SCORPIO
Putin’s number two, Igor Sechin, secretly visited South Africa days after Blinken — Ramaphosa professes ignorance Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) at the Zvezda shipyard in the town of Bolshoi Kamen, about 30km east of Vladivostok, Russia, in 2019. (Photo: Epa-Efe / Michael Klimentyev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool) 
The powerful Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, chairperson and CEO of Russia’s largest oil company, the state-owned Rosneft, and widely believed to be President Vladimir Putin’s “de facto deputy”, secretly visited South Africa last week. President Cyril Ramaphosa, through his spokesperson, claims no awareness of the visit.
Sechin, one of Russia’s notorious oligarchs and widely sanctioned by the West, appeared to have come to South Africa mainly for a holiday in Cape Town and the Kruger National Park. But while in Cape Town he also briefly flew to Lanseria Airport on 15 August and spent just over three hours in Gauteng, prompting considerable speculation.
Did he travel to Gauteng to meet senior government officials? Perhaps to discuss oil purchases? Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, denied that the two men had met or even that the President was aware Sechin was in the country. The Department of International Relations referred all queries to the Presidency.
ANC MP Lawrence McDonald claims that Sechin’s aircraft flew to Lanseria International Airport on 15 August without passengers, merely to refuel as the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) had refused to refuel it in Cape Town because of Western sanctions against Russia.
In any case, South Africa’s intelligence services should have known that Putin’s closest crony and the second most powerful man in Russia was in South Africa. Putin and Sechin go back to Putin’s days as deputy mayor of St Petersburg in 1994 when Sechin was his chief of staff. If South African intelligence did know Sechin was in South Africa it would have been a serious dereliction of duty not to inform senior officials, if not Ramaphosa himself.
Sechin arrived in South Africa just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had left the country after an official visit in which he had met Ramaphosa and International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor to co-chair the Strategic Dialogue between the two countries. The issue of Russia’s war against Ukraine came up several times in these discussions. At one point Pandor publicly rebuked Blinken for legislation going through the US Congress that would punish African individuals and companies for doing business with Russia.
However, diplomatic sources said that as things now stood, US sanctions did not have secondary effects. “They limit doing business with Russia, but unlike our sanctions on Iran, they do not punish countries or businesses that do business with Russia.”
ANC MP McDonald’s role in Sechin’s visit is intriguing too. He tweeted on 16 August — the day after Sechin’s jet had flown from Cape Town to Lanseria and back — that “Never Again will a Russian aircraft on South African soil be refused fuel at ACSA airports. I have just stopped that nonsensical behaviour. Svetlana Medvedeva and RA-73455 @RosneftEN I apologize on behalf of @ACSA and South Africa.”
RA-72455 is the registration number of the B737 Boeing Business Jet in which Sechin flew to South Africa.
Svetlana Medvedeva is Russia’s former first lady, the wife of Dmitry Medvedev who was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012. He was widely regarded as a proxy for Putin, who could not run for president again as he had already completed two terms.
News24 reported last month that a Bombardier Global 5000 private jet registered in Svetlana Medvedeva’s name had to divert its return flight from Cape Town International Airport to Lanseria International Airport on 6 July because its operators were denied fuel by suppliers in Cape Town. The reporter was unable to confirm if Medvedeva herself was on the plane.
‘Avid aviation enthusiast’
McDonald’s mention of “RA-73455 @RosneftEN” is clearly a reference to Sechin’s aircraft. Daily Maverick spoke to McDonald to ask how he had become involved in the saga. He said he was an avid aviation enthusiast and had become aware of the problem from having followed the refuelling problems of the Medvedeva aircraft and also a Russian giant Antonov An-24 cargo plane which had earlier been refused refuelling at OR Tambo International Airport.
McDonald said he had tracked the flight of the Rosneft jet on Flight Aware, an aircraft tracking app, and noticed that it had flown to Cape Town and then had to fly to Lanseria on 15 August. He had called Lanseria and the airport had confirmed that the plane had to fly to Lanseria — which is a private airport, not run by Acsa — because it had been refused fuel in Cape Town.
McDonald said he then spoke to Acsa and was told that a BP-Shell consortium supplied all the Acsa airports and had refused to refuel the Rosneft plane “because their companies in the UK gave them instructions not to refuel Russian aircraft. And Iranian aircraft.
“It doesn’t make sense. We’re a country that’s growing. We need money. These Russian tourists come here and spend millions,” said McDonald. And he added that as a member of BRICS, SA should not propagate “colonial laws”.
Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations
McDonald said he had called the Acsa CEO, Mpumi Mpofu, and told her “we need to find another way to handle this”, and she had agreed that in future Acsa would refuel Russian aircraft with emergency fuel from its own stocks “so we won’t need to rely on BP and Shell, etc.”
His account differs on one important point from what Daily Maverick learnt, in that he says the Rosneft aircraft was refuelled at Lanseria on 15 August on a special trip from Cape Town rather than at Lanseria on 19 August before departing from South Africa.
McDonald said he did not know that Sechin was on board when the Rosneft plane came to South Africa.
Sechin entered South Africa on 12 August, landing at Cape Town International Airport at about 10.30 on a B737 Boeing Business Jet, RA-73455. There were four people with him on the plane, of which at least two are said to be female.
Scorpio confirmed that his son, Ivan Sechin, also on the Western banned list, was not one of the passengers.
Some sources said Sechin was accompanied by a large security detail, but this could not be confirmed at the time of publishing this story.
Sechin’s plane had flown from Moscow to Saudi Arabia on 11 August, refuelling at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Kenya on 12 August before landing at Cape Town International Airport. It seems that the Sechin party was in South Africa mainly for a vacation, because Sechin’s plane flew to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport on 16 August, where it spent two days before leaving early on the morning of 19 August for Lanseria airport. After refuelling, Sechin’s Boeing left the country and landed in the Seychelles on the evening of 19 August and then flew to the Maldives the next day.
The anomaly: Sechin seemed to have interrupted his Cape Town stay with a brief trip to Lanseria.
Two waiting BMWs
Sechin’s Boeing left Cape Town just before 6am on 15 August and landed in Lanseria at 7.20. Sechin and his entourage were seen climbing into two BMWs waiting at Lanseria and drove off in the direction of Pretoria, Daily Maverick has been told.
Significantly, the plane was not refuelled at this stage.
At 10.45, just over three hours after the plane had landed in Lanseria, Sechin and his entourage left for Cape Town again.
Whatever they did in Gauteng, it seems to have been brief.
The plane departed the next day for Kruger International.
Scorpio understands that Sechin’s plane used a third-party company in the UAE, Jetex, to negotiate payment for the fuel. Payments for the fuel also emanated from the UAE. In South Africa, negotiations were handled by ExecuJet. Questions about the Luxembourg ownership of ExecuJet are relevant here.
The Boeing in which Sechin flew seems to belong or to have belonged to Rosneft. All data on ownership seem to have been deleted from online aviation databases.
However, aviation groups and McDonald’s tweet seem to support the view that RA-73455 is a Rosneft plane. It is currently operated by UTair Aviation, a Russian airline. But RA-73455 is not registered under UTair’s list of planes, strengthening the suspicion that Rosneft is trying to camouflage its ownership.
One source said that European Union sanctions must have forced Rosneft to re-register the plane in Russia under UT air AOC as it operates B737s already and probably has the expertise to look after the Boeing planes. The fact that the colour scheme stayed the same seems to confirm this.
They said the Boeing’s tail number used to be OE-IRF, which was managed on behalf of Rosneft. The same aircraft was now RA-73455 with a colour scheme identical to when it was Austrian-registered.
In March this year, Bloomberg reported that Putin had steadily clipped the wings of all the once-powerful oligarchs — except Sechin.
“It’s safe to say that he didn’t originally get the job [as head of Rosneft] because of his expertise managing energy companies,” Bloomberg wrote. “Like Putin, Sechin is a former intelligence operative, and the president simply gave Rosneft to Sechin in 2004.
“Putin bulked up Rosneft by dethroning one-time oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and folding the assets of his company, Yukos Oil, into Rosneft. He then imprisoned Khodorkovsky.”
Rosneft is the third-largest Russian company and the second-largest state-controlled company (after Gazprom).
The chairperson of its board of directors is former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who was appointed to the board in 2017 after Rosneft was already under sanctions in retaliation for Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea. DM
Adverts on/off? You choose. X
Daily Maverick © All rights reserved
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.Cookie SettingsManage consent Close
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __cfduid | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFlare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
| _GRECAPTCHA | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Google. In addition to certain standard Google cookies, reCAPTCHA sets a necessary cookie (_GRECAPTCHA) when executed for the purpose of providing its risk analysis. |
| cid | 1 year | This is an important cookie in making credit card transaction on the website. It allows the online transaction without storing the credit card information.This service is provided by Stripe.com. |
| connect.sid | 1 month | This cookie is used for authentication and for secure log-in. It registers the log-in information. |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
| elementor | never | This cookie is used by the website's WordPress theme. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time. |
| JSESSIONID | session | Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests. |
| PHPSESSID | session | This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed. |
| viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __atuvc | 1 year 1 month | This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated. |
| __atuvs | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated. |
| __cf_bm | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by CloudFlare. The cookie is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management. |
| __pvi | 1 day | This cookie is used for the implementation of the news content from other sites. |
| bcookie | 2 years | This cookie is set by linkedIn. The purpose of the cookie is to enable LinkedIn functionalities on the page. |
| lidc | 1 day | This cookie is set by LinkedIn and used for routing. |
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| d | 3 months | This cookie tracks anonymous information on how visitors use the website. |
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __gads | 1 year 24 days | This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites. |
| _ga | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
| _ga_Y7XD5FHQVG | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. |
| _gat_UA-10686674-1 | 1 minute | This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It appears to be a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. |
| _gid | 1 day | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visted in an anonymous form. |
| ajs_anonymous_id | never | This cookie is set by Segment.io to check the number of ew and returning visitors to the website. |
| ajs_user_id | never | The cookie is set by Segment.io and is used to analyze how you use the website |
| ANON_ID | 3 months | This cookie is provided by Tribalfusion. The cookie is used to give a unique number to visitors, and collects data on user behaviour like what page have been visited. This cookie also helps to understand which sale has been generated by as a result of the advertisement served by third party. |
| jam_heavy_ga_session | 5 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. |
| UserID1 | 3 months | The cookie sets a unique anonymous ID for a website visitor. This ID is used to continue to identify users across different sessions and track their activities on the website. The data collected is used for analysis. |
| uvc | 1 year 1 month | The cookie is set by addthis.com to determine the usage of Addthis.com service. |
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __tbc | 2 years | This cookie is used for measuring the efficiency of advertisement by registering data on visitors from multiple website. |
| _cc_aud | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
| _cc_cc | session | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
| _cc_dc | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
| _cc_id | 8 months 26 days | The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising. |
| _kuid_ | 5 months 27 days | The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising. |
| _rxuuid | 1 year | The main purpose of this cookie is targeting, advertesing and effective marketing. This cookie is used to set a unique ID to the visitors, which allow third party advertisers to target the visitors with relevant advertisement up to 1 year. |
| ANON_ID_old | 3 months | This cookie helps to categorise the users interest and to create profiles in terms of resales of targeted marketing. This cookie is used to collect user information such as what pages have been viewed on the website for creating profiles. |
| bscookie | 2 years | This cookie is a browser ID cookie set by Linked share Buttons and ad tags. |
| CMID | 1 year | The cookie is set by CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage behavior for targeted advertising. |
| CMPRO | 3 months | This cookie is set by Casalemedia and is used for targeted advertisement purposes. |
| CMPS | 3 months | This cookie is set by Casalemedia and is used for targeted advertisement purposes. |
| CMST | 1 day | The cookie is set by CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage behavior for targeted advertising. |
| DSID | 1 hour | This cookie is setup by doubleclick.net. This cookie is used by Google to make advertising more engaging to users and are stored under doubleclick.net. It contains an encrypted unique ID. |
| google_push | 5 minutes | This cookie is set by the Bidswitch. This cookie is used to collect statistical data related to the user website visit such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been loaded. This collected information is used to sort out the users based on demographics and geographical locations inorder to serve them with relevant online advertising. |
| i | 1 year | The purpose of the cookie is not known yet. |
| id | 3 months | The main purpose of this cookie is targeting and advertising. It is used to create a profile of the user's interest and to show relevant ads on their site. This Cookie is set by DoubleClick which is owned by Google. |
| IDE | 1 year 24 days | Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. |
| IDSYNC | 1 year | This cookie is used for advertising purposes. |
| KADUSERCOOKIE | 3 months | The cookie is set by pubmatic.com for identifying the visitors' website or device from which they visit PubMatic's partners' website. |
| KTPCACOOKIE | 1 day | This cookie is set by pubmatic.com for the purpose of checking if third-party cookies are enabled on the user's website. |
| ljt_reader | 1 year | This is a Lijit Advertising Platform cookie. The cookie is used for recognizing the browser or device when users return to their site or one of their partner's site. |
| loc | 1 year 1 month | This cookie is set by Addthis. This is a geolocation cookie to understand where the users sharing the information are located. |
| mc | 1 year 1 month | This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website. |
| mt_mop | 1 month | Stores information about how the user uses the website such as what pages have been loaded and any other advertisement before visiting the website for the purpose of targeted advertisements. |
| personalization_id | 2 years | This cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting. |
| suid_legacy | 1 year | This cookie is used to collect information on user preference and interactioin with the website campaign content. This cookie is used for promoting events and products by the webiste owners on CRM-campaign-platform. |
| TDCPM | 1 year | The cookie is set by CloudFlare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising. |
| TDID | 1 year | The cookie is set by CloudFlare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising. |
| test_cookie | 15 minutes | This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
| tluid | 3 months | This cookie is set by the provider AdRoll.This cookie is used to identify the visitor and to serve them with relevant ads by collecting user behaviour from multiple websites. |
| tuuid | 1 year | This cookie is set by .bidswitch.net. The cookies stores a unique ID for the purpose of the determining what adverts the users have seen if you have visited any of the advertisers website. The information is used for determining when and how often users will see a certain banner. |
| tuuid_lu | 1 year | This cookie is set by .bidswitch.net. The cookies stores a unique ID for the purpose of the determining what adverts the users have seen if you have visited any of the advertisers website. The information is used for determining when and how often users will see a certain banner. |
| uid | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is used to measure the number and behavior of the visitors to the website anonymously. The data includes the number of visits, average duration of the visit on the website, pages visited, etc. for the purpose of better understanding user preferences for targeted advertisments. |
| uuid | 1 year 27 days | To optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites such as what pages have been loaded. |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website. |
| wfivefivec | 1 year 1 month | The domain of this cookie is owned by Dataxu. The main business activity of this cookie is targeting and advertising. This cookie tracks the advertisement report which helps us to improve the marketing activity. |
| xbc | 2 years | This cookie is used for optmizing the advertisement on the website more relevant by analysing the user behaviour and interaction with the website. |
| YSC | session | This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. |
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __cflb | 23 hours | This cookie is used by Cloudflare for load balancing. |
| ajs_group_id | never | This cookie is set by Segment.io. The purpose of the cookie is currently not identified. |
| revengine-browser-token | session | RevEngine Data Tool. |
| UserMatchHistory | 1 month | Linkedin – Used to track visitors on multiple websites, in order to present relevant advertisement based on the visitor's preferences. |
| vicinity_id | 1 year 10 months 24 days 11 hours | Vicinity Advertising. |
