While Togliatti assesses the damage after the nocturnal visit of unidentified UAVs at the KuibyshevAzot chemical plant, there’s an opportunity to organize information about an important villain – the Russian-Israeli-British oligarch Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor.
Today, the global “Forbes” published a list of billionaires, where comrade Kantor is ranked 248th with a fortune of $12 billion.
The formal basis of his wealth is the production of mineral fertilizers. The real one is close ties with Russian security agencies, particularly the SVR, and the promotion of Putin as a fighter against global anti-Semitism and Nazism.
In 2022, the fortune of comrade Kantor, who fell under international sanctions in April 2022, was estimated at $4.6 billion. So, the sanctioned Russian oligarch has almost tripled his wealth during the aggressive war. This raises questions about the adequacy of the sanctions regime and some duplicity of the involved parties. But let’s start with the context.
1. The global market for mineral fertilizers is cyclical but globally growing because humanity wants more food.
If roughly schematized, the main types of industrially created fertilizers are nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. There are also complex (nitrogen-phosphate-potash) NPK fertilizers.
Nitrogen fertilizers require natural gas, with the world’s leading producers being the USA, Russia, and Qatar. The cost of these fertilizers directly depends on the price of gas. In 2022, prices soared 2-3 times due to restrictions on Russian gas. Then they fell. Now Brazil, which is tied to Qatari gas and fertilizers, is crying out…
Phosphate fertilizers require phosphates. The main raw material is controlled by Morocco and China. Specifically, Morocco controls the largest phosphate deposit in the world, Bou Craa (about 70% of explored global reserves), in Western Sahara (considered by many in the world as Moroccan-occupied territory). The state company OCP Group, the largest producer of phosphates and phosphate fertilizers in the world, extracts and sells the contested raw material. But that’s just life, isn’t it?
Potash requires potassium. Here Canada, Russia, and Belarus have the advantage. That’s why there’s so much focus on Lukashenko.
Russia is a major player in the global fertilizer market:
• 2nd place after China in production (produced 65.5 million tons in 2025, growth 3%);
• 1st place in exports (about 45 million tons), controlling about 19% of global supplies.
The structure of Russian production: nitrogen ~50%, phosphate ~25%, potash ~20%, complex NPK ~5-10%. The main players: PhosAgro, Uralkali, UralChem, EuroChem, and Acron.
Despite the blatant brutality of the Russian political regime, fertilizers are not subject to sanctions. Because Russian lobbyists scare everyone with a global food crisis.
The main buyers of Russian fertilizers: Brazil (20-25%), India (10-12%), China (7-9%), USA (6-7%), Indonesia, Mexico, and … Poland (3-5% each).
In 2025, for example, the USA increased its import of nitrogen fertilizers from Russia by 89%, paying $1.7 billion. Europe bought 29% more, paying around 1 billion euros, with about 600 million euros paid to the Kremlin by the Poles. Remember those wonderful farmers who spread Ukrainian grain? They thrive on Russian fertilizers.
Mineral fertilizers are one of the few sectors in Russia that continues to grow, generate money for war (foreign exchange earnings, shipping traffic for railways and ports, etc.), and maintain influence networks.
2. The duality of the situation is that any chemical plant and any fertilizer producer (especially in Russia) is directly integrated into the production cycle of explosives and ammunition. This is not just a pillar of the Russian economy and a tentacle of the Kremlin’s political influence worldwide (especially in South America and Africa), but an important element of the defense sector.
Unknown but benevolent drones periodically attempt to reach Russian chemical plants with the obvious goal of reducing ammunition production capabilities. Various companies are affected.
But in the past two weeks, it has noticeably affected one of them – the “Acron” corporation. Its main beneficiary is the mentioned oligarch Vyacheslav Kantor. The corporation generates about 8 million tons of finished products per year and is a leader in the production of NPK fertilizers. It has two production sites:
• The “Dorogobuzh” plant (Smolensk) – approximately 2.5 million tons (1/3 of production);
• The “Acron” plant (Novgorod) – approximately 5.5 million tons (2/3 of production).
The company owns its own phosphate mine in the Murmansk region and plans to launch the Talitsky GOK in the Perm region in 2026, which will become a controlled source of potassium for it.
In addition, “Acron” still inexplicably holds licenses for 9 plots of a large potash deposit in Canada.
“Acron” has also built its own distribution network not only in Russia but also in China, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina. It exports through its own terminals on the Baltic Sea.
The question arises: what is the foundation of “Acron’s” success?
In every interview, Vyacheslav Kantor declares that he has never been involved in crime. Successful participation in privatization, obtaining licenses for mineral development, and working in the gas market are business talents.
Russian media highlighted that Kantor’s hidden “business talent” may be years of close ties with Yuri Zubakov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Russian ambassador to several countries, and Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Russia (died in November 2022). Zubakov’s daughter-in-law, Aza Vyacheslavovna Zubakova, controls 18% of Kantor’s company shares, valued at about $1.5 billion, even after his death.
Kantor inherited the connection with the SVR: his father (director of a large department store in Moscow) was friends with employees of the First Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, which transformed into the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Expert on Russian oligarchs Mikhail Khodorkovsky noted that the “YUKOS case” essentially began with an attack by governors of the Smolensk and Novgorod regions incited by Kantor.
In conclusion, Kantor’s “Acron” is a major economic player, integrated into the defense industry, closely connected with law enforcement, adding geopolitical influence to Russia through the leverage of fertilizers. But that’s not all. And this is especially vile.
3. As a public cover for his post-KGB oligarchism, comrade Kantor chose to be active in international Jewish organizations.
From 2008 to 2022, he was the president of the European Jewish Congress (registered in Luxembourg), joined the management structure of Yad Vashem, and created the Kantor Center. The mission of this center was reduced to a single task: to prove that Ukraine is a Nazi state and Putin is the protector of Jews.
Kantor controls platforms such as the World Holocaust Forum. Over this topic, over 20 years, he has infiltrated various countries, including Ukraine. He was the organizer of the event in Israel to bring Putin out of international isolation.
As already mentioned, in April 2022, Kantor fell under EU sanctions as a person associated with Putin. Only in Italy were 11 of his villas temporarily seized. However, on March 14, 2025, the EU lifted these sanctions, and Switzerland did the same on March 20, 2025.
The lobbying for the removal of sanctions was done by… Hungary and Slovakia, which consume a certain volume of Russian fertilizers ($5-7 million and $15-20 million, respectively), but much less than Germany, Romania, France, and Spain. Not to mention Poland, which is heavily reliant on Russian fertilizers. In essence, Orbán and Fico acted as the villains who helped maintain the respectable face of other actors.
As soon as Kantor was personally sanctioned in 2022 (the company “Acron” was not touched), he transferred 45% of the shares to “formally independent persons,” reducing his share to 40%. This publicly revealed the share of comrade Zubakov’s family. After this manipulation, “Acron” was formally at a managerial distance, although all this time Kantor’s son, Vladimir, has been the vice president of the company. And no one seemed to notice this, yes.
Also in 2022, Kantor formally resigned as head of the European Jewish Congress. But in May 2025, just after the lifting of European and Swiss sanctions, he was suddenly re-elected as the president of this structure.
In summary.
The EU publicly speaks of the inadmissibility of becoming dependent on Russian fertilizers. And increases their purchases. Including from companies of Russian security officials.
Poland formally left Kantor under its national sanctions but is the leader in purchasing Russian fertilizers. Because of the farmers (on whose votes the most extremist parties parasitize)!
Putin is an official ally of Iran, while a Russian oligarch living in Herzliya, through international Jewish platforms, creates the image of Putin as the protector of Jews. And this oligarch will now again profit from rising prices.
Kantor positions himself as a powerful opponent of extremism and intolerance. Yet he completely ignores such phenomena in Russia…
Pure paradoxes. Because of which Ukrainians are dying.
4. The accumulation of paradoxes leads to various excesses. This is a law of physics.
On February 25, 2026, unknown forces struck the “Dorogobuzh” chemical plant in Smolensk. There had been hits before, but with a cosmetic effect. Now, it was stronger.
On March 9, 2026, unknown drones visited the “Acron” plant in Veliky Novgorod. The damage was minor there.
But the trend of increasing the effectiveness of unknown forces on Russian chemical plants is extremely persistent. Endlessly taking Russian missiles, drones, and shells is exhausting.
I hope Comrade Kantor will be held appropriately accountable for his complicity with Putin in his crimes, particularly for the extensive lies about Ukraine.
It’s time for the EU to soberly assess its approach to dependencies. Without a military balance (and therefore a defense alliance with Ukraine), nothing should be bought from Russia. Because all this money will be returned by the Kremlin to the Europeans, but in its own way.
