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The Skolkovo Connection

Bratukhin’s journey into medical science and longevity seems to have been influenced by Russia’s Skolkovo Foundation, a business incubator set up on the outskirts of Moscow in the early 2010s and led until 2018 by now-sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, which in part focused on life sciences and artificial intelligence (AI) as key areas of study.

Skolkovo built a large science campus on the outskirts of Moscow and encouraged Western tech companies such as IBM and Microsoft to establish research centres within the facility, alongside Russian startups. The centre also received funding from Abramovich’s Millhouse Capital.

In 2014, the assistant special agent in charge of the Boston division of the FBI warned that the Skolkovo Foundation “may be a means for the Russian Government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications”. There is no evidence that any of the individuals or firms mentioned in this article were aware of this threat, when they invested.

Bratukhin has been a visitor to the Skolkovo business park for numerous events and his firms have invested in businesses established there, including a startup called Insilico Medicine, run by the young scientist Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, which describes itself as an “artificial intelligence-driven” healthcare-technology company.

Early investors in Insilico also included Jim Mellon, a business partner of Brexit money-man Arron Banks and an early supporter of UKIP. Mellon, who made his money in Russia in the early 1990s, visited Insilico’s offices in Skolkovo and promoted the company through his Master Investor events in London where Dr Zhavoronkov has appeared several times as a key speaker.

Dr Zhavoronkov has been listed as an advisor to former Russian spy Anna Chapman’s UMA Fund, though he claims that he never had a formal relationship with the firm and that the UMA Fund “just used my picture on the website”.

Dr Zhavoronkov also helped to establish the Biogerontology Research Foundation (BRF) in the UK in 2008, which claims it is “the UK’s leading non-profit focused on longevity”.

Mellon joined the BRF board in 2017 and the BRF claims it was “instrumental in the initial groundwork and establishment” of the APPG for Longevity.

Dr Zhavoronkov has held a role on the advisory board of the APPG, sitting alongside another Insilico employee, Polina Mamoshina, as well as Sergey Bratukhin. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Insilico, Mellon, Dr Zhavoronkov or any of his employees.

Insilico Medicine told Byline Times that the firm has “ceased all operations in Russia. The company firmly believes in the importance of scientific collaboration across borders in order to accelerate discovery and innovation. While the company remains committed to global scientific research and innovation, we have withdrawn all company operations from the Skolkovo Innovation Centre in Russia, sold the local subsidiary (which represented under 3% of global R&D spending), and relocated the remaining team members to other regional sites.” 

One of the managing trustees of the BRF is Dmitry Kaminskiy, a Moldovan businessman who was listed in March 2021 as the “co-director of the secretariat” of the APPG for Longevity and is listed as one of the advisors on its February 2020 ‘Health of the Nation’ report, alongside Dr Zhavoronkov. Kaminskiy says that his company, Ageing Analytics, provided data to the private health firm that manages the APPG for Longevity. The APPG claims that neither has been involved in APPG meetings since 2019.

Kaminskiy and Dr Zhavoronkov made headlines together for betting each other $1 million about who would die later.

Kaminskiy, who has also said that he will award $1 million to anyone reaching their 123rd birthday, first came to prominence as the chairman of i-bank.ru, a Russian bank which collapsed in 2016. Kaminskiy and other investors had purchased a 70% stake in i-bank in 2015, with Kaminskiy personally holding 10% of the company. As the new CEO, he pledged to invest $1 billion in the bank to create “the most powerful IT-team in Russia” which he would “motivate to work as in Space X or Tesla – 100 hours a week, 15 hours a day.”

In 2016, the Russian Central Bank withdrew i-bank’s licence, saying, “Interactive Bank (LLC) pursued a high-risk credit policy associated with the placement of funds in low-quality assets. An adequate assessment of the risks taken and a reliable reflection of the value of the bank’s assets led to the emergence of grounds for the credit institution to take measures to prevent insolvency (bankruptcy). At the same time, the bank was involved in conducting dubious operations.”

The administrators of the bank accused its former management of embezzlement – though it’s unknown if any former executives were charged.

No criminal charges were brought against Kaminskiy and he states that he assisted the authorities with their investigations. He told Byline Times that: “some of the managers representing the interests of certain other shareholders were using the bank for very risky financial and potentially even illegal operations,” but that he was not responsible for any wrongdoing.

Kaminskiy (listed here under the name Dmitrii Caminschii) was also revealed as an economic advisor to then-Moldovan President Igor Dodon in February 2018.

Dodon supported the Russian ‘federalisation’ plan of Moldova, which proposed stationing up to 2,000 Russian troops in the breakaway Transnistria region. The region, which sits along the country’s border with Ukraine, currently holds around 500 Russian troops who are present as ‘peacekeepers’ and has been under Russian control since 1992.

In May this year, Dodon was arrested and accused by Moldovan prosecutors of “illicit enrichment, passive corruption, illegal party financing and (treason), which have taken place since 2014.”

Kaminskiy said that his role as an advisor to Dodon was brief and that he does not and has not had any financial relationship with Dodon or his associates.