Owner of Silicon Valley Complex Built Russian Military Telecom Network

At a military training ground outside Moscow in August 2014, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stood at a microphone, one hand resting on a large red button. Russian forces had just seized Ukraine’s Crimea only months earlier.

Behind him was the logo of Osnova Telecom, a company developing a wireless network designed to carry confidential communications for the Russian military.

Osnova Telecom was majority-owned by Russian businessman Vitaly Yusufov. Russia’s Defense Ministry held a minority stake.

Four years later, a U.S. company controlled by Yusufov paid $72 million for a property nearly 6,000 miles away: the former campus of Sunset Magazine in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley.

The campus is now at the center of an intense dispute over its proposed redevelopment. The fight has drawn in Congressman Sam Liccardo (D-CA), who represents the area and has urged the Treasury Department to investigate Yusufov.

Liccardo raised national security concerns about the property’s location near sensitive technology companies and research facilities in Silicon Valley.

Yusufov’s ties to the Russian government persist.

Leaked banking records, last updated in March 2025 and reviewed by The Newsground, show that Yusufov has earned about $9.1 million in interest on money held at the Russian state bank VTB.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, has been under full U.S. blocking sanctions since February 24, 2022, the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

From Moscow to Silicon Valley

Vitaly Yusufov’s career began in the state-owned energy sector, where his father, Igor Yusufov, rose to the highest levels of the Russian government.

Igor Yusufov served as Russia’s energy minister from 2001 to 2004 during Vladimir Putin’s first presidential term. He later served on Gazprom Export’s board and became the Russian president’s special representative for international energy cooperation. Gazprom identified him in this role.

According to the Russian outlet Kommersant, Vitaly Yusufov worked as an assistant to the head of Gazprom Export from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, he joined the Gazprom-controlled company developing the Nord Stream gas pipeline and remained there until 2009, when he moved into private investments in shipbuilding, telecommunications, and later real estate.

About a decade after leaving the Nord Stream project, Yusufov made his major U.S. investment.

In May 2018, Willow Project, a Delaware company controlled by Yusufov, bought the former Sunset Magazine campus in Menlo Park for $72 million.

Sunset Magazine has chronicled life in the American West for more than a century, covering architecture, gardening, food, and travel. The magazine designed its Menlo Park campus as a living showcase of the Western lifestyle it continues to write about.

The former campus has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its role in California publishing history.

The nearly 7-acre property just outside Palo Alto is now slated for one of Silicon Valley’s largest proposed developments. N17 Development, representing Yusufov’s company, has proposed a massive mixed-use project including hundreds of homes, office space, retail, and a hotel.

The original Sunset campus currently operates as a coworking space called Willow Workplace. The proposed development would demolish the existing buildings.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the purchase generated internal concern at Deutsche Bank, which co-owned the property.

The bank’s U.S. reputational risk committee initially declined to approve the transaction amid concerns about the political climate surrounding Russian money and the possibility of additional sanctions. Ultimately, senior executives approved the sale.

After the sale, Deutsche Bank officials in the U.S. filed a suspicious activity report with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, The New York Times reported in October 2019, citing three people briefed on the matter.

The former campus is now at the center of a bitterly contentious development battle.

The property’s Russian ownership has also attracted attention in Washington. In September, Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA) asked the Treasury Department to investigate the property’s financial backing and consider sanctions against Yusufov, who is sanctioned by Ukraine.

On October 2, Yusufov’s Willow Project LLC sued the City of Menlo Park, alleging that officials had unlawfully delayed the project. California’s attorney general had previously accused the city of violating state housing laws, allegations the city disputes.

On October 19, the neighboring Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously to support Menlo Park in the litigation.

A communications network for the Russian military

Years before Yusufov bought the Silicon Valley property, one of his companies worked with Russia’s Defense Ministry to develop a nationwide telecommunications network.

The company, Osnova Telecom, was founded in 2010 and was approximately 75% owned by Yusufov’s investment firm, AikomInvest. Voentelecom, a company controlled by Russia’s Defense Ministry, owned the remaining 25%.

The company benefited from Russian authorities’ allocation of valuable wireless frequencies without a competitive bidding process.

The relationship continued after Russia annexed Crimea in early 2014. That October, Osnova signed a new cooperation agreement with the Defense Ministry covering technology and innovation for the armed forces.

At a military training ground outside Moscow, the company demonstrated technology that transmitted live video from cameras mounted on combat vehicles and a drone.

Osnova claimed it had invested more than 1 billion rubles in a confidential military communications system and was ready to onboard users in 19 Russian cities. The company was also developing infrastructure in another 21 cities, according to Russian telecommunications publication ComNews.

Despite the company’s claims, the confidential communications system had no users as of October 2014, according to CNews.

The project also faced significant legal challenges. It ultimately collapsed after years of disputes, and Osnova shut down its network in 2015.

But Yusufov’s investment firm continued financially supporting the company. Russian court records show that AikomInvest lent Osnova money between 2020 and 2022, and in September 2025, approximately 170 million rubles, including interest, remained outstanding.

Yusufov transferred ownership of AikomInvest to his longtime CEO, Alexey Kim, in June 2024, according to The Insider. Osnova was subsequently declared bankrupt in June 2026.

Medvedev Insiders

Russian investigative outlet Proekt previously reported that Yusufov invested in technology ventures alongside Dmitry Medvedev’s son, Ilya, who had a longstanding interest in Silicon Valley.

According to the outlet, Yusufov toured the Menlo Park property as a potential investor in January 2018 before buying it that spring. Proekt cited a source familiar with the Yusufov family’s business who alleged that the investment was made in the interests of Medvedev’s family.

The Newsground has not independently established that allegation.

Konstantin Khait, a Russian technology entrepreneur who previously worked with Yusufov, told The Newsground that Ilya Medvedev became an investor in his electronics company, Compo, in 2018. Khait’s account of the investment was previously reported by Proekt.

“Vitaly was his wallet and main negotiator,” Khait said, referring to Yusufov’s relationship with Ilya Medvedev.

In 2022, The Insider reported that leaked Russian tax records showed Ilya Medvedev received more than 3 million rubles in 2018 from a company headed by Yusufov’s younger brother, Maxim.

Khait said that Yusufov and Ilya Medvedev had close financial dealings involving VTB and that his company worked with the bank during that period.

Khait also told The Newsground that he personally witnessed Maria Vorontsova, also known as Maria Putina, the eldest daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, visit Yusufov’s Aikominvest office in late 2019 to discuss potential joint business deals.

Khait said he wasn’t involved in the discussions with Putina and didn’t know whether they led to a business relationship.

The Colombo Crime Tie

Proekt also reported that the Yusufov family owned a superyacht valued at about $100 million, which Dmitry Medvedev and his family used. The outlet identified Medvedev’s son, Ilya, and Yusufov’s younger brother, Maxim, as passengers aboard the yacht during a 2020 Mediterranean trip.

The yacht has long been suspected of being secretly owned by Medvedev. Proekt found that it was registered to a Cayman Islands company with an undisclosed beneficial owner and cited multiple sources who claimed the Yusufov family owned the vessel while Medvedev and his family used it.

In April 2025, American businessman John Staluppi, a former business partner of Donald Trump, reportedly purchased the yacht and renamed it Casino Royale. The purchase price has not been publicly disclosed.

Staluppi’s relationship with Trump dates back to 1988, when they partnered to develop Trump-branded Cadillac limousines. Staluppi said the two socialized aboard each other’s yachts, and they were photographed together at a charity event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in 2009.

Staluppi has also faced longstanding allegations of involvement in organized crime. FBI informants identified him as a member of New York’s Colombo crime family, and New Jersey regulators denied him a casino-related business license over his alleged ties.

Staluppi has acknowledged business relationships with Colombo members but denied being a member of the Mafia.

Campaign finance records show that Staluppi and businesses associated with his car dealerships have contributed more than $1.4 million to Republican political committees since 2020.

In 2024, Staluppi personally donated $200,000 to Turnout for America, a pro-Trump super PAC, while eight car dealership companies associated with his business network contributed another $800,000, bringing their combined contributions to $1 million.

Staluppi also personally contributed $175,000 to Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee supporting Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and the Republican Party. Ten of his dealerships made an additional $250,000 in contributions, according to federal filings.

Millions in interest from VTB

Leaked banking records reviewed by The Newsground indicate that Yusufov held a large fortune at Russia’s state-owned bank, VTB.

An entry last updated in March 2025 attributes approximately $9.1 million in interest to his deposits, which the records estimate were worth about $44 million.

The interest accumulated over time, rather than in a single year. An earlier record, updated in February 2024, showed 51 million rubles in interest. By March 2025, the reported figure was 768 million rubles ($9.1 million), nearly 15 times as much.

Yusufov’s financial dealings with VTB date back more than a decade. In 2011, a company he controlled borrowed about $1.1 billion from Bank of Moscow to buy a roughly 20% stake in the institution, Reuters reported.

Yusufov later sold the stake to VTB as it consolidated control of Bank of Moscow. Interfax reported the loan was repaid.

In 2017, The Insider reported that the former president of Bank of Moscow alleged that Igor Yusufov, Vitaly’s father, claimed that he was acting on Dmitry Medvedev’s instructions during the takeover.

The Newsground could not independently confirm the report.

VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, has been subject to U.S. financial restrictions since 2014. The Treasury Department imposed full blocking sanctions on the state-controlled bank on February 24, 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The VTB sanctions do not automatically prohibit Russian citizens outside the United States from holding deposits there.

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The legal battle in Silicon Valley rages on. Questions remain about the project’s funding source and Yusufov’s financial ties to the Russian state.

In his September letter calling for the Treasury Department to investigate Yusufov, Representative Liccardo warned of the Menlo Park property’s proximity to “defense tech, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing companies and research centers.”

Multiple government or defense buildings are within walking distance of the property. One example is In-Q-Tel, a CIA-established venture capital firm that invests in technologies for U.S. intelligence agencies. Its research laboratory is less than a mile away.

Yusufov, N17, Medvedev, and Staluppi did not respond to requests for comment.

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