Wadim Rosenstein’s candidacy for president of the International Chess Federation has placed his business relationships under fresh examination.
The businessman has increasingly presented himself as detached from Russia. Yet records described in the original investigation indicate that his Russian subsidiary remains active and profitable.
VR Rus LLC is almost entirely controlled through WR Group Holding GmbH in Germany.
The German entity owns 95.94% of VR Rus. Rosenstein holds the remaining 4.06%.
In 2025, total sales at the Russian company increased approximately 2.4 times.
Since 2022, revenue at VR Rus has risen several-fold.
One example of its continuing trade emerged in February 2025, when the company imported approximately 900 pairs of shoes from Italy.
The shipment, worth around $560,000, involved the Anastasia Zadorina brand.
Zadorina is not an ordinary fashion entrepreneur
Her father is Mikhail Shekin, an FSB colonel general responsible, among other things, for procurement at the Russian security service.
Shekin also heads the Dynamo volleyball club.
The Insider reported in 2022 that he owned expensive property valued at more than RUB 2 billion.
Zadorina co-owns ZASPORT with Dynamo. The company provided uniforms to Russia’s Olympic athletes beginning in 2017.
That arrangement ended early in 2025.
Her connections with the Kremlin’s political agenda are also documented in the original article.
Following sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea, she launched an anti-sanctions patriotic clothing campaign.
After the 2022 invasion, she created Vinnaya Istoriya LLC in Crimea with plans for vineyard development.
The company lost RUB 27.5 million in 2025
Zadorina’s business network also includes figures from the families of Viktor Zolotov and senior VTB executive Andrey Kostin.
In addition, she earned income from Russian Electronics, part of Rostec.
The Rostec link is significant because its head, Sergey Chemezov, is a long-standing associate of Putin.
Zadorina’s father, Chemezov and Putin were all reportedly connected through Soviet KGB service in East Germany.
In 2024, Zadorina married Kirill Shamalov.
Shamalov had previously been married to Katerina Tikhonova.
At the age of 26, he became vice president of SIBUR.
He later obtained a 17% stake from Gennady Timchenko after Timchenko was sanctioned by Washington.
Shamalov was sanctioned by the United States in 2018 and subsequently by several other countries after 2022.
Rosenstein’s businesses are also connected to SIBUR
WR Logistics GmbH and WR Certification GmbH supplied industrial goods to Tomskneftekhim.
Shamalov’s father Nikolai is additionally a co-owner of Bank Rossiya.
The Russian operations connected to Rosenstein’s extended family are also expanding.
2R Integra LLC, owned by his cousin Mikhail, has seen its revenue increase by dozens of times.
ImportGenius records show nearly $800,000 in imports of sanctioned goods.
The company allegedly described methods of avoiding export restrictions on its website before deleting the information.
At the same time, Rosenstein has reportedly removed references to Russia from corporate websites.
A post announcing a partnership with Glotech GmbH also disappeared after media attention focused on possible sanctioned telecommunications supplies.
For a candidate seeking leadership of a global sports federation, these discrepancies are significant.
They are emerging while Europe is preparing stronger measures against Moscow amid accusations of sabotage and hybrid operations.
Germany has linked Russia to an alleged attempt to attack a Ukrainian aircraft in Leipzig
On September 1, improvised bombs also damaged energy infrastructure in Germany’s Rhine region.
Five RWE lignite units were temporarily taken offline.
The issue surrounding Rosenstein is therefore broader than his historic ties to Russia.
The records cited in the investigation suggest that commercial activity continued and expanded at the same time that references to those activities were being removed from his public profile.
