From Kaliningrad mayor to St. Petersburg mob associate: Inside Russian Senator Alexander Yaroshuk’s covert ties to kingpin Ilya Traber

Ilya Traber photographed at the grave of criminal authority Abakar Darbishev alongside a man known in criminal circles as Sanya Kaliningradsky — revealed as Federation Council senator Alexander Yaroshuk.

This photo shows Ilya Traber (Antikvar, the grey-haired man on the right) at the grave of criminal authority Abakar Darbishev together with a man well known in criminal circles as Sanya Kaliningradsky. Sources have identified “Sanya” as Alexander Yaroshuk, a member of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security and a senator.

Abakar Darbishev was a close associate of Ilya Traber. He was responsible for Traber’s security during visits to Moscow and also carried out force operations, including organizing the elimination of Vyborg businessman Alexander Petrov.

On 1 October 2025 officers of the FSB of Russia and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow stormed Darbishev’s house in Skolkovo near Moscow. He did not survive the forceful detention (he was beaten to death). For more than 100 days investigators refused to release the body. Traber personally tried to intervene in the situation and already then should have realized that he was no longer “all-powerful.” Traber was unable to resolve the problem.

When the body was finally released at the end of January 2026, Traber and Vladimir Danilenko (Antikvar’s “right-hand man”) organized a farewell ceremony for Darbishev in a memorial hall on Partizanskaya Street in St. Petersburg. On 28 January, the day of the ceremony, all surveillance cameras in the hall itself and on Partizanskaya Street were switched off. A large number of influential people came to pay their respects to Darbishev.

On 29 January Danilenko flew with the body of the deceased to Dagestan, where he was to be buried. Traber remained in St. Petersburg. He did not want to appear at a ceremony that would certainly be filmed by operatives. Traber later flew to the grave together with several of his closest associates who had also been friends with Darbishev. One of them was a prominent United Russia figure, senator Alexander Yaroshuk. He is the man sitting on the bench next to Traber.

Yaroshuk served in the Navy, then founded the company Baucenter and built a political career. For a long time he was mayor of Kaliningrad, later a State Duma deputy, and in 2021 he became a senator.

According to a source, Yaroshuk simultaneously led another life. He was a loyal associate of Antikvar, repeatedly carried out his assignments, and is well known in criminal circles. In turn, it was Traber who helped Yaroshuk in his political career. Now one is in a pre-trial detention center, while the other sits in the Federation Council.