Alexander Skorobogatko is a member of the State Duma. Alexander Ivanovich Skorobogatko: biography

Skorobogatko Alexander Ivanovich

Skorobogatko Alexander Ivanovich - State Duma deputy, co-owner.

Assets

The main assets of Alexander Skorobogatko are concentrated:

• transport (Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port).

Property

Vehicles:

State

Biography

Education

1994 - graduated from the Slavic State Pedagogical Institute with a degree in Physical Education Teacher.

1996 - graduated from the Russian Academy of Economics. G. V. Plekhanov with a degree in Finance and Taxation.

Science degree

1998 - candidate of legal sciences.

Career

1987-1992 - worked as a commercial agent in the Research and Production Enterprise "Kerch". Together with Alexander Ponomarenko, they earned their first capital in the production and sale of perfumery products in the Crimea.

1992 - President of the Small Research and Production Commercial Enterprise "Sandra" (Moscow).

1992-1993 - President of Trade Company Vek Rossii LLP (Moscow).

1993-1996 - President of CJSC "Financial and industrial company" DELPHI ".

1998 - Member of the Board of Directors of JSB IBG Nikoil.

1998-2000 - Chairman of the Committee of Advisors of JSCB "Russian General Bank".

2000 - Vice President for Public Relations of the Autonomous non-profit organization "International Institute of Corporations".

2001 - Member of the Board of Directors of the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port.

Until September 2002, he worked as the head of the public relations department of the Delmi food concern.

Social and political activity

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Hockey Club of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

1996-1998 - Assistant to the deputy of the State Duma of Russia Alexander Korovnikov (KPRF).

December 7, 2003 - Deputy of the State Duma of the fourth convocation on the lists of the Liberal Democratic Party, member of the Committee on Industrial Policy. He was Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural legislation.

Hobbies

“Skorobogatko's hobbies are hunting and sports. They say that while hunting in Tanzania, he immediately got three trophies from the "big five African" - a leopard, a lion and a buffalo. Among other hunting places, Bulgaria, Romania, Ryazan and Yaroslavl regions of Russia are mentioned, where bison, wild boar, deer, roars, bears, wolves became trophies ... ".

Awards and prizes

• Order of Friendship - for active participation in legislative activities and many years of conscientious work;
• Honorary Diploma of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation "For a great contribution to state building and parliamentarism";
• Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh III degree.

In the annual ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia, which is compiled by Forbes magazine, Alexander Skorobogatko confidently takes his place. Of the two hundred participants in the list, he is traditionally among the first fifty. In 2011, the oligarch's fortune totaled 1,700 million US dollars. Seven years later, the entrepreneur has climbed 20 positions to rank 38 with a net worth of $3,000 million. How did Alexander Skorobogatko manage to achieve such phenomenal success in business?

 

• FULL NAME: Skorobogatko Alexander Ivanovich
• Date of Birth: September 25, 1967
• Education: Slavic State Pedagogical University (1994), Russian University of Economics. G.V. Plekhanov (1996).
• Business start date/age: December 21, 1987.
• Type of activity at the start: cooperative movement.
• Current activity: Member of the Board of Directors of JSC SIA.
• Current state:$3,000 million, as of 2017, according to Forbes.
• Link to pages in social networks: No.

Character is formed in the family

In the media, Alexander Skorobogatko is called an oligarch and a billionaire, a statesman and political figure, a deputy, an entrepreneur, and a scientist. But first of all, he is an ordinary person: made of flesh and blood, with a warm heart, a twinkle in his eyes, an analytical, precise mindset and an inquisitive nature.

A brief biography of one of the richest people in Russia, Alexander Skorobogatko, originates in Ukraine, in the city of miners known throughout the Soviet Union, Gorlovka, Donetsk region. There, on September 25, 1967, a boy was born in the family of a hereditary miner, who was named Sasha. The head of the family, a representative of a difficult, dangerous and important profession, taught his son to be strong and enduring, patient and persevering. From childhood, the boy knew when to show strength and power, and when to stay away. A curious, restless child absorbed the best qualities of a working person, which in the future were useful in doing business: perseverance and diligence, iron endurance, self-control and devotion.

Figure 1. The small homeland of the entrepreneur - the city of Gorlovka, Donetsk region.
Source: Wikimapia - the map you create!

After graduating from secondary school No. 23 in Gorlovka, he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR. He retired from the reserve in 1987. At the end of the same year, twenty-year-old Alexander met a man on his life path who became his business partner for thirty long years. The success story of Alexander Skorobogatko and his life in general are closely connected with the biography and entrepreneurial activities of another billionaire - Alexander Ponomarenko.

For reference: Ponomarenko Alexander Anatolyevich - one of the richest entrepreneurs in the world, investor, banker, developer. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sheremetyevo International Airport, Sheremetyevo Holding LLC, TPS Real Estate Holdings.

Partners in business and life

For thirty years of partnership, businessmen Alexander Skorobogatko and Alexander Ponomarenko have never clashed in the presence of outsiders. Colleagues of billionaires call them an ideal tandem and cite aspiring entrepreneurs as an example. Alexander Skorobogatko is three years younger than his friend, he always perceived him as an older brother. Alexander Ponomarenko was the leader: he formed the strategy, made key decisions. Mr. Skorobogatko is a master of covering the rear, a diplomat, a fighter of the invisible front, who knows how to smooth out conflicts, solve complex problems, and interact with different people in the right way. It is not surprising that for a long time Alexander Ivanovich built a career as a politician and succeeded in this business! People come to him for advice on maintaining a reputation, political strategy, and image.

Figure 2. Business partner - Alexander Ponomarenko.
Source: State University of Management website

Started a common business in the Crimea

In the late 80s and early 90s in the Crimea, young Alexander Skorobogatko met Ponomarenko and organized a joint business with him. The cooperative movement at that time was gaining momentum, and the young men actively joined it. They were full of strength and energy, the desire to discover a new world. What business partners did not do: commission shops, restaurants, trucking, perfumes brought income. It was the cooperatives that served as a launching pad for many successful entrepreneurs and millionaires.

In a brief biography of Alexander Skorobogatko, it is noted that for five years he worked as a commercial agent for NPP Kerch. In 1992 he moved to the capital and reached a new level of development: he headed the commercial organizations "Sandra", "Vek Rossii", "DELPHI".

“We were young and ambitious, we wanted to grow and develop, open up new horizons, so we moved to Moscow. The city received us favorably,” Alexander Ivanovich said to the journalist of the Vedomosti newspaper.

Banking vicissitudes

The biography and business success story of Alexander Skorobogatko is not only full of ups, there were also wrong decisions and mistakes. As, for example, the case of the infamous Yalosbank, which Skorobogatko and Ponomarenko acquired in 1993. A small bank served about a hundred corporate clients. For two, the partners had about 40% of the shares. Not agreeing with other owners, Alexander Ivanovich and Alexander Anatolyevich left the team and in 1996 became co-owners of JSCB Russian General Bank. In terms of assets, the RSL in 1998 was in 96th position among Russian banks, and in 1999 - in 62nd. In the 2000s, the situation changed, business partners relied on the development of retail and redesigned the bank into a universal bank. In 2005, the RSL license was canceled due to reorganization. The Bank joined OJSC Investsberbank.

For reference: The assets of Investsberbank, as of April 1, 2006, amounted to 24.8 billion rubles. That corresponded to the 48th place in the rating of commercial banks of Russia.

In 2006, the bank was sold to the Hungarian OTP Bank for $477 million. Banking vicissitudes for Alexander Skorobogatko came to an end. Moreover, he and Ponomarenko have new assets - more important than the previous ones. In 2001, Alexander Ivanovich became a member of the Board of Directors of PJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port. In 2008, one of the most influential businessmen in Russia, Arkady Rotenberg, bought out part of the shares of NCSP from his partners.

“When an offer was received to buy a part of our shares, we assessed the situation and decided to meet halfway. And the proceeds will be used for the construction and operation of shopping and entertainment centers.

In 2011, partners Alexander Ivanovich and Alexander Anatolyevich finally withdrew from the share capital of NCSP, in which their share was more than 70% of the shares.

Together with Arkady Rotenberg, Skorobogatko and Ponomarenko invested in the creation of TPS Real Estate Holding Limited. In 2004, TPS Real Estate, a company controlled by the holding, appeared in Moscow. The company is engaged in the construction of modern shopping and entertainment centers. The organization manages a network of Russian and Ukrainian shopping malls, the total area of ​​which is 900 thousand square meters. m. New facilities are regularly put into operation. The new partner of Skorobogatko and Ponomarenko, Arkady Rotenberg, by the way, owns 100% of the authorized capital of the largest Stroygazmontazh LLC.

Education to help

The success story of Alexander Skorobogatko is based not only on a profitable partnership, diligence, sharpness of mind and perseverance. Fundamental education played an important role. In 1994, he received a diploma in the specialty "Teacher of Physical Education" from the Slavic Pedagogical Institute. Two years later, he became a graduate of the Russian Economic University named after G.V. Plekhanov. Specialty - finance and taxation. In 1998, the academic council for the defense of master's theses at the St. Petersburg Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia awarded Alexander Ivanovich the degree of candidate of legal sciences. Everything that this person does, be it business, politics or science, develops and multiplies. Success is sure to come. Mr. Skorobogatko does not abandon the work he has started halfway through, he brings them to their logical conclusion. Knows how to stay in the shadows, patiently wait for the right moment and use every chance.

Wealth is measured in billions

Russian billionaire businessman, statesman and politician. Co-owner of the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port. PhD in Law. Member of the Board of Trustees of the Hockey Club of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Deputy of the State Duma of the IV convocation from the Liberal Democratic Party, V-VI convocations - from United Russia (2011-2016).

"Biography"

Education

Slavic State Pedagogical Institute (1994), Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. December 1987 - March 1992 - commercial agent of the Research and Production Enterprise "Kerch".

Activity

"Themes"

"News"

Alexander Skorobogatko surrenders his mandate as a State Duma deputy ahead of schedule

One of the wealthiest State Duma deputies, Alexander Skorobogatko from the United Russia faction, decided to resign his mandate ahead of schedule. As follows from the documents in the base of legislative activity, the committee of the lower house of parliament on regulations today supported the corresponding statement of Mr. Skorobogatko. The decision on the early termination of the powers of a State Duma deputy may be made this Friday, December 2.

Sheremetyevo postponed reckoning for the future

As it became known to Kommersant, Sheremetyevo Airport and its main creditor VEB agreed to restructure a debt in the amount of about $ 500 million. The loan was issued for the construction of Terminal D and went to the airport in 2012 during the consolidation of assets. According to Kommersant, it was decided to extend the loan term during restructuring by ten years, and lower the rate to 7.4%. In the near future, the airport may also restructure the VTB loan for $97 million.

Decoration for bureaucrats

A little more than a hundred days have passed since the convocation of the new State Duma. From the very beginning, experts and observers were mainly worried about one question - how the work of the lower house of parliament will change after it is headed by a new speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin. Few people could believe that, returning from the Kremlin to Okhotny Ryad, Volodin would become like his predecessors and would “sit still.” Moreover, the new speaker is known as a very energetic, active, ambitious and tough person.

Arkady Rotenberg became a developer

A close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition to infrastructure projects, decided to master the management of commercial real estate, Forbes magazine found out.

A new business - the construction and management of shopping and entertainment centers - Rotenberg, as the businessman himself told in an interview with the magazine, started together with former partners in the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port Alexander Ponomarenko (the owner of the complex of buildings near Gelendzhik known as "Putin's Palace") and State Duma deputy Alexander Skorobogatko. To this end, entrepreneurs created TPS Real Estate Holding Ltd and have already invested $1.5 billion in it.

This is an example of an ideal tandem, when both partners are balanced, but never enter the clearing of the other. Ponomarenko (he is three years older) is such a frontman: he has always run the business, formed key operational decisions, and Skorobogatko is a person responsible for the rear and appeared during crisis situations: he was consulted on political, image, reputation issues,” says businessman Yevgeny Terentyev, who worked side by side with the former shareholders of the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port for several years. “I have never heard of any significant conflict between them,” he says.

According to the memoirs of Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko (transmitted through their press secretary), they met 25 years ago in the Crimea and "this acquaintance quickly grew into a strong long-term friendship." They have a lot in common: both were born in Ukraine - Ponomarenko in Belogorsk (Crimea), and Skorobogatko in Gorlovka (Donetsk region), both served in the army in the 1980s, both were physical education teachers in their first education, and financiers-economists in the second.

Where did they start? “It was the heyday of the cooperative movement,” says Ponomarenko. “Our cooperatives were engaged in everything that was in demand among consumers and brought income, including the perfume line.”

Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko are mentioned in the book “Gangster Crimea” by Konstantin Chernetsov, published in 1998. Ponomarenko, it is said there, was a member of the group that organized the “multi-profile cooperative “Salem”, which by August 1990 was called a “cooperative association” and included eight thrift stores, a restaurant, bars, service and trucking centers, a travel company, a medical center, etc. Then several small businesses began to be drawn into the association, and even more either worked under the Salem roof or fulfilled more or less regular production orders ". The candidate for master of sports in boxing Ponomarenko, writes Chernetsov, had the nickname Ponomar.

In 2005, the Koptevsky District Court of Moscow found this information untrue, points out Tamara Pakhomenko, a representative of Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko.

bankers

Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko moved to Moscow at the end of 1991. “It was the time of the collapse of the USSR - we wanted to develop and rightly believed that it would be easiest to do this in the capital,” explains Skorobogatko. Like almost everyone who wanted to get rich, they went into the banking business. “I met them in 1993, shortly after I left the armed forces,” recalls Valery Aksenov, professor at the Faculty of Economics at the Russian State University for the Humanities. - My friend Georgy Kovalenko offered me a job in a bank, where he became a co-owner. Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko were members of the bank's board of directors. Aksenov became deputy chairman of the board of Avtrokonbank. He half belonged to the state concern "Avtrokon" - the heir to the Soviet manufacturer of buses and trolleybuses. But private and public shareholders of the bank did not work together. In January 1993, the Central Bank appointed a temporary administration to the bank "for the period until the conflict situation is resolved."

Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko claim that they were not co-owners of Avtrokonbank. But after the conflict of shareholders, they left and bought their own bank - "a tiny Yalosbank, where there were about 100 corporate clients - small and medium-sized businesses," says Aksenov. Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko had 40% of Yalosbank for two. But there was conflict soon after. “Two teams of owners - two different strategies,” explains Aksyonov. - Partners - oilmen and metallurgists - were ready to issue more risky loans, which, of course, is more profitable. But Ponomarenko's strategy was less risky. In the end, he left with the team.

In 1996, Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko became co-owners of the Russian General Bank (RGB). “We had measured risks, there were almost no non-performing loans - such were the strict requirements for the loan portfolio,” continues Aksenov, who became the chairman of the board of the RSL. “It came from Alexander Anatolyevich [Ponomarenko], and he was right: Yalosbank went bankrupt, and the RSL went through the 1998 crisis without the slightest failure and even made a breakthrough.” According to Interfax-CEA, in 1998 the RSL ranked 96th in terms of assets, and in 1999 - 62nd.

However, during the crisis, the RSL still had problems, and Vladimir Sternfeld, the founder of Stern-cement, helped the bank solve them. “There was a crisis in 1998. It was hard for him [Ponomarenko], and Rosshtern [owned Stern-cement] helped to survive this story by entering the share capital of the RSL. “Rosshtern” received, I think, from 10 to 25%,” recalls Vladislav Sternfeld, the son of the late founder of Stern-Cement. A few years later, Ponomarenko already helped Sternfeld Sr. (see). Ponomarenko did not answer questions about Sternfeld.

The RSL was a corporate bank. But in the 2000s, “the financial situation began to change,” says Aksyonov, and the partners decided to develop retail and create a universal bank. They bought the Investment and Savings Bank, attached him to the RSL, opened new branches, and so it turned out to be a “big” Investsberbank with assets of 24.8 billion rubles. (48th place in Russia, according to Interfax-CEA as of April 1, 2006). A couple more regional banks were added to it and all this was sold to the Hungarian OTP Bank in the summer of 2006 for $477 million. The Hungarians valued Investsberbank at a ratio of 3.7 to capital - a common thing at that time. A source close to the sellers estimated investments in the creation of the bank at $100 million over the 3.5 years preceding the sale.

Aksyonov says that the Hungarians were attracted by the wide network of branches around Moscow. He himself participated in its creation, having left the bank for the development company of his employers - TPS-real estate. Some premises were rented, others were bought, they mainly took areas in the center of Moscow: “It was one of the best grids in Moscow, which was one of the reasons for the deal with OTP Bank,” he is pleased (see TPS development projects).

However, by the time of the deal with the Hungarians, Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko already had a much larger business - the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP).

stevedores

“When we flew to Novorossiysk for the first time, lightning hit our plane and we had to land in Anapa. We got out of the plane, saw a black trail - from the cockpit along the body to the engine. [When they got to Novorossiysk], they took their souls away from [general director of the port of Vladimir] Kovbasyuk in his office until the middle of the night. It was a formidable sign, but it did not turn out to be bad, ”says Terentyev. He worked as the commercial director of Mikhailovsky GOK, and in 2003 he came to Nikoil Tsvetkov specifically to deal with NCSP.

The port was corporatized in 1992, and then privatized under the so-called "second option", where the labor collective allegedly receives a controlling stake. As a result, large stakes in NCSP were collected by Nikoil, the RSL and the Delo group of Sergei Shishkarev (20% is still with the state). Nikoil and the RSL still controlled the oil products terminal of Importpishcheprom and Novoroslesexport.

Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko met the owner of Nikoil, Tsvetkov, at one of the boards of directors of NCSP. Subsequently, Skorobogatko clarifies, we agreed on cooperation in order to develop NCSP. And in 1998, he even became a member of the board of directors of Nikoil. “They followed different paths to their [NCSP] acquisitions,” says Terentiev. He remembers very well his first meeting with Ponomarenko, who became the chairman of the board of directors of NCSP: "The acquaintance was colorful." “When he saw me, he said something like this: how do you hire such people that they can’t even pick up a tie properly,” Terentyev laughs. - Ponomarenko considers himself the standard of a certain taste: he knows how to live right, how to drink right, what to eat right ”(see).

Nikoil treated the port as a big business project, but still as a non-core asset, says a former employee of the TPS company, which was created by the RSL and Nikoil to manage their assets. And for the RSL, according to him, on the contrary, NCSP has become the main asset. “I have never noticed even a shadow of the psychology of temporary workers,” says the source of Vedomosti. - This was expressed in the implementation of permanent and serious investment projects. It even happened like this: we kicked back and did not want to invest money, and the RSL, on the contrary, actively insisted. He recalls the story of the Novorossiysk grain terminal: “We did not believe in it in panic, but it justified itself. And there are many such examples: port reconstruction, expansion of piers, construction of a new tank farm at Importpishcheprom. During the period when this business was managed by them, it has seriously grown in property. In 2002, NCSP's cargo turnover was 63 million tons, in 2010 - 82 million tons.

NCSP was managed by Ponomarenko - he headed the TPS company, which controlled the joint stake in Nikoil (which has already become Uralsib) and the RSL (which has become Investsberbank). What contribution did Skorobogatko make, all these years building a political career? Member of the Federation Council since 2002, deputy of the State Duma since 2003 to this day (first from the Liberal Democratic Party, then from United Russia), Skorobogatko, according to an ex-employee of the TPS, appeared “when some crisis phenomena arose ". One such case was a conflict with the NCSP shareholder, Delo Group, in 2005.

The dispute arose because of the CEO of NCSP: Uralsib and Investsberbank sought Kovbasyuk's resignation, while Delo, on the contrary, supported him.

Sergei Shishkarev does not comment on this story, specifying that the conflict has long been settled and the parties dispersed satisfied with each other. But a source close to the Delo group says that the conflict was not only because of the candidacy of the general director. According to him, Investsberbank, Uralsib and Delo differed in their views on how to manage the financial flows of NCSP: “They [Ponomarenko, Skorobogatko and Uralsib] used NCSP money at their own discretion, kept it on deposit in Investsberbank and buy shares in them. But “Delo” didn’t like that.” (Ponomarenko did not comment on this, in his words, “unprofessional judgment.”)

Leapfrog with the dismissals of either Kovbasyuk (a criminal case was opened against him for tax evasion), or deputy Igor Vilinov (his Delo accused him of embezzlement) ended with the sale by the Delo group of 19.78% of the port to Investsberbank.

According to a source close to Del, at first the opponents offered a low deal amount, but in the end the deal went through at a completely market price. Alfa-Eco helped in this, Delo invited her for a fee of several million dollars, "to structure the deal."

Shortly thereafter, Tsvetkov suggested that the partners withdraw from the project - he wanted to concentrate on the financial business. “We have been in this project for a long time, a lot has been done, capitalization has grown, we began to look at the market - who could buy it,” says Terentyev. The entire package of Uralsib (33%) and Investsberbank (34%) was put up for sale. The estimate is about $1 billion. There are “a few buyers” for such an asset, says Terentiev: structures “close to the state were interested in, but negotiations went furthest with Sergey Generalov’s Industrial Investors. “It was a fantasy project. The port was very attractive, but where to get a billion?” - says a source close to Industrial Investors.

But in the end, there was no need to look for a billion: Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko decided to buy out the partners' share themselves. Terentiev recalls that under an agreement between Uralsib and Investsberbank, "if one of the partners does not agree to accept an offer [from an outside investor], then he must buy out his partner's stake." Uralsib took advantage of this.

Ponomarenko hoped to the last that Tsvetkov would change his mind about selling, says a former TPS employee. On the eve of the closing of the deal, Ponomarenko tried to convince Tsvetkov not to leave the project, saying that the capitalization would still grow, and then an IPO. But in vain. The purchase was partly paid for with the proceeds from the sale of Investsberbank to the Hungarians. In 2006, 63.36% of NCSP's shares were registered on the Kadina offshore, equally owned by the Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko families.

“When they held their IPO, we congratulated them wholeheartedly,” says Terentyev. The placement of 20% of the shares took place in November 2007 on the London Stock Exchange: the market valued the company at $4.9 billion.

“NCSP then placed itself at the price of the management company of the port of Shanghai,” Alexei Bezborodov, head of the InfraNews research agency, is perplexed. - "Troika" wound them up well. It quickly became clear that Novorossiysk was not Shanghai: within a year after the IPO, NCSP shares fell by more than five times. “This is normal,” Terentyev said. - Port shares were bought by portfolio investors, not strategic ones. They first bought expectations, then they sold.” “And then two more years after that IPO, the owners of all sorts of scows, moorings, marinas tried to sell their farms for at least $100 million, pointing to NCSP,” Bezborodov laughs. “It also helped Generalov to sell his stake in NCC to [Vitaly] Yuzhilin for almost $1 billion.

Now they give less than $2 billion for the port, but Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko have already sold it at a higher price.

Developers

In 2008, Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko ceded part of the NCSP to the former sparring partner of Vladimir Putin, Arkady Rotenberg - the structures associated with him received 20% of Kadina. “We received an offer to buy shares. After reviewing it and evaluating the situation, we came to the conclusion that it is interesting to us ... ”Skorobogatko believes. Ponomarenko added that the proceeds from the sale went, in particular, to the construction and operation of shopping and entertainment centers.

According to the interlocutors of Vedomosti, attracting Rotenberg as a partner is a political step. “It could have been an attempt to balance Transneft,” says a former TPS employee. “We need a partner of comparable weight.” Why did Transneft need to be balanced? “NCSP leased hydrotechnical facilities from the state, the transshipment complex itself was only partly owned by NCSP, the rest, including the reservoir, was owned by Transneft,” explains a former TPS employee. “Due to the difficult legal property situation, the presence of Transneft was palpable.” The president of the latter, Nikolai Tokarev, described the situation differently in an interview with Argus Media: “This is a primitive conflict related to the fact that Transneft was actually taken away from the berthing facilities of the Sheskharis oil harbor in 2006. And our claims against the owners of NCSP come down to one thing today: there are your obligations provided by the sales contract - kindly ensure that this terminal is maintained in a normal technical condition. If this is not done, then in 3-4 years Rostekhnadzor will simply revoke the license and stop its work.”

The “primitive conflict” ended with the fact that Ponomarenko, Skorobogatko and Rotenberg sold 50.1% of NCSP to the tandem of Transneft and the Summa group of Ziyavudin Magomedov, but received a very good price for the package. Magomedov told Vedomosti that the package cost between $2 billion and $2.5 billion. While on the LSE it cost $1.38 billion on the closing day of the deal. the acquisition [from Summa] of another commercial port - Primorsky.

However, part of Ponomarenko's award may have had to be spent on helping partners "comparable in weight" to Transneft. In March 2010, he bought a complex of buildings that became infamous as "Putin's Palace."

At the end of 2010, businessman Sergei Kolesnikov, a former partner of Putin's St. Petersburg acquaintance Nikolai Shamalov, wrote open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev, in which he told how he did business for Putin. One of the projects is the construction of a palace complex near Gelendzhik worth about $ 1 billion. A wide public discussion of this story ended unexpectedly: Ponomarenko announced in an interview with Kommersant that bought the palace from Shamalov and his partners(after all, this is an ordinary development project that has nothing to do with Putin). He did not name the price, but agreed with the estimate of the completed project (with an area of ​​26,000 sq. m.) at about $350 million, specifying that now the facility is 70-80% completed.

“This deal was made at the request of Putin's friends, Ponomarenko's partners, the Rotenberg brothers,” Kolesnikov said. “It's not convenient for me to buy, so you buy - it's a common thing.” “There is such a rule - buy on a scandal, and sell on good news,” says Ponomarenko. He managed to find tenants for the palace (he calls it a “boarding house”). In September 2011, RBC daily reported that 7,700 sq. m in the "boarding house" for 35 million rubles. rented "Velesstroy" per month. Interestingly, this company is a longtime contractor of Transneft (see).

“Ponomarenko and Skorobogatko are grounded men, without illusions, without phantasmagoric concepts, very pragmatic and sound in their pragmatism,” says Terentyev. “They have a sense of people standing firmly on the ground, it did not fail.”

"And why else do you need something?"

Every summer, for a week, Novorossiysk hosted meetings of shareholders of NCSP and other near-port structures. Each time, the events were accompanied by plentiful meals on the seashore - “it was such a big ritual,” Terentiev recalls with a smile. Everything took place in the hotel complex "Nadezhda". “The right champagne was pouring - Crystal”, “whisky is definitely Chivas Regal 18 years” (not 21, namely 18, “because, why else is something needed,” said Ponomarenko), “meat was not held in high esteem - fish were preferred and other seafood.

“These days, the line between seniors and juniors has blurred. This is command building. Production workers dreamed of surviving to the end of this period. In the end, some guys were already diluting 50 grams of whiskey with a liter of water and dragging it all night. All in all, it was great!” - Terentiev is nostalgic.

Ponomarenko was the soul of the company, he willingly shared his rules of life with others: “I eat candy only once a day. And you need to drink only on Fridays - alcohol is finally excreted from the body within three days, and then by Monday you are normal.

Who lives in "Putin's Palace"

Velesstroy, which rented the "Putin Palace", is associated with a businessman from Croatia, Mihailo Perenchevich.

There is an oligarch in Croatia, Mihailo Perencevic, one of the characters in the book Kondo, Kondo by former Imperial tabloid editor Irena Divkovic-Milanovich. From the book it follows that Perenchevich knows a lot about real estate. He owns a mansion in Beverly Hills (USA), purchased in 2002 for $2.66 million, and his wife Sonia bought the cult Hollywood restaurant Dan Tana's for $6 million in 2010. The restaurant is often visited by Hollywood stars, Paris Hilton celebrated I have my birthday there in 2010.

The Velesstroy group, headed by Perenchevich, on its website calls itself the general contractor of “the largest oil construction projects in Russia: the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipelines, the Baltic Pipeline System-2, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the Purpe-Samotlor, Skovorodino-PRC pipelines ".

In June 2010, Dmitry Medvedev awarded Perenchevich and two top managers of Velesstroy with the Order of Friendship "for their great contribution to the construction of the first stage of the ESPO oil pipeline system." Perenčević has been working in the oil industry for a long time. He was engaged in anti-corrosion coating of oil storage tanks for Yukos, built tanks for Lukoil, and then began working with Transneft, says a person close to her

Much has been written about the fact that the Head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov has a very dark past, but it turns out that it is directly related to those who are now called the capacious phrase “Putin's friends”.

Sergei Aksenov (" Goblin")

From the very beginning, Moscow's "Crimean campaign" was tied to local criminal authorities and their underground business. Even before the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Crimea in general, and especially Simferopol, had become a haven for smuggling, black market and embezzlement schemes that revolved around regional resorts, sanatoriums and holiday homes. Two criminal gangs competed for shadow power in Simferopol - "Bashmaki" and "Salem". The latter was named after the cafe of the same name, where the gang's lair was. In the best of times, the number of militants in it fluctuated around 1,000 people; this organized crime group was charged with about 50 high-profile murders.

OPG "Salem" is one of the most famous criminal groups in Crimea. It was formed in 1988 in Simferopol from the Ai-Petri cooperative with the assistance of the KGB for the covert struggle against the Crimean Tatar movement that began to unfold on the peninsula.

OPG "Salem" is considered the richest organized crime group in Crimea, it had the most extensive connections in state authorities and local governments. These guys were both entrepreneurs and bandits, forcing local businessmen to pay tribute under pain of arson, beatings or worse.

The conflict between the gangster groups "Bashmaki" and "Salem" culminated in 1996, as a result of which they actually destroyed each other.

According to the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Vilenovich Senchenko, Sergey Aksenov has been an active member of the organized criminal group Salem since 1993 and responded to the nickname "Goblin".

This is not the only Crimean politician associated with the Salem organized crime group. So the deputies of the Supreme Council of Crimea Igor Lukashev and Alexander Melnik from the Party of Regions are also well known to the police and are considered to have inherited control over most of the assets of Salem.

Igor Mikhailovich Lukashev (Igor "Karatist" or "Lukash") is considered a partner of the Russian organized crime group "Solntsevskiye" in the Crimea. At one time he held a common fund of the Salem organized crime group, now he heads the budget commission of the Crimean parliament.

Russian entrepreneurs Alexander Ivanovich Skorobogatko and Alexander Anatolyevich Ponomarenko also began their careers in the Salem organized crime group. Alexander Ivanovich Skorobogatko is an exceptional person. In his youth, sitting with friends over a glass of gorilka and a shmat of lard in the Simferopol restaurant "Salem", he responded to the nickname "Gorlovskiy" and "Donetskiy", because he was born in the village of Gorlovka, Donetsk region of Ukraine. Gritsko Kovalenko (Gundos) and Shurko Ponomarenko (Ponomar) went to Alexander Ivanovich’s friends.

Alexander Skorobogatko ("Gorlovsky")

Three true friends - Skorobogatko, Ponomarenko and Kovalenko in the mid-90s appeared in Moscow in the leadership of the infamous Yalosbank, which stole more than 2 trillion non-denominated rubles from depositors. The mayor of the capital, Luzhkov, then demanded that a criminal case be initiated into this fraud on an astronomical scale. However, three friends again left the turkey fate, "slipping out" of the untenable and obviously short hands of Justice. What can not be said about the three founding fathers of Yalosbank they set up. Babek Seruf was poisoned, Alexander Goltsov was shot dead in Moscow, and Roman Frumson was found dead in a villa in Spain. The investigation of these murders (and some of the operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspected the Crimean triad of involvement in them) quickly reached a dead end .... No, as they say, and there is no trial.

But three comrades from Simferopol remained alive, healthy and with a lot of money (but the money of the Yalosbank depositors disappeared to no one knows where).

Skorobogatko, Kovalenko and Ponomarenko founded a bank with a name of three letters - RSL. Skorobogatko was delegated to politics, and the next project of the trinity was the purchase (“traditional methods”) of the shares of the Novorossiysk port.

In 1985-2000, Kuzma Serafimov (creative pseudonym), a correspondent for the crime department of the Krymskaya Pravda newspaper, provided a number of media outlets in Kiev and Moscow with the results of his investigation into exposing representatives of the criminal world of the peninsula who had made their way into power. It refers to both the bodies of state power and administration of Ukraine and Russia.

Perhaps the most shocking in terms of Russia were the facts that exposed Alexander Skorobogatko, a deputy of the current State Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party, as a well-known “authority” in Crimea. (See also the book by Konstantin Chernetsov "Gangster Crimea", published by Tsentrpoligraf, Moscow, 1998)

Since December 2003, Skorobogatko became a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the fourth convocation on the lists of the Liberal Democratic Party. He was Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural legislation - not bad for a member of an organized criminal group. Since December 2007, he became a deputy of the State Duma of the fifth convocation from the United Russia party.

Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexander Skorobogatko did not even start in the dashing 1990s, but in the gangster 1980s. Then they were bankers, owners of the largest Russian port. But Ponomarenko's most mysterious investment is "Putin's palace" on the Black Sea.

Alexander Ponomarenko ("Ponomar")

Alexander Anatolyevich Ponomarenko from 2004 to 2010 served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of OJSC Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port. In the spring of 2008, the co-owners of the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port made a strategic deal - they sold 10% of the company's shares to the structures of Arkady Rotenberg, sparring partner in judo Vladimir Putin. In 2013, the partners jointly bought out the cargo terminal at Sheremetyevo Airport and the Ocean Plaza shopping and entertainment center in Kyiv.

Alexander Ponomarenko, who together with partners including Arkady Rotenberg raised over $2 billion for the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), purchased a hotel complex near Gelendzhik known as "Putin's palace." Businessman Sergei Kolesnikov, who claimed that the luxury construction was being done for Putin, insists that reselling the property will not change its purpose.

Thus, there is a direct connection: Sergei Aksenov was an active member of the Salem organized crime group, created under the direct leadership of the KGB. The same group at the same time at about the same positions included Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexander Skorobogatko, business partners of Arkady Rotenberg, a close friend of Russian President V. Putin, a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB.

Arkady Rotenberg

One underestimated aspect of the creeping criminalization of Crimea has been its Russian footprint. Despite the fact that Crimea was part of Ukraine, the main profitable criminal businesses, such as drug smuggling, cigarette counterfeiting and duty-free importation, depended on relations with Russian criminal structures. The peninsula's dirty money was usually laundered through Russian banks. This meant that when Yanukovych's power in Kyiv was shattered under the onslaught of the protesters on the Maidan, Moscow could already start business with potential clients in Crimea, using connections in the local underworld.

Representatives of the "Solntsevo" went to the Crimea for negotiations with local "comrades" even before February 4, when the Crimean authorities decided to hold a referendum on the status of Crimea and turned to Moscow for guarantees. Moscow then arrived not only to test the platform for the further development of criminal business in the region, but also to assess the mood in the local criminal community.

Aksyonov, who led the Russian Unity party, seemed like the perfect choice to play the Kremlin puppet. Even despite the fact that in the 2010 elections he entered the local parliament, receiving 4 percent of the vote. He was distinguished by ambition, toughness and friendship with the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, perhaps the key "gray eminence" in power then and now. Konstantinov is constantly mentioned in connection with his criminal contacts and alleged real estate fraud, but these allegations have never reached the court. Sergei Mokrushin, an investigative reporter for the independent local television station Chornomorskaya, calls him "untouchable."

Having begun the seizure of the Crimea, Moscow relied on three forces: on "little green men" - the Russian special forces; on the marines without insignia and on the local police, especially the Berkut soldiers, who supported the Crimean separatists. Unidentified thugs with red armbands also took part in the capture. These "self-defense forces" mostly spent their time attacking businesses, including taking over a car dealership owned by Petro Poroshenko.
According to an official from the local prosecutor's office, who asked not to be named, some of the "self-defenders" were veterans of various wars, and many were "infantry" of gangsters from those same "Shoes" and "Salem".

Crimean sources claim that part of the agreement between the FSB and the local bureaucratic and criminal elites was a promise not only to preserve their existing opportunities for enrichment, but also to support them in their fight against non-Slavic organized crime groups, primarily Crimean Tatar and North Caucasian, who began to encroach on their "plots" .

The common denominator for all these situations is that politically connected gangs get protection and privileged access to the "upper world" while retaining all the resources of the "downstairs". In return, they not only pay their patrons, but also provide political support to their allies, forming a closed self-sustaining structure.
This is a miniature model of the entire Russian political system. The Kremlin rewards those who demonstrate usefulness and loyalty, while at the same time expecting and requiring them to constantly reaffirm their loyalty. In the short term, this is a hard and effective means of laying the foundation for the elite and maintaining control over it: everyone is compromised, everyone is vulnerable, everyone needs to demonstrate loyalty to the boss on a regular basis.

Sources:

http://armijarossii.blogspot.com.tr/2014/03/blog-post_7161.html
http://www.svoboda.org/content/article/26656786.html