Oleg Burlakov

Burlakov's father was transferred to serve in a military unit engaged in the development of means of delivering atomic weapons to test sites such as those in Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlya.

[5][8][9] In 1980, he successfully defended his dissertation and became a Candidate of Technical Sciences at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.

[10] He then served in Kharkov as head of the Department of Aircraft Equipment Operation at the Higher Military Aviation Engineering School.

However, the businessman's widow Lyudmila Burlakova and her daughters Veroniсa and Elena insisted on burying the body in Canada, despite that, according to Izvestia, they never visited Oleg Burlakov in the hospital.

[12][17] Vera Kazakova demanded the Investigative Committee check on the circumstances of her brother's death and find out whether the mortuary staff had the right to refuse to give her his body.

[2] In February 2021, potential violations in the removal of the body were being investigated and the issue of initiating a criminal case was being studied.

[28][8][10] In 2005, Oleg Burlakov, together with Pavel Mitrofanov, founded Burneftegaz, a company that bought up oil fields at auctions.

As a result of his efforts, 8 development licenses were obtained, and in 2013, oil and gas condensate production amounted to 291,975 tons.

[8][29][10] In 2014, Mitrofanov left Russia, accused of offering a 5 million ruble bribe, at which point Burlakov decided to sell Burneftegaz.

[2] In November 1993, companies belonging to Burlakov and Kazakov acquired shares of the cement giant Novoroscement at a voucher auction.

[2] In 2007, Burlakov and Kazakov sold Novoroscement for $1.2 billion to Lev Kvetnoy, another Russian businessman on the Forbes list.

[2][27][10] In the same year, Burlakov privatized the Terpentin paint and varnish factory in Visegrad, and in 2012, he concessioned a lignite and bentonite deposit in Serbia, investing about 23.5 million convertible marks.

[34][8] Burlakov also invested in real estate development and construction, a market he was brought into by Alexander Kripak, former deputy chief of the Navy.

[35] Oleg Burlakov has been fond of ship modeling since childhood and for a long time nurtured the idea of building his own boat.

[36][8] Mr. Burlakov considered his yacht a scientific project and prototype, planning to later apply the technology to develop cargo ships powered by alternative energy sources.

[39][40][9] Burlakov gave considerable attention to ecology in the construction of the ship: the water on board is reused and the team uses treated sewage to wash the floors.

It features separated garbage collection, reusable packages, and a minimum of plastic and chemicals - the "environmental policy" on board is very strict.

[14] The Black Pearl was finally launched in 2016 and is the only vessel in the world capable of storing energy from alternative sources and utilizing them.