Silent on the war in Ukraine, backed by sanctioned companies: who finances Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis?

Early career in Russia

Teodor was born in Athens and moved to Russia in 1994 to study at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

In 2003, he worked as a conductor of the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, an ensemble founded by the Russian Ministry of Culture.

The following year, Currentzis became the music director and chief conductor of the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

musicAeterna

In 2004, Currentzis founded the Musica Aeterna Ensemble, later renamed musicAeterna.

Since 2019, musicAeterna has been presented as an independent project. To support this transition, a legal entity was established — the private cultural institution “Eterna” (ЧУК “ЭТЕРНА”), which Currentzis controls through the company “Kantos.” The musicAeterna website credits support from Russian state banks VTB and Sberbank for this stage of the project.

Screenshot from the musicAeterna website showing that the orchestra receives sponsorship support from Russian banks VTB and Sberbank

Since 2019, the orchestra has been based in the historic building of Radio House, which has been owned by the state bank VTB since February 2022.

Members of the musicAeterna Foundation’s board of trustees include Andrey Kostin, President and Chairman of VTB, Alexander Beglov, Governor of Saint Petersburg, and Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Central Bank of Russia.

Nabiullina chaired the board at least until February 2022. There have been no later mentions of her in Russian sources, which may suggest an effort to avoid creating additional risks for musicAeterna after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the same time, Beglov continued to attend board meetings. In June 2023, he said that the authorities of Saint Petersburg would provide subsidies for musicAeterna’s projects.

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine showing an article on the Saint Petersburg administration’s website mentioning subsidies for musicAeterna.

As of March 2026, Beglov remains under sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. His wife, Natalia Beglova, is also under US sanctions.

Southwest German Radio

From 2018 to 2024, Teodor Currentzis served as chief conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester, the symphony orchestra of Southwest German Radio. After Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, members of the orchestra defended Currentzis amid criticism over his lack of a clear anti-war stance.

The German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung reported: “SWR feels a certain discomfort that Teodor Currentzis’s ensemble, musicAeterna, based in St. Petersburg, receives financial support from the state-owned Russian bank VTB. According to SWR, this ‘from today’s point of view, can certainly appear problematic,’ but this collaboration has been ongoing for a long time. ‘In hindsight, you cannot conclude from this that it implies support for the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine.'”

Russian citizenship

In February 2013, Currentzis said there had been no progress toward obtaining a Russian passport, despite his “love for Russia.” The following year, Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting him Russian citizenship. According to insiders, at that time he was still a Greek citizen (1, 2).

After obtaining Russian citizenship, Currentzis continued to use his Greek passport for international travel. When that passport expired in 2021, he apparently did not renew it or use it while in Russia.

According to insiders (1, 2), as of 2025, Russian records list Teodor Currentzis as a person without dual citizenship.

Pro‑Russian and anti‑Western statements

In 2006, Currentzis said he felt offended when Russia was criticised. He called it “the best country in the world” and claimed that in Russia “there are values that have long been destroyed in the Western world.” A few years later, he described Russian audiences as “better than European ones because they are more talented.”

In 2019, he told Greek journalists there is no censorship in Russia, noting that he receives grants for “very radical shows that criticise the government.” He accused the West of spreading anti‑Russian propaganda and added: “Russia is not the kind of country where people are killed on the streets for being homosexual” (1, 2).

He described the crisis in Greece and Europe as “the result of the actions of international financial organisations and banks” and “a system that has been working successfully more than once.” According to him, the driving force of this system is “the struggle for power in the world.” In the same interview, he called Russia “the world’s only hope” and said, “Some people, however, have not realised this yet. As an independent state, Russia can play a key role in solving global problems.”

No public statements by Teodor Currentzis condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been found.

Currentzis’s companies

Teodor Currentzis registered as an individual entrepreneur in Russia in 2019. The legal entities he owns include:

* 100% of the company is owned by Fitzcarraldo Holding ApS, run by its director Nicolai Vemming (1, 2). He lists himself on LinkedIn and Facebook as CEO of musicAeterna in Copenhagen and Paris, but says he stepped down in 2020 (1, 2, 3, 4).

** owns 100% since 04.10.2019;

*** owns 100% through Kantos LLC;

**** owned 99% through LLC “Kantos” since 01.06.2022.

Kantos LLC

Teodor Currentzis owns Kantos LLC, which operates in the performing arts sector. The company was founded by Tatyana Usatenko (Mikoni). Tatyana is a partner at the law firm “Vertical,” co-founded by Lyubov Duyko, who is also the founder of the Alma Mater Foundation Worldwide, a creative partner of musicAeterna.

According to reports for 2019-2024, Kantos LLC paid (1, 2) approximately 3.6 million rubles (around 47,000 dollars) in taxes and contributions to the Russian budget.

Utopia LLC

Since June 2022, Kantos LLC has owned 99% of Utopia LLC, which operates in restaurants and food delivery. Before the transfer to Kantos, the company’s sole owner was Tatiana Usatenko (Mikoni). Utopia LLC paid roughly 1.7 million rubles (about USD 22,000) into the Russian budget (1, 2).

In August 2022, Currentzis announced the creation of the Utopia Orchestra — a festival orchestra made up of 112 musicians from 28 countries. The project was presented as an independent creative community, reportedly financed by unnamed “European patrons” and the Austrian fund Kunst und Kultur DM, established by Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz. That framing likely appears to have been intended to distance the initiative from ties to Russia’s sanctioned structures after 2022 (more on the funding later in the article).

Utopia LLC was likely meant to be used for organising concerts in Russia, but the company was liquidated in November 2025.

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine of an article on oteatre.info from August 3, 2022. It reports that Utopia Orchestra was funded by “European patrons” and the Austrian foundation Kunst und Kultur DM.

Euphonia Arts gGmbH

In July 2022, Euphonia Arts gGmbH was registered in Germany. Its founders are Teodor Currentzis (25%), Ilja Shakhov (50%) and Andreas Richter (25%).

Shakhov heads Euphonia Arts and “Kantos” LLC, and is also CEO of musicAeterna. In 2024, he acquired Russian citizenship while keeping his German nationality.

Andreas Richter is a German theatre manager and owner of Andreas Richter Cultural Consulting (ARCC), a consultancy for cultural institutions. As of January 2022, musicAeterna was listed as a client on ARCC’s website. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, references to this collaboration (including a dedicated page for the orchestra) were removed from ARCC’s website. Euphonia Arts, however, remains registered at ARCC’s Berlin office, and the address had not changed as of March 2026 (1, 2).

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine. Orchestras and ensembles listed on ARCC’s website.

As of March 2026, the Utopia Orchestra website lists the project as a service of Euphonia Arts gGmbH, responsible for collecting and managing visitor data (1, 2). The company was likely created to formalise Utopia Orchestra’s operations in the EU.

Utopia Orchestra began performing in Europe in autumn 2022. Since 2023, it has been resident at Berlin’s cultural centre Funkhaus. In April 2025, Der Spiegel reported that invitations for the orchestra in Europe had declined after it emerged that some musicians also performed with musicAeterna. By 2026, the two projects have different lists of performers on their websites.

The Utopia Orchestra’s list is likely incomplete, including only around 20 musicians, despite over 100 being announced in 2022. Since only about two months passed between the orchestra’s announcement, the company’s registration and its first performances, it is likely that many of its musicians also perform with musicAeterna. This is further supported by the mention of concertmaster Olga Volkova, who is active in both ensembles.

Screenshot from the website of Utopia Orchestra showing the list of orchestra members

Screenshot from Kommersant’s website dated October 14, 2022. The article stated that the orchestra includes 116 musicians from 30 countries

Currentzis’s taxes in Russia

Overall, Currentzis’s Russian companies paid at least 5.2 million rubles (about USD 67,000) in taxes between 2022 and 2024, of which roughly 2.29 million rubles (≈USD 28,000) was paid after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Who funds Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra

The musicAeterna website says the orchestra has been financed from private sources since 2019. The websites of musicAeterna and the Diaghilev Festival, where Currentzis serves as artistic director (1, 2), include lists of partners and patrons. Nine out of ten musicAeterna patrons and six out of eight festival patrons are entities (or their founders or executives) that are directly sanctioned in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Orchestra partners listed on the musicAeterna website

VTB Bank

VTB Bank is listed as the orchestra’s general partner. Its main shareholders are Russian state entities. The bank, PJSC “VTB Bank,” is sanctioned by the U.S., EU, U.K., Canada, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Gazprom

The gas production and distribution corporation Gazprom is over 50% state‑controlled. Its main legal entity, PJSC “Gazprom,” is sanctioned by the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Nornickel

The mining and metallurgical company Nornickel has two key shareholders:

• En+ Group — an aluminium producer, whose shareholder is Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska is sanctioned by the U.S., EU, U.K., Canada, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Investment holding Interros — founded and led by Vladimir Potanin. As of February 2026, he also serves as president and chairman of the board of Nornickel’s main legal entity, PJSC “MMC Norilsk Nickel.” Interros’s main legal entity, LLC “Holding Company Interros,” is sanctioned by the U.S. and Canada. Personal sanctions against Potanin have been imposed by the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Anton Rubinstein Heritage Center

The Russian non-profit organisation Anton Rubinstein Heritage Center has two formal founders (1, 2): the charitable foundation Svet and Kseniya Svetakova, the wife of entrepreneur Aleksandr Svetakov.

According to Forbes, Svetakov’s key asset is the investment group Absolut, which includes the company Absolut Strakhovanie. This company is an official partner of the musicAeterna Byzantina choir (a separate choir within Currentzis’s musicAeterna project). The legal entity, LLC Absolut Strakhovanie, is sanctioned by Canada.

Rosatom

The orchestra’s website also lists the state-owned holding Rosatom as a partner. Its General Director Alexey Likhachev is sanctioned by the U.S., U.K., Canada, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand.

Connection with RDI Group

In February 2019, Teodor Currentzis received approximately 3.3 million rubles (about USD 51,000) from RDI Culture LLC (renamed LLC “Season of Culture” in July 2023). At that time, the co-owners of RDI Culture LLC were Dmitry Aksenov and Anvar Kalimov, who are also connected (1, 2) to several other companies within the Moscow-based investment group RDI (1, 2, 3, 4).

Since at least 2014, RDI, Aksenov, his private foundation Aksenov Family Foundation, and the Russian Society of Friends of the Salzburg Festival, which he founded, have supported Currentzis and his projects.

Russian Society of Friends of the Salzburg Festival

The Russian Society of Friends of the Salzburg Festival is also a member of the Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival, one of the festival’s key sponsors, which brings together around 6,600 members from roughly 60 countries.

At least until September 2022, the festival’s website included a note thanking the Society “for financial and non-material support (1, 2).” This text was later hidden behind other elements on the page, but it was not removed and can still be found via search engines or by searching the festival’s website directly.

Screenshot from Google showing the Salzburg Festival thanking the Russian Society of Friends of the Salzburg Festival for its support.

Even before 2014, Dmitry Aksenov, co-owner of RDI and the supporter of Currentzis, was acquainted with Markus Hinterhäuser, the artistic director of the Salzburg Festival. Since 2022, Hinterhäuser has repeatedly defended Currentzis and his role at the festival despite public and media criticism. In March 2022, he described Teodor as “the complete opposite of Putin.”

Hinterhäuser also said that he was unaware of any connections between the conductor and the Russian government (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). This is likely linked to the fact that the festival receives funding from the Russian Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival.

Co-founders of the “Antimaidan” movement in RDI Group leadership

Dmitry Aksenov’s business partner in RDI Group was Alla Nalcha, the niece of Russian general and politician Boris Gromov. Her husband Dmitry Sablin, who was serving in the military at the time, later became a co-owner of RDI Group.

Sablin and Gromov actively collaborated in politics and civic activities. They jointly led the All-Russian veterans organisation Combat Brotherhood, which included veterans of the Afghan and Chechen wars.

According to Russian media reports (1, 2, 3), after Gromov was appointed governor of the Moscow region in 2000, members of the Combat Brotherhood assisted Aksenov and Sablin in buying up land from local owners. Under pressure, farmers in the Moscow region were forced to sell their land for no more than $1,000 per hectare. Alexander Svetakov was a partner in these deals, with his bank financing the land acquisitions. This is how the land bank was formed, which RDI Group later used for its real estate development and agricultural projects.

In 2015, Sablin co-founded the Russian movement “Antimaidan”, aimed at preventing revolution in Russia and defending the “legitimately elected government.” Sablin was a deputy in the State Duma representing United Russia, and since 2021, he served as deputy chair of the State Duma’s Defense Committee. In 2022, he led the Duma’s parliamentary group for relations with the so-called “parliament” of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”), and since October of that year he coordinated State Duma activities in the “DPR.” In 2019, Sablin headed the regional branch of United Russia in Sevastopol, illegally annexed by Russia.

According to Russian media, he left RDI Group in 2010. However, the Russian opposition outlet Novaya Gazeta found that Aksenov and Nalcha continued their joint business activities at least until 2018. Sablin’s departure from the business was likely due to his parliamentary duties and may have been formal rather than substantive.

In September 2022, while still a State Duma deputy, Dmitry Sablin joined the Russian military. He later headed the aerial reconnaissance unit BARS “Kaskad”, and in 2023, he took command of the GROM “Kaskad” unmanned aviation brigade of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

In 2024, he was awarded the title Hero of Russia (1, 2), and in December received the “Gold Star” medal, presented to him by Vladimir Putin.

Sablin has been under sanctions by Ukraine (since 2018) (1, 2, 3), as well as by the U.S., EU, Canada, Switzerland, and New Zealand (1, 2, 3, 2022-2023).

Financial support from Sergey Adoniev

Between 2008 and 2011, Teodor Currentzis appeared in the film project DAU, playing one of the lead roles — Lev Landau, the Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize winner.

The project’s main sponsor was Russian businessman Sergey Adoniev (1, 2, 3), who financed the production with at least 10 million dollars. Currentzis said he planned to use his fee to buy instruments for the musicAeterna orchestra.

In 1998, Adoniev was convicted in California for violating the trade embargo with Cuba, money laundering and involvement in a fraudulent scheme to supply Cuban sugar to Kazakhstan (1, 2). The FBI also investigated his possible involvement in a Colombian cocaine trafficking scheme. In 1999, he was deported to Russia to serve the rest of his sentence, but was soon released. Journalists reported that his release came under strong diplomatic pressure and may have been connected to the cocaine scheme in Saint Petersburg, likely involving city authorities and Vladimir Putin personally.

After his release, Adoniev returned to business and in 2007 co-founded the telecom operator Yota.

Since 2019, his Alma Mater Foundation Worldwide has supported musicAeterna alongside Russian state banks, and it remains a partner of the orchestra.

Adoniev is currently under sanctions by the United States and Ukraine. In a press release of the US State Department, he is described as a financier of Vladimir Putin and Sergey Chemezov, the head of Rostec.

Funding of the Verbier Festival

In 2025, Teodor Currentzis performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where he also had a dedicated page on the festival’s website. As of March 2026, his performances are no longer listed in the festival program.

Among the festival’s premium sponsors is the international energy trader Gunvor (1, 2), co-founded by Gennady Timchenko, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin. Although Timchenko formally left the company in 2014 following US sanctions, media reports suggested he may have retained influence over its operations.

Another major donor is Gunvor co-founder Torbjörn Törnqvist and his wife (1, 2). The couple resides in Russia and maintains connections with Putin’s circle (1, 2).

Teodor Currentzis has worked within Russia’s state cultural system for over 20 years. He has not condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, continues to perform, and pays taxes in Russia. His orchestra, MusicAeterna, receives funding from sanctioned Russian politicians and state-owned companies, including Gazprom, VTB, and Sberbank. These connections and sources of financing call his neutrality and political independence into question.