Farkhad Akhmedov

Akhmedov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR in 1945 to Azerbaijani parents – Teymur and Asadi. He was a young schoolboy when his Father was sentenced to death for state-property embezzlement in a debauched case in the USSR by the KGB. He then fled to Moscow at the age of 15 with 48 rubles, studied to be a mechanic; spent several years in the Navy and graduated from the Moscow Veterinary Academy's Commodity Research & Animal Commodities department as a specialist in fur.

Akhmedov, who always lived in Moscow; started to expand his Business to England in the early 1980's and began trading Russian-sourced Sable-skins on the London Commodities Exchange. In 1987 he founded Tansley Trading Ltd, which sourced and supplied both new-western and second-hand Russian equipment to Russian gas producers.

As a result of supplying them equipment, in 1993 Akhmedov bought a 5% share in Northgas, an oil & natural gas field founded by US engineering company Bechtel, based in Siberia which has a field in the Arctic Circle. In 1998, he bought-out Bechtel's remaining share as they did not see any Future value in developing the field for oil and natural gas production.

Akhmedov was Chairman of the Committee on Legal and Judicial Affairs in the Russian Federation Council from 2004 – 2009. He helped push through several laws encouraging the protection of children, animals, decreasing bureaucracy within the state and increasing transparency laws for Russian officials.

In 2005, threatened with the loss of his license by the Russian state to produce gas, Akhmedov agreed to give Gazprom 51% of his shares, in return for not pursuing any claims against Akhmedov.

2007–2010 Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe representing Russia.

Akhmedov was a monitor from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in the 2010 Azerbaijani parliamentary election. Some say that Akhmedov's role was biased, being born in Azerbaijan. However, Akhmedov did produce recommendations on Future elections and the public noted that Ilham Aliyev's Father, Heydar Aliyev ordered the execution of Akhmedov's Father, Teymur. This could have made Akhmedov's position biased against the current President at that time, hence the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe continued allowing Akhmedov to be a monitor and even allowed him to have the final decision in whether to accept and recognize the elections. Many political analysts see this as being the most important decision, which was in Akhmedov's hands, in deciding whether to allow the Aliyev legacy to continue.

To date, Akhmedov does not have any political roles and spends most of his time in Baku, at the time due to his late mother living there - according to Azerbaijani media. Akhmedov's late Father, Teymur, was buried near Akhmedov's residence in Baku. His corpse was found in 2012 due to extensive searches and personal intervention by Ilham Aliyev.

In 2015, Akhmedov emerged publicly as a major buyer in the art auction market. He purchased Mark Rothko's Untitled Yellow and Blue for US$46.5 million.

In 2016, Akhmedov was credited by Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu - the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Turkey) for helping in the recuperation of relations between Russia and Turkey. Notably, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated that I also have a friend Farhad Ahmedov, a former Russian senator, whom I know since my work in PACEParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Farkhad grew up in Russia, grew stronger in economic terms and even was a senator. Then he returned to Azerbaijan. He very much loves Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia. He was also in close contact with Putin and knows him well. Farkhad Akhmedov offered our President to write a letter to Vladimir Putin. He said that a letter will be more effective than numerous meetings of Turkish and Russian delegations. If we look at the contents of the letter, we will see that it reflects what Farkhad Akhmedov said. Proposals by Farkhad Akhmedov as a man, who knew Putin as a close friend, were very valuable.