Konstantin Malofeev

Konstantin Valeryevich Malofeev (Константин Валерьевич Малофеев, born 3 July 1974) is a Russian businessman and the chairman of the non-governmental and pro-monarchist organisation called the Society for the Development of Russian Historical Education "Double-Headed Eagle".

He is the chairman of the media group Tsargrad, dedicated to Russian Orthodox Christianity and supporting Russian president Vladimir Putin.

He is a co-founder of the international investment fund Marshall Capital Partners, member of the board of trustees of the non-profit partnership Safe Internet League and chairman of the Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation.

Malofeev was born on 3 July 1974 in the town of Pushchino in the Moscow Oblast where he attended school and art college.

In 1996, he graduated with a law degree from Moscow State University.

His father Valery Mikhailovich is an astrophysicist and head of the laboratory for the Department of Plasma Astrophysics at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory.

His mother Raisa Zinurovna is a programmer and general director of the St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation of which Malofeev is the chairman.

Malofeev began his career in 1996 in the investment bank Renaissance Capital and after it held various senior positions with Interros, MDM Bank and other investment banks and groups.

From 2002 to 2004, he was the Head of Corporate Finance at MDM Bank, a leading Russian investment bank where he successfully built-up the bank's mergers and acquisitions practice.

Founded in 2005 by Malofeev, Marshall Capital is a Russian investment group focusing on equity and direct investments in telecommunications, media and technology, as well as real estate and agriculture.

He is the founder of the largest Russian private foundation, St. Basil the Great Charitable Foundation and a member of the board of trustees of the non-profit partnership "Safe Internet League" (a Russian non-governmental organization created to censor so-called "dangerous Internet content"), and the Chairman of the supervisory board of College St. Basil the Great, founded by him in 2007.

In 2007, VTB Capital plc, a subsidiary of VTB Bank began a legal case against Marshall Capital and Malofeev concerning a loan by "Russagroprom" Ltd. of US$225 million for the purchase of six dairy plants and three associated companies from "Nutritek".

VTB Capital questioned the accuracy of the valuation of the dairy plants and the relationship between Marshall Capital and Malofeev, with both Russagroprom and Nutritek, asking the Court to place a world freezing order on Malofeev's assets.

In turn, VTB Capital's own due diligence procedures prior to the acquisition were brought under scrutiny.

On 17 October 2012, Malofeev announced his candidacy and on 18 November was elected to the Council of Deputies of Znamenskoye Rural Settlement of Ugransky District in Smolensk Oblast, winning a majority of the vote (74.85%).

His election took place despite the Vyazem regional court in Smolensk having annulled Malofeev's candidacy and removed him from the ballot on charges of electoral corruption.

The court concluded that Malofeev had offered to pay 500 roubles for each vote committed to him.

In a Judgment at the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 6 February 2013 Marshall Capital and Malofeev were fully acquitted of all allegations made by VTB Capital.

VTB Capital was also criticised by the judge for its due diligence practices and its "apparent failures" and "inappropriate ... protracted wrongful continuation" of its world freezing order.

Late in 2014, Marshall Capital passed under the management of the fund CFG Capital (France), a private European investor focused on investment projects in Russia and the CIS.

The partnership agreement created a joint business CFG Marshall with the overall size of the planned investments of more than €2 billion.

Malofeev is the chairman of the board of directors of Tsargrad (Imperial City), a platform used by such people as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and far-right political analyst Aleksandr Dugin.

Malofeev is also the president of and a supervisory board member of Tsargrad's affiliated think tank Katehon (Катехон).

In July 2014, Ukraine opened a criminal case against Malofeev; he was accused of financing "illegal military groups" in Eastern Ukraine who at the time fought against the Ukrainian army.

Since 2014, Malofeev and his companies are designated to the lists of individuals sanctioned during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine maintained by the European Union, United States, and Canada

According to EU Regulation No 826/2014 from 30 July 2014, Malofeev is closely linked to Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

He was the former employer of Alexander Borodai, the Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

Malofeev was also former employer of Igor Girkin, a former FSB colonel who provided security services to Malofeev's visits to Kyiv and Crimea in the weeks before the annexation of the latter by Russia.

Igor Girkin later reappeared as the leader of the separatist insurgency in the town of Slovyansk, and subsequently as the self-proclaimed Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

In May 2014, during the separatists' occupation of Slovyansk led by Girkin, the Ukrainian security services SBU intercepted a phone call, in which a person with the same first and patronymic names as Malofeev's, and a voice similar to his own, provides tactical military intelligence to Girkin and praises him for a recent ambush attack on Ukrainian anti-terrorism troops.

The newspaper's editor-in-chief has publicly stated that the unnamed sources which leaked the alleged strategy, have informed the paper that Malofeev and his team had authored the document in February 2014.

On 12 February 2015, Russian law enforcement searched apartments of Malofeev and his business partner Dmitry Skuratov related to the VTB case.

In February 2015, the Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a document, which the newspaper alleged was a strategy for fomenting unrest in, and annexing Crimea, as well as other areas in South-Eastern Ukraine.

In 2016, a non-profit foundation in Moscow was established for the Eurasian Dialogue («Евразийский диалог») with support from Konstantin Malofeev's Analytical Center Katehon («Аналитический центр «Катехон») and Andrey Klimov's Interdisciplinary Institute for Regional Studies (MIRI) («Межотраслевой институт региональных исследований» («МИРИ»)) which Klimov's wife Olga is a co-owner.

Additionally, Malofeev has ties to the American religious right.

He hired former Fox News employee Jack Hanick to help launch Tsargrad TV.

With French businessman and eurosceptic politician Philippe de Villiers, Malofeev plans to build two Russian history related theme parks; one in Moscow and one in Yalta.

In September 2019, the Bulgarian government banned him from entering the country for ten years over an alleged spying conspiracy aimed at turning the country away from its pro-Western orientation and further toward Moscow.

In April 2022, the United States Department of Justice indicted Malofeyev on the charge of evading IEEPA sanctions.

The European Union, the United States and Ukraine have accused Malofeev of trying to destabilize and financing separatism in Ukraine.