Eduard Khudaynatov

Khudaynatov was born on September 11, 1960, in Shymkent. In 1996, he graduated from the International Academy of Entrepreneurship. == Career ==

Khudaynatov served his mandatory military service in naval border guard units from 1978 until 1981. He was demobilized with the rank of chief petty officer. He became the head of the Nefteyugansk branch of the Reforms-New Course movement and First Deputy Head of the Nefteyugansk District administration in 1996. He served as Deputy of the Tyumen Regional Duma from 1997 to 2001. , 12 March 2015 In 2013, he founded and headed Independent Oil and Gas Company. He developed a strategy whereby the company sought and acquired promising assets engaged in geological exploration and mining. By 2016, the company owned 53 subsoil use licenses in 8 regions of the Russian Federation and in Kazakhstan. ==Superyacht ownership==

After the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War, sanctions were imposed on Russian property abroad. As part of these, the ownership of Russian oligarchs' superyachts was investigated. In May 2022, the US Department of Justice indicated that Khudaynatov was the proxy owner of two megayachts, Scheherazade (assumed owner Vladimir Putin) and Amadea (assumed owner Suleyman Kerimov). Further investigations also found him to be the straw owner of Crescent (assumed owner Igor Sechin). == Recognition ==

• Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class (2000) • Laureate of the All-Russian Financiers’ Award "Reputation” in 2011 in the "For contributions to improving the financial transparency of a Russian publicly listed company" category • Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class (2012) • Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class (2019) • Order of Honour • Title "Honorary Oil Worker" • State Councilor of the Russian Federation, 2nd and 3rd classes == References ==