Viktor Vasilyevich Zolotov (Russian: Ви́ктор Васи́льевич Зо́лотов; born 27 January 1954) is a Russian military officer who is the Director of the National Guard (Rosgvardiya) and a member of the Security Council. Zolotov is a former bodyguard to former President Boris Yeltsin, former St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, and current Russian leader Vladimir Putin.[2] While working for Sobchak, Zolotov became acquainted with Putin, as well as figures in the St. Petersburg criminal underworld.[3] A member of Putin's siloviki inner circle, Zolotov's rise to power and wealth happened after he became a close Putin confidant.[2][4][3] The Zolotov family has obtained valuable land plots through dubious means.[3]
Putin and Zolotov in Vietnam, March 2001Putin with Zolotov, Sergei Shoigu and other senior Kremlin officials in October 2018
Zolotov also served in Roman Tsepov's private guard service Baltik-Eskort, prior to the poisoning of Tsepov by an unknown radioactive substance. The agency was created in 1992, based on the advice from Zolotov, who allegedly oversaw this agency later as a member of the active reserve, according to Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky.[7] The firm provided protection to high ranking Saint Petersburg officials, including the city mayor Sobchak and his family, as well as vice-mayor Putin. It also served as the central mechanism for the collection of tribute and chorniy nal or "black cash" (Russian: "черный нал") for Putin's purposes.[8][9]
A high-ranking SVR defector Sergei Tretyakov asserted that Zolotov and Putin-appointed director of the Federal Protection Service (FSO) General Murov had openly discussed how to kill the former chief of Yeltsin's administration Alexander Voloshin.[10] They also made "a list of politicians and other influential Muscovites whom they would need to assassinate to give Putin unchecked power". However since the list was very long, Zolotov allegedly announced, "There are too many. It's too many to kill - even for us." This made SVR officers who knew about the story "uneasy", since FSO includes twenty thousand troops and controls the "black box" that can be used in the event of global nuclear war.[5][11]
From 2000 to 2013, he was the Chief of the Security of Putin, while the latter was Prime Minister of Russia and then President of Russia. Zolotov commanded security officers that are known in Russia as "Men in Black" because they wore black sunglasses and dressed in all-black suits. They use a variety of weapons including portable rocket launchers.[5]
In August 2018, Zolotov became a target of an investigation of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Alexei Navalny alleged a theft of at least $29m in procurement contracts for the National Guard of Russia. Soon, Navalny was imprisoned, formally for staging protests in January 2018, and Viktor Zolotov published a video message on 11 September, where he called Navalny into a duel and promised to make "good, juicy mincemeat" of him.[13][14]
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals for their involvement in Ukrainian affairs.[16][17]
On 2 March 2021, the Council of the European Union imposed a set of restrictive measures against Zolotov saying he was "responsible for serious human rights violations in Russia, including arbitrary arrests and detentions and systematic and widespread violations of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, in particular by violently repressing protests and demonstrations." These relate to the quelling of pro-Navalny protests in early 2021.[18][19]
Despite a career in government, Zolotov and his family own approximately $9.8 million worth of real estate in Russia,[22] as well as plots of land that may be worth $22.7 million.[23] According to the OCCRP, Putin gave Zolotov state properties that had been bequeathed by the state to workers and pensioners after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[23] Workers say they were swindled out of the properties given to Zolotov.[23]
His daughter Zhanna Zolotova owns a 500-square-meter (5,380-square-foot) apartment in Moscow, valued at roughly $5 million.[22] She is married to Yuri Chechikhin, a film and television producer.
His son Roman owns an estate valued at $10 million.[23]
^ abcdPete Earley. Comrade J.: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America after the End of the Cold War, Putnam Adult (24 January 2008), ISBN0-399-15439-6, pp. 298–301.
^Никитинский, Леонид (Nikitinsky, Leonid) (27 March 2005). Связной с прошлым [Contact with the past]. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). Retrieved 10 February 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"One idea was to kill him and blame Chechen separatists. Another was to make his execution appear to be a hit by the Russian Mafia" (Comrade J., page 299)
^Boris Volodarsky, The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko, p.248
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