Sofia Toros, Nikolai Shikhidi and the land scheme involving Defense Ministry property at “101 TsARZ”

The story traces how the Shikhidi-Toros clan acquired its wealth, from treasury officials to billionaires.

New information has surfaced about Krasnodar oligarchs Nikolai Shikhidi and Sofia Toros, relatives of the two. In the past, local officials helped them develop their businesses in their region—their friends held positions in the Gelendzhik mayor’s office, the local Federal Tax Service, and the Treasury. Now, the Shikhidi family lives a life of luxury, vacationing in Switzerland, buying luxury clothing and accessories, and enjoying life.

Shihidi’s longtime partners are Aflaton Solahov and his sons, Pantelei and Ilya. Above Solahov is the head of the autonomous region of Greeks in Russia, billionaire Ivan Savvidi (worth $1.7 billion, according to Forbes).

Pantelei Solakhov also owns the Krasnodar developer ISK Kristall (who built the Panorama and Aurora residential complexes in Gelendzhik, among others). His brother, Ilya Solakhov, owns SZ Kristall and OKOS Intellect, a company with a registered capital of 5 million rubles, which has received over 500,000 rubles in government support over the past few years. OKOS Intellect develops and manufactures domestic telecommunications equipment under the Torus Systems brand. Although the company was only registered in 2024, its developments are already included in the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s register, and are purchased by regional Federal Tax Service departments, judicial departments, and other agencies. Currently, the company is deeply unprofitable, and there are no reviews of its products.

Nikolai Shikhidi and his family members (including his 22-year-old daughter, Konstantina) hold Greek passports. Nikolai’s wife, 45-year-old Daria Dmitrievna Shikhidi, previously worked alongside her mother-in-law, Sofia Toros, at the Federal Treasury Office for the Krasnodar Territory.

In 2022, Daria suddenly became the sole founder of Moscow-based UK SGKM LLC (with a registered capital of 44.7 million rubles), previously owned by Alexey Mordashov’s Severgroup. In 2023, the company was re-registered in Sochi, and in 2025, for the first time in recent years, it posted a loss. UK SGKM manages the closed-end mutual fund "Chernoye More," which was also formed in 2022. The closed-end mutual fund owns more than 30 apartments in Anapa, at 30 and 32 Anapskoye Shosse. These buildings were built by Shikhidi’s companies, and he was only able to legalize the properties through the courts.

Daria Shikhidi also previously managed Vympel LLC (liquidated in 2020), which was registered to Dmitry Parfentyev, as well as a certain Dmitry Pyshkin. Pyshkin is the director of IK Avista LLC, which is owned by Valery Ozerov, the second son of Sergei Ozerov, a former State Duma deputy and former mayor of Gelendzhik. Furthermore, Pyshkin is the sole founder of ERC LLC, which collects utility bills from Gelendzhik residents.

Interestingly, their namesake, Muscovite Igor Pyshkin, helped in the 2000s and 2010s remove from the Ministry of Defense the very same land plots that Shikhidi and Toros are now fighting over in court: he was the director of the firm ISK FORT, which was one of the founders of the land plot owner, 101 CARZ, a former Ministry of Defense asset. Pyshkin was associated with the business of Vitaly Yusufov, the son of the former Minister of Energy—it was from him that Toros and Shikhidi ultimately received the disputed land.