UPDATED
Ilya Traber, a top Tambovskaya Mafia gangster for many years, has been arrested. Could this indicate fighting within Putin’s inner circle? Core activities of these gangsters included heroin, cocaine, sex-slave, and weapon trafficking. Media reports they had a long tradition of assassinations, on average killing someone every day. Of course those are just the targeted killings. Many more people died from Tambovskaya’s ‘businesses.’
Originally their main banks were Parex and ABLV in Latvia, plus Bank of St Petersburg in Russia. The EBRD ‘development bank’ made fake ‘straw’ investments in Parex and St Petersburg which helped those bankers get false legitimacy. This helps with money laundering, for example getting USD correspondent accounts. Now in 2026, the former loan assets of Parex and ABLV, possibly fake, are held by Citadele Bank of Latvia. The EBRD is shareholder in Citadele and according to Eurostat that investment is also fake. The EBRD didn’t pay for the stake and instead Latvia is secretly paying the EBRD to pretend to be investor. This is a designated ‘state secret’ in Latvia even though it’s on the Eurostat website.
Several of the articles below state that Spain (Operation Troika, targeting Tambovskaya, 2008 to 2015) acquitted Traber in 2018, perhaps meaning to imply that’s why he was allowed to reside in Switzerland and Latvia which otherwise should have arrested him and extradited him to Spain. However Traber was not acquitted according to the Spanish prosecutor who stated in 2021 documentary ‘Jumts’ that there was a disinformation effort to say certain people were acquitted even though they were not.
It’s a mystery why the FSB suddenly decided to arrest Traber. The given reason was an assassination carried out in 2020. Just one of a long list of killings. Why arrest Traber right now in 2026? Maybe this has nothing to do with the killings and instead indicates a crack in the alliance between Putin and Tambovksaya?
On 17 June 2026, Reuters reported that Ilya Traber had been arrested in Russia. Reuters has refused for years to publish the Eurostat evidence that Latvia has been secretly paying the EBRD continuously since 2009 to act as straw owner of the Tambovskaya banks.
Russian businessman Ilya Traber detained in contract killing probe, media report | Reuters
On 18 June 2026, Meduza reported on Traber’s arrest. Meduza noted that Traber has a relationship with Putin since 1995. Traber became owner of the St Petersburg Oil Terminal together with Vladimir Kumarin who was the leader of Tambovskaya. Kumarin was arrested in 2007 and is still in prison now. His arrest was widely seen as a power-grab by Putin to control Tambovskaya. The article notes that ‘dozens’ of people were killed when Traber took over the St Petersburg port. According to the expert in this article, Traber has not entered Europe since Operation Troika started in 2008 in Spain, which culminated in prosecutions explained in the 2015 document ‘Al Juzgado’ which is posted on this website since much of it is about Parex Bank. Traber has a new strategic port terminal under construction in Primorsk, funded with Russian government money. Meduza media moved out of Russia some years ago and relocated to Latvia. Meduza has refused repeated requests to publish the evidence from Eurostat showing that Latvia secretly paid the EBRD to act as straw owner of Parex.
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On 18 June 2026, The Moscow Times reported on the arrest. This article states that Traber was acquitted by Spain in 2018. This is not true. Below is a documentary with an interview of the Spanish prosecutor saying this is disinformation. Not sure why The Moscow Times repeated this disinformation. Also, The Moscow Times for years is blocking coverage of the EBRD’s role.
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29 June 2026, This article from Kompromat.lv has interesting details. Traber has been often residing in Jurmala, Latvia even while wanted by Spanish authorities. Latvia, being an EU member, had an obligation to arrest Traber and extradite him to Spain however didn’t do that. The reason why Traber was spending time in Latvia is because of his young love-interest, who was previously the mistress of the late Igors Rapoports. Rapoports was a member of the Tambovskaya Mafia and used to run ABLV Bank in Latvia. ABLV Bank, among other horrible things, helped the Kremlin (through Serhiy Kurchenko) loot the Ukrainian treasury to prep Ukraine for military invasion. Traber also supports the invasion through a foundation which gives material and technical assistance to Russian soldiers. Latvia, officially, opposes the Russian invasion of Ukraine however that doesn’t explain why Latvia has spent billions of euros supporting Tambovskaya mainly through the fraudulent bailout of Parex with the EBRD.
История любви Ильи Трабера: греческий паспорт, швейцарский замок и «внештатная вдова»
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On 16 July 2026, Forbes Russia published this. I understand how someone can resign as board member from a company but not how someone can resign as ‘founder’ of a company. Forbes repeats the disinformation that Spain acquitted Traber in 2018.
https://www.forbes.ru/society/565028-il-a-traber-posle-aresta-vysel-iz-sostava-ucreditelej-treh-kompanij
pdf, translated to English:
Ilya Traber resigned from the founding board of three companies after his arrest _ Forbes.ru
Traber’s chateau in Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva. Priced at 128 million euros. You’d think authorities in Switzerland would have asked him where he got the money to buy this? Switzerland, like Latvia, was also supposed to arrest Traber and extradite him to Spain.
Château 17 pièces à vendre à La Tour-de-Peilz à 127,941,000 €, annonce #2420060 – Tranio
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‘Jumts’ (2021) documentary in which the Spanish prosecutor in the Tambovskaya Mafia case states that Traber was not acquitted and this was disinformation (watch from 23:09 to 24:28). This documentary about the EBRD fraud, and follow-up documentaries by the same producer ‘Jumts 2’ and ‘The Beirut Connection,’ were aired many times for years on two independent TV channels in Latvia however the rest of the Latvian media and the Latvian government are all pretending to be unaware of the story:
