Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Uma Thurman, Kate Winslet.
And Anastasia Ignatova?
In 2017, Ignatova was the one non-actor and non-celebrity to be featured within the Italian tire firm Pirelli’s arty annual calendar, showing alongside the Hollywood stars listed above and others together with Alicia Wikander, Julianne Moore, Helen Mirren, and Leya Seydoux.
Little-known to the general public in Russia or past, Ignatova is the stepdaughter of Sergei Chemezov, the pinnacle of the huge state conglomerate Rostec – maker of weapons utilized in Russia’s conflict on Ukraine – and a longtime confidant of President Vladimir Putin.
Now, the European Union is citing Ignatova’s inclusion within the calendar as a chunk of proof supporting its refusal to scrap sanctions it imposed on her in April 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, has discovered.
Ignatova is combating towards the sanctions in EU courtroom, arguing that she doesn’t profit from the sprawling property managed by her stepfather Chemezov, who has been underneath EU sanctions since 2014 for undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
‘The Only Plausible Reason’
The Council of the European Union disagrees.
In a draft of a letter to Ignatova’s attorneys that was obtained by Systema, the council pointed to the calendar as one among a number of items of proof that she attracts benefits from her relationship to Chemezov.
A partnership in place on the time between Pirelli and Rostec was “the one believable purpose” for Ignatova’s inclusion within the calendar, the letter stated. It stated her inclusion “[sheds] gentle on the shut hyperlink” between her and Chemezov.
The calendar normally options “well-known individuals belonging to…international present enterprise and certainly not college lecturers,” it stated.
On the web site of the calendar, Ignatova was described as a professor of political idea at Moscow State University and a “particular visitor” whom the photographer, Peter Lindbergh, had met in 2015.
Systema sought remark from Ignatova and Pirelli, however neither responded instantly to the requests.
The European Union agreed this month to increase visa bans and asset freezes on Ignatova and greater than 2,600 different individuals and entities till mid-March 2026.
Putin And Chemezov In Dresden
In the draft letter obtained by Systema, the EU Council pointed to what it stated have been three property that present proof Ignatova has benefitted from her relationship with Chemezov: a Belize-based firm referred to as Elsamex; a villa in Marbella, Spain; and a $130 million superyacht, Valerie, which Ignatova’s attorneys stated has been bought. The Council expressed doubt about that assertion.
Ignatova, 38, is the daughter of Chemezov’s spouse, Yekaterina Ignatova, from her first marriage. She acquired a grasp’s diploma in political science from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations in 2013 and has given lectures there. She has co-authored a monograph on “state coverage within the sphere of excessive expertise,” on which Chemezov is recognized because the editor.
In 2017, Ignatova turned the director of an organization referred to as Farmapt, which a industrial registered signifies has no different workers. She can be concerned in an organization that owns property in Moscow valued in 2020 at $7 million.
Chemezov, 72, has been CEO of Rostec since 2007. He has been near Putin since their time as Soviet KGB officers stationed in Communist East Germany within the Nineteen Eighties, after they lived in the identical condominium constructing in Dresden. In 1996, when Putin turned President Boris Yeltsin’s deputy chief of workers, he made Chemezov head of the Kremlin’s international financial relations division.
Chemezov has supported the invasion of Ukraine and echoed Putin’s narratives in public feedback, accusing the United States and its Western allies of upsetting the battle and saying they risked triggering a world conflict.
