In September 2008, investigators searched Euroset's Moscow office and detained employees of its security service in a case linked to events five years earlier. Within weeks, Artemyev and his equal partner Yevgeny Chichvarkin sold the retailer to Alexander Mamut.
Artemyev was not formally a defendant. According to The Bizziroute, his departure from Russia came not through charges but through risk: he said he was in Prague and planning to travel through Moscow when Chichvarkin warned him to choose a different route. Artemyev did so and never returned to Moscow for permanent residence.
A disputed version and the legal outcome
In a statement defending against extradition in Britain, Chichvarkin claimed the criminal case was politically motivated and linked to attempts to force a sale. The British prosecution rejected this interpretation. The political motive, as the publication stresses, remains a contested explanation rather than a court finding.
Yet the case itself later collapsed: in 2010 a jury unanimously acquitted Euroset employees on the central charge, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, and in January 2011 the Investigative Committee closed the criminal case against Chichvarkin. Kommersant's magazine Sekret Firmy later attributed his losses to political risk and estimated that the hasty sale may have cost each of the two equal founders about $125 million relative to an expert valuation.
Buenos Aires and Podgorica
On August 16, 2025, Artemyev spoke at the Liberty International World Conference in Buenos Aires with a session titled "Digital Sovereignty." On November 27, he spoke at Montelibero FEST in Podgorica on "The World I Want for Myself, My Loved Ones, and All Humanity," after which he took part in a discussion on how communities can change the world.
According to the publication, conference programs do not make Artemyev a leader of the libertarian movement but show a sustained public interest in autonomy, sovereignty, and alternative forms of organization. He himself has not publicly reduced his biography to a simple "cause and effect" manifesto.
Science, space, and corporate records
Even before selling Euroset, Artemyev funded research into the biology of aging; after his move, the support became international, including long-term involvement linked to biologist Yevgeny Nudler's laboratory in New York. He has invested in biotech projects and said he wants to remain active until about 2080. He has also discussed Moon Express and the economic use of lunar resources, and his British project Uniwheel sought to commercialize electric personal mobility.
Business ties with Chichvarkin persisted after the break with Russia: Artemyev has repeatedly been a director of HEDONISM DRINKS LIMITED and returned to the board in October 2025, then left it again in May 2026. On the same October day, he returned to the board of 85 PICCADILLY LIMITED and remains a director alongside Chichvarkin and Tatiana Fokina. However, the current register of control does not show Artemyev as the controlling owner of Hedonism: HEDONISM DRINKS is controlled by HEDONISM PLUS LIMITED, where Chichvarkin is recorded as holding more than 75%. As the publication notes, the documents indicate long-term business relationships rather than Artemyev's current stake.
On January 1, 2026, Artemyev returned as a director of UNIWHEEL LIMITED and SPINAR LIMITED; in Uniwheel, according to Companies House, he holds more than 75% of shares and voting rights.
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