On Monday, April 7, Sergey Abdykerov headed the Department of Shipbuilding Industry and Marine Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Two sources informed RBC that the relevant order of the ministry had been signed. Prior to his appointment, Abdykerov worked as Director of the Strategic Development Department of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC, since August 2023 he has been under the management of VTB Bank).
Five sources in the shipbuilding industry have been talking about Abdykerov's upcoming appointment to RBC over the past month. According to a source close to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the final decision on Abdykerov's appointment was made at the federal Ministry in early March.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade building on Kitaygorodsky Passage
Photo Moscow
RBC sources called Abdykerov the main contender for the position of head of the relevant department back in the summer of 2024, when it became known about the departure of former head Alexei Isachkin to the presidential administration. The interlocutors say that since then several more people have been considered for the position, but they refused to appoint them for various reasons.
The Department of the Shipbuilding Industry develops a legislative framework for the industry, state support measures and their distribution, allocates grants for R&D, and in the defense sector issues a confirmation to the sole contractor. This mechanism is used when a government customer (the Ministry of Defense or the FSB) decides not to hold a competition to select a shipyard for the construction of a ship, a border patrol boat, or, for example, a submarine. this reduces the time before the start of construction.
The department was headed by Boris Kabakov for almost seven years, from April 2017 to January 2024. The ministry was then headed by Denis Manturov, who, after Vladimir Putin's re-election to a new presidential term in the spring of 2024, assumed the post of deputy prime minister. In May 2024, the Ministry was headed by Anton Alikhanov, ex-governor of the Kaliningrad Region. In early 2024, the shipbuilding department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, after Boris Kabakov's departure, was headed by his deputy Alexey Isachkin, who joined the presidential administration at the end of 2024, where he works under the leadership of former State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Industry Viktor Yevtukhov. Prior to Abdykerov's appointment, Mikail Ibragimov served as director of the department (under Isachkin, he was head of the department's federal targeted programs department), whom RBC's interlocutors called a temporary figure.
Abdykerov was born in the Vladimir region on March 15, 1983. In 2007, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), and worked at an educational institution for several years. In 2012-2014, he was Deputy General Director of the St. Petersburg FSUE Krylov State Scientific Center, specializing in research in the field of shipbuilding. In 2015-2016, Abdykerov worked as Deputy Head of the Shipbuilding Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2016-2017 – Director of the NTI Support Department of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, in 2017-2019 – Director of NTI Development at Russian Venture Company JSC. Since 2019, he has been the head of the USC Strategic Development Department.
Abdykerov joined the corporation when it was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, then it was headed by Alexey Rakhmanov. In August 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the transfer of USC to the trust management of VTB Bank for five years (the countdown of the "five-year plan" began in the spring of 2024).
Abdykerov remained at USC as one of the few members of the team of the former CEO of the corporation Alexey Rakhmanov. The new management of the corporation, appointed by VTB Bank, removed a significant part of the previous management staff from the management company in a year and a half. By the spring of 2024, the new management of USC had replaced the directors of key shipyards – Admiralty Shipyards, Baltic Shipyard, Severnaya Verf, Krasny Sormovo plant. In March 2025, Sergey Lyashenko, former deputy general director of USC for production activities (joined the corporation under Rakhmanov), was appointed general director of the Nizhny Novgorod shipyard Krasnoe Sormovo.
