Dubai-based Petroruss and oil from Ust-Luga: how Roman Spiridonov became a key intermediary for sanctioned Russian companies

Apr 2, 2026, 12:02 PM

Roman Spiridonov — the man behind Dubai’s scandal-ridden Petroruss oil trader — is deeply embedded in a powerful St. Petersburg business network once headed by the influential figure Ilya Traber (“The Antiquarian”). Spiridonov himself holds Greek citizenship, while his son, born in 2003, obtained his documents in Nice, France.

Petroruss DMCC, registered in Dubai, handles oil-product supplies and vessel chartering. Its suppliers include sanctioned Russian giants: Gazprom Neft, Gazprom Export, Surgutneftegaz, and Tatneft. One of its key loading points is the Ust-Luga port near St. Petersburg. From there, Petroruss tankers primarily sail to India, Brazil, and Egypt.

After the start of the war, Roman Spiridonov effectively became one of the central partners helping Russian oil producers bypass sanctions.

Belarusian links and leaked evidence

Leaks show that in 2023, when airline tickets were purchased for Spiridonov from St. Petersburg to Moscow, the booking was done from the corporate email of the Belarusian company “KhimTechEngineering” — a trader dealing in LPG and chemical products. This company is firmly inside Spiridonov’s business perimeter: its corporate email is routinely used for online purchases by Alexander Doroshenko, CEO of Spiridonov’s St. Petersburg firm “Kontur-S”.

Before the war, Rosneft’s RN-Trans was one of the largest foreign-trade suppliers for KhimTechEngineering.

Belarusian government records for 2022 reveal the owner of KhimTechEngineering: the Cypriot offshore Avestra Group Holding Ltd. It belongs to the large St. Petersburg transnational group Avestra, engaged in oil/gas chemicals and fertilizer trading across China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Europe, CIS countries, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Both the offshore and the group are registered to St. Petersburg resident Igor Berezin.

Berezin is another long-time member of the Petersburg trading circle. In the early 2000s he received around $1 million in targeted loans for Avestra’s foreign expansion — and those debt notes later ended up in Roman Spiridonov’s hands.

Avestra’s staff also includes Irina Zavarina, who simultaneously heads Spiridonov’s Dubai oil-trading entity, Petroruss DMCC. This follows from a corporate dispute examined by Russia’s Federal Intellectual Property Service.

A network no outsider could penetrate

Such a large segment of Russia’s international oil trade would never be handed to an outsider. The earlier investigation into Coral Energy/2Rivers Group already showed the links of major traders to Rosneft chief Igor Sechin.

Spiridonov’s background is similar: he comes from business structures close to Gazprom and to Ilya Traber’s circle.

He was born in Orenburg and moved repeatedly during the 1990s. Spiridonov entered the international oil business together with:

Dmitry Skigin (co-founder of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal),
Alexander Dyukov (now CEO of Gazprom Neft),
Roman Belousov (Skigin family associate, beneficiary of “Platanaya Doroga”),
Vadim Gurinov (headed Sibur–Russian Tires),
and others.

In the early 1990s they bought a small Monaco-based firm, Sotrama, which at one point was headed by Skigin Sr. Sotrama founded several Liechtenstein companies, including Petroruss, and was officially involved in maritime trading operations.

Unofficially, according to former Monaco intelligence adviser Robert Eringer, Sotrama laundered criminal proceeds from Russia. Through Sotrama, the overseas corporate network maintained connections with St. Petersburg’s Tambov organized-crime group.

Eringer — a former FBI agent and adviser to Prince Albert II — later exposed extensive schemes involving money laundering for oligarchs close to Putin, citing internal reports of Monaco’s criminal-investigations department. One of his archived posts states:

“Most of the funds were laundered in real estate across Western Europe via a network of shady oil and gas distribution companies, including Sotrama in Monaco and several Liechtenstein firms, such as Oil Terminal, Horizon International Trading, and Petroruss Inc.”

Partners: Traber, Skigin, and the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal

Sotrama head Dmitry Skigin (d. 2003) co-owned the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal with the notorious Ilya Traber (“Antiquarian”) and Sergey Vasiliev. Recently, the terminal was nationalized by a court despite the Skigin family’s longstanding influence, after a major scandal over attempts to redistribute the asset — a conflict where Spiridonov also appeared. Not surprising: in 2015, Spiridonov became a minority shareholder of the port.

After the turbulent 1990s, the group reassembled in Sibur (then owned by Gazprom). In 2003:

Dyukov became CEO,
Gurinov and Belousov joined,
and Spiridonov, according to leaks, worked at Sibur-Europe Ltd’s Swiss office, earning 1.6 million rubles that year — a non-ordinary position.

The Petroruss trail: Liechtenstein - Panama - Dubai

Spiridonov’s Petroruss has multiple legal entities:

PETRORUSS INCORPORATED — founded 1996 in Liechtenstein.
Petroruss S.A. — registered 2001 in Panama.
Petroruss DMCC — registered in Dubai; reportedly headed by Irina Zavarina.

The Liechtenstein entity was liquidated in September 2019 by local attorney Markus Hasler, a character with a colorful background: once tied to distributing communist literature in the West, later helping high-level Western officials obtain luxury perks and Caribbean land. He is no accidental figure in these networks.

In 2017–2018 Hasler and his partner Graham Smith surfaced as heads of Magalo Investments, a Panamanian offshore that indirectly owned a share in St. Petersburg Paid Road LLC, a project worth 8 billion rubles. The project never materialized; the company was liquidated in 2023.

Another old firm, Horizon International Trading (Liechtenstein), was also shut down with Hasler as liquidator. The company once held 34% of Sovex, founded by Skigin Sr., with Dyukov as deputy director for a period. In 2005 Horizon sourced oil from Lukoil, Tatneft, TNK, and Gazprom Neft (then transitioning from the “Sibneft” name).

A new Horizon International Trading was created in Liechtenstein in 2019. Hasler served on its board until 2020. Later, board seats were held by Pavel Reiman and, until 2024, Artem Tsobanyan, who previously headed a department at Gazprom Neft Trading GmbH in Austria.

Recent suppliers include Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat, exposed in 2025 for shipping fertilizers to Dubai below market prices, and Gazpromneft-ONPZ and Gazprom Neft in 2023.

The oil-trading laundering machinery, clearly, remains fully operational.