The descent of Alexander Lebedev from oligarch to loser. Lebedev Alexander How to contact Alexander Lebedev

Alexander Evgenievich Lebedev is a Russian banker, head of the National Reserve Corporation, owner of large London print publications Evening Standard, Independent, I Newspaper.

The future businessman was born on December 16, 1959 in the capital of the USSR. Father Evgeniy Nikolaevich taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after. Bauman optical physics, mother Maria Sergeevna - foreign languages ​​at MGIMO. Son Alexander, after graduating from school with in-depth study of English, entered MGIMO at the Faculty of Economics. At the age of 23, Alexander got a job at the department of economics at the Institute of the World Social System.

Career in the USSR

A year later, Lebedev entered the KGB structure and studied at the Red Banner Institute. . As an undercover agent, Alexander Evgenievich worked in Soviet diplomatic missions of European states. In 1987, a young employee was sent to serve in the UK, where over the course of 4 years he acquired the necessary connections and acquaintances in the circles of foreign entrepreneurs. In the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union, entrepreneurs Oleg Boyko became Lebedev’s business partners.

With the fall of the Soviet system in the country, Alexander went into the reserve and began working in private business. Lebedev begins his entrepreneurial biography with work at the financial corporation Kompani Finansjer Tradison, whose offices were located in the former republics of the Soviet Union. Studying the mechanisms of a market economy in fact allowed the young businessman to create his own “National Financial Company”. Two years later, the corporation became part of the National Reserve Bank, the leadership position of which was taken by Alexander Evgenievich. In 1999, under the chairmanship of the entrepreneur, the National Investment Council was created.

Business

Being a major businessman, Lebedev continued his scientific activities in the early 2000s. In 2003, a doctoral dissertation appeared from his pen, which was devoted to the topic of the impact of financial globalization on the Russian economy. In the same year, Alexander Evgenievich participated in the elections of the mayor of the capital as a candidate. He took third place in terms of the number of votes. A few months later, the entrepreneur entered the State Duma from the Rodina party. According to the established law, the deputy does not have the right to engage in business, so he had to leave the post of head of the NRB. While serving in the State Duma, Alexander Evgenievich moved from his faction to the United Russia party.

In the early 2000s, Lebedev supported the new government of Ukraine, counting on further business development in the neighboring state. Subsequently, the deputy stopped all ties with representatives of the new Ukrainian government. Alexander Evgenievich participates in the life of Muscovites, helping residents of the capital resolve issues related to illegal resettlement from their own homes.

Since 2007, Lebedev has become the right hand of the Speaker of the Federation Council, the leader of the A Just Russia faction, and even runs for the State Duma from this party. But for some reasons, Lebedev withdrew his candidacy, and a year later he left the leading party circle. In 2009, the entrepreneur became a candidate for the post of mayor of Sochi, but the election commission canceled his registration. In 2011, Lebedev became a deputy of the legislative assembly in the Kirov region, Slobodsky district.

Since 2008, Lebedev has registered the New Media holding on the basis of his own publishing house Novaya Gazeta. It includes the newspaper “Moscow Correspondent”, radio stations “Simple Radio” and “Good Songs”. A year later, for a nominal fee, the tycoon acquired the British publications Evening Standard and The Independent. In 2009, Lebedev independently bankrupted his own airline Blue Wings, which operated in Germany, and merged it with the Russian Aeroflot.

Since 2009, the National Reserve Bank has been constantly subject to inspections initiated by the Central Bank. Control has strengthened since 2012 after NRB was appointed to the board of directors of Aeroflot. This entailed the sale of all assets of the airline in order to revive the activities of the financial institution.

Personal life

The entrepreneur is married for the second time. The first wife, Natalya Sokolova, worked as a microbiologist; her father, Vladimir Sokolov, was known in the USSR as a biologist and member of the Academy of Sciences. In his first marriage, in 1980, Lebedev had a son, Evgeniy. When Alexander Evgenievich was appointed representative of the diplomatic mission in London, Lebedev moved his family there. Since then, Evgeniy has lived in the UK permanently. The young man received a higher education as an economist there. After graduating from university, Evgeniy was appointed executive director of Lebedev's English publications. Alexander Evgenievich’s first union fell apart in the late 90s, unable to withstand the test of distance.

For the second time, the entrepreneur entered into a relationship with a model who is 27 years younger than him. The oligarch met his future wife when he worked as a State Duma deputy. The father of Elena, who was involved in a drug scandal, approached Lebedev in the hope of Alexander Evgenievich’s help in the trial. Lebedev not only freed the young girl from persecution, proving her innocence, but also got Elena a job at a modeling agency, and then offered to live together. Despite the fact that the young people did not have a wedding, Alexander and Elena are still inseparable.

In 2009, Elena gave birth to her first child, Nikita, and 2 years later, her second son, Yegor. In 2014, the long-awaited beautiful daughter Arina appeared in the oligarch’s family. Elena spends a lot of time with children, not forgetting her profession. In 2011, the model received the position of editor-in-chief at the fashion publication ROR. Now Lebedev’s second family is also in the UK. The young mother runs her own page on Instagram, where she posts joint photos with her children, husband and friends. Elena Perminova pays a lot of attention to her daughter’s appearance, trying to raise her to be a real lady with good taste.

State

Thanks to the activities of the National Reserve Corporation holding, starting from the second half of the 90s, Alexander Lebedev’s income increased from several million to billions. In 2006, the value of the corporation's securities was $2 billion. At that time, the NRC included the assets of Aeroflot, Ilyushin Finance Co., National Meat Company, National Mortgage Company, NRB Finance, and construction organizations.

This allowed the billionaire to rank 39th among the richest entrepreneurs in Russia in 2008, according to Forbes magazine. But due to the machinations of trusted people in the team and their betrayal, Lebedev lost most of his fortune, and his rating dropped to 183rd place. At the moment, the businessman’s total savings are $400 million.

Alexander Lebedev is not active in business, but is focused on raising children. Together with his wife and children, the oligarch spends a lot of time on the sea coast. In London, the couple attend social events.

So, in November 2016, Alexander and Elena attended the Animal Ball charity evening, where James Middleton and his friend Donna Air, Princess Eugenie, also appeared in animalistic outfits. In March 2017, the Lebedevs attended the opening of the Longchamp flagship boutique in GUM in Moscow, as well as the Aquazzura party.

A driver, a sailor, a student, a Red Army soldier, a punk, a shopkeeper... One could go on and on about the roles played by Alexander Lebedev, an actor who is considered a recognized master of the episode. It was not often that he was lucky enough to play the main role. Often his name was in the last lines of the credits, or even not mentioned at all. Nevertheless, the viewer knows the actor Alexander Lebedev well: it’s no joke - 160 roles!

The beginning of a creative journey

Alexander Ivanovich was born on the eve of 1930, December 26, in the city of Voskresensk, Moscow region. There is almost no information about the childhood of the future actor; it is known that during his school years he studied in a drama club, and then went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. The short boy did not impress the enrollee, but his wife liked him. And although the young man was not accepted into the cinematographic institute, according to Makarova’s note, Lebedeva was invited to the Central Children’s Theater. Here the young man played the main role in the sensational play based on Sergei Mikhalkov’s play “I Want to Go Home.” The debut turned out to be triumphant. At the same time, Alexander studied at the State Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS), on Pyzhova’s course. At the age of 23, Lebedev graduated with honors.

First roles

The creative biography of actor Alexander Lebedev continued with work at the Theater for Young Spectators, where the artist delighted children for a year. Around the same time, Lebedev became an employee of the Mosfilm film studio. From then on, the cinematic stage became the home of actor Alexander Ivanovich Lebedev until the end of his life, and the cinematic fate took precedence over the theatrical fate.

The young actor’s first role was the episodic role of a mischievous sailor in Mikhail Kalatozov’s film “True Friends.” The film gained great success among viewers; Lebedev began to be recognized by sight on the streets of Moscow. At the same time, the actor starred in the film “Swedish Match”, in the episodic role of a shopkeeper in a remote provincial town, where nothing happens, and local figures seize on any opportunity to stir up the sleepy, uninteresting life of the population. “We have everything!”, his hero helpfully responds to the question of whether there are matches. Lebedev manages to instantly sketch a portrait of a clever swindler who knows his advantage in one sentence.

Such different roles

In 1955, the film studio named after M. Gorky released a film based on the work of the same name by Arkady Gaidar, “The Fate of the Drummer.” Alexander Lebedev plays the role of the hooligan Kovyakin. The actor brilliantly copes with the task of embodying a negative character on screen.

In 1956, Alexander Alov and created the first version of the film adaptation of Nikolai Ostrovsky’s novel of the same name “How the Steel Was Tempered.” Actor Alexander Lebedev did not get the main, but significant supporting role. He played the Red Army soldier Nikolai Okunev. However, Lebedev was not included in the film about Pavka Korchagin, which was directed by Nikolai Mashchenko based on the script by Alov and Naumov in 1975.

Lebedev’s comedic gift was revealed in the musical film “Precious Gift” by Alexander Rowe. Alexander appeared before the viewer in the role of the young man Petya, the son of the rollicking fishing enthusiast Karp Sidorenko, to whom his loving children and nephew decided to hook a large pike as a present.

In the historical-revolutionary Soviet film “Storm,” Alexander Lebedev created the ideological image of a convinced Red Army soldier.

In Andrei Tutyshkin’s film comedy “To the Black Sea,” Lebedev again has an episode - the role of a driving school cadet, where the main character learns to drive a car in order to go on vacation to the sea.

the main role

In 1959, in a Mosfilm musical short film, the young actor Alexander Lebedev was lucky enough to star in the leading role, which, as it turned out, was the only leading role in his entire career. Lebedev's charismatic hero appears in the first frames with a guitar in his hands, hums, dances, jumps rope and plays hopscotch without letting go of the stringed instrument. This character is at the center of a funny story about the creation of a yard orchestra.

Small roles of a big actor

Humor, tragedy, eccentricity, passionate conviction - it seems that Alexander Lebedev’s cinematic gift was subject to everything. He created an image of a person from life, familiar and understandable to every viewer. Someone loved him in the role of a policeman in “Gentlemen of Fortune”, someone hated his bandit Genka in “Born of the Revolution”, and someone felt sorry to tears for the soldier from “Eternal Call”, whose fate broke with his hand being shot off - he was a carpenter after all. The audience remembered the pioneer leader in the film “My Friend Kolka”, and the driver Osin in the drama “Hot Snow”, and Arkhip from the film “The Sun Shines on Everyone”, and other images of the cinematic biography of actor Alexander Ivanovich Lebedev, which he created with incredible accuracy and persuasiveness .

The artist embodied his last roles in TV series. Until the age of 75, directors invited him to film sets, knowing that every time the image created by the artist would be remembered by the audience and would give the film a special, vital flavor. The housemates, meeting Lebedev on his daily walk, were interested in where their beloved “Sashka”, as the pensioners called him, was now filming.

Misfortune

Judging by the biography, the personal life of actor Alexander Lebedev was not as happy as on stage and in films. It so happened that he began to get sick often and severely. The old man's usual good nature left him. There was some confusion at Mosfilm, which is why the honored actor stopped receiving an increase to his small pension. In addition, in the arms of the sick Alexander Lebedev was his wife, bedridden by a serious illness, and his daughter, who was registered at a psychoneurological dispensary. Social service employees came to see the Lebedevs. By the time the misunderstanding with the pension bonus was resolved, the artist was no longer alive.

Tragic circumstances

The “King of the Episode” died at the age of 82; doctors were unable to determine the cause of death of actor Alexander Lebedev, because at the time of his death neither doctors nor police were nearby. Due to mental illness, Lebedev’s daughter Tamara did not tell anyone about her father’s death; the body of the deceased lay at home for several days. The Guild of Cinema Actors of Russia became aware of the artist’s death only on the 11th day. Tamara for a long time did not agree to give the deceased to the morgue, and when the door was broken down and the corpse was taken away, the woman did not give either documents or consent for burial. The body of the famous artist lay in the morgue for more than a month, then was cremated. Lebedev's wife, Anna, survived her husband by two months. The couple were buried together in the columbarium at the Domodedovo cemetery.

Family circle

It is known that neither the wife nor the daughter of Alexander Lebedev were associated with creative professions. Tamara received a technical education and worked as an accountant before something happened to her mind in the mid-90s. Having her own apartment, the daughter spent all her time at her parents’ house. Anna, the wife of Alexander Lebedev, worked as a painter. The disease deprived the woman of the opportunity to help Alexander Ivanovich when he started having problems with his legs. So three unhealthy people coexisted in a confined space, whose life, once bright and eventful, was reduced to a daily battle with illness.

The unique creative style of Alexander Lebedev and his extraordinary performance made this wonderful actor one of the most famous film personalities of the Soviet era.

Great Britain has firmly taken 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 moved to England, the late Boris Abramovich Berezovsky. Chichvarkin and others followed him. The 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 famous Russian people who decided to move to London unexpectedly turned out to be entrepreneur Alexander Lebedev, who had not previously been noted for dissent or conflicts with the authorities. He explained his decision very vaguely by the unexpected desire to curtail his business in Russia. Nowadays Alexander Lebedev prefers to devote more time to himself rather than to his hectic business life.

The typical image of a Russian entrepreneur who has achieved success in business, with a belly bulging from physical inactivity and bags under the eyes from fighting constant stress with the help of strong drinks, does not correspond to the youthful and active Lebedev. From his youth, the chairman of the board of directors of CJSC National Reserve Corporation was friends with sports and a healthy lifestyle. It couldn't have been any other way. The entrepreneur’s father, a teacher at the Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School, was known in his youth as a good water polo player and a friend of the legendary football goalkeeper Lev Yashin. When it came to choosing a profession, Alexander Lebedev was more inspired by the example of his mother ─ a teacher at MGIMO, where he headed his steps after school. In 1982, the most famous “bursa” of Soviet diplomats produced another certified specialist in international economic relations.

Lebedev immediately sat down to write his dissertation, simultaneously agreeing to work in the KGB structures. In 1984, without much fanfare, he still 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 embankment for the first time. At the Soviet embassy in Great Britain, he met another young promising diplomat, Andrei Kostin, the current head of the second largest Russian bank, VTB. Alexander Lebedev served simultaneously in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Intelligence Service, retiring in 1991 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

It is not known what training program at the intelligence school the MGIMO graduate completed at one time. Japanese intelligence officers during World War II, for example, were taught to distinguish each other by smell. Perhaps Lebedev’s studies instilled in him a pronounced “sixth” sense, which rarely let him down. In the late 80s, he felt his career would be threatened if he continued to wear shoulder straps. The next decade actually turned out to be very difficult for the “service” people, even for the elite that the intelligence officers always considered themselves to be.

Alexander Lebedev figured that he had 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 election headquarters of President Boris Yeltsin, which gathered all the active and “moneyed” 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 intelligence officers into its composition, but a “sixth” sense will tell Lebedev that this political force was destined to trail along in the rearguard, if not in the wagon train, constantly playing a secondary role for the ruling "United Russia".

In United Russia, where he will quickly defect from Rodina, he will get lost among the crowd of equally, if not more successful politicians and businessmen. The ambitious Lebedev could not arrange such a situation. Soon he moved to a new political project just organized by the Kremlin ─ the pseudo-opposition party “A Just Russia”. There, the businessman’s initiative and creativity were not appreciated and he was removed from the party lists for subversive activities. However, he was not particularly upset. A well-developed instinct suggested that A Just Russia would clearly not become a springboard for a powerful leap in politics.

Alexander Lebedev oligarch

With Lebedev’s business, everything went much more successfully from the very beginning. Together with a senior fellow diplomat, 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 be far ahead of Lebedev, although he will occupy an honorable place in the third ten richest people in Russia. The pace of the entrepreneur in the coming century will slow down somewhat.

He will retreat to 89th position with a capital of just over $1 billion. This was facilitated by Lebedev’s unexpected constant vacillation as a businessman. He relied on potatoes, trying to feed the whole of Russia with high-quality foreign varieties. Then he built cheap housing for the people and tried to develop the domestic aviation industry. Russian people, in his opinion, should give up Big Macs and switch to eating at the domestic version of fast food - the Petrushka chain. None of the initiatives were brought to their 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 announced campaign to fight the international financial-offshore oligarchy, which he loudly declared war on. Alexander Lebedev gained experience in working with the media 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 lasted for 2 years and ended simultaneously with the resignation of the prosecutor, who inadvertently loved to take a steam bath with girls of easy virtue. Alexander Lebedev still denies any involvement in criminal operations, claiming that all the accusations were made up to please his then-competitor, businessman Ashot Yeghiazaryan, now living in the United States. This is the only case when the name of Alexander Lebedev was mentioned 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 a Banker.”

All other cases of scandalous chronicles 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 reason was some insignificant trifle, which quickly reached the level of personal insults. In 2011, in a live television pavilion, Lebedev, without hesitation or entering into a verbal altercation, knocked out the outrageous Russian developer Sergei Polonsky. The court was forced to deal with the fight and found the banker guilty. Lebedev worked a little more than 100 hours of correctional labor while renovating a kindergarten in the Tula region.

Literally at the same time, he found himself involved in a trivial sex scandal, after which he announced the decision to sell off Russian assets and leave for the UK. Confirming the popular Russian proverb that establishes a cause-and-effect relationship between gray beards and lust, Alexander Lebedev plunged headlong into a love affair with young socialite Elena Perminova. Before him, the Siberian woman’s former boyfriend had gone to prison for a long time to serve a sentence for drug trafficking, 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 completely break the fate of the young girl.

The British period in the life of a Russian emigrant is still quite quiet. It is unlikely that Alexander Lebedev will agree to meet his old age calmly, living modestly on the interest from his billion dollars. The heady air of Western freedom and democracy will certainly push Russians to action. All that remains is to wait in which direction the developed “sixth” sense of an intelligence officer and businessman will turn him.

It is easy to see that for Alexander Lebedev, the 2000s turned out to be as unprofitable as the 1990s were profitable, when he made his fortune in debt trading - his only successful enterprise. In fact, all the projects in which he tried to invest the money earned in this way brought this man only financial losses, sometimes associated with serious reputational losses. Following the crash of the plane, the business collapsed, friends left, former partners hinted at mental disorders, and the evil Polonsky from Cambodia demands five years in prison for hooliganism. Forbes magazine talks about the indirect life path of a millionaire as follows.

To the delight of foreign investors, November 1993 turned out to be dry and sunny in St. Petersburg. Western bankers who arrived for a conference on investing in the Russian economy were received in Smolny by the mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, and his deputy, Vladimir Putin. In the evening, investors were treated to dinner in the wardroom of the revolutionary cruiser Aurora. Invitations to city guests, air tickets and hotels, a presentation and a banquet on the water were organized by the Russian Investment and Financial Company (RIFK) of the novice financier Alexandra Lebedeva .

Life promised him bright prospects. Shortly before this, a lieutenant colonel of the First Main Directorate of the KGB (intelligence) returned from London, where served under diplomatic cover. In the British capital, he gained knowledge, rare for post-Soviet Russia, about the debts of third world countries and made wide acquaintances among Western investors and future Russian oligarchs.

In the late 1990s, using connections and experience in dealing with government and commercial debts, Lebedev amassed a billion-dollar fortune; he was one of the richest businessmen in Russia during the time of Boris Yeltsin. Already under President Putin, Lebedev began to build an aviation empire and achieved considerable success here. His fortune was at its peak, in 2006, $3.7 billion, but in 2013 it barely reached $600 million.

Over 20 years in business, Lebedev not only lost most of his assets and money, he was unable to maintain relationships with business partners, his managers, government officials and even friends. And now he is mostly in the circle of enemies and ill-wishers, and he also faces a prison sentence for hooliganism.

“For me, this person does not exist, I crossed him out of my life,” VTB CEO Andrei Kostin said in a recent interview. former friend and partner Lebedeva. According to another of his former partners, entrepreneur Oleg Boyko, he was friends with Lebedev until he “started having problems with his head.”

What business operations did the intelligence officer organize and what did they lead to?

Operation "Million"

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, London was a mecca for future Russian oligarchs, and the Soviet embassy was a meeting place. Entrepreneurs from Russia came to London to make connections in business circles, hire lawyers to register offshore companies, and just show off. And the second secretary of the Russian embassy, ​​Lebedev, who was part of the local establishment and had an official car, was very useful to them. In London he communicated with Vladimir Potanin, Mikhail Prokhorov, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Oleg Boyko, and Alexander Mamut, Lebedev’s classmate at Moscow English special school No. 17, even spent the night at his house on the sofa. However, after finishing his diplomatic work in 1992, Lebedev did not go to work for any of his new acquaintances. He had other thoughts about his future career.

At one time, Lebedev received an excellent education. After a prestigious special school, the son of a famous professor of optical physics and an English teacher at MGIMO entered this university at the Faculty of Economics. Then he graduated from the KGB Higher School and went to serve in London. In foreign intelligence, he ended up in the economic department of the analytical department, created by personal order of KGB chairman Yuri Andropov. Analysts studied commodity markets (gold, oil, grain), and Lebedev additionally studied government debt markets.

“We were Soviet officials who, at best, learned English at school, and he is a prominent gentleman, a diplomat, speaks correctly, excellent English, knowledge of economics,” recalls a former employee of the State Bank of the USSR and president of the Imperial Bank, Sergei Rodionov.

Lebedev's estate is located in the village of Razdory on Rublevskoye Highway

Former intelligence officer Lebedev decided to make money by trading various types of debts. The business needed money, and it would also be nice to find reliable partners. Lebedev’s former colleague, diplomat Andrei Kostin, asked to become a partner because he was tired of working his pants in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was eking out a miserable existence after the collapse of the USSR. Money was more difficult, but Lebedev remembered a London acquaintance, the owner of the St. Petersburg Gamma cooperative and the London company First Pacific, Roman Shvetsky. He then began to import household and office equipment to Russia. According to Anatoly Danilitsky, a former press attache at the Russian Embassy in London, and then a top manager of Lebedev’s companies, Shvetsky earned at least $10 million by the early 1990s and “he was looked at as an oligarch.”

In 1992, Shvetsky registered The Milith company in London and contributed £13,000 to its authorized capital for himself and £5,000 each for Lebedev and Kostin. “This abbreviation stands for “Million Like That,” says Lebedev and snaps his fingers. In a loose Russian translation, this means “A million out of the bush,” and Lebedev assures that the name was invented by Kostin, who was known as a great joker at the embassy.

In February 1993, The Milith established the same RIFK firm in Moscow, which began consulting foreign banks and organized a conference for Western investors in St. Petersburg.

Operation Debts

The Milith fully lives up to its cheerful name. Lebedev and Kostin invited their former colleagues Danilitsky and journalist, and at the same time KGB officer Yuri Kudimov, to work at RIFK. Another valuable employee of the company was Elena Dubinina, the wife of Sergei Dubinin, then... O. Minister of Finance of Russia, who in Soviet times was Kostin’s teacher at the economics department of Moscow State University.

The commercial debt of the former USSR was estimated at a fabulous $4 billion at that time - this is how much Russia had to pay to foreign companies that supplied their products to the Soviet Union. Western firms refused to continue trading with Russia, demanding repayment of debts, but there was not enough money in the budget. And the desire of foreigners to get at least something became the source of Lebedev’s fantastic earnings. “Johnson & Johnson or Novo Nordisk refused to supply medicines until the debt was repaid,” says Lebedev. “I suggested that they not stand in line for years, but sell their debts at a discount.”

At the same time, Lebedev did not have to spend a single dollar of his own, because the Ministry of Finance provided money to buy out debt from commercial creditors at the rate of 50% of the face value, and they were often bought for no more than 10% of the face value. In other words, to redeem a debt of, for example, $10 million, the state transferred $5 million, Lebedev paid $1 million to foreigners, and $4 million were commissions.

Andrei Vavilov, then First Deputy Minister of Finance, a member of the government commission on state external debt, claims that he does not remember under what conditions debts were purchased from foreigners. He admits that the discount could be 90%, since “it was the most junior debt”, repaid last.

Officially, four authorized banks were allowed to buy out debts: Imperial, National Credit, "Menatep" and "Capital". And Lebedev and Kostin had to carry out operations through one of them. Their partner Shvetsky, whose companies bought foreign currency from Imperial, introduced Lebedev to the president of the bank, Sergei Rodionov. So in 1993, almost immediately after the creation of RIFK, Lebedev became a hired manager - the head of the foreign investment department of Imperial, and Kostin - his deputy. True, they worked, as it turned out after a couple of years, mainly for themselves.

“His company [RIFK] began to earn much more than his management at the bank. It was a conflict of interest that was resolved naturally, Lebedev left,” says Rodionov.

Lebedev left for another bank, now his own. In the spring of 1995, he bought from Oleg Boyko National Reserve Bank (NRB). The license and a beautiful name, consonant with the US Federal Reserve System, cost Lebedev about $400,000.

In the early years, NRB was essentially an investment company, but a banking license allowed it to become authorized in the market for domestic foreign currency loan bonds (OVVZ). These securities were issued by the Ministry of Finance in exchange for the debt of Vnesheconombank of the USSR to Russian foreign trade enterprises, which became the first holders of “web bonds”. The bonds were traded on the secondary market, and from time to time the Ministry of Finance carried out additional placements of securities. Lebedev claims that it was he who suggested to the Ministry of Finance the beautiful idea of ​​debt securitization.

In March 1996, the government instructed the Ministry of Finance (then headed by Panskov) to issue two new equal tranches of OVVZ (6th and 7th) for a total amount of $3.5 billion with repayments in 2006 and 2011. In April 1996, the Ministry of Finance signed an agreement with the NRB and sold almost 30% of new issues of securities to Lebedev’s bank for an average of 20% of par value. In total, the NRB paid the Ministry of Finance $190 million. At the end of May 1996, new OVVZs first appeared on the secondary market, and the price of the 6th tranche was 32% of the face value, and the 7th - 24% (in accordance with existing interest rates). The entire package of NRB was already worth $266 million, without straining (like that!), the bank earned $76 million in a month. These data are contained in the materials of the General Prosecutor's Office on the criminal case against the management of NRB. The case was closed.

It is quite difficult to calculate exactly how much Lebedev earned from debts - not only NRB, but also many offshore structures were involved in the schemes, in which part of the profit was deposited. In any case, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. “[Lebedev’s] entire capital was created through debt transactions. Specific operations and schemes built together with the friendly Ministry of Finance,” Boyko is sure.

The businessman himself frankly says that it was impossible to work effectively in the public debt market without the help of the state. At the same time, Lebedev emphasizes that he was far from the only banker close to the authorities: “At that time, everyone was sitting in Vavilov’s reception room. No matter how you come, you will meet about ten people: Surkov or Nevzlin (“Menatep”), Gusinsky or Zamani (Most Bank), Yeghiazaryan ( Mosnatsbank), Boyko or Salamandra (“National Credit”).”

Nevertheless, it was Lebedev, according to the participants in those events, who managed to conclude the most profitable deals. Most Forbes sources are sure that it could not have happened without help. O. Head of the Ministry of Finance Dubinin. Dubinin himself declined to comment for this article.

In October 1996, Kostin left NRB for an important government position, heading Vnesheconombank. According to one of Lebedev’s former partners, Kostin received $15 million from him, although he expected compensation 10 times more. Lebedev himself wanted to sit in the chair of the head of VEB, was offended by his partner and became greedy in retaliation, which was the main reason for their quarrel.

Kostin did not answer Forbes’ questions. Lebedev does not rule out that his former comrade was offended because he decided that he had not received the money due to him, but he does not mention any figures. And at the same time he adds that Kostin was never officially his partner, except perhaps formally.

Operation Gazprom

Oleg Boyko sold the NRB to Lebedev along with the opportunity to manage a portfolio of Ukrainian government bonds issued to repay the country’s debt to Gazprom.

In September 1995, the Ukrainian government issued documentary currency bonds for $1.4 billion - several tranches with maturity in 1997-2007. They were kept in the depository of Oleg Boyko's National Credit in Ukraine. National Credit itself suffered greatly during the banking crisis of 1995 and was not suitable for the role of an authorized bank. According to Boyko, he decided to transfer this function to NRB and introduced Lebedev to Gazprom management as a new partner.

So in 1995, Gazprom became the largest shareholder of the NRB, contributing its shares to the authorized capital.

Most of the Ukrainian securities Gazprom used to pay off his tax debts. The securities were accounted for at par, Gazprom transferred long bond issues to the Ministry of Finance, and kept short ones for itself. In 1997, Ukraine failed to repay the first tranche, and Gazprom management sounded the alarm. Then Lebedev proposed to contribute the remaining bonds from Gazprom (approximately $300 million at par) to the bank’s capital. As a result, NRB's capital increased by $270 million to $560 million, and Gazprom's share reached 64%.

Lebedev, maintaining contacts with the Ukrainian authorities, hoped that the bonds would be repaid and continued to buy more of them. At the end of the first quarter of 1998, the NRB already had $525 million worth of Gazpromovoks on its balance sheet. The businessman managed to persuade the Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, to place the country’s foreign exchange reserves in the NRB, promising 10% per annum. As a result, about $100 million from Ukraine’s reserves ended up in the Russian bank, and Lebedev left the same “Gazprom” bonds ($200 million at face value) as collateral.

When in 1999 Ukraine did not pay the bond coupon (8.5% per annum), Lebedev agreed to convert the $60 million due to him under the coupon into hryvnia. He could spend the funds received only on the territory of Ukraine and began construction of a resort complex in Alushta. A total of $150 million was invested in this project over 10 years.

In addition, Lebedev persuaded the Ukrainian government to reissue bonds in order to organize their secondary circulation. In April 2000, the debt was restructured - new securities were issued for all $1.4 billion of Ukrainian debt with maturity in 2007 and a coupon of 11% per annum. Western banks were involved in the placement of bonds familiar to investors in electronic form. Lebedev immediately exchanged the old papers for new ones.

“A significant part of the Ukrainian papers ended up with Lebedev, and in the end Ukraine paid for them. “Gazprom clearly did not receive 100% for them,” says Sergei Aleksashenko, who at that time worked as the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank. “It cannot be ruled out that one of Gazprom’s employees took part in this deal.” Lebedev himself does not deny that he earned hundreds of millions of dollars from Ukrainian debts.

Why was Gazprom, which formally controls the NRB, left with nothing? The fact is that by the time the Ukrainian securities were restructured, the monopoly had lost control over the bank. This happened in 1999 during the process of transforming NRB into an open joint-stock company. Gazprom's share was only partially converted into shares and as a result decreased from 64% to 37%. In July 2002, Gazprom completely came out from the capital of the NRB, taking away his shares that were originally contributed to the capital (they were then worth $48 million) and the NRB promissory note for $12 million.

Operation Billions

Lebedev earned another round sum from shares Chubaisovsky RAO UES. “The paper took off and brought him a lot of net income,” says Rodionov.

The government put up an 8.5% stake in RAO UES for auction at the end of 1996. In addition to NRB, the investment bank CSFB participated in it. According to Lebedev, he offered $350 million, $7 million more than the foreigners, and won. The results were announced in January 1997, then the shares cost $0.1 per share, and six months later, in July 1997, they rose to $0.47. Lebedev's stake was valued at $1.64 billion. The shares reached a historical maximum in April 2007 - then the price rose to $1.46, and Lebedev's entire stake would have been worth $5.1 billion, but the businessman sold it back in 2006.

NRB also had large stakes in other blue chips - Gazprom (up to 0.6%), Mosenergo (about 1.5%) and Sberbank. According to Lebedev, he sold them without much profit, without waiting for the rapid growth of 2006-2007.

In general, Lebedev was very lucky in the 1990s, which cannot be said about the 2000s. “Around 2004, I decided to get out of securities, I was tired of it. Even if you collect them all, there will be no happiness,” the businessman recalls.

Operation Bank

Lebedev decided to get seriously involved in the banking business, which he knew firsthand, in 2004. He planned to transform NRB from an investment boutique into a universal one. Lebedev entrusted Kudimov with the leadership of NRB, and, in general, we can say that they achieved success: by the end of 2007, the bank’s assets according to IFRS grew to $2.2 billion, capital - to $1.2 billion. The loan portfolio exceeded $1 billion. The National mortgage company. In total, there were $460 million in customer deposits and current accounts at that time, of which $270 million came from private depositors.

For three years, in 2005-2007, the bank paid out more than $400 million in dividends. Almost all the money went to the National Reserve Corporation (NRK), created in 2004 to manage Lebedev’s assets. NRC owned 97% of the bank. In 2004, Lebedev allocated 15% of the corporation’s shares to his managers Kudimov and the head of NRK Danilitsky, leaving 70% for himself.

However, in 2008 the bank stumbled. The crisis for NRB began not in October, as for most Russian banks, but in April, when the Lebedev-owned newspaper Moscow Correspondent wrote that Putin is allegedly divorcing his wife and is going to marry gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

Putin was offended. And strongly. “There is a private life that no one is allowed to interfere with. “I have always had a negative attitude towards those who, with some kind of flu-like nose and with their erotic fantasies, meddle in someone else’s life,” this is how the president reacted to the publication. At that time he was in Sardinia, congratulating Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on his party's victory in the elections. Lebedev closed the newspaper, but it was too late. Immediately all the most influential people in the Kremlin turned their backs on him. “They stopped taking him seriously, the attitude became more dismissive than hostile,” says one of the businessman’s former friends.

Lebedev himself does not believe in Putin’s version of resentment and revenge: “It seems to me stupid to be offended by drunken journalists who wrote nonsense. Why do we think so badly of Putin? This was invented by the same people who create the construction: Lebedev is a dissident, The Kremlin is hunting him ».

The NRB suffered the crisis that followed like all others, no better and no worse. It suffered from margin calls, the share of overdue loans rose to 30%, but liquidity remained at a high level. And then NRB decided to expand its business by reorganizing the small bank “Russian Capital”, which collapsed during the crisis. Because of this seemingly insignificant episode, Lebedev’s entire banking business went downhill.

In October 2008, “Russian Capital” cost the NRB a symbolic 5,000 rubles. A week later, NRB specialists discovered that the bank, through dubious transactions on the eve of bankruptcy, was withdrawn 5.4 billion rubles. “We wrote a letter to the FSB asking them to look into it. They answered us: “You don’t need to look there,” says Lebedev. “I named in the letters the names of specific people who participated in the schemes, for example, Lieutenant General Sergeev, who formerly headed the banking department of the K department of the FSB.” No one began to investigate the thefts at Roskap; the state Deposit Insurance Agency continued the bank’s reorganization.

In November 2010, searches from the “mask show” took place in the offices of the NRB itself. Investigators did not find anything seditious in the bank. Then the NRB underwent two inspections by the Central Bank - one began in December 2010 and ended in March 2011, the second lasted from January to April 2012. No significant violations were identified during these inspections, but work was practically paralyzed for six months - there were 130 inspectors, and 430 employees worked in the central office of the NRB at that time.

Andrey Manoilo, former deputy chairman of Sberbank from Andrey Kazmin’s team, headed NRB at the end of 2009, when Kudimov went to work at VEB Capital. Manoilo says that in his entire career he has never encountered such large-scale and thorough inspections of the Central Bank. According to him, after the second inspection, NRB, despite a significant reserve of capital and high reliability, had no prospects.

After the “mask show”, clients withdrew 1 billion rubles from the bank, after the first inspection by the Central Bank - another 3 billion rubles, at the same time all companies with state participation closed their accounts. “But when the second inspection began, everything became clear to everyone and clients began to leave en masse,” says Manoilo. “I advised Alexander Evgenievich not to engage in the banking business anymore, although the bank coped with the results of this audit, maintaining a three-fold capital reserve.”

The businessman could not count on any support from the authorities. “Lebedev is not in the system - he is on his own. We don't care about his problems. And they’re killing him,” said the high-ranking official, tapping his left shoulder with two fingers of his right hand.

As a result, the bank began to wind down its business. NRB closed branches, sold a portfolio of mortgage loans worth 9 billion rubles, out of 1,350 employees, 250 remained. Capital decreased to 16 billion rubles. The bank paid dividends for 2010 for $300 million, Lebedev received $240 million. The bank had practically no clients left—individual deposits dropped to 1 billion rubles. The bank's capital is formed mainly from securities and real estate. According to Fitch Ratings, at the end of the first quarter of 2013, the bank owned a stake in Gazprom ($80 million), a 6.6% stake in Aeroflot ($125 million), real estate and land ($122 million).

Why does Lebedev need an empty bank? “Today my bank is ideally prepared for sale; due diligence will take half an hour,” he says. - They will buy it not for business, but for capital. Now all banks need capital, there is a queue.”

However, according to Aleksashenko, no queue of buyers is visible; they have not been found for a year and a half. He believes that the bank is unlikely to be sold for more than 0.7 capital.

Operation Flight

Another strategic direction for Lebedev was aviation and financial transactions associated with it. Why? Since the late 1990s, the banker has been tempted to create something noticeable. The ex-head of the NRC Danilitsky says that Lebedev was obsessed with the idea of ​​​​turning money made from debts into real assets. In 1995, when the loans-for-shares auctions began, Lebedev already had money, connections and his own bank, but he did not participate in privatization. “Maybe I’m too honest for this?” — the banker says, thinking for a second. But he immediately gives another explanation: Abramovich was already trading in oil, Oleg Deripaska and the Cherny brothers were “shipping something,” and he understood absolutely nothing in the real sector.

The fastest and, perhaps, one of the most successful transactions in Lebedev’s life was the purchase of a blocking stake in Aeroflot in March 2003. Then Roman Abramovich decided to sell his 26% stake in the airline and found a buyer in Sergei Pugachev, owner of Mezhprombank. The agreement had already been signed, but Pugachev changed his mind a week later. Lebedev found out about this and immediately called Abramovich. The seller named the price over the phone - $140 million.

“I stopped by Roman and sat for about 10 minutes in his green office at the Balchug office. I asked if it was possible to bargain. He answered: no. So we agreed. He called [the head of Millhouse Capital Evgeniy] Shvidler, and we went to fill out the documents. The whole deal took an hour,” recalls Lebedev. “It’s nice to deal with people.” Over five years, the price of the package increased almost 10 times - to $1.3 billion in March 2008. But getting into the airline business turned out to be very difficult. In 1997, Lebedev invited Alexander Rubtsov, deputy manager of Ernst & Young for Russia, to work at the bank. If only the banker knew then that he was buying a ticket for exhausting war with the state !

In 1993, Ernst & Young contracted to write the concept of transforming the Voronezh Ilyushin Aviation Complex into a Western-style corporation. Things didn't go further than the plan. But Rubtsov, together with the general director of the aviation complex, came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a leasing company that would buy Voronezh Il-96 M/T aircraft and lease them to Aeroflot.

Rubtsov, who knew Lebedev from raising financing for one of Gazprom’s projects, shared the idea with the banker and in 1999 headed the leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co (IFK). Lebedev became a shareholder with an 80% share (according to him), then government agencies received shares in the company. After the next issue in 2002, Lebedev’s companies jointly owned 41.5%, other major shareholders were the Ministry of Property (28.3%) and VEB (18%).

Problems began immediately, for example, it turned out that the Voronezh plant could not pay off a $75 million loan from Sberbank. Lebedev offered to pay off the debt in exchange for a share in the enterprise. He paid the debt with Ukrainian bonds, but instead of a share he received two Il-96s, which he contributed to the capital of IFC.

By 2010, Lebedev's stake in IFC was reduced to 25.8%. “I was washed away at every opportunity,” he sighs. But by this time, the businessman had prepared what seemed to be a successful replacement for aviation leasing, focusing on air transportation.

In 2006, Lebedev acquired 48% of the German charter company Blue Wings, equipped with Airbus aircraft, for $100 million. A year later, NRK bought the Airlines 400 company from co-owner of Vnukovo Airport Vitaly Vantsev for $7.5 million. It was renamed Red Wings, the old Tu-204s were taken out of service and seven new ones were purchased through IFC for $300 million.

At first the business developed well. At the end of 2008, Blue Wings, which was eighth in Germany in terms of traffic volume, took third place, Red Wings, which previously occupied 86th place in Russia, became 13th. But in 2009, German aviation authorities unexpectedly recalled Blue Wings has a license due to what they call serious financial problems. Lebedev accused the German management of “abuse and an attempt to bring the company to deliberate bankruptcy, laundering and fake reporting,” but failed to reach an agreement with the authorities. In January 2010, Blue Wings ceased operations. “Court proceedings are still ahead,” says Lebedev.

Fate Red Wings no less sad. In December 2012, the company's plane rolled out while landing on the Kiev highway. Five crew members were killed. The Federal Air Transport Agency has suspended the company's flights. In April, Lebedev sold the carrier for 1 ruble to GHP Group and the brother of the co-owner of the Guta group, Sergei Kuznetsov. And on June 18, the Federal Air Transport Agency gave the Red Wings the go-ahead to fly, renewing the operator’s certificate.

What about the IFC package? Back in January 2010, then-Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, having previously agreed with Lebedev, presented a deal outline for Prime Minister Putin’s consideration. VEB was supposed to buy out Lebedev’s share in IFC with a 20% discount to Ernst & Young’s valuation (for 5.4 billion rubles, or $178 million), and Lebedev was supposed to sell Aeroflot shares to the company itself for $382 million (at market value $520 million). Putin wrote a resolution: “I agree.” Aleksashenko called this solution “if not optimal, then a very reasonable solution.” After all, Lebedev would have received $560 million in cash and gotten rid of the headache of two problem assets.

The plan didn't work. “They deceived me,” Lebedev complains. He had barely sold the first 6% of his stake to Aeroflot when VEB put the brakes on the IFC deal. As a result, Lebedev agreed to receive two Ruslan transport aircraft worth $50 million for IFC shares. They are leased and bring in $1 million a month. The Aeroflot stake remains on the balance sheets of NRB and NRC for now.

In 2012, entrepreneur Suleiman Kerimov showed interest in this package, but, as his acquaintance says, the meeting with Lebedev ended in nothing, since he “talked about Putin, about anything except the terms of the sale.”

What is the result of Lebedev’s investments in the aviation industry? About $200 million was invested in IFC, approximately $380 million in Blue Wings and $310 million in Red Wings. A total of $890 million. As a result, he can receive two Ruslans worth $100 million. Lebedev has 4.5% left of the Aeroflot package, and they are still up for sale. And on June 24, none of the three candidates proposed by Lebedev to the board of directors of Aeroflot (Lebedev’s young son Egor, HSE Director of Macroeconomic Research Sergei Aleksashenko, NRB top manager Alexey Manoilo) received a sufficient number of votes to be elected.

Aleksashenko believes that Lebedev did not have a clear strategy: “He simply collected assets based on the principle of sectoral affiliation, hoping that maybe something would work out and he could make money on it. But it turned out that Red Wings had to compete with Aeroflot, where the state, as the controlling shareholder, demonstrated that 51% is equal to 100%.”

Operation Politician

The banker showed political activity in 2003. Then he simultaneously nominated himself for the Moscow mayoral elections and headed the Moscow list of Dmitry Rogozin’s Rodina party in the State Duma elections. Speaking with sharp criticism of Moscow corruption and traffic jams, Lebedev was able to collect about 12% of the votes of the city residents, and together with Rodina he entered the State Duma of the fourth convocation. There he quickly became a member of the United Russia faction, and then A Just Russia. He calls all his movements “tactical compromises.”

“My entry into politics has a utilitarian purpose, for example, the fight against Luzhkov’s corruption,” explains Lebedev. “But I need at least some kind of support, otherwise they will eat me.”

Lebedev the lawmaker was remembered, for example, for the project “On betting and gambling establishments,” where he proposed to withdraw gambling business a kilometer from the city limits. The project did not go through. The option introduced by President Putin was accepted: the eviction of casinos and “one-armed bandits” into special zones. However, Oleg Boyko, owner of Ritzio Entertainment Group, then the largest operator in the gaming market in Russia and Eastern Europe, blames the banker for trying to destroy his Russian business. Lebedev assures that his bill had nothing to do with personal relations with Boyko.

Having completed his parliamentary career, in 2009 Lebedev unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Sochi (the court removed his candidacy), and then tried to become a senator from the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region. An influential government official believes that “Lebedev needs to decide who he is - either Pussy Riot or making billions.” In the meantime, Lebedev has directed his energy and civic activity to support opposition media.

The history of the business magazine "Company", created in 1997 by journalist Andrei Grigoriev with Lebedev's money, left a bitter-sweet aftertaste for the banker. In 2004, after the Beslan school tragedy, editor-in-chief Grigoriev wrote an article “The End of the Putin Project.” This material became one of the reasons for changing the owner of the publication; the order came from the Kremlin. The “company” was bought by the Rodionov Publishing House, owned by Sergei Rodionov himself and entrepreneurs Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev. According to Rodionov, the transaction price was $9 million, but Lebedev claims that he received $5 million.

Less than two years have passed since Lebedev, together with former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, became shareholders (39% and 10%, respectively) of a group critical of the ruling regime "Novaya Gazeta"(NG). By that time, its employees had not received salaries for three months, the monthly budget deficit was $30,000, and advertisers were fleeing, says the publication’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov.

Lebedev transferred $1 million to cover the publication's debts and another $1 million for bonuses to employees, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Over six years, he donated about $13 million to the newspaper. In 2012, Lebedev announced that he was ready to leave the shareholders. Muratov admits that he feels guilty: “The newspaper was [for the authorities] one of the irritating factors, but there was not a word of reproach from Lebedev when problems arose with his business.” According to Muratov, Lebedev “really believes that supporting free media and freedom of speech is his mission.” More examples? British newspapers .

In January 2009, the banker bought The Evening Standard for a symbolic £1, and in March 2010, he bought another newspaper, The Independent, for the same amount. In February 2013, Lebedev’s company won a license to broadcast its London Live TV channel, reaching approximately 4 million households. By early 2013 he had invested £80m in dying newspapers and says the English media project will require a further £30-35m before he gets his first return on investment of £12-18m in 2015.

When The Evening Standard was bought, its annual losses amounted to £30 million. Since then, the circulation of the newspaper, transferred to free circulation, has tripled - to 700,000, losses from retail sales were covered by increased volumes of advertising. According to rival The Sunday Times, by September 2012 The Evening Standard had made its first £1 million in profit. The Independent remains unprofitable for now.

Derk Sauer, founder of the Independent Media publishing house (Vedomosti newspaper and glossy magazines) and the free English newspaper City AM, says that at first experts were skeptical: among the English newspapers that switched to free distribution, there was not a single successful one. “Lebedev was able to turn The Evening Standard around, and my hat goes off to him,” says Sauer.

However, the media story can also end sadly. On September 16, 2011, during the recording of the television program “NTVshniki,” Lebedev after a heated argument with developer Sergei Polonsky punched him twice, and he fell and tore his trousers. Videos recording the incident immediately appeared on YouTube, and the episode was broadcast. Lebedev is confident that NTV General Director Vladimir Kulistikov notified the Kremlin, on his instructions, transferred the video to Aram Gabrelyanov’s LifeNews web portal and broadcast it. “Many people dream of being reported to the Kremlin, or at least to Gabrelyanov, but, in my opinion, not a single person appeared in the NTVshniki program who would have received such an honor,” Kulistikov says ironically.

But Lebedev has no time for jokes. At the beginning of October 2011, on behalf of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, a criminal case was opened under the article of hooliganism “based on political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred.” Dancers from the group Pussy Riot were convicted under the same article - with a maximum sentence of five years. Started in May 2013 trial against Lebedev, and he could face a real prison sentence. One of the banker’s former partners does not rule out that he secretly even hopes to go to prison and become a martyr, just to remain in the spotlight for a while longer.

So, maybe it’s better for Lebedev to go to London, which he has long lived in, selling off his remaining property, and live calmly and happily? No, Lebedev is not going to emigrate, although “the Bastrykinites have been chasing him through the courts for 20 months.” “I, like Francis of Assisi, want to give everything away,” the former intelligence officer tries to be ironic. “But I will live, like Seraphim of Sarov, in the Russian forest.”

Banks and castles, shares and plantations: the empire of Alexander Lebedev in 7 facts

Billionaire Alexander Lebedev said in an interview with Reuters that he wants to get rid of all his business in Russia. “I’m trying to reduce all my projects completely - to zero. Just get out of business." Lebedev explained his plan for political reasons - otherwise his business would be “curtailed” by the authorities. The oligarch owns his vast empire, which includes land and shares, castles and oil companies, through the National Reserve Corporation (NRK, Lebedev owns 85%). What constitutes Lebedev's wealth?

(Data, unless otherwise indicated, as of early 2012. Media owned by Lebedev are not mentioned, since he himself does not consider them a business.)

National Reserve Bank. (NRK owns a little more than 78% of its shares) ranks 97th in Russia in terms of assets and 35th in terms of capital. The bank's capital partly consists of shares in Gazprom and Aeroflot. As of April 1, 2012, the capital of NRB amounted to 36.409 billion rubles. Lebedev’s share in NRB, excluding shares of state-owned companies, can be estimated at $112.9 million.

NRK Lebedev also owns a 99.5% stake in Energobank (Ukraine). The bank's capital is about $30 million, and Lebedev's share in Energobank can be estimated at $25.3 million. However, Energobank cannot be classified as the Russian assets that Lebedev spoke to Reuters.

Castles in Europe. In 2001, NRC acquired the luxury hotel Chateau des Forgets near Paris, in 2005 it acquired the Pallazzo Terranova hotel in Italy, in 2007 the Gutch Castle in Lucerne in Switzerland, in 2008 the 13th century castle in Perugia, Italy.

Aviation business. NRK Lebedev owns a 15.5% stake in Aeroflot. On August 3, Aeroflot shares cost $1.27 on the RTS. Thus, Lebedev’s shares in Aeroflot should be worth $185.8 million. Red Wings Airlines is wholly owned by Lebedev’s NRC. His share in it is worth approximately $53 million. NRK also owns 26% in Ilyushin Finance.

Real estate in Moscow and Ukraine. NRC owns a 50% share in a modern office building in the center of Moscow (60 Letiya Oktyabrya Street, 37), where the corporation's headquarters is located. The total area of ​​the building is 33,470 sq. m. m. Since 2009, half of the building has been owned by the Rusnano corporation. NRK also owns the Savvinsky Chambers, a historical building in the center of Moscow with a total area of ​​1,500 square meters. m.
NRK owns a 50% stake in the Ukraina Hotel in the center of Kyiv. The hotel has 375 rooms. In addition, Lebedev built a hotel complex on an area of ​​40 hectares along the sea coast in Alushta. It includes a boarding house with 229 rooms, the Almond Grove holiday home with a water park and the Slava sanatorium (pictured).

Gazprom. NRK owns 24.5 million shares of Gazprom. This is approximately a 0.1% monopoly share. Its value, taking into account the price of Gazprom shares on August 3, 2012, is $95.8 million.

Oil business. NRK owns the holding oil company NRK-Oil, founded in 2006. It included several small companies, of which now only two remain - Timan Oil and Gas and NK Samara. Their total cost is estimated to be close to $50 million.

Land for agriculture. NRK owns the National Land Company, which, according to Lebedev, owns 45,000 hectares of agricultural land in the Tula, Bryansk and Kaluga regions. On part of this land, Lebedev grows tomatoes. In total, these lands could be worth a little more than $100 million.

Nikolay Kletochnikov

Everyone knows about agent 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 about a deeply secret “LLC agent”: 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 scandalous chronicles of the last decade. The name of a spy, banker, oligarch, sponsor of political parties, secret owner of newspapers and magazines and future air transportation monopolist also appears in the high-profile story of the removal of the notorious “copier” box from the White House, and in case of “a man similar to the Prosecutor General”, and in a good dozen more scandals, from which the modern history of Russia took shape in the 90s.

But if earlier Alexander Evgenievich was content with the usual role of the main myth-maker among domestic oligarchs, then the latest step of the banker forced people to seriously talk about the growing political ambitions of Mr. Lebedev: the head of the NRB seriously wanted to take the chair of the mayor of Moscow.

Agent 000

And how well it all started. Shura Lebedev was born on December 16, 1959 in a decent Moscow family. Dad is a professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, mother is an English teacher at MGIMO.

It is no wonder that with such a pedigree, Shura entered the super-elite English special school No. 17. Children from ordinary families, even very talented ones. the way there was blocked. (Those few sons and daughters of proletarians who ended up in the 17th grade thanks to the fact that they lived in the neighborhood were getting rid of by demanding teachers 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 cute blond Shura Lebedev had the reputation of a spoiled hooligan and a budding 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 Lubyanka leaders studied here. For example, a certain Sasha Preobrazhensky, whose father served in the special services with the rank of general, ended up in the same class with Lebedev. So the students of the 17th special school on Lubyanka were closely watched almost from the first grade. They also had their eye on Lebedev, although they recruited him, most likely, already at the institute.

The fact that of all the capital’s universities, Shura Lebedev chose and managed to enter MGIMO, where his mother worked, is not surprising. Shurik studied in the eighth English-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 the unofficial story, in 1983 Alexander Lebedev entered the Foreign Intelligence Academy. After graduation, he allegedly worked in the central office, but not in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and the first directorate of the KGB of the USSR (now the Foreign Intelligence Service). According to the same version, it was as an intelligence officer that Mr. Lebedev was sent to the Soviet embassy in London in 1987.

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 was at its origins. In any case, it was not possible to find real confirmation that Alexander Lebedev was really involved in intelligence activities or at least was on the KGB staff. Moreover, service workers laugh at any hints about this:

Lebedev? Spy?

However, Alexander Evgenievich himself, at every opportunity, likes to hint at his underground past and threaten his competitors with “torture in Yasenevo” (where the headquarters of the SVR is located). Recently, a banker “confessed” to Russian Focus:

I once told German Gref: “Give me the right, within the framework of this project (we were talking about the Ila aircraft leasing), to torture officials. I also have experience... In Yasenevo we still have a torture room.” German Oskarovich made such a stern face and seriously replied: “We are building a liberal state, Alexander Evgenievich.” And he looked at me again, expressively.

However, the name of the spy Alexander Lebedev was not included in the list of legendary SVR agents. The only useful thing that Lebedev did as the 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 caretaker, Andrei Kostin. And even then, the benefit from this acquaintance was more likely for Lebedev himself, but not for his native intelligence service.

Two comrades served

In the early 90s, intelligence diplomats turned to commerce. Kostin in London established and headed a certain enterprise called Greinlodge Limited. Lebedev simultaneously created Greinsale Limited. Interestingly, both companies were born at about the same time and were registered at the same legal address. A little later, friendly companies established a joint child - The Milith PLC. By the way, all this was done without any intermediaries or front companies - evidence that there were certain forces in Russia behind the embassy businessmen.

When a correspondent of a newspaper controlled by our hero once asked Lebedev how he managed to retrain from a diplomat to a banker, he replied:

A lucky coincidence. Let's consider ourselves lucky. You still won’t believe it if I say that this is only the fruit of my efforts, and you’ll 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, with management rights, became part of the Imperial Bank, and Lebedev himself became the head of the bank’s foreign investment department. By the way, it was not by chance that our hero ended up in Imperial. 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 really get along with each other, but in business they found a common language.

“I came to Imperial on April 1, 1992,” Sergei Rodionov, former chairman of the bank’s board of directors and now president of Diners Club Russia, shared his memories. - Within 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. True, he died quickly. By his death, which is very atypical for our country. His colleagues still have problems. They arose due to the fact that they had an incorrect relationship with Otari Vitalievich Kvantrishvili... There, among the founders of the first row, was the ALM company of Alexander Leonidovich Mamut. But they, too, immediately experienced a rather severe conflict, which resulted in the courts with the Lefortovo bank. Since then we have not been friends.

The conflict was quite remarkable. After the collapse of the USSR, all Vnesheconombank's debts 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, the Technopromimport company sold one of its $15 million debts at a reduced rate to Mamut’s new bank, the Project Finance Company (KOPF). Which, in turn, undertook to contribute this debt to the authorized capital of Lefortovo Bank, where the same Mamut was an advisor and co-owner. And from Imperial, where the Technopromimport accounts were located, they demanded a web loan for the entire amount of the debt.

Sergei Rodionov tried to disagree with this scheme, but Lefortovo Bank, by appealing to the arbitration court, achieved his goal. Economists calculated that then, due to exchange rate differences, the budget lost $8.8 million. Together with KOPF, Lebedev and Kostin also made a living from the abandoned “Imperial”, also, following the example of Mamut, they earned money in the bank on web loans. 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 became the head of the National Reserve Bank in 1995, the largest shareholder of which was Gazprom (read NDR Chernomyrdin and the government).

Without this connection, the future career of our hero would be in great doubt. 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 to carry out banking operations and by the end of that year became one of the ten largest banks in Russia. The explanation for this meteoric rise is more than simple: connections.

As a White House source once admitted in an interview with Profile:

Lebedev is a typical example of a designated "oligarch". Just as during the Chubais privatization people were appointed millionaires, so Gazprom appointed Shurik an “oligarch”. As soon as Gazprom placed part of its funds in NRB accounts, the bank’s business immediately went uphill. Gazprom is a multifaceted structure, and each “face” requires a financial structure to serve it.

Lebedev provided full service, but, of course, not disinterestedly for himself and his patrons.

In 1995, the government transferred $300 million to the Gazprom bank, and “without making ruble cover,” that is, simply put, for nothing. A few weeks later, the NRB released another 50 million to “ensure the effective use of temporarily free government resources.” Lucky.

And here is another episode from the banker’s rich biography. NRB received 2 billion Indian rupees from the Ministry of Finance for the construction of ships ordered by Sovcomflot. According to the letter from 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 Plant only on 03/5/96, that is, seven months later. All this time, $45 million was apparently circulating in the National Reserve Bank.

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 lost hope of paying Russia with real money, issued government bonds worth $1.4 billion. The piece was very tasty - after all, 85% per annum and large-scale repayment since 1997. These securities were transferred to offset the debt to our Gazprom.

Then everything seemed to go according to the script. Gazprom transferred 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, wanted to create another reserve bank, but 43% of Ukrainian bonds on November 19, 1995 went straight to Unicombank.

Lebedev tried to make a scandal, but he was quickly put in his place: Gazprom withdrew part of its shares from NRB. It smelled like bankruptcy.

Shurik's election adventures

The situation was saved only by elections. In June 1999, a friend of Alexander Lebedev, the head of Vnesheconombank, Andrei Kostin, visited the “eternal city” of Rome. The scandalous newspaper Versiya received fascinating information that Kostin had his confessions about the ins and outs of the presidential elections in the summer of 1996 notarized in Italy.

“Only one of the facts of Kostin’s connection with the presidential election campaign has become public knowledge - the same notorious copier box that Lisovsky and Evstafiev took out of the White House on June 19, 1996. According to data from the Prosecutor General's Office and the Presidential 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 also well known. After the arrest, Lisovsky and Evstafiev, although they gave evidence, were quite meager, but 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. It was as if someone deliberately wanted to cast suspicion on Lebedev, leaving Yeltsin’s true financiers in the shadows.

It followed from this story that on the eve of the elections (and, as is suspected, to finance them), the Ministry of Finance issued web loans for the 6th and 7th loans. The bulk 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 notorious boxes. So if Lebedev was behind the sponsorship of Yeltsin’s election 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 - this was only part of the extensive myth-making with which the head of the NRB likes to surround himself: he is a spy, an oligarch, and even a president-maker. In the absence of concrete evidence, this does not lead to any trouble with the law, but it brings dividends in the political and even financial markets.

In 2000, for example, newspapers published fragmentary hints about Lebedev’s possible involvement in the election of Putin to the post of President of the Russian Federation. It worked flawlessly on particularly naive partners and competitors of the banker. In moments of crisis for the NRB, when the banker was threatened with financial collapse. Articles appeared in the media with headlines like “They are attacking Lebedev. They hit Putin."

Break the bank

There are so many myths floating around about the all-powerful oligarch, but upon closer examination one gets the impression that their author is Alexander Lebedev himself.

Take, for example, the high-profile attempt on the life of First Deputy Minister of Finance Andrei Vavilov, who lost his official SAAB in February 1997. The press unanimously listed the head of the NRB as the main suspect, although for Lebedev Vavilov played the role of a cash cow. And Vavilov himself blamed the Chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Sergei Dubinin, for the incident, linking the car explosion with the story that became known as the “scam with 170 million government dollars.”

However, Lebedev chose not to deny rumors about his involvement in the terrorist attack. to maintain the image of a “reputable” businessman.

This image finally stuck with 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 looked like the Prosecutor General was having fun with girls who looked like prostitutes. Journalists also named the organizer of the compromising evidence, Nazir Khapsirokov. However, soon another name appeared in the “independent investigations” - as you probably already guessed, Alexander Lebedev.

There were only two main arguments for the mountain. First: the day before, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against the NRB (as if it were the only one that Skuratov was involved in). The second, even more funny: “several companies belonging to Mr. Lebedev are registered hundreds of meters from the “bad apartment.”

Do you think Lebedev was indignant, sued the slanderers, or began to make excuses? Nothing happened. In an interview with Nezavisimaya Gazeta, when he was asked who was really behind the filming of the porn tape, Lebedev replied:

I laugh it off more. Perhaps it would be flattering to appear as a modern Danton and Robespierre. In principle, bringing to light an official who deals with such things could be an honor to any citizen.

An omnipotent arbiter of destinies, and nothing more, 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, and one of the guards was wounded. And what? There was no vendetta. The NRB security service never promoted any of the terrorist attacks; apparently, their owner’s hands 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 invited the submariner to become an intermediary in the transfer of money from the NRB to offshore banks. But Fedorov, as they say, “chucked it and quit”: heated the NRB for 7.2 million greenbacks, and fled to his beloved America.

No matter how hard Alexander Lebedev tried to find the scam. I even mobilized several detective agencies: all in vain. Themis was more favorable towards the “dispossessed”. Lebedev won his claims in the English and Swiss courts, and... immediately withdrew them back.

Apparently, smart people hinted to the banker that being abandoned in our difficult time for survival is not very prestigious - they will stop respecting him.

It was then that the press was full of notes that it was not Fedorov who ditched Lebedev, but just the opposite - the poor submariner became a victim of the speculation of an unscrupulous financier and is now trembling for his life, having hired an entire staff of private security guards with his last dime.

The Discreet Charm of the Oligarchy

Lebedev once admitted:

The acquisition of yachts, planes, and real estate interests me little. I do not have it. I don't spend much time in nightclubs and have never been to the Cote d'Azur. Money for me is rather an opportunity to pursue certain policies, achieve certain goals, and influence public life. In everyday life, I am a poorly organized person. My wife, son and I still live in an apartment with my parents. We do not have our own country house. Of course, when I go abroad, I stay in the most expensive hotels, but not because I strive for luxury, but for reasons of prestige. Try to settle in a “four stars” - rumors will immediately spread throughout Moscow: Lebedev is on the verge of ruin.

Alexander Evgenievich was lying, oh, how he was lying. Perhaps, once upon a time, in Soviet times, 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 the Azure regions, Lebedev can easily be found. And it’s not worth talking about some London or Paris. Try calling the NRB office and asking 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 have forked out. After all, it was thanks to his marriage to her, the daughter of the famous Soviet academician Sokolov. Lebedev largely began his career growth in the diplomatic field.

Alexander Evgenievich really adores cheap effects, and if he doesn’t produce them himself, he smears himself on them. A few years ago, for example, Lebedev’s native school widely celebrated its 45th anniversary at the Theater of Facial Expression and Gesture. Since many of the graduates are not poor, everyone chipped in in full. The lion's share of the money for the anniversary was contributed by the head of IK Troika Dialog, Alexander Mamut. However, Mamut himself does not like to shine in public, so his classmate Lebedev pulled all the laurels of the sponsor onto himself, to whom they sang hosannas from the stage.

Lebedev also loves it when someone (maybe himself) throws misinformation into the media that he is being tipped for the position of chairman of the Central Bank, 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 have any political, financial or even criminal influence on the development of the country.

Clipped wings

Alexander Lebedev told 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, pinching off a significant piece of Aeroflot this year.

Aeroflot is a well-known airline. Its fleet includes more than a hundred aircraft, a third of which are foreign cars. Last year, Aeroflot carried 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 transaction amount was initially hidden. However, a little later, a leak of information still occurred - $133 million, that is, 50 million more than the shares were actually worth.

Such generosity could be understandable if we were talking about a super-profitable acquisition, but no. Aeroflot's net profit at the end of 2002 was nothing at all, 3.198 billion rubles. Dividends on a ruble share are about 6 kopecks.

The highlight of the purchase lay elsewhere. By that time, Alexander Lebedev was already the owner of 46% of the shares of Ilyushin Finance Co. and manager of 57% of the shares of the Voronezh Joint Stock Aircraft Company.

In 1999, an agreement was concluded between Aeroflot and the leasing company Ilyushin Finance for the supply of six Il-96-300 aircraft, which are produced by the Voronezh Aviation Plant controlled by IFC. The contract stipulated that for each long-haul airliner Aeroflot would pay about 350 thousand dollars per month (the same as for BOINR). However, in 2002, Lebedev raised the payment rate to 500 thousand dollars. 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 (over 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 to thereby resolve the leasing problem. But I miscalculated.

Other Aeroflot shareholders have decided. that Lebedev’s appetite was too big, and they were in no hurry to buy the Ilya, which had increased in price. Only in October, after going through a series of lawsuits against each other, the parties came to a mutual agreement. Ilyushin Finance has reduced its requests. To what extent? There are rumors in aviation circles about the amount of 350 thousand dollars, that is, what was originally intended. Lebedev himself prefers to remain bashfully silent. 50 million dollars was wasted.

The epic struggle of the People's Republic of Belarus for Sheremetyevo-Z, the construction of which Mr. Lebedev so dreams of, turned out to be just as inglorious. What did he not do? And he came to an agreement with the administration of the Khimki region, and wrote a tearful letter to Putin, and promised to increase the number of government representatives on the Aeroflot Board of Directors - if only the development would be given to his airline. Everything is useless, neither connections 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 quite possible that White House officials are confused by one small nuance in this matter. 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 became the cause of the protracted Russian-French conflict.

At one time, NRB itself also sued CAI, but this year a settlement agreement was concluded between the banks, the details of which are kept secret by both parties. 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, of course. it's a good thing, but the airport is still a strategic object. So, most likely, the construction of the new Sheremetyevo terminal will be carried out by someone more patriotic than the former “intelligence officer” Alexander Lebedev.

Lebedev himself, however, is not discouraged. Every now and then he gives out interviews with promises to leave his post in the NRB and head the Aviation Financial-Industrial Group (FIG) he is creating:

It is possible that I will stop being involved in operational activities at the bank and will focus on the functions of the owner and on work in the NRB-group holding.

The oligarch has ambitious plans - to become a monopolist in the aviation industry and transportation.

To the question of a “Company” correspondent in May of this year: “As I understand it, you hope that the National Aircraft Company will become for you approximately the same as YUKOS for Mikhail Khodorkovsky?” - Lebedev answered sincerely:

I would like it to be that way.

In light of the latest events with YUKOS and Khodorkovsky, the answer is more than funny.