11 May 2026
Yuri Kozarenko, the former CEO of Transport of the Future, who reported to Vladimir Putin in January 2025 about plans to produce up to 300,000 drones per year, has been arrested on charges of large-scale fraud. According to Kommersant, the Sverdlovsky District Court of Belgorod previously remanded him in custody until June 28, and on May 8, the Belgorod Regional Court rejected his lawyer’s appeal. The investigation is being led by the Belgorod Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
According to Avia.pro, the criminal case involves the embezzlement of approximately 70 million rubles allocated for a state defense contract to produce drones. Investigators believe Kozarenko was involved in the misappropriation of funds: the money was used to pay for services provided by friendly organizations that did not actually perform the work. Furthermore, Transport of the Future received a 4.5 billion ruble state subsidy for the serial production of 750 vertical takeoff and landing drones. However, the subcontractor completed 80% of the work only a year after the contract expired, which prompted the investigation, the publication notes.
Kozarenko, originally from a village near Belgorod, graduated from Belgorod State University with a degree in Finance. He worked at the EFKO Group since 2012, where he rose to the position of head of the innovation center. In 2022, he became head of Transport of the Future, which developed and manufactured unmanned systems. In 2023, the company launched the first phase of its plant in the Togliatti Special Economic Zone (investment of approximately 7 billion rubles), and by the end of 2024, it announced production of 100 drones per month, with plans to increase this to 250.
In January 2025, Kozarenko met Putin at the Samara plant, showed him the development and assembly areas, and, as Avia.pro recalls, proudly announced the potential for producing up to 300,000 drones annually, including the Geranium. During the launch ceremony of a lithium-ion battery production facility with a capacity of 20 MWh per year (investment: 1.3 billion rubles), he also promised to supply batteries for “millions of educational drones and hundreds of thousands of heavy civilian UAVs.”
Another ruskie who didn’t share the loot with those above him.
Nothing new to see here. Mafia land is rotten to the core.