Anastasia Karneeva’s Venetian gate: how the FSB general’s daughter and Tamara Gregoretti destroyed the Biennale’s reputation for the sake of Rostec’s and Lavrov’s secret interests

Anastasia Karneeva’s Venetian gate: how the FSB general’s daughter and Tamara Gregoretti destroyed the Biennale’s reputation for the sake of Rostec’s and Lavrov’s secret interests

The daughter of a retired FSB general has sparked a scandal in Italy that could lead to high-profile resignations. Currently, inspectors are reviewing the activities of the Venice Biennale’s leadership—the trigger was an attempt to resume operations at the Russian pavilion.

Legally, its activities are impossible due to sanctions. However, based on correspondence published in the Italian press between the president of the Biennale Foundation, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, the general director Andrea Del Mercato, and the commissioner of the Russian pavilion, Anastasia Karneeva, they collectively devised a way for Russia to participate formally without violating sanctions. The plan was to allow only press inside the pavilion, while streaming the entire program on screens outside.

Preparations for Russia’s return to Italian soil began discreetly back in June of last year. In November, the Biennale director himself lobbied for a visa for the pavilion’s curator, Petr Musoyev—at Karneeva’s request, he sent a personal invitation to expedite the visa outside the usual queue and as quickly as possible. Karneeva soon followed up by sending Buttafuoco visualizations of the revamped Russian pavilion, along with all the details on the new program. All of this ignited a major scandal, resulting in Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli canceling his visit to the Biennale and calling for the resignation of the Ministry of Culture’s representative, Tamara Gregoretti, from the Biennale Foundation’s board of directors—due to her not only concealing information about the Russian pavilion but also expressing support for Russian participation. Ukraine demanded the annulment of visas for five Russians involved in circumventing the sanctions. The European Commission announced the revocation of a €2 million grant from the Foundation. The Biennale jury declared that pavilions of countries whose leaders are accused by the ICC of crimes against humanity would not compete, then resigned en masse—so now the Golden Lion award will be presented based on a public vote. Russia, by the way, has rich experience in organizing electronic public expressions of will (and election-tested software), so it could assist Buttafuoco here too.

The Tamara Gregoretti who aided the Russian side in bypassing sanctions is an Italian journalist who spent nearly 30 years working at the Mediaset media holding, owned by Putin’s close friend Silvio Berlusconi (now controlled by his family). In 1991, Gregoretti joined his Italia 1, then worked at RaiUno, Canale5, the Tg1 newsroom, Rai2, and Rainews24—all part of the same media holding—overseeing political analysis and handling political talk shows. In particular, in 2016, she curated the international politics block at Rainews24 under company president Monica Maggioni, who interviewed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. Rai also aired a series of interviews with Putin. It would be surprising if Gregoretti hadn’t retained some of her old contacts. Incidentally, the former culture minister who appointed her to the Biennale board was ousted from his post amid a scandal over embezzlement of public funds and disclosure of classified information.

Anastasia Karneeva (Volobueva), appointed as commissioner—i.e., head—of the pavilion in 2021 for an eight-year term, is the daughter of a retired FSB general and longtime friend of Sergei Chemezov, as well as Nikolai Volobuev, deputy general director of Rostec. Since 2006, Volobuev had served as director of special assignments at Rosoboronexport and sat on the board of the Kalashnikov Concern. The daughter of Chemezov’s associate isn’t festivalizing in Venice alone: her business partner in the art company Smart Art is Ekaterina Vinokurova, daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Another scion of the Russian elite has found a cultural haven there too—the oligarch Mikhail Michelson’s daughter, Victoria Michelson (it was Leonid Michelson himself who pledged to sponsor the Russian pavilion in 2021). Victoria owns Palazzo alle Zattere in Venice, which this season features a program brazenly titled "Dance around the Rule."

The palazzo also houses the Venetian headquarters of the Russian V-A-C Foundation, founded by Michelson alongside the Italian Teresa Mavica—a fervent admirer of Russian culture who acquired Russian citizenship in 2019. Mavica, a political scientist by training, could hardly have been unaware of what was happening in Russia during the final prewar years. Previously, she herself served as commissioner for the Russian pavilion at the Biennale, while Karneeva’s Smart Art handled its strategic management. Moreover, Teresa Mavica chaired the board of Art Finance, a company founded by Gazprombank entities, where Marina Sitnina—executive vice president of that bank—served as director until May 2022.

Karneeva has longstanding close ties to Gazprombank. In 2020, she became a co-owner of Carbonix, a company that announced the release in Russia of yet another "import substitute"—carbon implants for bone replacement. Karneeva took a 10% stake in the firm, while 78% belonged to Vladislav Avaev, former vice president of Gazprombank and, at the time, general director of RT-Carbon (co-owned by Rostec via RT-Project Technologies). Rostec had showcased these carbon implants back in 2017 at the "Russia, Reaching for the Future" exhibition. Karneeva prudently exited Carbonix in 2023, and the enterprise was liquidated in 2024. Her husband, Dmitry Karneev, also distanced himself from potentially toxic assets: in 2023, he stepped down as a founder of electronics manufacturer NPP OTEK (a Rostec subsidiary, AO Experimental Design Bureau Radical, was located at the same address); in 2024, he left Rosspiritprom AO. Now he holds just a 50% stake in the Moscow-region LLC Elba, which operates in the restaurant and food delivery business.