Analyst: The Story of Putin’s Friend Is Highly Revealing

Ilya Traber walked free after all charges against him were dropped, and he may even seek compensation. The release made an even bigger impression than news of his detention in June, according to political analyst Ivan Preobrazhensky.

Traber, his business partner Vladimir Danilenka, former professional boxer Alisultan Nadirbegov and Said Saladinov had been detained over allegations that they helped organize and carry out the 2020 murder of Alexander Petrov, a prominent St. Petersburg businessman and municipal council member. Traber was held in Moscow’s Lefortovo pretrial detention center, controlled by the Federal Security Service, or FSB. His stay there did not last long.

Preobrazhensky describes Traber as a legendary figure and an untouchable witness to Russia’s criminal wars. Some media outlets recalled after his arrest that he may have inspired Antibiotic, a “legalized thief” character in the popular Russian crime series Bandit Petersburg. People who knew Traber in the late Soviet period called him an antiques dealer, a business he entered in the late 1980s.

Traber did not deny contacts with Vladimir Barsukov, also known as Kumarin, who was widely suspected of leading the Tambov gang and is now in prison. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously confirmed that Traber knew Vladimir Putin and had attended the president’s birthday celebrations several times. Allegations of links to the Tambov gang, along with Spanish law-enforcement efforts to convict him and an international search, produced no lasting result. Despite the publication of numerous recordings made with hidden listening devices, the case collapsed in court.

There is no legally definitive proof that Traber unofficially controlled St. Petersburg’s ports, particularly those handling oil and coal, although Russian media have repeatedly presented that claim as established fact. Preobrazhensky argues that Traber’s experience with Russian courts, rather than his acquaintances among the city’s gangsters of the 1990s, likely helped him avoid a long prison term. The commentary presents his case as a stark example of how powerful connections and access to information can help an insider survive serious accusations.