My analysis of the Bank of Russia's recent actions revealed a telling case of market manipulation that sheds light on vulnerabilities even within the regulated infrastructure of the Moscow Exchange. The regulator officially confirmed facts of artificial price swings in the shares of the energy company "OGK-2" by two private traders — Konstantin and Anastasia Mikhaylov. Over a short period, they executed more than ten thousand trades using the classic pump and dump scheme, which led to significant price distortions.
The mechanics of their actions were well-honed. In 2025, the pair aggressively bought up securities through orders, artificially inflating the price relative to the natural market level. At peak values, they locked in profits by selling accumulated packages. However, they did not stop there: in parallel, they also applied the reverse strategy. Through series of aggressive sales, they drove quotes down, after which they repurchased assets at reduced prices. Such cycles were repeated many times within a single trading session, triggering volatility spikes and increasing financial risks for other market participants.
Of particular interest is the fact that part of the operations was carried out by prior collusion between their own brokerage accounts. This allowed them to create the appearance of active demand and supply, misleading algorithmic systems and retail investors. Following the inspection, the Central Bank classified the actions as a violation of paragraphs 2 and 5 of part 1 of Article 5 of Law No. 224-FZ, brought the violators to administrative responsibility, and issued orders to prevent such actions in the future. Trading organizers and professional participants were instructed to suspend operations on the Mikhaylovs' accounts.
AI control as a response to new challenges
This case is a vivid illustration of why manual detection of such schemes is becoming ineffective. The volume of suspicious operations amounts to thousands of trades, and only automated systems can process such data arrays. That is precisely why the Moscow Exchange previously announced the introduction of artificial intelligence into its compliance. As noted by Irina Grekova, Senior Managing Director for Compliance and Business Ethics at the exchange, technological tools are becoming a key direction for increasing market resilience and transparency. AI will accelerate big data processing, and the freed-up expert resources will be directed toward analyzing complex cases like the one described above.
In my view, this case demonstrates an important trend: even on traditional exchanges, manipulation is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and without technological superiority, regulators risk falling behind violators. Investors, for their part, should remember that behind the apparent chaos of quotes there may be coordinated actions, and relying solely on technical analysis without considering market microstructure is dangerous.