Elena Baturina is the wife of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the former owner of the Inteko holding, which controlled a significant part of the construction market in the Russian capital, and is a shareholder of Sberbank and Gazprom.

Elena Nikolaevna Baturina

Childhood and youth of Elena Nikolaevna Baturina

Elena Baturina was born on March 8, 1963 in Moscow. Both of Elena's parents worked at the factory "Frizer". Mom worked at the machine, father was a foreman.

IN childhood Elena had problems with her lungs. This provoked such a dislike for smoking. At a conscious age, she was fond of horse riding and tennis, went in for skiing, and also received a third category in shooting with a small-caliber rifle.

Elena Baturina in her youth

The older brother is an entrepreneur. Elena and her brother graduated from the same school. The girl received her higher education in the evening department "Institute of Management named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze". Along with her studies in 1980-1982, Elena worked at the enterprise cutting tools "Frizer", where her parents worked. In 1982-1989 she worked as head of the secretarial department of the Union of Cooperators, a member of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee on cooperative activities at the Institute of Economic Problems of Development National economy capital, received her higher education in 1986 and three years later began her entrepreneurial activity.

Elena Baturina and her brother Victor started a business together

Baturina's business

Elena started her career in 1980 at the post of design technician. and just two years later, in 1982, when she was about to leave the plant, she worked in the department of the chief technologist as a senior design engineer.

The period from 1982 to 1989 can be called the next step in career ladder. Elena got a job as a research assistant at "Institute of Economic Problems of Integrated Development of Moscow", there she was able to transform scientific work to chair the Union of United Cooperatives, where she later became a leading specialist.

The main year that changed Baturina’s biography was 1989 At this time, Elena started doing business.

Elena Baturina has repeatedly topped the ranking of the richest women in Russia

The creation of a family cooperative with his brother Victor marked the beginning of a successful business. To develop the business, computer equipment was purchased, created and installed software, gradually introduced modern technologies.

In 1991 Elena and her brother officially registered a company engaged in the production of polymer products. In the same year, Baturina became engaged to, who became the mayor of Moscow a year later.

In early September 2011 announced the sale of investment business "Inteko": the buyer of 95% of the company was to be the entrepreneur’s structures, and another 5% - a subsidiary of Sberbank Investments.

After Luzhkov left the post of mayor, Elena moved to London and began to engage in the hotel business there. After London, Baturina moved with her children and husband to Austria. In Auraha they lived next door to representatives of the Swarovski family.

In the late 2000s the company "Inteko" became a sponsor of the Triathlon World Cup and Rotary Club conventions. With the support of Elena Baturina, a festival took place in the Alpine city "Jazznova".

Elena Baturina is the owner of a real estate company Safo GmbH in Vienna, where a businesswoman bought another mansion in the elite Döbling district, but Elena Baturina did not renounce Russian citizenship.

In 2012 famous entrepreneur Elena Baturina founded and headed a charitable foundation "BE OPEN".

Elena Baturina

Inteko

Year of birth "Inteko"- 1991, founded as an enterprise for the manufacture of polymer products. Baturina's cooperative often received orders at the city level; after expanding her business, Baturina took over the Moscow Oil Refinery, which was on the account of the Moscow Prefecture.

In 1994 A plastics manufacturing plant was attached to Inteko; in the mid-90s, this company’s products accounted for a quarter Russian market. In 1999, Inteko was involved in a scandal involving embezzlement of public funds. At that time, the company was considered the general contractor in the construction of a new city in Kalmykia. From Kalmykia Elena Baturina tried to go to deputies State Duma , but this attempt was unsuccessful.

Business lady Elena Baturina

In the early 2000s Inteko creates the appearance of an investment and construction corporation, after which the purchase of cement plants began. As a result, the company has become one of the leading cement suppliers in Russia. At the same time, the company invested in the largest state-owned enterprises, including Sberbank, etc. It also sponsored the largest social projects in the fields of medicine, sports, culture and art.

Since 2005 The process of Inteko's disintegration began. First, the company stopped communicating with the concrete panel construction market, and already in 2006, Viktor Baturin left the company, followed by Elena herself. However, she became a co-founder of the company, as she was elected to the board of directors of the financial enterprise " Russian Land Bank". From 2006 to 2011, the Inteko company carried out many projects for the construction of modern residential complexes Dominion, Arco di Sole, Champion Park and ASTRA, and the construction of the university building was completed. M.V. Lomonosov, “New Peterhof” was opened.

Entrepreneur Elena Baturina

In 2008 Inteko was included in the list of 300 systemically important enterprises in the country.

In 2011 the sale of Inteko to investors was announced, and at the same time Elena Baturina was selling the Russian Land Bank, which at that time belonged to her.

Charity Baturina

Since 2012 Elena Baturina heads the charity foundation "BE OPEN". This project is dedicated to youth, it allows young geniuses to realize their ideas and plans in the field visual arts, literature, music, architecture, design and science.

Elena Baturina - head of the charity foundation "BE OPEN"

Conflicts and criticism of Baturina

December 1, 2006 information spread about the refusal of the publishing house Axel Springer Russia print materials about Elena Baturina and her business, while destroying the entire circulation of the Russian Forbes magazine, which was supposed to be published in December.

American demanded that the publisher release the December issue in its original form, as it had already been printed. The requirements were met. In February 2007, Inteko filed two lawsuits against the publishing house and the editor-in-chief. Each claim was for 106 thousand 500 rubles. In the spring of 2007, the company won the first lawsuit, and lost the second in the fall of the same year. After changing the subject of the second claim, Inteko won the case against the author of the article and Axel Springer Russia.

Elena Baturina is one of the richest women in Russia

Early 2007 A dispute broke out between Elena and her brother. The essence of the conflict was that Victor wanted to regain part of the shares in the Inteko company (the stake at that time was worth about a billion dollars). The court rejected the first claims from Victor, but the claims filed in response by Elena Baturina were registered on February 15, 2007. After an exchange of lawsuits, the media reported that both sides of the conflict renounced “mutual property and other claims.”

In the 2000s, many representatives Russian business, including, reported in the media that the Inteko company receives lucrative orders from the Moscow government only because of the family ties between Luzhkov and Baturina, but this was denied by both Elena and her husband.

Elena Baturina

In December 2009 newspaper of the year "Vedomosti" announced that in the summer of 2009, when development companies were struggling with serious difficulties arising from the economic crisis, Elena Baturina’s corporation successfully repaid bank loans in the amount of 27 billion rubles. One of the ways to pay off debts was the sale of a plot of land with a total area of ​​58 hectares in the south-west of Moscow for 13 billion rubles per 1 hectare (according to Vedomosti, this price was even before the crisis and was approximately twice as high as the current price at that time). According to the newspaper, the purchase was paid for using a bank loan. The most significant shareholder of the Bank of Moscow at that time was The government of Moscow.

Personal life of Elena Baturina

In 1991 Elena married Yuri Luzhkov. They got married secretly in 2016. They have been married for more than 25 years.

Yuri Luzhkov and Elena Baturina

Elena and Yuri had two daughters, the first Elena was born in 1992. A couple of years later she was born youngest daughter Olga. The girls began to receive higher education at Moscow State University, but due to the dismissal of their father, they were forced to move with their family to London, but they did not give up their education and continued to study in Britain, on the basis of the university college.

Elena Baturina with her daughters

Youngest daughter - Olga continued her studies at a university in New York. There she defended her bachelor's degree and then her master's degree in hotel management. Near her mother’s hotel complex, the five-star Grand Tirolia hotel in the mountains of Austria, in Kitzbühel, the girl implemented her first project - opened her own bar Herbarium. The place may be of interest because the standard menu and cocktails are supplemented with herbal infusions and cocktails.

Elena Baturina with her daughters

Eldest daughter - Elena, moved to Slovakia, where she lives and works. There the girl opened a small company producing perfumes and cosmetics Alener. Since 2018, Elena officially received citizenship in Cyprus, where her mother began building a new residential complex.

In 1986 she graduated from the evening department State University management.

In terms of wealth, only two businesswomen surpassed her - a Chinese woman and the creator of the Zara empire

Elena Baturina became the third of the 14 richest women in the world

The wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and President "" was included in the top three richest women in the world according to the American magazine Forbes. Baturina's fortune is estimated at $2.9 billion.

Only 14 women in the world have a personal wealth of more than $1 billion, according to the American Forbes magazine. This is only 2% of all billionaires in the world (1011 people) who earned their wealth themselves and did not inherit it. 7 of these 14 richest women are Chinese, who managed to get rich amid the enormous growth of the Chinese economy.

The richest businesswoman turned out to be a resident of China, Wu Yahun, who earned her $3.9 billion mainly in the real estate business. In second place among female billionaires is the co-founder of the Zara empire, Rosalia Mera, whose fortune is estimated at $3.5 billion. In third place is Elena Baturina, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $2.9 billion.

The richest woman on the planet

Wu Yahong made her $3.9 billion in real estate and is the chief executive of real estate company Longfor Properties. Last year, her company held an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Yahong began her career at one of the Chinese factories as an engineer. Here she worked for four years. Then she devoted another five years of her life to working for the Chinese news agency Shirong. Soon after, she began to explore the real estate market in her hometown Chongqing. Today, her company has representative offices in 10 cities.

Second in the world

Rosalia Mera's husband Amancio Ortega helped her get rich. Now Forbes estimates Mera's fortune at $3.5 billion, and she started by helping her husband create women's dressing gowns and underwear in her own home. Now they own one of the world's most successful clothing manufacturers, Inditex, and the Zara chain of stores. The couple divorced several years ago, but Rosalia Mera retained a 7% stake in the company, and the IPO raised $600 million in cash, which she invested in a Spanish film production company, a fishing group, and companies trying to find a way to cure cancer. She also created the Paideia Foundation, which helps children with physical and mental disabilities.

Third in the world

Baturina is second only to two women in the world in terms of financial status, which the magazine estimates at $2.9 billion. But Luzhkov’s wife surpassed such famous business women in the list as, for example, the owner of the Gap clothing store chain Doris Fisher and the famous TV presenter Oprah Winfrey. The fortune of each of them is estimated at $2.4 billion. Luzhkov’s wife is richer than the owner of the Benetton brand, Julian Benetton, with 2.1 billion. Baturina has also outstripped the rich writer JK Rowling, who earned one billion dollars from a series of novels about Harry Potter and its film adaptation.

Meanwhile, Baturina began her career as a worker at a factory. Then she entered the Moscow Institute of Management. In 1991, she created the Inteko company, which began with the creation of plastic tableware and furniture. Since then, Inteko's activities have expanded significantly - it is engaged in both the production of building materials and construction itself. True, during the crisis year of 2008, Inteko had to freeze several expensive real estate projects in Moscow. But Baturina created a subsidiary company, Patriot, which began to focus on the construction of affordable housing. In November 2009, she helped restore the giant monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which cost the Moscow budget $100 million, the magazine writes.

Baturina earns more than her husband thanks to her husband

Last year, Baturina earned not only more than her husband, the mayor of Moscow, but also more than any other Russian official. As I wrote earlier, according to published income, Elena Baturina earned almost 31 billion rubles, which is 4.5 times more than a year earlier (7 billion rubles). Yuri Luzhkov reported his income in 2009 in the amount of about 8 million rubles.

Of the 31 billion rubles, Baturina earned 28 billion rubles from the purchase and sale of securities, in particular, shares of Gazprom and Sberbank, as well as from the sale of a stake in the Ramenskoye trading house in the north-west of Moscow (58 hectares). The remaining 3 billion rubles are wages and other bonuses from Inteko. The company itself explained that about 27 billion rubles were spent on paying off loans to Gazprombank and other Inteko creditors. The remaining 4 billion rubles are for personal income tax payments.

Baturina has six cars, of which three are Mercedes and two are Porsche. Luzhkov does not own any cars at all. And an apartment of 445 sq.m. is registered in Baturina’s name. and a residential building in Austria with a slightly smaller area - 321 sq.m. However, of the new acquisitions during the year, there were only two houses abroad, which were not owned, but rented. One house in the UK with an area of ​​1203 sq.m., the other in Spain with an area of ​​1628 sq.m.

“YURI Luzhkov plays well at the net,” Elena Baturina once said. “And I’m on the back line.” Actually, it was about tennis. But if you look at how the roles are written in this family, you get a life principle. The mayor's wife is just the family's wallet. Whereas Yuri Luzhkov is always at the forefront. They hint to him that his wife’s business is expanding year by year, not without his help: starting with the production of plastic products, the Inteko company has grown into a large holding with its own bank, cement factories and construction companies. The husband has to be loudly silent every time his income is compared with her income, in which the salary of the weaker half alone is $154 thousand per month. And after the story of the collapse of the capital’s water park and aggressive rumors that Inteko is either the owner of Transvaal or a creditor of its owners, Yuri Luzhkov leaves without comment any actions of Elena Baturina.

"Ask Lena"

THE FAMILY of Elena Baturina and Yuri Luzhkov has two girls - ten and twelve years old. Their mother began her journey as a billionaire by working at the Frazer plant, and continued family tradition. When she left for the Institute of Economic Problems of Integrated Development of the National Economy, the director of the plant urged her not to interrupt the labor dynasty. Then she studied at the evening department at the Institute of Management, and worked on cooperation in the executive committee, where Yuri Luzhkov was the chairman of the commission. There they met. And when the future mayor of Moscow was widowed, they got married. There was no office romance, as both claim. The relationship developed when they no longer worked on the same team.

The Inteko company appeared in 1991 and was a small cooperative for the production of furniture, dishes and accessories made of plastic. Currently, this is already a large business with thousands of workers employed in production, 99% of the shares belong to Baturina herself, the rest to her brother Victor. In Moscow alone there are 207 thousand Inteko seats in 8 stadiums, including 85 thousand in Luzhniki, 40 thousand in Dynamo Stadium, 25 thousand in Olimpiysky. At the end of the 90s. The following joke was popular: “I’m selling chairs. Ask Lena." But besides them, Inteko is proud of the invented disposable glass. And many Moscow bistros and sports complexes use other disposable tableware, not to mention the fact that cups and plates are sold in almost all the capital’s shopping malls. According to the same Forbes, now plastic products make up only 10% of the company's annual turnover.

On horseback

AS THE French SAY, first-generation origins cannot be hidden. Elena Baturina has transformed from a lady with a permanent hairline into a well-groomed middle-aged woman. But she never looked like a billion dollars. Maybe because he dresses in trouser suits, doesn’t like jewelry, and hardly uses makeup. It can be harsh and even a little rude. However, to women’s questions, such as who is the boss of the house, the answer invariably is: husband. Yuri Luzhkov did not publicly notice for a long time that Elena Baturina was a businessman. When his daughters were little, he was glad that his wife was not recognized on the streets. However, those days are gone forever.

Baturina's company developed, the mayor became a famous politician. At this time there was a family passion for horses. About 10 years ago, Svyatoslav Fedorov first put Baturina on a horse, and she has been on a horse ever since. Today she is the president of the Russian Equestrian Federation, which, in fact, lives on the money of her company. She not only infected her family with a love of horses, but also, under the auspices of her husband, came up with the “Mayor's Cup,” which has been held in Moscow on City Day for several years. Baturina also believes that by the way a person sits on a horse, how he negotiates with it, one can determine how he builds relationships with people. And, as a rule, he immediately adds that Luzhkov can cope with any horse. And they began to give them horses so often that rumors began to spread about the mayor's stable. (I remember that in Bavaria several years ago the mayor was even given a can with the sperm of the best local stallion. The press joked about this that Yuri Luzhkov even managed to milk the stallions during the “Days of Moscow in Munich.”) In fact, there is no stable as such: part gifts are kept in Bitsa, the rest are in the Moscow Sports Club. But the real stable will be together with a stud farm near Kaliningrad - where the Imperial Union of Private Horse Breeders was located during the times of East Prussia. IN Soviet times on the site of the plant there was a collective farm cowshed. And in times of developed capitalism there will be hotels, restaurants - everything that is needed for a tourist complex.

Mandate history

ELENA BATURINA has always been reluctant to talk about her life as the First Lady of Moscow. And if it was possible not to take part in the ceremonial events, I did not. She often “skipped” her husband’s official visits to the mayors of other cities. It seemed that she did not need publicity. It was all the more interesting to watch her attempts to become a State Duma deputy from Kalmykia in 1999. This year turned out to be difficult for the family: they were looking for real estate all over the world, they threw mud at the capital’s mayor, and the Vladimir FSB tried to accuse Inteko of dubious transactions. Could the deputy compensate for moral damage? Who knows.

Baturina had something in common with Kalmykia. The growing construction company Inteko completed the construction of Chess City here, the famous chess village. Kalmyk President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov addressed her personally about this. Perhaps this was facilitated by the fact that Inteko co-owner Viktor Baturin headed the government of Kalmykia in late 1998 - early 1999. Despite this, the Kalmyks still elected a fellow countrywoman - Alexandra Burataeva became a deputy. Politics did not work out from Baturina. And she got back into business.

Cement bonds

AFTER the acquisition of House-Building Plant No. 3, Inteko's active passion for construction began. And if two years ago they said that the company was building 500 thousand m2 of housing per year and it was mostly panel, municipal, then this year we are talking about 1 million m2 (of which slightly less than half is an expensive monolith). And this is a fifth of all housing under construction in the capital. The acquisition of DSK-3 coincided with the cement crisis in the Moscow construction market. Several cement factories simultaneously increased selling prices for their products by 30%. Inteko, as they say, had to acquire its own. Today among them are Oskolcement, Belgorodsky Cement, Podgorensky Cement, Pikalevsky Cement. With the acquisition of the latter (in Leningrad region) Inteko may have 15% of the entire Russian cement market in its hands. True, in the long term, the position of the company is directly linked to the position of the husband. And they say that it will be difficult for her to maintain her previous positions when Yuri Luzhkov ceases to be the capital's mayor.

Another thing is interesting: in order to occupy its current position in the capital market, Inteko had to borrow 1.2 billion rubles. and open cards. It was then that everyone learned about the salary of the mayor’s wife and that the assets of her company were valued at 27 billion rubles. Elena Baturina’s income has since been compared with the income of oil oligarchs, which is not bad for real, sustainable production. But bad for my husband's career. In our country they don’t like the rich, no matter how the money is earned: honestly or not. And they especially don’t like it if you famous politician the wife is a bright personality. Or, by disclosing its trade secrets, did Inteko pursue some other goals besides receiving 1.2 billion rubles? It seems that transparency will come in handy for Yuri Luzhkov’s wife when she wants to expand her business and enter the international market. And with basins, chairs or residential buildings - time will tell. But her instincts never failed her. Once Yuri Luzhkov was watching the match “Leeds” - “Chelsea”, “Chelsea” was leading. Elena Baturina came in and asked: “Are ours winning?”

The wife of ex-Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, entrepreneur and former owner of the Inteko holding, Elena Baturina is one of the most influential businesswomen in Russia. In the Forbes list of the richest compatriots for 2008, she took first place. The Inteko holding, which belonged to her, controlled a fifth of the capital's construction market and was a leader in the production of polymers and plastic products.

Elena Baturina was born in the capital in 1963. The future entrepreneur received higher education at the Moscow Institute of Management, worked as a research assistant. In 1991, together with his brother, Baturina took his first steps in business. They jointly open the Inteko cooperative and begin to promote the production of polymer products. A few years later, after marrying future mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the family business turned into a real holding company. The production of full-cycle polymers occupied about 30% of the Russian market for plastic products.

The beginning of the 2000s became a new milestone in the history of the Inteko company. It transformed from a cooperative into an investment and construction corporation. The family enterprise was able to retain about 25% of the Moscow panel housing construction market. A year later, the Inteko Corporation entered the monolithic construction market. In 2002, Inteko's activities expanded to include cement production. In 2003, Inteko management officially announced its intention to issue a bond issue.

This was followed by property conflicts between the Baturins and condemnation in society and high circles, which laid the first brick in the emergence of “mistrust” of Yuri Luzhkov and his subsequent removal from the post of mayor. Meanwhile, his wife continued to conduct business and achieved considerable success in this. By Forbes version in 2006, the businesswoman had a fortune of $2.3 billion. Over the year, this figure has increased slightly. At the same time, Baturina was the only woman on the list of the richest Russians. 2008 brought Elena Baturina an increase in wealth to $4.2 billion. There are also a number of large transactions with blocks of shares, the amount of which, for obvious reasons, is not disclosed.

Elena Baturina leads a sporty lifestyle. Her interests include tennis, horse riding, shooting, and trips to ski resorts.

According to unconfirmed information, in 2008, the wife of the ex-mayor purchased the luxurious Whitanhurst mansion in London with an area of ​​3,700 square meters, second in size only to Buckingham Palace. The transaction amount was $100 million. The previous owner of the estate was English developer Marcus Cooper. The deal turned out to be very profitable for him, since he initially invested $72 million in the purchase of real estate.

Despite repeated denials of the validity of the transaction by Ms. Baturina herself and the emergence of information that the luxurious mansion belongs not to her, but to the owner of the PhosArgo holding, ex-senator Andrei Guryev, this was not officially reported anywhere. Moreover, Guryev's representative made it clear that Witanhurst is not the direct property of Guryev. Considering Baturina’s interest in this property, which realtors spoke about, and Luzhkov’s difficult relationship with the Russian political elite, it can be assumed that the deal was carried out secretly, in compliance with all necessary precautions, so as not to arouse suspicion and noise in the press. Whether this is true or not cannot be stated unequivocally. However, the presence of financial schemes in the case of the purchase of Witanhurst suggests certain thoughts.

House of Elena Baturina in Gorki-2

Elena Baturina is also the owner of an estate in the elite village of Gorki-2 near Moscow in the Odintsovo district. The cost of real estate here starts from 50 million rubles. Gorki-2 is separated from the center of the capital by 14 km of the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway.

Despite the proximity of the city, the village pleases its residents clean air. Residents spend time surrounded by centuries-old pine trees and can stroll along the picturesque banks of the Moscow River. Luxury and privacy are the main aspects that create a special atmosphere here.

The cottage community "Gorki-2" with a total area of ​​120 hectares is under surveillance and security, landscaped, and equipped with centralized communications. There is educational establishments, shops, medical facilities and other infrastructure facilities.