younger than his two daughters from his first marriage, has been experimenting with her artistic side since 2018, going by the alias KAYA. She maintains a lively presence on Instagram, a platform that is prohibited in Russia.
(Note: On March 14, 2022, Roskomnadzor officially listed Instagram among the sites banned in the Russian Federation.)
Between March 8 and 12, Ksenia Lugovaya posted several photos and videos from the Seychelles on her Instagram page. Mrs. Lugovaya writes next to her beach picture, addressing her female followers: “Each and everyone of you will be able to achieve the goals you set for yourselves, to start a family, or to launch a career, or perhaps to successfully combine these two.”
Of course, the fact that the wife of an MP of the State Duma Committee on Security and Corruption Control traveling to the Seychelles does not prove that she committed an economic crime. But it seems suspicious that she requested detailed statements of her business accounts on March 14, 2023, the day before she left the islands. It’s probable that in addition to recreation, her role was to handle certain financial matters outside of the Russian Federation. Russian politicians and propagandists advocate on TV that it is the highest honor to die for Russia in Ukraine and that every Russian must despise the West, as shown by the story of the former State Duma member Semyon Bagdasarov (who, like Lugovoy, is also a frequent guest on Vladimir Solovyov’s propaganda talk shows). However, a closer look reveals that they all have offshore accounts or foreign property.
POLONIUM-210
Let’s return to the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning story now. After all, Andrey Lugovoy’s health was adversely impacted by the polonium-210 special operation. It is thought that polonium-210 can cause cancer in people when used in modest concentrations. His doctors’ diagnosis council in Moscow determined that he had “C61 – Malignant Neoplasm of the Prostate” (stage II prostate cancer, T2aN0M0), according to the emailed medical report dated April 5, 2023. The doctors recommended surgery, but the patient reportedly declined both radiation therapy and surgery in writing, according to information from the record.
His involvement in Solovyov’s propaganda talk shows, his role in the planned murder of Litvinenko, as well as other public and private activities as a member of the Russian State Duma, naturally place Lugovoy on par with other Russian war criminals who need to be tried by an international court.
The materials that the Ukrainian hacktivists have retrieved and put into the public domain are much more extensive than this article. Reportedly, the bulk of information gleaned from the Lugovoy breach is going through intelligence checks at the moment.
