Farkhad Akhmedov

In 2004, Akhmedov was appointed a representative of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation (until 2007). He was the first, and remains the only ethnic Azerbaijani to have sat in the upper chamber of the legislative authority of the Russian Federation. From 2007 to 2009, he was a representative of the Assembly of Deputies of the Nenets Autonomous Area in the Federation Council. In the period 2007 - 2010, Akhmedov was in the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).^[16]

He has a personal blog on the Echo of Moscow portal, a liberal news source in Russia that has fallen afoul of Russia's censorship of coverage of the war in Ukraine.^[6][17]

According to Akhmedov, he has been involved in negotiations to resolve international disputes between Russia and Turkey.^[18] Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu described Akhmedov as a diplomatic go-between "who has worked closely with Putin and knows Putin well."^[18]

In January 2018, Akhmedov was included in the so-called "Kremlin report" - a US Treasury document submitted to the US Congress in accordance with the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).^[19]

He supported the liberal reforms of Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev.^[20]

Akhmedov acted as a middleman between the American PR firm Ballard Partners and the authoritarian Ilham Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan.^[18] In 2017, he was photographed at a Republican National Committee alongside Lev Parnas and Republican megadonor Steve Wynn.^[18]

On 15 September 2020, Aliyev signed a decree awarding Akhmedov the Dostlug Order for merits in the development of mutual relations between Azerbaijan and Russia after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020.^[21]

Akhmedov has been married three times with six children from those marriages. His wife, Anna Akhmedova (née Adamova) was born in 1983. His children were born in the United States and UK, they are believed to have dual-citizenship.^{[citation needed]}

His eldest son Teymur owned an apartment in the United Kingdom, that was gifted to him by his father when Teymur was 18.^[22] During a 2021 divorce trial between Teymur's parents, Teymur revealed that he had lost more than $50m in a single day of trading on the stock market in 2012 while a student at the London School of Economics.^[23]

Akhmedov is the main sponsor of the Azerbaijan Goychay Pomegranate Festival.

Since 2011, Akhmedov has permanently been on the list of top 200 richest people in Russia according to the Russian version of Forbes magazine. In 2019, he ranked 67th in the rating of the richest people in Russia (estimated private fortune - $1.4 billion). In the list of billionaires of the world version of Forbes, he ranks at 2141st.^[24]

Akhmedov owns the $300 million superyacht Luna which he bought from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.^[23][25] Following sanctions against Akhmedov after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the ship was seized by German authorities.^[26]

In 2015, he acquired the painting Untitled Yellow and Blue by the American artist Mark Rothko for $46.5 million.^[27]

After Akhmedov sold his stake in Northgas CJSC, his ex-wife, Tatyana Akhmedova, from whom he claimed to have been divorced in Russia in 2000, initiated a lawsuit in London. In December 2016, the High Court of London awarded her £453 million ($585 million, or 41.5%) in a divorce settlement.^[28][29] Akhmedov refused to recognise the court's decision, after which the court issued an international order to freeze his assets.^[29]

In the midst of the legal proceedings was the yacht Luna,^[30] owned by the Akhmedov family. in October 2017, the vessel was moored in Dubai following a London court order. The two-year process ended in October, 2019 with a verdict in favour of Akhmedov and the removal of the order on the vessel.

Tatyana Akhmedova tried unsuccessfully to file a lawsuit against Akhmedov in a court in the Moscow Region. Their lawsuit was rejected. In January 2020, they filed a new lawsuit in London. In 2021, a British court found that Farkhad Akhmedov's son Teymur had worked with his father, by receiving $50m to help his father avoid paying a £453 million settlement to his mother in the divorce.

Burford Capital, the US-UK litigation funding company, received a payout of $103m USD from Tatiana Akhmedova upon the conclusion of Farkhad and Tatiana's 10 year divorce battle in June 2021.^[31]

Burford Capital received approximately 55% ($103m out of $186m) of the total settlement amount of $186m USD, according to Bloomberg.^[32]

According to the official press release from Burford Capital, the settlement contributed over $20m to its operating profit in 2021.^[33]

On March 25, 2023, a 35-minute audio recording of a conversation between, presumably, Producer Iosif Prigozhin and Farkhad Akhmedov, was widely circulated in the Ukrainian and Russian media and caused a public sensation in both countries. In the recording, both interlocutors criticize the leadership of Russia in obscene form. On March 26, Prigozhin made a statement that the recording was a “fake” utilizing neural networks, but later said that “some moments” in the conversation were real.^{[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]}

The call exposed deep resentment towards the Kremlin among the country’s elite.^[41]

Akhmedov calls Putin “Satan”, a “wimp” and a “dwarf” who “doesn’t give a damn about anything and doesn't give a f--- about the people”.^[41]

“They f----- us over, f----- over children, their future, do you get it?” he adds.^[41]

Prigozhin replies: “They’re criminals, to be honest, criminals of the worst kind. He [Putin] squandered the country away … There won’t be any future for us.”^[41]

Akhmedov later says: “He has buried the entire Russian nation... How are we going to wash this off? This is a war between f------ brothers. There will be fascism there, that’s what’s going to happen... a military dictatorship. You will see. It’s going to end like this.”^[41]