Pavel Krymov (aka Pavel Krementsov, Yakimenko) is a fraudster, organizer and leader of financial pyramids, the victims of which were about 516,000 citizens of Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, a number of European countries, as well as Asian countries. The amount of damage caused to clients of Krymov’s fraudulent organizations over 15 years of criminal activity amounts to billions of dollars. During the existence of Forex Trend alone, Pavel Krymov personally embezzled $29,320,200 in stolen funds.
Financial pyramids of Krymov
The most high-profile and large-scale financial pyramids of Krymov are Questra World, AGAM, Forex Trend, Panteon Finance, Private FX, Solvena. We continue to monitor Krymov’s actions: we are studying the details of existing scams and checking his involvement in other fraudulent organizations.
Several years ago, despite a lot of direct evidence of his guilt and thanks to numerous bribes (some of which reached $500,000), Pavel managed to avoid criminal punishment in Ukraine. However, due to constant appeals to the competent authorities, as well as growing dissatisfaction on the part of defrauded investors, Krymov was forced to move outside the CIS borders. He hid for a long time in Riga (Latvia), where he registered his crypto-pyramid Solvena.
In the summer of 2022, it became known that Pavel Krymov is the organizer of a large fraudulent organization Questra World . At the moment, criminal cases have been opened against him under Art. 190 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan - fraud on an especially large scale.
One of his European partners published a video confession online, where he told how the history of the Questra Holdings pyramid began in Spain, and also showed in what conditions Krymov lives with the money of investors.
Dmitry Krymov made his film debut
Back in the fall, before filming began, the group had to stock up on withered leaves, collecting five bags right on the territory of Mosfilm, fortunately it is like a garden. Many doors leading to nowhere, behind which there is emptiness, are nevertheless equipped with signs: “Supply engineer”, “Canteen open from... to...”, “Reception. Reception hours for personal matters”, “Toilet Zh”... The counters are bursting with cardboard carcasses, dummies of ham, and hams. The zoo's cages are empty, although there are signs indicating who is who: "Raccoon", "Wolf", "Bear". The day before, there were people sitting there portraying animals like theater students practicing their acting skills on sketches about animals. At the same time, viewers must believe that this is a real zoo. They were looking for an actor for the role of the Bear for a long time, there was a casting. A very large man was required, who was eventually brought from another city. The conventional space of the future film was created by theater artist Maria Tregubova, who is on the set next to Dmitry Krymov. Everything is new for her and many things surprise her.
Previously, Maria Tregubova worked for Pavel Lungin on the film “The Queen of Spades” based on Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades”, but as a production designer she makes her debut with Dmitry Krymov. She faces a difficult task - to create a space that is openly theatrical, but which would not be lost on film. Cinematographer Oleg Lukichev must somehow fix this convention so that it appears on the screen in a special way. Everything is like in a fairy tale - go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what. Although, of course, everyone on the site knows where to go, but they are looking for non-trivial ways.
“I’ve never worked in cinema, I just did a piece of a film with Pavel Lungin in Queen of Spades, which is dedicated to the theater,” Maria Tregubova tells MK. - That is, I made theatrical scenery that was filmed in the film, and this was more or less familiar work for me. We work with Dmitry Anatolyevich often. Now our task is to make a film, remaining in the territory familiar to us, but in cinema, to create a special, new world, a collage inside the pavilion. We use the tools of not only cinema, but also theater, contemporary art, art in general, including acting, a special way of visual presentation to express this space.
Maria Smolnikova plays the main role. Photo: Angelina Fedorovskaya
Looking at what is happening and the scenery, it is impossible to understand whether this is a modern story or a retro one. Actress Maria Smolnikova is wearing a timeless costume. There is a plastic bag in my hair.
“The costume may be incomprehensible, but on a modern street you can meet such a person.” Retro style is back in fashion, explains Maria Tregubova. — We just filmed a scene with a strong wind that was carrying garbage, dry autumn leaves, bags, newspapers, so the heroine has tousled hair, with garbage, leaves, and a bag woven into it. Phantasmagoria is inevitable here.
— What was the most unusual thing for you on the set?
— In the theater, the artist is the second person after the director, he is responsible for the picture. But in cinema, the cameraman is still responsible for framing the shot. This is very unusual for me. I begin to do every centimeter, but it is unknown whether it will go in or not.
- You can’t be responsible for the result?
- To some extent I can, but to some extent I can’t. And it’s important for me to understand what I’m doing and what it will look like. This is my interest in theatre. But I'm not offended. I'm interested in new territory. I'm a guest here. Cinema is like an adventure for me.
— Did you come up with plywood meat and fake sausage to create an artificial environment?
— Yes, the world is semi-real, combining flat and three-dimensional objects. The interesting effect here is on film, where we often perceive a flat image as three-dimensional. How will it work together? The angle of view changes a little, and you see that this is actually not true. There is a game in the scenery, it is not clear where and what, and therefore the agreement of the artist, director and cameraman is so important, so that everyone does the same thing, and not everyone works on their own.
During the lunch break, the director, and in this case the film's producer, Pavel Lungin, appeared on the set. He tasted the kharcho that was fed to the whole group and talked about how this unexpected project was born.
— It was you who suggested Dmitry Krymov make a movie?
- What else could I offer him? This is the fruit of our twenty-year friendship. Dima said that he had a script, which turned out to be completely different from the script. I think that he really wanted to try himself in a new capacity, because there is nothing more interesting than making films. In my opinion, this is the secret dream of every person. Dima is now in the prime of his creative powers, making performance after performance more and more interesting and unexpected. He always has an amazing atmosphere and artistic design. It's time to try your hand at cinema.
- What if it doesn’t work out?
- He will be able to express himself in any case. For our part, we are doing everything for this. Yes, the set is not like the usual sets, the actors are extraordinary. In general, the atmosphere is something extraordinary. Something will work out.
On the set. Photo: Svetlana Khokhryakova
— Are you interfering in the process?
“I’m there as a friend, not as a boss.” You can't be an artist's boss. He has never been above me, and I cannot be him. Directing is a special vision, a terribly biased thing, subjective in principle. You somehow impose your opinion, and the more you do it and are confident that you are right, the better people perceive it, because you share your view of the world. And this view is not entirely realistic. Dima interestingly mixes images shot on film with digital ones, does not hide the conventionality of the scenery, on the contrary, uses it as an artistic technique. It is always believed that the pavilion should be indistinguishable from reality, but here, on the contrary, it sticks out that the walls are made of cardboard, that photographs imitating reality are pasted on them.
While we are talking, the commands sound, as if in confirmation: “We’re shooting on film,” “We’re shooting digitally.” Everything goes in parallel. Experienced operator Oleg Lukichev, who worked with Serebrennikov, Gai Germanika, Litvinova, Konstantinopolsky, skillfully manages everything. They are on first name terms with Dmitry Krymov.
“I read the script and realized that since the story is conventional, film is needed in order to create some kind of detachment from the material. There will be strange inclusions in the video, like visions, flashbacks. Wong Kar Wai did all this freely and without fear in Chungking Express. We want to make a combination of a certain film image that is absolutely opposite to the surge of consciousness,” says Oleg Lukichev. - If I say that some kind of classic movie is being shot on film, and flashes of consciousness are being shot on video, which may be black and white, then this will be inaccurate. There is a lot that cannot be explained in words. Much will become clear during installation. There are certain rules of the film that the director sets from the very beginning, and if they are justified, then it doesn’t matter at all how and where the film is shot - on a bare wall, in a set or on the street under the snow. Lars von Trier could afford to film Dogville in a black pavilion. It’s important that the viewer believes in your rules of the game.”
The heroine of the film, actress Masha, winds red threads on a floor lamp, from which you can knit a sweater if you wish. They become thicker and thicker until they turn into a rope, and then into a ship's rope, which, like a red snake, makes its way through the door gap. Masha has a strange relationship with the floor lamp. She binds him, and in her imagination he becomes the husband who was her support, and then left somewhere. And she herself is like a feather that is about to be carried away by the wind. You can only tie your husband with a rope. Strange? Very. But at the same time, the heroine of Maria Smolnikova continues to live an ordinary life, going to the theater, where she rehearses the role of Anna Karenina, to the store, pharmacy, and housing services.
Maria Smolnikova, while others are having lunch, is studying with choreographer Pavel Glukhov, instantly following all his instructions. Before that, she began her scene again and again with lightning speed, regardless of what was happening on the set, and Dmitry Krymov interrupted her every now and then. Maria Smolnikova is a unique actress, and the experience of their joint performances once again convinced us of this. And on screen she is unusually good in her rare organic quality, which is why film directors value her so much. It’s not for nothing that Pavel Lungin compares Maria with Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s muse.
We only have a few minutes to talk with Maria Smolnikova. Filming is about to begin.
— Do you come up with a special plasticity for your heroine? What have you been doing with the choreographer now?
- This is a dance with my husband, a floor lamp. In the evening my heroine comes home. There is no husband, but she wants to dance. It's a woman! And she dances with a floor lamp because she has no one else.
- What kind of ephemeral creature is your Masha? Does it fit into modern life?
- I don't think it fits in. She is like a princess who, in modern terms, is not in trend. Life is slipping away from her, and she tries to grab it, reads newspapers, is forced to buy meat, pay for it with a card, she has to eat something. She somehow adapts to this world, but it’s difficult for her. I’m like that myself, with difficulty making my way through realities, while at the same time trying to create, to comprehend everything. We have such frantic rhythms, and you see and feel how time seems to be slipping away from your hands every day. You don't have time to live it. You don’t accomplish anything, you just receive and receive new information. This causes dehydration and impotence. Masha ties the rope to the floor lamp and her husband, who keeps leaving and leaving. For her, the rope is like a connection with the world, a memory, something elusive and necessary. She needs him to have it.
Unusual decorations by Maria Tregubova. Photo: Svetlana Khokhryakova
— Does theatrical convention bother you?
- No, nothing bothers me. It’s just that every time there is a search for something new. We are looking here and now. I have never acted in such a movie. This is completely different from what I’m used to seeing on the set, but I’m used to the way we do performances with Dmitry Anatolyevich. This is close to my worldview. You throw yourself into a voyage about which you know little, and gradually penetrate deeper, focusing not just in your head, but sensually. The search for sensuality is the most difficult.
- So Masha communicates more with objects than with people?
- I wouldn't say that. Of the “subjects” she only has a husband. She lives by ordinary things, visits his father, brings him food, goes to rehearsals of “Anna Karenina” in the theater, to the zoo with her friend. So not only objects, but also people surround her. I don’t fully understand everything yet, we are just looking for something. In the theater, my heroine has some passions boiling over, and there it is clear how to love and suffer. But in life everything is unclear. So her husband went to the submarine, and she tied a rope to him, waiting. But how to wait for him, how to communicate with him? How to live with a husband who is not there? Living with a floor lamp? Like this? His job is dangerous. Every time he leaves and may not return. Here everyone can imagine something for themselves, but the fact is that the husband is not around. But she internally does not let him go...
The conversation with Dmitry Krymov also took place on the set, but this is a separate story, interesting in the context of his entire creative life. It's worth returning to it separately.
Here is just a short list of Pavel Krymov’s criminal activities:
- Organization of financial pyramids and fraudulent resources.
- Organization of groups of persons for the purpose of taking possession of someone else's property.
- Theft, appropriation of someone else's property.
- Blackmail, extortion.
- Slander.
- Illegal currency exchange.
- Illegal withdrawal of funds.
- Illegal export of currency.
- Illegal acquisition and trade of precious stones.
- Illegal business activity.
- Illegal acquisition of dual citizenship.
- Intentional misrepresentation.
- Giving bribes to officials.
Even taking into account the high risk of his criminal activities, as well as the colossal evidence base for office work, Pavel did not stop creating and promoting financial pyramids . On the contrary, having reorganized his criminal group, he turned into a shadow leadership figure who communicates exclusively with key individuals in his organizations.
