The Kremlin operative who secretly ran a hundred-million dollar cryptocurrency network for Russian intelligence from inside Skolkovo’s innovation center
THE THREAD
The previous parts of this series followed the money — through Bitcoin transactions, Frankfurt go-betweens, privacy coins, and criminal cash networks spanning three continents. Every trail pointed back to a single hub: Skolkovo Innovation Center, IP address 79.174.12.175, and a MacBook used to register, administer, and control a secret cryptocurrency network moving hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of the Russian government. Behind that MacBook sits a person. This part of the investigation documents who that person is, and they have no traceable public identity anywhere.
“He does not exist in any public record. He exists in the blockchain. And the blockchain is considerably more detailed than any personnel file.”
THE PROFILE
The operator is known within the network by the nickname MaxiCo. This is the handle used in the closed corporate messenger through which strategic instructions are received. The same individual operates under the gaming handle IMMAX in TWD Survivors — the connection that, as documented in Part 4, linked the ZCash operation directly back to Skolkovo.
MaxiCo accesses the Skolkovo internal network from the 4th floor, office 412 of the Skoltech building. From this office, inside a center built with Western funding and Western partners, MaxiCo administered a covert cryptocurrency network operating in the direct service of the Russian state. Their internal employee identifier is XID 256.376.25. The name displayed in the access command line is Maxim Viktorovich Shabanin, born 03.06.1991. A check of this name and date of birth against all available public records produced zero results. The identity exists inside Skolkovo’s systems. It does not exist anywhere else.
MaxiCo works alone in office 412. The only printer connected to their MacBook is an Epson WorkForce device, and print jobs are sent exclusively from that MacBook. No colleagues share the space.
MaxiCo uses an iPhone 16 Pro Max (1TB) without a physical SIM card, connected automatically to the same IP address as the office MacBook. No bank cards are linked to Apple Pay. No transport apps. No taxi services. The phone is a working tool, stripped of anything that could leave a trace.
One document template saved on the MacBook carries an automatic signature: Junior Specialist, Aiteko Innovation Center. A check of Aiteko’s personnel records found no record of Shabanin M.V. Aiteko is a cover identity: a false employer attached to a person who does not officially exist.
EVERY MONDAY AT 9:30
The most revealing detail in MaxiCo’s profile is a weekly pattern that repeats without exception. Every Monday, between 9:30 and 9:50 AM Moscow time, MaxiCo’s iPhone switches off. It comes back online between 10:40 and 11:20 AM. In the brief window between switching on and activating the VPN, the phone’s real IP address is exposed, resolving to 46.138.224.120–46.138.224.123, Yasenevo district, Moscow.
Yasenevo is the location of the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the SVR. Additionally, MaxiCo’s MacBook, during the same Monday window, establishes a brief wired connection to static IP address 178.251.136.00, which corresponds to the SVR compound. Each session lasts no more than five to six minutes. The connection occurs once every two to three weeks, but always on a Monday, and always from the same location.
Headquarters of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Yasenevo district, Moscow. MaxiCo’s phone activates from this location every Monday morning between 10:40 and 11:20 AM. Source: Google Maps satellite imagery.
TWO CHAINS OF COMMAND
MaxiCo operates within two separate chains of command — one strategic, one tactical.
Strategically, MaxiCo receives instructions through a closed corporate messenger from Vladislav Surkov, whose IP address resolves to Staraya Square, 4, Moscow, the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation. Surkov accesses the messenger from two static points within the same building: one on the 3rd floor via Wi-Fi, one on the 2nd floor via a wired connection, with no more than 50 meters between them.
Surkov was the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration and, as documented in Part 2 of this series, the man personally appointed to build Skolkovo from the ground up. He is also the subject of the next part of this series.
Staraya Square, 4, Moscow — the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation. MaxiCo’s strategic instructions originate from IP addresses registered to this building. Source: Google Maps.
On the tactical side, MaxiCo reports to the SVR, arriving at the Yasenevo compound every Monday morning, as documented above, to receive new operational instructions and report on the status of the network.
“The Presidential Administration sets the direction. The SVR manages the operation. MaxiCo executes: from a desk in Skolkovo, behind a MacBook, running a cryptocurrency network worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
THE STATE-LEVEL DEVICE
One final technical detail confirms the nature of MaxiCo’s operation. The MacBook in office 412 runs a version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus with the system code x1265. This is not a commercial version. Code x1265 is used exclusively on state-level devices in Russia: projects supervised by the FSB, GRU, special services, and the Ministry of Defense. Unlike standard versions, x1265 allows the system administrator remote control over the device and external access to all data on it.
The device running Skolkovo’s cryptocurrency network is not a personal computer. It is a state-controlled intelligence tool, remotely accessible, monitored from the center, and built for one purpose: to administer, from inside Russia’s flagship innovation center, a covert financial network moving hundreds of millions of dollars for the Russian government.
“MaxiCo does not exist in any public record. But the state device he operates from, the building he reports to every Monday, and the presidential address his instructions come from are all real. And they are all documented here.”
The next part of this series focuses on the man at the top of MaxiCo’s command chain. His background, his path to the top of Russian power, and his direct documented connection to the network running out of Skolkovo are all laid out in full.
NEXT: The Sistema Files | Part 6 — The Surkov File: The Man Who Ran Russia — and Its Crypto