Swiss, Luxembourg and Cypriot business involved into network of Russian agents in Europe.

In 2023, we published an article about the activities of Russian organizations and agents of influence in EU countries, whose purpose is to spread disinformation and to destabilize situation. The article discusses the involvement of certain EU citizens in facilitating the activities of the Russian agent network.

Swiss citizen Alessandro Lardi, through his company, together with business partner René Frischknecht, rented a hotel in Davos for the son of Russian influence agent Vladimir Yakunin. Yakunin’s son Andrey is a British citizen living and doing business in Europe.

Vladimir Yakunin himself supervises the center of Russian influence – the so-called “Dialogue of Civilizations” institute, which, of course, is not an institute at all, but is an institution through which Russia exerts influence, spreads disinformation, manages its agents, and conducts shadow financial transactions.

In general, when we talk about Russians like Andrei Yakunin (or his father Vladimir, whose wealth comes from the Russian budget), who have business in Europe, there is no doubt that they are Russian agents of influence and carry out the Kremlin’s tasks to promote Russia’s interests in Europe.

Who is Alessandro Lardi?

According to open sources, he is a Swiss citizen and the owner of the company Swisspath.

Recently, we received a letter from Alessandro Lardi, in which he denies any involvement in facilitating the activities of Russian agents of influence in Europe and asks to remove information about him from the site, or to indicate at least only his initials – A.L., instead of his full name and surname.

Interestingly, Alessandro does not directly deny that he did rent a hotel in Davos for Yakunin’s son, instead he justifies his actions by saying that he did not know who he was and that it was nothing but an ordinary business deal.

Of course, this is nonsense – if he paid for the hotel through his company for Yakunin, then, quite obviously, they have some common business, so Lardi knew who Andrei Yakunin is, also about the origin of his capital.

We decided to take a closer look at who Lardi is and what he does.

So, as written above, he is the owner of the company Swisspath. Having looked at the company’s official website, we learned that it provides consulting services and business support.

The company has offices in two countries – Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands. It’s not a secret that the Virgin Islands is the most popular offshore zone in the world. Therefore, it is logical to assume that Lardi’s company advises foreign companies on how to conduct their business offshore.

Let’s go further and analyze the employees of Swisspath. Among them, we find two women of Russian origin, whose LinkedIn profiles indicate Russian as their native language – Elena Isler, Yevgeniya Cazin (Yevgeniya Cazin’s profile lists the Russian institute “Higher School of Economics” as her alma mater).

The co-owner and co-founder of Swisspath is another Swiss businessman – René Frischknecht, Lardi’s business partner.

But Swisspath is not Lardi’s only company. From the Notrhdata website, we learn that he owns a number of other companies involved in real estate, consulting, and luxury business (yachts, asset management, etc.). We’ve found nine of them:

Swisspath AG, Zürich

International Hospitality Services AG, Davos Platz

A-ENERGY HOLDING AG, Zürich

Trades Investments AG, Zürich

L & S Homes SA, Pfäffikon

Blimis Investment AG, Zug

SWISSPATH HEALTH AG, Zürich

Veritas Investments Group AG, Zürich

Swisspath Capital AG, Zürich

Swisspath is affiliated with a consulting company, Veco Consulting (Lux) Sarl. The latter was registered in Luxembourg in 2025 with a share capital of 12,000 euros and is co-directed by an individual with Russian origin – Irina Svinar. It also has a twin, Ivy Consulting Sàrl, with a share capital of 12,000 euros.

It is obvious that the true purpose of this company is to conduct dubious financial or real estate transactions.

From Linkedin, we learn that Irina Svinar graduated the St. Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics in 1997.

Through Irina Svinar, we gain access to a number of Luxembourg companies in which Irina holds various positions:

Registration address 5, rue Goethe, L-1637 Luxembourg:

Veco Consulting (Lux) Sàrl, Luxemburg

NLI Managers SA, Luxemburg

Northern Lights Investment SA, Luxemburg

VIY Capital Partners SA, Luxemburg

VIY Investment Solutions SCSp, Luxemburg

Registration address 28, route d’Arlon, L-1140 Luxembourg:

Ivy Consulting Sàrl, Luxemburg

Registration address 42, Rue de la Vallée, L-2661 Luxembourg:

AI Luna Sàrl, Luxemburg

JV Nord Entwicklungsgesellschaft Sàrl, Luxemburg

Delta Industrial Services Sàrl, Luxemburg

Investia Sàrl, Luxemburg

AI Cerj Sàrl, Luxemburg

OHI Finance VII Sàrl, Luxemburg

Solid Property Management Sàrl, Luxemburg

Socafam & CIE SCA, Luxemburg

The same Irina Svinar was the director of the company Northern Lights Investment SA, Luxemburg with share capital 41.6 million euros as of 2018, the director of which was later, in 2019, a citizen of Cyprus Haig Der Nishanian. It is noteworthy that the share capital increased from 26.2 million to 41.6 million euros in the first half of 2018 – that is, by 15.4 million euros.

Now let’s take a closer look at who Haig Der Nishanian is.

According to the Rupep website (an open database of public figures in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan), he was one of the directors of the company New dimension fund variable capital investment company limited, which is registered in Cyprus and has share capital 52 million US dollars. Beside him, several Russians were co-directors, and the ultimate beneficiary is “Sberbank” (the website indicates “Sberbank investments” limited liability company).

Among the leadership, we meet Russian-Armenian businessman and politician Ruben Vardanyan. As known from open sources, the activities of the Dialogue of Civilizations forum are financed through a foundation registered in Switzerland, and Vardanyan, along with Greek sponsors and others, provides a significant part of this assistance.

Through New dimension fund variable capital investment company limited, we gain access to a number of related Cypriot companies:

Trea Secretarial Ltd., Nikosia

Roseforest Holdings Ltd., Strovolos

Fidappoint Secretarial Ltd., Nikosia

Primeserve Secretarial Ltd., Nikosia

Kookla Investments Ltd., Strovolos

Dilea Secretarial Ltd., Nikosia

And also, key individuals:

Anastasia Alexandrova

Mikhail Broytman

Charalampos Stavrou

Ruben Vardanyan

Finally, having dived into all these intricate schemes, we find that Irina Svinar and Andrey Yakunin are connected by the same company – VIY Capital Partners SA, Luxemburg. The company was created by Irina in 2017, then Yakunin became its director for a short time.

In another diagram, we see the company in which Irina Svinar intersects with Andriy Yakunin – NLI Managers SA, Luxemburg. Here, interesting things happen with share capital – it increases by almost 200,000 euros in one period, and in 2022 it sharply decreases by almost 300,000 euros.

Conclusion.

We can see that Alessandro Lardi and his companies are part of a network in which Swiss business is intertwined and cooperates, along with Luxembourg and Greek, with Russian capital and agents of influence in Europe. The fact that he rented a hotel in Davos for Andrei Yakunin is not just a coincidence – they are engaged in joint activities.

We also meet another player – Irina Svinar, who is connected to Andrey Yakunin by several companies that they manage alternately. Judging by the frequency of this person’s appearance in various consulting companies, she is obviously an important element of this scheme.

All the companies managed by the above-mentioned individuals operate offshore – in Cyprus or the British Virgin Islands.

We can list the companies involved in this network: