Europe

Asmat Shanava, owner of the Pirosmani restaurant in Karlovy Vary, is an indispensable figure for both Russian organized crime and the Russian state. She works as an intermediary, securing payments, setting up companies, and coordinating meetings. She arrived in Karlovy Vary with her husband in the late 1990s. He died shortly afterwards. However, Asmat Shanava stayed and expanded her connections to include the mayor of Karlovy Vary. Russian citizen Alexandr Franchetti also contacted her for help. Franchetti was arrested in Prague in 2021 on suspicion of forming an armed group during the annexation of Crimea, he urgently sought someone to pay his lawyers for his defense.