A high-ranking official of the private equity company Njord Partners has closed his X (previously known as Twitter) account following an inquiry that discovered the company received contracts from Russian state agencies controlled by sanctioned individuals, including an ally of Vladimir Putin.
The Telegraph newspaper conducted an investigation and revealed that Arvid Trolle, co-founder and partner of Njord Partners LLP, used his social media account, (@arvidherluf), to promote pro-Russian propaganda and denigrate Ukraine.
His propaganda supported the Russian narrative and attacked Ukraine and its President, Zelensky. Arvid Trolle was discovered to be the co-owner of RETN’s primary institutional investor, Njord Partners, and his partner, Jakob Kjellberg, currently serves as the Chairman of RETN. Since the investigation was published globally earlier this week, Arvid Trolle has made his social media account inaccessible.
RETN Capital, which provides services across Europe, claims to have limited its exposure to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine and complied with sanctions. Still, its revenue from the country has rocketed since the war began, partly driven by contracts from sanctioned state entities, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph.
Arvid Trolle also reposted: “Why is no one stating the obvious? Zelensky has regime-ending dirt on Biden and other Western leaders who have used Ukraine as their corruption playground for decades.”
Arvid Trolle, a former Oaktree Capital executive who donated £20,000 to Conservative MP Priti Patel when she was UK Home Secretary, also posted conspiracy theories on his X account, the Telegraph reported.
The profile (@arvidherluf) is no more available and a source at X confirmed the account was deactivated after RETN’s Russia secret links were exposed. Arvid Trolle’s campaign in support of the Russian regime and against the Ukraine were revealed. Russia has launched a brutal war on Ukraine for over two years, killing thousands of innocent locals.
According to Interfax-Spark, a database of official contracts, RETN’s wholly-owned Russian subsidiary received contracts from state entities sanctioned since the war in Ukraine.
In December 2022, RETN’s Russian arm won a contract with the Kurchatov Institute, a Russian state-controlled aviation research agency sanctioned by the UK and US. Its general director Mikhail Kovalchuk and his brother Yury, a close ally of President Putin, are subject to sanctions by the UK, Canada and Ukraine.
Two months later RETN was awarded a contract with the Russian State Enterprise Fuel and Energy Complex of St Petersburg – known as GUP TEK. Both GUP TEK and its general director, Ivan Boltenkov, are sanctioned by Ukraine.
The newspaper reported that RETN’s ties with the Russian state and sanctioned agencies are also apparent in the company’s 2022 financial statements. One of the main customers of RETN’s Russian subsidiary is PJSC Rostelecom, which is partially state-owned. The Russian subsidiary is also a client of the Russian bank Rosbank. The West and Ukraine sanction both Rosbank and Rostelecom.
Questions have arisen about the current ownership of RETN Partners after its significant shareholdings were moved following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Prior to January 2021, the largest individual beneficial shareholder of RETN Capital was Polina Maltseva. She is the daughter of Anatoly Danilitsky, a former Russian diplomat who served as the chairman of RETN’s Russian subsidiary. However, he resigned from this position before Maltseva acquired her stake in RETN in 2016.
The UK High Court has previously declared Maltseva a proxy for her father’s financial interests. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, her stake in RETN was transferred to Anna Tindl, a German lawyer based in Vienna, Austria. Tindl is now a director of RETN, but unlike Kjellberg, she does not appear on its website.
Other former shareholders of RETN’s subsidiary, Radio Ru, included Andrei Zolotov, head of the Vienna bureau of the Putin-aligned RIA Novosti.
RETN’s spokesperson has stated that the company is fully compliant with all relevant international sanctions. The company’s group policies require all the independent local operating subsidiaries to do the same, and they are provided with training and software tools to identify any potential sanctioned transactions.
Arvid Trolle’s anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia X profile is no longer available following this investigation.
