Ukrainian producer Naum Barulya, who is a long-time creative associate of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has Russian citizenship, which he refused to abandon during the 10 years of war. Until 2014, he worked in Moscow, and after the Revolution of Dignity, he returned to Kyiv and began working with the 95 Kvartal, headed by the future president, according to an investigation by Radio Liberty's Skhemy project.
After winning the election, Zelenskyy brought his creative team to power. Barulya's daughter Iryna Borzova was elected as a member of parliament from the Servant of the People party. Zelenskyy appointed her husband, Serhiy, as the head of Vinnytsya Region.
"As Skhemy found out, the successful Ukrainian producer Naum Barulya has Russian Federation citizenship, which he has not renounced during the entire 10 years of war. He travelled to the occupied Crimea up to and including 2019, entering the Ukrainian peninsula with a Russian passport. Naum Barulya re-registered his property and restaurant business there under the occupiers' legislation and acquired new real estate. Despite the full-scale war, his restaurant business in Sudak continues to operate. And pay hundreds of thousands of rubles to the budget of the aggressor country," the investigation says.
After 15 years of work in Russia, including on its TV channel, Barulya returned to Ukraine and entered into a partnership with the 95 Kvartal studio headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This happened after the beginning of the occupation of Crimea.
In addition to the Liga Smihu (League of Laughter), Barulya and Zelenskyy worked together on the production of TV series. In the formal and legal plane, Barulya and Zelenskyy formalised their cooperation in the form of two companies.
The first was the Liga Smihu Production Centre, which was also founded by two screenwriters and two brothers, Serhiy and Borys Shefir.
The second is Drive Production, where, in addition to them, Timur Mindich, a junior partner of Ihor Kolomoyskyy, also became a co-owner.
"After winning the presidential election in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy withdrew from the ownership structure of these companies. However, he still has intellectual property rights to the trademarks of their joint projects - Liga Smihu, Games of Pranks, and Krayina U," the journalists noted.
During the presidential campaign, the Liga Smihu was one of the tools of covert campaigning. This was recorded by the civil network "OPORA". Naum Barulya himself took part in the election as a campaigner.
"At the same time, the TV project "Liga Smihu" was also used in the interests of Barulya’s daughter, a candidate for the Verkhovna Rada from the "Servant of the People" party, Iryna Borzova," the journalists added.
Borzova was elected to the parliament, and her husband, Serhiy Borzov, also rose in the ranks - he is currently the head of the Vinnytsya Regional State Administration, appointed by Zelenskyy's decree.
Barulya still has joint companies with the Russian "humourist" and Putin supporter Maslyakov, whose son travelled to the occupied Donbas to "joke".
In a comment to Skhemy, Barulya himself said that the companies were "just hanging around" and had not conducted any financial transactions since 2014. But he did not explain why he had not yet withdrawn from the ownership structure of the Maslyakovs' companies.
"I can't do anything with them, because the founder is there... I need the founder's protocol, I don't communicate with them in any way," Naum Barulya said.
In fact, the consent of the other owners is required for the complete liquidation of the company. But no legal obstacles prevented Naum Barulya from withdrawing from the company's ownership structure, experts say.
"Skhemy asked the National Security and Defence Council why, despite Putin's public support and tour in Mariupol, Ukraine has not yet imposed sanctions on the Maslyakovs. The response from the National Security and Defence Council was that they had not received any such proposals from the President, the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the National Bank or the Security Service of Ukraine. However, journalists write that the Cabinet of Ministers has twice passed resolutions asking the National Security and Defence Council to impose sanctions on the Maslyakovs. These appeals are available on the government's public website. The Cabinet of Ministers confirmed this.
Barulya also travelled to Crimea after the occupation began and has assets in Sudak. He told journalists that he last travelled to Crimea in 2015 or 2016 "to visit his parents". But according to the sources of Skhemy with access to the Russian Interior Ministry's "Magistral" system, Barulya travelled to Crimea at least until 2019 inclusive. And each time he entered the occupied Ukrainian peninsula with a Russian passport.
"The journalists managed to establish that in April 2009, the Russian migration service issued a Russian passport to Naum Barulya, the producer was 49 years old then. At the time, Barulya was living in Moscow and working as the CEO of AMIK. This document is still valid," the journalists noted.
At the same time, Naum Barulya himself flatly refused to talk about the issue of his Russian passport.
"You know, I'm not going to discuss these issues over the phone," he told a journalist from Skhemy.
Barulya also claims that he lost all his assets in Crimea after the occupation. However, as Skhemy found out, he still has three apartments with a total area of 312 sq.m., which he voluntarily re-registered under Russian law, thereby recognising the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation in the occupied Ukrainian territory.
In addition, after the occupation began, he bought a new property there - as a Russian citizen, under Russian law. In 2017, Barulya became the owner of a seven-hectare land plot in Sudak. A year later, he immediately acquired another six hectares and became the owner of a seven-storey building with an area of over 2,000 sq.m. So as of 2023, Naum Barulya owns property in Sudak worth a total of approximately RUB 60 million.
Barulya also co-owned a hotel-restaurant where pro-Russian politicians liked to relax until 2019.
As of December 2023, the founder of the League of Laughter still has two active companies in occupied Sudak, registered after the occupation began under the laws of the aggressor country.
The Profi company, although not closed, is not currently operating. But the second one, Profile-N, is a fully active business that fills the budget of the occupation authorities with taxes.
This is a catering establishment on the central embankment of Sudak called Prokhlada. Until 2019, the restaurant was owned by two people in Sudak - Naum Barulya and his daughter Iryna Borzova, but after being elected to parliament, she re-signed her share to her father. Barulya told journalists that he did not register anything under Russian law. However, in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea, Naum Barulya and his daughter, future MP Iryna Borzova, did participate in the re-registration of the company Profile-N under Russian law. This is evidenced by the minutes of the general meeting of the members of the company "Profile-N", dated 3 December 2014. Iryna Borzova herself, who directly admitted during the elections that the business had been re-registered under Russian law, now denies in her response to Skhemy that she had contacted the occupation authorities in Crimea about this issue. Borzova declined to comment further.
At the same time, Barulya has also won a competition for state funding from Ukraine for his work - namely, his new comedy series. He applied for almost 32 million hryvnyas from the Ukrainian budget on behalf of the Drive Production company, which he owns together with Shefir brothers and Timur Mindich.
The participation of citizens of the Russian Federation was expressly prohibited by the terms of the competition. However, the Ministry of Culture, represented by its subsidiary, the Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine, approved Naum Baruli's application and announced him as one of the winners.
"However, this fact remained in the shadows. All the attention was taken over by another recipient of the same state funding - a scandal erupted around Yuriy Horbunov and his project, the comedy series "SMT Ingulets". He also won more than 30 million from the budget for its production," the journalists added.
After this scandal, Barulya withdrew his application for funding.