The Visit of a Chechen Businessman Close to Kadyrov and His Entourage to Georgia

A video circulating on social media shows Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov, who is allegedly accompanied by his security, getting into a car with license plate O 777 OC 77. Citizen Khatuna Maghlakelidze writes that she recorded the video on May 26 in Tbilisi. The fact that the car belongs to the Chechen businessman is confirmed by the videos published by his son, Rokhman Akhmetkhanov, on his Instagram account.

Akhmetkhanovs and his affiliates likely arrived in Georgia two weeks ago. It is at this time that Rokhman Akhmetkhanov published a video where a convoy of luxury cars with similar number plates is parked on the freeway. On May 22, the Instagram page related to the Akhmetkhanovs published a video shot on the Gudauri road.

Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov is considered to be within a close circle of the leadership of Chechnya. He is the general director of the company Yug-Neft, founded in 2006. The company supplies equipment and materials for the construction of oil and gas pipelines in Russia.

According to the Russian publication Kommersant, in 2020, Akhmetkhanov, together with four members of a criminal ring, was convicted for illegal banking activities. By the decision of the Presnensky District Court of Moscow, contrary to the request of the prosecutor, who sought a 3 to 4-year prison sentence for all the accused, the Chechen businessman was sentenced to one year of probation. On the same charge, Akhmetkhanov was sentenced to two months of house arrest in 2017. Kommersant writes that Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov's company sponsored sports competitions.

In April 2020, Grozno TV aired a ten-minute report about how Ramzan Kadyrov went to Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov's house along with the Chechen mufti, with the deputy of the Russian Duma, Adam Delimkhanov, and high-ranking Chechen officials and publicly berated and humiliated him for drinking alcohol and shooting guns in the company of women. “Another anti-hero of the Chechen people apologizes to Ramzan Kadyrov and the population for his indecent behavior,” Chechen state television reported. According to the publication Kavkazsky Uzel, after Kadyrov's visit, Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov did not appear in his native village of Gekhi for several weeks. His wife published a video plea asking Kadyrov to forgive her husband. Akhmetkhanov eventually returned home likely with Kadyrov's permission.

According to media reports, Aslanbek Akhmetkhanov is considered a criminal authority and is known in some circles by the nickname “Devil”. According to the source Kavkazsky Uzel, Akhmetkhanov was allowed to do business on the condition that he would finance Kadyrov's projects in return.

Akhmetkhanov is from the village of Gekhi but lives in Moscow with his family. The two-digit codes on the number plates of cars spotted in Tbilisi and Batumi - 77 - indeed belong to Moscow. The code of the Republic of Chechnya is 95.

The founder of the European Resilience Initiative Center, an expert on Eastern European matters, Sergej Sumlenny writes on Twitter that these so-called “blatnye” (corrupted) plates “777-77” in Russia are normally given to the criminals, government, or intelligence agencies in Russia. “Interestingly, the “77” series does not exist anymore officially for newly registered cars, but gets inherited within the system,” writes an expert.

It is not known who accompanied Akhmetkhanov to Georgia, except for his son. Most likely, they have already left Georgia and moved to Turkey. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia does not comment on this issue.

The regional secretary of the Georgian Dream party and member of the parliament, Dito Samkharadze, confirmed the entry of the Chechen businessman into Georgia.

“As far as I know at this stage is that the deposed mayor of Grozny and the businessman arrested by Kadyrov had arrived and were accompanied by their friends. None of them had violated the law of occupation. The border guard does not dig deeper than that anyway - he is not wanted and was not violated the law of occupation. Therefore, nobody impeded them, they arrived as tourists, spent some money, and left. If they had any violations, no one would have let them in,” wrote Samkharadze on the social network.

In May, the family members of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came to Georgia. Lavrov's own daughter, Ekaterina Vinokurova, and her husband, influential businessman Alexander Vinokurov, arrived to attend the wedding event planned in Kvareli. Both of them are sanctioned by several Western countries.

The wedding of Alexander Vinokurov's brother, Moshe Vinokurov, was supposed to take place on May 20 in the Kvareli Lake hotel complex. The Ministry of Internal Affairs sent hundreds of officers of the Special Forces Department and other police units to the area. Law enforcement officers arrested at least 16 people who were protesting the visit of Lavrov's family members at the entrance of the hotel.

The Ministries of Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of Georgia did not comment on this issue either.

The first vice-speaker of the parliament confirmed that Lavrov's daughter crossed the Georgian border. According to Giorgi Volski, they only later found out that Ekaterina Vinokurova, who today goes by her husband's surname, was Lavrov's daughter.

Chairman of Georgian Dream, Irakli Kobakhidze, explained that the main guiding principle for the customs service is the law on occupation, and if this law was not violated, the service had no reason not to allow specific persons into Georgia.