Ark Business: map of businesses listed after ALTA banka

Ark Business (Kovcheg Business, «Ковчег Бизнес») has published an external map of businesses that its organisers describe as affected by the withdrawal of ALTA banka’s banking licence.¹ RSLive presents this as a third-party source and has not independently checked each company’s accounts, financial losses or payment arrangements.

Status of the organisers under Russian law

Russia’s Ministry of Justice included the “Kovcheg” (“Ark”) project in its register of “foreign agents” on 1 December 2023, entry No. 727.² Ark Business describes itself as an initiative established within the Kovcheg project.³ The map below is therefore produced by an initiative associated with a project designated as a foreign agent under Russian law.

This status does not mean that the businesses shown on the map are themselves designated as foreign agents, nor that they belong to the organisation. RSLive does not operate the map, vet applications or partner with the organisers.

The map and its updates are maintained by Ark Business. The Kovcheg project is registered as a foreign agent in Russia.Open separately

If the embedded map is unavailable, open the original Google My Maps. The markers and their descriptions are controlled by the external map’s organisers and may not be available in English.

Submitting a business to the external map

Ark Business uses a public spreadsheet for new submissions (“NOVI UNOSI - PENDING VERIFIKACIJA”). The organisers ask for a business name, type, city, public contact details and its Serbian company registration number (MB) or tax identification number (PIB). Their stated verification process checks whether ALTA banka appears among the company’s bank accounts. Submissions without the identifying information or the relevant bank account are removed.⁴

The “Verifikovani biznisi” tab contains businesses verified by the organisers, not independently by RSLive. The spreadsheet is public, and submitting information means sharing it with a separate project. Do not publish private banking credentials or other confidential information.

RSLive’s independent directory

The RSLive map of Russian-speaking businesses covers reviewed cafés, shops and other categories, without classifying them by their relationship to ALTA banka. Businesses may also be submitted to the separate RSLive editorial directory. External map records are not imported automatically.

Footnotes

1. Ark Business external map on Google My Maps; source supplied by members of the community. ↩

2. Russian Ministry of Justice: Kovcheg project, foreign-agent registry entry No. 727; announcement dated 1 December 2023. ↩

3. Ark Business’s description of its origins and relationship to the Kovcheg project. ↩

4. Zajedno uz ruske biznise public spreadsheet, instructions at the top of the submission and verified-business tabs. ↩