The family of Putin’s governor has hotels in the middle of Prague. It is not on the sanctions list
The slightly shabby four-star Hotel Suite Home Prague, near Charles Square, does not stand out in the competition with dozens of other accommodation facilities in the Czech capital. Several flags hang above the entrance, with the Russian in the middle.
Perhaps this small detail could indicate to passers-by that the owners came from a country ruled by Vladimir Putin. But hardly anyone would guess that the family of the former long-time Russian governor of the Far East, Sergei Darkin, had invested capital in the hotel.
It is not just this one house in the city center. Upon detailed examination, other interesting assets can be found. The Darkins’ business in the Czech Republic revolves mainly around the sale of sea fish.
Sergei Mikhailovich Darkin (58), a former powerful politician from Vladivostok, is an example of a man who has never been in the highest realm of Moscow’s celebrities, so he is not on the European sanctions list in times of Russian aggression. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that he is a person from Putin’s circle, whose alleged or actual property should not escape the interest of the authorities in the Czech Republic.
The man who damaged the Vladivostok painting
In Darkin’s case, he is a man who can be found in the Russian media in a number of articles that describe him as a person connected with the criminal environment or even organized crime.
The leading Russian newspaper Nězavisimaja gazeta wrote in 2010, that Sergei Darkin’s name has repeatedly figured in serious scandals, and that the entire Maritime Region has the image of a “criminal and corrupt” capital in the Far East.
“In the last two years alone, several high-ranking Darkin administration officials have been sentenced to various sentences,” the text said.
From 2001 to 2012, Darkin was the Governor of the Primorsky Krai, which is one of the entities of the Russian Federation with the capital Vladivostok. For more than ten years, he ruled a region not far from Japan and the DPRK, mostly from a larger one than the Czechia.
Fishing and bank
A native of the small seaside town, Bolshoi Kamen, the son of a military builder, entered politics after a decade in big business.
Already in 1991, he founded and led the company Roliz (Russian Leasing), which first focused its business activities on trade with China, shipbuilding, and then focused mainly on fishing.
In December 1998, Darkin became president of Primorye Bank. He was also its shareholder, but in the end he transferred the shares to his second wife, theater and film actress Larisa Belobrová. Thanks to this, his wife had a huge income in the hundreds of millions of rubles in the following years, and the Russian media compared her to the biggest Hollywood stars in this respect.
Darkin decided to enter the political career of the Governor of the Primorsky Krai in 2001 after the then Governor resigned. Darkin was elected head of the region only after repeated elections, when he finally won over 40 percent of the vote.
Darkin then joined President Putin at the end of 2004, when he joined his United Russia party. And it was President Putin who, a few weeks later, in January 2005, extended Darkin’s political life.
After a previous meeting, Putin proposed the Darkin Seaside County Mutual Parliament as a candidate for governor for another five-year term. Members overwhelmingly granted the proposal. This is the first time that the Russian president has used the new powers of the heads of regions to propose. Before that, the governors elected Russian citizens in direct elections.
In 2010, then-President Dmitry Medvedev made similar recommendations to Putin in the next election. Darkin was thus able to continue, despite all the controversies that constantly accompanied her, according to media reports, but the third term was not over.
He finally resigned here after visiting the Kremlin in February 2012 – at his own request, “for health reasons” – when he was rumored a few days earlier that he would be removed from office. He was also criticized in Moscow for allegedly ignoring corruption.
Darkin did not have a good reputation. Already in 2002, according to Russian sources, a video appeared on the public, in which the governor is surrounded by local bosses.
The case of 2008, when Darkin was involved in the privatization of alleged privatization machinations and had to undergo a house search, is often recalled. After her, the governor collapsed and ended up in the hospital. Even then, his career was on the line.
The fact that he did not look forward to us anywhere is also confirmed by several people living in Prague, with whom the Russian News List has a good reputation in Russia.
One of them is the Russian financier Vitaly Ginzburg, who was granted asylum in the Czech Republic last February. The Czech authorities awarded him out of fear that his extradition to Russia would endanger his life. The businessman has been a critic of Putin’s regime for several years, and Sergei Darkin’s name is no stranger to him.
“Sergei Darkin is the boss nicknamed Darych. His sphere of interest includes the fishing business with all its aspects… There is talk of issuing problematic quotas and violating them. Scandals and related affairs occurred during his tenure as governor. You know, there is a high crime rate in the fishing industry in Russia. Sahá to the highest political levels,“Said Ginzburg News List.
Fishing again in the center of attention
But even after being forced to resign as governor, Sergei Darkin did not leave politics for good. From 2012 to 2014, he was Deputy Russian Minister for Regional Development.
Then he returned to business. Even in this old-new role in conversations praised Putin.
Since 2015, Sergei Darkin has been listed as president of the Pacific Investment Group. It focuses on the development of the Far East, has a long range of activities, including, for example, development, but everything key again concerns fishing, fish processing and port technologies.
It is even more understandable why the Darkin family is also involved in the fish business in the Czech Republic. The wholesale company Nakhodka Seafood has been operating in Prague since 2011 as a Czech subsidiary of the Russian Nakhodka Active Marine Fishery Base (referred to as NBAMR). He now has an office in the BB Centrum administrative complex in Prague.
Former Governor Sergey Darkin is registered in the Czech Commercial Register as its managing director.
As the name suggests, the company trades in fish (frozen), Alaskan cod and others. Russia is a world power in this regard. The parent company with its base and complex is based in the town of Nakhodka, 16 of its fishing ports from Vladivostok. It is supposed to be one of the largest fishing companies in Russia, led by ex-Governor Darkin.
The Czech branch of Nakhodka Seafood states on its website that a branch in Prague was established to give the Russian company “direct access to the European market and closer to its customers”.
Brother living near Prague
However, this is not the only Darkin fish farm in Prague. Since 2016, the family has controlled the Fjord Bohemia company with a fish processing plant in Čakovice. Oleg Mikhailovich Darkin (62) holds the majority stake in this company, which, according to Russian sources, is the brother of the former governor.
Now this man states Benice near Prague as his residence. He was to stay in Prague from 2000 to 2008, when his sibling was a regional politician. According to Russian sources, Oleg Darkin has also served on the board of directors of the aforementioned Náchodka fishing company since 2009.
Oleg’s son Michail Darkin (37), the nephew of the ex-governor, runs the Prague processing company Fjord Bohemia from the position of CEO. Prior to that, he also worked for a company from Náchodka and her Czech daughter.
It was the Prague manager Mikhail Darkin, a graduate of the American SUNY Empire State College, who was asked by the List of Questions whether it would shed more light on the family business in the Czech Republic. Even in the light of the planned anti-Russian sanctions. However, Mikhail Darkin does not want to talk about it at all.
The CEO of Fjord Bohemia did not respond to the questions and the request for an interview for three days. After several attempts, the editor finally called his office. He immediately wanted to cut off the conversation, saying that he was ill.
His questions about Uncle Sergei’s political past irritated him, saying that he had nothing to do with business in the Czech Republic. “Are you doing research? I don’t understand where you got my number (on the fish shop website, editor’s note). We have nothing to do with politics, “Darkin replied.
He did not answer the question again, whether he or his uncle condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine. “Why should I answer you? I don’t know you, you’re calling me like an unknown person. We do not deal with any policy, “he avoided answering a clearly asked question.
Two Prague hotels
But the list of Prague’s business activities does not end there either. The Darkin family, as indicated in the introduction, owns two more four-star hotels in the Czech capital.
First mentioned hotel Suite Home Prague, on the corner of Žitná and Příčné streets, then hotel Angelis. The other is in Prague 5, in the immediate vicinity of the Staropramen brewery. Both companies, which own Prague hotels, are written to the wife of Oleg Darkin, the sister-in-law of the former governor.
As with other Russian properties, the question in this case is the extent to which the data on owners in the registers correspond to reality and may be an attempt to shield exposed persons such as Sergei Darkin.
Some sources claim that the real owner of Czech companies is a former politician from Vladivostok. Getting the truth will not be easy even for the Czech authorities, which are now examining Russian property.
“It has nothing (Sergei Darkin) to do with our business,” says Mikhail Darkin’s nephew.
Series: They are close to Putin, doing business in the Czech Republic
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