Translated material
Highlanders and money
Businessmen from the Caucasus prefer not to irritate the authorities
The scandal involving the accusation of illegal entrepreneurship against the head of the RussNeft oil company, Mikhail Gutseriev, has already caused analogies with the YUKOS case. There is talk of a serious deterioration in Mr. Gutseriev's relations with the authorities, which could even result in the transfer of RussNeft, one of the ten largest oil producing companies in the country (annual production of about 14.5 million tons), under state control. The story of Slavneft , from whose management Mr. Gutseriev was removed in 2002, has not yet been forgotten.However, it is unlikely that the scenario prepared and implemented for Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s company will be repeated in relation to RussNeft. But the situation around Mr. Gutseriev once again forces us to pay attention to the relationship between business and government. In this case, from a regional perspective: all North Caucasian oligarchs have very unique relationships with the authorities both in Moscow and in their regions of origin. But for the most part, they prefer not to irritate the authorities. Although Mr. Gutseriev apparently did not succeed.
Mikhail Gutseriev (one of the ten wealthiest Russian businessmen of North Caucasian origin) is the brother of Khamzat Gutseriev, the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia under Ruslan Aushev. In 2002, after Mr. Aushev's early resignation, Khamzat Gutseriev ran for Ingush president. He tried to rally supporters of the former head of the republic around himself, but was excluded from the list of participants in the election race. The federal center supported its candidate, FSB General Murat Zyazikov, who still leads the republic to this day.
In the first years of Mr. Zyazikov's presidency, the Gutseriev brothers tried to support the opposition, but gradually lost interest in this process. According to the deputy of the parliament of the republic, Mussa Ozdoev, the Gutseriev family has done a lot for Ingushetia at different times, but now its influence is minimal. Nevertheless, the Gutserievs still find themselves among the main characters in the Russian Caucasus.
In the spring of 2004, Mikhail Gutseriev signed an agreement on cooperation with the then President of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, who literally a few days later died as a result of a terrorist attack during festive events in Grozny on May 9. In September of the same year, Mikhail and Khamzat Gutserievs were among the first to fly to Beslan and negotiated for several hours with the terrorists who had seized the school. The result of the negotiations was a meeting with terrorists in the seized building of ex-President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, who managed to free several hostages.
At the beginning of last year, according to one version, the Gutseriev brothers took part in the search and release of President Zyazikov’s father-in-law, Magomed Chakhkiev. After this, information appeared about the reconciliation of Murat Zyazikov with the business family, and on the website of the Ingush opposition a message appeared about secret negotiations that the president was allegedly conducting, discussing the terms of transferring his seat to Khamzat Gutseriev. There is no confirmation of this hypothesis to this day.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Gutseriev looks confident. He has no doubt that the problems with the Investigative Committee will be resolved. By the way, the businessman’s other brother, Said-Salam Gutseriev, also one of the wealthiest immigrants from the North Caucasus, is a member of the United Russia faction in the State Duma.
A member of the same faction is the richest North Caucasian businessman, a Lezgin by birth, Suleiman Kerimov, whose name appears on the 35th line of the global ranking of billionaires by Forbes magazine. Mr. Kerimov became a member of United Russia in the spring of this year, leaving the ranks of the LDPR faction. This happened after an unfortunate road accident in Nice.
The President of Dagestan, Mukhu Aliyev, recommended that the businessman be accepted into United Russia, who is extremely grateful to him for his work in attracting investment to his native republic. True, the budget revenues of Dagestan (about 18 billion rubles per year) are several orders of magnitude less than Mr. Kerimov’s wealth, which, according to various estimates, ranges from 12 to 14.4 billion dollars.
On some buildings in Moscow you can see a green emblem with three crossed arrows and twelve stars. Few people know that this is the heraldic symbol of the ethnic Circassians and at the same time the emblem of the Sindika company with an annual turnover of 30 billion rubles, which is controlled by the President of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov. The very word “Sindica” has nothing to do with the gloomy Sicilian syndicates - that was the name of the ancient kingdom in the western part of the North Caucasus. Not only the residents of Adygea, but also the Circassians and Kabardians, to whom Mr. Kanokov belongs, consider themselves Adygs. In his own words, Sindika unites about 70 enterprises involved in various development projects, hotel and construction businesses.
The holding has a stake in Centrocredit Bank and owns the Interregional Clearing Bank. The annual turnover of “Sindika” also exceeds the Kabardino-Balkarian budget many times over.
By appointing Mr. Kanokov to replace the long-time leader of the republic, Valery Kokov, the federal center hoped that the new president would be able to use, if not financial, then at least managerial potential in the depressed region. (What happened in Chukotka when Roman Abramovich became governor.)
They expected approximately the same from Khazret Sovmen, who was the president of Adygea from 2002 to 2007. Mr. Sovmen sold Norilsk Nickel the gold mining enterprise Polyus, which he created in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and entered the top five richest people in the North Caucasus: his fortune is estimated at 11 billion rubles. But the entrepreneur could not become the Adyghe Abramovich. He quickly lost interest in what was happening in the republic and actually gave the reins of government to local officials. Having set a record for the number of resignations and appointments of prime ministers of the republican government, Mr. Sovmen completely fell out with the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, who was dissatisfied with the economic depression in the republic, and with great difficulty retained his post until the formal expiration of his powers. Although businessman Kanokov had already proven himself to be a fairly effective manager in Kabardino-Balkaria, in Adygea they decided not to continue oligarchic experiments and made university rector Aslan Tkhakushinov the new president.
But the most famous Ossetian businessman, the creator of the Baltika brewing company, Taimuraz Bolloev, was one of the first large Russian entrepreneurs to respond to the call of the head of the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, to invest in the restoration and development of the economy of the North Caucasus. Having sold Baltika, Mr. Bolloev is mainly involved in the textile industry and real estate.
The top ten wealthiest people in the North Caucasus include another Ossetian, Taimuraz Bokoev, the head of the Istok group of companies, one of the largest alcohol producers. Mr Bokoev is on good terms with the head of North Ossetia, Taimuraz Mamsurov, who was also involved in the vodka business in the past.
The President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, is himself considered a very wealthy man. For example, he created a charitable foundation named after his deceased father. The volume of funds in this fund, as well as their origin, is not discussed, but even without this it is obvious that the head of the republic is not in poverty.
But Mr. Kadyrov’s fortune, most likely, is still inferior to the fortunes of such “whales” of Chechen business as the Bazhaev brothers, the Dzhabrailov brothers, Malik Saidullaev or Abubakar Arsamakov. Relations between the Chechen oligarchs and the young president are again developing differently. Malik Saidullayev, after two attempts to nominate his candidacy for the presidential elections in Chechnya, essentially ceased to be interested in the political situation in his small homeland. The head of the Moscow Industrial Bank, Abubakar Arsamakov, came into conflict with the Yamadayev brothers, former Gudermes militants who are now loyal to Mr. Kadyrov. Last fall, the Yamadayevs’ people carried out an armed seizure of a meat processing plant in St. Petersburg, which belonged to the Arsamakov family, but the criminal case opened on this fact was soon closed due to the reconciliation of the parties.
The Dzhabrailov family owns the Plaza group of companies, which owns mainly hotels and real estate in Moscow and other Russian cities. Umar Dzhabrailov, who ran for president of Russia in 2000, is now a senator from Chechnya. For his brother Hussein, the “excursion” to the authorities has already ended. Last year he was appointed deputy prime minister of the Chechen government, and analysts saw in this a promising alliance between the young Ramzan Kadyrov and large Chechen capital, which would finally come to the aid of the restoration of Chechnya. But in the spring of this year, Mr. Kadyrov transferred Mr. Dzhabrailov to the post of his special representative in Moscow, from which he resigned just a few days later. At the same time, Hussein Dzhabrailov resigned as head of the public organization of Muslims “Russian Islamic Heritage,” which he headed as a member of the Society of Descendants of Chechen Sheikhs. Rumors persist in Moscow and Grozny that the Dzhabrailovs have joined or are about to join the list of disgraced businessmen.
Ramzan Kadyrov’s relationship with the Bazhaev family, which owns the Alliance group of companies, is developing best. According to some reports, the total wealth of the group’s president Musa Bazhaev, member of the Public Chamber Mavlit Bazhaev and the widow of Ziya Bazhaev Madina, who died in a plane crash in 2000, is estimated at 18 billion rubles. Last year, Musa Bazhaev was received by Vladimir Putin at his Novo-Ogarevo residence, after which the businessman promised to invest $50 million in the restoration of Chechnya. The promise is about to be fulfilled: last week, Mr. Bazhaev met with Mr. Kadyrov and discussed the list projects in which Alliance is ready to invest its funds.