Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friends the Rotenberg brothers are leveraging a volunteer militia of extreme nationalist Russian soccer fans, Española, to create their own Private Military Company (PMC). The military expert Viktor Shendrik, who is head of the Russian Railways security service and a Rotenberg protégé, is providing support to the PMC Española, sources have told Important Stories.
For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.
“Española was created by fans, mainly from the Spartak soccer club. Then the Rotenberg brothers showed up with the idea of taking over Española for themselves,” one of the sources told Important Stories. “Many large companies are now creating their own PMCs, and the brothers want to make their own based on Española. They put Shendrik in charge because he worked in their security service for a long time and served in Vympel [an elite special force] — that is, it’s his deal.”
Private military companies
Engaging PMCs to provide recruits for Russia’s war in Ukraine is nothing new, and Important Stories has reported on this theme more than once. Dozens of mercenary detachments financed by large Russian companies are fighting on the Russian side. For example, the Moscow authorities are driving the Mosgaz gas company, Moscow Metro, Gormost (the state budgetary institution of Moscow city infrastructure), and the Mosvodokanal water company to look for and hire “soldiers of fortune.”
The late Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned PMCs associated with the Russian energy company Gazprom in an interview. The Uran battalion reported that it was receiving support from Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.
The Soyuz detachment, which includes martial arts masters, is financed by Sberbank (a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services company), the Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom, and the Russian hydroelectric company RusHydro.
Private companies are not lagging behind state ones: the Rusal aluminium company, the natural gas producer Novatek, and the construction companies PIK and Mospromstroy also have divisions on the Ukrainian front.
The Rotenbergs and Shendrik
The two Rotenberg siblings, Boris and Arkady, are Putin’s childhood friends and became billionaires after his rise to the presidency. Important Stories previously revealed how the Rotenbergs introduced Shendrik, who had formerly worked for their security service and also had general business associations with the duo, into the management of the state-owned Russian railway monopoly Russian Railways. The Rotenberg companies are key contractors of Russian Railways.
Shendrik earned more than 2 billion rubles ( million) in 2021 alone.
Shendrik’s education and experience should prove to be useful in the Rotenbergs’ PMC venture. He graduated from the Golitsyno Border Institute of the Federal Security Service and served in its Vympel special forces unit, also known as the “intellectual special forces.” He was engaged in business with the Rotenberg brothers as well as with the family of Senator Pavel Fedyaev, a member of Russia’s State Duma affiliated with the ruling “United Russia” party, which backs Putin.
Since 2016, Shendrik has been security service head of Russian Railways. He is a member of the board of directors of Russia’s largest railway container operator, TransContainer, and also serves on the board of directors of the second largest Russian telecommunications company, Transtelecom. Shendrik is a rich man; according to leaked data, he earned more than 2 billion rubles ( million) in 2021 alone.
A volunteer militia of radical football fans
Española was created as a volunteer militia of radical football fans from across Russia and joined the Vostok battalion of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. In February 2023, Española identified itself as a PMC. It is made up of reconnaissance units, attack aircraft, artillery, radio-electronic warfare, unmanned aerial vehicles and snipers.
Ilya Khanin, in charge of supplying Española fighters, is a soccer fan and brother of Nikolai Khanin, head of a local administration in the Moscow Oblast.
Española is commanded by Stanislav Orlov, nicknamed the Spaniard, a fan of Moscow’s CSKA professional soccer club. Orlov has been participating in combat operations in Ukraine since 2014. Española fighters took part in the assault on Azovstal, fought on the fronts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and near Vuhledar and Avdiivka.
Like most Russian volunteer divisions, Española is part of the Redut private military contractor — considered a fictitious private military company used by Russia’s military intelligence to recruit soldiers for Russia’s war in Ukraine — of the Russian Ministry of Defense. In other words, the fighters sign a contract with Redut. As of Oct. 10 2023, at least 20 units under the name Redut were fighting in Ukraine.
