Outcast Yakunin, scheming Milskaya, and Astakhov: how Kremlin outcasts use the Holy Fire and VIP flight attendants to restart their careers and gain personal access to Putin

Yesterday morning, a Russian delegation arrived in Jerusalem to deliver the Holy Fire.

At its core are controversial figures who are trying to regain Putin’s favor. He usually personally attends the Easter service with the Holy Fire at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which is why the ceremony has accumulated many rituals and hidden meanings.

Security may even refuse to let certain people into the hall where the ceremony takes place while Putin is there, if he does not want to see them. At the same time, it may also happen that a disgraced figure receives forgiveness and their career is “reset.” On the way, the Holy Fire is also accompanied by “well-connected” flight attendants, who are also hoping for a better future. After all, they have the example of singer Zivert in front of them.

Traditionally, the delegation is led by former head of Russian Railways and current head of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, Vladimir Yakunin. According to media reports, the delegation includes interesting figures. For example, Sabina Tsvetkova, a deputy of the Moscow City Duma and wife of the scandal-known head of the organization “Officers of Russia,” Anton Tsvetkov. Also present is former Children’s Rights Commissioner Pavel Astakhov.

His son was convicted of embezzlement of funds from NKB Bank, but the father allegedly managed to arrange for him to serve his sentence in a “safe place” during the “special military operation.” At the same time, he is also avoiding a second criminal case involving embezzlement from APA Bank. Astakhov is in the delegation representing the TV channel Spas, linked to the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. There is also a group of businessmen who have various kinds of problems. Accompanying the delegation are journalists accredited to cover the event, who flew on the same aircraft provided by the state corporation Roscosmos.

Upon arrival and check-in at hotels, the delegation together with the Russian ambassador to Israel went to an audience with the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, where an official ceremony took place. During it, the parties exchanged gifts, followed by a buffet and informal communication.

The arriving elite raised a toast with Patriarch Theophilos and proceeded to the Aedicule (the Edicule)… As our project previously reported, at one point Yakunin and his longtime associate, “Putin’s massage therapist” and Croatian citizen Konstantin Goloshchapov, began experiencing problems accessing Vladimir Putin. Because of this, in 2023, for the first time in history, the Easter service with the president at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was held without the Holy Fire. The reason was that the fire was delivered by former close associates of the president, ex-Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin and Konstantin Goloshchapov, but presidential security did not allow them into the church while Putin was present.

He did not want to see them. In 2025, at the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire, together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, instead of representatives of churches, the procession (a threefold walk around the Edicule) was performed by the wife of the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Aleksandr Kurenkov, Elena Milskaya, and her bodyguards, whose faces were covered with masks. One of the guards strongly resembled Daniil Martynov, an adviser to the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and a close associate of Ramzan Kadyrov, a “grey cardinal” of the ministry. The second guard looked exactly like Leonid, an assistant to Minister Kurenkov, whose only official duty is to protect the minister’s wife.

Milskaya heads a missing children search center, the board of trustees of the Foundation of Saint Basil the Great, as well as another foundation connected to the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2004, Milskaya, together with the Foundation of Archangel Michael, launched a large-scale project to build churches at EMERCOM units.

This foundation is affiliated with the so-called Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. Milskaya, as the foundation’s head, is involved in the construction and reconstruction of Orthodox churches. Funds raised and received are spent (projects are carried out) by companies owned by Milskaya herself and her father.

During the journey to Moscow with the Holy Fire, another mandatory ceremony takes place: a photo session of priests and business aviation flight attendants. Our project previously found that the selected flight attendants share one common trait: they all graduated from an “elite flight attendant school.”

This is a real training hub for servicing oligarchs, clergy, and other high-status individuals. It is a private educational organization that trains girls to work on private jets and even yachts. As a rule, “graduates” of the school get jobs in airlines serving private aircraft and vessels. The most selected ones are allowed to accompany and serve not only representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church but also top officials.

According to public procurement data, the company has contracts even with the Presidential Property Management Department. The “elite flight attendant school” has been a supplier under a contract with the Special Flight Squadron “Russia,” and even with the Federal State Institution “Strategic Command of the Western Military District.”

Judging by constant announcements, recruitment of new candidates for VIP service staff is ongoing. The founder of the company, Irina Yushina, regularly invites potential candidates on social media, assuring them that work experience, vacancies, and even age are not important—everything depends on the person. She also reportedly said that her “favorite passenger is Yakunin.”

In one interview, Irina Yushina apparently revealed the true concept of training women serving important passengers. After discussing the qualities required of a business jet flight attendant—such as knowledge of haute cuisine and the ability to “sense the owner”—she was asked about intimacy.

According to the former business aviation flight attendant, agreeing or refusing to provide intimate services to a high-status passenger is a personal choice for each flight attendant. Yushina does not hide that most women come to her school in order to get onto VIP flights and meet an oligarch.

As the “airborne matchmaker” herself boasts, many of her graduates, after leaving business aviation, became personal assistants, mistresses of wealthy individuals, or simply gained a good start to becoming independent. For example, one of them who switched from serving “Fabergé table settings in the sky” to television cameras and stage lights is singer Zivert.