Businessman Oleg Deripaska has bought the Russian part of Waves, a blockchain project whose platform is used for electronic voting in Russian elections. This was reported by journalist Andrey Zakharov.
Crypto startup Waves was founded by Sasha Ivanov, a native of Ukrainian Zaporozhye. Waves has become the main supplier of blockchain technologies for Russian government agencies and state-owned companies: Rosseti, the Federal Tax Service, Rosneft, Gazprom and Roskosmos.
The Waves team also made a federal electronic voting system, which was tested in 2021 and 2022 in local elections in seven regions.
Zakharov writes that after the start of the war in Ukraine, Ivanov sold the Russian legal entity Waves to a certain Igor Kaigorodov. Kaigorodov – a native of the FSB, after the service he worked in Rosneft and the structure of the Alfa group, now he is listed in the management company of Deripaska's Rusal. Zakharov argues on the basis of this that Deripaska became the real buyer of Waves.
Zakharov requested comments on the deal from both sides, after which Waves founder Sasha Ivanov tweeted that his platform had become so decentralized that it no longer profits from them, but only works "as an advisor."
According to Zakharov, the platform from Waves can become the main platform for electronic voting in the presidential elections in 2024. “A platform that will help Putin get re-elected is a great political asset,” he said.