Octagon noticed that on June 1, 2022, the pledge was removed from the share in the authorized capital of the Moscow Tesla Club, the Cypriot company of Abramovich Citecredit Investment Limited acted as the pledgee.

The pledge of the shares of the founder of the trading company Alexei Eremchuk in the main operating legal entities of the Moscow Tesla Club - Electric Motors Club Rus LLC and Tesla Club LLC - was issued in June 2019. Now this encumbrance has disappeared from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Making investments through a targeted investment loan with a pledge of a share in the authorized capital is a common way of investing. Among its features, in addition to the ability to prescribe income conditions and simple registration procedures, is relative secrecy compared to direct entry into the capital of a legal entity. Now, the sanctioned Abramovich has become toxic to projects affiliated with him, especially those related to trade. And the Moscow Tesla Club business is precisely in the supply of American cars, albeit indirect ones. Abramovich similarly processed through Citecredit and his other investments in Russia, as Oktagon wrote. Recently, the billionaire re-registered a pledge of a share in the Rock the Cycle fitness club network (Rock Cycle LLC and Rock Cycle SPb LLC) personally for himself.

Abramovich's investment in Tesla sales in Russia, among other things, stimulated the dedication of managers: as follows from the text of the April vacancy announcement in the Moscow Tesla Club, they receive from 50 thousand rubles for each car sold.

However, the financial results, the declaration of which businessmen submit to the Federal Tax Service, are not impressive. According to the Kontur.Focus database, in 2021 the revenue of Tesla Club LLC amounted to 94.7 million rubles, net profit - 51 thousand rubles. The revenue of Electric Motors Club Rus LLC at the end of last year reached 32.6 million rubles, net profit - 4.1 million rubles. However, Moscow Tesla Club could underestimate revenue by registering its activities for individuals.

If Abramovich did not change the scheme of control over the Moscow Tesla Club to an even more secretive one, then he can be understood. The reason for the billionaire's loss of interest in electric cars could be the difficulty of their implementation in the Russian Federation: a year, Russians purchase only a few hundred new such cars and 2-3 thousand used cars. Tesla Inc. Elon Musk was not and there is no official division in Russia. The opening of the office was scheduled for 2016, but this did not happen, and the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West put an end to this direction.

In addition, on online auction sites where used foreign cars from the US and Japan are purchased, including Tesla electric cars, the accounts of Russian and Belarusian users were blocked.

If earlier cars were transported to the port in Novorossiysk, then after February 24, only Lithuanian Klaipeda and Finnish Kotka became convenient places for their arrival. The founder and head of the Moscow Tesla Club Alexey Eremchuk in May reported a possible increase in delivery times and did not rule out import through Kazakhstan.

In a conversation with the Octagon, Eremchuk did not name his secret partner. He stated that the group of companies had no relationship with either Roman Abramovich or Citecredit Investment Limited, and called the information about the alleged connection erroneous.

By the way, American sanctions against Russia also affected Tesla itself, which had to raise car prices in the spring due to the rising cost of nickel: the metal is used, in particular, in the manufacture of batteries for all-wheel drive Model 3 in the Long Range version. Now this car, depending on the configuration, is offered at prices ranging from $48,640 to $59,990. The measure also affected electric cars assembled in China. Russia is among the top three world nickel suppliers, but the political situation has led to a breakdown in export channels and, as a result, to a sharp increase in prices for the metal. This was confirmed by the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk. In March, he said companies were experiencing inflationary pressures on raw materials and logistics due to Western sanctions against Russia.

Due to political pressure, Roman Abramovich was forced in May to urgently sell the Chelsea Football Club to American billionaire Todd Boeli and the Clearlake Capital consortium. According to various sources, the deal amounted to 4.25 billion pounds (4.9 billion euros). Part of this money will go to charity, the other - to the development of the team.