Kovalchuk Yuri Valentinovich is an impressive man, a Russian businessman and chairman of the board of directors of a large national bank, an influential person and a good friend of the president himself. It turns out that in his youth the major financier was seriously involved in science and even succeeded in this field.

Childhood

The future entrepreneur was born in the summer of 1951 into an intelligent, educated Soviet family.

His father is a professor of historical sciences, taught history at the Odessa Naval School and at the St. Petersburg Naval Academy. Having access to classified materials, Valentin Mikhailovich Kovalchuk boldly told the world community about the real number of victims Leningrad blockade, for which he won great respect and veneration from influential historians and statesmen around the world.

Kovalchuk’s mother, Miryam Abramovna, also taught historical sciences in higher educational institutions, was always kind and understanding with her students, even protected them from the widespread repression of those times aimed at progressive emotional youth.

From the early age his parents instilled in little Yura a love of knowledge and an affinity for science, diligence in study and diligence in work, independence and self-confidence, resourcefulness and ingenuity. Father and mother raised their two sons in a spirit of peace and harmony, encouraging them to realize the value of tender brotherly relationships and strong male friendship.

Such upbringing had the desired effect on the boy’s life, his choice of specialty and further professional activity.

Scientific activity

At the age of twenty-three, a handsome young man graduated from the physics department of Leningrad State University. Physics was very attractive to Yuri Valentinovich with its accuracy and precision, he wanted to dedicate his best years. For eleven years, Kovalchuk was engaged in scientific activities at the Physico-Technical Institute, completed graduate school, and wrote a doctoral dissertation. For almost four years, until 1991, he held the position of first deputy director at the Physicotechnical Institute.

Yuri Valentinovich enthusiastically worked on developments in the field of physics solid and semiconductor technologies, studied laser radiation. He managed to make several significant scientific inventions and write dozens of important scientific works.

While in a leadership position, Yuri Valentinovich Kovalchuk, together with the second deputy director of the institute, Andrei Fursenko, came up with a proposal to create a group of commercial enterprises at the Physicotechnical Institute for the development and implementation of scientific inventions in real life. economic system and to make money from it financial capital with its subsequent investment both in the institute itself and in science as a whole. The initiative was rejected and sharply criticized by the director of the university, which is why two progressive deputies had to leave their positions.

However, in this attempt to look at things realistically and profit from investing in prospects, the constructive, ambitious personality of the future famous entrepreneur is clearly visible.

The turning point year 1991

After the breakup Soviet Union An ambitious and pragmatic researcher had the opportunity to realize his plans, albeit not in the area in which he had intended.

Now Yuri Kovalchuk, whose biography and activities are dramatically changing direction, decides to start his own business and founds the Center for Advanced Technologies and Developments. He seriously begins to conduct business in the financial and economic sphere together with V. Yakunin, by order of the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak, he restores the regional committee bank Rossiya, which was closed after the August putsch, and creates the Stream corporation, and also takes a leadership position in the Association of Joint Ventures St. Petersburg.

Influential dating

Around this period, Yuri Kovalchuk met V.V. Putin and the Fursenko brothers - future influential statesmen. This acquaintance plays an important role in the life of Yuri Valentinovich. In 1996, men organized a dacha cooperative “Lake” on the shore of a beautiful reservoir in the Priozersky district. Viktor Zubkov helps them with the purchase of real estate.

The rise of Rossiya Bank

A year later, Yuri Kovalchuk, a businessman and entrepreneur, becomes a consultant in the credit department of Rossiya Bank, and three years later he occupies a high-ranking position on the board of directors. From this moment on, he is a prominent and influential shareholder, Yuri Kovalchuk. Bank Rossiya becomes the main investment of the entrepreneur.

At first, this financial institution did not make a profit and was operating at a loss, since its founders came from a scientific background and did not own sufficient funds. economic knowledge. However, after Vitaly Savelyev, a professional financier, took the leadership position, the bank began to flourish. He took a new bet at that time - to invest in small and medium-sized businesses, and he was right.

After Kovalchuk became a co-owner of the bank, the profit of the financial institution noticeably increases even more, and its sphere of influence spreads throughout the country and even abroad.

In 2005, Rossiya Bank gained control over the SOGAZ insurance company, and in 2006, through the intermediary IK Abros LLC, over the Ren TV television company and the Petersburg shopping and entertainment company.

Two years later, Yuri Kovalchuk creates a private media holding, which includes many large television channels, periodicals and at least one cable television operator. Bank Rossiya owns a controlling 55% of the company's shares.

At various times, the bank also owned profitable shares of oil trading companies such as Kinex and others, shares of Gazprom and its pension fund, shares of the Simferopol airport, and also had deposits of some state banks, such as Sberbank and VTB. To this day, “Russia” controls assets in various economic sectors of the state.

Since 2012, Kovalchuk has been chairman of the advisory board of shareholders of Rossiya Bank. He now controls approximately 40% of the shares of this financial institution.

Reaction to sanctions

In 2014, the United States of America, and then Canada, introduced a series of sanctions against Yuri Kovalchuk and his economic brainchild in connection with the Crimean situation. Since then, the bank's assets, which are under US jurisdiction, have been frozen, all transactions between the bank and citizens of the United States are prohibited, and payment international systems stopped carrying out their activities using plastic cards of “Russia”. This turn of events forced the influential businessman to carry out several unplanned financial transactions to make it easier for investors to freely use their money.

For example, Rossiya Bank sold its shares listed in IK Abros LLC, and also stated that from now on it will use only the Russian ruble as monetary units in order to protect its clients from unfair influences of foreign financial institutions.

State

In 2015, Yuri Kovalchuk’s property was estimated at almost sixty billion rubles. A year later, it had dropped sharply to about forty-eight billion.

Family of a great tycoon

An influential businessman has a big friendly family, the head of which in all respects is, of course, himself - Yuri Kovalchuk. The entrepreneur's wife is Tatyana Kovalchuk, an intelligent and charming woman, a loyal friend and ally. A philologist by profession, she is a co-owner of a family business, through which she owns substantial shares in large companies, such as Rossiya Bank and others.

Yuri Kovalchuk, whose personal life is little known to most of his compatriots, also has an adult son, born in 1977, who is his father’s companion. For two years, Boris Yurievich Kovalchuk, a lawyer by training, was the director of the government department for the implementation of national projects - investing in healthcare, housing, education and Agriculture. Since 2009, after the liquidation of the department, he has held the post of head of a Russian energy company that manages assets not only in Russian Federation, as well as in European and CIS countries. Boris Kovalchuk has a daughter who greatly delights the hearts of not only her famous father, but also her influential grandfather.

Older brother

Kovalchuk Yuri, whose family causes a lot of controversy and attracts attention, is on warm friendly relations with his other relatives, both close and distant.

For example, a businessman’s older brother has long been his best friend and comrade. They carried out some financial transactions and operations together. Mikhail Kovalchuk, a well-known physicist in the field of X-ray diffraction analysis, is a member of the government presidium in matters of science and education, as well as the host of a popular science television program. Thanks to the influence and support of his younger brother, Mikhail Valentinovich has his own sphere of influence and is one of the important government officials of the Russian Federation.

Hobbies

Despite his busy schedule, the famous businessman enjoys spending time with his family, playing sports and hunting. His most favorite sports are running and biathlon, so Yuri Valentinovich is a co-founder of two National Federations - for sport-hunting shooting and sporting.

Another hobby of Kovalchuk is collecting cars. In his garages there are dozens of beautiful rare cars, the acquisition of which took considerable effort and money from the financier.

Another hobby of Yuri Valentinovich can be called charity. To support cultural monuments or other important objects he spends considerable sums. For example, in 2012, a well-known entrepreneur provided considerable financial assistance to the oldest bookstore in the French capital and thereby saved it from imminent bankruptcy.

Awards

For his active work and significant contribution to the economic and cultural life of Russia, Yuri Kovalchuk received a government prize in the field of science and technology (1988), was awarded a worthy Order of Friendship (2003), and was also declared an honorary consul of the Kingdom of Thailand in St. Petersburg (1996). year).

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rossiya Bank, Chairman of the Board of the Center for Strategic Research - North-West Foundation (CSR-NW).

Born on July 25, 1951 in Leningrad. The son of the Soviet historian Valentin Kovalchuk, a specialist in the history of the blockade. Younger brother of Mikhail Kovalchuk, scientific secretary of the Council for Science and High Technologies under the President of the Russian Federation.

In 1974 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad State University. A.A. Zhdanova. Graduated from graduate school of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

In 1987-1991 he worked as first deputy director of the Physico-Technical Institute. Ioffe Academy of Sciences of the USSR (director - Zhores Alferov).

In 1990-91 Yuri Kovalchuk and Andrey Fursenko (deputy director of the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute) took the initiative to create a ring of innovative companies at the institute for implementation scientific discoveries into the real economy and earning money from this with further investment in science. The director of the institute, Zh. Alferov, did not support the plans for the “commercialization” of the institute, after which Yu. Kovalchuk and A. Fursenko left their positions in the leadership of the Physicotechnical Institute.

Since February 1991 - Deputy Chairman of the Board (Vice President) of the Association of Joint Ventures of St. Petersburg (formerly LenASP; President-General Director - Gennady Volodchenko).

In September 1991, he founded and headed the Center for Advanced Technologies and Developments JSC.

Since the end of 1991 - co-founder (together with the former head of the foreign department of the Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute Vladimir Yakunin) and president of CJSC Stream Corporation (original name, until the fall of 1992 - JSC NPP Quark; registered 02/13/1992) .

At the end of 1991, together with V. Yakunin, he revived the regional committee-chekist bank “Russia”, which was closed after the August coup attempt by the State Emergency Committee.

In 1994, JSC Kvark had 18.27% in the authorized capital of Rossiya Bank.

In 1995, he was a member of the city interdepartmental commission on enterprises with foreign investment, which was headed by Putin.

In 1995, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC AB Rossiya (chairman - Vladimir Kolovay).

Since 1996 - Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Thailand in St. Petersburg.

In November 1996, he became one of the eight co-founders of the dacha consumer cooperative "Ozero" on the shore of Komsomolskoe Lake in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region (other co-founders of the cooperative: Vladimir Putin, Viktor Myachin, Vladimir Smirnov, Vladimir Yakunin, Sergei Fursenko, Andrey Fursenko, Nikolai Shamalov) .

Since November 1997 - consultant in the credit department of the Rossiya joint-stock bank.

On 31 Dec. 2000 - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSCB Rossiya (Chairman of the Board of Directors - Andrey Katkov).

Since December 2000 - Chairman of the founding board of the North-West Center for Strategic Research, then Chairman of the Board.

In 2003, in the list of shareholders of OJSC "Joint Stock Bank" RUSSIA ", the participation shares of the following shareholders changed: Kovalchuk Yuri Valentinovich - 41.199%; Myachin Viktor Evgenievich - 25.392%.

In December 2003, Bank Rossiya announced that it would place an additional issue of shares for 30 million rubles. at par in favor of Severstal Group of Alexey Mordashov at a price 20 times higher than par. Thus, the holding had to pay 600 million rubles. for 9% of the bank’s shares with equity capital of 616 million rubles.

On February 5, 2004, Russian presidential candidate for the elections scheduled for March 14, 2004, Ivan Rybkin, disappeared. February 10, 2004 in series Russian media Rybkin’s last interview before his disappearance was published, in which he called Putin the main oligarch of Russia. Rybkin claimed that he had specific data on Putin’s participation in business and named the “Kovalchuk brothers” and Gennady Timchenko (“The business of Putin’s closest friends is involved - old friends from childhood, from school, from university. Two Kovalchuk brothers, Mikhail and Yuri, and Gennady Timchenko" - Newsru.com, Moscow News, No. 4, February 10, 2004).

The "Kovalchuk brothers" were mentioned by Rybkin as the shadow owners of the Eurofinance bank (" personnel policy led by Messrs. Kovalchuk, the main shareholders of the bank..." - MN, No. 4, 9-12.02.2004).

In January 2005, it became known that Rossiya Bank had gained control over the SOGAZ insurance company.

On 05/05/2005, Rossiya Bank announced that it had increased its stake in St. Petersburg Vedomosti OJSC from 20% to 35%. As a result, a controlling stake in the newspaper now belongs to structures close to the chairman of the board of directors and main owner of Rossiya Bank, Yu. Kovalchuk.

In February 2006, Finance magazine estimated Kovalchuk's fortune at $110 million (305th place in Russia).

In December 2006, IK Abros LLC, a subsidiary of Rossiya Bank, became one of the largest shareholders of the Ren TV television company. A little earlier, the bank became the largest shareholder of another federal television channel - TRC "Petersburg".

On December 18, 2006, the shareholders of Media-Holding Ren TV LLC (this structure includes the TV channel and television company of the same name) approved a new composition of the board of directors, the chairman of which on the same day was elected Lyubov Sovershaeva, who represents the interests of the new shareholder of this company - LLC " IK Abros". IK Abros LLC is a subsidiary of Rossiya Bank, is one of the shareholders of the Petersburg shopping and entertainment complex and owns its largest stake - more than 38% of the shares. ...in the near future this share may increase to a controlling stake. In addition, among the most likely options, experts considered the merger of the Petersburg and Ren TV TV companies into a single media holding while maintaining the independence of the two television companies: in this case, Yu. Kovalchuk could gain both economic and ideological control over both the Petersburg and Ren TV TV companies. over "Ren TV".

It is still unknown what exactly the stake in IK Abros went to. But if we take into account that L. Sovershaeva headed the board of directors of Media-Holding Ren TV LLC, we are talking not only about a large stake, but most likely about a controlling one. ...before this transaction, 35% of the shares of Ren TV were owned by Severstal and Surgutneftegaz, and 30% of the shares were owned by the German media company RTL Group. Until December 18, 2006, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ren TV was Alexey Germanovich, a representative of Severstal. Most likely, the Severstal company still has a small stake in Ren TV, since it also owns 18% of the shares of the Petersburg shopping and entertainment complex. In addition, Severstal owns a 7% stake in Rossiya Bank, which, in turn, manages the accounts of the metallurgical company.

In February 2008, the National Media Group (NMG) was created, which included the St. Petersburg TV and Radio Broadcasting Company - Channel Five. Rossiya Bank became the owner of 55% of the group's shares.

In April 2008, NMG acquired a 51% stake in OJSC National Telecommunications (NTK), the largest cable TV operator in Russia with 4.5 million subscribers.

Member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Fund scientific and technological development St. Petersburg and the Regional Development Fund of St. Petersburg.

Specialist in the field of solid state physics and semiconductor technologies. Author of more than 100 scientific papers and inventions.

Laureate of the USSR State Prize.

Co-founder (together with Vladimir Lisin and Boris Gryzlov) of the National Federation of Sports and Hunting Shooting and the National Federation of Sporting.

Awarded the Order of Friendship.

Married, son Boris - his father's partner, was a member of the audit commission of JSCB Rossiya; in April 2006, he was appointed head of the department of the government apparatus for the implementation of priority national projects.

How did the scientist Yuri Kovalchuk manage to turn a small regional committee bank into a business empire? He never used his money, but found the right investors, explains one of his former partners

Irina Reznik, Olga Petrova

From physicists to financiers

In 1991, physicist Yuri Kovalchuk left science to become a banker. He graduated from the physics department of Leningrad University, graduate school of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and defended his candidate and doctoral thesis. In 1987, 36 years old, he became the first deputy of Zhores Alferov, director of the Physico-Technical Institute (PTI) named after. A. F. Ioffe. In 1988 he received the USSR State Prize. And then he went into business.

“Young deputies Yuri Kovalchuk and Andrei Fursenko (now the Minister of Education) suggested that Alferov divide the institute into two: in one, leave subsidized science, and in the other, something that can be patented and sold: innovation,” recalls Olga Kurnosova, a then graduate student at the Physicotechnical Institute. - Kovalchuk intended to head the earning part and share the profits with the institute. The Physicotechnical Institute did not agree, and they left.” The head of the foreign department of the Physicotechnical Institute, Vladimir Yakunin, today the president of Russian Railways, also left with them. “We considered it necessary to highlight leading employees and pay them higher, plus focus part of the institute on innovation. There was much less readiness for such transformations. We were ahead of our time,” Fursenko explained to Vedomosti. Vedomosti was unable to contact Alferov; his assistant claims that the scientist does not like to remember this story.

Kovalchuk, Yakunin and Fursenko organized the non-profit Center for Advanced Technologies and Developments, then the Engineering and Technical Center on the basis of the Svetlana military-industrial complex. One of their projects was the regional committee bank "Russia". “We remained as a team. There were different structures there, but neither I nor my colleagues did anything that I would be ashamed of now,” recalls Fursenko. Yakunin was unavailable for comments yesterday; the press service of Russian Railways does not comment on Yakunin’s participation in the history of Rossiya Bank.

Party Bank

The first founders of “Russia” were the administration of the affairs of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the CPSU (48.4%) and the state production and technical association “Russian Video” (43.6%).

In September 1991, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, instructed the chairman of the mayor’s committee for external relations, Vladimir Putin, to “prepare documents for the creation on the basis commercial bank“Russia” Fund for Stabilizing the Economy of the Leningrad Region with the Attraction of Foreign Investors” (Vedomosti has a copy of the order).

In December 1991, Rossiya Bank was transformed into a joint stock company and, by order of Sobchak (Vedomosti has a copy), it was able to rent premises at the 4th entrance of Smolny. At the same time, the main shares of Rossiya were purchased by enterprises that were members of the Association of Joint Ventures of St. Petersburg, the bank’s general director Mikhail Klishin told Vedomosti. The general director of the association was Vladimir Kozhin (now the presidential manager), the deputy chairman of the board was Kovalchuk.

Understand the structure of beneficiaries of “Russia” in the 1990s. according to his reports, this is an impossible task: a series of legal entities, among whose co-owners and managers there are famous names (for more details, see the inset). Fursenko, according to him, got rid of the bank's shares when he joined the civil service in December 2001.

Kovalchuk, as follows from the bank’s reporting, became deputy chairman of the board of directors in December 1992.

Neither Kovalchuk nor his partners were familiar with the banking business, and Rossiya remained unprofitable, recalls a former bank employee. A professional financier was needed, and in 1993 Kovalchuk invited Vitaly Savelyev to the post of chairman, who made the bank profitable. “Russia” began to actively lend to medium and small businesses, recalls Yuri Pakhomovsky, deputy of the Leningrad Region Legislative Assembly, who was on the bank’s board of directors. In 1995, Savelyev left Rossiya for Menatep - St. Petersburg, and Myachin took his place.

Oil money

In the early 1990s, Kovalchuk met oil trader Gennady Timchenko and his partners in the Kinex company. “We met Yuri Kovalchuk and Viktor Myachin in the early 1990s, when Kinex exported petroleum products, purchasing food for St. Petersburg with the proceeds,” recalls former co-owner of Kinex Andrey Katkov.

The mayor's office of St. Petersburg received instructions from the government on how much diesel fuel to sell for export, recalls Katkov. The mayor's office had to find an exporter itself, and it chose Kinex.

“Back then almost no one traded petroleum products,” explains Timchenko’s former partner. - And the Kirishi Oil Refinery, Kirishinefteorgsintez, received the right to create an export trading division back in 1987 - it was called Kirishineftekhimexport, abbreviated as Kinex.

In 1997, after the next issue, 20.6% of the bank’s shares were received by the Finnish International Petroleum Products (IPP), owned by Gennady Timchenko and his partners Katkov, Evgeny Malov and Adolf Smirnov.

“The offer came from Yuri Valentinovich [Kovalchuk], he always made all the main decisions at the bank,” recalls Katkov. According to Katkov, Kirishi oil traders transferred payments to “Russia”. In 1999, Katkov became chairman of the bank's board of directors. “We have never had a package that would allow us to influence Rossiya Bank in terms of helping our personal business,” he claims.

In July 2001, instead of IPP, Kinex became a shareholder of Rossiya. In 2003, the partnership broke up, and traders divided the Kinex package: Katkov, Malov and Smirnov, according to the bank’s statements, ended up directly owning approximately 6.4% each, and one of Timchenko’s companies, Transoil CIS, received 9.54% (today it owns 8.9%).

Companies associated with Timchenko “have neither control nor significant influence” on the bank, Dmitry Lebedev, chairman of the board of Rossiya, told Vedomosti in June of this year.

Metal money

By the time of the collapse of Kinex, the bank acquired a new influential shareholder - Severstal Group. In December 2003, she paid a record 600 million rubles for 8.8% of Rossiya shares. - the same amount was the bank’s capital at that time. Representatives of Severstal Group and Rossiya promised to jointly finance venture projects. “The bank has long been investing in high-tech technologies, and this is close to the interests of Severstal Group,” Viktor Myachin, then chairman of the board of Rossiya, told Vedomosti in December 2003. Representatives of Severstal Group declined to comment yesterday.

Mordashov’s company helped the bank acquire Sogaz, which its main owner and client, Gazprom, recognized as a non-core asset. In the summer, 49.98% of Sogaz shares were sold through the MICEX stock section - sources in Gazprom then told Vedomosti that the stake “for three” was acquired by Evrofinance Mosnarbank, Severstal Group and Rossiya. Then another 38% of the shares passed through the exchange. Rossiya and Eurofinance Mosnarbank reported that they hold a stake in the insurer in the interests of the client.

The client is disclosed in Sogaz's reporting for the first quarter of 2005: 51% of the company belongs to a 100% subsidiary of Rossiya, the Abros company. Another 12.5% ​​belongs to Accept, which also, according to SPARK, owns 3.93% of Rossiya Bank; “Acceptance” is 99.99% owned by Mikhail Shelomov, the son of Putin’s cousin; their relationship was confirmed by the prime minister's press secretary.

Currently, Severstal Group does not have a stake in Sogaz, says a company representative.

The bank did not get Sogaz cheaply, Dmitry Lebedev, Chairman of the Board of Rossiya, pointed out in an interview with Vedomosti: at the time of purchase, the company’s exchange valuation was about $120 million, which was approximately 1.4 times more expensive than it net assets according to IFRS. The net profit of Sogaz was, according to Lebedev, only $6-7 million a year.

Having come under the control of Russia, Sogaz began to grow rapidly. In 2004, the premium of the companies included in the group amounted to 12.9 billion rubles, in 2007 - 36.6 billion rubles. (growth - 2.8 times, 2nd place in Russia). For comparison: according to Rosstrakhnadzor, over the same period, fees collected by companies of the Rosgosstrakh system increased from 32.2 billion to 52.2 billion rubles. (1.6 times), Russian companies Ingosstrakh group - from 17 billion to 36.3 billion rubles. (2.1 times).

The main factors for the growth of the premium were the conclusion of contracts with large corporate clients, including Rosenergoatom, Russian Railways, Evraz, etc., as well as the significant development of the client base of branches (in 2003 - 20%, in 2007 - 44 % in total collections), comments Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of the Sogaz Group Alexey Smertin.

In informal conversations, insurers have repeatedly complained to Vedomosti about the administrative resource used by Sogaz, but none agreed to say so publicly. No resource will help if there are no clear management decisions, Oleg Tishkin, general director of Kapital Insurance, is convinced: 70% of Sogaz’s success is the merit of management and only 30% is of administrative resources, he believes.

Today, according to Lebedev, the assets of the insurance group are over $2 billion, net profit in 2007 is more than $130 million. The share of gas industry enterprises in collections is declining - from 77% in 2004 to 53% in 2007. By 2012 .30% is planned, and collections are 170 billion rubles, says Smertin.

Pension money

In August 2006, Sogaz bought 75% plus 1 share of the Leader company, which manages the Gazprom pension fund - Gazfond, whose reserves as of July 1, 2006 amounted to 167.7 billion rubles.

According to Lebedev, the idea belonged to Sogaz management, and the bank supported it. By that time, the owners of Rossiya were already familiar with the work of Gazfond. Back in early 2003, Rossiya Bank named the fund among its main clients. And in 2005, Yuri Shamalov, the son of Nikolai Shamalov, who appeared at the end of 2004 among the shareholders of Rossiya, became the president of Gazfond.

Gazfond and Leader helped Rossiya gain control over Gazprom's next non-core asset - Gazprombank (87.5% was owned by Gazprom). At the end of 2006, the board of directors of Gazprom approved the exchange of part of the Gazprombank stake for the Mosenergo stake owned by Gazfond; Gazfond used the difference in price to pay for Gazprombank’s additional share issue. From Gazprombank’s IFRS reporting for the first half of 2007 it follows that at that time Leader managed 42.89% of Gazprombank shares on behalf of Gazfond. The fund directly owned another 7.11% - a total of 50% plus 1 share.

Gazprombank is still controlled by Gazprom, says Moody's analyst Vladlen Kuznetsov. The bank is important for Gazprom's business, Gazprom is important for the country, which means that if the bank has problems, they will be resolved not only at the Gazprom level. , he is convinced.

State bank money

Severstal Group and Surgutneftegaz helped lay the foundation of Russia's own media holding. In 2005-2007 they, together with Abros, participated in the purchase of shares in the TV channels TRK Petersburg and Ren TV.

With the arrival of new shareholders in TRC, the channel began to actively develop: it won a competition for the right to broadcast in 41 regions of Russia, then received frequencies in another 29 regions. In February 2008, the co-owners contributed shares of TV channels to the National Media Group (NMG), in which Severstal Group and Surgutneftegaz each received 19.49%, and Abros received 54.96%. NMG is headed by Sergey Fursenko.

The general director of Surgutneftegaz, Vladimir Bogdanov, has known the co-owners of Rossiya for a long time, says one of the shareholders of Rossiya, because Kirishinefteorgsintez, whose products Kinex exported, is part of the Surgut company. True, Surgutneftegaz became a shareholder of Rossiya only in February 2007, having spent 1.1 billion rubles on 6.8% of the bank’s preferred shares.

Surgutneftegaz representative Raisa Khodchenko declined to comment. The representative of Severstal - too. Mordashov previously explained to Vedomosti the reasons for the purchase of Ren TV as follows: “The media business is now on the rise. TV is the most profitable segment of this business.” According to Lebedev, the bank “values” its cooperation with Surgutneftegaz and Severstal.

VTB and Sberbank helped in the construction of the Rossiya media holding. In April 2008, NMG bought the largest cable holding National Telecommunications (NTK) from businessman Suleiman Kerimov. Sources close to both sides of the deal valued it at $1.5 billion. But NMG paid only for 50.29%, the remaining shares went to NMG minority shareholders and the three largest Russian banks: Sberbank, Gazprombank and VTB. This became clear when at the end of June the board of directors of NTK was re-elected, which, in addition to three top managers of NMG and NTK General Director Sergei Kalugin, included representatives of these three banks, as well as Surgutneftegaz (owns 19.49% of NMG).

Surgutneftegaz officially announced that it acquired 12.4% of NTK, and Gazprombank - 8.3%. A source close to NTK shareholders told Vedomosti that VTB and Sberbank also received approximately 8.3% each. “We actually bought about 10% in this company,” Sberbank President German Gref confirmed to Interfax (quoted by Interfax). “We have a certain stake in NTK,” VTB Deputy Chairman Vasily Titov told Vedomosti.

Gref and Titov did not disclose the amount of the transaction. Based on the valuation of the holding at $1.5 billion, each bank could spend about $124.5 million on its share, and all together - $373.5 million. A source in one of the banks said that this is approximately the case.

NMG Executive Director Mikhail Kontserev left Vedomosti's question unanswered as to why the largest Russian banks were attracted to its capital. Titov assured Vedomosti that his bank did not lend to NMG when purchasing a controlling stake in NTK, but only paid for its share.

who is next

If you look at the diagram of the “Russia” business empire, you can see that this empire has weakness: Gazfond, through which the bank controls Gazprombank, Sibur and Gazprom Media, does not belong to it, Leader only manages this asset.

Gazprombank announced its intention to get rid of Sibur in January 2007 in an investment memorandum for the placement of Eurobonds. And on April 22 of this year, Sibur President Dmitry Konov proposed to the holding’s board of directors to buy a controlling stake from Gazprombank in favor of management. Just two days later, representing the interests of the management of Hidron Holdings Ltd. contacted the FAS, and a week later a preliminary sales agreement was signed with Gazprombank. Almost half of the deal can be financed by the seller: Gazprombank offered Hidron a three-year loan for 25 billion rubles. on the security of a controlling stake in Sibur, Konov told Vedomosti.

An investment banker who advised Sibur management believes that managers are buying the stake in the interests of Rossiya Bank. “Neither Hidron nor its beneficiaries have any obligations to sell shares,” Konov objects. Lebedev claims that neither the bank nor its affiliates are taking part in this transaction.

Gazprom's financial director Andrey Kruglov said in June that the concern could reduce its stake in Gazprombank to 25% plus 1 share. According to him, Gazprombank is valued at $25 billion for 100% of the shares. Gazprom now owns 41.7% of Gazprombank, i.e. 16.7% may be put up for sale, which will cost investors $4.2 billion.

In May 2008, Sogaz bought a 50.2% stake in the Izvestia newspaper from Gazprom Media. Dmitry Lebedev in an interview with Vedomosti said that Russia is also interested in other assets of Gazprom Media, not excluding the NTV and TNT television channels, but there are no negotiations about this.

Yuri Kovalchuk did not answer Vedomosti’s questions sent to Lebedev’s reception office, as well as to his PR manager and law office.

Did not work out
Since February 2006 investment bank KIT Finance, in the interests of Leader, bought shares of long-distance communication operator Rostelecom (a subsidiary of Svyazinvest), accelerating its capitalization from $1.7 billion (February 1, 2006) to $6.6 billion (April 28 2007). In April, former general director of Svyazinvest Valery Yashin estimated the purchased stake at 35% of ordinary and 6% of preferred shares; in June, the then general director of Svyazinvest, Alexander Kiselev, was at 38–39%.

At the end of 2006 at a meeting at the Ministry of Economic Development, the idea of ​​​​transferring all interregional operator companies of Svyazinvest to a single share was discussed; The basis for consolidation could be Rostelecom, which has risen in price many times over. But no decision on reform was made.
In December 2006
KIT Finance submitted an application to purchase a blocking stake in Svyazinvest from Leonard Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg, but Sistema became the buyer.
The purchase of a stake in Rostelecom did not bring the expected dividends - it was not possible to obtain a controlling stake in Svyazinvest, admits a source close to the management of Rossiya. But it is impossible to profitably sell a non-controlling stake in Rostelecom due to its overvaluation.
In the medium term, Leader plans to improve the quality of management at Rostelecom, says Igor Mustyatsa, Deputy General Director of Leader. Over time, the package will be sold, he does not rule out.

Shareholders of "Russia" (chronology)
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Composition of the board of directors of Rossiya (chronology)
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Alexey Rozhkov, Igor Tsukanov, Boris Grozovsky, Anna Baraulina, Timofey Dzyadko, Gleb Krampets, Maria Ivanina, Sergey Vasiliev participated in the preparation of the article

]. In 1977, Kovalchuk began working at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, in 1985 he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Physical and Technical Sciences, and in 1987 (according to other sources - in 1988) he became the first deputy director of the Physicotechnical Institute Zhores Alferov. , .

At the Physicotechnical Institute, Kovalchuk worked together with Andrei Fursenko (also Alferov’s deputy) and Vladimir Yakunin, who from 1982 to 1988 was the head of the foreign department of the institute. The press wrote about Kovalchuk, a specialist in the field of solid state physics and semiconductor technology, as a talented scientist: he was the author of more than a hundred scientific papers and inventions, and in 1988 he was awarded the USSR State Prize in the field of science and technology.

In 1991, Kovalchuk left the Physicotechnical Institute due to a conflict with Alferov: he, together with Fursenko, took the initiative to create a number of innovative companies at the Physics and Technology Institute to introduce scientific discoveries into the real sector of the economy, but Alferov did not support plans for the commercialization of a fundamental scientific institution. . According to the press, disagreements between scientists boiled down to the issue of freedom of action for innovative companies. Alferov believed that physics and technology employees should have worked in these companies without abandoning science itself. Kovalchuk and Fursenko objected to this, believing that in this case innovative projects would remain without sufficient attention. Another version was proposed in the media, according to which Kovalchuk and Fursenko, having organized a number of scientific and technical companies at the institute, made computer trading the main source of their income, for which the head of the Physicotechnical Institute “kicked them out.”

In the same 1991, Kovalchuk took the post of president of the non-profit "Center for Advanced (Prospective) Technologies and Developments", and then, together with Fursenko and Yakunin, participated in the creation of the Engineering and Technical Center of JSC "Semiconductor Devices", which was engaged in the production of laser medical equipment, on the basis of enterprise of the military-industrial complex "Svetlana", where most of the employees of the companies created earlier at the Physicotechnical Institute moved. The structures created during that period were subsequently closely connected with Kovalchuk’s banking business.

In February 1991, Kovalchuk became vice-president of the Association of Joint Ventures of St. Petersburg (ASP). The association was headed by Gennady Volodchenko (in 1993 he was replaced by Vladimir Kozhin), and from the side of the city administration it was supervised by the chairman of the committee on external relations, Vladimir Putin. According to some reports, at one time the mediator between Kovalchuk and Putin was Yakunin, who began working for the mayor’s office of St. Petersburg, and subsequently Kovalchuk himself became close to the future president of Russia.

Also in 1991, Kovalchuk participated in the re-establishment of the share commercial bank "Russia", organized in 1990 to service the accounts of the regional committee of the CPSU and the management of the KGB. The bank's activities were suspended after the August 1991 coup, but a month after that, the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak instructed Vladimir Putin to create, on the basis of Rossiya, a fund for stabilizing the economy of St. Petersburg and the region with the attraction of foreign investors. In December 1991, the bank was made joint stock, and Putin sold shares to member enterprises of the TSA, , , including NPP Kvark, one of the founders of which was Kovalchuk. Other initial shareholders through intermediary firms and founders of the bank included Mikhail Markov, Viktor Myachin (former senior researcher at the Physicotechnical Institute), as well as Andrei Fursenko and his brother Sergei. In December 1992, Kovalchuk became deputy chairman of the bank's board of directors. Since neither he nor his partners had been involved in finance before, in 1993 they invited Vitaly Savelyev, , , , , , , , , to the position of consultant to the board of directors, and then chairman of the board. After his departure in 1995, Myachin became the chairman of the board of AB Russia. Initially, the bank began turnover with 50 million rubles requisitioned from the CPSU; later, under Mayor Sobchak, the bank served the foreign economic operations of the city administration.

In the 1990s, as Vedomosti wrote, the ownership structure of AB Rossiya Bank was almost invisible. Already by 1997, as reported, all major decisions at the bank were made by Kovalchuk personally, while officially remaining only the deputy chairman of the board of directors and an investment consultant in the bank’s credit department. In the same year, one of the companies of businessman Gennady Timchenko, International Petroleum Products, acquired a stake in AB Russia. By 2001, its share was bought by Kinex, which, together with Timchenko, was controlled by Evgeny Malov, Adolf Smirnov and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AB Russia Andrey Katkov, , .

In those years, Kovalchuk worked not only in the banking sector. In the early 1990s, he became one of the founders of CJSC STREAM Corporation (the new name of NPP Quark), whose activities at that time were associated with the sale of strategic raw materials abroad. In addition, he and Fursenko continued to produce laser equipment. Kovalchuk was also mentioned as a member of the board of directors of the joint stock company "Fond" headed by Andrei Fursenko Regional development(FRR) St. Petersburg" , .

The press has repeatedly called Kovalchuk a friend of Putin, or his close associate. In 1996, Kovalchuk, together with Putin, Yakunin, the Fursenko brothers and Viktor Myachin, became a co-founder dacha cooperative"Lake" on the shore of Komsomolskoe Lake in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, many of whom, after Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, were appointed to high government positions or were given control of large state assets , , .

In 1999, Kovalchuk was mentioned among the persons who provided assistance to the candidate in the gubernatorial elections in the Leningrad region, Viktor Zubkov. Then Valery Serdyukov won, but Zubkov’s task, as they wrote in the press, was to pull votes away from Vadim Gustov, a former deputy prime minister in the government of Yevgeny Primakov.

Since 2000, Kovalchuk served as chairman of the board of the independent public fund "Center for Strategic Research "North-West"", created with money from "AB Russia" (in 2001 he was mentioned in the media as the president of JSC "Center for Scientific and Technical Reforms"). Among the other founders of the center were the Baltika brewing company, OJSC Telecominvest, FSUE Central Research Institute Granit and the Center for Strategic Research (Moscow) - one of the main analytical centers Russian government. Its scientific council was headed by Andrey Fursenko. TsSR "North-West" was engaged in socio-economic consulting, first within the macro-region, and then throughout Russia, , , , , , , . From 2002 to 2003, Kovalchuk served as a member of the board of the non-profit partnership " International school Management", and from 2003 to 2006 he was its co-chairman.

In 2003, it was reported that Kovalchuk owned 41 percent of the shares of AB Russia. At the end of the same year, Severstal of Alexei Mordashov became the new shareholder of the bank, which bought 8.8 percent for 600 million rubles (the same amount as the bank’s entire capital at that time). Kinex's shares were divided: Katkov, Malov and Smirnov received about 6.5 percent of the shares, and Timchenko's Transoil CIS - 9.5 percent.

However, Kovalchuk was practically not mentioned in the press until February 2004, when Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin, who was not registered at that time, published as an advertisement in the newspaper Kommersant, owned by Boris Berezovsky, a statement entitled “Putin has no right to power.” in Russia" , , . Rybkin claimed that Kovalchuk and his brother Mikhail (since 2001 - scientific secretary of the Council on Science and High Technologies under President Putin), along with Roman Abramovich and Gennady Timchenko, were “responsible for the business” of the current President Vladimir Putin, and called the latter the largest oligarch in Russia , . In subsequent interviews, Rybkin explained that the Kovalchuks, together with Timchenko, controlled the financial flows of Sovcomflot and the Novorossiysk Shipping Company and were even the “owners” of the main department of the Bank of Russia (Central Bank) in St. Petersburg, , . He also stated that the Kovalchuks “control the personnel policy” of the Eurofinance bank, which, according to him, in turn controlled the ORT and NTV television channels. That same month, Rybkin mysteriously disappeared and was even put on the wanted list, but a few days later he showed up in Kyiv. In March of the same 2004, without clarifying the situation with his disappearance, he withdrew his candidacy from the elections (Putin won them).

In May 2004, Kovalchuk became chairman of the board of directors of AB Russia. At that time, he was the largest shareholder of the bank with 30.4 percent of shares owned. In the same year, AB Rossiya acquired the insurance company Sogaz - the bank's share was estimated at 51 percent. It was reported that Putin personally gave instructions for the sale of Sogaz Bank, which was previously called Gazprom's "pocket" insurance company. Soon after the purchase, Sogaz became one of the largest insurance companies in Russia; its clients were not only Gazprom, but also such corporations as Russian Railways and Rosneft.

By purchasing Sogaz, AB Russia also gained control over its assets, in particular, over 75 percent of the management company Leader, which, through the Gazfond, owned 43 percent of the shares of Gazprombank and, as they later wrote in the press, it was Kovalchuk who became the real owners of this bank, which, in turn, owned gas corporation companies such as Stroytransgaz, the Gazprom-Media holding (which included such well-known channels as NTV and TNT) and Sibur. Gazprombank also owned a large stake in Atomstroy-Export.

In 2005, Kovalchuk began acquiring media assets and became the largest shareholder of the Petersburg-Channel 5 TV and Radio Company (sold by the St. Petersburg City Hall) and the St. Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper (previously, from 1996 to 2003, the businessman was on the supervisory board of this newspaper ) ) , , . He owned these assets together with Oleg Rudnov, head of the Baltic Media Group.

In February 2008, the media holding National Media Group was created, which included the television channels Ren-TV and Petersburg-Channel Five, as well as the largest Russian advertising seller Video International. Kovalchuk was called the owner of NGM through AB Rossiya - the bank owned 54 percent of NGM shares in 2008., . Sergey Fursenko was appointed President of NMG.

In May 2008, Gazprom-Media sold Sogaz a 50.2 percent stake in the newspaper Izvestia, , , , . In July of the same year, information appeared that NMG was buying the publication “Life for the Whole Week,” and subsequently it was reported that NMG owned only 49 percent of the publishing house “News Media,” the owner of this publication. In the same year, NMG bought the National Telecommunications company from Suleiman Kerimov, which included, in particular, the Internet provider Online, but at the beginning of 2011 it sold this asset to Rostelecom. In April 2011, NMG bought a 25.17 percent stake in STS Media from Alfa Group, and in the summer of the same year completed the acquisition of the Russian News Service radio station. In addition, through Video International, NMG owned 25 percent of the shares of Channel One, purchased at the end of 2010 from the structures of Roman Abramovich,,. It was noted that AB Russia and Kovalchuk did not interfere with the work of their assets and did not influence the editorial policy of their owned TV channels and publications. An example of this was that the Ren-TV channel allowed Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov to present a study in which the topic of dubious operations of AB Russia was also touched upon.

In 2009, Kovalchuk became a member of the Russian Presidential Commission for Modernization and technological development Russian economy.

As of 2011, Kovalchuk remained the largest owner of AB Russia with 28.57 percent of shares. 11.5 percent of the bank belonged to OJSC Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye. 9.886 percent each belonged to Dmitry Gorelov and Nikolai Shamalov (father of the Gazfond president, Yuri Shamalov). Transoil CIS was the owner of 7.5 percent of the shares, and Severgroup and Surgutneftegaz each owned about 5.5 percent. Another owner of AB Russia was the Accept company, which belonged to Mikhail Shelomov, the son of Putin’s cousin.

In the fall of 2010, the media reported that Kovalchuk, through the Leader Management Company, controls a number of organizations involved in the construction of a toll backup for the Moscow-Minsk highway. In the summer of 2011, according to Vedomosti, through Gazprombank, Kovalchuk also received in trust management 50.9 percent of the shares of the Moscow grid company MOESK.

In 2008, Elephant magazine reported that Kovalchuk lost almost 78 percent of his wealth as a result of the global financial crisis, and it decreased from $1.5 billion in 2007 to $346 million in 2008. However, it was in 2008 that Russian Forbes first included Kovalchuk in the list of Russian billionaires with a fortune of $1.9 billion. In 2011, the same publication estimated Kovalchuk's fortune at $1.5 billion, and the magazine "Finance." - 0.97 billion dollars. According to the latest Forbes list of billionaires, published in March 2012, Kovalchuk's fortune decreased to $1.2 billion.

In the book “Putin - Results” by Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov, published in 2010, the authors demanded an explanation from the authorities why Kovalchuk and AB Rossiya gained control over the largest non-state pension fund Gazfond (through Sogaz) and stakes in Gazprom-Media and Gazprombank, which were still controlled by Gazprom. The authors of the report also argued that Kovalchuk was only a nominal owner, and the real owner of the assets of AB Rossiya was Putin himself.

Kovalchuk was awarded the Order of Friendship (2000). In addition, some media outlets called him the owner of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree. It was also noted that Kovalchuk has a state award of Thailand - the Order of the Crown, III degree. Back in July 1996, media reported, Kovalchuk was appointed honorary consul of Thailand in St. Petersburg. According to the businessman, he became an honorary consul “completely by accident,” and, according to press reports, he has since driven a car with diplomatic license plates. In 2002, Kovalchuk headed the board of the Russian League of Honorary Consular Officials, which, besides him, included Viktor Khmarin (Honorary Consul of the Seychelles), Sergei Fursenko (Honorary Consul of Bangladesh) and Taimuraz Bolloev (Honorary Consul of Brazil).

It was reported that Kovalchuk enjoys collecting vintage cars and playing table tennis. In addition, together with Boris Gryzlov and Vladimir Lisin, he was called the co-founder of the “National Sporting Federation” (a type of shotgun shooting with shotguns).

Kovalchuk is married; all that is known about his wife is that she is a philologist by profession. The businessman has two children. Son Boris (born in 1977) from 2003 to 2006 headed the audit commission of AB Russia Bank, from 2006 to 2009 he was the head of the Department of National Projects in the Government of the Russian Federation, then he was deputy director of Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko, and at the end of 2009 he was appointed head of InterRAO , , , , , , , .

The media also wrote about the successful scientific career of Yuri Kovalchuk’s brother, Mikhail. In 1997, he headed the Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2005 he became director of the Kurchatov Institute, and was considered as one of the likely candidates for president of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was also mentioned in the media as the scientific secretary of the Russian Presidential Council for Science, Technology and Education and deputy chairman of the government council on nanotechnology. In November 2012, Mikhail Kovalchuk also became the dean of the Faculty of Physics at St. Petersburg State University.

Used materials

Mikhail Kovalchuk became the dean of the Faculty of Physics of St. Petersburg State University. - St. Petersburg State University , 23.11.2012

Anton Verzhbitsky. Gazprom is ready to oust Yuri Kovalchuk in Leader. - RBC-Daily, 28.02.2012

Management: Savelyev Vitaly Gennadievich. - VTB, 20.12.2011

Natalia Bokareva. Royal entourage. - BFM.ru, 01.12.2011

The National Media Group bought the Russian News Service. - Business Petersburg, 15.07.2011

Structure of the share capital of JSC AB RUSSIA. - Joint Stock Bank Russia (web.abr.ru), 21.06.2011

Anna Peretolchina. The Kovalchuks spread their nets. - Vedomosti, 17.06.2011. - № 109 (2875)

Daria Cherkudinova. Alfa Group sold CTC Media to the National Media Group. - Marker, 20.05.2011

Yuri Kovalchuk acquires a stake in STS Media. - Kommersant-Online, 28.04.2011

The richest businessmen of Russia - 2011. Yuri Kovalchuk. - Russian Forbes, 15.04.2011

The national media group bought 25% of Channel One. - Business Petersburg, 09.02.2011

Elizaveta Sergina. National Telecommunications comes under the control of Rostelecom. - RBC-Daily, 01.02.2011

Rinat Sagdiev, Ksenia Boletskaya. Secrets of the "First" button. - Vedomosti, 01.11.2010. - № 206 (2724)

Ivan Golunov, Irina Mokrousova. Who will take Moscow? - Slon.ru, 11.10.2010

Rinat Sagdiev. The roads of Kovalchuk and Rotenberg. - Vedomosti, 20.09.2010

Rimma Akhmirova. However, I want to be consul of Monaco. - Companion, 17.08.2010. - № 31

Inna Erokhina. Mikhail Lesin. - Kommersant, 07.05.2010. - № 80 (4380)

SOGAZ insured the property of Russian Railways for 6.28 trillion rubles. - RZD-Partner, 29.03.2010

Ekaterina Grishkovets, Vladimir Dzaguto. The chairman of Inter RAO was launched. - Kommersant, November 23, 2009. - No. 218/P (4273)

Roman Shleinov. Who is the third owner of Gunvor? - New Newspaper, 12.10.2009. - №133

Vera Sitnina. Brainwork. - News time, 01.06.2009

Antiforbs. Ranking of Russian billionaires most affected by the crisis. - Slon.ru, 19.05.2009

Lyudmila Rybina, Maria Efremova. Parasites ate the national project. - New Newspaper, 08.04.2009. - № 36

Three federal television channels, the country's third bank by assets, a powerful insurance group, leading enterprises in nuclear engineering, shipbuilding, and petrochemicals. Any oligarch would envy such a gentlemanly set, but this is not yet full list. The threads of control of this empire lead to a three-story Art Nouveau building in the quiet center of St. Petersburg. On the house is the flag and coat of arms of the Kingdom of Thailand. And here is the owner - a short-haired gray-haired man in a gray suit comes out of the door, accompanied by two guards. Meet Yuri Kovalchuk, Honorary Consul of Thailand, main shareholder of the St. Petersburg Rossiya Bank.

Several years ago, something incredible began to happen to Gazprom’s subsidiaries.

In 2004, the gas monopoly sold its insurer Sogaz. Control over Sogaz cost the final buyer 1.7 billion rubles. Over the next two and a half years Insurance Company earned its shareholders 7.5 billion rubles in net profit and paid them $50 million in dividends. It’s a great deal for the buyer, even when compared to collateral auctions. Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich paid $100 million for a controlling stake in Sibneft, the total profit of Sibneft according to standards international reporting over the next two years did not exceed this amount.

Then it was the turn of Leader, the country’s largest management company. 75% of its shares went to the new owners for 880 million rubles, and the very next year, 2006, the company earned 1.2 billion rubles in net profit. But the point is not even that the investment paid off in just a year: its management company Gazprom, like a Christmas tree, decorated it with interesting assets. At the time of the transaction, Leader was listed as a shareholder of Gazprombank with a share of 43% of the shares. Formally, Leader acted only as a representative of Gazfond, the ultimate beneficiary of this package. But although Gazfond was founded by Gazprom and its subsidiaries, according to its charter, its owners do not have rights to the property contributed to the fund; everything is managed by the management company. Gazprombank is a real “storehouse” of non-core assets for the gas monopoly: here is a controlling stake in the Gazprom-Media holding, and the flagships of the nuclear industry “Atomstroyexport” and “United Machine-Building Plants”, and the “Russian BASF” - the giant of the domestic petrochemical industry “Sibur”, and with recently Stroytransgaz, Russia's largest pipeline builder... Gazprom eventually admitted that it no longer controlled its settlement bank. At the shareholders meeting in June, Gazprom appointed only five out of twelve people to the board of directors of Gazprombank.

The distribution of property was striking in its simplicity. “I and several other hotheads proposed reform of Gazprom. And they answered us: let’s better sell off non-core assets. People like me usually hung out here,” recalls politician Vladimir Milov. In 2002, he worked as Deputy Minister of Energy, then as head of an analytical group at the Center for Strategic Research, which is close to the Ministry of Economic Development. “Across Sogaz” after presidential elections the final decision was made - to approve the sale to a strategic investor... Putin said: Rossiya Bank, and that’s it. Gref, Sharonov (minister economic development, who was on the board of directors of Gazprom, and his first deputy, who was responsible for the budgets of the monopolies. - Forbes), and the other guys were amazed. This also outraged me,” says Milov. “Putin never personally interferes in the activities of any companies. Any decisions, including those regarding Sogaz, were made by shareholders within the framework of existing corporate procedures,” Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov responded to a Forbes request.

Stories with former Gazprom subsidiaries have one thing in common. They came under the control of Rossiya Bank, whose largest shareholder (30.4%) is Yuri Kovalchuk. Today “Russia” manages assets with a total value of more than $15 billion. In addition to industrial and financial companies, “Russians” control a serious political resource - the largest media holding in Russia of three television channels (NTV, REN TV, Petersburg - Channel 5) and newspaper "Izvestia".

The general public first heard about Kovalchuk in February 2004, when presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin addressed voters from the pages of Kommersant: “I have a lot of concrete evidence of Putin’s participation in business. The famous Abramovich, standing in the shadow of Timchenko, the Kovalchuk brothers and others are responsible for Putin’s business.” Putin was successfully re-elected to a second term, but Rybkin did not publish any evidence. Disgraced Boris Berezovsky, who sponsored Rybkin's campaign, says he doesn't know what facts the candidate had in mind.

Where did one of the most successful businessmen Putin's eighth anniversary?

Yura Kovalchuk had everything he needed for a successful career in the Land of the Soviets. My grandfather, a Ukrainian peasant, worked at one of the St. Petersburg factories before the October Revolution. Father is a historian, doctor of sciences, author of hundreds of scientific works, mainly about the siege of Leningrad. The third generation of “St. Petersburg” Kovalchukov, Yuri and his older brother Mikhail (now the director of the Kurchatov Institute, the main promoter of nanotechnology), entered the physics department of Leningrad State University. Yuri studied better.

“He was a handsome young man, girls fell for him,” recalls Kovalchuk’s classmate Tatyana Borisova. “The boy comes from a good family, plays sports and all that.” At the age of 28, Kovalchuk defended his candidate’s thesis, and at the age of 35, his doctorate. After Leningrad State University, he got a job at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute. A. F. Ioffe. Specialized in lasers and semiconductors. Kovalchuk's department was headed by the future Nobel laureate Zhores Alferov. In 1987, Alferov became director of the institute. Two years later, 36-year-old Kovalchuk became his first deputy.

Several people worked with Kovalchuk at the Leningrad Physics and Technology Institute who went with him through life even after the collapse of the USSR. For example, Andrei Fursenko, now the Minister of Education and Science (his younger brother Sergei today oversees the media business of Rossiya Bank). The Fursenko and Kovalchuk families knew each other well. The recently deceased Alexander Fursenko, the brothers' father, worked together with Valentin Kovalchuk (Yuri and Mikhail's father) at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences; connoisseur modern history USA, he was in good standing in the Leningrad Regional Committee. In 1987, Andrei Fursenko became deputy director of the Institute. Ioffe. A little earlier, in 1982-1985, the “foreign department” of the Physicotechnical Institute was headed by future president"Russian railways» Vladimir Yakunin.

The newly appointed deputy directors of the Physicotechnical Institute were in a hurry to take advantage of the opportunities that perestroika opened up for quick-witted people. “Kovalchuk tried to organize a department that would deal with practical developments,” recalls academician Yuri Osipyan, who opposed him in defending his doctoral dissertation. Kovalchuk and Fursenko organized several scientific and technical companies around the institute. But the main source of income was trading in computers. The director didn't like it. “Alferov was told: the companies are in the interests of the institute. Well, then, closer to 1991, it turned out that everything was going into the pockets of the founders,” says Vladimir Pribylovsky, the author of several works on Putin and his entourage. “As a result, Alferov kicked out Kovalchuk, Fursenko and Myachin (an employee of Phystech, who will also work in Rossiya. - Forbes).” “Yes, there was a conflict, but I wouldn’t want to go into it,” confirms Osipyan. Alferov did not comment on his relationship with former employee. Kovalchuk declined to be interviewed for this article.

In another time and for another person, expulsion from great science and an institute where a brilliant career had developed would have been a tragedy. But not for Kovalchuk. In 1991, he already had a new roof over his head.

Early 1990s. St. Petersburg, German restaurant “Chaika”. Stained wood on the walls, models of ancient ships everywhere, a steering wheel in a prominent place. The smoky room is full of people. People in suits are quietly talking about something at tables in cozy niches. In one of the companies there is not the last St. Petersburg official, the head of the city committee for external relations. “Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] visited [the restaurant] regularly,” recalls Alexander Tomashevich, former director of Chaika. “We had decent beer from Germany and German sausages... He came alone or with one of his friends.”

Created in 1987, the restaurant was one of the first Leningrad enterprises with the participation of foreign capital. The co-owner of the joint venture was Tchaika GmbH, owned by three German restaurateurs. By the early 1990s, the establishment had become a favorite hangout for those who could spend more than $20 a night. At first, the restaurant was a foreign exchange restaurant, and the black marketeers had to pretend to be foreigners to get inside. “When we started working for rubles, Chaika became a platform where everyone gathered. There was no place to stand,” says Tomashevich. According to him, members of the newly created Association of Joint Ventures of Leningrad (LenASP), which included Chaika, often met at the establishment.

LenASP was an influential structure. A romantic of capitalism, Mayor Anatoly Sobchak wanted to protect the “new economy” from bureaucratic arbitrariness and red tape. In 1994, at the mayor's office, on the initiative of the association, an interdepartmental commission on enterprises with foreign investment was created, headed by Putin. “Getting to City Hall was pretty easy. There were always a lot of people in Putin's reception room. Igor Sechin (at that time Putin’s secretary - Forbes) only managed to regulate all this. There were no problems with communication or support,” recalls Gennady Volodchenko. Formerly the head of a sector of the Leningrad Regional Committee, he became director of the association.

“We all wanted to “climb” under the authorities so that they would listen to us. They reported their problems. And Putin at that time was very accessible and understood everything well. I never puffed out my cheeks during personal meetings... I helped the association,” recalls Tomashevich. The first president of the association was Vladimir Kolovay, general director of the Proletarskaya Pobeda shoe factory, who created a joint venture with the German Salamander. But the “soul” of the association was not Kolovay, nor Volodchenko, but Yuri Kovalchuk. “He was the brains of our team, he generated all the ideas,” says Volodchenko. In the rank of deputy president of LenASP, Kovalchuk was responsible for contacts with Sobchak and Putin.

Kovalchuk apparently met Putin through his work at LenASP. At the very beginning of the 1990s, Putin was assistant to the rector of Leningrad State University for international affairs. In the summer of 1991, Leningrad State University registered a joint venture with Procter&Gamble, from which the transnational giant began expansion into Russian market. According to Pribylovsky, Putin was directly involved in the creation of the joint venture, which immediately joined the association. After Sobchak’s victory in the mayor’s election in June 1991, Putin moved to the mayor’s office as chairman of the KVS.

LenASP members paid DM 15,000 per year for participation in the association. “We earned our money,” Volodchenko is convinced. It was believed that the access to Smolny, which the organization provided, more than paid for the costs. Kovalchuk, for example, after a year of work at LenASP, a bank appeared with the loud name “Russia”.

Kovalchuk and his partners received “Russia,” one might say, from the hands of Putin. This credit institution was created in 1990 with money from the Communist Party. The Administration of the Leningrad Regional Committee, headed by Arkady Krutikhin, opened current accounts there and became the main shareholder of the bank. To “finance the activities of the central party bodies,” the Leningrad comrades extracted 50 million rubles from the reserve fund of the CPSU for “Russia.” Along with the regional committee, its founders included the Rus insurance company (in 2002, State Duma deputy Vladislav Reznik sold a controlling stake in Rus for $10 million) and the Russian Video association, which, in order to contribute its share of 13 million rubles, took them in debt from the same regional committee. "Russia" became one of hundreds of enterprises used by party financiers to withdraw money from the CPSU. After the failure of the August putsch, the scheme fell apart. Krutikhin’s boss, Nikolai Kruchina, fell out of the window of his apartment. RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree on the nationalization of the property of the CPSU.

On September 2, 1991, Sobchak ordered to take control cash and the property of “Russia”, and at the same time work out the issue of creating a fund on the basis of the bank with the participation of foreign investors, the main goal of which would be “stabilizing the economy of the Leningrad region.” The person in charge is Putin. Putin could report on the completion of the task within three months. The fund was indeed created, but not on the basis, but with the participation of “Russia”, which in December 1991, that is, during the period of external management by the mayor’s office, changed owners. The place of the Leningrad Regional Committee and companies associated with its leadership was taken by companies associated with Kovalchuk, the Fursenko brothers, Yakunin and Viktor Myachin.

The proximity to power was emphasized by the location: “Russia” was allocated an outbuilding of Smolny. There were other pleasant surprises. For several months, until March 1992, 50 million rubles requisitioned from the CPSU were circulating in “Russia”. And in February 1992, Sobchak ordered the accumulation of proceeds from the sale of European humanitarian aid in “Russia”. In the future, the funds were supposed to go to support farmers in the Leningrad region. If you believe Oleg Goncharov, the former director of Lenkhleboproduct (this structure was involved in the implementation of aid), 69 million rubles had accumulated in the bank. Farmers got much less. “We spent 76,000 rubles on loans to farmers,” says Vladimir Antonov, executive director of the St. Petersburg to Farmers association. “Sixty-nine million? There is some kind of mistake here, in those days there was no such money,” he is perplexed. City Council deputies sent a request to the mayor's office about the fate of the funds raised from the sale of humanitarian aid. The case was put on hold.

Kovalchuk did not abandon high technology either. After the conflict with Alferov, most of the employees of the companies created by Kovalchuk and Fursenko moved to the territory of the Svetlana plant. The main activity was concentrated in JSC Semiconductor Devices. Its shares were distributed among companies associated with Rossiya. The company specialized in the production of laser equipment for medicine. The business is not big, but it is not hopeless either: in 1995, for example, the company exported equipment worth $400,000.

This could not have happened without the support of the city either. In 1992, the mayor's office created the Regional Fund for Scientific and Technological Development. Rossiya was one of its co-founders, and Andrei Fursenko headed the new structure. The main project of the foundation was the innovation center on the territory of Svetlana. The Foundation helped renovate one of the buildings housing scientific and technical firms that received benefits on local taxes and payments utilities. The largest residents of the center were companies associated with Rossiya. Here illustrative example: in July 1997, the Fursenko Foundation received a budget loan of 1.5 billion rubles (about $260,000 at the then exchange rate) under guarantees from Rossiya. And already in February of the following year, the foundation, along with a dozen other organizations, was released by a special city law from obligations to return funds.

In the first half of the nineties, Rossiya's business was built on good relations with local authorities. Forms of income include managing the financial affairs of the city administration, participating in socially significant projects subsidized from the budget. By the standards of that time, it was a very intimate business, almost invisible against the general background.

“It was just a small bank, from the balance sheets it was clear that it couldn’t do anything big,” recalls one of the St. Petersburg entrepreneurs, who asked that his name not be used in print. — At that time we had the North Trade Bank, BaltONEXIM, Inkombank. The same Viking, the bank of Mikhail Mirilashvili (serving time for organizing a murder - Forbes) was much larger.” The only reason why Kovalchuk was mentioned in the St. Petersburg press of that time was his appointment as honorary consul of Thailand.

What endeared the future head of state to this non-public, almost invisible person compared to the heroes of the 1990s?

“Contact, picks up quickly. He’s very specific, doesn’t like to talk, and immediately takes the bull by the horns,” says Academician Osipyan about Kovalchuk. “He has a sense of humor,” Volodchenko, the former director of LenASP, adds to Kovalchuk’s portrait. “He knows a lot of jokes.” He readily recalls how in the early 1990s the leaders of the association and Rossiya Bank met in an informal setting. Vitaly Savelyev, who worked as the chairman of the board of Rossiya for a couple of years (now he is the first vice-president of AFK Sistema), had a yacht. The whole group sailed on it in the Gulf of Finland and had evenings. Volodchenko says that former colleagues from LenASP, including Kovalchuk, still maintain relations with each other.

The ability to make friends is not Kovalchuk’s only distinctive quality. People from "Russia" definitely have a sense of the future. Even in the early 1990s, when everything seemed to be going to hell, they were not lazy to work for the future. The former general director of OMZ, Sergei Lipsky, who lost his job after the company came under the control of the “Russians,” studied at Leningrad University in the early nineties. “Bank Rossiya played a super positive role,” he recalls. — At their expense, seminars were held for students, a kind of labor exchange. Their chairman of the board, Savelyev, is very smart, and spoke there several times.” And in 2000, Rossiya established the North-West Center for Strategic Research, also to design the future.

We're all tired. It’s time to stop and understand who we are,” Kovalchuk said at the presentation of the Center for Social Development in November 2000. After Sobchak’s defeat in the elections and Putin’s departure to Moscow, the owners of “Russia” had reason to be depressed. The new mayor, Vladimir Yakovlev, did not offend his predecessor’s acquaintances; he simply had his own acquaintances for business purposes. While oligarchic oil and metallurgical empires were being built in the capital, the business of Rossiya shareholders could be described in one word - “vegetation.”

But a ray of light will shine even in the darkest kingdom. Between the summer of 1996 and Putin’s rise to power three years later, two important events occurred in the lives of “Russians.” Firstly, Kovalchuk, Yakunin, brothers Fursenko and Myachin became, together with Putin, co-founders of the dacha cooperative “Ozero”, acquired country houses on the shore of Lake Komsomolskoye, one hundred kilometers from St. Petersburg. They entered, so to speak, into the inner circle of the future president. Secondly, at the end of 1997, the “old” owners of Rossiya formalized relations with a serious partner: 20% of the bank’s shares were acquired by the Finnish company IPP, associated with the Kinex oil trading group, and Kinex representative Andrei Katkov headed the board of directors of the bank.

Patience and perseverance paid off. According to Volodchenko, Putin and Kovalchuk had friendly relations in the 1990s. “They have known each other since Vladimir Putin worked in St. Petersburg,” confirms Dmitry Peskov, the prime minister’s press secretary. “Today they communicate less often due to Putin’s busy work schedule.” Access to the new president in one move turned out to be an extremely valuable asset for Kovalchuk.

In the summer of 2003, Severstal of Alexei Mordashov placed $20 million in Rossiya for an annual deposit at 1%. The following year, the steelmakers paid this amount for 9% of Rossiya shares; the bank’s business was valued at $220 million, or 11.5 times capital, despite the fact that even at the height of the banking boom, more than 5 capital for Russian credit organizations no one paid. And last year, Surgutneftegaz bought preferred shares of Rossiya for 1.1 billion rubles. From these “prefs”, “Surgut” received 7 million rubles in dividends. Yield - 0.6% per annum. Severstal and Surgut helped the Russians buy out the REN TV television company from RAO UES.

In the matter of collecting money and assets, the owners of “Russia” will probably not yield to the oligarchs of Yeltsin’s call. But unlike the latter, the “Russians” do not delve into the business of the companies that they inherited. At most, they connect them to their social network. Sogaz remained a captive insurer and remains so. But now, in addition to Gazprom, which in 2006 accounted for 60% of the collected premiums, it insures Rosneft, Russian Railways, and nuclear industry enterprises. Kovalchuk does not interfere in the work of television channels either. The leading "news" of REN TV do not remember instructions regarding the content and tone of the programs that would come from the new owners. There are no “black lists” on the channel: the same Milov with his co-author, former leader SPS party Boris Nemtsov presented on REN TV a study on dubious transactions of the Putin era. They also talked about strange operations in which “Russia” was involved.

Is there a future for the business empire of the “Russians” in the post-Putin era? De jure, the Rossiya Bank group includes only two large companies, Sogaz and Leader, and a number of less significant assets in the field of real estate and finance. The main asset of “Leader” is a share in Gazprombank with its collection of industrial assets, but not a trace of control will remain if the legal owner, Gazfond, changes the management company. Meanwhile, the redistribution of former Gazprom property continues. Sibur is being prepared for sale to its managers, the future of Gazprombank should become clear by the end of the year, control over “nuclear” enterprises is formalized through a chain of offshore companies - their owners can change at any time without any publicity. Maybe the owners of Rossiya do not interfere in the work of their companies because control over them is entrusted to them only for a while?

The former director of LenASP Volodchenko has a small business: he sells watches. “We met with Kovalchuk two years ago,” says the entrepreneur. — He used to really like Rado. Now he probably wears Breguet or Patek Philippe.”