It turned out that one of the former comrades of Zelensky and Ermak is a citizen of the Russian Federation and has a business in Crimea. Naum Barulya is still a co-owner of three Ukrainian branches of KVN, owned by Alexander Maslyakov and his son, who visited the occupied territories of Ukraine, including Mariupol.
Ukrainian producer Naum Barulya is an old creative partner and ally of Vladimir Zelensky. Until 2014, he was closely associated with the Russian KVN: he worked in Moscow with Alexander Maslyakov and organized team performances in the Russian Federation and Crimea, Radio Liberty notes.
After the Revolution of Dignity, Naum Barulya returned to Kyiv and began collaborating with the 95th Quarter, led by the future president. Together they created the humorous show “League of Laughter” and produced a number of popular Ukrainian television sitcoms – Country U, Tanka and Volodka and others.
Having won the elections, Zelensky brought his creative retinue to power. In particular, the daughter of the producer Irina Borzova was elected to the Verkhovna Rada from the Servant of the People. Zelensky promoted her husband, son-in-law Naum Baruli, to head of the Vinnytsia region.
As the journalists of the “Schemes” project found out, the successful Ukrainian producer Naum Barul has citizenship of the Russian Federation, which he did not renounce during the entire 10 years of the war. He traveled to occupied Crimea until 2019 inclusive, entering the Ukrainian peninsula using a Russian passport. Naum Barulya re-registered his property and restaurant business there according to the legislation of occupiers and acquired new real estate. Despite the full-scale war, the restaurant business in Sudak continues to operate. And pay hundreds of thousands of rubles to the budget of the aggressor country.
How does a Ukrainian producer with a Russian passport and an active business in Crimea manage to create large-scale television shows in Ukraine? Shoot patriotic TV series? And even claim tens of millions of budget hryvnia to finance your creativity?
Companion of Maslyakov and Zelensky
Naum Barulya - for a long time was the “second person” in the “Club of the Cheerful and Resourceful” (KVN, Russian KVN, a game-competition of teams in humor and jokes, which arose during the times of the USSR - ed.) after the Russian presenter Alexander Maslyakov.
“Maslyakov saw me and took me first to Kyiv, then to Moscow as an administrator. Then I rose to the rank of general producer. Such a venerable man walked on Channel One,” Barulya said in 2020.
He worked in Moscow for 15 years, eight of which were as general director of the Russian company AMIK, which produces KVN.
“I spent very good, if not the best, years of my life in Moscow,” the producer said in an interview.
After the start of the war in Donbass and the occupation of Crimea, Barulya returned to Ukraine and entered into a partnership with the 95th Quarter studio, headed by Vladimir Zelensky.
Zelensky was one of the founders and regular host of the “League of Laughter” comedian tournament until his nomination for president.
Naum Barulya at the “League of Laughter”
The second area of cooperation between Baruli and Zelensky is the production of series for commercial television channels.
Together they produced the sketch series “Country U”.
Naum Barulya on the stage of the “League of Laughter”
Other popular television products of the creative tandem include the comedy series “Once Upon a Time near Poltava”, “Once Upon a Time in Odessa”, “Tanka and Volodka”.
On a formal legal level, Barulya and Zelensky formalized their cooperation in the form of two companies.
The first is the “Producer Center League of Laughter” - where, in addition to the two of them, the founders included screenwriters Sergei Chivurin and Andrei Yakovlev, and brothers Sergei and Boris Shefir - Zelensky’s longtime partners in Kvartal.
The second is “Drive Production” - where, in addition to them, Timur Mindich, the junior partner of Igor Kolomoisky, also became a co-owner, for whose TV channels - “1+1”, “TET” - these entertainment projects are created.
After winning the presidential elections in Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky left the ownership structure of these companies.
But he still has the intellectual rights to the trademarks of their joint projects - “League of Laughter”, “Games of Jokes”, “Country U”.
Zelensky still has intellectual rights to the trademarks “League of Laughter”, “Games of Jokes”, “Country U”
During the presidential campaign, the League of Laughter was one of the tools of hidden propaganda. This was recorded by the civil network “Opora”.
“This is not propaganda, this is a concert for a good mood. And you are smart people, you will decide for yourself who to vote for,” a video with such an appeal from Zelensky was shown at one of the “League of Laughter” concerts in 2019.
Fragment from "League of Laughter"
Naum Barulya himself also participated in the elections as a VIP agitator.
Naum Barulya at the “Servants of the People” event
“I have known the president for many years. I talked to him for a long time when he wanted to run for office. And I consider him a deeply decent person,” Barulya said in 2020 during a meeting with residents of the village of Vinnytsia Khutora.
Andrey Ermak and Naum Barulya at the “League of Laughter”
At the same time, the television project “League of Laughter” was also used in the interests of Baruli’s daughter, candidate for deputy to the Verkhovna Rada from the Servant of the People party, Irina Borzova.
Borzova entered parliament. The bureaucratic career of her husband, Sergei Borzov, also went up - now he, appointed by Zelensky’s decree, heads the Vinnytsia regional state administration.
Borzov also comes from the world of KVN - before his political career, he was an administrator at the AMIK Ukraine company, where Naum Barulya and Alexander Maslyakov were among the founders. Subsequently, Borzov became the director of the Vinnitsa Peppers team and the Ukrainian KVN team.
Naum Barulya, Irina Borzova and Sergey Borzov
Joint companies with Maslyakov
Despite last year’s initiative of the Cabinet of Ministers, Ukraine has not yet imposed sanctions on Alexander Maslyakov and his son
And this despite the fact that Maslyakov Sr. publicly supports Russian President Vladimir Putin, was his confidant for many years in a row and was personally present at Putin’s inauguration in 2018.
Alexander Maslyakov and Vladimir Putin
Six months before the full-scale invasion, Maslyakov held another KVN game in occupied Yalta.
His son, Alexander Maslyakov Jr., came to the occupied Donetsk region in 2023 with two KVN teams and performed in front of the so-called “Northern Military District veterans.” Among the cities they visited was Mariupol, destroyed by the Russian army.
Alexander Maslyakov Jr. in the occupied Donetsk region
“Our people live here, and KVN has always united the country. The residents reacted well, the children were generally amazing,” Maslyakov Jr. said about this trip.
At the same time, Maslyakov has several unclosed companies in Ukraine, and among their co-owners is one Ukrainian partner. This is Naum Barulya.
Thus, the Ukrainian producer remains a co-owner of three Ukrainian branches of KVN Alexander Maslyakov and his son - AMIC UKRAINE, KVN TV and KVN PRODUCTION.
The companies have not yet been liquidated.
Barulya himself, in a comment to Schemes, noted that the companies are “just hanging” and have not carried out any financial transactions since 2014. But he did not explain why he has not yet left the ownership structure of the Maslyakov companies.
“I can’t do anything with them, because the founder is there... We need a protocol of the founder, I don’t communicate with them in any way,” Naum Barulya told the Schemes journalist.
— So you can’t leave the company without permission?
- To close the company - no. I know that they are hanging, but after 2014 they have not performed a single operation.
In fact, the consent of other owners is necessary precisely for the complete liquidation of the company. But no legal obstacles prevented Naum Barula from leaving the company’s ownership structure, experts say.
“What he could do is he can submit an application to withdraw from the company, since he has only 5% - it is done in notarial form, submitted to the registrar and for this he does not need the consent of the Russians. He simply submits - and on this basis he is simply excluded as the owner of this 5%,” explains corporate law lawyer Bogdan Borovik.
“Schemes” contacted the National Security and Defense Council with a request to find out why, despite public support for Putin and a tour in Mariupol, Ukraine has not yet imposed sanctions on the Maslyakovs.
The response from the National Security and Defense Council was received: they did not receive such proposals from the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the National Bank and the Security Service of Ukraine.
Despite the fact that
The Cabinet of Ministers twice adopted orders by which it addressed the National Security and Defense Council with a proposal to impose sanctions against the Maslyakovs.
These appeals are available on the government's open website.
This was confirmed by the Cabinet of Ministers upon request from Schemes.
Trips to Crimea and Russian passport
For a long time, Barulya was closely connected with Crimea. Despite the annexation, he did not break business ties with him.
His assets are concentrated in Sudak.
Sudak, Crimea
“I sold ice cream in Sudak, in a stall. Then I bought this little stall. Then I rented a restaurant. Then 4 years later I bought this restaurant,” this is how Barulya described the development of his business in Crimea.
After the annexation of Crimea, the producer continued to travel to the occupied peninsula.
In the summer of 2014, after the illegal referendum and the so-called “annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation,” the producer posted a video on his Facebook page in which he was relaxing in his then hotel-restaurant “Parus” in Sudak.
Barulya himself, in a comment to Schemes, noted that the last time he traveled to occupied Crimea was in 2016.
— When was the last time you were in Crimea? - asked the Schemes journalist.
“I don’t remember anymore,” Barulya answered.
— This is after 2014, right?
— We went to our parents, in 2015 or 2016, I don’t remember.
— So, you haven’t traveled since then?
- No.
But according to Schemes sources with access to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs “Magistral” system, which records information about crossing the state border of the Russian Federation, Naum Barulya traveled to Crimea at least until 2019 inclusive.
Naum Barulya traveled to Crimea at least until 2019 inclusive
And each time I entered the occupied Ukrainian peninsula using a Russian passport.
Ukrainian producer - citizen of the Russian Federation
So, as Schemes found out, Naum Barulya is a citizen of the Russian Federation.
Journalists were able to establish that in April 2009, the Russian migration service issued a Russian passport to Naum Barula; the producer was then 49 years old. At this time, Barulya lived in Moscow and worked as general director at the AMIK company. This document is still in effect.
Evidence that a Ukrainian producer has a Russian passport includes both current official registers of the Russian Federation and extracts from government databases from different periods.
It is as a citizen of Russia that Barulya owns her business in Crimea and has a current Russian taxpayer identification number.
And it was on his Russian passport that until 2019 he owned two apartments in Moscow.
The Russian state portal "Gosuslugi" designates Baruli's passport as "valid".
Just like the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At the same time, Naum Barulya himself flatly refused to talk about having a Russian passport.
“You know, I won’t discuss these issues over the phone,” he told the Schemes journalist.
— Have you thought about giving up your Russian passport?
- Look, I don't want this over the phone. Forgive me please.
— I can send you my journalist ID or we can meet if it makes you more comfortable.
“I wouldn’t really like to touch it, to be honest.”
Old and new assets in Crimea - according to the laws of the occupiers,
Barulya also claims that he lost all his assets in Crimea after the occupation: “In fact, there is nothing, I lost everything. Everything I worked on every day for 25 years.”
But as Schemes found out, firstly, in Sudak, Zelensky’s long-time creative associate still has three apartments with a total area of 312 square meters. Which he voluntarily re-registered under Russian law, thereby recognizing the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation in the occupied Ukrainian territory.
What allows journalists to confirm this is an application to the occupation authorities for registration of one of these apartments, submitted in his interests, which Schemes received from Russian registries.
The re-registration of this property on behalf of Baruli was handled by lawyer Dmitry Danichev.
It was for these purposes that citizen of the Russian Federation Barulya issued him a power of attorney. Schemes also managed to obtain a copy of the document from Crimea.
Barulya issued a power of attorney to a lawyer in 2015 in the city of Sudak and certified it at a notary precisely for the purpose of “registering his real estate for cadastral registration” with the occupation authorities. And also for registering new property.
Thus, a famous producer, earning money in Ukraine, after the annexation continued to acquire new property on the occupied peninsula - as a citizen of Russia, according to Russian laws.
In 2017, Barulya became the owner of a land plot of 7 acres in Sudak.
A year later, he acquired another 6 acres here and became the owner of a seven-story building with an area of more than 2 thousand square meters.
Therefore, as of 2023, Naum Barulya owns property in Sudak totaling approximately 60 million rubles.
His Crimean business is a separate story.
Active business in Crimea
For 5 years after the occupation of Crimea, until 2019, Naum Barulya co-owned the large hotel-restaurant “Parus” on the central embankment of Sudak. The partners all this time were... pro-Kremlin politicians.
Hotel-restaurant "Parus"
In particular, this is Anatoly Sinyuk, an ex-deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea from the Party of Regions, who supported the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequently received suspicion of treason. In 2018, when Barulya and Sinyuk jointly owned a restaurant in Sudak, sanctions were imposed against the latter in Ukraine. After the full-scale invasion, he supported Putin's actions.
Anatoly Sinyuk
Another partner of the League of Laughter producer is Boris Deitch, an ex-member of the Party of Regions, who also supported the seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula and called for a pseudo-referendum to vote for the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
Boris Deitch
Obviously, we are talking about an old acquaintance, since Deitch was a judge during KVN performances in Crimea. For example, in 2012, Deitch, KVN players and Barulya performed in Sudak - under the flags of the Party of Regions.
In 2012, Deitch, KVN players and Barulya performed in Sudak - under the flags of the Party of Regions
Now, as of December 2023, the founder of the League of Laughter still has two active companies in occupied Sudak. These campaigns were registered after the annexation under the laws of the aggressor country.
The Profi company, although not closed, is not currently operating. But the second one, Profile-N, is a very active business that fills the budget of the occupation authorities with taxes.
This is a food establishment on the central embankment of Sudak called “Coolness”. Essentially, this is a street food market with cuisines from around the world - everything is sold here: from chebureks, hot dogs and pizza to Hong Kong waffles.
Until 2019, the establishment in Sudak was owned by two people - Naum Barulya and his daughter Irina Borzova, but after being elected to parliament she transferred her share to her father.
Until 2019, the establishment in Sudak was owned by Naum Barulya and his daughter Irina Borzova.
– Is it true that you own a business in Crimea? – Okna-Novosti journalist asked Borzova in an interview in 2019.
- Yes, we have property. Not a business, but property in Crimea.
– But this is not only property, but a functioning business. In 2017, you paid 275 thousand rubles in tax.
- So that this building does not collapse. In order to pay for utilities.
In a conversation with Schemi, Naum Barulya denies that he registered property and companies in Crimea according to the laws of the occupiers.
– This business is fully registered in your name according to your Russian citizenship. So you don't control him? – Schemes journalist Olga Ivleva asked Baruli.
– I don’t know what they drew and registered there. “I didn’t register anything,” he replied.
– The registers prove that you registered the Prokhlada cafe according to Russian laws, do you deny this?
– I didn’t formalize anything.
– Who did it then and in whose interests?
– I didn’t formalize anything.
Having heard such a confident objection, Schemes began to check how sincere the Ukrainian cultural figure was in his answers.
And the journalists managed to obtain a document indicating that in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea and the illegal referendum, Naum Barulya and his daughter, future People’s Deputy Irina Borzova, participated in the re-registration of the Profil-N company under Russian laws.
This is proven by the minutes of the general meeting of participants of the Profil-n company, dated December 3, 2014.
At the meeting, Barulya and Borzov approved a new charter of the company that complies with the legislation of the Russian Federation, transferred the authorized capital in hryvnias to rubles at the then exchange rate of the Central Bank of Russia and agreed on an application to the registration authority of the aggressor country so that data about the company would be entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of Russia. Unanimously, two signatures.
Journalists received an extract from this register. The data was added to it a week after the already mentioned meeting of Profile-N owners.
To ensure that this was indeed Baruli's signature on the minutes of the meeting, Schemes compared it with the producer's other signatures on two other documents he had signed.
Irina Borzova herself, who directly admitted during the elections that the business was re-registered according to the laws of the Russian Federation, now in her response to Schemes denies that she contacted the occupation authorities in Crimea about this.
Borzova declined to comment further.
Cafe “Coolness” by Naum Baruli, despite the full-scale war, continues to operate. This is proven by photographs of the establishment operating in both 2022 and 2023.
The design of the establishment is permeated with “nostalgia for the USSR.” The design is replete with appropriate posters, portraits of heroes of Soviet films, and the cafe logo is decorated with a red star.
The producer had addressed this topic before - during the annexation of Crimea, waiters in another Baruli cafe, which was then called “At Naum’s”, wore pioneer ties, and the performance area was decorated with a large Soviet star with a hammer and sickle. There is also a bust and portrait of Lenin, flags of the USSR republics on the ceiling and Soviet posters.
Decoration of the establishment “U Nauma”
The owner himself, Naum Barulya, has performed on this stage more than once.
Naum Barulya performs on stage at the U Naum establishment
As for the current Crimean establishment of the League of Laughter producer, Cool, according to the Russian Spark registry, the cafe’s revenue over the past 5 years amounted to more than 15 million rubles, of which 2.5 million rubles in 2022.
From 2019 to 2022, the company accumulated more than a million rubles for the Russian budget in the form of taxes, of which the occupiers’ treasury was replenished by half a million after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
The report for the current year, 2023, must be submitted by Naum Baruli’s establishment at the end of the year.
Application for budget funds of Ukraine
Having citizenship of the aggressor country and a business in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, Naum Barulya continues to earn money in Ukraine by filming large-scale entertainment television projects. In 2023, he mastered the theme of war by producing the comedy series “Volunteers” for television.
And in the summer of 2023, Naum Barulya applied for state funding for his work - his new comedy series called “Lower League”.
He submitted an application for almost 32 million hryvnia from the Ukrainian budget from the Drive Production company, which he owns together with the Shefir brothers and Timur Mindich.
The participation of citizens of the Russian Federation was expressly prohibited by the terms of the competition. But the Ministry of Culture, represented by its subsidiary, the Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine, approved Naum Baruli’s application and announced it on the list of winners.
However, this fact remained in the shadows.
Another applicant for the same state funding received all the attention - a scandal erupted around Yuri Gorbunov and his project - the comedy series “SMT Ingulets”. He also won over 30 million from the budget for its production.
Such expenses during the war greatly outraged Ukrainians and forced the president himself to react.
“Museums, cultural centers, symbols, TV series are important, but now there are other priorities. So, I proposed two steps to the head of government. The first is to find extra-budgetary funds for objects that are really needed now. (..) And secondly: I asked the Prime Minister to consider replacing the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his address.
As “Schemes” found out, the very next day after the start of the scandal around “Ingulets” and Gorbunov - a scandal because of which Zelensky eventually fired Minister of Culture Alexander Tkachenko - producer Naum Barulya withdrew the application, refusing budgetary funding for his comedy project.
Therefore, the subsidiary structure of the Ministry of Culture ultimately did not conclude a contract with him, Schemes was told in response to an official request.
Would Naum Barulya have withdrawn his application if not for this scandal?
And why did he even apply for government funding, concealing his citizenship of the Russian Federation, contrary to the terms of the competition?
– I refused the competition because this script that we wrote did not fit the conditions of the competition at all. And we have never used government money, and we decided not to use it. “Lower League” is about a children's football team. We sat down and thought that this was not the time now. I didn’t want government money for this film during the war... It’s a little... we’ll hold it, we’ll make it after the war,” Barulya said.
– Your refusal was actually the day after the scandal with Ingulets and the publication of the tender.
- No no no. We refused. I wrote the letter two weeks before. It is not true.
At the same time, the Ministry of Culture told us something else - that the refusal letter signed by Naum Baruli was dated July 19 - then for the second day in a row, discussions about the advisability of such expenses did not subside, and the chair under the Minister of Culture was already “wobbly”.
How did the relatives of Naum Baruli, people’s deputy Irina Borzova and the head of the Vinnitsa region Sergei Borzov, comment on the facts established by the Schemes?
Sergei Borzov replied that this did not concern him personally and refused to comment.
People's Deputy Irina Borzova also decided not to answer questions from journalists.
