Fear and conscience of Alexander Mamut

As the younger partner of Berezovsky and Abramovich became the leading censor of the Russian media and film industry

Photo: tvkinoradio.ru

The largest movie networks in Russia-“Formula Cinema” and “Cinema Park”-committed an unprecedented act-due to threats from the Orthodox activists, refused to roll the film “Matilda”. Just a few days after that, the most warlike of the activists - the leaders of the Christian State organization - were detained, and the entire noisy campaign for the ban on the film clearly after the signals “from above” went on decline. Both hastened to play the film network belong to Alexander Mamut, who in Yeltsin times had a reputation as a “cashier of the family”, and now the influential media Magnate. Until now, the political instinct has not changed him ...

For "Matilda" do not burn

On September 27, 2016, in the "Evening Urgant" studio, a frightened curly man, clinging to the handles of the chair, answers questions from the test "how much are you a billionaire" from some women's magazine. “I wanted to watch a movie. Your actions: 1) you download it from the Internet for free; 2) buy a movie ticket; 3) Buy a cinema, ”the host reads. “Of course, the third option,” Alexander Mamut squeezes out of himself, at that time the owner of a state of $ 2.4 billion.

The Mamut cinema at this time really had-the arthous Pioneer on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and the billionaire was already looking at the oldest “art” in Moscow (in December 2016, Mamut concluded an agreement with the Moscow government on a 20-year lease of the historical cinema in exchange for its reconstruction). However, the desire to "watch the film" did not run out of this. At the end of March 2017, the billionaire completed the purchase of the largest Russian network of Cinema Park cinemas from Senator Suleiman Kerimov’s son, and in April acquired the Formula “A1” Mikhail Friedman and partners.

Now every seventh cinema in the country has passed into the possession of the billionaire.

Photo: Cran.vdpopskov.ru

According to the Cinema Fund, the United Network accounts for about 20% of the fees of films in Russia and an average of 18-19% of the cash desk of the largest Russian paintings.

In less than six months, the cinemas of Mamut were in the center of the scandal around the film by Alexei Master Matilda. When the film received a rental certificate of the Ministry of Culture, Orthodox activists began to threaten the leadership of cinemas, who were going to show Matilda. In September, a resident of Irbit, a resident of Irbit, was recording, Denis Murashov, drove into the UAZ in the door of the Cosmos film concert hall in the center of Yekaterinburg, after which he set fire to his car. Then the unknown people set fire to two cars next to the Moscow office of the teacher Konstantin Dobrynin and scattered leaflets with the slogan “For Matilda”.

Photo: Konstantin Dobrynin/Facebook.com

After that, Sinema Park and Formula Cinema announced that in the interests of the safety of the audience they would not show the film. The rest of the movie networks did not follow them. The opinions of observers were divided: some suspected that the authorities were behind the decisions of the mamut, others wrote off everything on his personal fears, and the others completely considered that in this way the businessman wants to draw attention to an alarming situation, since law enforcement agencies do not interfere with the radicalism of Orthodox activists.

At the end of March 2017, the billionaire completed the purchase of the largest Russian network of Cinema Park cinemas from Senator Suleiman Kerimov’s son, and in April acquired the Formula “A1” Mikhail Friedman and partners. Now every seventh cinema in the country has passed into the possession of the billionaire

“I have not heard that someone from the administration (president) recommended that to him,” says one of the old friends of Mamut, “but if the state was not concerned about showing all sorts of pogroms, what is hard to punish for this, then what to do? To demonstrate to someone courage and principles in the struggle for freedom, etc., substituting the audience? ”

As far as one can judge by the biography of the mother, such caution and political prudence are quite typical for him.

From collective farm square to the Kremlin

It should be noted that Mamut himself does not fully consider himself a businessman. “Usually, when they ask me to introduce myself, I say:“ Type of a businessman. ” These two articles in the Russian language - “Type” and “as if” - they remove responsibility, ”he admitted in an interview with the“ interlocutor ”six years ago. It would be more correct to call him an investor with ties.

He met many defendants in the upper part of the Forbes list back in the late 1980s in the office building on the Sukharevsky (then collective farm) square. A graduate student at Moscow State University Mamut registered his company Alm-Consulting there (after a few years another young lawyer-Igor Shuvalov, now the First Deputy Prime Minister and one of the richest Russian officials). Next to the ALMs, which was deciphered as “Alexander Leonidovich Mamut”, located the offices of Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Oleg Boyko. Dmitry Zelenin, the future governor of the Tver region, and at that time the founder of the company Microdin, who traded computers and calculators, sat there. This was the first client of Mamut. “We all were 26–27 years old. Of course, we all know each other. I did not work in ONEXIM, but I always had the opportunity to call Volodya Potanin, called him “you,” Mamut later recalled.

*Vladimir Potanin. *Photo: Celebryitynetworth.wiki

In 1990, it became a co -founder of the Imperial Bank widely known in those years. Then, however, he came out of the number of shareholders, but introduced his successors to Gazprom’s leadership, which allowed the “Imperial” to become a settlement bank of the gas monopoly and serve its export contracts for several years. Mamut by that time had an equally interesting client - Boris Berezovsky

“The bore then had to streamline his business, and a very qualified legal assistance was required on a number of difficult issues,” said Boris Abramovich in the early 2000s. “Alexander turned out to be a good lawyer who understands complex financial issues.”

In 1996, when Berezovsky wanted to buy Promstroybank, Mamut negotiated on his face (the parties did not reach the transaction). In addition, he made friends with the then partner of Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich. In general, he entered the near circle, as they said then, of the Kremlin “family” - and even managed to work on a voluntary basis as an adviser to the head of the administration of President Alexander Voloshin.

1. Boris Berezovsky. 2. Roman Abramovich. Photo: Pubboard.ru **

During the Duma and presidential elections of 1999–2000, these facts through the efforts of the political opponents of the “family” first came to the surface. Abramovich and Mamut began to be called "gray Kremlin cardinals and" Cashiers of the Kremlin. "

“The terrible mamut is actually a modest, intelligent, intelligent, subtle person. With brilliant humor. He is as victim as I am. They made a monster out of it. For what? - the daughter of President Yeltsin Tatyana Dyachenko lamented then in an interview with the “light”. - It seems to me that the feeling of danger from these people (Abramovich and Mamut) is inspired in society by the fact that they did not know where they came from. There were just “nobody”, but they became “all”. We have as it should be: gradually, at first it became something, then that and so-to the top. And they are right away! And instantly equalized with the famous. How so? Obviously something here is wrong! "

In 1990, Mamut became a co -founder of the Imperial Bank well -known in those years. Then, however, he came out of the number of shareholders, but introduced his successors to the leadership of Gazprom, which allowed Imperial to become an settlement bank of the gas monopoly and serve its export contracts for several years

Unexpected "discovery"

“He never acts alone, he always preferred to do business with someone, and he loves to be from the side, on the side,” said Mamut’s former business partners in the early 2000s, in the early 2000s. - Imagine that you opened a paid toilet and the first to sign up on the owner’s rights. And Sashka stood nearby. He will come to you in a month and ask for an income from one Pussuar: "Well, how, I was here, saw how you did everything here."

However, over time, mamut and learned to play in a large way.

In September 2008, unexpectedly for the market, Mamut acquired 100% of the largest mobile retailer "Euroset" from the founders of the company Evgeny Chichvarkin and Timur Artemyev - and actually saved them from arrest. Prior to this, Euroset wanted to buy the owner of the AFK System Vladimir Yevtushenkov, and Chichvarkin and Artemyev have already concluded an exclusive offer for the sale of Euroset with him. However, closer to the end of the offer against Chichvarkin, a criminal case was brought up, which began to detain the company's top managers. Chichvarkin secretly agreed on the deal with the mother and, deceiving surveillance, fled from Russia an hour before calling for interrogation to the Investigative Committee.

The mamut soon resold for $ 226 million 49.9% of the mobile retailer to Vimpelkom (whose shareholder are the structures of Mikhail Fridman, who also participated in secret negotiations with Chichvarkin and Artemyev), and in 2012 - the remaining 50% Megafon and 0.1% of the same Vympelkom for the same way $ 1.07 billion Chichvarkin with Artemyev, by his own admission in an interview with Rain, paid $ 350 million for the entire company.

In September 2008, unexpectedly for the market, Mamut acquired 100% of the largest mobile retailer "Euroset" from the founders of the company Evgeny Chichvarkin and Timur Artemyev - and actually saved them from arrest ... Chichvarkin secretly agreed on the deal with the mother and, deceiving surveillance, fled from Russia an hour before the call to interrogation to the Investigative Committee

Of course, so lucky is not always. For example, the story with the Bank “Otkritie”, where mamut is one of the shareholders, is unlikely to end equally triumphantly in a commercial sense. However, the mamut invested in the “discovery” according to the familiar, not too risky scheme: he is only one of the seven shareholders of the problem bank.

Internal censor

“Freedom is, of course, an internal state. Often they talk about her as a system of exclusively external circumstances, but for me she is what is inside, ”Mamut reasoned in an interview with the magazine“ Spark ”. - In Soviet times, I worked as a legal adviser at the factory. It is clear that I was in a rigid graphics and in general in such a rather non -romantic coordinate system, but I felt completely free. ”

In today's conditions, Mamut now and then makes decisions that make him doubt his freedom.

In 2013, a billionaire united his media business with assets of a longtime acquaintance of Potanin. He handed over to Rambler & CO the Rambler Internet portal and the ID "Poster", and the Mamut-the company "Soup" (bloghosting Livejournal, Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, etc.). Potanin’s assets earned more and were more expensive, but the partners received parity shares, and the mamut became the managing partner (in exchange, Potanin received the right to sell his fraction to Mamut at a fixed price in 2.5 years - and sold it for $ 270 million in December 2016, when the duration of its option expired).

In today's conditions, the mamut now and then makes decisions that make him doubt his freedom -love

Mamut (unlike Potanin, Alisher Usmanov or Mikhail Prokhorov, who did not directly participate in the administration of their media -imperials) became the general director of Rambler in 2014 and quite soon began to restore order with an iron hand.

In March of the same year, without explanation, he resigned the editor -in -chief of Lenta.ru Galina Timchenko, who in 10 years of work in this post made a news site one of the most popular in Runet. According to Timchenko, her dismissal was associated with the warning of Roskomnadzor for the hyperlink in an interview with the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist organization Right Sector* Dmitry Yarosh to a third -party resource. Together with Timchenko, 56 employees left the editorial office - many of them joined her own Meduza.io project, which actually occupied the Lenta.ru niche on the Russian -speaking Internet.

Soon in Crimea a referendum was held on the entry of the region into Russia. There were no inconvenient publications on Lenta.ru anymore, because the publication was led by a proven person-Alexei Gororevsky, the former editor-in-chief of the Prochrevsky Internet resource “View”. In 2016, he went to increase, leading the entire media holding of Mamut.

And in the summer of 2017, it became known that Gorreslavsky was going to work in the presidential administration. On the eve of the 2018 presidential election, he was offered to oversee Internet media. At the post of chief editor Lenta.ru was appointed 23-year-old editor Vladimir Todorov, who in the first interview began to criticize famous liberal journalists.

A source in Rambler & Co told the Rain TV channel that Mamut wants to optimize resources in his media holding - he discussed the future of the holding in the Kremlin, and there he was recommended to focus on young people in the view of future elections. Soon at Lenta.ru and Gazeta.Ru, new dismissals of journalists and editors began.

A source in Rambler & Co told the Rain TV channel that Mamut wants to optimize resources in his media holding - he discussed the future of the holding in the Kremlin, and there he was recommended to focus on young people in the view of future elections. Soon at Lenta.ru and Gazeta.Ru, new dismissals of journalists and editors began

“If there is no fundamental cultural environment in society, the struggle for power will not lead to a new model. We had free elections in 1991, and in 1993, Alexander Korzhakov turned out to be the most influential person, ”Mamut said five years ago in an interview with Snob (Octi Oxim, which Mikhail Prokhorov recently abandoned).

Apparently, the “fundamental cultural environment” in Russia that the businessman dreams about is still not formed - and therefore you have to follow the one that is: the first to join the protesters against Matilda, without waiting for either instructions from the Kremlin or the reaction of law enforcement agencies.

* Organization prohibited in Russia as extremist.