Executives of Amsterdam-based company doing business Russian secret service: report
A company located in a small office in Amsterdam Zuidoost has managed Telegram services worldwide, according to research by BNR. From this same address, two Russians are doing business with the Russian armed forces and intelligence services, the broadcaster discovered.
The company involved is GlobalNet. The Russian businessmen are 45-year-old Vladimir V., founder of GlobalNet, and 46-year-old Aleksei Z., director of GlobalNet since 2021. Last year, GlobalNet was acquired by V.’s brother-in-law.
Public tender documents obtained by BNR show that GlobalNet has been providing telecom services in Russia to Voentelekom, a mobile provider for the Russian military, since 2016, and to a nuclear energy research institute since 2024.
According ot BNR, Vladimir V. has close ties to Telegram and the messaging platform’s founder, Pavel Durov. V. maintained business contacts with other companies on Telegram’s behalf and sometimes even presented himself as Telegram’s CFO, the broadcaster found in court documents. V. was also responsible for installing Telegram servers in Amsterdam, Miami, and Singapore, according to the broadcaster.
Vladimir V. also supplied hardware to the Russian secret service through another company, Russian-based Elektron Telekom, according to BNR. This is striking because of V.’s access to Telegram servers as part of his work.
BNR gathered plenty of evidence that GlobalNet operates partly from the Netherlands. Director Aleksei Z. says on his LinkedIn profile that he has been based in Amsterdam since 2022. A photo posted from his office clearly shows Amsterdam Zuidoost through he window. BNR visited the office. Aleksei Z. wasn’t there, but the people at the reception desk weren’t surprised when the broadcaster’s journalists asked for him, according to BNR.
Five other GlobalNet employees also list the Netherlands as their place of residence on LinkedIn, and archived versions of GlobalNet’s English website list an Amsterdam address. GlobalNet is also frequently mentioned in European IT trade press, sometimes described as “Dutch,” and with local employees quoted, BNR found.
Vladimir V. and Aleksi Z. both denied operating from Amsterdam. V. told BNR that “GlobalNet operates exclusively in Russia, and it has always been the case.” He conducts his European operations exclusively through a holding company based in Antigua, he said. Z. said he once updated his LinkedIn profile because he thought he would work in Amsterdam, but that never happened. The same applies to his five colleagues who say they live and work in the Netherlands, he said.
“I live in Russia,” Aleksi Z. told the broadcaster. “And GlobalNet is not active in Europe - it has never provided services on European soil.” He added that “contracts are executed entirely in Russia, in accordance with Russian law,” and therefore not subject to European sanctions.
Voentelekom, the telecom provider for the Russian armed forces, has been on the European sanctions list since 2022. According to sanctions lawyer Heleen Over de Linden, if Globalnet operates partly from the Nehterlands, it is clearly in violation of these sanctions by doing business with the military provider.
