Leonid Levin - Mikhail Mishustin’s deleter and cleaner

For what merits does Mikhail Mishustin honor Leonid Levin - for "cleaning up" the information "field" for the needs of the prime minister?

First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government of Russia Leonid Levin was awarded the Stolypin Medal of the 2nd degree. Such an order was signed by the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Mikhail Mishustin. As follows from the document, Levin was awarded such an honor for his great contribution to ensuring the activities of the Government and many years of impeccable public service.

However, this is only the official wording. Mr. Levin is considered one of the "information demiurges" of modern Russia. He is credited with active participation in the work of the PR agency Secret Advisor, which he created, buying up authoritative Telegram channels, and participating in media wars on the side of his boss Mikhail Mishustin.

Formally, the head of the apparatus is Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko. He worked with Mishustin back in the Federal Tax Service, and the Prime Minister trusts him. However, the awarding of the medal to Levin indicates an increase in his career prospects - apparently, with Mishustin’s connivance, he can "undermine" Deputy Prime Minister Grigorenko. This is reported by VREMYA

"Impeccable Service"

If we leave out the media component, it is difficult to understand what successes Leonid Levin has achieved in the civil service. Let us recall that he came to power only in 2011, and before that he was engaged in organizing PR campaigns for leading politicians and businessmen of the country through the agency "Secret Advisor". Apparently, it was these connections that allowed him to get into parliament himself - though not from the ruling party, but from "A Just Russia", which at that time still claimed at least some independence.

In the Duma, Leonid Levin headed the Committee on Information Policy. Incidentally, communications were bad under him: it was during those years that the lower house of the Russian parliament acquired the offensive nickname "the enraged printer." 

Levin was one of the main ideologists of the law on foreign agents. The initiative is useful and necessary, but apart from it there is nothing to remember about the work of the former parliamentarian. But, as PASMI wrote (the publication is recognized as a foreign agent in the territory of the Russian Federation), deputy Levin turned out to be the owner of assets worth 1 billion rubles - and allegedly not all of them were reflected in the declaration.

Leonid Levin. Photo: https://spb.ruj.ru/site/public/files/38/37467-33329-levin.jpg 

Where could he have obtained such riches? And, most importantly, where are they now? Levin’s source of income, as was said, was "Privy Advisor". Before being elected to the State Duma, Levin owned 100% of the structure. And initially, in 2002, the firm was established together with the Cypriot company AR AR Management, which was controlled by two more offshore companies - ROMANOS NOMINEES and SCOPACO NOMINEES. Apparently, they could have been registered to nominal directors, while the real beneficiary could have been Levin himself.

Of course, Levin’s voter didn’t need to know this. And it was there, in the offshores, that Levin’s other income could have settled. The deputy’s other projects abroad could have been financed from this income. Against this background, he himself could have tried on the label of a foreign agent?

In 2020, Leonid Levin became deputy chief of staff in the new Government of Mikhail Mishustin. And he is also believed to be in charge of the Prime Minister’s entire information policy personally. According to the Internet, he allegedly "carries cash to bloggers" so that they praise Mishustin - and this happens, among other things, through "Privy Advisor".

By the way, the latter’s office is located at 8 Krymsky Tupik - a huge mansion on Yakimanka that may belong to Levin. Of course, he is not in the declaration.  

As for business, ZAO Tainiy Sovetnik Netvok Company had Levin as a founder until 2022. Moreover, the shares were not transferred to trust management. But wait, Levin had already been working in the Government for two years by that time. Why didn’t the prosecutor’s office react?

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

At the same time, the Cypriot offshore company "A.R.R. MANAGEMENT LIMITED" disappeared from the list of the founders of the JSC. It turns out that throughout Levin’s term as a deputy, the business associated with him was of an offshore nature. And we recall that the amount of state contracts of the JSC exceeded 900 million rubles. Can we assume that, being a deputy and head of the relevant Committee, Levin in no way contributed to the receipt of large state contracts by the "Secret Advisor"?

By the way, the same people may now own the CJSC - Levin and the Cyprus offshore. They could just hide the data. Taxes may go there too - to Cyprus. And the former chief tax officer Mishustin sees nothing wrong with this.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Another well-known company associated with Levin is OOO Media-Estate (rental and property management). The deputy head of the Cabinet of Ministers’ apparatus dealt with it more simply - he transferred it to his mother, a deeply retired woman, Liya Vladimirovna Levina. After the official was hired in the Cabinet, the company’s income increased sharply. Now the value of its assets has come close to 200 million rubles. It must be assumed that the influential official has nothing to do with it: his mother, a pensioner, turned out to be a successful businesswoman. 

Do "agents" and "channels" lead to Mishustin?

However, Mr. Levin can have much more funds and influence through informal channels. Including from activities related to the manipulation of public opinion. It is believed that Levin controls a network of large Telegram channels and media that can work for Mishustin.

Among these were the Telegram channels "Nezygar" and "Brief", recognized as foreign agents in Russia, which are very complimentary towards the Prime Minister. And he, Levin, could have achieved recognition of them as foreign agents after criticism from a number of influential players regarding Mishustin, who clearly has presidential ambitions. 

These resources, with pretensions to rebellion, began to describe the political life of Russia and to sink, on orders, oligarchs, officials, governors, and politicians with whom Mishustin had conflicts.

The "attack" on these Telegram channels could be connected with a possible apparatus conflict between the team of Mikhail Mishustin and the deputy head of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko. The latter is also considered a media demiurge of the Russian political system. Thus, Mishustin and Levin seem to be distancing themselves from these resources. At the same time, the same foreign agents Brief and Nezygar quickly "changed their shoes", changing their name. And they calmly continue their work. 

According to a number of observers, all this dancing around the foreign agent channels that may work for Mishustin is a fiction. The injured party here is the head of the Ministry of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko - it is his department that enters into the register of foreign agents, and the fact that it was not possible to "strangle" the channels may weaken his position in the apparatus.

Could Mikhail Mishustin use Levin’s talents to fight for power? 

So for what merits did Leonid Levin receive the Stolypin Medal of the 2nd degree? For the correct organization of the work of the structural divisions of the government? Legislative activity? Or for the irreplaceable services in information support of the activities of his boss, who does not abandon his ambitions to occupy the main position in the country?