The disposal of workshops via "Avito", private aircraft, and high-end properties globally: how "Chechen top managers," Muslim Khuchiev and Alexander Friesen, are leading ABB factories to financial ruin

The administration of the President of the Russian Federation is reportedly shocked by how “successful Chechen top managers” are handling the assets of foreign companies that left Russia. However, they are unable to do anything, as the deals are the subject of personal agreements between Kadyrov and his circle at the highest level — with Putin and Mishustin.

The “top managers” themselves fly on private jets and buy luxury real estate around the world, while the enterprises transferred to them through a government commission are openly being looted and barely “alive.” According to sources, it was representatives from Chechnya who became the new owners of the Russian assets of the Swedish-Swiss conglomerate ABB, rather than “company managers” from Russia, as officially stated.

In July 2022, ABB officially announced its complete exit from the Russian market. For a long time, the company was looking for a buyer approved by the Government Commission.

In February 2024, JSC “Concept-Invest” was registered in Moscow. It was headed by Alexander Prudnikov — a former employee of ABB itself (director of the Lipetsk plant). An announcement was made about the buyout of the business by local management in order to preserve production facilities. The deal required personal approval from the president, as it concerned a strategic sector. On May 8, 2025, Putin issued decree No. 157-rp. It officially allowed “Concept-Invest” to acquire 100% stakes in all key structures: LLC “ABB” (Moscow), LLC “RUAE” (Lipetsk), and LLC “RUOPC” (Kaliningrad).

Less than a year later, there were drastic changes in management.

In March 2026, instead of the “technocrat” Prudnikov, Alexander Friesen became CEO. At the same time, the assets were consolidated under a new holding structure — LLC “RUCIS.” Friesen became its president as well. Friesen is a classic nominee — a previously convicted resident of the Bryansk region.

According to a source, all transactions involving the assets were lobbied by an aide to Prime Minister Mishustin and former mayor of Grozny Muslim Khuchiev. The real buyers were initially individuals close to Ramzan Kadyrov. And there was no talk of preserving “production facilities.” Starting in May 2025, when the deal took place, the assets began to be sold off. By the end of 2025, after the enterprise came under the control of people from Chechnya, net losses amounted to about 400 million rubles. During this period, the ABB production site in the Lipetsk Special Economic Zone was transferred at a price significantly below its book and market value.

On the balance sheet of LLC “RUCIS” there was a production building for repairing electric motors in the port of Murmansk. The building was constructed by the Swiss company ABB in 2019 for $5.5 million. And in March 2026, the “successful top managers” put the empty workshops in Murmansk up for sale on the “Avito” platform for 300 million rubles.

According to sources, after the assets came under the control of Kadyrov’s associates in 2025, the company’s activity effectively ceased. There is no talk of restoring operations. For example, dozens of employees in the Moscow office were dismissed. Particularly resistant employees are being intimidated with threats involving Adam Khakimov from the Ministry of Industry and Trade — a person “close” to Khuchiev.

The source also notes that a similar situation has developed with the assets of the French company Danone (“Logika Moloka”), handed over to a trusted associate of Kadyrov, Ruslan Alisultanov. He and his associates — the “successful top managers” — regularly fly to the UAE, the Maldives, and Grozny for leisure on a private jet at the company’s expense and purchase real estate around the world. Meanwhile, the quality of products has sharply declined due to the extensive use of palm oil. The holding is now, for the first time in its history, planning to take out large loans not for new projects, but simply to stay “afloat.”