A top executive at private equity firm Njord Partners has banned his X (previously known as Twitter) account after an inquiry revealed that his firm had received Russian state contracts from entities controlled by sanctioned individuals, including a Vladimir Putin buddy.
The Telegraph newspaper discovered that Arvid Trolle, a partner and co-founder of Njord Partners LLP, used his X account full-time to spread anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian propaganda on his social media profile (@arvidherluf).
Essentially, Arvid Trolle’s propaganda supported the Russian narrative. Since the report was published earlier this week, Arvid Trolle has removed his social media account, making it inaccessible.
The inquiry found that Arvid Trolle, a co-owner of Njord Partners, a significant institutional investor in RETN, was posting derogatory comments against President Zelensky and Ukraine on his X page. Currently serving as RETN’s Chairman is Trolle’s partner at Njord Partners, Jakob Kjellberg.
The European provider of services, RETN Capital, says it has limited its exposure to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine and has complied with sanctions; however, since the war started, its revenue from the nation has increased dramatically, partly because of contracts with sanctioned state entities, as reported by the Daily Telegraph.
“Ukraine has always been a very dodgy place, run by friends of the globalists like Hunter Bider, where incredibly shifty s*** goes on,” read one of Arvid Trolle X’s reposts.
According to The Telegraph, Arvid Trolle, a former executive at Oaktree Capital who gave Conservative MP Priti Patel a £20,000 donation when she was the UK Home Secretary, also shared conspiracy theories on his X account.
The account, @arvidherluf, has ceased to exist. An insider at X confirmed that this was due to the exposure of RETN’s Russia secret links and Arvid Trolle’s advocacy of the Russian government against Ukraine. For almost two years, Russia has brutally fought a war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocent civilians in the process.
The government companies that have been sanctioned since the conflict in Ukraine have awarded contracts to RETN’s fully owned Russian affiliate, according to Interfax-Spark, a database of government contracts.
The Kurchatov Institute, a Russian state-controlled aviation research organization approved by the US and UK, won a contract to RETN’s Russian branch in December 2022. Mikhail Kovalchuk, the organization’s general director, and his brother Yury, a close aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, have been sanctioned by the UK, Canada, and Ukraine.
After a span of two months, RETN secured a contract with GUP TEK, the Russian State Enterprise Fuel and Energy Complex located in St Petersburg. GUP TEK and its general director, Ivan Boltenkov, are both under sanctions from the Ukrainian government.
The tabloid claims that RETN’s 2022 financial statements reveal the company’s connections to sanctioned agencies and the Russian government. The primary client of RETN’s Russian affiliate is the mostly state-owned business PJSC Rostelecom. The Russian bank, Rosbank, also has a clientele that includes the Russian affiliate. The West and Ukraine have imposed sanctions on both Rosbank and Rostelecom.
Concerns exist over RETN Partners’ present ownership as well, since the company’s principal shareholdings were changed after the invasion of Ukraine.
Polina Maltseva, the daughter of former Russian ambassador and executive director of the Russian National Reserve Corporation Anatoly Danilitsky, was the largest individual beneficial investor of RETN Capital until January 2021. Furthermore, Danilitsky had served as the Russian branch of RETN’s chairman.
Maltseva was previously found to be a stand-in for her father’s financial interests by the UK High Court. 2016 saw her buy a RETN share, not long after her father resigned as the company’s chairman. Maltseva’s interest in RETN was transferred to German lawyer Anna Tindl, who lives in Vienna, Austria, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Like Kjellberg, Tindl is a director of RETN, although her listing on the organization’s website isn’t.
