FSB Arrests St. Petersburg Businessman Ilya Traber in Murder Investigation

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has reportedly arrested Ilya Traber, a St. Petersburg businessman with alleged ties to President Vladimir Putin, as part of a criminal investigation into the 2020 murder of another businessman. According to the news outlet Fontanka, FSB officers and investigators detained Traber and his longtime business partner, Vladimir Danilenko, in St. Petersburg on Monday morning. Raids were conducted at Traber's private residence, several of his corporate offices, and Danilenko's properties.

Law enforcement sources told the Interfax news agency that Traber was arrested on suspicion of involvement in "a murder from previous years." Fontanka linked the arrests directly to an ongoing investigation into the Oct. 24, 2020, murder of businessman and local politician Alexander Petrov. Police said at the time that Petrov was shot dead in the yard of his home. The FSB has not publicly commented on Traber's reported arrest.

Traber's son, former Formula 1 racing driver Vitaly Petrov, declined Fontanka's request for comment. Traber controls Baltic Sea terminals, logistics, port services, as well as related oil, gas and transportation enterprises through his network of companies. He was previously among more than a dozen Russian nationals suspected of organized crime ties by Spanish authorities. He was ultimately acquitted in 2018 following a decade-long investigation.

The exiled investigative outlet Agentstvo claimed that Traber is "the only living crime boss Putin admitted knowing." In 2011, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Traber met with Putin during the 1990s, when Putin worked in the St. Petersburg mayor's office, to discuss an oil terminal project. Years later, Peskov said Putin knew Traber but could not confirm if the two were on friendly terms.

As of 2020, Traber reportedly owned 31.66% of the deep-water Baltic port of Primorsk, which remains under construction. Once opened, the Primorsk Universal Cargo Complex is projected to handle up to 70 million metric tons of cargo per year, including coal, mineral fertilizers, containers and grain.