One of the unwritten rules of espionage, less well known to the general public, says that counter-espionage services do not usually refuse entry to foreign spies, even if they know the purpose of their coming to the country. The reason is simple. It is easier to track, monitor and counter their actions if you know their identity from the start.
Saturday, February 22nd of 2025. It's a cold day, with temperatures below freezing, at Otopeni Henri Coandă International Airport.
Russian citizen Kirill Shliakhov gets off a commercial airplane. After passport control, he is informed that he is banned from entering the country following a recent decision by the Romanian authorities. As a result, Shliakhov is forced to take a return ticket back to Moscow via Istanbul and leaves the next day, Sunday.
Who is Shliakhov. Former GRU colonel, Lukoil employee
Although only 51 years old (born May 14, 1973), Kirill Shliakhov is already retired from the military. He is a retired colonel in the GRU, the special intelligence service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Once retired, Shliakhov was immediately co-opted into the security structure of Lukoil, Russia's second largest energy company after Gazprom.
The company is founded by billionaire Vagit Alekperov, a Putin regime crony under international sanctions.
The structure in which Shlyakhov works is known as Lukoil's security department and is staffed by numerous spies. They operate under the control of the FSB, Russia's main secret service and heir to the former KGB. The head of the department, Vadim Pyatiletov, is a retired general.
Former head of the FSB's Tyumen region office, he was dismissed in 2017 following the involvement of some of his subordinates in contract killings and fuel theft. One of them was sentenced to prison in 2020 for complicity in forming an organized criminal group.
Pyatiletov escaped without any punishment, however, and was soon taken over by Lukoil.
Markov, the second Russian spy banned from Romania
Shlyakhov was returned from his trip two days ago by the Romanian authorities and had been in Bucharest earlier this month. He arrived then accompanied by Russian citizen Sergei Markov.
Born on December 3, 1973, Markov was also a former GRU officer and is currently Pyatitelov's deputy in Lukoil's security department.
One of his subordinates is former FSB colonel Valentin Likhachev, who is in charge of the company's external security structures. Basically, he is in charge of coordinating agents in the countries where Lukoil operates, including Romania.
After visiting our country earlier this month, Shlyakov and Markov both left on a Tarom flight to Chisinau (Republic of Moldova) and from there to Moscow.
Interior Ministry sources confirmed that both Russians were denied entry to Romania. However, only Shlyakov tried to return to Bucharest the other day, having returned from Otopeni airport.
The official reason given by the Romanian authorities is "involvement in activities inconsistent with the purpose of the visit". The formula is a bureaucratic euphemism for espionage.
How Russian spies operate under commercial cover
Lukoil, which has been present on the Romanian market for 27 years, is the third largest producer and trader of fuels in our country. In 1998 it bought the majority stake in the Petrotel refinery in Ploiești for just over 50 million dollars. In the meantime, the company has developed a network of more than 300 gas stations throughout Romania, reaching a turnover of more than 11 billion lei (€2.2 billion) and a profit of 353 million lei (€70 million) by 2023.
The results are all the more remarkable given that Lukoil has been subject to international sanctions since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, since when it can no longer refine oil imported from Russia. Parado paradoxically, the company was in first place in contracts with the Romanian state, including with institutions of the national security system, according to revelations published by Newsweek Romania.
According to experts, the Kremlin is using Lukoil not only to increase Russia's share of the European energy market or to boost profits that Western authorities claim are used to finance the war, but also to cover up espionage activities.
In addition to the refinery in Ploiești and the network of gas stations, Lukoil Romania's organizational chart includes a security firm, Agence Lukom-A. This SRL operates as a subsidiary of the Moscow-based entity of the same name.
The structure is responsible for the physical protection of the company's assets and is staffed with former fighters from Spetznaz, the GRU special forces, as well as Vympel, the FSB special forces specializing in sabotage and counter-terrorism. Over the years, the Romanian press has revealed the Russian secret services' connections with this security firm.
It is less well known that Lukoil Romania has a separate corporate security department, which ostensibly checks company operations and employees, but in reality also carries out espionage activities.
Former KGB colonel replaced as Lukoil security chief
The corporate security department operates in every country where Lukoil is present on the market, is staffed with former intelligence officers and is controlled directly from Moscow. Ostensibly, their main mission is to guard employees who jeopardize the company's operations. In reality, they are not infrequently used for espionage activities, under the direction of the FSB.
In recent years, the security department of Lukoil Romania has been headed by Gheorghe Rangu, a retired KGB colonel, a graduate of the Yuri Andropov Institute, as the Moscow spy academy is known, and a former bodyguard of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Rangu was sent to Bucharest in 2016 and worked here until last year.
The decision to replace him is part of a general restructuring of Lukoil's security structure under FSB General Pyatiletov, who was previously also head of the Lukom-A Agency.
He put his deputy Markov, who recently traveled to Bucharest to install Shlyakhov as head of Lukoil Romania's security department, in charge of changing the "guard". Both are now banned from entering the country.
Our sources say that the company's management, headed by director Victor Jumbei and Aleksey Kovalenko, head of the Petrotel refinery, were shocked by the appointment made over their heads.
Moldovan link in Russian espionage in Romania
One of the reasons for Rangu's withdrawal could be the conflict with his former deputy, Moldovan citizen Dorin Gorea, who allegedly reported to the Moscow leadership some dubious business in Lukoil Romania. As a result, General Pyatitelov dismissed the entire security structure.
Protected by the head of the Ploiești refinery, Alexey Kovalenko, and Ukrainian Olexey Bibik, head of human resources, Gorea was transferred to a "greening manager" post. What he was doing in this capacity we learn from an exposé published last year by Newsweek Romania.
A photo published then shows him in the company of Kovalenko and Alexandru Dorin Pșcan, the Romanian convicted for espionage, together with Russian diplomats such as Nikolai Belera, protocol secretary III, and Elena Kopnina, minister counselor, at an event organized by the Russian Embassy in Bucharest.
Our investigation showed that the Moldovan Gorea and the Romanian Pișcan are old acquaintances and met many times at parties or football matches organized by the Petrotel management.
In this context, it does not seem to be a coincidence that the new head of Lukoil Romania's security structure, Shlyakhov, accompanied by his Moscow boss Markov, visited both Bucharest and Chisinau earlier this month.
Both are now unable to return to our country, but this does not mean that the Romanian counter-intelligence services expect Russia's espionage activity to stop. Especially since the changing of the guard is aimed at sending former GRU officers like Shlyakhov, trained in the post-Soviet era, when the service specialized in sabotage, coups, assassinations and attempts to influence elections.
