In the wrong hands Millions of users gave their data to an American ‘travel assistant’ app. Then its creator sold it to a Russian businessman with close ties to Putin.
In 2018, Russian businessman Mikhail Shelkov acquired the American mobile app App in the Air, which had access to flight data for users across the U.S. and Europe. As a new investigation by iStories shows, Shelkov is a close associate of Sergey Chemezov, the head of the Russian state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec. Six years after the purchase, Shelkov sold the app for just $2,000, despite having paid millions for it. Since then, Shelkov has partnered with the app’s creator, Bayram Annakov, and the son of a senior FSB official to launch a similar service in Russia. Meduza shares an abridged translation of the outlet’s reporting.
App in the Air was a personal assistant for airline passengers. Boasting “direct connections” with major U.S. and European airlines, the app allowed users to automatically check in for flights, receive information about any changes and delays, book airline tickets and hotels, track flight statistics, order taxis, and navigate airports more easily.
Praised by press around the world, App in the Air was included in Business Insider’s 100 best apps in 2015. Three years later, the startup joined the Google Launchpad Accelerator program, which gave it access to consultations with specialists from major tech companies and Silicon Valley venture funds. The app was installed by over seven million users worldwide, primarily from the U.S., the E.U., the U.K., and Russia.
App in the Air was created by business consultant and mobile developer Bayram Annakov in 2012. Previously, he had launched a geolocation-based chat app called Squeek with his students at Moscow State University and Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. “What might four geek developers come up with? A tool to avoid talking directly to a girl but still get to know her,” he once joked about the project in a podcast interview. Squeek’s popularity at universities and airports inspired him to target a more affluent audience, an idea that eventually became App in the Air.
According to the podcast interview’s title, Annakov sold App in the Air for $50 million, though he doesn’t name the amount or the buyer in the interview itself. When iStories asked the developer, who now lives in Seattle, about the app’s sale, he declined to comment and blocked its correspondent on Telegram.
Nonetheless, the outlet determined that in 2018, the app was sold to Mikhail Shelkov, a billionaire businessman linked to Rostec. By 2021, Shelkov and Annakov had teamed up with 25-year-old Boris Korolev, the son of FSB First Deputy Director Sergey Korolev, to develop a similar service in Russia.
In fall 2024, App in the Air abruptly announced its shutdown without explanation.
A partner of Putin’s friends
Shelkov first began working with Rosoboronexport (which became Rostec in 2007) in the early 2000s, when Sergey Chemezov, a former KGB colonel and close ally of Vladimir Putin, personally recruited him to manage volatile currency transactions. When Putin came to power, Chemezov became one of the most influential figures in Russia. Since 2007, he has headed Rostech, which includes hundreds of civilian and defense-related scientific and manufacturing enterprises; like the corporation itself, Chemezov is under U.S. and European sanctions.
Under Chemezov, Rostec gained control of VSMPO-Avisma, the world’s largest titanium producer. The acquisition came after heavy pressure on its former owners, including raids by the Prosecutor General’s Office supported by riot police. In 2006, co-owner Vladislav Tetyukhin reluctantly agreed to sell his shares after a meeting with Chemezov and senior FSB officials, while his partner Vyacheslav Bresht fled the country. Six years later, Rostec privatized the company, handing control to Shelkov and other top managers under opaque terms.
According to Forbes, the deal required little upfront capital, relying instead on loans from Russian state banks and dividend payments from VSMPO-Avisma. Shelkov emerged as the owner of 65% of the company, cementing his status as a billionaire. A source close to Bresht told iStories that in his opinion, Shelkov was merely a convenient figure and a kind of “proxy for Chemezov.”
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An unexplained closure
Despite acquiring App in the Air for millions in 2018, Shelkov’s Cyprus-based company Norbase sold the app for just $2,000 in 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The buyer, a Spanish citizen managing numerous local firms, was not named publicly. Two years later, App in the Air notified its users that its “final flight” was “landing” — the app was shutting down.
Annakov has said that he used the proceeds from the sale of App in the Air to launch another venture, a U.S.-based e-commerce platform for airlines called Life in the Air. The platform offers airlines hardware and software tools to streamline onboard sales of food and entertainment. “People are on a plane. They’ve got nothing to do. And when people are bored, they spend money — you just need to give them the opportunity,” Annakov said.
Meanwhile, according to iStories, Annakov and Shelkov are working together on a similar project called Onboard Systems. According to the platform’s website, it is used by Russian airlines such as Smartavia, Azimuth, Ural Airlines, Nordstar, and Utair.
In 2021, Boris Korolev, the 25-year-old son of FSB First Deputy Director Sergey Korolev, became a partner in Onboard Systems alongside Annakov and Shelkov, according to iStories. In 2019, Boris Korolev was mentioned in an investigation by former Meduza journalist Ivan Golunov that explored connections between FSB personnel and Moscow’s funeral services market. Korolev is also the founder of the startup Bastion, which received funding from Citadel, a holding company that works with Russian intelligence agencies.
Shelkov and Annakov did not respond to journalists’ questions.
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