Manturov Denis Valentinovich

Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation - Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation

Born in 1969 in the city of Murmansk. In 1994 he graduated from the sociological faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, and in 1997 – from postgraduate school at Moscow State University.

In 2006 he graduated from the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA) with a degree in law, and in 2022 – from doctoral studies at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Since December 2011, he has been a professor at the Department of Management Systems for Economic Objects at the Moscow Aviation Institute.

In the early 1990s, he worked in a Russian-Indian joint venture engaged in air transportation. Since 1993, he has been exporting Mi-8 helicopters from the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant. In 1998–2000, he served as Deputy General Director of the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant. In 2000-2001, he was the commercial director of OJSC Moscow Helicopter Plant named after M. L. Mil. In 2001-2003, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Investment Corporation". In 2003-2007 - General Director of OJSC United Industrial Corporation Oboronprom (“Defense Industry”). Also in 2004, he joined the boards of directors of OKB Sukhoi and Kurganmashzavod.

Thus, Denis Manturov, even before working at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, was closely associated with the military-industrial industry.

From September 2007 to May 2008 - Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation. In May 2008, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. In February 2012, he was appointed acting Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, and in May 2012, he was confirmed as Minister. Since November 2012, he has also been the chairman of the supervisory board of the Rostec state corporation.

In July 2022, Manturov, while remaining in the position of Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, received the status of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. At the same time, he became the chairman of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation, and shortly before that, in May 2022, he became the chairman of the board of directors of AvtoVAZ.

Denis Manturov is certainly a very influential representative of Putin’s “ruling class” and an experienced bureaucrat, who has especially strengthened his position (as well as the position of the ministry he controls) since 2012, when he was appointed minister. This thesis is confirmed by, at a minimum, his own “career growth” (as mentioned above, in 2022 he “rose” to Deputy Prime Minister), as well as a significant expansion of the powers of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation under him (for example, in 2018 the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation “took away” the supervision of trade missions of the Russian Federation from the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation).

In terms of the importance of his functionality (from the point of view of maintaining the stability of Putin’s system), Denis Manturov can in some ways be compared with Elvira Nabiullina: if is the person the financial system of the Russian Federation to a large extent “rests” on, then he is such a person for the industry – primarily “dual-use” or directly military one. It is the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation that is leading the process of militarization of the Russian economy (for example, a separate department was created in the ministry in January 2024 for the development of the UAV industry; at the same time, Manturov himself states that the Russian military-industrial complex will produce “hundreds of thousands of FPV drones” in the near future), and also oversees “import substitution” programs.

He has awards and honorary titles: since 2010 - Active State Councilor of the Russian Federation, first class, awarded the Order of Friendship (2008), Honor (2009), "For Services to the Fatherland" of the fourth degree (2013), medal "For Services to the Fatherland" of the second degree (2007).

In addition, he is among the so-called “first hundred” of the reserve of managerial personnel under the patronage of the President of the Russian Federation.

It is important to note that Denis Manturov is not the “lonely star” in the “sky” of the Putin’s elite: he, in particular, is affiliated with the head of Rostec Sergei Chemezov (which is logical, given that Manturov is the direct supervisor of the defense industry in the Government of the Russian Federation and has been working in this field for many years). Moreover, this affiliation is not even hidden - in particular, their families are overtly united by a joint winemaking business . However, this business is not the only point of intersection of the “non-military” interests of Chemezov and Manturov: according to media reports, Chemezov (together with the notorious Alisher Usmanov and businessman Alexander Galitsky) at least as of 2020 was a co-owner of the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT), which (thanks to Manturov’s lobbying and decisions as an overseeing minister) became the operator (and, accordingly, the beneficiary) of an expensive product labeling system in the Russian Federation, which cost the Russian dairy industry alone unreasonable multi-billion dollar expenses.

The “non-public side” of Manturov’s activities does not end there. As The Insider investigators found out in 2023, Denis Manturov has been violating anti-corruption standards for years: at first, he made money on contracts with the government “Glavgosexpertiza” and rented out a mansion in the center of Moscow to government agencies, and then sold the family firm (and with it the mansion) to the subsidiary of KAMAZ under his control, and still receives hundreds of millions a year from this deal. For example, in 2020-21, according to Federal Tax Service data cited by the investigators, Denis Manturov received about 600 million rubles from STFK KAMAZ LLC (this company is the official distributor of the parent KAMAZ and is completely owned by it).

Manturov’s relatives are also involved in these “schemes”. His mother Tamara Manturova owns half of the Financial Systems company together with the son of the head of Rostec, Stanislav Chemezov, while the total size of her share in the authorized capital of this and all subsidiaries is about 4 billion rubles. She also appeared as the owner of a mansion in the Pirogovo yacht club near Moscow for 5 billion rubles. Manturov’s mother-in-law , Alla Kisel, is “registered” with a dairy farm and 358 hectares of land in the Tver region. The Manturov family also found a hotel in the center of Moscow for 2 billion rubles, a network of gas stations, and commercial real estate in Gelendzhik.

In addition, in June 2019, the Russian division of Transparency International accused Manturov of overspending budget funds on his own business trips.

It is not surprising that according to the results of 2019, 2020 and 2021, Manturov turned out to be the richest Russian minister, and Forbes magazine in the same 2019 ranked the Manturov family in third place in the ranking of the richest families of officials in Russia.

Denis Manturov is married to Natalya Manturova, who has held the position of chief freelance specialist at the Russian Ministry of Health since 2014. In 2019, Manturova became president of the Russian Society of Plastic Surgeons, and heads the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery, cosmetology and cellular technologies at the Yeni Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University. She founded the Lancet plastic surgery clinic (obviously, a sort of manifestation of the unique “sense of humor” of the Manturov family: “Lancet” is the name of one of the most famous Russian military UAVs) and the center of aesthetic medicine “Russian Beauty”. He has two children - daughter Leonela (b. 1995) and son Evgeniy (b. 1998).

Since 2022-2023, Denis Manturov, in connection with the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, has been under sanctions from Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and Ukraine.

Being one of the representatives of Putin’s “elite”, Manturov, judging by the information mentioned above, is fully integrated into it, including through bonds of a corrupt nature.

But the main thing is that Denis Manturov is, perhaps, the main curator of the Russian defense industry in the Russian system of power, which, of course, means his direct responsibility for the war crimes of the Putin regime, and aggravates this responsibility even against the background of other members of the Russian Government.