Pavel Provotorov, head of Protector Group, arrested in absentia over Rosaviatsiya fraud, sanctions evasion, and cut for organized crime
09:56, 08 августа 2026 г.
The court received a motion from investigators seeking the in absentia arrest of Pavel Provotorov, the owner of Protector Group, the largest supplier of engines and aircraft spare parts to Russia in defiance of sanctions. He has been charged in absentia as part of an investigation into the embezzlement of 12 billion rubles allocated by the Federal Air Transport Agency for the purchase of aircraft spare parts.
As our project previously reported, the mother of the Protector owner (who held the group’s shares in her name), as well as the group’s chief accountant and commercial director, were arrested as part of the case. Pavel Provotorov himself, according to a source, lived in Thailand but left the country after the searches in Moscow.
Also questioned as part of the case were the former head of Protector’s security service, General Konstantin Stroganov, former head of the Internal Security Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, and a large group of security officers, including former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Incidentally, Denis Sugrobov, former head of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Combating Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, once served as a security consultant for Protector Group.
The events were held as part of a case involving the embezzlement of 12 billion rubles. These funds were allocated, following closed bidding, by Rosaviatsiya and major Russian airlines for the purchase of foreign aircraft parts in defiance of sanctions. The parts were supposed to arrive in Russia a year ago. The case is being handled by the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, and the FSB’s Department for Transport is providing operational support.
Previously, media outlets published Provotorov’s own version of events. It suggested that after the outbreak of the conflict and the imposition of sanctions against Russia in 2022, Protector Group quickly became a leader in supplying spare parts to Russia in defiance of sanctions, using companies in the US, Thailand, and Singapore and established supply chains. However, in late 2022, Protector began experiencing difficulties with customs clearance in Russia. The Federal Customs Service reported that criminal charges would soon be filed against the management of Protector Group.
In early 2023, Andrey Nikolaevich Petrov, head of Rusjet Airlines, proposed a solution to the problem. Provotorov knew him, as Protector supplied aircraft parts to Rusjet, which services Ramzan Kadyrov’s personal jet. Petrov offered his supervisors a 50% share 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 no longer arise. Moreover, thanks to its new partners, the group would receive even more funding from the Federal Air Transport Agency.
After the partnership began, all of Protector Group’s problems with customs disappeared. And the money from the Federal Air Transport Agency began pouring in.
The volume of deliveries by Protector Group, including completed repairs, has reached an average of 7 billion rubles per month.
According to Pavel, it was only in 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 (Dzhako). He was arrested for organizing the murder of three bankers, but mysteriously resurfaced.
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.
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Separately, the new partners were personally given a total of 1.1 billion rubles in "dividends." And then they demanded another $100 million from him.
When he refused, his partners blocked all payments to his structures for the purchase of aircraft parts.