The American Dream always comes true only through hard work. There are no other options. Hundreds of examples from the biographies of people who have gone from an ordinary shoe shiner to a billionaire only confirm the truth of this axiom. financial success turns out to be on the shoulder of the so-called self-made person ─ free individuals who “blinded” themselves.

The modern "Russian dream", in fact, is not much different from the American one. A well-paid job, and with it, wealth is much higher than average, reputation and the transition to a higher rung in the social ladder are its components. Only the way to achieve results in Russia can be unexpectedly simple. Hard work or hidden talent should not always be the main condition, but the place and time of birth or incomprehensible vicissitudes of fate.

In the 80s, an ordinary butcher from an ordinary grocery store Pyotr Kolbin lived and worked in Leningrad. After 20 years, he became a ruble billionaire. Why not an example of the fulfillment of the "Russian" or "American" dream? Kolbin himself does not like to share the secrets of success, trying to be inconspicuous, in no case giving interviews to journalists and not getting into the lenses of photos or cameras. He doesn't consider himself a businessman at all, but facts are stubborn things. The personal fortune of a modest Petersburger exceeds $500 million, and in all Russian ranking the wealthiest people according to Forbes, he takes an honorable 179th place.

Kolbin does not live in Barvikha, much less on the Spanish coast mediterranean sea, and in the border provincial Ivangorod. Welfare was provided to him by the shares of several oil and gas companies, which he successfully, at the right time, sold. To buy and then profitably get rid of them, this also requires talent, otherwise called commercial flair. Only the appearance of initial capital from the former butcher still remains a mystery.

Pyotr Kolbin was born into the family of a front-line soldier who worked as a school principal in the village of Imenitsa near Kingisepp. The “Russian Dream” began to be forged in that place in 1954. For the summer, having rented a small house, the family of the foreman of the Leningrad Carriage Works, Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, left for the village. Two front-line soldiers were found very quickly mutual language. The same can be said about their children ─ Petya and Vova. Having made friends literally from the cradle, they met again every summer in Imenitsy.

Having matured, the teenagers went to dances together in the village club, maybe the sambist Vova defended the weaker Petya from hooligans. In the early 60s, a pause will come in the friendship of teenagers. Father Peter will be transferred to another job. He will be appointed director of a school in East Germany near Brandenburg. He will teach the children of the military personnel of the Group Soviet troops in Germany. In Brandenburg, another component of the fulfillment of the “Russian dream” will be formed. Gena Timchenko, the son of an army officer, studied at the school. Peers Petya and Gena quickly became friends. In 1965, Gennady and his parents moved to another place of his father's service, and Peter returned to his homeland 2 years earlier.

In 1971, his father will divorce his mother and go to hell in the middle of nowhere ─ to a far corner of the Arkhangelsk region, where he will continue to work as the director of a rural school. Family disasters will force Pyotr Kolbin to stay with his mother in Leningrad. There will begin the longest phase in the fulfillment of the "Russian dream", stretching for more than a quarter of a century. In 2000, the newly elected President of the Russian Federation will send a very warm, sincere letter to the distant Arkhangelsk village of Yasny, in which he will remind Kolbin Sr. of friendship with his father and recall the bright years of childhood. In the same year, the way through the unpredictable sea of ​​big business of the unknown butcher Pyotr Kolbin will begin. His name will appear in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

Company GUNVOR

Since 2005, Petr Kolbin has been a shareholder of the GUNVOR oil trader, registered in Cyprus. He has 12% of the shares. The rest were equally distributed between childhood friend Gennady Timchenko and Norwegian businessman Turnbjorn Turnkvist. GUNVOR, established in 1997, has been doing business in a very broad way. She had offices around the world ─ in Geneva, Nassau, Singapore and Dubai. An even greater geography of the company's offices ─ Bogota, Buenos Aires, Abuja, Beijing, Mumbai, Alma-Ata and, of course, Moscow.

It is characteristic that its active trading activity began all in the same special year 2000. Before owning a stake in an oil trader, Kolbin had already become somewhat familiar with the business of trading hydrocarbons. In 2004, he was a member of the administrative board of the Geneva office of the Finnish-Swedish company International Petroleum Products. There can be only one answer to the question of how he was brought into the company of the descendants of the Vikings. In 1999, Gennady Timchenko from good intentions to develop his own business in the Scandinavian countries received Finnish citizenship. Apparently, he “pushed” a childhood friend into an oil company. Finns and Swedes can explain what functions the former butcher performed in the council, but they are still silent. Petr Kolbin was with GUNVOR until 2010, after which he ceded his share to a trust owned by the top management of the company.

Yamal Invest

He did not go out of business, although he had already earned quite enough money. He just switched to Russian market oil and gas. Kolbin immediately in 2010 acquired from Gazprombank a stake in Yamal Invest, which supplies equipment to Gazprom. The block of shares was quite large - 25% and was not cheap. According to various estimates, from $ 75 to 90 million.

Yamal Invest was a common intermediary making money by reselling equipment from its manufacturers to the Russian gas monopoly. Why did Gazprom need it and why was it impossible to purchase products directly? There is no answer to this question, as to many about the life of Pyotr Kolbin. A year and a half later, Petr Kolbin sells the shares of Yamal Invest, significantly increasing his own fortune. The price of the transaction was $526 million. Simply super profit! The Russian Dream has come true. Traces of the successful shareholder Kolbin are still found in Surgutex. There he has 49% of the shares, and the rest belongs to his childhood friend Gennady Timchenko.

Luxury real estate in Moscow

Pyotr Kolbin did not sit on bags of money. He invested them in the capital's elite real estate. He purchased 2 apartments in a house at Arbat 18. A seven-story house overlooking the Old Arbat, with an individual layout and round-the-clock security, in the very center of Moscow. The cost of one square meter in it reached $35,000, and the total area of ​​housing was 600 square meters. Pyotr Kolbin did not move from Ivangorod to Moscow. The apartments were empty for a while.

Real estate in turbulent times is the most profitable investment, but completely unexpectedly, the owner changed his mind and decided to get rid of the Moscow living space. The buyer of both apartments was a rather elderly, unremarkable woman, Anna Yakovlevna Zatsepilina. At the same time, she bought an elite apartment in St. Petersburg from Gennady Timchenko. Such synchronicity of the sale of their own real estate in former partners in the oil business caused a surge of interest in the identity of the customer. We didn't have to wait long for the results of the investigation. Grandma had a very famous granddaughter ─ dick Supreme Council party " United Russia”, Olympic champion and simply beautiful Alina Maratovna Kabaeva. The similarity of aspirations of business partners is simply amazing. In the spring of 2012, they simultaneously sold their shares in Surgutex to the top three managers of Rossiya Bank.

Panama offshore

In a strange way, long before the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Gennady Timchenko began to optimize his business, as if anticipating a possible entry into the sanctions lists. He will get rid of GUNVOR literally a day before the start of Western economic repressions. Pyotr Kolbin always and in everything devotedly followed his more sophisticated friend in business. Unlike a rather public businessman, Kolbin has a few more oddities. In addition to the long-standing episode with the Geneva work, he has not crossed the borders of Russia for a long time, not only for business trips, but also for tourism purposes. Kolbin always has in his pocket mobile phone through which he receives from mysterious people urgent instructions. The behavior most of all resembles not a wealthy businessman, but an intelligence agent. However, Kolbin has a hobby that is not inherent in butchers. He is fond of shooting and has repeatedly participated in competitions, speaking quite well at them. Where do these skills come from?

In Russia, Petr Kolbin recently discovered a double. They became a rather ordinary cellist Sergei Roldugin. An ax for chopping meat and a wooden deck, of course, do not look like a cello and a bow, but both the butcher and the musician were lucky to cross paths in childhood with " the mighty of the world this." The documents from the Panamanian offshore that have surfaced have revealed millions of Roldugin to the world. After digging through the Forbes lists and studying the news from the business sector for a couple of decades, the journalists revealed the modest millionaire Kolbin. Both holders of assets and millions of fortunes play the role of "black cash". Or rather, cash desks for a "rainy" day.

The former co-owner of the trader Gunvor, 64-year-old Pyotr Kolbin (in the Forbes ranking he is on the 149th place in the list of the richest entrepreneurs in Russia with a fortune of at least $ 0.55 billion) turned out to be a childhood friend of President Vladimir Putin. This follows from the investigation of the Dozhd TV channel, published on Tuesday, September 27.

Kolbin is one of the most secret Russian entrepreneurs. Until recently, he was registered in the small town of Ivangorod on the border with Estonia, his father Viktor lived in a remote village in the Arkhangelsk region, and the brothers were people of simple professions, “who is a sailor, who is a customs officer,” notes Dozhd.

All that is known about Kolbin is that, according to the channel, from 2005 to 2010 he owned at least a 10% stake in the Gunvor oil trader, when the company's turnover reached $70 billion. Also in 2011, he earned $526 million from the sale of a blocking stake in the gas company Yamal LNG to the petrochemical holding Novatek. According to Dozhd, Kolbin owned 25.1% of Yamal LNG, the owner of the license for the South Tambeyskoye gas field, as well as 49% of the oil trader Surgutex.

According to the Vedomosti newspaper, Kolbin was professionally engaged in shooting sports, repeatedly participated in pistol shooting competitions.

According to the channel, the fathers of Kolbin and Putin met in 1954 in the village of Imenitsa, Leningrad Region, and became close friends. Kolbin Sr. worked there as a school director, and the Putin family rented a dacha for the summer in the house of Kolbin's aunt. Later, Putin and Kolbin continued to communicate - they went to village discos together and fought with local young people.

The Kolbin family became so close to the Putin family that they began to see each other not only as neighbors in the country. In an interview with Pravda Severa, Pyotr Kolbin's father, Viktor Ivanovich, said that he often visited the Putins in Leningrad, in a communal apartment on Baskov Lane: when I came, they put a cot for me. When I came with my wife, they laid it on the floor for us."

Biography of Peter in the interval between the village fight in the sixties and the business in the zero is vague. According to Viktor Khmarin, another acquaintance of Putin's youth, Kolbin worked as a butcher in Leningrad before perestroika.

“Kolbin is best described by his friends, with whom Vedomosti managed to talk,” Dozhd writes: “They say that, of course, he is not an entrepreneur in the classical sense. In their opinion, he more like a man who is highly trusted. Trust to sign documents including. But he does not make key decisions. They talked to the point that he should always be on the phone, because very often senior comrades can get through on some business.

In 2000, Putin sent a personal letter to Kolbin Sr. as soon as he was elected president: “Dear Viktor Ivanovich, I was glad to hear from you. Thank you for your kind words, for the good memory. I am especially pleased that you remember the upcoming anniversary my father." The TV channel refers to a copy of this letter. Around the same time, Kolbin Jr. began to engage in big business.

In 2001, speaking with a Pravda Severa correspondent, Kolbin Sr. said that his son Peter maintains relations with Putin, and, possibly, works for him:

"Pyotr, in my opinion, I don't know for sure, but they say he's in Putin's team somewhere. They were friends from a young age," the pensioner said.

In 2001, shortly after the letter from Kolbin Sr. to Putin, information about Pyotr Kolbin appears in the database legal entities- in the firm "Raznoexport". Its "daughter" supplies equipment for "Gazprom", and another business of Petr Kolbin, the company "Surgutex", sold the oil of "Surgutneftegaz" for export.

In 2005, Kolbin becomes the third shareholder of Gunvor, a company that in a few years has become one of the world's largest oil traders. The second shareholder was then a close friend of Putin, Gennady Timchenko.

Also, Kolbin for some time owned a 25% stake in Yamal LNG, which he acquired from Gazprombank for 90 million dollars. According to analysts, this share at the time of purchase should be worth about $300 million, said Dmitry Lukashov, an analyst at IFC Markets. However, the strange deal was approved by a government commission headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in December 2009. Soon Petr Kolbin sold the stake at the market price, for $526 million, as a result of which he was included in the Forbes list for the first time.

The American authorities, imposing sanctions against Putin's entourage in 2015, included Pyotr Kolbin in the list. The US Treasury said in a statement: "Putin has invested in Gunvor and may have access to the company's funds." Various media connected not only the oil trader Gunvor, but also Surgutneftegaz, to which Kolbin was also involved, with Putin.

Officially, these ties have never been officially confirmed. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told us that the name Kolbin is unknown to him among the president's acquaintances. The official representative of Timchenko also did not confirm that the entrepreneur is familiar with Kolbin.

After the publication of the investigation, Peskov said that he did not see any facts of the president's connection with "business processes" in the publication.

I have never seen or read any information supported by real facts. I mean about some ties with the President of Russia, some business processes," Peskov said.

According to Dozhd journalists, Kolbin owned two apartments and two parking spaces for cars in the elite building No. 18 on Stary Arbat. At the end of 2015, Kolbin sold apartments and parking to Anna Yakovlevna Zatsepilina, and at exactly the same time Gennady Timchenko sold an expensive apartment on Mytninskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg to the same woman. And also before a woman with that name In 2013, Channel One called Zatsepilina the grandmother of gymnast Alina Kabaeva, but this information was also never officially confirmed.

The name of Peter Kolbin from the village of Yasny in the Arkhangelsk region first appeared in the Forbes rating in 2011 - line 187 with a fortune of half a billion dollars, and then his business only went uphill. Kolbin turned out to be the third shareholder of the largest energy group Gunvor, a colleague of Gennady Timchenko.

And the Kolbins were friends with the Putins for many years: every summer the families, together with their children - little Volodya and Petya - rested together. Who is he, the president's mysterious childhood friend, see Dozhd's report.

In December 2000, pensioner Viktor Kolbin received a letter. Vladimir Putin, who took office as president of Russia only six months ago, thanked the provincial pensioner for the memory of his parents: “Dear Viktor Ivanovich! Glad to hear from you. Thanks for the kind words and good memories. I am especially pleased that you remember the upcoming anniversary of my father..

When the letter was published in a local newspaper, the story of the president's acquaintance with Viktor Kolbin went beyond the narrow circle of his neighbors in Yasnoy. From Arkhangelsk to the village is 250 kilometers, which is almost 6 hours by car on the road. Officially, 1,500 people live in Yasnoye, in fact, half that number. Here, even after 16 years, they well remember Putin's letter to a pensioner. But only now it became clear that this letter was preceded by many years of friendship.

Tatyana Surina, friend of Viktor Kolbin: “I remember the day when there were elections, and he called me: “Tanya, do you know who will be our president?” I say, "I already know." “So this is Vovka Putin, whom I held on my knees, whom I taught German!”.

Tatyana Surina willingly recalls her neighbor and, it seems, still does not know - a modest pensioner, huddled in a distant village, was the father of one of the most influential people in the country. In the spring of 2011, the name of Peter Kolbin appeared for the first time in the Forbes magazine's ranking of the richest Russians. The private investor started at number 187 with a net worth of half a billion dollars. No photo, no biography.

In 2016, Kolbin is already in 149th place. But little is known about the businessman. To confirm the version of the relationship of the Arkhangelsk pensioner with the hero of the Forbes rating, we will need to overcome hundreds of kilometers.

Valentina Egorova, a neighbor of Viktor Kolbin, recalls that it all started in 1954. The young headmaster of a rural school named after Viktor Kolbin meets the Putin family, they rent a room in the house of Kolbin's aunt. The heads of families are both front-line soldiers, both were wounded near Leningrad. Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Viktor Ivanovich Kolbin quickly found a common language. Little Vova was then 2 years old. Valentina said that Viktor Ivanovich was always very proud that he knew Vladimir Putin: “He even once turned to him with a question. Says, he answered me. I remembered. It probably helped."

Two roads, several dozen houses, a tractor in the field and sad haystacks all around. Now there is no school in Imenitsy - only in the neighboring Bolshaya Pustomerzh, but it's only half an hour's walk. And then in Pustomerzha they went to a club, to dances. In the middle of the day, at a sleepy crossroads near the store - only the old boxer Uncle Kolya. He just needs to go to the store, and retirement is still far away. So today Uncle Kolya is talkative:

- Is it true that Putin had a dacha here?

I'll show you if you don't believe me. I drank vodka with him.

- With Putin?

- Yes. This is where Viktor Ivanovich Kolbin lived.

- Kolbin?

- Yes. Do you know him?

- Veteran, huh?

- Veteran. He was the principal of the school 20 years ago. I am not lying. Who lies, he dies, am I right? I will have one request - 94 rubles. Will you rescue me?

Residents of Pustomerzha feel almost like fellow countrymen of the president. “We are in the Pustomerzh library, where we always tell people who come to us that our president Vladimir Putin lived in Pustomerzh”, - says Elena Trybush, head of the village library. There is even something like a chronicle of young Putin's stay in Pustomerzh. All popular stories by the middle of the first term they were collected in the local newspaper.

In the newspaper Vremya in 2002, an article was published entitled “Vladimir Putin, after tasting Pustomerzhskaya porridge, became president”:

“It is mentioned there that he was very sociable, he went to these local dances, there were even some clashes with local youth there, this is always, you know, the relationship between one's own and visitors. But everyone remembers him very well.”, Elena said.

“Once with Petka, my son, we went to a dance in a neighboring village. One climbed up to Petka there. My son is not one of the weak - he slapped the back of the neck. The hosts of the dances interceded for the local and began to bludgeon Petka. Volodya ordered: "Petka, into the corner" and one of the five worked. He was already wrestling at the time.".

Not all locals remember that old fight. In the building of the village club, where the dances took place, chess players spend their village evenings. It is advised to talk to the principal of the school - an elderly woman should remember those years. But the conversation does not work from the very beginning.

Kolbin Sr. has four sons, including Peter from his first marriage. Petya and Volodya saw each other every summer until 1963, when Viktor and his family left for Germany. There he was director of a school for children of the Soviet military in Brandenburg for four years. When Putin and Kolbin met here again, one was already 15, the other 16.

In the seventies, the Putins buy a small house in Pustomerzh. “In our village, Putin’s House is one of our local attractions. It is located at the entrance to the village and everyone who passes by can see it," Elena Trybush explained to us.

Finding the former Putins' dacha is easy. The only house by the road, painted either pink or purple. Neighbor Sofya Vasilievna says that now new summer residents live here. They come, like the previous residents, only for the summer.

The Kolbin family became so close to the Putin family that they began to see each other not only as neighbors in the country. In an interview with Pravda Severa, Viktor Ivanovich said that he often visited them in Leningrad, in a communal apartment on Baskov Lane: “ The room is 18 meters, there is a table in the middle, a wardrobe, a bed against the wall, and a couch opposite. And when I arrived, they put a cot for me. When I came with my wife, they laid on the floor for us.”

In 1971, Kolbin Sr. divorced his first wife and left for the Arkhangelsk region. The life of a veteran was not easy. Viktor Ivanovich worked at the school of the district center of Pinega for only a year, and then a colleague named Kolbin, who returned from the GDR German spy. Viktor Ivanovich was transferred to the wilderness. For many years, the former teacher lived in the tiny village of Yasny. However, Kolbin did not lose his presence of mind - even at the age of 90 he could drive a neighbor in the garden into the paint. Kolbin's neighbor Galina Pentyushenkova recalls: “Even such jokes he had:“ Oh, and the priest, like a nut, asks for sin. ”

In 2000, Vladimir Putin, the same Vovka, the son of an old friend Kolbin, became the president of Russia. Seventy-eight-year-old Viktor Ivanovich decided to write him a letter, to tell him about the problems of the village - schools and hospitals were closed. And so that the president read it accurately, he began by mentioning Putin's parents. According to Galina Pentyushenkova, Viktor Ivanovich wrote the letter “Specifically on social issues. Medical centers and hospitals began to close in rural areas. There was also a splendid hospital here. She was closed. And he wrote: “I would very much like to go to your father’s grave.” Kolbina's neighbor explained that the letter did not affect the solution of these problems - the closed hospital was not restored.

However, the answer from the Kremlin did not play a big role in the pensioner's life. He celebrated his last, ninety-second birthday in the same modest house. A small garden, old furniture, a room in need of repair for a long time. Shortly after the death of the old man, the children from his second marriage sold his half of the house. It is too expensive to maintain a living space in Yasnoye - about seven thousand a month goes out for heating alone.

But there is a person for whom the election of Putin as president played a much greater role. This man is Pyotr Kolbin, the son of Viktor Ivanovich. The same Petka whom Putin once saved at a village disco. It would seem that a person with such a fortune should at least once get on the front pages of newspapers or in reviews of rich suitors. The Russian multimillionaire is so secret that Rain managed to find his photo only now.

Back in 2001, speaking with a Pravda Severa correspondent, Kolbin Sr. said that his son Peter maintains relations with Putin, and, possibly, works for him:

“Pyotr, in my opinion, I don’t know for sure, but they say that Putin’s team is somewhere there. They were friends from a young age."

However, Viktor Ivanovich was not particularly willing to spread what exactly his son was doing. Kolbin's girlfriend Tatyana Kondratenko and neighbor Galina Pentyushenkova do not know this either: “Peter has some business in St. Petersburg. Viktor Ivanovich always said that he was very wealthy man. And he said, if I need money, Peter will always give it to me.

Pyotr Kolbin is really engaged in business - and big. In 2001, shortly after the letter from Kolbin Sr. to Putin, information about Peter appears in the database of legal entities. Registration is carried out by the firm "Raznoexport". Her "daughter" supplies equipment for "Gazprom". Another business of Petr Kolbin, the Surgutex company, sells oil from Surgutneftegaz for export.

And in 2005, Kolbin became a shareholder of Gunvor, a company that in just a few years has become one of the world's largest oil traders. The main volumes of Gunvor were provided by Russian players like Rosneft. But for a long time, information about Kolbin's participation in Gunvor remains a secret. In 2009, Novaya Gazeta conducts a journalistic investigation, for which the lawyers of two other shareholders of Gunvor, Gennady Timchenko and Torbjorn Tornqvist, threaten journalists with a lawsuit. Although later confirmed: Peter Kolbin was a co-owner of the oil trader.

Finally, Petr Kolbin owned shares in Yamal LNG for some time. Now this is a well-known project, the second Russian gas liquefaction plant is being built in the Arctic. Together with Gennady Timchenko, Kolbin established a non-profit partnership "Development of the Market for Effective Investments". One of the projects is the improvement of the Ladoga River embankment in the city of Lahdenpokhye in Karelia. According to local residents, in addition to the public embankment, an elite hotel complex and even a yacht club will appear in the city.

One of the first steps of the new President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was the change of leadership of Gazprom. The place of Rem Vyakhirev was taken by Alexey Miller, who once worked under Putin in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg. Following the new managers, the gas giant also has new suppliers. For example, the Yamal-Invest company - Petr Kolbin indirectly controlled more than 20% of it.

In 2008, the Yamal-Invest company came to the attention of law enforcement officers. She was suspected of creating illegal schemes and tax evasion. Here, at 29 Vernadsky Avenue, forged documents were allegedly stored and black bookkeeping was kept. In the fall of 2008, operatives raided here. Sergei Sokolov, who conducted an investigation inside Yamal-Invest in 2008, states:

“The Yamal-Invest company made deliveries to Gazprom. They supplied blades for turbines, some valves, some gaskets. Huge, huge contracts."

Ruslan Milchenko, who at that time served as a senior detective for especially important cases of the tax crimes department of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Western Administrative District, told Dozhd: “This company bought through a trading house affiliated with it, which, in turn, bought for Sberbank bonds from another trading house, and that, in turn, took this product at the factory. Along this path, the cost increased, although in fact nothing of the kind happened. That is, the cost increased. And the components were supplied in general, in my opinion, directly from the plant to Gazprom. In fact, they sat and sculpted documents.”

But the check did not even lead to the initiation of a criminal case. Moreover, not only the territorial police turned out to be powerless, but also the powerful DEB of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Our inspection was suspended several times, decisions were made to refuse to initiate a criminal case. Although there the amount of evasion was about a billion almost. The Main Directorate for Combating Economic Crime, at that time the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, began to deal with it. And at some stage, when they had already got to the bottom of the truth, reached a higher level of distribution of these stolen funds, they were also slapped on the hands and this problem was closed.- says Ruslan Milchenko.

Yamal-Invest stopped working with Gazprom in 2009. But not because of the audit, but because management has changed again in the structures of the gas monopoly. However, it is unlikely that Peter Kolbin was very worried about this. The businessman earned fantastic money in other companies - Surgutex and Gunvor, and at the end of the 2000s, he pulled off a deal that can only be envied, having earned more than $ 450 million in a year and a half. It began with the businessman purchasing a 25% stake in Yamal LNG from Gazprombank for $90 million. Analysts only marveled at such a low price. " If, for example, we evaluate by reserves... It is known that the reserves of Yamal LNG are 926 billion cubic meters of gas. Gazprom has a capitalization of 49 billion, and reserves of 36 trillion cubic meters. In general, it turns out that a quarter of Yamal LNG should cost about $300 million,”― explains Dmitry Lukashov, an analyst at IFC Markets.

This strange deal was even approved by a government commission headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in December 2009. And soon Petr Kolbin sold the package. Already at the market price, for 526 million dollars. It was then that he first landed on the Forbes list of billionaires.

Biography of Peter in the interval between the village fight in the sixties and the business in the zero is vague. According to Viktor Khmarin, another acquaintance of Putin's youth, Kolbin worked as a butcher in Leningrad before perestroika. Two other interlocutors of Rain said that Kolbin is a professional shooter, he can even use two hands, in Macedonian.

Sergey Sokolov, head of security at Yamal-Invest:“Vitya told me about him that he shoots great. And I also had such a fragment of life in the past. I took a gun in my hands, and not only a gun. So I was really interested. He even knows how to shoot in Macedonian, which is very difficult.”

Petr Kolbin is really well known among shooters, for example, he is known in the Baltic Shooting Club in St. Petersburg. But among oil traders, oddly enough, this name says little about anything to anyone. Roman Shleinov, a columnist for Novaya Gazeta and a former correspondent for Vedomosti, says: Little was known about him, almost no one knew anything about him. It's just that the person was not noticeable in the business community, no matter how many questions we asked, no one could even remember such a name. He himself does not give the impression of a man who leads a lifestyle characteristic of billionaires. He is quite modest, he never goes out in public. Yes, we know other non-public billionaires, but the trappings of their lives still speak volumes about their wealth. Here we don't see it."

Kolbin is best described by his friends with whom Vedomosti managed to talk: “They say that he, of course, is not an entrepreneur in the classical sense. In their opinion, he is rather a person who is very much trusted. Trust to sign documents including. But he does not make key decisions. Here is how it was described. They talked to the point that he should always be on the phone, because very often senior comrades can get through on some business..

Who are these senior comrades? Until now, it was believed that Gennady Timchenko, the former co-owner of Gunvor, one of the richest people in Russia, who had known Putin since the nineties, brought Kolbin into business. In the only interview in his life - Kolbin gave it to the Vedomosti newspaper in 2012 - the businessman told reporters that Timchenko was his childhood friend, they met when Kolbin's father was transferred to serve in the GDR. And here is what Timchenko himself said about the third co-owner of Gunvor: “He was an old friend of mine, since childhood, who acted as a financial investor for a while, receiving a small block of shares for this. He has nothing to do with the government or big business.”

It turns out that Kolbin told reporters not quite the truth: his father was never an officer, although he lived in the GDR for some time. We don't know for sure if he was Timchenko's childhood friend. But now we know exactly the name of another childhood friend of Peter.

Special attention deserves the testimony of businessman Yuri Nikitin, given by him several years ago in a London court. He says that at the beginning of the 2000s, Timchenko broke up with his former business partners and did not invite them to new projects. Timchenko no longer needed them, also because he was confident in his good relations with President Putin, Nikitin emphasized. Around that time, Pyotr Kolbin appeared near the oligarch.

“I have been in touch with Timchenko since 1992 quite closely, we crossed paths on work issues almost every day. There was no Kolbin in his entourage, ”― a source associated with one of Timchenko’s business projects told Dozhd. He adds that he first heard the name Kolbin only in 2000 - as an acquaintance of Timchenko, but nothing more. If this is such a great childhood friend, then why was Kolbin not at the 50th anniversary of the businessman, which Timchenko celebrated on a grand scale in St. Petersburg on November 9, 2002?

Non-standard for today's millionaire. No publicity. Registered until recently in the small town of Ivangorod on the border with Estonia, the father is in a remote village in the North, and the brothers are people of simple professions, who are a sailor, who are a customs officer.

Roman Shleynov, columnist for Novaya Gazeta, former correspondent for Vedomosti: Returning to Pyotr Kolbin... The question also arises, for whom is this person, who does not give the impression of a businessman, in whose interests he could keep these 10%? I also had a question, is he holding these 10% in the interests of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin?

The American authorities, imposing sanctions against Putin's entourage in 2015, included Pyotr Kolbin in the list. The U.S. Treasury said in a statement: Putin has invested inGunvor and may have access to the company's funds".

Whether Putin's connection with this man is still close, we do not know. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told us that he did not know such a surname among the president's acquaintances. We asked about friendship with Kolbin and Timchenko, to which the official representative of the businessman advised to address questions to Kolbin himself.

The only additional touch to the portrait of the mysterious businessman from the Forbes list can be found at number 18 on Stary Arbat. In this elite building, the businessman owned two apartments and two parking spaces for cars. True, at the end of 2015, Kolbin, as stated in an extract from Rosreestr, sold apartments and parking to Anna Yakovlevna Zatsepilina. At the same time, Gennady Timchenko also sold an expensive apartment on Mytninskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg to the same woman. And even earlier, a woman with that name passed the Moscow region property of Grigory Baevsky, a business partner of Arkady Rotenberg.

Kolbin, Timchenko and Rotenberg are united by friendship with Vladimir Putin, but what unites them with Anna Zatsepilina? There is little more open data about her than about Pyotr Kolbin. In the press, a woman with that name was mentioned a few times. For example, in 2013, Channel One called Zatsepilina the grandmother of gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

Pyotr Kolbin did not answer any of the phones known to the editors.

When preparing the material, the data of the SPARK system were used. All information is intended for personal use only and is not subject to further reproduction and / or distribution in any form, except with the written permission of the Interfax news agency.

"Biography"

Activity

Since 2001, he has been the sole founder of the St. Petersburg company Raznoexport LLC.

2004 - Member of the Administrative Council of the Geneva office of the Finnish-Swedish company International Petroleum Products (IPP).

Since May 2008, he has been a co-founder of the Arbat 18-1 homeowners association.

In December 2009, Petr Kolbin received a stake in the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field development project for $78.5 million.

State

Hobbies

In February 2009, he participated in practical pistol shooting competitions at the Baltic Shooting Club in St. Petersburg. Was a participant at number 73 in the category "professional".

"Connections / Partners"

— Russian-Finnish entrepreneur, owner of the private investment group Volga Group, specializing in investments in energy, transport and infrastructure assets. Chairman Economic Council Franco-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Former co-owner of Gunvor Group. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League and President of the Hockey Club SKA (St. Petersburg). Member of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Geographical Society. Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

"Friends of Putin"

"Putin's Friends Controlling State Corporations"

"Companies"

Surgutex, Gunvor, Yamal-LNG, Raznoexport, Arbat 18-1

"News"

SHADOWS OF PUTIN

Four "nominals" from the president's entourage: what is known about their assets, common projects with Putin's oligarchs, and what threatens them to be included in the sanctions list

Next to President Putin long years authorities formed a whole circle of mysterious people. These little-known personalities own shares of large banks and significant media assets, land and residences in nature conservation areas, sell oil and receive soft loans from the largest oligarchs. On the day the American sanctions were adopted, NT put together everything that is known about Putin's "shadow business". And discovered new, previously unknown details. And also the main proof of their closeness to Putin: participation in joint projects with the president's richest friends - the Kovalchuk brothers, the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko.

Chateau for sons: how partner Timchenko became a winemaker

appeared in Gelendzhik new company- "Divnomorye", the owner of which is Gennady Timchenko's partner Vladimir Kolbin. The project is related to the Divnomorskoye Estate winery of the family of the founder of Abrau-Dyurso Boris Titov

In the middle of August in Gelendzhik Krasnodar Territory a new company appeared - JSC "Divnomorie", - the main activity of which is the cultivation of grapes, follows from the data of SPARK-Interfax. Its sole owner is Vladimir Petrovich Kolbin.

The media learned about the connection of Timchenko's junior partner with Putin

Former co-owner of the oil trader Gunvor Petr Kolbin, ranked 149th in the ranking richest businessmen Russia, according to Forbes magazine (2016 fortune estimate - $ 0.55 billion), in childhood he was well acquainted with the future President of Russia Vladimir Putin, follows from the investigation of the Dozhd TV channel. According to the channel, the father of the future president rented a dacha in the village of Imenitsa, Leningrad Region, and was friends with Kolbin's father, who lived in this locality and their children saw each other often.

Dozhd alleges that in 2000 Kolbin's father received a personal letter from newly elected President Putin, while his son entered big business at the same time and made a significant fortune in a few years.

The Vedomosti newspaper wrote that until 2012, Kolbin owned 49% in Surgutex, in which the remaining 51% was owned by Russian billionaire Gennady Timchenko (fifth place in the Russian Forbes rating, fortune estimate - $ 11.4 billion). In addition, according to Vedomosti, Kolbin owned a 10% stake in the Swiss oil trader Gunvor until 2010, but then left the company's shareholders, and his share was transferred to a special trust fund. Gennady Timchenko until 2014 was one of the main shareholders of Gunvor with a 43.5% share. After falling under US sanctions, Timchenko sold his stake to his business partner, the Swede Torbjorn Tornkvist, whose stake in Gunvor rose to 87% as a result of the deal. Vladimir Putin in May 2014 called the Russians who fell under Western sanctions his friends.

Gennady Timchenko refused to answer Dozhd's questions about Kolbin. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the TV channel that he did not meet the name of Kolbin among Vladimir Putin's acquaintances.

Pyotr Kolbin was included in the sanctions list of the US Treasury in July 2015. The reason for this was the information about the "rendering of material support" to Gennady Timchenko, who was included in the sanctions list in March 2014. The Cypriot IPP Oil Products (Cyprus) Limited and Southport Management Services Limited (British Virgin Islands) were also blacklisted as being associated with Kolbin. According to the U.S. Sanctions Service OFAC, these companies are “owned or controlled or acted/intended to act in the interests” of Kolbin.

Investigation: multimillionaire Pyotr Kolbin turned out to be a friend of Putin

Businessman Pyotr Kolbin, the former co-owner of the oil trader Gunvor and the owner of a fortune of half a billion dollars, according to Forbes magazine, turned out to be a childhood friend of Vladimir Putin. This conclusion is contained in the investigation of the Dozhd TV channel.

For five years, until 2010, he owned at least a 10 percent stake in the global oil trader Gunvor. The company's turnover in 2010 reached $70 billion.

As the Dozhd TV channel found out, the fathers of Pyotr Kolbin and Vladimir Putin were close friends. They met in 1954 in the village of Imenitsa, Leningrad Region, where Kolbin Sr. was the director of the school, and the Putin family rented a dacha for the summer. Growing up, Vladimir Putin and Pyotr Kolbin often saw each other, went to village discos together. In 2000, Kolbin Sr. received a personal letter from President-elect Putin. At the same time, Kolbin Jr. came into big business and made a significant fortune in a few years, writes Dozhd.

Former Gunvor shareholder Gennady Timchenko, considered a close friend of Putin, declined to answer questions about Pyotr Kolbin. Kolbin himself was unavailable for comment.

Former Gunvor shareholder turns out to be Vladimir Putin's childhood friend

Businessman Pyotr Kolbin, a former co-owner of the oil trader Gunvor and the owner of a fortune of $ 550 million (according to Forbes magazine), turned out to be a childhood friend of Vladimir Putin, follows from Dozhd's investigation.

Kolbin is little known to the general public. For five years, until 2010, he owned at least a 10 percent stake in the global oil trader Gunvor. The company's turnover in 2010 reached $70 billion. According to the US Treasury, President Putin himself could indirectly control the stake in Gunvor.

Kolbin also owned the oil trader Surgutex, which sold large volumes of oil and oil products to the Surgutneftegaz company abroad. In addition, the businessman controlled some of the major suppliers of Gazprom. Finally, in 2010, Kolbin made a successful deal, buying Yamal LNG shares for $90 million and selling them for $526 million a year and a half later. The deal was approved by a government commission headed by Putin, who was then prime minister.

As Dozhd found out, the fathers of Pyotr Kolbin and Vladimir Putin were close friends. They met in 1954 in the village of Imenitsa, Leningrad Region, where Kolbin Sr. was the director of the school, and the Putin family rented a dacha for the summer. Growing up, Vladimir Putin and Pyotr Kolbin often saw each other, went to village discos together and even fought with local hooligans.

In 2000, Kolbin Sr. received a personal letter from newly elected President Putin (a copy is at Dozhd's disposal). At the same time, Kolbin Jr. came into big business and made a significant fortune in a few years.

Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Dozhd that he had not met the name of Kolbin among the acquaintances of the head of state. Former Gunvor shareholder Gennady Timchenko declined to answer questions about Pyotr Kolbin. The businessman himself was unavailable for comment.

The owners of Surgutex

Petr Kolbin owns 49% of Surgutex LLC in St. Petersburg, the remaining 51% belongs to the Cypriot offshore Infotarget Consultants Limited Gennady Timchenko.

US expands sanctions against Russia

The US Treasury has expanded the sanctions list against a number of companies and individuals. The American embassy explained this step by the need to stop cases of avoiding existing sanctions.

The third shareholder of Gunvor was "non-decision maker" Petr Kolbin

Gunvor has a third shareholder, Thorbjorn Tornqvist first told Reuters in October 2007: "It's a private businessman with no connection to politics." According to Tornkvist, this businessman received a minority stake back in 2005 (about 10% of Gunvor), and for this he provided the company with financial support. In 2008, Timchenko said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the minority shareholder is a businessman from St. Petersburg.

After the wedding will heal ...

Witness at Putin's wedding, St. Petersburg lawyer Viktor Khmarin controlled 16 Gazprom suppliers

The list of friends of Vladimir Putin and their partners in the field of supplies for Gazprom does not end there. YamalInvest is 25% owned by St. Petersburg's Raznoexport, the winner of the Gazprom tenders in 2006-2007. Until 2003, the general director of the St. Petersburg company was Khmarin's partner, Kupriyanov. And the sole founder of Raznoexport subsequently became Petr Kolbin, co-owner of the oil trader Surgutex. According to the market (Vedomosti reported), Surgutex is controlled by Putin's friend Gennady Timchenko, co-owner of the Gunvor group (see Novaya Gazeta, No. 113, 2009).

The case of YamalInvest: understatement of the taxable base, “one-day” firms and “black” accounting

The list of Vladimir Putin's friends and their partners in the field of Gazprom's supplies of the day does not end here. YamalInvest is 25% owned by St. Petersburg's Raznoexport, the winner of the Gazprom tenders in 2006-2007. Until 2003, the general director of the St. Petersburg company was Khmarin's partner, Kupriyanov. And the sole founder of Raznoexport subsequently became Petr Kolbin, co-owner of the oil trader Surgutex. According to the market (Vedomosti reported), Surgutex is controlled by Putin's friend Gennady Timchenko, co-owner of the Gunvor group (see Novaya Gazeta, No. 113, 2009).

"Raznoexport" Petr Kolbin occupied a very convenient niche. Gazprom told us that since 2008 he has not participated in their tenders. But in the first quarter of 2008, Gazprom's subsidiary Centrenergogaz named Raznoexport one of its main suppliers. The St. Petersburg company also controls Gazprom's suppliers - VMZ Trading House (by 70% since 2009) and Gazenergoservice Trading House (by 50%). In 2008, the proceeds of these two structures, excluding VAT, exceeded 1 billion 600 million rubles.

VMZ Trading House is only 30% owned by the official supplier of oil and gas wellhead equipment, the state-owned Voronezh Mechanical Plant. And Gazenergoservice Trading House was created by enterprises that are part of Gazprom Tsentrremont, a holding repair company based on Gazprom's subsidiary Centrenergogaz. The task of the holding is maintenance and repair of all facilities of the gas giant. The son of the first deputy general director of "Centrenergogaz" Sergei Pankin-Pankin Sergei Sergeevich heads the trading house.

In the repair holding "Gazprom" at least seven manufacturing plants. It is not clear why their trading house needed a 50% stake in Raznoexport and why in early 2008 this St. Petersburg company was one of the main suppliers of Centrenergogaz. The management of Centerenergogaz and Palkin Jr. did not clarify this issue. Does this mean that Gazprom supplied spare parts and equipment to itself through Kolbin's Raznoexport? Pyotr Kolbin did not respond to Novaya's request.

100 million for Timchenko

By the end of March, NOVATEK is to announce a shortlist of foreign companies with which negotiations will be held on the sale of a 23.9% stake in Yamal LNG, which is in the hands of Mr. Timchenko's structures. NOVATEK has an option to buy this stake for $450 mln for resale to a strategic investor. The preliminary list will certainly include Shell (it even did a preliminary study on the project) and Total (NOVATEK's partner in the Termokarstovoye field), and negotiations were also underway with the world's largest oil and gas company ExxonMobil.

Yamal LNG owns a license for the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field with C1+C2 reserves of 1.26 trillion cubic meters of gas and 51.6 million tons of condensate. According to the international audit made by DeGolyer & MacNaughton on January 1, 2010, the reserves are more modest: according to the SEC classification - 380 billion cubic meters and 14 million tons of condensate, according to PRMS - 927 billion cubic meters and 37 million tons of condensate. In December 2009, Rosnedra quietly extended the license from 2020 to 2045. The controlling stake now belongs to NOVATEK, 23.9% - from the structures of Gennady Timchenko, and the blocking stake (25.1%) from Gazprombank is going to be bought out by Mr. Timchenko's junior partner Petr Kolbin. This transaction was considered by the commission on foreign investments under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Russia, since the interests of the buyer were represented by offshore companies, and was approved.

200 richest businessmen in Russia

Professional shooter Petr Kolbin, Viktor Khmarin and partners

Little is known about the co-owner of Surgutex, St. Petersburg businessman Pyotr Kolbin. In February of this year, in the Baltic Shooting Club in St. Petersburg, there were competitions in practical pistol shooting, participants needed to have at least 36 rounds of ammunition plus 24 cartridges "for a duel". A man named Pyotr Kolbin also wanted to shoot. He was entry number 73. The competition attracted many fans. But opposite the surname Kolbin, the category "professional" was proudly listed.

Kolbin was also heard in Moscow. Not so long ago, he showed interest in luxury real estate in the capital's center. Pyotr Kolbin is listed as a co-founder of the Arbat 18-1 homeowners association, which appeared in May 2008. This address is a seven-storey club house overlooking the Old Arbat. The house has only ten apartments with an area of ​​up to 308 square meters. The cost of a meter, according to real estate agencies, reached 35 thousand dollars. “Rich entrance group, variable number of storeys, free layout, French balconies and windows”, as well as water purification filters and round-the-clock security - this is how realtors described the advantages of this house.

Love for elite Moscow real estate, apparently, is combined with modesty. Petr Kolbin, with whom we have repeatedly tried to contact through Surgutex, is in no hurry to talk about himself and his business. However, we found his name not only in the Russian register of enterprises, but also in the Swiss commercial register.

Kolbin was on the administrative board of the Geneva office of the IPP. By 2004, he replaced Andrey Katkov, Evgeny Malov and Gennady Timchenko on this board. Recall that Timchenko was the managing director of IPP (Finland) and IPP (Sweden) from 1994 to 2001. In the Swiss office of the IPP, we were told that Kolbin did not appear there.

Gennady Timchenko owes money to Surgutneftegaz

Over the past year, Surgutneftegaz began lending to its traders on a regular basis. At the end of the first quarter, they underpaid him almost 20 billion rubles. The debtors are the Gunvor oil trader owned by Gennady Timchenko and, according to unofficial information, the Russian oil trader Surgutex controlled by him.

Traders of Surgutneftegaz have been becoming debtors of the oil company for several quarters, follows from the company's financial statements published on Friday. Until last year, Surgutneftegaz had no debtors that accounted for more than 10% of the total receivables - they must be disclosed in quarterly reports. But since the third quarter of last year, such companies began to appear regularly.

At the end of the third quarter, total accounts receivable buyers and customers to Surgutneftegaz amounted to 48 billion rubles. for up to one year and 8.3 billion rubles. for a period of more than one year. The biggest debtors are two oil traders, the quarterly report said. Sunimex (an independent oil trader controlled by Russian-born entrepreneur Sergei Kishilov) owed 12 billion rubles, the Russian oil trader Surgutex owed 9.7 billion rubles. The company is engaged in the sale of oil products from the Kirishi refinery, controlled by Surgutneftegaz. But Surgutneftegaz itself does not own the trader. 49% of the company is owned by Petr Kolbin (one of the co-owners of the Yamal LNG project, which is developing the large Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field, see Kommersant dated December 12, 2009). The second shareholder is the Cypriot Infotarget Consultants Limited. Its beneficiaries are not disclosed, but according to unofficial information, the company represents the interests of a major Russian oil trader, Gennady Timchenko.

Yamal LNG will flow through Gazprom Export

The heads of Gazprom and NOVATEK, Leonid Mikhelson and Alexey Miller, agreed on the principles for selling gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field in Yamal. Gazprom Export will export liquefied natural gas from Yamal LNG, returning NOVATEK the proceeds from gas sales. NOVATEK, in partnership with foreign companies, will build a complex for gas production and liquefaction and will retain the sale of condensate. The launch of Yamal LNG may take place before Shtokman.

Yesterday, the Board of Directors of NOVATEK took place in Geneva. It was reported that on Tuesday the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, and the chairman of the board of NOVATEK, Leonid Mikhelson, determined the parameters for the sale of LNG from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field. The signing of an agreement on these parameters will allow the structures of Gennady Timchenko to receive an additional $100 million. The press service of Gazprom reported that within the framework of the Program for the Integrated Development of the Fields of the Yamal Peninsula, which includes the creation of an LNG production facility based on the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field, the parties "agreed on the main principles of cooperation and implementation of LNG”. In addition, the board approved the parameters of dividends for 2009 in the amount of 2.75 rubles. per share, taking into account interim payments for the first half of the year and approved the results of the company's work for the year. The meeting of shareholders is to vote on these issues on April 28.

In 2009, Gennady Timchenko, co-owner of one of the largest oil traders Gunvour, became a shareholder of NOVATEK, and the company itself acquired a controlling stake (51% of shares) in Yamal LNG OJSC for $650 million from Mr. Timchenko's structures. In addition, NOVATEK received an option to buy out the 23.9% stake remaining from the same structures and even borrowed 19.4 billion rubles from the Bank of Moscow for this purpose. The blocking stake in Yamal LNG is owned by Gazprombank. In December last year, the government commission for foreign investment control approved a deal to purchase a blocking stake in Yamal LNG by the structures of Timchenko's partner, co-owner of Surgutex trader Petr Kolbin.

NOVATEK reported

On Friday, NOVATEK reported in its 2009 IFRS report that in November it received a guarantee from the Bank of Moscow for 19.4 billion rubles. for a possible buyout of shares in OAO Yamal LNG owned by minority shareholders, although there are no such agreements so far. In the same month, NOVATEK paid in full for a 51% stake in Yamal LNG. As reported, in May 2009, NOVATEK entered into an agreement to purchase a 51% stake in Yamal LNG from Gennady Timchenko, the owner of oil trader Gunvor, for $650 million. In addition, NOVATEK received an option to buy out the 23.9% stake remaining from the same structures, which can be used to attract foreign partners to the project. The blocking stake in Yamal LNG is owned by Gazprombank. However, in December last year, the government commission for foreign investment control approved a deal to purchase a blocking stake in Yamal LNG by the structures of Timchenko's partner, co-owner of Surgutex trader Pyotr Kolbin. In addition, NOVATEK announced that it had paid 1.29 billion rubles. for an increase to 51% stake in authorized capitals OOO Oiltekhprodukt-Invest, Petra Invest-M and Tailiksneftegaz. NOVATEK's net profit for 2009 increased by 12.2%, to 25.722 billion rubles, the company's revenue - by 13.5%, to 89.95 billion rubles.

The state let Pyotr Kolbin into the Yamal

The head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Igor Artemiev, confirmed the information to Kommersant that Gennady Timchenko's partner, oil trader Pyotr Kolbin, received a blocking stake in the project to develop one of Russia's largest Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field. The businessman will receive shares for $78.5 million - almost five times cheaper than NOVATEK will pay for the same share. But the quotes of the latter were supported by the news that Gennady Timchenko is going to buy another 5.29% of the company's shares on the market, bringing his stake in it to 23.49%.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service confirmed that Petr Kolbin received a blocking stake in the development project of the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field

Oil of Russia, 22.12.09, Moscow, 08:57 Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemyev confirmed Kommersant's information that Gennady Timchenko's partner, oil trader Petr Kolbin, received a blocking stake in the project to develop one of Russia's largest Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field. The businessman will receive shares for $78.5 million, which is almost five times cheaper than NOVATEK will pay for the same share. But the quotes of the latter were supported by the news that Gennady Timchenko is going to buy another 5.29% of the company's shares on the market, bringing his stake in it to 23.49%, Kommersant writes.

Co-owner of Surgutex trader Petr Kolbin may become a new co-owner of Yamal LNG

Gazprombank has agreed to sell a blocking stake in Yamal LNG OJSC, which develops one of the largest in Russia, the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field, to a Cypriot offshore controlled by the co-owner of Surgutex trader Petr Kolbin, Kommersant writes.

According to the publication, the businessman will receive papers almost 6 times cheaper than offered to the controlling owner of Yamal LNG, NOVATEK. In any case, informed sources report that in the documents for the meeting of the government commission, the parties name the transaction amount at $78.5 million. According to experts, the blocking stake should cost at least $325 million.

As expected, this deal will be among those that will be considered next week at the next meeting of the government commission on foreign investment, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The deal requires the approval of a government commission, since the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field is classified as a subsoil area of ​​federal significance, and Kolbin acquires a stake in the project not directly, but through the Cyprus offshore.

Gazprombank sells Yamal LNG to partner Timchenko

MOSCOW, 16 December. RIA Novosti - Gazprombank has agreed to sell a blocking stake in Yamal LNG OJSC, which develops the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field, one of the largest in Russia, the Kommersant newspaper writes on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, the co-owner of the Surgutex trader Petr Kolbin will become the buyer.

According to the newspaper, next week at a regular meeting of the government commission on foreign investment, 15 transactions are to be considered, including a blocking stake in OAO Yamal LNG. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), which preliminarily considers received applications, refused to discuss the list. Press Secretary of the Prime Minister Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the meeting of the commission is scheduled for next week.

Petr Kolbin buys Yamal LNG with a license for one of Russia's largest gas fields

Kommersant has learned that Gazprombank has agreed to sell a blocking stake in OAO Yamal LNG, which develops one of Russia's largest Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas condensate field. The buyer will be Gennady Timchenko's longtime partner, co-owner of Surgutex trader Petr Kolbin. If the amount of the deal presented to the government is correct, the businessman will receive papers almost six times cheaper than what was offered to the controlling owner of Yamal LNG, NOVATEK.

Next week, at a regular meeting of the government commission on foreign investment, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, 15 transactions are to be considered, an official familiar with the list told Kommersant. This includes a deal on a blocking stake in OAO Yamal LNG, says another Kommersant interlocutor who is familiar with the preparation of documents. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), which preliminarily considers received applications, refused to discuss the list. Prime Minister's press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the commission's meeting is scheduled for next week. According to one of Kommersant's sources, Gazprombank is selling its stake in the project, and the Cypriot offshore controlled by Petr Kolbin will become the buyer.

Businessman Pyotr Kolbin, who, according to an investigation published on Monday, September 26, on the website of the Dozhd TV channel, earned a multimillion-dollar fortune largely thanks to a personal acquaintance with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the end of 2015 made a generous gift to a woman who is the full namesake of her grandmother Alina Kabaeva. Thus, the journalists learned about the ongoing census of elite real estate for possible relatives of the former gymnast, and now the chairman of the board of directors of the National Media Group, novel with which the press has been ascribed to the head of state for several years.

According to the TV channel, which had at its disposal documents confirming the facts of the transactions, two businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Pyotr Kolbin sold three apartments in the elite areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg to Anna Zatsepilina, the full namesake of Kabaeva's grandmother. Journalists remind that Channel One previously reported that this is the name of the grandmother of the Olympic champion.

We are talking about two apartments in a house on the Arbat in Moscow (total area 601 sq.m.) and an apartment in a house overlooking Peter and Paul Cathedral in the center of St. Petersburg (total area 211 sq.m.). According to extracts from the unified state register of rights to real estate(EGRP), this property was re-registered in December 2015 by the full namesakes of businessmen Timchenko and Kolbin in the name of Zatsepilina.

At Arbat, 18, where Kolbin's apartments were, there is a seven-story club-type house overlooking the Old Arbat. In 2009 Novaya Gazeta wrote that there are only 10 apartments in the building. The three-story house at 3 Mytninskaya Embankment in St. Petersburg is located opposite Zayachy Island, where the Peter and Paul Fortress is located. The building was built in 1899, in 2002 a two-story attic was added to it. Before the reconstruction, architectural historian Andrei Punin attributed the house to "the best examples of late eclecticism on the Petrograd side," the journalists remind.

In March of this year, Reuters journalists published their investigation, which stated that the businessman Grigory Baevsky, who is a partner of Arkady Rotenberg, transferred expensive real estate to three women, including Katerina Tikhonova, the alleged daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a relative of ex-State Duma deputy Alina Kabaeva.

In particular, according to the agency, in 2013, Baevsky transferred ownership of a house and a plot of land in Uspenskoye, Moscow Region, to Anna Zatsepilina, who is the grandmother of a former athlete. The woman, who, according to journalists, became the owner of luxury real estate in the spring, then refused to comment.

Even earlier, in 2009, Baevsky presented an apartment in Moscow on Veresaeva Street to Leysan Kabaeva, the sister of the Olympic champion. Journalists contacted Leysan Kabaeva's company officials, but they refused to talk about the origin of the apartment, which recently registered with their boss.

Nevertheless, the agency managed to talk to the press secretary of Alina Kabaeva in March and ask her questions about her sister's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and about deals between Baevsky and her relatives. "They are all adults, they are responsible for their actions and live their lives. Alina Maratovna Kabaeva has nothing to do with these issues," the official representative of the parliamentarian said at the time.

Dozhd spoke about Putin's "secret friend" who made a fortune on contracts with Timchenko

The former co-owner of the oil trader Gunvor, businessman Pyotr Kolbin, turned out to be a longtime friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. As it became known to journalists, the head of state met Kolbin as a child and has maintained relations since then. Kolbin in the 2000s, after Putin was elected president of the country, entered big business and became a dollar millionaire. This is stated in the Dozhd investigation, part of which was published on the channel's website.

Journalists note that Kolbin is little known to the general public. As the channel found out, the fathers of Peter Kolbin and Vladimir Putin were close friends. They met in 1954 in the village of Imenitsa, Leningrad Region, where Kolbin Sr. was the director of the school, and the Putin family rented a dacha for the summer. Growing up future president countries and the future co-owner of Gunvor often saw each other, went to village discos together and even fought with local hooligans, journalists say.

["Pravda Severa", 01/17/2002, "Letter from the President": The postmen of the village of Yasny were surprised when they began to sort the mail that had just arrived. Government letters have come before, but this letter was from the President of Russia. The recipients included a familiar surname - V.I. Kolbin. Victor Ivanovich, who devoted three decades to the field of education in Pinezhye, is known and respected in the village, old and small. At 79, he is still young at heart. [...].
- Every summer, the Putins came to the dacha, where I, who was then a postgraduate student at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, also rested. We are both blockade survivors, both survived the worst - the war, quickly found a common language.
Volodya was an ordinary boy, absolutely no different from other children. Although his father often told me: "Victor, look how magnificently complex my boy is. Broad shoulders, a waist - a glass." And he answered: "Nothing special, the same as my Petka (son, a year older than Volodya)." [...]
Once with Petka, my son, they went to a dance in a neighboring village. This was in 1969. Petka - 18 years old, Volodya - 17. There, one crawled up to Petka. My son is not one of the weak - he slapped the back of the neck. The hosts of the dances interceded for the local and began to bludgeon Petka. Volodya (there were only two of them from our village) commanded: "Petka, into the corner!", blocked Petka and processed five. He swept aside, in a word, the offenders of Peter. He was already in wrestling at the time. They ran to Imenitsy, I was already asleep. In the morning I wake up, there is blood on the floor, I go to the bed - they sleep in an embrace. Petka's face is bruised, and Volodya's lips are broken. I wake up and say: "Well, what did the boys give you a light?" "No, - they answer. - Go to Pustomerzha and find out what kind of concert we gave there." I was then surprised that Volodya did not get scared, he stood up for a friend. Two against five fought. The other would have run away, but Volodya joined the fight. Not afraid of overweight. He still has this quality. Knows how to take a hit.
Petka, I think, keeps in touch with Vladimir Vladimirovich. Or maybe it works for him. But he doesn't tell me about it. "Dad, don't pollute your brains with things you don't need to know."
Volodya was not fond of hunting and fishing (he was not like his father), he did not drink alcohol, did not smoke. He took care of my niece Tanya. But she gave him a turn from the gate. - Inset K.ru]

In 2000, Kolbin Sr. received a personal letter from newly elected President Putin, a copy of which is in the editorial office. At the same time, Petr Kolbin came into big business and made a significant fortune in a few years, the channel emphasizes. For five years, until 2010, he owned at least a 10 percent stake in the Gunvor oil trader.

Kolbin also owned the oil trader "Surgutex", which sold significant volumes of oil and oil products abroad to Surgutneftegaz. In addition, the businessman controlled some of the major suppliers of Gazprom, journalists write. In addition, in 2010, Kolbin made a good deal, by purchasing shares of Yamal LNG for $90 million, and a year and a half later he sold the asset for $526 million. The deal was approved by a government commission headed by Putin, then prime minister.

Note that Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the TV channel that he did not meet the name of Kolbin among the acquaintances of the head of state. Former Gunvor shareholder Gennady Timchenko, in turn, refused to answer questions about Pyotr Kolbin, and the businessman himself was unavailable for comment.

Kolbin has known since childhood not only Putin, but also Timchenko

As of 2016, private investor Petr Kolbin ranks 149th in rating of the richest businessmen of the Russian Federation according to Forbes. His fortune is estimated at $0.55 billion. According to the publication, Kolbin received funds from the sale of a blocking stake in Yamal LNG to Novatek in 2011, for which he received $526 million, and a minority stake in the oil trader Gunvor.

In 2012 newspaper "Vedomosti" wrote that it was Kolbin who turned out to be the "mysterious third owner" of Gunvor, whom journalists also called "a childhood friend of Gennady Timchenko." "It was a long time ago. All this is already in the past. Why stir up the past? What happened, happened," Kolbin himself admitted then.

One of the unnamed interlocutors of the publication then said that "Kolbin acted as a financial investor, buying part of the trader's shares, and then left with a profit for himself." It was reported that the St. Petersburg resident was also a co-owner of other Timchenko companies: he owned 49% of the oil trader Surgutex and 25.1% of Yamal LNG, the owner of the license for the giant South Tambeyskoye gas field, which is being developed by Novatek.

Even then, Kolbin confirmed that he had known Timchenko since childhood. Kolbin was born in the Orenburg region into a military family. Six years later, his father was transferred to serve in the GDR, where Kolbin met and became friends with a peer, also the son of Timchenko military personnel.

A person close to Gunvor, in a conversation with journalists, called Kolbin closed and noted that he loves big cars, knives, daggers and other weapons, but does not go hunting. Kolbin is a professional shooter, this was mentioned in the materials of the practical pistol shooting competition of the St. Petersburg Baltic Shooting Club, the publication noted.

Last summer, Kolbin's name appeared in media reports when the United States imposed additional sanctions against Russia related to Russia's policy towards Ukraine. On July 30, 2015, the sanctions extended to eight companies and individuals, one way or another connected with the domestic billionaire Gennady Timchenko. Among them was Peter Kolbin. [...]

[RIA Novosti, 09/27/2016, "Peskov: accusations of corruption against Putin's close associates are unsubstantiated": Accusations of illicit enrichment and corruption, sounding to those close to President Vladimir Putin, are not supported by any real facts and often border on speculation, said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation.
“To be honest, I have never seen accusations. Some kind of reasoning - they appear all the time. Some kind of reasoning, let’s say, bordering on speculation and so on. I have never seen or read information supported by some real facts I mean about some kind of ties with the president of Russia, some business processes," Peskov told reporters, answering a question about supposedly Putin's friends who can illegally enrich themselves through possible friendship with the president.
“I have never seen such materials,” he added.
In addition, the press secretary of the head of state once again confirmed that he had not previously heard the name of businessman Pyotr Kolbin, about whom the film was made, among Putin's acquaintances. - Inset K.ru]