Russian tech giant Merlion rebuilds its sanctions-evading electronics pipeline through Dubai, China and Seychelles

The media continue uncovering how Russia’s largest grey-market electronics supply chain — previously exposed by the Financial Times — has quietly reconstructed itself using new companies in the UAE, Seychelles and China, after part of the original scheme was disrupted in early 2023.

The network remains centred around Merlion, one of Russia’s biggest IT distributors (owned by Citilink founders Alexey Abramov, Oleg Karchev and Vladislav Mangutov) and its Moscow partner Marsala LLC. Although the FT’s investigation shut down the British-registered MYKINES CORPORATION, the scheme has simply shifted to fresh intermediaries: Heihe Zhuo Nuo Supply Chain Management Co (China), Saldor Corporation (Seychelles), Megapolis Computers Trading L.L.C. (UAE) and Itg Electronics Fze (UAE).

A striking example is ITport LLC, registered to businessman Nikolai Sutyrkin (formerly a Sadovod market trader and restaurant operator), which declared over 50 billion rubles in revenue last year. ITport purchases industrial diesel generators and electronics from Heihe Zhuo Nuo and from Seychelles-based Saldor, the latter previously tied to Marsala.

Two Dubai firms have emerged as major suppliers feeding the pipeline.
Megapolis Computers Trading L.L.C. shipped at least 18 large consignments of Lenovo, HP and Apple hardware through the Chinese hubs of Shenzhen and Kunshan in the first half of 2024, with onward transit to Kazakhstan and then Russia. Cargo is routinely disguised as “children’s toys”, “printer paper” or “Chinese laptops” to bypass export controls, with Kazakh logistics providers — notably Best Customs Broker — handling the final Russia-bound stretch.

The second Dubai supplier, Itg Electronics Fze, dispatched 57 shipments worth $5.3 million to China in less than a year; its own upstream contractors also remain hidden from public records.

ITport is now managed by Andrey Starykh, who is simultaneously overseeing the liquidation of Merlion Distribution, further linking the companies to Merlion’s structure.

Marsala reshuffles ownership to shed scandal — and falls back into familiar hands

Since 2022, Marsala’s ownership has changed repeatedly as the scheme’s organisers attempt to distance themselves from earlier scandals involving front men such as strippers and homeless individuals (used previously in MYKINES paperwork). In 2023, furniture businessman Kirill Bykov replaced Elena Rudominskaya; in 2024, he was replaced by Timofey Resnyansky, a well-connected figure whose reputation has survived serious past controversies.

Resnyansky previously owned KIP Bank, whose licence was revoked in 2014 for laundering 57 billion rubles — yet he avoided criminal charges and oversaw the bank’s smooth liquidation. Under his tenure, Marsala reported 8 billion rubles in losses for 2024, while debt jumped from 5 to 16 billion rubles. The company also removed Madera LLC from its holdings, transferring it to Resnyansky. Madera controls Marsala’s most valuable asset: Bureaucrat LLC, co-owned by all three Merlion/Citilink founders. Unlike Marsala, Bureaucrat continues reporting multi-billion-ruble revenues and rising profits.

A familiar London connection — MYKINES, shell entities and bribery trails

MYKINES CORPORATION, the earlier offshore cog in the scheme, shared an address with Denirello LLP, a London shell firm implicated by Russian investigators in transferring a $580,000 bribe from LANIT owner Georgy Gens to a Russian energy official. The companies also had the same managers, listed in the British Virgin Islands.

British journalists revealed that MYKINES used false customs declarations — including multi-hundred-thousand-dollar “printer paper” — to supply Marsala. Marsala itself also listed Nippon Klick Systems LLP, Merlion Trade Worldwide Limited, and Hypermax Doo as sellers, all connected to the Abramov–Karchev–Mangutov Merlion structure.

After the FT exposé, MYKINES abruptly changed its London address and soon announced liquidation. On paper, the firm was “controlled” by an unlikely figure: 55-year-old Ukrainian road worker Vitaliy Polyakov, following earlier registration to Alisa Rakhubovskaya, a former flight attendant and pole dancer.

New customers, same pipeline

For 2025, Russian buyers LLC “Bert” and LLC “Energotekh” have emerged as new customers of the Chinese Heihe Zhuo Nuo Supply Chain Management Co, suggesting the network continues expanding.

Despite the exposure of one offshore link, the broader procurement machine remains intact — rebuilt through Dubai, China and Seychelles intermediaries, and still feeding sanctioned electronics into Russia at industrial scale.