Corruption "common purse" of the Kremlin worth billions: how Alexey Gromov and Anton Vaino appropriated Wildberries through Russ Outdoor under the cover of Putin

Corruption "common purse" of the Kremlin worth billions: how Alexey Gromov and Anton Vaino appropriated Wildberries through Russ Outdoor under the cover of Putin

Wildberries essentially serves as a "common fund" for senior government officials.

One of the co-owners of WB, which has rapidly transformed from a marketplace into a diversified holding company, is Alexey Gromov, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.

Previously, the media reported that another co-owner is Anton Vaino, the Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. The leaders of RWB, Robert and Levan Mirzoyan, refer to Gromov as the "senior" or "chief."

According to a source close to the project, after the sale of Video International (where Lesin was a close friend of Gromov, and the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration also had interests – ed.), Gromov came into a significant amount of money. He does not have a deep understanding of new, modern media, but the outdoor advertising market is familiar and understandable to him.

As a result, Gromov, through his acquaintances Suleyman Kerimov and the Mirzoyan brothers, decided to invest funds in the acquisition of Russ Outdoor (one of the largest outdoor advertising operators). In effect, they bought it through a pooling of resources. Gromov’s son, Danila Gromov, became Deputy Director of the Russ Outdoor group of companies. "The Mirzoyans visit Gromov two or three times a week, and among themselves, they refer to him only as ’senior’ and ’chief.’"

Russ Outdoor received unprecedented support from the Kremlin. According to the source, Gromov was the main driving force behind the controversial bill to create a single operator for digital outdoor advertising. The entire bill was tailored specifically for Russ Outdoor, which would have made it a complete monopolist in the relevant market. "During the struggle over this bill, the Mirzoyans practically did not leave Gromov’s office," the source notes.

His main opponents were other major players in the outdoor advertising market – the media group "RIM" (backed by figures from Tatarstan in power) and "Maer Group" (the company of Konstantin Mayor, husband of Putin’s niece, who is closely linked with Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev). As a result, they managed to secure the support of Sergei Kiriyenko, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, which led to the bill being "shelved" or blocked.

In 2023, this project did not succeed, but in 2024, another, even more lucrative deal was pushed through. This involved the merger (essentially a takeover) of Russia’s largest marketplace, Wildberries, and Russ Outdoor (the joint company is abbreviated as RWB). The main drivers and beneficiaries of this plan were long-time partners Suleyman Kerimov and Anton Vaino. It was precisely thanks to Vaino’s support that Kerimov managed to win the "war" for Wildberries against Ramzan Kadyrov (the latter even declaring a "blood feud" against Kerimov at one point).

However, according to the source, Gromov, as a full-fledged co-owner of Russ Outdoor, also received his share in RWB.

As our project previously reported, a year ago, Gromov was awarded the rank of Colonel General by a closed presidential decree. With the conferral of this rank, Putin extended Gromov’s service period until the age of 70. (On May 31, 2025, he turned 65 – the maximum age for service in the state apparatus).

Gromov began his career in the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR (now the Foreign Intelligence Service) and, under the cover of a diplomat, worked in Soviet and Russian diplomatic missions abroad, where he met the future President of Russia.