31 December 2025, 00:14
February 2022. The Kremlin frantically searches for workarounds to trade oil. Western sanctions tighten, traditional channels collapse one after another. Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft and one of the most powerful men in Putin's inner circle, understands: new schemes are needed, new people, new countries. And that's when the Turks enter the game.
The Erdogan family is not just a political dynasty, it's a business empire where the presidential palace serves simultaneously as an office and a roof for the most diverse operations. The president's son Bilal and son-in-law Berat Albayrak, former Minister of Energy and Finance, have always known how to turn geopolitical crises into personal enrichment. This time, they were approached by one Fuad Huseynli — an Azerbaijani with a British passport, a man with a trail of dark stories and a talent for appearing in the right place at the right time.
Huseynli once worked at British Petroleum, then at VTB. In Moscow, he had a company called "Mostrade," formally owned by his driver Zal Suleimanov. This company was pure fiction for tax purposes: never showed profit, worked at "zero" or at a loss. But it was supposed to become the center of a new sanctions-evasion scheme, a channel through which Russian oil would flow to India and China, bypassing Western restrictions.
The Accountant Who Wasn't an Accountant
To reach the Erdogan family, Huseynli used his old acquaintances — father and son Zeren. Mustafa Yigit Zeren, a 34-year-old businessman, and his father Rydvan owned Zeren Group — a sprawling structure with branches in London, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Budapest, and Geneva. Huseynli later tried to portray Mustafa as an ordinary accountant who simply kept his books. A lie, of course. The Zerens were major players, and they had the necessary connections.
And those connections led to Halil Ibrahim Bakaci — a classmate of Erdogan's son, a man called "the president's wallet" in Turkey, managing his shadow assets. Bakaci secured all necessary licenses and permits. But to access the Turkish banking system, a formal operation had to be performed: on May 16, 2022, the Turkish Mostrade was transferred to Mustafa Zeren, a Turkish citizen.
The scheme worked beautifully. Roman Avdeev's Moscow Credit Bank opened a credit line of 20 billion rubles for Mostrade — partly directly, partly through its Hong Kong shell Akida Trading Limited. The Zerens created a shipping company through their firm, Eurasia Seali̇ne — it was this company that transported billions of dollars worth of oil. Russian oil was purchased by Mostrade, went to India and China, and money from sales through Turkish banks VakıfBank and Emlak Katılım Bank went to Hong Kong's Akida, which transferred them to Russia.
The Turkish banking system turned a blind eye to these exercises. Until December 2023, when the US threatened sanctions for helping Russia bypass restrictions. The Turks instantly cut off the money flow. And then everything fell apart.
When Greed Proves Stronger than Fear
The money got stuck. "Accountant" Zeren, in whose name the Turkish part of the operation was formally registered, faced a choice: look for new ways to transit the money or... simply appropriate it. Huge sums passed through accounts in UAE banks, and all of them were exclusively controlled by him. The temptation proved too strong.
At the same time, the scheme participants had almost bought their own bank — Turkland Bank, owned by Lebanese Hariri family, friends of the Erdogans. But the deal suddenly fell through. The reason? Information went public that the true owner of Mostrade and architect of the entire scheme, Fuad Huseynli, was sitting in a Moscow detention center accused of bank fraud.
The story of his arrest is a separate detective tale. The criminal case was initiated based on materials from Azerbaijan about the embezzlement of 215 million rubles from the International Bank of Azerbaijan. An amazing coincidence: the case was opened exactly two weeks after the shares of Turkish Mostrade were formally transferred from driver Suleimanov to Turk Zeren. It seems the Russian side decided to play it safe — keep Huseynli at hand in case something went wrong.
From August 2022, Huseynli was under house arrest with permission for walks and doctor visits. He didn't comply with conditions, but investigators' patience only snapped in early 2023 — he was sent to a detention center. While he sat there, his Turkish "accountant" Zeren traveled around the UAE, establishing channels for receiving payment for oil shipments from India. Only the money somehow never reached Avdeev's bank.
In April 2024, a Russian court gave Huseynli's accomplice in the Azerbaijani bank theft 4.5 years, and Huseynli himself only eighteen months. Counting time in detention, he was released right in the courtroom. And, apparently, sent to search for the missing six hundred million dollars.
Revenge, Moscow Style
And it turned out wonderfully: the Zerens, counting on their "roof" in the Erdogan family and on the Russian side not going public with illegal operations, simply stole the money. In several tranches they transferred it to controlled accounts and put it to work. With these funds, they bought the large Alpet gas station chain — 320 stations across Turkey — from the Altynbash family. They put Akshin Mamedov, a former employee of Azerbaijan's SOCAR, at the head of the company. Additionally, they negotiated the purchase of Türkiye Petrolleri — about 800 more stations.
Roman Avdeev, a banker and experienced player in the Russian business elite, had no intention of parting with hundreds of millions. In May 2024, his Hong Kong Akida Trading Limited filed a lawsuit in Moscow Arbitration Court demanding seizure of Mostrade's assets. They won the case, although Zeren claimed his signature on contracts was forged and he wasn't even in Russia in September 2023.
An interesting detail: precisely in September 2023, Fuad Huseynli violated house arrest several times and disappeared for several hours to unknown locations. Some documents bore the signature of Huseynli's driver Suleimanov, others were signed by certain Yulia Rybalko and Tahir Narliev. Several credit lines were opened altogether in favor of Dubai's BLACK PEARL ENERGY TRADING — a company that later fell under US sanctions for trading Russian oil.
Akida also filed a lawsuit in Turkey, demanding $593.7 million in compensation from the Zerens. In response, Zeren Group publicly disavowed everything, claiming the machinations were Fuad Huseynli's work. Mustafa Zeren transferred the Turkish Mostrade to one Savas Ozsoy four days after the lawsuit was registered in Moscow Arbitrage. The Zerens themselves continued business as if nothing had happened.
A Visit from Polite People
What followed became known from Turkish journalists' publications, and this is pure action cinema. A group of armed men appeared at the Zeren Group office in Istanbul. They occupied the premises and explained to Rydvan Zeren, Mustafa's father, that the debt to Avdeev needed to be repaid. Under pressure, the old man signed a handwritten promissory note for $475 million in monthly payments plus 25% of Zeren Group shares.
The note was witnessed by Nikolai Katorzhnov, general director of Moscow Credit Bank, and Yusuf Yatkin, general director of Zeren Group. This visit is linked to a confidential conversation between Roman Avdeev and someone from the heads of Russian special services. What the banker paid for the service remains unknown.
Rydvan Zeren filed a complaint with Turkish law enforcement, but no action has been heard of yet. Zeren himself simply disappeared. Considering he has a major office in Switzerland, he's most likely hiding in Geneva, away from men with guns.
Heroes of Our Time
As for Fuad Huseynli, this is a man with a rich biography of dark deeds. He was already a defendant in a criminal case in Azerbaijan after MBA bank purchased an oil field in Kazakhstan through a Luxembourg shell. The case involved embezzlement, money laundering, and misappropriation. Then ex-head of MBA Jagankhir Hajiyev received a lengthy sentence, but Azerbaijani law enforcement didn't touch Huseynli. After that, he liquidated his network of Cypriot offshore companies — just in case.
This year, Huseynli together with another native of Azerbaijan, Mushvig Mehdieyv, registered a company in Poland called Nusz, which deals in restaurant business, logistics, and real estate. Apparently, the oil business seemed too risky to him.
The Moral of the Story
This story is a perfect illustration of how sanctions against authoritarian regimes work and how these regimes try to bypass them. The Kremlin builds complex gray schemes involving corrupt elites of allied countries. The Turkish president's family receives a share of profits for political cover. Azerbaijani businessmen with British passports act as organizers. Moscow bankers finance operations.
But when hundreds of millions of dollars enter the game, greed proves stronger than any agreements. Turkish partners, counting on the Erdogan family's protection, simply steal the money. The Russian side responds with methods that make Western sanctions look like child's play — armed men in the office, forced signing of promissory notes, people disappearing.
The scheme collapses not because of sanctions' effectiveness, but because its participants couldn't divide the loot. After all, what can you expect from a system built on theft, corruption, and violence? Sooner or later, it devours itself. The only question is how much money and how many lives will be spent along the way.