Translated material
The hero of our time
Vladimir Kekhman, the fruit king and reformer of the theater, as a mirror of the Putin era
The production of Children's Ballet "Chipollino" at the Mikhailovsky Theater was sponsored by the former partners of Vladimir Kekhman in business 
Bacortion - temporary phenomenon about Vladimir Kekhman Peter spoke in May 2007, when he was appointed director of the Small Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Mussorgsky or, in other words, the Mikhailovsky Theater, glorious by its almost two -century history.
By that time, Kekhman had been doing business in the city on the Neva for almost 15 years: he created the same JFC Group, earned the title of “banana king”.
Vladimir Kekhman came to St. Petersburg from Samara, where he was born in 1968, where he began his business career. By the mid-1990s, he had already raised his wholesale trade in overseas fruits in the St. Petersburg Niva. By 2003, he controlled a third of the import of bananas into Russia, while the company's turnover reached $ 200 million.
JFC bought banana plantations in Ecuador and Costa Rica, acquired its own fleet, created the Bonanza brand. Kekhman not only supplied bananas of the Northern capital and adjacent regions, he was inquired at the purchase of other large companies that competed with him in the world market. I bought real estate in the city and the surroundings. By 2008, the JFC turnover was already $ 700 million.
In a word, the business went like clockwork. But at the beginning of 2012, the JFC group of companies filed lawsuits in the arbitration of St. Petersburg on declaring it bankrupt. The plaintiffs explained their step by falling the prices for bananas, unsolvable problems with one of the former contractors. In response, the creditors banks began to file claims personally against Kekhman and top managers of the JFC, who were guarantors on loans. Then the Gagarinsky district court of Moscow decided to recover in favor of Sberbank 3.1 billion rubles. From Kekhman, former general director of Afanasyev and chairman of the board of directors Yulia Zakharova.
But, according to colleagues-businessmen, nothing “can knock him out of the saddle”: “I know Vladimir Kekhman yet at work in the Public Council under the Federal Tax Service in St. Petersburg,” said Vladimir Katenev, president of the City Chamber of Commerce on the Neva. - Yes, now his personal property is being sold. But in business you always need to be prepared for either you drink champagne, or rake big problems. Although bankrupt is a temporary condition, tomorrow Kekhman will be on horseback again. He is a creative person, thinking. He does not fold his hands, he is always in the search. "
Passion for white powder when in early May 2007, Vladimir Kekhman was put at the head of the Mikhailovsky Theater, in one of the first interviews he admitted with children's spontaneity: “Before becoming a director, I rarely visited the opera and even less often on ballet. These, as a rule, were secular exits with his wife. Usually, when the light was extinguished in the hall, I fell asleep. " Saying this, Mr. Director was clearly modest: Petersburgers forever remembered his first stage exit. This happened in 1995, when Jose Carreras arrived in St. Petersburg. At the reception at the European Hotel, Kekhman came to the public as the organizer and sang. Carreras listened to his solo, crumbling with amazement and literally holding on to the wall.
Why did Kekhman decide to engage in theater? He himself in an official interview claimed that he dreamed of leading a theater team. Someone expressed suspicions that Kekhman has health problems. But another stable version of the unexpectedly flashed passion for art wandered around the city.
“There were rumors that Kekhman had troubles with law enforcement agencies, and then they told him: we will help if you renovate the theater,” recalls film director Alexander Sokurov. - Valentina Matvienko, they say, appointed him on the condition that he would invest his funds in repairs ... "
It was at that time that Kekhman publicly stated that he spent more than 300 million rubles on Mikhailovsky. From their own funds. But a few months after the reigning in the director of the director, he demanded (and received) from the city budget about 80 million rubles. to celebrate the anniversary of the theater.
Meanwhile, strange rumors walked along Peter. Since 2005, employees of the Baltic Customs found several times among bananas from the Ecuador of the Cocaine party. In 2005, 70 kg was discovered, in 2007, a total of 90 kg. And then they also found what the St. Petersburg media wrote a lot about. The only supplier of bananas from Ecuador was the JFC group. And when on May 26, 2010, customs officers found three bags with a total weight of 120 kg on a trading ship from Ecuador among bananas, the media connected bananas, Ecuador, JFC and cocaine in one chain. Ten days later, the JFC confirmed that the bananas belonged to her, but the container and the container itself were the property of the carrier, MSC, that is, the JFC cocaine has nothing to do.
And on May 29, 2010, the Mikhailovsky Theater provided his scene to the Life Fund-Putin came to the concert: they say that our theater and our president (at that time-in the hypostasis of the prime minister) and met.
The theater reformer
 |
| Vladimir Kekhman himself performed the party of Prince Lemon in the play "Chipollino" at the Mikhailovsky Theater |
With the advent of the new director in Mikhailovsky, cardinal personnel permutations began. And - loud scandals. What is worth only the removal of the opera Eugene Onegin from the repertoire due to disagreements with the director. The director was complained by the actors who refused to work without an artistic director, chief conductor, chief director and head of the opera troupe. Soon, Vladimir Kekhman invited the Farukha Ruzimatov theater to the post of head of the ballet troupe and Elena Obraztsova, the head of the opera. But they did not last long in their posts. Elena Vasilievna left Mikhailovsky next season. Soon she returned, but only as an adviser. Now her daughter is working as an adviser - Elena Makarova. Ruzimatov lasted longer, but since 2009 he is also listed as an adviser.
Artists are delayed by salary. Many of them were generally forced to leave. Among them are the conductor Andrei Anikhanov, who, according to him, could not stand the rudeness and incompetence of the new director. The last straw, as the conductor said then, was the dialogue about the Swan Lake. Kekhman did not like the second picture, because "the swans sailed slowly and sadly." He called Anikhanov in the intermission and offered to drink cognac to apparently “revive swans” ...
The appearance of the director himself on the stage in the image of Prince Lemon in the play “Chippollino” also caused no less shock among colleagues.
The novel with the power “We put the opera Taneyev“ Orestei ”, which never went on this stage,” says Alexander Sokurov. - Rehearsals began, scenography was made. And suddenly Kekhman finds out that I am actively participating in a city -protective movement. We were then in a serious confrontation with Valentina Matvienko because of the Gazprom tower. Kekhman called me and threatened - if I do not stop protests, there will be no performance. I replied that I would not distribute my signature under letters against the construction of the tower (in Okhta Center.- NT ). He said - then I close the performance. The performance was closed, nothing was paid to anyone. Since then, I have not crossed the threshold of this theater and I consider Kekhman to be unharmed. Without outcome: he is a simple man, his horse is the protection of power. ”
Indeed: in Mikhailovsky, Vladimir Putin regularly occurs-at charitable concerts of the Foundation “Give Life”, at the concert “Help Tiger”, at a concert on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the twinfold ties of Dresden and St. Petersburg, and then at the festival of the 100th anniversary of the RFU. Putin allocated a grant to the Mikhailovsky Theater - 137 million rubles to his (then, in 2010, the premier) decision. Every year for five years.
“Kekhman is a five -plus manager,” said the former director of the Ballet Academy named after Vaganova Vera Dorofeeva. - And the troupe is not bad for him, there is something to see. The contradictory figure is odious, but the job does and studying along the way. He came in 2007, not imagining what the theater is, but is not shy about asking and studying. ”
By the way, about study. Vladimir Kekhman decided to get a special education. He entered in 2008 to the St. Petersburg Theater Academy at the correspondence department of the production faculty and graduated from it in a record time - in a year and a half! According to Marina Dmitrevskaya, a well -known St. Petersburg critic, professor of the academy, the secret of such a record is simple: for example, in her classes, student Kekhman never appeared, although he was listed in the group, and he was set up on the subject in the rector.
“Once I took an exam from him, the second time I was present at the defense of the diploma,” says Tatyana Klyavina, candidate of art history. - The theme of the diploma of Vladimir Kekhman - new ways in working with spectators in modern conditions - naturally, on the example of the Mikhailovsky Theater. He was quite convincing. The very desire to get an education in itself is not a bad matter. But what he is doing now regarding the Novosibirsk Theater is an absolute violation of the laws of theatrical ethics. ”
According to Konstantin, a teacher, the historian of the theater, the associate professor of the production department of the Academy, formal correspondence study of Vladimir Kekhman is not the most serious problem.
“There are a lot of people who studied formally, but someone has become an educated person ... Kekhman is completely not inclined to systemic education,” the teacher believes. - Maybe this is not bad for business. But if we talk about systemic education and culture, it is difficult to find a person in this environment less educated. But he has an important quality for today's officials and managers - he has no moral barriers. He sets himself a goal and achieves it by any means. In this sense, Kekhman is the hero of our time, the personification of the era. But it would be much more useful to use his talents away from art. ”
The machinations of enemies in 2012, the London court declared Vladimir Kekhman an individual bankrupt. At the end of 2012, Sberbank appealed to law enforcement agencies, after which a criminal case of fraud was opened against the theater (the bank believes that the allocated JFC and the irrevocable loan were by no means spent on the declared goals). By the end of 2014, at the request of Sberbank, Kekhman's property was arrested, and 50 %is seized from his salary of the theater director. According to the order of investigators, the court arrested his alleged property. To date, Vladimir Kekhman and his JFC company should only Sberbank 17 billion rubles. But Kekhman is full of repertoire plans. The performance continues
Photo: Mikhailovsky.ru, Yevgeny Kurskov/Tass