Father of Latvia’s Sovereign Power party leader supplied ‘dragon’s teeth’ anti-tank barriers to Russian border region and occupied Donbas, The Insider reports
The father of Julija Stepanenko, leader of the Latvian party Sovereign Power, owns a company that has supplied anti-tank obstacles, among other things, to Russia’s Belgorod region and the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
Stepanenko does not hide that her father lives in Russia and provides financial support to her family, but she has not disclosed his identity. The Insider, an independent Russian investigative outlet, found that the Latvian politician’s father is Russian businessman Sergey Fedotov.
Fedotov, his wife, and another daughter own two companies, LLC Forma ZhBI and LLC PLK Forma, both registered in Solnechnogorsk, in the Moscow region.
At the start of Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine, Forma ZhBI said on social media that it was producing anti-tank obstacles, including “dragon’s teeth,” and sending them to the Belgorod region and Donbas. The company also said it had provided stoves to the military.
Viktor Bout, who was convicted in the U.S. on weapons trafficking charges and released in 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange, visited Fedotov’s company in August during his campaign for the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament. Bout was running as a candidate for LDPR.
Fedotov confirmed to The Insider that he is Julija Stepanenko’s father. He said he transferred all his Latvian assets to his daughter after the border was closed to Russians. Stepanenko listed an apartment in Riga and nearly 240,000 euros in cash received from her father in her tax filings. Stepanenko herself declined to comment.
Julija Stepanenko has led Sovereign Power since 2022.
Latvia will hold parliamentary elections on October 3, with the bloc “Sovereign Power/Alliance of Young Latvians,” among others, competing for seats. The Baltic news website Delfi has assessed that the bloc is aiming to become the leader among Russian-speaking voters.
According to September polling data, “Sovereign Power/Alliance of Young Latvians is on track to enter parliament. However, political analysts believe it has almost no chance of joining the governing coalition.
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