Malofeev is russian orhodox businessman who owns Tsargrad group of companies. He [lost](https://thebell.io/en/russia-s-orthodox-tycoon-is-bankrolling-a-monarchist-movement-but-where-does-he-get-his-money/) almost everything in a bitter dispute with state-owned bank VTB. In 2014, he was sanctioned by the West for providing support to rebels in eastern Ukraine. Since then, his business empire looks to have run into trouble: several of his companies face bankruptcy and others have big tax arrears. Malofeev is pursuing his ambition to lead a monarchist political party and build up a conservative media empire. «The main goal of the Tsargrad group of companies is to revive the greatness of the Russian Empire» – said Malofeev and company put his words on their main page.
**Scandal business**
Malofeev [started](https://secretmag.ru/stories/nichego-svyatogo-kak-posle-donbassa-i-grabezha-kriptobirzh-pravoslavnyi-oligarkh-malofeev-uveroval-v-chipirovanie-rossiyan.htm) in a banking sector and in 2005 founded investment group Marshall Capital Partners which has been implicated in scandals involving money from partners in France. The main asset is a 10% stake in russian telecom company Rostelecom, the largest minority stake. Malofeev got it after his buddy Igor Shchegolev became Minister of Communications. Marshall Capital had another major corporate conflict with VTB. Malofeev was even involved in a criminal case about fraud with a loan from the state bank. By 2015, the amount of debt to VTB had already reached $600 million. In March, the parties signed a settlement agreement. According to it, the state bank forgave 85% of this amount for helping Donbass, according to [Kommersant](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2693846?query=Alverdine). He was put under sanctions for this. Since then, Malofeev has positioned himself not as a businessman, but as a public figure. Now Malofeev claims that his entire business is the Tsargrad Holding. It includes two dozen companies, the largest of which are the Tsargrad hotel complex in the village of Spas-Teshilovo in the Moscow Region, the Zarechye stud farm in the Moscow Region, the Tsargrad media group and the Livadia resort in the Crimea. All the companies are steadily unprofitable: from 2013 to 2018 their total losses ranged from 550 million rubles to 1.8 billion rubles a year.
**Tsargrad**
Malofeev adheres to right-wing traditional and imperial views, and his Double-Headed Eagle society promotes monarchist ideas. His movement will thus wave far-right and traditional agenda referring to tsarist Russia. Konstantin Malofeev was elected president of the Tsargrad movement. Among its high-ranking figures are ideologists holding links to what is known as Novorossiya (New Russia), supporters of the war with Ukraine. Members of the supreme council of the movement include State Duma deputies Oleg Nilov and Nikolai Zemtsov, Evgeny Savchenko, senator from Belgorod oblast and its former governor, former prosecutor general Yury Skuratov, former presidential aide Sergei Glaziev, philosopher and chief ideologists of Eurasianism Alexander Dugin, conservative publicist Yegor Kholmogorov, and Metropolitan Kirill.
**Conservative russian party**
In March 2019, the orthodox businessman joined the party “A Just Russia — For Truth” to create a conceptually new social-patriotic party “with elements of monarchist ideology” on the basis of “Rodina” and “A Just Russia — For Truth”. But no agreement was reached: Mironov was put off by the fact that Malofeev “behaved like a customer in a vegetable store”. Political technologists and members of Russian parties are convinced that the his right wing think tank “Double-headed Eagle” is a springboard for a new conservative party in Russia.
**International ties with far right groups**
Malofeev maintains contacts with European far-right politicians. At the end of May 2014, he [organized](https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ausland/europa/gipfeltreffen-mit-putins-fuenfter-kolonne/story/30542701) and moderated a meeting of Russian and European far-right politicians in Vienna. In April 2014, he [assisted](https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/111214/le-troisieme-pret-russe-des-le-pen) Jean-Marie Le Pen in obtaining a 2 million euro loan from a Russian-owned company.
Malofeev’s international reputation was tarnished by a criminal case of espionage against Nikolai Malinov, leader of the Bulgarian Rusophile movement (an organization that promotes friendship and cooperation between Bulgaria and Russia). According to the investigation, he received money from organizations from the Russian Federation – the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and the “Double-headed eagle” Society, which Malofeev is listed as chairman of. Investigators believed that the funds were intended to pay for measures to reorient Bulgaria’s foreign and domestic policies. As a result, Malofeev was [banned](https://www.rbc.ru/society/11/09/2019/5d78eb249a7947b3e8dc592a) from entering the republic for 10 years.
**War in Donbas**
Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Malofeev has been suspected of involvement in the coordination and financing of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR), in particular the allocation of money for the purchase of weapons for the militia. The Ukrainian media referred to him as a sponsor of the “Russian Spring”. The orthodox businessman himself repeatedly denied such accusations, calling the multi-million dollar assistance of his foundation to Crimea and Donbass solely a humanitarian activity. At the same time, Malofeev’s former PR consultant Alexander Boroday became the first head of the self-proclaimed DNR in 2014. And another acquaintance of the businessman, Igor Girkin (Strelkov), who was described as the businessman’s former security chief, took the post of defense minister of the self-proclaimed republic. For these two appointments, the nickname “separatist sponsor” stuck to Malofeyev for a long time. In addition, the head of Tsargrad was one of the first Russians to fall under EU and US sanctions. But at the end of 2014, when they were both dismissed, the businessman admitted that he himself had recommended Boroday’s candidacy for the post of DPR head, and he also made no secret of his acquaintance with Strelkov.
**Internet censor**
In 2010 Malofeev founded Safe Internet League which became main institution of content censorship in Russia.
**Cryptocurrency fraudery**
Malofeev is also [connected](https://secretmag.ru/news/fsb-bitkoiny-i-pravoslavnyi-biznesmen-pavel-durov-poteryal-milliony-iz-za-makhinacii-na-kriptobirzhe.htm) to the Wex cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed in 2018. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and other currency disappeared from its assets. According to media reports, Malofeev communicated closely with exchange owners, influenced them through the FSB, and appropriated cryptocurrency for himself.
**COVID-19 conspiracy theory**
While the coronavirus pandemic was raging around the world and cyberguard were searching the web for fakes about COVID-19, Malofeev [started](https://secretmag.ru/news/soratniki-pravoslavnogo-biznesmena-malofeeva-poprosili-fsb-razobratsya-s-billom-geitsom-i-koronavirusom.htm) to spread popular conspiracy theories about the man-made nature of the epidemic.
