Greg Weiner, aka Grigory Vinnikov

A Russian travel agent, who is accused of fraud, was an American political expert in the current show of Channel One,

“Journalist from the United States Greg Weiner,” which appears in the political current shows of the first and fifth channels, is actually businessman Grigory Vinnikov. This was announced on April 25 on his Facebook by American journalist Gennady Katsov. Vainer-Winnikov disappeared from New York five years ago together with the money of many customers who consider him a fraudster. Medusa tried to figure out this story.

On April 18, the host of the Contact program on the American Russian -speaking RTN television channel Alexander Grant turned on the TV in the Moscow hotel, where he was on a business trip - he was wondering what his Russian colleagues talk about. On the first channel was the “first studio”-the daily political talk show Artem Sheinin. As always, the studio was loudly - they discussed the aggravation of the situation around North Korea and its confrontation of the United States. A minute after the start of the program, Grant heard a familiar voice. “I will tell you as a native, do not tell anyone. Quiet! - The guest, who was presented as journalist Greg Weiner, captured the attention. - A trade quarantine will be introduced against North Korea! ”

Grant could not make a mistake. He knew Greg Weiner for 20 years. And not only he: the “journalist” was generally well known to the New York Russian-speaking community-only under a different name. According to another American TV presenter Gennady Katsov, he was familiar with Weiner as with Grigory Vinnikov, who emigrated to the USA from the USSR back in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Vinnikov opened in America the tourist company Eastern Tours Consolidated, which was engaged in the sale of air tickets to Russia and vice versa and help in the design of visas. The business went safely - until 2012, when Vinnikov accumulated debt for renting office premises in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After that, the businessman disappeared, and the offices were closed, Katsov claims.

The situation was complicated by the fact that shortly before bankruptcy, the Winnikov company began to provide a variety of legal services - for example, the design of Russian pensions. He took the documents from some customers: so, according to the Runyweb publication, the journalist Valentina Pechorin paid about $ 600 for extending the Russian passport, and the former owner of the new Russian Word publication Valery Weinberg - $ 650 for an urgent visa to Russia.

According to Katsov, in the fall of 2012, Vinnikov called him and several Russian journalists in New York and said that he fled to his homeland because of financial collapse-at some point he supposedly "even wanted to rush from the balcony." He promised to pay people with people when he receives money for a penthouse for sale in New Jersey.

Another American journalist Seva Kaplan told Medusa that he was going to become the organizer of the collective civil lawsuit of the victims, but when it turned out that Vinnikov was in Russia, no one went to court, because the American and Russian jurisdictions “are very difficult to intersect”. Kaplan told Medusa that Vinnikov still owe him 10 thousand dollars, which Kaplan paid the entrepreneur for organizing visas for musicians - two weeks before Vinnikov disappeared.

Medusa contacted Grigory Vinnikov himself. He claims that he returned the documents to all customers, but he cannot pay for debts, because the buyer has not yet been found for Penthouse. “If someday, I am happy to compensate for the debts to customers-if at least something remains after paying debts and loans,” said Vinnikov, saying separately that not a single judicial claim was filed against him.

Vinnikov claims to abandon the business and left for Russia not only for financial reasons. “I was sick for two years, I went here, and here I was diagnosed with the rectum cancer,” says a former businessman who, after the course of treatment, remained living in St. Petersburg. Vinnikov considers it normal that in television programs he is called a journalist: it was such a specialty at the university, in addition, he performed on radio and television from time to time.

Gennady Katsov confirms: back in the 1980s, before doing business, Vinnikov organized round tables in America, at which Russian-speaking politicians and media representatives discussed relevant issues; Sometimes he was called on the air in the 2000s-including Katsov himself in his Press Club program, where he represented Vinnikov as a political commentator.

“He is quite articulated and informed enough, in this regard I have no complaints about him,” Katsov said. “He is not a journalist, he never had any articles.” But he has a sufficiently developed analytical apparatus. ” According to the TV presenter, it was Vinnikov who came up with the Contact program in 2003 and offered it to the American channel RTN - however, a month later he refused to lead it, unable to withstand the daily schedule. He was replaced by, in particular, the same Alexander Grant, who, after many years, noticed the entrepreneur on the air of Channel One.

“I did not run away and did not hide anywhere,” said Medusa Vinnikov. “I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that he will not be noticed on the federal channels.” How he got to Russian television, Vinnikov does not tell. At the same time, according to him, once the producers of one of the channels asked him to “American” his name and surname - this is how he became Grab Weiner. When asked about whether he earns on his appearance in political talk shows, Vinnikov-Winner refused to answer.

The host of the Open Studio program Inna Karpushina on the fifth channel, where the expert Greg Weiner appeared, told Medusa that she was not participating in the selection of experts of the program, which are invited by producers. She refused further comments. On Channel One, they also refused to comment.

Ilya Zhegulev