Shpurov, Vygon and the family business: how the head of the State Commission for Mineral Reserves linked subsoil resources, licenses and oil & gas consulting
The Director General of the State Commission on, Igor Shpurov, has been detained in Moscow under a criminal case for receiving an exceptionally large bribe.
Shpurov was a business partner of Grigory Vygon—the former Director of the Department of Economics and Finance at Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources—through his current wife.
Vygon now owns VYGON Consulting, the largest consulting firm in the oil and gas sector. Furthermore, through his ex-wife, the official previously held two licenses for the exploration and evaluation of mineral deposits in the Tyumen Oblast.
Shpurov had held the position of Director General of the Federal Budgetary Institution "GKZ" (State Commission on Mineral Reserves) since December 2013. In addition, Shpurov serves as the Head of the Department of Theoretical Foundations of Oil and Gas Field Development at the Faculty of Geology of Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and is a member of the faculty’s academic council—his name is listed among the council members on the geology faculty’s website.
The 61-year-old official is a native of Tyumen who graduated with a degree in mining engineering from the Tyumen Industrial Institute and holds a Doctor of Technical Sciences degree. Prior to his appointment at the federal agency, he headed the West Siberian Research Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Tyumen.
During his nearly 13 years heading the "GKZ," Shpurov consolidated the primary levers for allocating and accounting for mineral reserves. His commission controls pivotal decisions regarding deposits and subsoil plots, ranging from registering reserves on the state ledger to altering their boundaries, auditing geological information, and "allocating" additional reserves to preferred companies. This involves tens of billions, if not trillions, of rubles. To ensure the execution of favorable administrative decisions, Shpurov naturally advanced his fellow Tyumen natives within the "GKZ" system. For instance, Igor Dubkov, Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg branch of "GKZ," hails from Tyumen, and even the former Deputy Head of Rosnedra (Federal Agency for Mineral Resources), Igor Plesovskikh, is a former top manager of the Tyumen-based "SibNATs."
Meanwhile, Shpurov attempted to keep his personal assets hidden. According to leaked data, between 2019 and 2020, he only acquired two apartments: a 99-square-meter property in Moscow at the "Serpukhovskie Vorota" residential complex on Serpukhovsky Lane, and a 73-square-meter property in St. Petersburg at the "OSTROV" residential complex on Petrovsky Avenue. He did not hold any major bank accounts either.
In contrast, Shpurov’s current wife, Elena, operates a business in Moscow, holding a 30% stake in "RUSTECHAUDIT" LLC, a commercial consulting firm. Elena Shpurova (née Tokareva), also from Tyumen, acquired this stake in 2023 from her fellow Tyumen native Natalia Dulova. Dulova serves as the director of the "Oil and Gas SEC of Lomonosov Moscow State University" LLC (with MSU among its founders) and is the founder of two Tyumen companies: "TECHGEOCONSULTING" and "Oil and Gas Independent Consulting" (NNC). For example, "Techgeoconsulting" carried out contract work analyzing rock properties and evaluating oil and gas field reserves, while "NNC" worked under contracts with the Shpilman Scientific and Analytical Center for Rational Subsoil Use in Yugra.
Elena Shpurova’s business partners in "Rustechaudit" included Grigory Vygon—the former TNK-BP manager, ex-head of the Department of Economics and Finance at the Ministry of Natural Resources, and founder of VYGON Consulting—and Daria Sergeeva. In 2021, Grigory Vygon successfully sued to expel former CFO Daria Sergeeva from "Vygon Consulting" for awarding herself unauthorized bonuses, but she retained her stake in "Rustechaudit."
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In 2025, Elena Shpurova also became a co-founder of the Tyumen-based companies "INTELTEK" LLC (liquidated in May 2026) and "2B-SERVICE" LLC, which she exited on September 15 of this year. "2B-SERVICE" has secured at least 16 state contracts for supplying software licenses and repairing computer equipment, including deals with the Tyumen Oblast Duma and the region’s Department of Property Relations. The firm is currently owned by Tyumen native Ekaterina Lovchuk, a former director of the "Xerox CIS" representative office and ex-head of the "International Center for Excellence" NGO, which was originally founded by Natalia Dulova’s "Oil and Gas SEC of MSU."
Shpurov’s previous wife, Marina Tarasevich, alongside "Techgeoconsulting" JSC, was a co-founder of the "Siberian Oil and Gas Company" JSC until 2021. This company held at least two exploration and evaluation licenses for mineral deposits in the Uvatsky District of the Tyumen Oblast, specifically the Novochirpsky and Tanyagsky plots. It remains unknown who took over these licenses after the company was liquidated in 2022.
Shpurov, Vygon and the family business: how the head of the State Commission for Mineral Reserves linked subsoil resources, licenses and oil & gas consulting
Shpurov, Vygon and the family business: how the head of the State Commission for Mineral Reserves linked subsoil resources, licenses and oil & gas consulting