Deputy’s “Prydeks” under the mask of Cyprus: how Alexey Kudryavtsev hides billions from the Ministry of Justice and RusHydro in offshore accounts from the “Panama Papers”

05 мая 2026 г.

Kseniya Zhukova

A Moscow-based company controlled through an offshore structure in Cyprus is winning multibillion-ruble contracts from RusHydro and the Ministry of Justice. It is reportedly controlled by State Duma deputy Alexey Kudryavtsev.

Formally, Irkutsk deputy Alexey Kudryavtsev has no connection to Prydeks Construction LLC, a company whose revenue in 2023 jumped from 19 to 54 billion rubles. Formally. But if you look deeper, his brother, Alexander Kudryavtsev, appears — the man courts have previously identified as the ultimate beneficiary of the structure.

In 2022, law enforcement conducted a document seizure at Prydeks-related offices with the participation of eight witnesses — a special procedure not used for minor cases. The Federal Tax Service investigated the period from 2018 to 2020, focusing on alleged tax evasion of around 10 billion rubles. The court ruled the tax authorities’ actions lawful, but no significant sanctions were imposed on the Kudryavtsevs. Prydeks continued to grow as if nothing had happened.

In September 2024, Alexander Kudryavtsev and his sons exited the ownership structure of KZ Properties LLC — a company previously identified by a court as their asset. After this maneuver, the family officially retained only one company: Prydeks Construction LLC, registered to the Cypriot offshore entity Nunovalente LTD. Formally, there are no Kudryavtsevs involved. In practice, control remains.

This offshore company, registered in May 2011 alongside the Russian Prydeks entity, is linked to the Panama Papers leaks. Its director, Yiannis Khamalis, is described as a nominee holding figure for a limited circle of Russian businessmen. In the same leaks, he is also listed in connection with Ledwall Corporation, whose beneficiaries include Andrey Kosolapov (5%), Andrey Truskov (19%), and Alexander Svetakov (76%). The latter is a billionaire and co-owner of the Absolut development group. His structures reportedly insured Prydeks for 700 million rubles back in 2016. Coincidence? Unlikely.

A notable detail: in 2023, a year after Putin’s directive to de-offshore Russian business, the Ministry of Justice signed a state contract with Prydeks for the design and capital renovation of a building in Moscow.

Later came RusHydro. In December 2023, the state corporation awarded Prydeks an 8-billion-ruble contract to renovate an office in Krasnoyarsk, despite the building itself having been purchased from the Siberiak company for 1.83 billion rubles. A renovation costing five times the asset price is described by critics as a classic scheme for channeling public funds.

Prydeks Construction also exited a major project — the renovation of the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. This was a massive contract that sustained the company’s operations and supported a large workforce and 10,000 square meters of office space. But the project has now been completed, freeing up resources, while no comparable new contracts have replaced it.

This is where a typical corporate success story starts to resemble a financial pyramid under strain. To fill the gap and maintain cash flow, Prydeks is reportedly forced to bid aggressively on any available tenders, regardless of margin. The company allegedly resorts to dumping prices simply to keep operations and its oversized infrastructure running.

The consequences are predictable: cost-cutting leads to declining quality, reduced timelines, and lower payments to subcontractors. This, in turn, generates a wave of lawsuits over contract breaches.

The company’s total creditor debt stands at 34 billion rubles. It is facing multiple claims for non-performance, including from Ingosstrakh and First Investment Bank. The plaintiffs are winning their cases in court.