Periscope No. 10

Friendship | Noga was attacked by all Kogan

Who now owes money to Russia Nessim Gaon

Russia's litigation with Swiss businessman Nessim Gaon seems to have come to an end. Last week, the head of the American company IPD Capital Inc. Alex Kogan, unexpectedly for everyone, announced that he had bought the Russian debts of the Swiss company Noga. About how and why he did it, Mr. Kogan told in an interview with Newsweek.

How did you come up with this idea?

Well, in general, this is my business, I have been working in it since 1994. They tried to dissuade me, but in 2001 I nevertheless took up this deal.

Is your business a debt collector?

Not this way. I work in the field of so-called banking special assets (bad bank loans that are not returned in the usual ways. - Newsweek ). Including the settlement of complex legal situations.

How much debt did you buy?

The main debt is about $ 70 million (the amount officially recognized by the court. - Newswee k ) plus interest. It should be $87–90 million, maybe more.

Did you have agreements with the Russian authorities?

Rather, there were not agreements, but consultations. For me, this is a purely commercial deal, but it has always had a political connotation, and, of course, I consulted with the Russian Ministry of Finance and lawyers. But in my case, there was no politics. I generally try to stay away from politics. No one gave me any political instructions: “Decide this way, decide that way,” there was no such thing.

Have you invested your money in it? Are there any guarantees that Russia will redeem the debt?

I took a loan from one of the Russian state banks. The debts already actually belong to Russia. They are pledged against the security of the loan. How to transfer them is a legal question. There are guarantees. For me personally, the deal was very interesting. After all, everything had to be coordinated with five absolutely irreconcilable parties (Russia, Noga, as well as banks BNP Paribas, Credit Lyonnais and BCG. - Newsweek ).

But Noga believed that Russia owed her $1 billion. What if she starts suing Russia again?

You see, this is not serious. In principle, anyone can demand money. Here I can demand money from you right now. Now you owe me $1 million! It's also not serious. Imagine a small Swiss family company giving Russia $1 billion. Where did they get it? Yes, they never had that kind of money. There were mutual deliveries. Noga supplied something there to Russia in exchange for oil products. A break has occurred. Already then they tried to negotiate with Noga, they even paid some money, and they immediately sued. But Russia is a big country, it cannot allow someone to come and arrest sailboats... So what? Let him take? All. We paid off all the debts, so I think Noga should now take care of her family business.

What is your percentage of this deal?

Well, not so big, your normal business percentage ...

Litigation | Noga doesn't come alone

Last week, the Bavarian businessman Franz Sedelmeier secured in a German court the transfer of income from the lease of the building of the former Soviet trade mission in Cologne. In the early 90s, Sedelmeier founded a company in St. Petersburg, but the case ended in a conflict with the Russian authorities. Since then, he pursued Russia in the courts as best he could: he demanded the confiscation of Russian payments to Lufthansa and Deutsche Bundesbank in his favor, sued the income of the Russian House in Berlin, sought the arrest of the Russian exposition at the Hannover Exhibition in 2005. Zedelmeier's claims are € 5 million, and the market the cost of buildings in Cologne, owned by the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, according to German lawyers, is € 30-40 million. So far, the Bavarian has received only a monthly rent for one of the buildings in the amount of € 24,000. Press Secretary of the Office of the Presidential Administration Viktor Khrekov told Newsweek, that the Kremlin will appeal the court's decision: “This is what European democracy is like. But we will do everything in our power to win this case.” Zedelmeier's lawyer told Newsweek that he would in turn seek the auction sale of the buildings. Moreover, such experience already exists. Last week, a Lithuanian court decided that two buildings of the permanent mission of the Kaliningrad region in Vilnius would go under the hammer on account of debts on a Dresdner Bank loan in the amount of $25 million. in 1997, is now the Cypriot Duke Investment Limited. Vilnius lawyer Kestitutis Švirynas, representing the interests of this company, explained to Newsweek that the buildings have already been arrested and will soon be sold. But since all this will cover only part of the debt, which is growing every day by $9,000, the company will present new claims to Russia. According to the head of the German law firm Heinicke & Partners, Wolfgang Heinicke, Russia got rid of one Noga, but others continue and will continue to grow. Too many financial claims against Moscow have accumulated.

Elections | Without "Motherland"

It is now possible to choose and be elected in Russia not when someone pleases, but only two days a year, in spring and autumn - such is the new law. The first spring elections (autumn elections are scheduled for October 15) took place last weekend. For deputies of local parliaments voted immediately in eight regions. Only four parties were able to participate in the elections everywhere - "United Russia", the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Party of Pensioners, which seriously claims a seat in the State Duma of the next convocation. Motherland also tried to "correspond" by putting up lists of its candidates in all eight regions. But in seven of them, she was never allowed to vote, suspected of bribing voters, inciting ethnic hatred or illegal campaigning under the guise of congratulations on the New Year. She survived only in the Altai ballots: there the court refused to remove the party from the race just because she used the song “Where the Motherland Begins” in her commercials. However, the matter was not limited to Dmitry Rogozin's game alone. Even the head of the CEC, Alexander Veshnyakov, had to admit that they had never treated parties so harshly. "There was a real competition - who will quickly knock out the rivals of United Russia, they showed such zeal on the ground that they even aroused bewilderment [in the CEC]," says Dmitry Oreshkin, director of the Mercator analytical group. So, in the Kursk region, the “People's Volunteers” of Sergei Baburin suffered for the company with Rodina, who included the former governor Alexander Rutskoy in their list (supposedly they did not gain a quorum at regional party conferences). In Kaliningrad, the "People's Party" with a sharply increased rating was removed from the elections (they did not agree on their list with the party leadership). In Adygeya, the lists of "Patriots of Russia" Gennady Semigin and farmers were challenged in court. The Nizhny Novgorod region became the record-holder for withdrawals, where six out of twelve candidate parties were not allowed to participate in the elections. All pre-election claims against parties are not new, but earlier, as Veshnyakov admitted, they were simply “not paid attention to”. Now attention has been paid, as a result of which the same United Russia became the obvious winner even before the vote. For the sake of this, they carried out a "cleansing of the electoral field" - in order not to spray on the "dwarfs" by the percentage of votes, expert of the Center for Political Technologies Rostislav Turovsky believes. And for the victims of this "cleansing" Alexander Veshnyakov promised to hold a special meeting in the CEC in the summer to "analyze the practice of removals" and "draw some conclusions."

Children about adults | To make death with whom

A shocking site for a Palestinian children's magazine called "Al-Fatih" (translated from Arabic as "Pioneer" or "Conqueror", http://www.al-fateh.net ) has appeared on the world wide web. Children of preschool and primary school age are told about jihad and everything connected with it in an accessible form. The rules of good behavior for boys and girls, according to the Palestinian "Murzilka", are very simple: pray regularly, be brave and never feel sorry for your enemies - the Jews and Israel. Each issue has its own heroic story of the next "shahid". Where does the road to "feat" begin? How to develop "heroic" qualities in yourself? How to kill "invaders"? What will be left to parents? About all this - in a childish way, but seriously, and next to it are touching pictures (on one of them a boy feeds chickens), a tale about a donkey and a story about how nice it is to receive gifts. None of the elements of the site indicated his connection with any of the political movements, but most of the "heroes" in the photo are wearing characteristic Hamas armbands. It is interesting that the site appeared literally on the eve of the visit of the delegation of this Palestinian radical movement to Moscow (see Newsweek, No. 9), and a few days later it also suddenly disappeared from the network. As it turned out, his IP address belonged to the Russian company Corbina Telecom. Its PR director Maria Shalina says that the resource was closed at the initiative of the provider, as it promoted clearly provocative ideas. True, they nevertheless consulted with the Moscow Prosecutor's Office beforehand, and now it will be she who will find out the history of the appearance of the magazine on the network. In the meantime, it is only known that the site address was purchased from Corbina not directly, but through the company Ariadna Media, which was supposed to communicate with the end buyer. Currently, the Internet search engine Who is does not respond to inquiries about the owner of the site. However, she previously reported that the site was registered in March 2002, and its owner is someone Nizar al-Hussein (Nizar al-Hussien) from Beirut.

trust referral

Who do ordinary Americans tend to rely on?

Come in large numbers | Green cylinders

American special forces are introduced into the environment of embassy workers

The United States is strengthening its diplomatic missions around the world with special forces (SOCOM - Special Operations Command). Last week it became known that the US Department of Defense agreed with the State Department and sent small commando teams to a number of US embassies and consulates in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Officials are talking about sending more than a dozen groups already and intending to significantly expand their presence abroad in the near future, bringing the number to 400 people. In accordance with the program proposed by US President George W. Bush, the special forces were given "special intelligence powers." He will have to work closely with the local military, collect data on terrorists in host countries and prepare operations against them. The State Department explained to Newsweek that "these measures are designed to provide maximum protection to US citizens abroad." But they refused to comment on the issues of "special powers". The well-known British intelligence specialist Nigel West, in a conversation with a Newsweek correspondent, said: “All this is very strange, since the CIA has traditionally been involved in such operations. The special forces have always only guarded the diplomatic corps.” However, in the US intelligence structures themselves, the actions of the military were unequivocally assessed: the Pentagon, bypassing the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, is systematically seeking for itself maximum powers in the fight against terrorism.