Russia's Former Communications Minister Has Fled To The UAE
- 7.09.2026, 20:24
He is accused of organizing the second-largest pyramid scheme after MMM.
Former Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, accused of creating the large-scale Finiko crypto pyramid scheme, left Russia just hours before his expected arrest. He was appointed Minister of Communications in May 2012 at the age of 29 at the recommendation of then-Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and became the youngest member of the government, according to The Moscow Times.
Investigators planned to arrest Nikiforov simultaneously with his business partner Azat Tukhvatullin on August 31, 2026, according to the Kazan-based publication “Business Online,” citing sources in law enforcement agencies. But on the night before the operation, Nikiforov left his apartment in Moscow City and flew out of Russia on a private business jet from Vnukovo to the UAE.
Nikiforov, who headed the Ministry of Communications for six years until May 2018, has been charged in absentia with creating an organized criminal group and fraud on an especially large scale. Investigators consider him one of the organizers of the largest financial pyramid scheme in modern Russia since the collapse of MMM. A source for “Business Online” within law enforcement believes that Nikiforov was the originator of the idea and concept behind Finiko.
Estimates of the scale of embezzlement through Finiko vary. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at least 7,700 investors have been identified in the case, with damages estimated at 5 billion rubles. One of Finiko’s participants, Kirill Doronin, claimed that up to 1 million people had participated in the pyramid scheme, investing at least $1 billion. Up to 100 billion rubles could have been raised through Finiko, a source at “Business Online” agrees with this estimate.
If this latest estimate is correct, Finiko can be considered the second-largest pyramid scheme in modern Russian history, after Sergei Mavrodi’s MMM. The IMF estimated the losses from MMM at $1–1.5 billion. Taking dollar inflation into account, the damage caused by MMM, even at the lower estimate, amounts to about $1.8 billion in 2021 prices. The $1 billion stolen by Mavrodi in 1994 was equivalent to approximately 9 million average monthly salaries. By comparison, the $1 billion stolen through Finiko is roughly 1.3 million average Russian salaries in July 2021, when the pyramid scheme collapsed.
How Finiko Was Structured
The publicly known founders of Finiko were Kirill Doronin, Edward and Marat Sabirov, and Zygmunt Zygmuntovich. Doronin positioned himself as the project’s ideologist and strategist; Edward Sabirov was responsible for trading; Marat Sabirov for crypto processing; and Zygmuntovich for the financial side of the business.
Finiko began raising funds in 2019. Clients were offered returns of 20–25% per month. Investors were told that the profits were generated by a successful team of traders operating in the cryptocurrency markets. The minimum investment was about $1,000. Clients were also offered the opportunity to purchase a car or real estate for 35% of the cost or to pay off a loan on favorable terms. Typically, investors purchased CFR—Finiko’s internal unit of account—with Bitcoin. Income was credited in FNK tokens, which could then be exchanged and withdrawn in rubles.
The main channel for attracting clients was an affiliate network. For each new participant, a Finiko manager immediately received 5% of their initial deposit. As the volume of funds raised grew, managers were granted “star” status—for amounts exceeding $1 million—or “vice president” status—for amounts exceeding $10 million. The criminal case files mention at least four people with this status and dozens of “stars”: Andrei Galushchenko, Ilgiz Shakirov, Dina Akhmetzyanova, and Bair Sambuev. The pyramid scheme cultivated its own bloggers: Shakirov had about 60,000 followers on Instagram, and by March 2021, he had attracted 100,000 clients. Gabdullina (Akhmetzyanova) had about 73,000 followers.
Problems for Finiko’s clients began in July 2021. Withdrawals were suspended, and investors were required to provide documents confirming the source of their funds.
The Dubai Scheme
Almost all of Finiko’s funds were transferred abroad through dozens of shell crypto wallets and then laundered in the Middle East and in one of the European countries, according to “Business Online.” In early July 2021, shortly before Finiko’s collapse, Edward and Marat Sabirov and Zygmuntovich left Russia and traveled to the UAE.
In 2022, blogger Andrei Alistarov claimed to have spotted Zygmuntovich with his family in Dubai. According to the blogger, Zygmuntovich was living in a villa in the DAMAC Villas by Paramount Hotels & Resorts complex. There, the blogger also found a villa linked to Edward Sabirov, with an area of about 1,000 square meters and a value of about 1 billion rubles.
Nikiforov and Tukhvatullin may have enriched themselves at the expense of Finiko’s clients by approximately 20 billion rubles between the two of them, claims a source for “Business Online.” The four publicly known founders—Doronin, Zygmuntovich, Edward, and Marat Sabirov—may have received a total of about 8 billion rubles.
According to “Business Online,” after being deported from the UAE to Russia in 2025, Edward Sabirov entered into a pretrial agreement with investigators and identified Tukhvatullin as the person who came up with the idea to create Finiko.
What linked Nikiforov to Finiko
A native of Kazan, Nikiforov is linked to the defendants in the Finiko case through business projects in “Innopolis”—an IT city in Tatarstan launched while he was working at the Ministry of Communications.
Tukhvatullin, who was detained on August 31 in connection with the Finiko case, owned equal shares with Nikiforov in Innopolis Architect LLC, the company “Zion,” and the developer “Innopolis 2024.” Tukhvatullin’s connection to Finiko can be traced back to at least 2019. Blogger Alistarov published details from a Finiko conference held at the Novotel in Moscow in November 2019. Tukhvatullin appeared on stage alongside representatives of Finiko, and the Z-City project was showcased during his presentation. Nikiforov was listed among the project’s participants.
Nikiforov, Tukhvatullin, and one of Finiko’s founders, Edward Sabirov, were also co-owners of Z-City Techno LLC (Z-City). The project aimed to attract approximately 70 billion rubles in investment for the development of “Innopolis.” “I have no doubts about Edward Sabirov’s business reputation,” Nikiforov said in 2020 in defense of his partner as he joined the Z-City project.