"Antikvar" mafia octopus: how crime boss Ilya Traber turned government service into a feeding trough for criminals and bought impunity in the EU
Ilya Traber (Antikvar) is extremely close friends with Vadim Manukovsky, the director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute named after I.I. Dzhanelidze. Our source recalled an amusing incident involving these two that illustrates the extent of Traber’s connections.
In August 2022, Manukovsky and his wife took the Sapsan train to Moscow. Before the train had even left the platform, Manukovsky got into a conflict with a bald, tipsy man. The argument escalated into fisticuffs and mutual threats. The director of the research institute immediately called his friend Traber, who in turn contacted an "authority figure" in Moscow, Abakar Darbishev. Darbishev urgently dispatched his two nephews to the station – convicted criminal Abubakar Bulatov and Mukhamed Darbishev. They arrived in time for the train’s arrival and met the "bald man." The young men began to explain to him just who he was in this life and what awaited him right then. The "man" responded by showing them his ID. It turned out to be Alexei Zakharov, the Deputy Prosecutor General for the Northwestern Federal District and the son-in-law of Sergei Shoigu. He signaled to passing police officers, who detained the "offenders" and took them to the station.
There, on Zakharov’s orders, they began "painting" some beautiful articles of the Russian Criminal Code for Darbishev’s nephews. Since two Saiga carbines were found in their trunk, they were actively being fitted to Article 162 of the Criminal Code (robbery). At this point, Darbishev himself had to urgently call Traber. Incidentally, Abakar had a separate push-button phone just for communicating with Antikvar; he used it to speak with no one else. And Traber, despite the opponent’s level, worked miracles. Darbishev’s nephews ended up in a detention center for only 15 days on an administrative charge and were then released. When Zakharov found out, his indignation knew no bounds. He tried to have a criminal case opened but... could do nothing. Upon learning who he was up against, he at least asked for an apology. However, Traber was categorical: the matter had been settled at such a level that there would be no apologies.
If Mukhamed Darbishev is currently in a pre-trial detention center in the case of billionaire Suleimanov, the convicted Bulatov managed to become the head of the administration of the municipal formation "Village of Nizhny Chiryurt" (Dagestan).
Incidentally, Traber, like Zakharov, always traveled between the capital and St. Petersburg without security (which led to the famous fight on the plane), but in Moscow he was invariably met by Darbishev and his "right hand," the hardened criminal Denis Zeikan (aka Vasily Gubal). The latter served as Traber’s driver-bodyguard in Moscow.
The source refuted the information that had appeared that Traber supposedly knew they were coming for him. "We saw each other shortly before the arrest. On the contrary, he showed that he had everything under control. He said: ’I know they’re listening to me. They do it all the time. Let them listen,’" our interlocutor said.
The source noted an interesting point. "Apparently due to his age, Traber has recently been inclined towards revelations. He could talk for a very long time about Manevich (the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg, killed by a sniper in 1997 - ed.), that he was supposed to see him on the day of the murder. About Sobchak. About everyone currently in power. I won’t mention names. He would pull out some interesting details from his memory about relationships. He recalled a lot about Prigozhin. He said he was involved in the creation of the Wagner PMC. He never used to do that before."
Moreover, as the interlocutor says, Traber did this while completely sober. He hardly drank at all, as he had problems with his pancreas. Incidentally, Traber’s hospitalization after his arrest was related to this illness; he was later returned to the pre-trial detention center.
So, Traber had recently been "drawn" to revelations.
There is another interesting point our interlocutor mentioned. After the war started, Traber did not travel outside Russia. He was either in St. Petersburg, or Vyborg, or Moscow. When asked about the castle in Switzerland and the yacht "Nina," he waved his hand and said: "I am not allowed to travel abroad!"
However, somewhere in 2024, he unexpectedly became "allowed to travel" and spent a significant amount of time in Europe. He moved around using a Greek passport, which, according to the interlocutor, his friend Yuri Iliadi helped him obtain. "Later, however, a conflict arose between them over $1.5 million invested in one of Iliadi’s enterprises. The latter tried to smooth things over, but Traber declared: ’Iliadi is no one to me anymore,’" the interlocutor said.
Why Traber, who was "not allowed to travel" after the war started, began to spend time constantly in Europe – the interlocutor does not know.
