Education and degrees
After graduating in 1977 from a school with in-depth study of the English language, he entered MGIMO at the Faculty of Economics. Graduated from the institute in 1982 (specialty "international economic relations"). 1984 - completion of studies at the Institute of the KGB of the USSR named after Yu. V. Andropov. In 2000 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on "Debt Problems and Challenges of Globalization". Since 2003 - Doctor of Economic Sciences.
Personal life
Lebedev's sports hobbies include football and swimming. The entrepreneur leads his LiveJournal, which he called the "Idealist Capitalist". Officially divorced since 1998 (from his first marriage there is a son, Eugene). Currently, in a civil marriage with Elena Perminova, she is raising a common son, Nikita.
Career
Lebedev, a retired KGB colonel, was a member of the CPSU from 1979 to 1991. In 1982–1983 he worked at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1983 to 1992 he was engaged in diplomatic activities, worked in the Information Department. From 1987 to 1992 he worked at the USSR Embassy in Great Britain. Since 1992 - work in the foreign intelligence of the USSR. After being transferred to the reserve, he took up commercial activities. In 1993, he founded RIFC JSC and became the chairman of the board of directors of the company. President and CEO JSCB "National Reserve Bank" from 1995 to 2004. In 2004–2007, he was a member of the State Duma. Since 2008, he has been developing several media projects.
Condition and main assets
In 2005, Forbes magazine gave Alexander Lebedev the 26th place in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia, indicating that his capital is $1.6 billion. By 2006, Lebedev's fortune had increased to $3.7 billion, making him 23rd on the Russian rich list. By 2010, the crisis reduced the businessman's capital to $2 billion. With this indicator, Lebedev occupies the 34th position in the Russian Forbes rating. In 2009, the businessman applied to the magazine with a request to remove him from the list, but due to the fact that the information about the capital is reasonable and truthful, the request was not granted.
Nikolai Kletochnikov
Everyone knows about 007 James Bond. Much less is known about his colleagues who worked under other numbers. Maybe because they were professionally laconic. The career of Alexander Lebedev, a spy and oligarch, is very reminiscent of the story of the deeply secret "agent OOO": no one has ever seen any documents confirming the numerous stories that the owner of the NRB tells about himself, but the exploits that Alexander Evgenievich does not like to remember can be easy to find in the archives of the scandalous chronicle of the last decade. The name of a spy, a banker, an oligarch, a sponsor of political parties, a secret owner of newspapers and magazines, and a future air travel monopoly appears in high-profile story about the removal of the notorious “photocopier” box from the White House, and in case of "a person who looks like the Attorney General", and also in a good dozen scandals, of which in the 90s it took shape recent history Russia.
But if earlier Alexander Evgenievich was content with the usual role of the main myth-maker among domestic oligarchs, then the banker's last step made him seriously start talking about Mr. Lebedev's growing political ambitions: the head of the NRB seriously wanted to take the chair of the mayor of Moscow.
Agent 000
How well it all started. Shura Lebedev was born on December 16, 1959 in a respectable Moscow family. Father is a professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, mother is an English teacher at MGIMO.
No wonder that with such a pedigree, Shura entered the super-elite English special school No. 17. Children from simple families even if they are very talented. the way there was booked. (Those few sons and daughters of the proletarians who got into the 17th grade due to the fact that they lived in the neighborhood, demanding teachers got rid of by all means by the fourth grade.)
Our hero, as you understand, did not face this fate. Despite. that a student of class "B" (and in high school - "A"), the handsome blond Shura Lebedev had the fame of a spoiled hooligan and a novice womanizer, he received a quite decent certificate.
There, at school, Shurik first learned about the existence of such a mysterious and legendary organization as the KGB. Many offspring of leaders from the Lubyanka studied here. In the same class as Lebedev, for example, there was a certain Sasha Preobrazhensky, whose father served in the special services with the rank of general. So the students of the 17th special school in Lubyanka were watched almost from the first grade. They also laid eyes on Lebedev, however, they recruited him, most likely, already at the institute.
The fact that of all the metropolitan universities Shura Lebedev chose and managed to enter MGIMO, where his mother worked, is not surprising. Shurik studied in the eighth Anglo-Spanish group of the monetary and financial department. But then the versions diverge.
According to the official version, after graduating from MGIMO in 1983, Alexander Lebedev first worked at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System at the USSR Academy of Sciences and then moved to the European Department of the Central Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to unofficial information, in 1983 Alexander Lebedev entered the Academy of Foreign Intelligence. After graduation, he allegedly worked in the central office, but not in the Foreign Ministry. and the first department of the KGB of the USSR (now - the Foreign Intelligence Service). According to the same version, it was precisely as an intelligence officer that Mr. Lebedev was sent in 1987 to the Soviet embassy in London.
Where the second version came from is now difficult to find out, but given Mr. Lebedev's passion for myth-making, it is possible that the now successful banker himself stood at its origins. In any case, no real confirmation that Alexander Lebedev was really engaged in intelligence activities, or at least was a member of the KGB, could not be found. Moreover, servicemen ridicule any hints about this:
Lebedev? Spy?
However, Alexander Evgenievich himself, at every opportunity, likes to hint at his underground past and threaten competitors with “torture in Yasenevo” (where the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service is located). Recently, the banker “confessed” to Russian Focus:
I once said to German Gref: “Give me the right to torture officials within the framework of this project (it was about leasing Ila). I also have experience ... In Yasenevo, we still have a torture room. German Oskarovich made such a stern face and answered seriously: "We are building a liberal state, Alexander Evgenievich." And so he looked at me expressively.
However, the name of the spy Alexander Lebedev was never included in the list of legendary agents of the SVR. The only useful thing that Lebedev did as second secretary of the embassy during his 5 years of work in the UK was that he made a close acquaintance with the future head of Vnesheconombank, and at that time the embassy's supply manager Andrei Kostin. And even then, the benefit of this acquaintance was rather for Lebedev himself, but not for his own special services.
Two comrades served
In the early 90s, intelligence diplomats hit the commerce. Costin in London established and headed a certain enterprise called Greinlodge Limited. Lebedev created Greinsale Limited in parallel. Interestingly, both companies were born at about the same time and registered at the same legal address. A little later, friendly firms established a joint child - The Milith PLC. By the way, all this was done without any intermediaries and front companies - evidence that some forces in Russia were behind the merchants from the embassy.
When a correspondent from a newspaper controlled by our hero once asked Lebedev how he managed to transform himself from a diplomat into a banker, he replied:
Lucky circumstance. Let's count it lucky. You still will not believe if I say that this is only the fruit of my efforts - and you will be right.
Soon, having finally made a choice between diplomacy and commerce in favor of the latter, Lebedev and Kostin created the Russian Investment and Financial Company in Moscow. Since 1993, RIFK has become part of JSB Imperial on the rights of management, and Lebedev himself became the head of the bank's foreign investment department. By the way, our hero got into the "Imperial" not by chance. One of the founders of the bank was Lebedev's classmate Sanya Mamutso with his company Project Finance Company (KOPF). At school they didn't get along very well, but in business they found a common language.
I came to Imperial on April 1, 1992, - Sergey Rodionov, former chairman of the board of the bank, and now president of Diners Club Russia, shared his memories. - In two weeks everything became clear to me: the bank was created by complex structures with a difficult past. The organizers were cooperatives of various profiles. The first chairman and owner of the bank, as it turned out, had a criminal record. In fact, he died quickly. By his death, which is very atypical for our country. His colleagues were in trouble. They arose due to the fact that their relations with Otari Vitalyevich Kvantrishvili were built incorrectly ... In the same place, among the founders of the first row, there was the ALM company of Alexander Leonidovich Mamut. But a rather tough conflict immediately occurred with them, which resulted in courts with Lefortovsky Bank. Since then, we have not been friends.
The conflict was quite remarkable. After the collapse of the USSR, all debts of Vnesheconombank to Russian importers were frozen, and debts to commercial banks had to be repaid. To turn these debts into cash, classmates introduced a simple scheme.
So, in April 1993, Technopromimport sold at a discounted rate one of its $15 million debts to Mamut's new bank, Project Finance Company (KOPF). Which, in turn, undertook to contribute this debt to the authorized capital of Lefortovsky Bank, where the same Mamut was an adviser and co-owner. And from the "Imperial", where the accounts of "Technopromimport" were located, they demanded a web account for the entire amount of the debt.
Sergei Rodionov tried to disagree with this scheme, but Lefortovsky Bank, having contacted court of Arbitration, got it. Economists calculated that at that time, due to the exchange rate difference, the budget lost $ 8.8 million. Together with KOPF, Lebedev and Kostin also made their legs from the abandoned Imperial, who also, following the example of Mamut, earned money in the bank on web sites. Their archive contains the Peruvian debts of Aviaexport.
Our home is Gazprom
Nevertheless, the enterprising financier Lebedev was noticed at the top. Not only was he not reprimanded for the scam, but they began to actively push him up the oligarchic ladder. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the fact that it was Lebedev who in 1995 became the head of the National Reserve Bank, the largest shareholder of which was Gazprom (read NDR Chernomyrdin and the government).
Without this connection, the further career of our hero would be a big question. Judge for yourself, in 1995 alone, the bank's assets increased from 60 billion rubles to 3 trillion. In September 1996 JSCB "National Reserve Bank" received a general license for banking operations and by the end of the same year entered the top ten largest banks in Russia. The explanation for this meteoric rise is more than simple: connections.
As a source in the White House once admitted in an interview with Profile:
Lebedev is a typical example of an appointed "oligarch". As during the Chubais privatization, people were appointed millionaires, so Gazprom appointed Shurik an "oligarch." As soon as Gazprom placed part of its funds on the accounts of the NRB, the bank's business immediately went uphill. Gazprom is a multi-faceted structure, and each face needs a financial structure to serve it.
Lebedev served the full program, but, of course, not disinterestedly for himself and his patrons.
In 1995, the government transferred 300 million dollars to Gazprom's bank, and "without making a ruble cover", that is, to put it simply, for nothing. A few weeks later, the NRB was unfastened another 50 million to "ensure the efficient use of temporarily free state resources." Lucky.
And here is another episode from the rich biography of the banker. The NRB received 2 billion Indian rupees from the Ministry of Finance for the construction of ships commissioned by Sovcomflot. According to the letter of the Ministry of Finance dated 08/21/95, the entire amount was transferred to the accounts of the National Reserve Bank, but ... The money arrived at the Baltic Shipyard only on 03/05/96, that is, seven months later. All this time, 45 million dollars, apparently, were spinning in the NRB.
The further growth of the banker's career was ruined by the notorious greed. In 1995, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, which by that time had long since lost hope of repaying Russia in cash, issued government bonds in foreign currency loans worth $1.4 billion. The piece was very tasty - after all, 85% per annum and a large-scale repayment since 1997. These securities were transferred to offset the debt to our Gazprom.
Then everything went, it seems, according to the scenario. Gazprom handed over half of the cash prize to the Ministry of Finance, which, according to Lebedev, should have placed it in the NRB. However, either Lebedev "slowed down", or the gas workers, in defiance of the National Reserve Bank, wanted to create another reserve bank, but on November 19, 1995, 43% of Ukrainian bonds went straight to Unikombank.
Lebedev tried to make a scandal, but he was quickly put in his place: Gazprom withdrew part of its shares from the NRB. It smelled like bankruptcy.
Shurik's pre-election adventures
The situation was saved only by the elections. In June 1999, a friend of Alexander Lebedev, the head of Vnesheconombank, Andrey Kostin, visited the "eternal city" of Rome. The scandalous newspaper "Versia" received fascinating information that Kostin notarized his confessions in Italy about the insidious presidential elections in the summer of 1996.
“Only one of the facts of Kostin’s connection with the presidential election campaign became public knowledge - that same notorious photocopier box, which on June 19, 1996, was taken out of the White House by Lisovsky and Evstafiev. According to the Prosecutor General's Office and the President's Security Service, the National Reserve Bank (read Kostin-Lebedev) is directly related to the placement of this box in office No. 2-17 of the White House, from where it came to Lisovsky and Evstafiev. It is also well known that a certain Lavrov, who at that time was an employee of the NRB, also appears in the case of the box.
However, something else is well known. After the arrest, Lisovsky and Yevstafiev, although they gave evidence, were rather meager, but the national reservist Lavrov was frank in full. It was he who readily told the Korzhakovites about who, how much and for what purpose brought in and took out of the White House. As if someone deliberately wanted to cast suspicion on Lebedev, leaving the true financiers of Yeltsin in the shadows.
From this story it followed that on the eve of the elections (and, as they suspect, to finance them), the Ministry of Finance issued web notes for the 6th and 7th loans. Most of them (almost a billion dollars) went to the NRB. A significant part of these funds, according to witnesses. migrated to offshore zones, but some were stuffed into infamous boxes. So if Lebedev was behind the sponsorship of Yeltsin's campaign headquarters, it was only as a figurehead.
Why was it later necessary to leak information about Kostin's "compromising letter" in Rome? The answer is obvious - it was only part of the vast myth-making that the head of the NRB likes to surround himself with: he is both a spy, and an oligarch, and even a president-maker. In the absence of concrete evidence, this does not lead to any trouble with the law, but dividends on the political and even financial market brings.
In 2000, for example, fragmentary allusions were printed in the newspapers about Lebedev's possible involvement in the election of Putin to the post of President of the Russian Federation. The banker acted flawlessly on especially naive partners and competitors. In times of crisis for the NRB, when the banker was threatened with financial collapse. articles appeared in the media with headlines like “They hit Lebedev. They fall into Putin.
break the bank
There are so many myths about the almighty oligarch, but upon closer examination, it seems that Alexander Lebedev himself is their author.
Take, for example, the high-profile attempt on the life of First Deputy Minister of Finance Andrei Vavilov, who in February 1997 lost his official SAAB. The press unanimously listed the head of the NRB as the main suspect, although for Lebedev Vavilov played the role of a cash cow. Yes, and Vavilov himself blamed the chairman for what happened Central Bank Russian Federation Sergey Dubinin, linking the car explosion to a story that became known as "a scam with 170 million government dollars."
However, Lebedev preferred not to refute the rumors about his involvement in the terrorist attack. to maintain the image of an "authoritative" businessman.
Finally, this image was fixed for him only two years later. On February 22, 1999, Novaya Gazeta published an article about the existence of a certain video recording in which a man who looks like the Prosecutor General is having fun with girls who look like prostitutes. The journalists also named the organizer of the compromising evidence - Nazir Khapsirokov. However, another name soon appeared in the "independent investigations" - as you probably already guessed, Alexander Lebedev.
There were only two main arguments on the mountain. First, the day before, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against the NRB (as if it was the only one that Skuratov was involved in). The second, even more amusing: "several companies owned by Mr. Lebedev are registered hundreds of meters from the" bad apartment ".
Do you think Lebedev became indignant, sued the slanderers or began to justify himself? Nothing happened. In an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, when he was asked who was really behind the filming of the porno cassette, Lebedev replied:
I joke more. Perhaps it would be flattering to appear as a modern Danton and Robespierre. Basically, output clean water an official who deals with such things could do honor to any citizen.
The almighty arbiter of destinies, and only, however, upon closer examination, this power looks somewhat ostentatious. In the late 90s, grenades and TNT bombs exploded several times in the offices of the National Reserve Bank, one of the guards was wounded. So what? Vendetta didn't happen. The security service of the NRB did not unleash any of the terrorist attacks, apparently, their owner's arms are not that long.
In 1995, Fedorov lived in the States and did not have Russian citizenship, which was extremely convenient - he was not subject to taxation. So Lebedev offered the submariner to become an intermediary in transferring money from the NRB to offshore banks. But Fedorov, as they say, “went and quit”: heating the NRB for 7.2 million greenbacks, he fled to his beloved America.
No matter how hard Alexander Lebedev tried to find the “scammer”. even several detective agencies mobilized: all for nothing. Themis was more favorable to the "dispossessed". Lebedev won the lawsuits in the English and Swiss courts, and ... immediately withdrew them back.
It is seen, smart people hinted to the banker that being thrown into our difficult time for survival is not very prestigious - they will no longer respect.
It was then that the press was full of notes that it was not Fedorov who threw Lebedev, but quite the opposite - the poor submariner fell victim to the speculations of an unscrupulous financier and is now trembling for his life, hiring a whole staff of private security guards for his last hard-earned money.
The discreet charm of the oligarchy
Once Lebedev admitted:
The acquisition of yachts, aircraft, real estate is of little interest to me. I do not have it. I spend little time in nightclubs and have never been to the Côte d'Azur. Money for me is rather an opportunity to pursue a certain policy, to achieve certain goals, to influence public life. In everyday life, I am a poorly organized person. My wife and son and I still live in the apartment with my parents. We don't have our own country house. Of course, when I am abroad, I stay in the most expensive hotels, but not because I strive for luxury, but for reasons of prestige. Try it, settle in the "four stars" - rumors will immediately spread around Moscow: Lebedev is on the verge of ruin.
Alexander Evgenievich was cunning, oh, how he was cunning. Perhaps sometime in Soviet time, everything was so, but today's facts indicate the opposite.
Lebedev has a yacht, real estate, and even his own jet plane. And in warm regions, including Azure, Lebedev can be easily met. And it’s not worth talking about some kind of London or Paris. Try to call the office of the NRB and ask the boss - they will invariably tell you that he is on a business trip abroad.
The banker gave his son an excellent British education, but, according to him, he does not spend a lot of money on his wife Natalya Lebedev (“She never demanded insanely expensive fur coats and jewelry”), although he could fork out. After all, it was thanks to his marriage to her, the daughter of the famous Soviet academician Sokolov. Lebedev in many ways began his career in the diplomatic field.
Alexander Evgenievich loves cheap effects very much, and if he does not produce them himself, then he clings to them. A few years ago, for example, Lebedev's native school widely celebrated its 45th anniversary at the Theater of Mimicry and Gesture. Since there are many people who are not poor among the graduates, everyone chipped in the full program. The lion's share of the money for the anniversary was contributed by the head of I K Troika Dialog, Alexander Mamut. However, Mamut himself does not like to shine in public, so all the laurels of the sponsor were pulled over by his classmate Lebedev, to whom they sang hosanna from the stage.
Lebedev also loves when someone (perhaps not himself) spreads disinformation in the media that he is tipped to be the chairman of the Central Bank, the head of the Ministry of Finance, or even a freelance adviser to the president. Perhaps he hopes that the Kremlin will take note of these rumors and bring them to life. In vain.
Life is not newspaper ducks. She puts everything in its place, showing that Lebedev simply cannot exert any political, financial and even criminal influence on the development of the country.
clipped wings
Alexander Lebedev kept telling everyone about his own importance for so long that he probably believed it himself. He even made an attempt to spread his wings and go on a big flight on his own, having pinched off a solid piece from Aeroflot this year.
Aeroflot is a famous airline. It has more than a hundred aircraft in its fleet, a third of which are foreign cars. Last year, Aeroflot flew 5.489 million people, more than any other Russian airline.
When, in March, NRB bought a 26% stake in Aeroflot from Millhouse Capital, an investment company representing the interests of Roman Abramovich. - the amount of the transaction was hidden at first. However, a little later, the information was leaked - $ 133 million, that is, 50 million more than the shares actually cost.
Such generosity could be understood if it was a super-profitable acquisition, but no. Aeroflot's net profit in 2002 was nothing at all, 3.198 billion rubles. Dividends per ruble share - some 6 kopecks.
The highlight of the purchase was covered in another. By that time, Alexander Lebedev was already the owner of a 46% stake in Ilyushin Finance Co. and managing a 57% stake in the Voronezh Joint Stock Aircraft Building Company.
In 1999, between Aeroflot and the leasing company Ilyushin Finance, an agreement was concluded for the supply of six Il-96-300 aircraft, which are manufactured by the Voronezh aircraft plant controlled by IFC. The contract provided that for each long-haul airliner Aeroflot would unfasten about 350 thousand dollars per month (the same amount as for BOINR). However, in 2002, Lebedev raised the payment rate to $500,000. This was already too much. Aeroflot, of course, refused to pay.
For NRB, the failure of the contract with Aeroflot would mean the loss of all investments in the Voronezh aircraft plant (in the last year alone, the bank invested $50 million in its restoration). Lebedev decided to invest this money in the purchase of an air carrier, hoping thereby to settle the problem of leasing. But he miscalculated.
Other Aeroflot shareholders have decided. that Lebedev's appetite was too great, and they were in no hurry to take the Ila, which had grown in price. Only in October, after going through a series of lawsuits against each other, the parties came to a mutual agreement. Ilyushin Finance reduced its requests. To what extent? There are rumors in aviation circles about the amount of 350 thousand dollars, that is, the amount that was originally implied. Lebedev himself prefers to bashfully remain silent. 50 million dollars wasted.
Just as inglorious was the epic struggle of the NRB for Sheremetyevo-Z, the construction of which Mr. Lebedev so dreams of. What he didn't do. And he agreed with the administration of the Khimki district, and wrote a tearful letter to Putin, and promised to increase the number of representatives of the state in the Board of Directors of Aeroflot - if only his airline would give the building. Everything is useless, neither communications nor finances helped. Despite the active opposition of the NRB, in December the government will hold a tender for Sheremetyevo-3, and the fact that Lebedev's company will become the winner of the open tender is a very big question.
It is possible that in this case officials from the White House are confused by one small nuance. Aeroflot's partner in the construction of the terminal should be the French credit bank Creidit Agricole Indosuez (CA1), whose claims against Russian financiers in 1999 caused a protracted Russian-French conflict.
At one time, the NRB itself sued CAI, but this year the banks concluded settlement agreement details of which are being kept secret by both sides. Only once did Lebedev let it slip that "the largest bank in Europe is showing interest in participating in the construction of Sheremetyevo-3." Foreign investment, certainly. it's a good thing, but the airport is still a strategic object. So, most likely, someone more patriotic than the former "intelligence officer" Alexander Lebedev will be engaged in the construction of a new Sheremetyevo terminal.
Lebedev himself, however, does not lose heart. Every now and then he gives out interviews with promises to leave his post in the NRB and head the aviation Financial and Industrial Group (FIG) he is creating:
It is possible that I will stop doing operational activities in the bank and focus on the functions of the owner and work in the NRB-group holding.
The oligarch has ambitious plans - to become a monopolist in the aviation industry and transportation.
To a question from a Kompaniya correspondent in May this year: “As I understand it, you hope that the National Aircraft Building Company will become for you about the same as Yukos for Mikhail Khodorkovsky?” - Lebedev sincerely answered:
I would like it to be that way.
In light of recent events with Yukos and Khodorkovsky, the answer is more than amusing.
Recently, the popularity of the famous oligarch Alexander Lebedev has noticeably weakened: he has practically dropped out of the media news that supported interest in him. The fight on television with businessman Sergei Polonsky is a thing of the past, and even the threat of bringing the "fighter against corruption" to criminal responsibility by the "evil" state does not meet with its former enthusiasm in the Western media.
On his website, Alexander Lebedev reports that VEB is not yet considering the purchase of the United Aircraft Corporation's stake in the Ilyushin Finance leasing company, and comments on events that are extraneous for him: British pressure on Rossia Today or the events of January 7 in France. He thinks about serious money, without the use of which “cool” things are impossible: “A terrorist must be prepared, armed, buy transport, organize delivery, provide housing ...”
However, the decline in interest in Alexander Lebedev, in our opinion, is natural. In the language of chess players, Lebedev is a bright "opening player" who starts the game well, but in the middlegame (mid game) starts to get stuck in problems and comes to the endgame (end of the game) not in the best condition. What kind of businesses Lebedev did not start: the National Reserve Bank and the National Reserve Corporation, the largest potato production in Europe ... Ex-Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov, who watched the growth of Lebedev's banking business, explained his initial success by friendship with ex-deputy finance minister Andrei Vavilov, with whom the former scout met while working in London. In 1995, for example, over 600 million dollars of budget money came to the NRB - after a successful deal with Gazprom. But Lebedev immediately had problems as soon as his connection with his patrons was cut off: as you know, Andrei Vavilov was caught stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the state treasury.
Everyone remembers other undertakings of the “idealist capitalist”: to build up Russia with ultra-cheap low-rise modular houses, to raise the aviation industry to the wings ... As a result, homeless people deceived by promises wrote angry letters, and the aviation industry is still flapping the wings of a failed renewal. Now, following a link from Lebedev's website "Dream House", realtors are selling real estate in Bulgaria, Spain, France ...
Now the National Reserve Bank has friction with the law and lost the court with the payment of unpaid taxes, fines and penalties. The affairs of the oligarch are so shaky that in 2012 Alexander Lebedev announced his intention to leave the business of Russia and focus on social and publishing activities. But it does not lay golden eggs either: the newspapers Evening Standard and The Independent bought in the UK are pulling funds for maintenance.
The “campaign to Vyatka” ended in failure for the oligarch: having received the seat of a deputy of the local Duma in the elections in the Slobodsky district of the Kirov region, the billionaire could not jump from the district springboard into the chair of the senator. From latest news: On December 1, 2014, as the oligarch writes in his blog, he washed his hair early and put on a formal suit, directing his feet to the public reception of United Russia for an appointment with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. But polite security officers gave him a turn from the gate: the oligarch was not on the list of citizens for a conversation with Medvedev ...
Well, how can one not recall the characteristic that Lebedev was once given by the editor-in-chief of the Stringer.ru website Elena Tokareva: “Banker Lebedev is a super-loser, a supervisor among losers!”
"Cinderella" from the dock
It seems that the most brilliant project of recent times for Alexander Lebedev has become “a girl with a bad past” (as she is called in in social networks) - Elena Perminova, fashion model and defendant in a criminal case on the sale of narcotic ecstasy tablets, considered in 2007 by the Central Court of Novosibirsk.
Now the Internet is replete with tearful pages, as the father of a lost child wrote a letter to the deputy State Duma Alexander Lebedev, how he heeded his father's tearful request, and then fell in love with a young nymphet ... Give it or take it - a plot in the spirit of either Nabokov's "Lolita", or "Cinderella" by the Brothers Grimm! However, there are a lot of skeptics of the romantic version about the letter from Cinderella's dad to the rich "daddy" from the State Duma: some media suggest that Lebedev met the aspiring model Perminova by choosing her in the catalog of an elite escort agency.
There are grounds for doubt: then a Vyatka pensioner will naively ask deputy Lebedev whether he really buys the sex services of young Kirov women? Then a video will appear on the Web, in which a person who looks like a banker-hope of the aviation industry, in a Kyiv hotel, “communicates” with a Ukrainian prostitute. It is not surprising that the patronage of the State Duma deputy Alexander Lebedev to the young maiden from the city of Berdsk, Elena Perminova, was not understood by the public. Moreover, in public consciousness two parallel high-profile drug trials came together - Elena Perminova (born in 1986) and the mother of a five-year-old child, Taisiya Osipova (born in 1984), who had diabetes. Although six times less drugs were seized at Osipova's house than from Perminova, the baby's mother was taken into custody. And Elena, with whom deputy Alexander Lebedev began to cohabit, remained at large until the trial, participated in modeling shoots and by the time of the verdict had managed to become the girl of the month of the Russian Playboy.
Elena Perminova on the cover of the Novosibirsk magazine
As a result of the double standards of Themis, Taisiya Osipova was sentenced to 8 years in a penal colony, and Elena Perminova to 6 years probation. And soon, in 2010, Alexander Lebedev's lawyers, through the Basmanny District Court of Moscow, achieved the removal of Perminova's criminal record. Now the “girl with a bad past” adorns the life of an oligarch and lives the life of a “socialite”, around which journalists, photographers, make-up artists and VIPs fuss ...
He sees his brother-in-law from afar ...
Right now in new family oligarch Lebedev, judging only by reports in glossy magazines, consensus and reckless love. No one writes about the deal of the young, in trouble, Elena with a rich man 27 years older than her. Although earlier they wrote a lot about the prudence of a 17-year-old nymphet, who, coveting the discount offered by a drug dealer for the purchase of "goods", dragged her partner, 32-year-old Vitaly Kholodkov, into the drug business. During interrogations, the young lady handed over her first man to the police to commute the sentence with giblets, blaming him, and agreed to cooperate with the investigation - in particular, “participated in the control purchase of synthetic drugs from the drug dealer Karopetov.”
Elena Perminova
For Alexander Lebedev, such perfidy of a thin Siberian girl did not become an obstacle. “Like attracts like. Apparently, something seemed close and dear, ”they suggest in social networks. - We won’t guess, but due to the public nature of his character, the oligarch is promoting, in our opinion, like a business project. Losing popularity due to a fading business, he now flaunts in parties and in photographs next to the “style icon” he created ...
Commenting on the finances of terrorism on his blog, the oligarch is well aware of the power of money in any area. We do not undertake to assume how much the campaign resulted in the creation of the image of Cinderella from the prudent model of Elena Perminova, torn from the clutches of drug dealers-villains. Lively journalists, high-society columnists and bloggers in London - a whole army is mobilized to create a legend about two loving hearts and an irresistible fashion style Perminova-model. But many Web users do not consider Elena a beauty for unhealthy thinness (she has a hereditary weight problem), a specific appearance and thin legs that cause pity. “I have a desire to feed her!” - ironic on the Internet.
Alexander Lebedev welcomes famous guests
However, a choir of glamorous voices rehearsed hosanna to an innocent sheep from Siberia, now living mainly in Britain: “Lena is the embodiment of everything a modern girl dreams of! She is a partner of businessman Alexander Lebedev, mother of wonderful sons Nikita and Yegor, a stylish model leading a secular lifestyle.” Of course, one can see behind the oligarch Lebedev a desire to prolong the family, because his son from his first marriage, 35-year-old Evgeny Lebedev, prefers gay parties in British rich houses. He even made himself a close friend of actor Kevin Spacey, a well-known frequenter of this kind of parties, in order to get "higher" in the London "chosen" club.
Elena Perminova with her husband Alexander Lebedev
And with Elena Perminova, according to evil tongues, the oligarch reached an agreement that “Elena gives birth to two children for Alexander, and he, in turn, develops her career as a model. Perhaps for this reason they do not register their relationship, because they do not consider them a marriage in the honest sense of the word.
It is also indicative how the billionaire used his common-law wife to withdraw assets from CJSC National Reserve Corporation. There, Elena Perminova in February 2011 bought out for 7.7 million rubles. real estate in Moscow on the street. Znamenka, 13, building 1, and after seven months, sold this object for almost 5 times more expensive to another subsidiary of her husband - OOO Management Company NRK Capital. Thus, the oligarch withdrew more than 28 million rubles from NRK CJSC. That is, Elena pays for social life and blitz flashes of photographers at fashion shows by participating in transactions, in comparison with which her crime with ecstasy pills is a trifle.
We don’t know what is behind the pink fairy tale about “Cinderella” by the oligarch Lebedev, who created a personal brand from a girl who, without blinking, sent her beloved man Vitaly Kholodkov and the dealer from whom she took drug pills to the camp bunk for 18 years ... Judging by the fact that the fairy tale did not result in a legal marriage, the oligarch does not trust the prudent Elena the party girl, despite the three children born from him.
In a word, taking into account the fact that not sheep, but hunters with a strong grip agreed to live in London and other prestigious places, the version “civil marriage is a deal” has the right to life. So far, the relationship between the losing popularity of the oligarch and the star of the catwalks Perminova (“nymphets in feathers and rhinestones in her hair” - according to Internet reviews) is in balance - like scales in a money changer, where everything is bash on bash. And the romantic story of "Cinderella from Siberia" excites the girls. We can say that Alexander Lebedev, who is always strong in opening moves, is making his debut in this almost virtual project. Although after that, sooner or later, you know, there will always be an endgame...
Great Britain has firmly taken the first place in popularity among Russian exiles. Something similar was observed at the beginning of the last century, when the leader of the first proletarian revolution chose foggy Albion to live for several years. One of the first political emigrants of our time, the late Boris Abramovich Berezovsky moved to England. Chichvarkin and others followed him. A stronghold of bourgeois democracy, Great Britain reliably guarantees that fugitives will not be extradited at the request of Russian law enforcement agencies.
One of the last well-known Russian people who decided to move to London, unexpectedly turned out to be entrepreneur Alexander Lebedev, who had not previously been seen in dissent or conflicts with the authorities. He very indistinctly explained his decision by an unexpected desire to curtail business in Russia. Now Alexander Lebedev prefers to devote more time to his own person, and not to a hectic business life.
The typical image of a Russian entrepreneur who has achieved success in business, with a belly protruding from physical inactivity and bags under his eyes from dealing with constant stress with the help of strong drinks, does not correspond to the youthful and mobile Lebedev. From his youth, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC National Reserve Corporation was friends with sports and in a healthy way life. It couldn't have been otherwise. The entrepreneur's father, a teacher at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, was known as a good water polo player and friend of the legendary football goalkeeper Lev Yashin in his youth. When it came to choosing a profession, Alexander Lebedev was more inspired by the example of his mother, a teacher at MGIMO, where he sent his feet after school. In 1982, the most famous "bursa" of Soviet diplomats reproduced another graduate in international economic relations.
Lebedev immediately sat down for his dissertation, at the same time agreeing to work in the structures of the KGB. In 1984, without much fanfare, he graduated from the KGB institute, which gave him the opportunity to work in the embassies of developed capitalist countries. In 1987, he walked along the Thames for the first time. At the Soviet embassy in the UK, he met another promising young diplomat, Andrei Kostin, the current head of Russia's second-largest bank, VTB. Alexander Lebedev served simultaneously in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Intelligence Service, having retired in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
It is not known what training program at the intelligence school a MGIMO graduate went through at the time. World War II Japanese intelligence officers, for example, were taught to smell each other. It is possible that Lebedev was instilled with a pronounced “sixth” sense during his studies, which rarely let him down. In the late 80s, he felt threatened for his career if he continued to wear epaulettes on his shoulders. The next decade actually turned out to be very difficult for the "service" people, even for such an elite, which the intelligence officers always considered themselves to be.
Alexander Lebedev estimated that he would have enough business experience and established connections to develop his own business. He wasn't wrong. By 1996, the former intelligence diplomat felt quite respectable. The campaign headquarters of President Boris Yeltsin, which brought together all the active and "monetary" representatives of the newly formed class of the Russian bourgeoisie, willingly included him in its composition. A decade later, Lebedev will try to play his own political party, getting into the State Duma, but things will not work out for him. He will bet on the Rodina political association, which willingly absorbed former military and special services members into its membership, but the "sixth" sense will tell Lebedev that this political power it is written in the family to trail behind the rearguard, if not in the convoy, constantly performing a secondary role for the ruling United Russia.
In the United Russia, where he will quickly defect from Rodina, he will get lost among the crowd of the same, if not more successful politicians and businessmen. Such an alignment of the ambitious Lebedev could not suit in any way. Soon he moved to a new political project, just organized by the Kremlin, the pseudo-opposition party A Just Russia. There, the initiative and creativity of the businessman were not appreciated, deleting him from the party lists for subversive activities. However, he wasn't particularly upset. A developed instinct suggested that A Just Russia would clearly not become a springboard for a powerful leap in politics.
Alexander Lebedev oligarch
From the very beginning, everything went much more successfully with Lebedev's business. Together with his senior diplomat colleague Andrei Kostin, he profitably dealt with the debts of the former USSR in the Russian Investment and Financial Company. In 1995, Alexander Lebedev founded the National Reserve Bank, where the same Kostin worked for a short time as his deputy. In the future, the old acquaintance will far outstrip Lebedev, although he will occupy an honorable place in the third ten of the richest people in Russia. The pace of the entrepreneur in the coming century will slow down somewhat.
He will retreat to the 89th position with a capital of just over $1 billion. This was facilitated by the sudden onset of constant throwing of Lebedev as a businessman. He relied on potatoes, trying to feed all of Russia with high-quality foreign varieties. Then he built cheap housing for the people and tried to develop the domestic aviation industry. A Russian person, in his opinion, should abandon Big Macs and switch to food in the domestic version of fast food ─ the Petrushka network. None of the undertakings could be brought to its logical conclusion. Lebedev spent a lot of money, time and effort, but he could not achieve such success as with the National Reserve Bank.
Before moving to the UK, the banker bought 2 English newspapers ─ Independent and Evening Standard. This purchase became part of his declared campaign against the international financial-offshore oligarchy, on which he loudly declared war. In working with the media, Alexander Lebedev gained experience back in Russia, being one of the main shareholders of Nasha Gazeta.
Hunt for the banker
Like any famous person, Alexander Lebedev could not avoid major scandals and accusations of committing a variety of sins. The first time he had a conflict with the Prosecutor General Skuratov, who accused the banker of fraud with bonds. The investigation dragged on for 2 years and ended simultaneously with the resignation of the prosecutor, who inadvertently liked to bathe in the sauna with girls of easy virtue. Alexander Lebedev still denies any involvement in criminal operations, arguing that all charges were fabricated to please his then rival businessman Ashot Yeghiazaryan, now living in the United States. This is the only case when the name of Alexander Lebedev was declined along with the mention of the Criminal Code. He spoke in detail about this and other extraordinary events of his youth in his autobiographical book “The Hunt for the Banker”.
All other cases of the scandalous chronicle with his participation turned out to be the fruit of an explosive character, like gunpowder. Alexander Lebedev intensively exchanged sharp verbal jabs with the chairman of the Russian Council of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin. The occasion was some minor trifle, which quickly reached the level of personal insults. In 2011, in a live television pavilion, Lebedev, without hesitation and without entering into a verbal skirmish, knocked out the outrageous Russian developer Sergei Polonsky. The fight was forced to deal with the court, which found the banker guilty. A little more than 100 hours of corrective labor Lebedev worked on the repair of a kindergarten in the Tula region.
Literally at the same time, he became involved in a trivial sex scandal, after which he announced the decision to sell off Russian assets and leave for the UK. Confirming a popular Russian proverb establishing a causal relationship between a gray beard and lasciviousness, Alexander Lebedev plunged headlong into a love affair with young socialite Elena Perminova. Before him, the former boyfriend of the Siberian went to the colony for a long time to serve time for the distribution of drugs, and the “lady of the heart” herself miraculously did not follow him. The court sentenced her to 6 years of probation, taking pity and not daring to finally break the fate of a young girl.
The British period in the life of a Russian emigrant is still rather quiet. It is unlikely that Alexander Lebedev will agree to calmly meet old age, living modestly on the interest from his billion dollars. The intoxicating air of Western freedom and democracy will definitely push the Russian to action. It remains only to wait in which direction the developed "sixth" sense of the intelligence officer and businessman will deploy him.
Education and degree
He received his higher education at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where he entered in 1977 to study “international economic relations”.
In 1982, after graduating from the university, he was assigned to the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Here, the future billionaire began to write a Ph.D., but he defended himself only in October 2000.
Then, in 2003, he defended his doctoral dissertation “Financial globalization in the context of problems of global, regional and national (Russian) development”.
Doctor of Economic Sciences.
Labor activity
Since 1982, for about four years, he has worked at the Institute of Economics of the World Socialist System. According to the media, he was soon invited to the First Main Directorate of the KGB (foreign intelligence), and since 1987 he worked at the USSR Embassy in London. In 1991, as a lieutenant colonel, he retired from the reserve and went into commerce.
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In 1993, under his leadership, the joint-stock company Russian Investment and Financial Company (RIFC) was created, which he personally headed.
From 1995 to 2003, he was president and chairman of the board of the joint-stock commercial bank National Reserve Bank (NRB).
In 1999, together with other top managers of large Russian firms and banks, he initiated the creation of the National Investment Council.
In December 2003, he ran for mayor of Moscow, gaining a considerable 12.35% of the vote. This was followed by participation in the parliamentary elections, then the banker headed the Rodina bloc, which supported him in the elections of the mayor of Moscow. As the head of the Moscow regional list of the Rodina bloc, he became a deputy of the State Duma. After being elected, he left the post of president, chairman of the board of the NRB, and already on December 20 he left his homeland and became a member of the Duma faction of the United Russia party.
In 2003-2007 - Deputy of the State Duma Federal Assembly Russian Federation fourth convocation, from January 2004 to 2007 - Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots.
The heyday of his business came in 2006: then the key asset of the NRC was the National Reserve Bank, which owns the second largest stake in Aeroflot airline after the state (about 30 percent) and the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC, 44 percent) . In addition to them, the corporation included the National Meat Company, the National Mortgage Company, NRB Finance, and a number of construction organizations.
Since 2007, he has been a member of the board of directors of Aeroflot.
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In 2007, he changed his party again - this time the banker joined A Just Russia under the leadership of Sergei Mironov. In April 2008, he was removed from the leadership.
In June 2008, on the basis of his publication " New Newspaper"new media holding" was registered. According to the plan, the newly formed structure was to include other media assets of the entrepreneur: the Moscow Correspondent newspaper and two radio frequencies. As a president, he himself headed the holding. In 2009-2010 he became the owner of the well-known British publications Evening Standard and The Independent.
In April 2009, he was registered as a candidate for the election of the mayor of Sochi, but in the same month the decision of the election commission to register a businessman was declared illegal.
In February 2010, Aeroflot bought out 6.3% of the airline's shares from him, at the end of December he sold another 4%. The entrepreneur continued to sell shares and by the summer of 2013 he left the company's shareholders.
In February 2011, the businessman sold a 15% stake in NRB to his son Yevgeny. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
In March 2011, he was a candidate in the elections to the Sloboda District Duma of the Kirov Region in the Ilyinsky four-member constituency No. 5. With just under 40 percent of the vote, he became a member of the district duma that same month.
Co-owner of the National Reserve Bank (NRBank), owns the British newspaper The Independent.
Last news
In February 2019, it became known that the businessman, in partnership with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), VEB-Leasing, Vnukovo Airport and Azimut Airlines, would create a new airline. The latter will specialize in corporate charter flights based on Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) aircraft, which are produced by the UAC subsidiary, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.
Charity
He is the initiator of the creation of the Charitable Reserve Fund.
Awards
In 1996, he received gratitude for his active participation in organizing and conducting the election campaign of President B. N. Yeltsin. Also in the piggy bank of the order billionaire:
the church order of St. Innocent of Moscow - for missionary work;
"For Merit" (Ukraine);
St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Volodymyr of Ukraine Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchy.
Has two medals:
UNESCO Dialogue of Cultures. For active charitable and sponsorship activities;
Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree.
Honorary citizen of the city of Alushta, Crimea.
Since 2005, he has been included in the list of the richest people in Russia according to the Russian Forbes. His fortune reached its maximum mark in 2006, 2007 and 2008: 3.7 (23rd place), 3.6 (27th position) and 3.1 (39th line) billion dollars, respectively. According to the data for 2015, he ranked 188th with a fortune of $ 0.4 billion, in 2016 he did not make it into the ranking.
Hobbies
The main hobbies of the billionaire are football and swimming.
Family status
His first wife is Natalya, daughter of the famous Soviet biologist, academician Vladimir Sokolov. In 1998 they divorced. From this marriage, the businessman has a son, Eugene (born in 1980). It is known that he has lived in London since childhood, has Russian and British citizenship. In 2010, he worked as chief executive officer of the Evening Standard, at the same time he headed the publishing company of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday newspapers.
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