Sergei Fedotov, the father of Jūlija Stepaņenko, the prime ministerial candidate of the Sovereign Power/Young Latvians alliance, is the majority owner of two construction companies in the Moscow region, one of which produced “dragon’s teeth” for the Russian army, independent online media outlet The Insider reported on Wednesday.
As previously reported, according to Stepaņenko’s public official declarations for 2022 and 2024, she received substantial gifts from her father – nearly 240,000 euros and an apartment in Riga valued at 180,000 euros.
Fedotov holds majority stakes in two companies based in Solnechnogorsk in the Moscow region – Forma ZhBI LLC and PLK Forma LLC. Both are family businesses, with his wife Irina Fedotova and daughter Anna Makarovskaya also holding shares.
Stepaņenko previously said that her father lives in Russia and provides financial support to her family, but did not disclose his identity. In October 2022, she declared receiving 239,598 euros in cash from her father, while in January 2024 she received an apartment in Riga from him valued at 180,000 euros.
The Insider established that
Stepaņenko’s father is 72-year-old businessman Sergei Fedotov from Solnechnogorsk,
who owns 73.45% of PLK Forma and 72.68% of Forma ZhBI.
Forma ZhBI manufactures concrete, construction mortar, reinforced concrete products and landscaping elements, while PLK Forma is involved in commercial real estate, including the construction, management and leasing of manufacturing, warehouse and office premises.
Between 2021 and 2024, the two companies recorded annual profits of between 550 million and 680 million roubles (5.70 million to 7.05 million euros). In 2024, they generated net profit of almost 120 million roubles (1.24 million euros). In 2025, their combined profit amounted to 235 million roubles (2.44 million euros), although they recorded a small net loss.
The companies’ activities have not been limited to civilian construction. After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Forma ZhBI reported producing approximately 2,000 “dragon’s teeth” and concrete tetrapods, which were sent to Russia’s Belgorod region and Russian-occupied territories in Donbas.
The company also reported supplying stoves to Russian soldiers.
In August this year, during the campaign for Russia’s State Duma “election”, the factory headed by Fedotov was visited by Viktor Bout, who had been convicted in the United States of arms trafficking and was running for parliament on behalf of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. The party was led for many years by Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Russian television footage from Fedotov’s company shows him sitting next to Bout during a party campaign event. Bout was released in 2022 after the Kremlin secured his return in a prisoner exchange.
In the Russian television report, Bout said that in turbulent times, with Russia facing the burden of Western sanctions and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, bureaucratic obstacles should not prevent Russia from defending important infrastructure facilities.
Fedotov confirmed to The Insider that he is Stepaņenko’s father and that he transferred all of his assets in Latvia
to his daughter after Latvia closed its border to Russian citizens.
“I honestly bought an apartment [in Riga] so that I would not have to bother my daughter and could see my grandchildren more often. I paid taxes, but when it was no longer possible to travel there, I gave the apartment to my daughter,” Fedotov said.
“I would like to remind you that I was born in Latvia, lived there for almost 25 years, graduated from an institute, worked under a state job placement scheme, and was called up for military service by the Riga military commissariat as a reserve officer. I served in military construction units and built purely civilian facilities.”
“After that, there was nowhere for me to return to because the political situation had changed. For some reason, I had become an occupier and so on. So I was forced to stay here, in the Moscow region, and set up my own business, which is what I do now.”
“All that time, I travelled to Latvia without any problems.
I had a long-term visa. My parents, my grandmother, grandfather and godmother are buried there. Now I have been deprived of the opportunity both to see my daughter there and to visit the graves,” Fedotov said.
On the 5th of September, The Insider approached Stepaņenko for comment at her party’s campaign tent in Riga. She declined to speak, saying that she normally gives interviews to Latvia’s national media, but that in the current political situation she needed to consider whether it was worth speaking to a foreign media outlet.
Read also: Stepaņenko refuses to assess threat posed by Russia to Latvia
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