Recently, occupation propaganda announced that a “regional stage of the all-Russian drone-piloting championship”, dubbed “Pilots of the Future”, had taken place in Crimea. The event was organized by the “Movement of the First”, which is under international sanctions, and the “Drone Racing Federation of Russia.” The occupation “authorities” coerced more than 350 people into participating in this initiative aimed at the militarization of Crimean youth, ultimately selecting five individuals to advance to the “final” of this provocation, scheduled for November in Moscow.
The aforementioned “Federation”, which reported a turnover of 360 million rubles in 2025, was established in Moscow in 2022 and operates under the close supervision of the Kremlin. Its founders remain undisclosed, while its primary spokesperson is Ilya Galaev, a former executive at “Uralvagonzavod”. It is worth noting that Galaev, who also heads the “Labor Reserves” “Trudovye Rezervy” organization in Moscow, is listed as the “founder” of three “Crimean firms”: “Mountainous Crimea” (“Gorny Krym”), the “Yalta Mountain-Recreational Cluster,” and the “Chufut-Kale Mountain-Recreational Cluster.”
Through these entities, Galaev had planned, as early as 2021, to secure up to 7 billion rubles for the development of a “mountain-recreational cluster” in Yalta, featuring a “cable car built using Swiss technology.”
The current status of this ambitious project remains unclear. Meanwhile, in Crimea itself, there operates a “Feodosia branch” of the “Federation”, specifically, the “Drone Racing Federation of the Republic of Crimea.” Its “founders” remain undisclosed, while its “president” is Maxim Danielyan, a “reserve officer” and “veteran” of the Russian aggression, who also works as a programmer at the Feodosia “Center for the Maintenance of Educational Institutions.”
The “establishment” of this Crimean “federation” was previously announced by Sergey Zyryanov, who served as the “Minister of internal policy, information, and communications” from 2018 to 2020, having replaced the notorious Dmitry Polonsky.
We have previously reported that Zyryanov’s commercial interests in Crimea are linked to slot machines and online casinos. Furthermore, he “represents” the “Russian Computer Sports Federation” on the peninsula and “heads” the “Sports Programming Federation,” the “Phygital Sports Federation,” and similar organizations.
Danielyan, who has spent the last two years militarizing youth through drone-related activities, and frequently appearing in the occupation regime’s “media”, also serves as the “head” of entities such as the “Feodosia Center for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” and the “Social Training Center for Unmanned Systems.”
He is listed as a “founder” of the “Feodosia Drone Racing Federation” and is a “co-founder”, alongside Alexandra Danilchenko and Rufat Alekberov, of the “Simferopol Drone Racing Federation.” Meanwhile, the “founder” of the “Feodosia center” is identified as collaborator Igor Zaikin, currently the “deputy chairman of the Feodosia city council”, while the aforementioned Danilchenko “heads” another of Zyryanov’s ventures, the “Federation of Computer Sports” in Crimea, and also serves as a “co-founder” of the aforementioned “social center.”
Rufat Alekberov, a resident of Simferopol, is presented by the occupiers as a “veteran” of the Russian aggression and an “entrepreneur in the repair business”; this year, he received a “social contract” from the occupation “authorities”.
