A European Partner of Putin’s Friend

Jan Merka, a major Czech manufacturer of ventilation systems and owner of the Remak company, was a business partner of the son of criminal authority from St. Petersburg Gennady Petrov in Russia, IStories and the Czech publication Investigace have found out.

Petrov Sr. is known as one of the leaders of the Malyshev crime ring with ties to high-ranking Russian security officials, such as FSB deputy director Sergei Korolev. Petrov also called Vladimir Putin his friend, and a Spanish intelligence officer spoke of Petrov as an acquaintance of Putin’s from his KGB days.

For example, the Czech nuclear power plant Temelin and the oil refinery Unipetrol, the Estonian power plant Iru and the Slovakian power plant Teko, UK Supreme Court, Hungary’s largest airport, and Hungarian Ministry of Finance are equipped with Remak ventilation systems.

Merka is the majority owner (51%) of SP Remak. The rest of the company belongs to Vadim Burawoy, a businessman from St. Petersburg, brother of Arkady Burawoy.

Arkady Buravoy headed Petrovs’ companies and was their long-term business partner. In 2016, he was put on an international wanted list by Spain in the criminal case of the leaders of the Tambov-Malyshevsky organized crime group. One of the main defendants was Gennady Petrov. The case fell apart in court, and its defendants were acquitted.

Together with Gennady Petrov’s son Anton, Burawoy was Merka’s partner in another Russian company, Remak Distribution. However, the Russians left the founders after they were put on the international wanted list in 2016, and Vadim Burawoy became the main owner of the company.

Jan Merka assured Investigace in his commentary that since 1996 he had dealt only with Vadim Burawoy, and that he had never met his brother Arkady and Anton Petrov and did not know them. The Petrovs and Burawoys did not answer the IStories’ questions.

In Russia, Remak ventilation systems are installed at the Luzhniki and Lokomotiv stadiums, the CSKA ice arena, Christ the Savior Cathedral, Sochi and Vnukovo airports, Rosneft and Gazpromneft refineries, Severstal, NLMK and UMMC, as well as at the Central Bank, the St. Petersburg Mint and the Russian Museum. The total revenue of Remak’s distribution companies in Russia — SP Remak, Remak Distribution and Remak Rus — has exceeded 134 million euros since 2008.