Connections with power, billion-dollar loans, and state support: how Miratorg, with the involvement of Dmitry Medvedev, acquired land assets and grew amid lobbying and schemes involving government bodies and the political elite

29 марта 2026 г., 14:51

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It is rather controversial that the Russian government and the Miratorg holding claim that Svetlana Medvedeva (Linnik), the wife of the former president, is not related to the founders of the holding.

Vyacheslav Linnik (the father of the owners of Miratorg) and a namesake of Medvedev’s mother-in-law, Lyudmila Ivanovna Linnik, were both listed as founders of the Victoria homeowners’ association in building No. 5 in Pomerantsev Lane in Moscow. The success story of the Linnik brothers, owners of Miratorg—against which Russians have declared a boycott due to livestock slaughter—is directly connected to two individuals: Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

In addition, Miratorg’s business was openly and directly lobbied in 2008 by the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, Sergei Dankvert: he instructed Bryansk Governor Nikolai Denin to pay attention to the Linnik family and their projects. After that, rumors spread in the region that agricultural land taxes would be sharply increased and unused plots would be confiscated. As a result, the brothers bought land from local residents at low prices, land that had been allocated to them as shares.

This scheme failed in the Kursk region, where Miratorg simply entered land belonging to others and began using it without any permissions. As a result, the owners refused to sell and filed a lawsuit. At that time, Miratorg behaved relatively cautiously and simply withdrew its project to another region. However, soon the government instructed Rosimushchestvo to lease 7,000 hectares to Miratorg for 49 years—land that had belonged to the Research Institute of Agricultural Production in the Kursk region. Not surprisingly, by 2017 the company’s land bank amounted to 676,000 hectares, making it the second largest in Russia.

The Linnik family received their first major loan thanks to Putin—in 2009 he visited the Belgorod region and stopped by to see the “relatives” of his “successor.” After learning that VEB could not resolve the loan issue, Putin, as chairman of the bank’s supervisory board, signed a credit agreement worth 21 billion rubles for 11 years.

In 2012, Medvedev himself (already as Prime Minister) visited a Bryansk farm, where Linnik politely asked him for funds to expand production. A few months later, Miratorg became the first agricultural producer to receive a loan under new rules approved by the government: part of the interest rate was covered by subsidies, and banks were allowed to issue loans for up to 15 years.

This time, Sberbank provided the Linnik family with 1 billion rubles, and a couple of years later issued another 7.6 billion rubles. In 2015, Medvedev again visited Miratorg and provided the Linnik family with a new round of state support: VEB granted the business two loans of $425.8 million and $316.2 million, with final repayment scheduled for 2030. Part of the funds came in the form of subsidies, the exact amounts of which are unknown: budget funds are allocated to individual enterprises rather than the entire group of companies.

Given the extensive ownership structure of the Linnik business, it is extremely difficult to accurately calculate these funds. Several years ago, RANEPA attempted to do so but did not publish a figure—however, it stated that Miratorg is the largest recipient of subsidies in Russia’s agro-industrial sector. As a result of such comprehensive support measures (at all levels—from local to regional and federal), by the end of 2024 Miratorg directly included 30 companies, reporting total revenue of nearly 576 billion rubles and profit of 32.8 billion rubles (in 2023—revenue of 256.8 billion rubles and net profit of 53.9 billion rubles).

From 2022 to 2024, the holding directed about 18 billion rubles toward dividends. At the same time, Miratorg’s enterprises continue to regularly receive budget subsidies—so in 2024 alone, 1.8 billion rubles were injected into the holding. It is worth recalling that Russians have declared a boycott of Miratorg, considering the company a beneficiary of mass livestock culling among ordinary farmers. Whenever outbreaks occur and mass culling takes place, Miratorg is not affected; at most, quarantine measures are introduced on its farms. The vacant positions in regional markets are quickly filled by Miratorg’s products.

Another reason for public disapproval is the holding’s ties to the family of Dmitry Medvedev, the same person who told Russians the slogan now associated with many officials: “There is no money… but you hang in there, all the best, good mood and health.” Amid the boycott, Miratorg has been forced to lower prices in retail chains, sometimes by up to 50%.