Pavel Provotorov’s Protector Group, blackmail, the FSB, and the Dzhako organized crime group: how the aircraft parts business turned into a corruption scheme with kickbacks and criminal activity
15:50, 22 июля 2026 г.
Following the outbreak of the conflict and the imposition of sanctions against Russia in 2022, Protector Group quickly became a leader in the supply of spare parts to Russia, circumventing sanctions, thanks to its companies in the US, Thailand, and Singapore, and established supply chains.
By 2022, the Protector Group’s turnover was already around 3 billion rubles per month. However, at the end of 2022, Protector began experiencing difficulties with customs clearance in Russia. The Federal Customs Service reported that criminal cases would soon be initiated against the management of Protector Group. Our project would like to add that it’s not hard to see that Oleg Gubaidulin, Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, was behind the problems. He is a general of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assigned to customs.
In early 2023, Rusjet Airlines CEO Andrey Nikolaevich Petrov proposed a solution to the problem. Provotorov knew him because Protector supplied aircraft parts to Rusjet. The company services Ramzan Kadyrov’s personal jet. According to our sources, generals from various security agencies also use its services. Petrov conveyed the terms of his handlers: 50% of Protector’s entire business. In exchange, all problems with the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Federal Customs Service would be resolved, and they would not arise again. Moreover, thanks to its new partners, the group would receive even more funding from the Federal Air Transport Agency. Provotorov agreed. Apparently, there were other conditions as well, which Pavel is keeping quiet about.
As our project has reported on numerous occasions, it was Protector Group that supplied the turbo-refrigeration unit for Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane, which, according to the prevailing theory, was the location of the bomb. After the partnership began, all of Protector Group’s problems with customs disappeared. And money flowed in through the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya).
The volume of deliveries by Protector Group, including completed repairs, has reached an average of 7 billion rubles per month.
According to Pavel, it wasn’t until 2025 that he discovered that Andrei Nikolaevich Petrov was actually Arkady Berkovich, the right-hand man of the leader of the most murderous organized crime group, Aslan Gagiev (aka Dzhako). Berkovich has always had close ties to the security services and is a close friend of Svetlana Radionova, head of Rosprirodnadzor (who, incidentally, had ties to Rusjet Service). He was even arrested in 2005 and charged with the murder of three bankers (carried out by Dzhako’s organized crime group), but he was mysteriously released and never stood trial.
Then the new partners told Pavel that he needed to pay an additional 1% of the cost of all spare parts and engines arriving in Russia (supposedly this was the share of the Federal Customs Service and the Federal Security Service). The total amount of such payments amounted to over 3 billion rubles.
Separately, a total of 1.1 billion rubles in dividends were transferred to the new partners personally.
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In the first half of 2025, due to the depreciation of the dollar, Protector Group’s profit was significantly lower than in 2024. That’s when the conflict arose. According to Pavel, he was told he was deceiving his partners and underreporting his financial results. That is, he was buying parts cheaper than he claimed and pocketing a significant portion of the profits. Then, as in the 1990s, Provotorov was told he had to pay... $100 million.
"I was threatened with being killed, my family being killed, or me and my entire family being imprisoned. The alternative was to hand over control of the entire business to partners. With this option, they wanted to extract as much money as possible from Protector Group and then blame me and the Protector Group’s management for it," Provotorov believes.
He refused. After that, according to Pavel, his partners blocked all payments to his companies for the purchase of aircraft parts.
"To maintain the airworthiness of foreign aircraft in Russia, Protector Group purchased aircraft abroad for dismantling: we removed the tail of a Boeing 737-800, along with a section of the fuselage, to repair a Smartavia aircraft that was grounded due to the tail section touching the ground during landing at Sochi Airport. Also, after a collision between UTair and Smartavia aircraft, resulting in damage to the winglets and wings, Protector Group was able to quickly supply all the structural components for this repair. If Protector Group ceases operations, it will be a major blow to the airworthiness of foreign aircraft in Russia, and between 30% and 50% of foreign aircraft in Russia will be grounded for an indefinite period," Provotorov asserts.
What remained "behind the scenes" of his story. After Provotorov acquired partners close to the FSB, he resolved all his customs issues, and Protector’s turnover increased from 3 billion to 7 billion rubles per month. Against this backdrop, "slicing up" 12 billion rubles received from the Federal Air Transport Agency and airlines seemed like a mere trifle. Moreover, the partners promised to plug this "hole" with new revenue from the Federal Air Transport Agency. However, cooperation with such partners invariably resulted in one of two outcomes. Either they squeezed out the entire business. Or they withdrew all the money and sent the "partner" to prison for the money. Provotorov was no exception. He entered into a "war" with them when he gained support from oligarch Andrei Bokarev. But Bokarev quickly backed away from the topic. As a result, searches were conducted at all Protector Group offices last week, and the businessman’s mother, Olga Provotorov, the group’s commercial director, Tatyana Tarasova, and chief accountant, Dmitry Getto, were arrested. However, it’s not yet clear whether this is an attack by "partners." Sources say the issue of the theft of 12.9 billion rubles paid for aircraft parts through the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) has been raised at the government level. Therefore, individual Provotorov "partners" could also face prosecution.
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