Former romantic
Oligarchs are an integral part of the liberal clan, whose influence in Russia is still enormous. Their bright representative is Mikhail Fridman, already 3 of the year in a row the second in wealth in Russia (more than 14 billion dollars according to Forbes for the year 2015). Of the oligarchs of the "first wave" remained "afloat" only he and Vladimir Potanin.
Fabulous childhood in the ring of dangers
Misha Friedman was born in 1964 year in a loving Jewish family of engineers who worked in the defense industry, in one of the most Jewish places of the Soviet Union - the city of Lviv. The family was successful: in 1989, the father became the winner of the State Prize of the USSR.
Friedman was a late and long-awaited child, he was pampered and guarded; bathing in love, he grew gentle and impressionable.
He enjoyed music, admired the living creatures, harassed the paper on romantic drawings. One of the biographers says that mother chose pencils as a source of danger: they can gouge out an eye or pierce an artery ...
The comfortable sensitivity of the family contrasted sharply with exaggerated dangers, and the closed life of the Jewish community with everything external that should not have been a value for its members.
Friedman was an excellent student, played the piano, organized the ensemble.
After school did not get to the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, then one of the best universities in the world. Hints of anti-Semitism are like excuses: rather, the reason was a love of culture to the detriment of the choice of pragmatic parents.
Not getting into the Physical and Technical Institute and from the second attempt, Friedman avoided the army by entering the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, where his cousin was already studying. Exams there were taken a month later, the competition was lower, and the knowledge and perspectives were excellent.
Friedman entered the theater mafia. In the morning, a crowd of fellow students came up to the students who took the queue at the box office from the evening and bought all the tickets, creating a shortage. Then the tickets were resold or changed to other benefits; Friedman coordinated this work.
In the third year, under the auspices of the Komsomol committee, the youth club "Zemlyanichnaya Polyana" was organized in the dormitory hall, where discos and concerts were held in the evenings; Fees handed personally.
According to a number of reports, it was then that he met Aven, who headed the MSU Music Club, and Surkov, with whom he lived in a dormitory.
Working for distribution in the Moscow Region Electrostal, the courier cooperative opened the window.
In 1989, with a prominent photochemist, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now academic) MV Alfimov (they say the name appeared in his honor), future partners Khan and Kuzmichev, and a former teacher Kiselev, created the Alfa Photo cooperative who sold photographic materials and office equipment (sometimes they say that Friedman even sold food for laboratory mice). Later, Kiselev (whose biography modestly notes that he was the one who "created and headed" Alpha Photo ") entered history the formula of the entire liberal clan: "I am not so much a patriot of the country in which I live, as a patriot of my capital."
"Alfa-photo" became the base for the Soviet-Swiss joint venture "Alfa-eco" (the share of Swiss - 20%); sometimes it is reported that Aven participated in the creation of the order.
Planned economy collapsed insane Gorbachev's reforms. They were sent by the party farm nomenklatura, who wanted to own the benefits distributed by it and pass them on by inheritance. Specs were a gold mine. Alfa-Eco became the backbone of Alfa Group.
Romance with power
For the safety of payments and additional profits in December 1990, Alfa Bank was created. Because of the swiftness of development, journalists spoke about ties with the mafia, but the bank stressed: they were guided only by the power structures of the state.
With the collapse of the USSR, the non-speculative part of the Soviet elite became an accessible resource for improving the image of business. In 1992, the vice-president of the bank was twice Hero of the USSR, the first person to go into outer space, Aleksey Leonov - the favorite of the disappeared country with extensive connections. He helped overcome distrust of a private bank and attract vouchers to Alpha Capital.
Many commemorate Gaidar’s telepresentation, allegedly confirming rumors that it was Alfa Bank that gave a lot of money to his appointment; it seems that in response he helped the bank with soft state loans.
However, as far as can be judged, the strategic partnership with one of the largest US investment banks Solomon Brothers, achieved, probably with the help of connections among Jewish emigration at the very beginning of the 90, became the basis of the power and "flooding" of Alpha.
Another important success factor, as they said at the time, was the control established by Alpha during Aven’s tenure as Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the International Investment Bank, one of two CMEA banks (the second, the International Bank for Economic Cooperation, in which Prokhorov it seems that Potanin’s group has taken control). He possessed a huge financial and organizational resource.
At the start of the 90's, Friedman broke through to oil exports. When Fradkov was approved as prime minister after the liberal Kasyanov’s resignation, one of the liberal newspapers published questions for him, some of which recalled Friedman’s start:
"At the beginning of 90's, Alpha-Eco supplied sugar, tea and carpets from India. Tea was bought, including through public debt ... Did you provide support ... to Friedman?
In 90-x ... Alfa-Bank was connected to operations with foreign debts of Russia ... Debts were bought for 25-30% of the cost. Kasyanov ... compiled lists of top-priority ... debts in which Alfa-Bank’s debts fell. ... Did you know about this practice?
In March, 1993 you entered the ... commission to stimulate ... export. By next year, Alfa-eco exported 10 million tons of oil per year. In December, you entered 1993 in the food commission ... Alfa-Eco received a government contract for the annual supply of 1,5 million tonnes. ... oil in exchange for 500 thous. Cuban sugar. In June, 1994 you entered the commission ... in the field of ... alcoholic beverages. Alfa-eco became the leader in the sale of Moldovan wines in Russia. Are coincidences listed by chance? "
The questions were addressed to Fradkov because he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of Aven (in the scientific research institute sitting in the same room with Gaidar) and the only one of his team fulfilled the promise to leave the government when he was dismissed.
Some of the biographies date Fridman's acquaintance with 1994 Aven the year, which is ridiculous: at that time Friedman traded 10% of Alpha shares for half of his company FinPA, making him president of Alfa Bank. This means that Friedman and Aven met each other earlier (which is natural, since Aven, as far as can be judged, played the role of a communicator in the Jewish reformist environment), and this acquaintance was so important that it was worth hiding.
Perhaps Aven, who was called the “embodiment of the Soviet Jewish dream,” became the catalyst for Friedman’s transformation into a “business shark” enjoying his ruthlessness. Born in the family of a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, graduated from the prestigious physical education school, fed up with prudent, cynical and hard Aven, it seems that he deeply despised the "scoop", considering the world around only as a source of his well-being. As they recall, he became the ideal for Friedman, who developed cynicism and the ability to concentrate on the main thing: money and power.
This is probably largely the reason why he persevered in the “sugar scandal”. After poisoning with sugar mixed with opiates, it turned out that it was transported in containers used to supply the company associated with Alfa Group. In April, 1995, this led to the “operational activities” of GUBOP with respect to Alfa-Eco, but attempts by competitors (the sources of the Kompaniya magazine called Khodorkovsky’s partner Nevzlin) to inflate the scandal failed.
The romantic manager of the Moscow mayor's office, Shakhnovsky, united into a "club on the Sparrow Hills" to enrich the "wild market" of Berezovsky, Vinogradov, Potanin, Smolensky, Khodorkovsky and Friedman, forming a "seven banker" (his place in it will be taken by Aven).
There they made a list of "tidbits" of Russia, which bankers wanted to pick up within the framework of mortgage auctions offered by Potanin, and distributed them. There, they formalized the idea of subordinating power to the oligarchs.
Yeltsin’s desperate situation forced them in April 1996 to call on him and Zyuganov to compromise; "letter 13-ti" "Break the deadlock!" signed and Friedman. But fear outweighed, and the oligarchy put on Yeltsin.
The election campaign, like the American experts who led it under the guise of reformers (they say the recent ambassador to Russia McFaul was among them), demanded money, but the oligarchs did not want to pay. Yeltsin was saved by the expansion of "crediting budget recipients."
The scheme was simple: since there is no money in the budget, banks lend to the budget beneficiaries, and the budget pays later. But there was no money in the budget also because he kept huge funds in oligarchic banks, and they usually credited budget recipients not from their own, but from his money. The price of short-term loans reached 30% of the amount, which led to underfunding and degradation of budget beneficiaries, first of all, the defense and social sectors.
According to the Accounts Chamber, out of the trillion rubles allocated for this scheme 67. disappeared 36 trillion (6,3 billion dollars). When the entire budget was stolen, the liberals defaulted.
The preservation of Yeltsin brought Friedman not only personal gratitude and participation in “lending to budget beneficiaries”, but also a new level.
Novel with oil
The first attempt to “enter the oil” failed: during mortgage auctions, Friedman tried to challenge the transfer of Yukos to Menatep.
He learned lessons, began to increase and diversify the influence. In January, 1996 established the Russian Jewish Congress.
The goal was the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK).
Contrary to the liberal myth, the market success of the Soviet directors was not uncommon - what are the directors of Surgutneftegaz Bogdanov and Kogalymneftegaz Alekperov worth! The head of TNK, Paly, was in the line, but politically weak.
Friedman, however, was supported by "all the liberal army": the head of the presidential administration, who was considered the architect of his victory, Chubais, who overthrew the all-powerful Korzhakov, Barsukov and Soskovets, and the State Property Committee (Mostovoy and Koch, soon after retiring because of the "writers' cause" "emerged" in TNK), and the Minister of Fuel and Energy, the former Tyumen governor Shafranik.
18 July 1997 of the year 40% of TNK shares was transferred to Alfa Group and Acces / Renova of Blavatnik and Vekselberg under commitments to invest in TNK for 2 of the year 810 million dollars. (as reported, 755 million in August 1997), which is 55 times the authorized capital of the winner.
The Chamber of Accounts recorded: "In determining ... prices ... the cost of recoverable oil and gas reserves on the balance sheet ... is not taken into account ... The price ... is underestimated by at least 920 million dollars."
In March 1998, Friedman and partners collected a controlling stake in TNK. The main asset, Nizhnevartovskneftegaz, was taken on 10 on June 1999 by the early dismissal of Palia. (In the spring of 2007, his family was brutally tortured by gangsters; he accused an employee of TNK. In November, Pali was convicted of 7 years, he was accused of “ordering” co-owners of the Alpha Group. ”He was released in 2011, in 2013 he was arrested and spent 5 months SIZO; information about his fate could not be found.)
In December, 1999, on the eve of Putin’s election, the state sold Alfa-Eco a little less than 50% TNK. From 1,08 billion dollars, in which 90% TNK was estimated, the budget received 260 million.
And in 2003, TNK shareholders sold its half of BP for more than 6 billion dollars! TNK-BP's 10 years brought from 3 to 6 billion dollars in dividends per year, and the Russian side, including Friedman, received 28 billion when selling them.
Alfa Group has become one of the key players in the telecommunications market, network trading, utilities and new technologies.
Overwhelming pragmatism
Part of the style of "Alpha" is demonstrative rigidity, intimidating potential adversaries.
It is no coincidence that the management of TNCs was called "tankmen."
Probably the main victory of Friedman after the "capture of TNCs" was won over the Minister of Communications Reiman: "Alpha-groups" received the package of "Megaphone", and the enemy was discredited and fired.
According to the president of BP, Lord John Brown, quoted by Russian Forbes, Friedman once called himself a "Russian gangster."
In 2006, Friedman's conversation with the chairman of the Open Russia Foundation, the former executive director of the Russian Jewish Congress Osovtsov, was spread on the Internet. To the question "Why does everyone have tax problems, and everyone is afraid, but are you not?" Friedman allegedly replied: "If anything, the head would be shot through." The journalists added: "Most likely, the head of the Alpha Group is so ... joked," and they can be understood: in the media community, Alpha was called the "killer of the media."
Lurie's articles in the Versiya newspaper in 1999 and 2002 led to a court decision on 7,5 million rubles, the dismissal of the chief editor Arifjanov and almost the closing of the newspaper. The German magazine Osten im West, indicted by Alpha at the beginning of 2000, closed, not finding 200 thousand marks for court payments.
In November, 2002 of the year sank, causing enormous damage to the coast of Spain, the tanker Prestige, chartered by the company in the Alfa Group. When the Alfa Group got rid of it the following year, the French Le Parisien and Les Echos described it as a way not to pay the fine - and received lawsuits for more than 1 million euros. In Russia, neither the results of the trial, nor the connection between the disaster and Alpha were reported.
In August 2004 of the year, Alfa-Bank sued Kommersant for an article about line-ups in offices in early July, assessing all its losses (including unearned interest on unpaid loans, unscheduled advertising, currency bought out of schedule and increased protection) 20,8 million rubles and demanding 300 million in addition for reputational damage, only about 11 million dollars. (previously such claims to the Russian media did not exceed 0,5 million).
Although the queues, as can be judged, took place before the article, and Alfa-Bank was the leader in reducing the balances on the accounts of individuals (1,46 billion rubles in June) and charged 10% for early withdrawal of deposits, the court upheld the lawsuit. Kommersant transferred the amount, releasing an almost empty number indicating that it was "dedicated exclusively to Alfa Bank and personally ... to Friedman. So that they were pleased." In March, the court reduced reputational damage 10 times, and Alfa Bank returned the difference.
After the image was undermined (many took the lawsuit against Kommersant as an attempt to destroy the newspaper for stating a self-evident fact) Friedman almost never filed lawsuits against the media.
In August, 2008 of the year, TNK-BP’s Russian shareholders managed to remove Dudley from the post of head of the company, and from 1 June, Fridman, who held both management positions, became acting chief executive officer. This victory was a shock to the observers.
In the spring of 2009, at the end of the crisis, Alfa-Bank was the “most intractable” creditor of Deripaska’s structures. Already after Pikalevo, Friedman was invited to meet with him President Medvedev, who declared the inadmissibility of "corporate egoism", but the conflict was resolved only in the fall.
Friedman's stiffness is visible this year. Its structures tried to bankrupt one of the largest air carriers, UTair, and the specific (although perhaps unintentionally) congratulations on the 70 anniversary of the Victory, the brilliance of which caused rejection and even resentment of a number of liberals, was the threat of arrest of Uralvagonzavod accounts (UVZ ).
His “daughter”, “CTZ-Uraltrac,” did not pay Alfa Bank in time for one of the 6 agreements with it, and it presented claims to the head structure.
UVZ reported that it had paid the daughters ’debts before the court’s decision, but Alfa-Bank began to demand early repayment of all loans, including those granted for the period up to 2017, and created the threat of bankruptcy not of the daughters, but the entire UVZ. And it will destroy production tanks in Russia.
Although, according to available data, Alfa-Bank and UVZ agreed in advance on a plan for restructuring possible debts of the subsidiaries of the latter.
Putin’s press secretary, Peskov, replicated the 15-year-old formula about the “dispute between business entities”.
But it's hard not to understand: against the background of the world and Ukrainian crises, financing the main tank manufacturer (including the new symbol of Russia — the Armata project) is no longer a business, but a policy.
And - the military.
Self-identification: London Ukrainian?
The specificity of Alpha’s business is system lobbying, which was nominated as Surkov’s assistant in 1999 and then deputy head of the presidential administration. Interestingly, the 2 of the year with Friedman seemed to outweigh the 10 years with Khodorkovsky: the subsequent abundance in the Kremlin and the State Duma of people associated with Alpha, explained by their acquaintance with Surkov, and not with Friedman. However, Novaya Gazeta noted that, according to RUBOP and the Prosecutor General’s Office, the sale of the 50% TNK package in December 1999, which caused the budget an estimated $ 900 million damage, the Alfovskii deputy head of administration, Surkov and Abramov
Nobody was willing to engage in such investigations.
Belkovsky wrote: "The main thing that distinguishes Friedman from his fellow oligarchs and allows him to succeed is an understanding of the mechanism of power ... Friedman created an extensive structure of archiffective, own" bureaucratic groups "in different regions, which consisted of civil and security officials and judges ..."
Strategic thinking probably does not make it possible to turn a huge conglomerate into a hostage of political processes that go beyond it: just as during the time of Gaidar’s appointment, in order to become part of the future, he must be formed himself.
It is estimated that since 1997, Friedman has publicly financed Nemtsov’s political activities.
He became a member of the International Advisory Council on Foreign Relations of the United States.
Political analyst Sergei Markov noted: “I don’t understand why Alfa Group uses the status of untouchables. Perhaps because they are not a Russian team, but a unit connected with powerful international oligarchic groups that ... protect Alfa groups from ... of the Russian state. "
In January, 2014, from Navalny's hacked correspondence, it became clear that the top management of Alpha had long supported him materially and informationally. His partner Ashurkov came to Navalny after 6 years of work at Alpha from the post of director of asset management of the company, which was the "heart" of the consortium. Leaving him "on a sabbatical to engage in politics" is hardly possible without connection with the Alpha strategy.
Friedman and Alpha challenged Navalny’s support in court (one of the lawsuits stated that Alpha groups do not exist as a legal entity) without success. As can be seen, now their sponsorship of the “Navalny project”, which did not hide the desire to seize power (and not by the democratic and illegal means), is legally established.
At the same time, it may turn out to be foreign, and the point is not that Alpha does not hide its offshore nature.
It was reported that the Ukrainian media wrote about the conflict between Alfa-Bank and the UVZ in the following way: “The Ukrainian bank intends to bankrupt the manufacturer“ Almaty ”, considering Alfa-Bank to be its own.
36.47 and 23.27% of the company that owns Alfa Bank is owned by Friedman and Khan, natives of Lviv and Kiev. They determine the policy of a bank that has huge assets in Ukraine and is therefore dependent on the Ukrainian authorities.
Perhaps their attitude to the UVZ is not determined by their views, but by the blackmailing of the latter, but this hypothesis is refuted by the advertising of the jazz festival, organized by Friedman in Lviv since 2011.
As reported, this year he appeared in it personally - along with the nationalist singer Vakarchuk, the leader of the not at all jazz group "Ocean Elzy". Friedman is shown as a Ukrainian living in London: he has an office there, from where he sees Lviv jazz musicians. And, although in Ukraine, even the punishers of the ATO are not ashamed of the Russian language, in advertising Friedman speaks "read the move".
The authorities of Ukraine, existing at the expense of Russian privileges, officially call Russia an "aggressor", refuse to fulfill obligations, prohibit our television channels and films, restrict entry to Ukraine, have made Nazi symbols and rhetoric the norm and at the official level.
Against this background, advertising that supports the current Ukraine, showing Friedman himself as a true Ukrainian from London, if only not from Moscow, gives the impression of not loving the “small Motherland”, but a shift - or showing a previously hidden - identity.
Perhaps Friedman really feels himself not a “Russian”, but a scrawny London “zapadentz”.
Especially, if the information about his intention to become a UK tax resident by the end of the year and not to pay Russia taxes on income derived from it is correct.
Friedman is a cultured and sensitive person.
Big and clumsy, he sometimes played at the Gershwin piano bar in Moscow, so that prosperous people cried for their ruined lives.
He brought celebrities (including McCartney and Madonna) not to private parties, but to big concerts for everyone.
He collects old films, where good, contrary to the experience of our generation, triumphs over evil.
He tries to read a book a day; his essay about the Nobel laureate in literature, Peruvian Mario Vargas Llos, not so long ago caused the enthusiasm of experts.
And when cultural romantics give the impression that the meaning of their life is the perverse rape of their country, it serves as a grave diagnosis that can only be made to a very sick society ...
In the photo: Mikhail Fridman (center) and Russian oligarchs 11 during a three-day Easter journey in the Arava desert, symbolizing the exodus of Jews from Egypt (2012 year)
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