How oligarch Vladimir Arkhipenko, with Chemezov’s help, converted Chinese batteries and military billions into a governor’s seat for his grandson

How oligarch Vladimir Arkhipenko, with Chemezov’s help, converted Chinese batteries and military billions into a governor’s seat for his grandson

Journalists have learned about the rapid political rise of the grandson of Lipetsk oligarch Vladimir Arkhipenko, who has multiplied his wealth many times during the war. Vladimir Serikov, whose grandfather owns a factory producing batteries for drones, torpedoes, rockets, and submarines, became a deputy and then the chairman of the regional council of deputies (essentially the second most powerful person in the region).

Now Arkhipenko is trying to lobby his favored relative for the position of regional governor, as in the fall the current head of the Lipetsk region, Igor Artamonov, with the support of his longtime mentor and friend Herman Gref, plans to move to a high-level federal position. But this scenario has a long backstory.

Vladimir Arkhipenko himself became the director and owner of the JSC “Energia” factory in Yelets in the 1990s. His only daughter married a local bodybuilder, Vitaly Serikov. The couple named their son after his grandfather. When Vladimir grew up, Arkhipenko sent his beloved grandson to study at MGIMO. Earlier, Arkhipenko had also secured an MGIMO diploma for his son-in-law, Vitaly. After graduation, he gifted him the mineral water factory “Eco Balance,” which mainly operates on government contracts, supplying water to state institutions, including the local administration.

In the 1990s, JSC “Energia” transformed from a manufacturer of power sources into a producer of wooden spatulas for frying pans, Kuznetsov applicators, cash registers, etc. This continued until Sergey Chemezov, a longtime close friend of Arkhipenko, became head of Rostec. As a result, huge sums of money started flowing to the spatula manufacturer through state defense contracts. How did the factory restructure so quickly? Not really. Arkhipenko simply began buying raw materials in bulk from China, turning them into batteries, and then reselling them as his own products.

Vladimir Arkhipenko himself once tried to pursue a political career. At the turn of the 1990s–2000s, he ran for mayor of Yelets. However, the then-governor Oleg Korolev backed his protégé, Viktor Sokovykh, who won the election.

A conflict arose between Arkhipenko and Korolev: Arkhipenko even financed the newspaper “Facts with Arguments,” which in every issue criticized Sokovykh and Korolev.

When the region was headed by Artamonov, Arkhipenko aligned himself with his administration. The oligarch was tasked with financing regional elections and the local branch of “United Russia.” Arkhipenko had plenty of funds for this. Defense contracts were growing every year. In 2021 (before the war), the factory’s revenue was 2.1 billion rubles. By 2024, it had reached 17 billion rubles.

Arkhipenko decided to fulfill his unachieved political ambitions through his grandson. He appointed Vladimir Serikov to his factory. Serikov brought with him several friends from MGIMO. One of them, Vyacheslav Zhabin, was literally made mayor of Yelets by Arkhipenko in 2025 at the age of 30. As for his grandson, a “bigger” career was prepared: at 28, he became a deputy and then chairman of the regional council.

Now Arkhipenko wants to push him, primarily with the support of his friend Chemezov, into the governor’s seat. As our project has already reported, his main competitor is considered to be Senator Evgenia Uvarkina.

Новости по теме: В Burisma отвергли причастность своих сотрудников к даче взятки в Украине