The fall of the “Godfather”: How Putin’s former bodyguard helped bring down an FSB general
Whether by coincidence or not, soon after 67-year-old Sergei Alpatov stepped down from his post as head of the FSB’s Economic Security Service “ for health reasons ,” his subordinate, General Alexander Kumanyaev, was taken into custody — as was Maxim Denisov, head of the FSB directorate in the Yaroslavl Region. Arrests of FSB generals at this level are extremely rare. Formally, both are accused…
The former bodyguard of late Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kumanyaev, played a crucial role in bringing down an FSB general and dismantling a powerful cartel of companies. Kumanyaev provided protection to the EKS group of companies, which had access to hundreds of billions of rubles in public funds and shielded their financial activities from oversight bodies.
This allowed them to manipulate auctions and create the illusion of competition, through which they siphoned billions of rubles, including 10 billion rubles ($117.5 million) in 2019. The case was initially headed for criminal charges, but Kumanyaev prevented any prosecution, enabling the companies to avoid heavy fines and continue their expansion.
Everest, a subsidiary of the EKS group, became a key player in the cartel, with its founders, Denis Kulakov and his wife Oksana Kumanyaeva, receiving secret bank funds. The cartel's influence extended across various sectors, including government departments, infrastructure, and even Crimea. The companies controlled by Kumanyaev's proteges received numerous state contracts and eventually earned 260 billion rubles ($3.0 billion) in 2025.
The insider investigation revealed that these businessmen were closely connected to high-ranking Putin loyalists, creating a web of corruption that made it nearly impossible to hold them accountable for their actions.
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