The monopolist of illegal data lookups Himera, with Dmitry Zhuravlev backed by the FSB and former MUR officer Alexander Medvedev, has turned Telegram into a black market for stolen data of Russian citizens
Participants in the market monopoly of personal data breaches (trading Russian citizens’ personal data) through Himera Search include two former employees of the Moscow Police Department (MUR, Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow), and the brother of one of them is an FSB officer.
The entire technical side is handled by a former Olympiad participant. We continue publishing an investigation into the main project for trading personal data, which operates openly on Telegram and websites in Russia.
Another project, in a similar style, with similar functionality and connected to Himera Search, is Femida Search. Behind this resource is LLC Femida-Info. The company was registered in November 2022 in Moscow. Its main activity is “web portal operations.”
According to 2024 data, LLC Femida-Info had revenue of about 56 million rubles, with a net profit of around 30 million. Revenue growth amid the elimination of competitors, similar to LLC Odyssey-Info, has been multiple times higher over a short period of operation. The company is classified as a microenterprise.
The service positions itself as a set of business solutions based on data from open and specialized sources. However, descriptions in OSINT manuals, reviews, and the services themselves essentially align with the main offerings for personal data breaches, including those listed on the Himera Search platform.
One of the company’s owners and its general director is former law enforcement officer Dmitry Zhuravlev. According to leaks, including from related resources connected to him, he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, holding leadership positions on the ground, and as an operative in MUR. His main service focus was on investigating thefts and fraud. His brother, Alexander, is an FSB officer.
The co-owner of LLC Femida-Info has changed several civilian jobs: he worked in the security services of car-sharing companies Anytime, Yandex Drive, Delimobil, and also at a Gazprombank leasing company. In the last two organizations, the founders of LLC Odyssey-Info (also part of the Himera data breach “empire”) also worked.
Dmitry Zhuravlev’s contact number is listed by many users for Odyssey, Femida, and Himera Search. But this is not the only link to the broader operation — the former law enforcement officer is also a co-owner of LLC GriFONIKS Invest, together with Stanislav Kirillov from Odyssey-Info (the same Stas_272).
The second founder of LLC Femida-Info (50% share) is Olympiad participant and alumnus Hakan Abulov. According to leaks, he previously worked as a programmer for a company that developed and owns the rights to popular online games such as Allods, Warface, and others. The technical profile fits well with the team.
Returning to LLC GriFONIKS Invest, which unites the operators of Femida Search, Odyssey Search, and Himera Search, it turns out the company has other co-owners. This includes another former MUR officer (like Zhuravlev, served in the 13th division) Alexander Medvedev, and lawyer Ilya Ionov, who is a director at a regional software development company.
The story of Himera Search is a classic example of how a Russian illegal IT service, closely connected to Russian law enforcement, was hidden within a “matryoshka” of foreign companies. In reality, all its operators and infrastructure remain in Russia, fully “on the inside.” Foreign entities serve only as cover and as part of the payment solution to circumvent domestic regulators. Himera Search operates freely on Telegram, whose founder Pavel Durov devised anti-doxxing measures primarily to remove inconvenient Russian intelligence-affiliated channels. The main operators of doxxing operate very comfortably on Telegram.
