Hackers Leaked Correspondence Between Sberbank CEO Gref And The Kremlin's Spiritual Advisor
- 29.08.2026, 10:46
They discussed scenarios for ending the war in Ukraine.
The Black8Mirror hacker group claimed that it had discovered in the correspondence of Sberbank CEO Herman Gref and Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, who is informally referred to as Vladimir Putin’s spiritual advisor, an analytical memo outlining eight scenarios for ending the war in Ukraine. It was from this correspondence that a document was obtained in which the most likely scenario was described as a freeze on the war as a result of a deal involving Donald Trump, according to “Agency”.
Black8Mirror began publishing an archive of Tikhon’s private messages, covering the period from 2020 to August 2026. Among the published materials, the hackers revealed correspondence with an account signed “Gref German Oskarovich.”
According to the screenshot provided, on April 13 at 6:45 a.m., the correspondent sent Tikhon a file named scenarios_v4_final.pdf—the very document that Black8Mirror had previously published as an analytical note containing predictions about the end of the war. On the same day at 2:22 p.m., Tikhon allegedly replied: “Thank you very much! Analysis like this is very important.”
The note examines eight possible scenarios for how events might unfold. The authors consider a “freeze” of the conflict as a result of a deal involving Trump to be the most likely—they assign a 32% probability to this scenario. Another 22% is attributed to a “Korean-style freeze” without a full-fledged peace treaty, and 15% to the war continuing for another two to three years. Meanwhile, the scenario of a decisive Russian military victory is estimated at just 7%: the document notes that for such an outcome, Moscow may need a new mobilization of 300,000–500,000 people.
It should be noted that the relationship between Gref and “Putin’s spiritual advisor” is public in nature. They have repeatedly appeared together at events in the temporarily occupied Crimea—in particular, at the presentation of the “Chersonesos Tauric” park in June 2024 and at a discussion during the “Istoki” forum in 2025.