Putin's shadows

Four “denominations” from the president’s entourage: what is known about their assets, general projects with Putin oligarchs and what they face inclusion in the sanctions list

Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Roldugin and Vladimir Putin Photo: Theins.ru

Near President Putin over many years of power, a whole circle of mysterious people has developed. These little -known persons own shares of large banks and significant media acets, land and residences in environmental zones, sell oil and receive preferential loans from the largest oligarchs. On the day of the adoption of American sanctions, NT gathered together everything that is known about Putin's "shadowers". And he discovered new, previously unknown details. As well as the main evidence of their proximity to Putin: participation in joint projects with the richest friends of the president - the brothers Kovalchuki, the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko.

Waiting for a report

On January 29, the US administration fulfilled the law “Countering the opponents of America through sanctions” (Caatsa) should transfer to Congress the so -called “Kremlin report” of the US Treasury with a detailed list of businessmen and officials in Putin’s “close circle”. In relation to all the defendants in this list, personal sanctions can be imposed.

The possible criteria for the choice of targets was listed in November by the Washington research center Atlantic Council on its website in the article "How to identify the Kremlin ruling elite and their agents?" (How to Identify the Kremlin Ruling Elite and Its Agents?)

Otherwise, there is such a criterion. A person holds assets for Putin, probably obtained by corruption, although he is not personally involved in these schemes, or does not have his own major state. Behind the multi -stage formulation is the concept of “face value” (nominal owner of someone else's capital). Over the past few years, Russian society has learned about the existence of at least four similar characters.

They are united by several common features. Firstly, these are old friends, either children of old friends, or relatives of Vladimir Putin. Secondly, they are categorically not public (with the exception of Sergei Roldugin, but he is known as a musician, and not as a keeper of assets). The photo of two of them never even flashed in the media. And the third point, proving their special status: formally, not being large businessmen, they lead a common business with widely known Putin oligarchs on equal terms.

Sergey Roldugin: cellist and media Magnate

Condition: $ 372 million *

Assets:

"Internet video" (20%)

AB "Russia" (3.2%)

“Guys, honestly, I can’t give any comments now. I have to see and understand what can be said, that you can’t ”
New Gazeta, April 3, 2016

Sergey Roldugin is a friend of the youth of Vladimir Putin and, as the newspaper The New York Times, the godfather of his eldest daughter Maria claimed. In an interview with Novaya Gazeta, the musician said that he was related to business, but "even before perestroika."

However, as the NT analysis shows, from the middle to the end of the zero Roldugin, at least had interests in St. Petersburg media. Together with the partner Vladislav Kopylov, they owned the Film and Wave firms, and those at different times controlled the Fifth Canal (together with the National Media Group, where the largest shareholder-the structures of the Kovalchuk brothers ), the Baltika Radio, the newspapers of St. Petersburg Generals, the Evening Petersburg, and the Neva Time and the Neva Time and the Neva Time and the Neva Time and the Neva Time and the Neva Time and the Neva Times "Change."

For more than ten years, Roldugin has a small package of shares of the famous Putin Friends Bank “Russia”. And throughout the world his name thundered in 2016-after the publications of “leaked” documents of the Panama Jurfir Mossak Fonseca. As it turned out, the firms associated with the musician were enriched with dubious transactions with the shares of the largest Russian state -owned companies, received money from oligarchs like Alexei Mordashov (Severstal), Suleiman Kerimov (Nafta) and the Rotenberg brothers, as well as preferential loans from structures affiliated with VTB. Through the accounts of these companies, writes New Gazeta, billions of dollars were pumped.

Roldugin rather sparingly compiled this information. According to him, he was engaged in business before perestroika, and then “it began to develop” and now, for example, allows you to finance the Music House, which the maestro leads in St. Petersburg.

Putin himself did not refute the data on the offshores of an old friend, but traditionally criticized the media. It does not occur to journalists that Roldugin spent all the money earned on unique musical instruments, for example, the cello Antonio Stradivari for $ 12 million, the head of state was lamented during the annual “Direct Line”.

They are united by several common features. Firstly, these are old friends, either children of old friends, or relatives of Vladimir Putin. Secondly, they are categorically not published and, formally not large businessmen, they lead a common business with widely known Putin oligarchs on equal terms

Separate attention, as NT found out, deserves the old partner of Roldugin - Vladislav Kopylov. In 2014, his Cyprus Ermira Consultants Limited-through the Russian company Real-Invest-became the owner of a number of trademarks for Putinka vodka and even the free telephone line “Tostes from Putinka”. As calculated in RBC , Kopylov could earn up to 200 million rubles on royalties. Only in 2015. He himself, in an interview with reporters, said that he knew nothing about Cyprus Ermira.

However, this Cyprus company was very active. In 2014-2016, she owned a 14 percent share in the capital of the Ren-TV channel. Then the shares retreated to the main owner, the “National Media Group”.

By the way, at the dawn of the zero, when the Real-Invest company only appeared, the company's company's company’s structures were the structures of the Rotenberg brothers . And in the future, one of the “daughters”, the Platinum company, moved from Roldugin’s partner to another “Putin nominal” - Mikhail Shelomov, which will be discussed below.

Mikhail Shelomov: Clerk with a giant income

Condition: $ 573 million **

AB "Russia" (8.4%)

SK "SOGAZ" (12.5%)

“I know yes. I heard, of course. I heard, but no more ” Mikhail Shelomov to the question about his business
New Gazeta, June 19, 2017

The name of Mikhail Shelomov first fell into the press in 2005 - and not in the context of the business. The correspondent of the newspaper "Trud" made a voyage to the homeland of Putin's parents in the Tver region. Near the modest house, sheathed by a lining, painted “under the greens”, he met Lyubov Ivanovna Shelomova, the cousin of the president, and then her son Mikhail. The correspondent did not see a billionaire in the Village of Zarechye, who was short in the village of Zarechye.

The old partner Roldugin, Vladislav Kopylov, deserves special attention. In 2014, his Cyprus Ermira Consultants Limited-through the Russian company Real-Invest-became the owner of a number of trademarks for Putinka vodka and even the free telephone line “Tostes from Putinka”

Business media stumbled upon Shelomov a few years later. His company "Accept" was among the shareholders of the Bank "Russia" and the Sogaz insurance company.

However, this is not the most amazing asset. Shelomov also owns a huge - two thousand square meters - a villa in Sochi, right on the territory of the Rus government sanatorium. The court decided to illegally privatize the land in this environmental zone. For many, the villas were taken away, but not from Shelomov.

A relative of Putin earns great. In 2016, three of his companies (“acceptance”, “Platinum” and “Sogaz-Real Estate”) received more than 2 billion rubles. net profit. It turns out that Shelomov’s personal income is 5.6 million rubles. per day.

But this person does not look like an oligarch as a way of life. The media found out that he has been living in Townhouse for many years on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and until the summer of 2017 worked as a modest clerk in the Skomflot group. In a conversation with the Novaya Gazeta correspondent, Shelomov could not answer questions about his own business.

However, there is a person who is like a complex interweaving of assets - Tatyana Pavlovna Salova. This woman heads Shelomov’s company “Accept”, “Platinum” and “Igor Drive”. And she is the ex-head of the Foundation "Development of the Effective Investment Market", established by businessman Gennady Timchenko and another "nominal", Peter Kolbin .

This, by the way, is not the only intersection of Shelomov with leading oligarchs. Partners in Igor Drive - the Kovalchuki brothers . But we will talk about this unique project below.

Petr Kolbin: former butcher on Forbes list

Condition: $ 550 million ***

Cache from the sale of Gunvor (10%) and Yamal-SSG (25%)

“I'm not so big. And not a businessman. You were misleaded a little "
"Vedomosti", October 8, 2012

Once, at a village disco in the town of Bolshaya Puporzha near Peter, two friends fought with a local wrist. Friends were called Vladimir Putin and Peter Kolbin. It was 1969.

In the 1970-1980s, Kolbin, as it managed to find out the newspaper Vedomosti , worked as a butcher in St. Petersburg. What I did in the post -perestroika era is unknown. Everything has changed to zero. In 2001, Peter Kolbin’s father told the regional newspaper Pravda North that his son was still friends with the now elected president and even “they say, in the Putin team, somewhere there”.

In fact, Kolbin was never seen in politics, but he proved himself in business.

At first there was a “different export” - a company whose “daughter” “Yamalinvest” supplied equipment for Gazprom. Then - already, together with a serious partner, Gennady Timchenko , created Surgutec for the export of oil "Surgutneftegaz." Further, for some time walked through life side by side with the oligarch: for example, in the 2005-2010s he was the third shareholder of the Gunvor oil oil industry, who had just taken off at this time.

At the end of the zero, Kolbin turned a fantastically successful deal. First, I bought a 25% stake in Yamal-SSG for $ 90 million (analysts only marveled at such a low price, but the government commission approved the deal under the head of Putin), and a year later sold for $ 526 million. After that, the former butcher was on the Forbes list. And the company Yamal-SSG (the main shareholder-Novatek) recently launched a liquefied gas production plant in the Arctic and with a large pomp to export the first batch.

“Vedomosti” , conducting an investigation about Kolbin, quoted one of his friends: supposedly Peter almost does not part with a mobile phone, because he should always be in touch with “senior comrades”. At the same time, he puts signatures under the documents, but "does not make key decisions."

In 2015, a friend of Putin's youth lit up in another remarkable deal: he sold two elite apartments in the center of Moscow Anna Yakovlevna Zatselina - Alina Kabaeva’s grandmother is also called the grandmother of the gymnast. In addition to rumors about her special proximity to the president, there is also an irrefutable fact in the biography of the gymnast: in 2014, she headed the board of directors of the National Media Group, where the Putin oligarchs gathered the country's largest private mediatives.

This suggests that until recently, Kolbin was still close to the Russian president.

Now Kolbin is not involved in business. But, as NT found out, the managers close to him show activity. For example, the Foundation "Development of the Effective Investment Market" is headed by Pavel Dmitrievich Zaitsev. The same person owns the Golden Gate JSC, and that is the company "Bereg". Since the summer of 2017, the “shore” owns a giant, over 6 thousand m ² , a residence on the picturesque rocky of Cape Ayya in Crimea. Initially, the palace was built for Victor Yanukovych. But, apparently, the ex-president of Ukraine will no longer be needed.

Sergey Rudnov: Putin's house, villa Sherlock Holmes and Komsomolskaya Pravda

Condition: n/d

Assets :

Publishing House "Komsomolskaya Pravda" (share) ****

Next to Putin you can find another character, completely unknown to the press. This is Sergey Rudnov, the son of the deceased Oleg Rudnov. The first was familiar with Putin since 1996, when he worked as a vice mayor, and Rudnov as the head of the GRK “Petersburg-5 Channel” informedly supported the campaign of Sobchak.

Over time - and in partnership with Sergey Roldugin - Rudnov became a major media maggen. In 2004, the Baltic Media Group Holding, the Baltika Radio, the Baltic Information Agency (now Baltinfo), the Station TV channel (since October 2007 was called 100TV, now stopped broadcasting), the share in the Fifth Canal and other assets.

And Rudnov collected real estate. In 2006, he acquired a tiny house that once belonged to Putin’s parents in the village of Kryunovo, Tver region. Now the hut has turned into a local attraction. Another, more serious object, is the villa of Sellgren under Vyborg. In Soviet times, a series was shot here about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, then it stood abandoned for a long time.

Now the residence is restored and amazes with luxurious interiors with a double -headed eagle. Rudnov has not only villas, but also 108 hectares of land around. In the residence, the Rain TV channel claims, Putin visited several times.

Rudnov Sr. died in 2015, his son inherited the business. And it seems that it is he who is the largest shareholder of one of the most popular tabloids, Komsomolskaya Pravda. Not without conspiracyology: the former shareholder Grigory Berezkin never once once said that he had left this business. Vladimir Sungorkin does not comment on the information of the newspaper.

The whole presidential army

The project, which will be discussed, united three out of four “nominal nominal” and famous Putin oligarchs.

Autumn 2010, a plot appears on the Russia 2 channel: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while driving the Formula 1 racing car. The place of shooting is unknown, a deserted field somewhere near Peter. So in Russia the start of the popularization of car racing. In Sochi, a route for Formula 1 is being built.

Russian President Vladimir Putin driving the Formula 1 Bolid team on the Renault team on the highway in the Leningrad Region, November 7, 2010

There were many publications about Putin's “nominal nominalists”. None of them tried to refute this information or sue the media. Even becoming heroes of journalistic investigations, these people still keep in the shade. There is not a single public photo of Mikhail Shelomov and Sergey Rudnov

But one automotive industry is clearly not enough. Let's get back to the Leningrad region. Platform "69 kilometer" of the Priozersky direction. Even in bad weather on a large field, orange technique is swarming. This is the future racing highway "Igor Drive". The project, in which one or another participated at once three “denominations” of Vladimir Putin, found out NT.

It all started with Sergei Roldugin . The companies associated with it in 2011 were provided by Ozon Business of 200 million rubles. “Ozon” is a company close to AB “Russia”, which runs the Igora all -season resort. Avtodr is built as part of this resort. Land under the future highway is owned by Amarilis, owned by Pavel Zaitsev, manager from the Pyotr Kolbin Foundation and Gennady Timchenko . And the tracks of Igor Drev will build tracks: half in it belongs to Mikhail Shelomov , a quarter to structures close to Kovalchuk , and businessman Vladimir Vasiliev , the contractor of Russian Railways. In general, the most star composition.

Are they afraid of sanctions and public

Over the past few years, there have been a lot of publications about Putin's “denominations”. None of them tried to refute this information or sue the media. Even becoming heroes of journalistic investigations, these people still keep in the shade. There is not a single public photo of Mikhail Shelomov and Sergey Rudnov. “Rain” during the investigation about Kolbin managed to get only two pictures.

Since July 2015, Peter Kolbin has been on the US sanctions list. With a high degree of probability, he will get there this time. At least the expert of the Atlantic Council Washington Research Center Anders Oslund in an interview with NT directly called Kolbin a person who stores money for Putin and a clear candidate for a new list. Similarly, he spoke about Oleg Roldugin.

But Mikhail Shelomov and Sergey Rudnov have never been awarded the attention of Americans. However, it became known about their special role in Putin’s life recently.

It is difficult to say whether a possible hit the sanctions list is a negative moment for the nominal nominal itself. On the one hand, this will allow you to learn more about their condition and the movement of funds in their accounts (the most complete disclosure of information requires one of the points of the Caatsa Law ). What in turn can make Putin’s nearby circle transfer funds to new nominal owners.

But on the example of Roldugin, you can see that in recent years - after publishing the scandalous data of Mossak Fonseca - its political weight has only grown. So, since 2014, the musician has been the co -founder of the Talent and Success Foundation - the Sirius Children's Educational Center. But after the leakage of the files, it became known that Sirius personally patronizes President Putin, and he ceased to hide a special attitude to the fund.

Vladimir Putin during a visit to the Sirius educational center. With Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and head of the Talent and Success Foundation Elena Shmeleva photo: kremlin.ru

Elena Shmeleva headed the election headquarters
candidate Putin photo: kremlin.ru

In the summer of 2016, the head of state said that the center can serve the main for such institutions in the regions, and a year later he personally visited Sirius. The head of the center Elena Shmeleva headed the pre -election headquarters of the candidate Putin. Thus, the brainchild of Roldugin now serves the forge of elite personnel.

True, not everywhere in the world such scandals lead to the success of scandaling people. Скандал с гадалкой и близкой подругой экс-президента Южной Кореи Пак Кын Хе (через эту женщина глава государства вымогала взятки) обернулся импичментом для последней. В свою очередь, импичмент стал следствием многомиллионных митингов в центре Сеула: корейцы не смогли мириться, что их президент проворачивает темные делишки через старых друзей.

* В 2014 году New York Times оценил стоимость принадлежащих Ролдугину акций АБ «Россия» в $350 млн. Стоимость группы «Видео Интернешнл» на конец 2014-го составляла 6,06 млрд руб., следует из отчетности другого акционера, СК «Согаз». Таким образом, пакет Ролдугина стоит 1,212 млрд руб. или $21,7 млн по курсу на 27 января 2017 года

** Оценка международного консорциума журналистов-расследователей OCCRP

*** Оценка международного консорциума журналистов-расследователей OCCRP

**** Точная структура акционеров ИД «КП» неизвестна. По состоянию на 2008 году, у «ЛДВ Пресс» было 86% акций. В конце 2016-го Сергей Орлов, бывший совладелец «ЛДВ Пресс», подтвердил изданию adindex.ru, что этой фирме и сейчас принадлежит контрольный пакет «Комсомолки». В свою очередь, Сергей Руднов владеет 75% «ЛДВ Пресс»