The alleged initiator of the information attack on Igor Shuvalov, lawyer Pavel Ivlev, on his relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister

On Wednesday evening, Artem Dymskoy, managing partner of the ALM Feldmans law office , issued a statement in which he named the alleged initiator of the information attack on First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. This role, according to Dymskoy, was played by lawyer Pavel Ivlev, formerly an adviser to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Back in 2005, Ivlev was arrested in absentia in the “YUKOS case” : he was found guilty of oil theft and laundering proceeds from its sale. Ivlev confirmed that he actually handled Shuvalov’s affairs and is well aware of the transactions of those years. Ivlev spoke about how they met and how the two friends diverged in an interview with Forbes.

— How did you meet Igor Shuvalov, is it true that you were friends?

— We met in 1989 or 1990 at the law school, were classmates, communicated and were even friends. At that time, Vasily Aleksanyan, Anton Drel, and Svetlana Bakhmina, who received their diploma a year earlier, were studying at the law faculty. I started studying on the same course, then joined the army and finished with Shuvalov - both courses are dear to me. My wife graduated from the faculty together with Anton, and Aleksanyan together with me, Shuvalov and his wife Olga.

— How did you start managing Shuvalov’s business, what was your job?

— In 1995, he invited me to the ALM law firm, where he was a managing partner. Shuvalov retired from practice in 1997 and gradually began to involve me in legal work. Before that, he took care of his own affairs. However, he was not my principal - no contract was concluded, although I, of course, received financial compensation.

— Did you continue to manage Shuvalov’s business after moving to America, where you were hiding from persecution by the Russian authorities in the Yukos case?

— Yes, I left in 2004, but continued to advise him and manage his account until the end of 2007. Then he decided to refuse my services. Apparently, he became uncomfortable working with a person who was many kilometers away from him. In America, I cannot practice law because I do not have a license. All my services here are consulting.

- Have you met since then?

“Our last meeting is widely known. It was in October 2011 in Chicago at a conference. I then stood up and asked him a question: what was he going to do about the corruption that was happening in Russia. Since this was the day after the death of Vasily Aleksanyan, I drew his attention to this fact. Igor’s answer was very lengthy, harsh, and it somewhat surprised me. I realized that our political positions diverged diametrically. That same day I told him that I was moving into opposition to the regime. He responded in the spirit that with such positions the charges against me would not be dropped soon.

— Is it your doing that the documents about the Shuvalov family’s transactions were made public?

— I answered this question in my statement .

— Do you remember the details: how were the decisions made to allocate money to Alisher Usmanov and Suleiman Kerimov? Was it Shuvalov or his wife who conducted the negotiations?

— I don’t know whether Igor consulted with his wife, but he made all the key investment decisions himself. Technically, this did not happen in front of me - I was given instructions, and I carried them out. In the case of the investment in Gazprom, my role was technical. This money was first invested in ruble bills of Russian banks, and then transferred to Nafta through a deposit of a foreign bank.

All documents related to Corus were prepared by Usmanov’s company, Gallagher. I looked to see if everything was compiled correctly. Initially, it looked like a rather risky loan, but if Igor thought that they could be trusted, then it was none of my business. Then strange conditions appeared, it turned out that Sevenkey already had some kind of investor role in the entire Gallagher business.

— Do you think there is a corruption component in these transactions?

- Let the experts draw conclusions. I did not contact the prosecutor's office; I have no illusions about this.

— Do you know Natalya Pelevina, who submitted documents to the Prosecutor General’s Office?

— Yes.

— Are there any other documents that, from your point of view, can cast a shadow on the reputation of the Deputy Prime Minister?

- I don't know.

— Did Igor Shuvalov make attempts to stop the publication of documents, did he contact you to discuss the possibilities of resolving the dispute?

“There have been conversations between us, but let this remain between us.”

— What actions will you take in connection with the statement from your former employer , the ALM Bureau?

— “ALM Feldmans” after the “YUKOS case” actually exists only formally. Three days ago they informed me that they had expelled me from the list of lawyers in the bureau. Now they want to deprive me of my lawyer status, although, I repeat, there is no reason for this.

—Are you currently practicing as a lawyer? Tell us about your joint project with Khodorkovsky’s son Pavel.

I have a small private business, I continue to advise people on business - they turn to me, and this is how I earn my living. On the Russian side they are still looking for me, my photograph is on the Interpol website. Therefore, I cannot leave the USA, any country must detain me. All the problems that the Russian authorities could create for me, they created. I knew Pavel as a student, and over time our relationship came to the point where we created the “Institute of Modern Russia” - a non-profit, non-political organization.

My position is the following: everything that the Russian government does, in its entirety, gives rise to corruption. As a person and a lawyer who takes a certain position, I see no other way out for myself than to resist the system that has developed in Russia.

“Shuvalov himself made all the key investment decisions”