Mikhail Mamiashvili’s Live Goods
How the FSBR became a giant feeding trough for its leader
Source: www.rucriminal.info
Today, the Russian Wrestling Federation (hereinafter referred to as the FSBR) is a private business of the current President of this public organization, Mikhail Mamiashvili. A dirty and absolutely corrupt business! Over the course of 23 years since his election to this position in 2001, Mamiashvili has built a well-established system of enrichment at the expense of the FSBR’s resources: athletes, coaches and specialists of the federation, as well as those persons who are somehow connected with this public sports organization, these are international and foreign federations, regional executive authorities, ministries, departments, etc.
Mamiashvili, not being a businessman, managed to turn into one of the richest leaders of the sports federation. By and large, it is high time for the competent authorities to check this character and compare the expenses with the income of this businessman from sports. Where did he get his luxurious mansion in Zhukovka and chalet in Swiss Corzier, expensive limousines, security, restaurants and much more.
Below Rucriminal.info will tell you a small part of those machinations and scams that Mamiashvili systematically carries out using his position:
Episode No. 1 — trade in live goods.
Changing the sports citizenship of wrestlers is a long-established and financially regulated mechanism in the International Federation of United Wrestling Styles (hereinafter — UWW). In addition to complying with a number of procedures, the athlete must officially pay UWW a monetary sum of 5,000 Swiss francs. But this is not for Russian wrestlers! In addition to the official amounts, the athlete must personally pay cash to M.G. Mamiashvili. The starting compensation for moving to another country in the price list of the President of the FSBR starts from 2-3 million rubles for an average-level athlete who is not even part of the national team and huge sums for the leaders of the national team. The final price depends on the wrestler’s rating and the market situation. For example, on the athlete’s rating and the urgency of the transition, as happened in the pre-Olympic period before the games in Paris. The closer to the main start of the 4th year, the higher the price tag! In April 2023, European Champion, winner of the World Cup and European Games — Dagestani Dauren Kurugliev began to represent Greece, and in December of the same year, Yakut wrestler, World Cup winner and multiple medalist of the Russian Championships Viktor Rassadin began to represent Tajikistan. In the 2024 Olympic year, two more leaders of the national team urgently changed their citizenship in violation of all international standards. In February, Razambek Dzhamalov, multiple champion of Russia, winner of the World Cup, began to represent Uzbekistan and at the same time, Chermen Valiev, two-time champion of Russia, world champion among youth, began to compete for Albania. It should be noted that in the absence of the world leader, world champion and winner of the 2020 Olympic Games, the leader of the Russian national team — Zaurbek Sidakov, who was not allowed to the games in Paris, these two ex-Russians went to Paris as the main favorites in the -74 kg weight class. All world wrestling experts understood this! Accordingly, the price of the "product" was prohibitive, but we can only guess about this. Considering that in Uzbekistan, sponsorship (unofficial) fees range from a million dollars and up. As a result, Zhamalov became the winner of the 2024 Olympic Games, and Valiev won the bronze medal. We can only guess what the sale price of these two favorites was!
Left to right: Bronze — Valiev Chermen (ALB), Kyle Dake (USA). Gold – Razambek Zhamalov (UZB), Silver – Daichi Takatani (JPN)
It should be noted that at the 2024 Paris Games, 20 Russian wrestlers competed for other countries!
During the years of M.G. Mamiashvili’s rule, several dozen Russian wrestlers were sold to other countries, who not only brought medals of the highest level to their countries, but also enriched the pocket of the current President of the FSBR.
It is practically impossible to bypass the buyout procedure! This is fraught with serious consequences for the athlete’s career. The episode at the 2016 Rio Olympics with the former Russian of Armenian origin Migran Arutyunyan is very indicative. Arutyunyan managed to bypass the buyout procedure, for which Mamiashvili promised to cut off his oxygen at the Olympics in Brazil. Having serious connections in the international federation and personally with the President of UWW, Serb Nenan Lalovic, everything was done to sue Arutyunan in the final fight at the games in Rio against the Serbian wrestler.
Any specialist in the world of wrestling saw how brazenly they took away the gold from Arutyunan.
On the podium, Arutyunan stood with his back to the champion in protest and refused to shake hands with the President of UWW, Lalovic.
Thus, the well-established mechanism of trade in live goods is a very profitable business for the President of the FSBR. Not allowing the leaders of our team to participate in the games in Paris is only a personal tragedy for the athletes, but for the head of the FSBR it turned out to be once again a very successful financial operation. The beginning was laid back in 2000 before the games in Sydney, when they sold the young and promising heavyweight from Ossetia — Artur Taymazov, who literally a couple of months later won silver at the games in Australia, and later became a three-time Olympic champion!
It takes decades and huge financial costs to train athletes of this level, but neither the state, which spent millions of rubles on training, nor the sports schools where these athletes were formed received anything!
Episode No. 2 — extortion, theft and Swiss estates.
Extortion: To get to the Russian championship, a wrestler must pass a sieve of regional selections, for example, enter the national team of Dagestan, Ossetia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, etc. In addition to this, each participant must pay 15 thousand rubles for the right to compete in the tournament. This applies to both a simple master of sports and such world-class stars as Sadulaev, Sidakov, Uguev, Vlasov, Chekvetadze, Evloev, etc. Of course, the wrestlers do not pay themselves, this is done by the regions they represent. And this money is used to pay for the judges. Why do athletes pay for their participation!? Or is this rule prescribed by the Ministry of Sports. It would be good if the relevant ministry clarified this regulation for us!
With all this, the federation has several sponsors, including large state-appointed sponsors Alrosa and the bookmaker Olimpbet.
Sponsorship advertising is present on posters, tickets, in the arena itself, electronic scoreboards, banners around the mat, on the mat cover, in all social networks associated with the FSBR. Where do these funds go, how are they spent?! This is an absolutely opaque financial situation! Why is the contract with sponsors closed and not public for athletes? After all, this is not a contract for secret military developments and is not a state secret!
Theft in advertising: Advertising for Alrosa and Olimpbet is present on the athletes themselves — this is their tights and sports equipment.
It should be noted that the federation has the right to place advertisements on the stadium, carpet, etc., but it is important to understand how these funds are used, i.e. the FSBR needs normal financial reporting. To place such an advertisement on the wrestling suit of an athlete of the level of two-time Olympic winner Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Roman Vlasov and the like costs a lot of money! No one personally signed such contracts with Sadulaev, Vlasov and other star wrestlers! None of the members of the national team received money from sponsors.
Theft of prize money: The issue of theft of prize money for the participation of the national team in official UWW competitions has also been raised many times. The Russian national team in freestyle, Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling regularly participates in the World Cups. According to the system of holding only these competitions, the top three receive prize money from the UWW.
The head of the federation regularly profits from our victories. Victories that were achieved with sweat and blood. Wrestlers are constantly being fooled. They cheat you out of money like in the criminal 90s. They don’t pay you for years, earned through hard work. Anyone who starts raising financial issues is not just undesirable, they risk losing the opportunity to compete for the Russian national team and work in the federation itself forever.
This is exactly what happened to Dzambolat Tedeev, head coach of freestyle wrestling, Vice President of the FSBR Basir Batalov and others.
Let’s return to the episode with prize money. The International Federation of United Wrestling Styles — UWW, regularly transfers prize money to all national teams that win and rank in the World Cups.
This is the rule and law by which the international federation UWW lives! These UWW prize money are transferred to the accounts of national federations and, accordingly, to the accounts of the FSBR, since our wrestling teams regularly become prize winners and runners-up of the World Cups.
When the Russian wrestling team gets on the podium, in addition to medals and certificates, we are given a Certificate with the winning fee.
This is a plate with the amount written on it.
For example, for 1st place, a certificate is given for 50,000 Swiss francs.
The team only takes pictures with potential prize money, but there are still no prizes!
1st place of the Russian team at the 2019 World Cup in freestyle wrestling in Yakutsk.
The International Federation transferred money to the bank account of the Russian Wrestling Federation, the money that wrestlers earn through honest, hard, daily work.
The federation receives this money, but it does not reach the athletes and coaches.
This situation has been going on at all World Cups for decades.
Our team becomes a winner or prize winner at such tournaments every year, but there is still no money. Today, many athletes have already finished their sports careers, but they never waited for the prize money and sponsorship funds they won! Only the President of the Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, knows where these Swiss francs and dollars end up.
Theft of sponsorship funds: Another of the many examples, in 2016, at the reporting and election conference, the issue of prize money was raised by Vice President Basyr Batatlov. Recall that Nafta-Moscow was preparing for the 2008 Beijing Games allocated more than 20 million dollars.
As soon as Basir Batalov asked to provide financial documents on the expenditure of these funds and to report, he was immediately removed from the Presidium and expelled from the federation. By the way, the report itself was never made public. And those fake documents that Mamiashvili provided to the sponsors, to put it mildly, did not satisfy them.
It should be noted that the enterprising Mamiashvili spent part of the sponsorship money on the purchase of an estate in Corsier, Switzerland — Rue du Château 61804 Corsier-sur-Vevey Switzerland.
This luxurious chalet is leased to the International Federation of United Wrestling Styles. That is, UWW rents it from Mamiashvili!
There, in Corsier, Mamiashvili’s daughter Tamara lives and works. Mikhail Gerazievich himself also loves to spend time in a cozy Swiss place.
Theft of equipment: An equipment center has been created within the FSBR. These are tracksuits, wrestling tights, etc. https://shop-wrestrus.ru/
World-class wrestling stars advertise this clothing: two-time Olympic champion Roman Vlasov, Olympic medalist Valeria Koblova, etc.
This store is the personal property of Mamiashvili. Accordingly, there is the same dark financial scheme here: where does the money come from and where does it go, what remains in the federation itself, whether contracts for advertising were concluded with wrestlers, etc.
Theft of broadcasts: Since 2021, a video platform has been created on the basis of the federation and jointly with Olimpbet https://wrestlingtv.ru/olimpbet, all wrestling broadcasts both in Russia and abroad are closed to it. Wrestling has practically disappeared from TV channels in our country. Subscription to live broadcasts is paid, for foreign users in hard currency, especially if it concerns the largest competitions that arouse increased interest in the world: the Championship and Cup of Russia, the Yarygin and Poddubny tournament, etc.
In 2022, on March 29, the ANO "Poddubny Wrestling League" was created — a professional wrestling league with the involvement of the best athletes in the world and a record prize fund. The FSBR, together with Olimpbet, FSBR began to hold a series of professional wrestling tournaments. The wrestlers themselves earn good fees at these tournaments. From a commercial point of view, the idea is excellent, but who is the real founder, what does the federation itself have to do with this, since the league entirely uses the federation’s resources: athletes, coaches, judges, etc., and again, what is the state of the financial statements in this ANO? Question: what funds are passed through this ANO by the sponsor — Olimpbet? There is no certainty that in this way the largest player in the bookmaker market does not turn over and ultimately launder funds that should go to the development of sports.
Theft on rights: A separate issue is holding the largest sports competitions and, above all, national championships. The world community is well aware that There is a serious struggle for the right to host the Olympic Games, which is often associated with serious financial costs of both the procedure itself and the corruption component. Whoever pays more will get the right to host the games. A similar situation is in Russian wrestling. And due to the popularity of this medal-winning sport in our country in such regions as the republics of the North Caucasus, Tatarstan, Yakutia, Bashkiria, Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, etc., the corruption component is obvious here. It is also skillfully used by Mikhail Mamiashvili, playing on the ambitions of regional leaders. The region that paid directly to the president of the FSBR has great opportunities to influence the formation of the main composition of the national team. It is no secret that many heads of regions make their political deals on this. Such near-sports combinations are visible to professionals with the naked eye. This leads to dishonest and non-objective refereeing. Regular fights at tournaments. Under these bribes, Mamiashvili takes on obligations that negatively affect the results of competitions. Let’s recall the outrageous refereeing at the 2016 Russian Pre-Olympic Championship in Yakutsk. The region received this right by seriously funding the President of the FSBR, Mamiashvili took money from the Yakut leadership for a 100% guarantee of their athlete’s participation in the Olympic Games. World Champion Viktor Lebedev was dragged by the ears during all meetings up until the fight with Ismail Musukaev. Their semi-final match ended in a huge scandal, after which the entire Dagestan team withdrew from the tournament.
Because of this, the current European Champion Gadzhimurad Rashidov, the current world champion at that time Abdusalam Gadisov and many others who were the leaders of the team flew past the Olympics. The situation with A. Gadisov suited Mamiashvili very much, since he took money from the head of Chechnya under the guarantee of Anzor Boltukaev’s participation in the games. Boltukaev won the Russian championship in Gadisov’s absence, but lost in the 1/8 finals at the Olympics!
As for Musukaev, Mamiashvili will sell him in 2019 to Hungary and all according to the same scheme — money in his pocket.
To be continued
Arseniy Dronov
Source: www.rucriminal.info
