As chairman of a subcommittee within Business Russia, he provided advisory services to Rosneft.

Key figures in this story:

Elchin Muradov — managing partner of the law firm Evrokon Trust, who at various times advised Rosneft and other major financial and industrial groups.

Anton Valeryevich Chichkanov — Muradov’s junior partner at Evrokon Trust.

Valery Petrovich Chichkanov (died in 2023) — adviser to the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, vice-rector of RANEPA.

Roman Antonovich Chichkanov — chairman of the Business Russia subcommittee on preventive medicine, co-owner of the MayrVeda spa hotels, former first deputy head of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

The conflict between well-known Moscow lawyer Elchin Muradov and the equally well-known Chichkanov family (three generations: Valery, Anton, and Roman) is no longer a dispute over money. It is a vivid illustration of how administrative resources can be used to jail a person and attempt to seize all of his property.

It all began as an “ordinary” loan.

In 2014, Muradov borrowed €2 million from Valery Chichkanov, secured by real estate. The collateral consisted of several apartments and parking spaces with a total value of about $3 million. Muradov repaid part of the debt, and the remainder was covered by the property. However, the assets were never returned to him, and a conflict arose.

A forged contract was then put into play.

In 2021, Chichkanov submitted to court a loan agreement dated 2019, according to which Muradov allegedly still owed the same €2 million — now as interest accrued on the 2014 loan.

The Ministry of Justice conducted an expert examination and found the contract to be falsified; Muradov’s signatures were absent.

The courts, including the Moscow City Court, ruled that the 2014 debt had been repaid in full and all obligations fulfilled.

Retaliation: a criminal case

To avoid consequences for the forgery, Valery Chichkanov went to the police and filed a complaint with the Central Administrative District police, claiming that Muradov had deliberately forged his own signature in advance in order not to pay interest.

The police refused to open a case.

Then, with the support of high-ranking security service officers (Sergey Yarosh requested that a case be opened), he succeeded in having the Investigative Committee initiate criminal proceedings in another district, in violation of all territorial jurisdiction rules.

Muradov was arrested. Since October 2023, he has been held in pretrial detention. After several refusals, the case was nevertheless “pushed through” to the Tverskoy District Court.

While he was isolated, they moved against his assets

While in custody, Muradov was unable to service a 65 million ruble loan to a bank.

The collateral was assets worth 600 million rubles.

The Chichkanovs bought the debt from the bank. However, Muradov’s associates repaid the full amount through court and a notary, and the bankruptcy case was terminated.

What did the Chichkanovs do?

They refused to accept performance and continue to pressure the court to introduce bankruptcy proceedings anyway and “clean out” the remaining assets.

And that is not all. Did the court accommodate them?

On May 25, 2025, Chichkanov filed a cassation appeal.

On May 28, Judge O. N. Savina accepted it.

On June 4, a hearing was already scheduled.

Seven days from filing to hearing.

This is an anomaly, explainable only by extraordinary circumstances.

In summary:

Loan → property → forgery → criminal case → arrest → bankruptcy → obstruction of repayment → expedited court proceedings.

The dispute looks more like a raider-style operation with elements of a special operation, where the target is not an oligarch, but a lawyer who refused to hand over his assets quietly.

Maria Sharapova