Today, at the luxurious Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel, the Sakharov Prize “For Journalism as an Act” was awarded. It seems like an ordinary semi-foreign award, regularly given to its own opposition journalists - a kind of veiled grant, but in fact a pumping of State Department money into the pockets of the necessary “writers”.
The winners could be predicted without even reading the shortlist - Latynina, Piontkovsky, Olga Romanova, Vishnevsky and further along the list of the main newsmakers of Ekho Moskvy and Radio Liberty. There doesn't seem to be anything interesting.
But... As it turned out, the biggest “act in journalism” was committed by none other than the fugitive oligarch, wanted for contract killings, Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. This is who, it turns out, is the most important journalist! Now at least I will know who the main Russian-speaking journalist on the planet is.
Khodorkovsky, who in his life wrote nothing but resolutions “I agree!” on contracts for the sale of oil under the guise of a mysterious “petroleum liquid”. Oh yes, he also signed orders to issue certain amounts of money to “literary blacks” who worked on writing laudatory books about him, his beloved, white and fluffy. Isn’t it true, Mrs. Gevorkyan?
And all these masterpieces came from the pen of Khodorkovsky in the intervals between the murder of the mayor of Nefteyugansk Petukhov and the assassination attempt on businessman Rybin. This is such a journalist-journalist. But now Mikhail Borisovich can safely indicate on his business card “Winner of the Sakharov Prize “For a Journalist, as an Deed.” Or maybe there is no need for more “actions”, Mikhail Borisovich? Petukhov, Rybin, the Gorins and... Enough, perhaps?
And if we proceed from the fact that Khodorkovsky has now become an outstanding journalist and receives awards for “outstanding achievements” in journalism, then the organizers should go further. The next stage should be the nomination of Anatoly Chubais and Alfred Kokh to Nobel Prize according to literature.
Remember, these murky characters in the no less murky 1997 received fees of 90 thousand dollars for the unwritten book “The History of Russian Privatization”? Let me remind you. The then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chubais, in collaboration with the head of the State Property Committee Koch and several other “privatization specialists,” received from the Segodnya-Press publishing house (ONEXIM group, read oligarchs Potanin and Prokhorov) $90 thousand for a book that did not exist .
This is almost the same as the “outstanding journalism” of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. And therefore, I propose that the domestic opposition, with the support of the US State Department, urgently nominate Anatoly Chubais and Alfred Koch for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
But, seriously, I would like to ask Khodorkovsky. Mikhail Borisovich, aren’t you ashamed to receive an award for “journalism as an act” without writing a single line? Will you, now the laureate, be ashamed to look into the eyes of the mothers and wives of real journalists who died in the line of duty during hostilities, disasters, terrorist attacks, who were killed for their investigations? Although, what am I talking about? For such characters as Khodorkovsky, no matter what you say, it’s God’s dew.
Five years ago, members of Anatoly Chubais’s team were fired from the government, accused of receiving inflated fees for an unwritten book on privatization. TV journalist Sergey Dorenko shared with Natalia Gevorkyan memories of the writers' cause, in which he took a direct part.
It is believed that the writing business and the associated scandal in the press were one of the most significant episodes of the so-called oligarchic wars. I think so too.
My relationship with Chubais did not work out back in 1994. But this is not what has to do with the outbreak of the war, but the fact that by the summer of 1997, the claims of the so-called oligarchs against Chubais became blatant. Maybe they existed before, but since the summer... It was about the privatization of Svyazinvest.
Gusinsky wanted Svyazinvest. He did his best to prepare Svyazinvest for sale to himself. They might have delayed the sale, but then Yeltsin ordered payment of salary debts - primarily to the army, in the amount of 10 trillion rubles. This amount was divided by the exchange rate at that time, and it was decided to give it to Svyazinvest for this reasonable price. The buyer was Gusinsky. This was not discussed, as far as I understand.
And suddenly there was some kind of fuss. It turned out that Potanin was also making efforts to take over Svyazinvest. Berezovsky, the informal leader of the big bourgeoisie, put Gusinsky and Potanin on the plane and flew to “settle” the situation in France, where Chubais was vacationing. We agreed: Svyazinvest goes to Gusinsky for the agreed amount, and Volodya Potanin will not play - he will simply stay at the auction, since he has already showed up.
And then something terrible happened. Without declaring war, Potanin’s people, knowing in advance the agreed amount that Gusinsky’s people would call, took and beat him with a little over a hundred million dollars, and, not to be entirely cynical, they could have killed him with five million. And the war began. Writing flows directly from this war.
It was not spontaneous, but very planned, it seems to me. As I now think, the papers on Chubais and his co-authors were collected by the security service of the Most group, the most advanced security service in Moscow at that time. It was known that Chubais had money. Those who transferred abroad guessed that they were abroad. There was talk that $3 million was transferred to Chubais for managing the headquarters in 1996. I did not ask Berezovsky about this. I am sure that he knows for sure, but the data about 3 million did not raise any particular doubts in me. It was assumed that Chubais needed some legal pocket money here. Unlike many other officials and businessmen, Chubais could not live on “black cash” - cash that did not go through bank accounts. I can say with confidence that our special services were hunting for him, and not just people from Most.
So a way to legalize part of the money was invented. Let's assume so. Otherwise, we will have to assume that the rare fees for an unwritten book were just another payment from some businessman for another service. That is a bribe. Alexander Minkin wrote about this somewhere in the newspapers. The people began to seethe, but were not particularly impressed. A newspaper is a newspaper, and in the theatrocracy of Russian life, an audiovisual performance is also needed.
Berezovsky called me and asked if I was going to say something about it. I then hosted the analytical program “Time” on Channel One. I said that newspapers are retold in programs like “Press Review”. Since I don’t have such a program, I need to show something. It’s also new, something Minkin didn’t have. That's what they decided on. And a kind of magic began. Old sources in the prosecutor's office came back to life and promised to let me look at the materials on Chubais. Did you come to life by chance? Now, after these years, I think that, of course, Gusinsky was instigating the prosecutors. We began to bargain: we need the originals of the contracts of all the “writers” and the originals of bank payments. With signatures and seals. We made our way to the publishing house. Grigoriev was wanted. I remember that Grigorieva (now Deputy Minister of Press of the Russian Federation - Kommersant).
And so the law enforcement officers laid out the original documents in front of my operators - smart, alive and rustling. Well, I couldn’t resist such luxury. And the second information war began. The first is when we issued a report about the lawlessness during the privatization of Cherepovets Azot by Potanin’s group. And this is the second one - with raids, with catching Koch in elevators, etc. You can read about this on my website.
Let me point out that information wars led to a limitation of behind-the-scenes activities. The clans began to fear each other, which, of course, was useful for society. I said then, and I repeat now: what Berezovsky and Gusinsky forbade Chubais or Potanin from now on is prohibited for both Berezovsky and Gusinsky. In every war, we can discuss at length who benefits from it and what people and interests are behind each step. But above all, it is beneficial to society. While the clans are at knifepoint, they fight in public, and publicity limits them. Now they are quietly sawing up without any publicity. They only scare each other around the corner with criminal cases. The society sits happy and peaceful. It's easier for us to close our eyes.
Writer's Chronicle
August 4, 1997 Novaya Gazeta published an article by Alexander Minkin “I love it when the plates are very large” - a recording of a conversation between First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov and businessman Sergei Lisovsky. The postscript to it stated: “Another Deputy Prime Minister of Russia - Alfred Koch (head of the State Property Committee) - wrote the book “Privatization in Russia: Economics and Politics.” We don’t know how thick it is, but the Swiss company Servina Trading S. . paid Koch $100 thousand in advance. It is clear that no one needs this book. It is easier for those who have money for privatization in Russia to buy Koch than his book.”
August 11 Deputy Prime Minister and head of the State Property Committee Alfred Koch went on vacation to the United States. On August 13, Alfred Koch resigned.
August 18 In Novaya Gazeta, an article by Alexander Minkin appeared, “Koch left his chair so as not to end up on a bunk,” which reported that the amount of Koch’s fee was suspiciously large. “Koch did not sell a book, but something completely different,” the author concluded.
September 11 Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Skuratov said that he had given instructions to check the accuracy of information about Kokh receiving $100 thousand for an unwritten book. On October 1, the Moscow prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against Koch “on grounds of abuse of power.”
October 28 The Kommersant newspaper published an interview with Anatoly Chubais, in which he, in particular, said: “We have prepared a fundamental monograph that will answer the most important questions of the development of private property in Russia, its creation, and for this we have assembled a team that, in fact, was engaged in the creation of private property in our country: Chubais, Mostovoy, Boyko, Kazakov, Kokh...” On November 12, Alexander Minkin, in an interview with Ekho Moskvy, said about the fees for the book: “This is a hidden form of bribe... By being involved in the State Property Committee, officials had the opportunity to earn... tens of millions of dollars. But it is very difficult to legalize these amounts, and now they have decided to do this: we will write some books, and publishers will pay us large fees for them... This is theft.” On the same day, Anatoly Chubais announced that the book was finished and the manuscript had been submitted to the Segodnya-Press publishing house. According to Chubais, each of the authors received $90 thousand as a fee, most of which the authors intend to donate to the Entrepreneurship Support Fund.
November 13 Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Alexander Zvyagintsev said that the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office became interested in the circumstances surrounding the publication of the monograph “History of Privatization in Russia.” All facts are attached to the criminal case of Alfred Koch.
November 14 First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Alexander Kazakov was dismissed.
November 15 The head of the State Property Committee, Maxim Boyko, and the head of the FSDN, Petr Mostovoy, resigned. On the same day, Anatoly Chubais met with Boris Yeltsin and Viktor Chernomyrdin “behind closed doors” and also resigned. The President did not accept the resignation. On the same day, the “Time” program with Sergei Dorenko was released. TV viewers were shown copies of payment documents on the transfer of royalties to the authors of the book on privatization. The presenter commented: “Chubais, Boyko, Kazakov, Kokh and Mostovoy... merged in creative harmony and wrote a book about privatization in Russia... Now... Chubais handed over the entire team of accomplices, and he himself is trying to get out. How many and what kind of bribes does Chubais hope to receive?”
November 20 Anatoly Chubais has been relieved of his post as Minister of Finance. He retained the position of first deputy prime minister until March 1998.
In May 1998 Alfred Koch brought his book from the USA. It was called “The Sale of the Soviet Empire.”
In December 1999 the case of abuse of power, which by that time had turned from a “writer’s” to an “apartment” case (Koch was charged with illegally obtaining an apartment in 1993), was dropped due to an amnesty. At the same time, the Vagrius publishing house published the book “Privatization the Russian Way.” The fee paid to the authors was, according to the publishing house's employees, $10 thousand.
“I know my opponents well”
Your view on the work of writers Anatoly Chubais outlined back in 1998, in an interview with Kommersant on March 5. Here are excerpts.
In fact, it was like this... When I returned to power (after the 1996 presidential elections - “Power”), I said many times: “Guys, the condition is simple - equal rules of the game. Don’t be offended, I will turn around anyone who claims to be chosen..." "Svyazinvest" seemed to be the first touchstone... Before the competition for "Svyazinvest" it was said more than once:
Whoever pays the most will get it... Well, it was unthinkable after international auditors were involved... after our statements that Russia would adhere to the laws of a civilized market, it was unthinkable to take everything and destroy it. Whoever paid the most became the owner... Let's forget that in the application of the consortium representing the interests of Gusinsky, the figure turned out to be lower than that of their competitors? For the sake of tactical gain, let’s lighten the budget by a hundred or two million dollars? Are we giving Svyazinvest to Gusinsky?.. The campaign (the case of the writers - “Vlast”) was worked out carefully and in echelon. Almost everyone with whom Chubais dealt in Moscow or Leningrad was interviewed; they were looking for those with whom I had bad relations. Naturally, they found it... I'm not even talking about the fact that all phones are tapped, including those of his wife's friends, that money is offered for any negative information about the past, present and future of Chubais... Work is also underway on past places of service. At the State Property Committee, when the proceedings began in the so-called writers’ case, they first confiscated all the documentation for 1997, then for 1995, and so on until 1991... Since I know my opponents well... I can both predict and assess the scope. However, the output is zero, it’s impossible to create a criminal case...
Actors. Five years later
Anatoly Chubais, writer
On November 20, 1997, he lost his post as Minister of Finance. In March 1998, he resigned from the post of First Deputy Prime Minister. From April 30, 1998 to the present - Chairman of the Board of RAO<<ЕЭС России». С августа 1999 года -сопредседатель Союза правых сил, в декабре 1999 года был руководителем предвыборного штаба СПС.
Maxim Boyko, writer
On November 15, 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation. Since December 1997 - General Director of the Video International group of companies. Since June 2000 - head of the supervisory board of studio "2B". Continues to hold the post of General Director of the management company CJSC Video International Group of Companies.
Dmitry Vasiliev, writer
In October 1999, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Federal Securities Market Commission (released by presidential decree on February 1, 2000). Then he became executive director of the Institute of Corporate Law and Management. In mid-September 2002, he was appointed deputy chairman of the board of Mosenergo, where he currently works.
Arkady Evstafiev, writer
In 1997 - General Director of the Center for the Protection of Private Property Foundation, member of the board of directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - Deputy General Director of Mosenergo for Relations, Public Relations. Since 2001 - acting general director, since April 15, 2002 - general director of the company.
Alexander Kazakov, writer
On November 14, 1997, he was relieved of his duties as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. In October 2001, he was appointed a member of the board of directors, head of the property management department of OJSC Gazprom. In December 2001, he was elected a member of the Federation Council from the legislative assembly of the Rostov region.
Alfred Koch, writer
In August 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation. Since September 1, 1998 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - General Director of Gazprom Media. On April 3, 2001, he was elected a member of the NTV board of directors. On October 12, 2001, he left Gazprom Media.
Petr Mostovoy, writer
In November 1997, he resigned from his post as head of the Federal Service for Insolvency (Bankruptcy). Since December 15, 1997 - First Vice President of the Almazy Rossii-Sakha company. From April 1999 to the present - Chairman of the public organization "Russian Business Round Table". Member of the political council of the Union of Right Forces.
Boris Berezovsky, inspiration
On November 4, 1997, he was dismissed from the post of Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, from April 1998 to March 1999 - Executive Secretary of the CIS. From December 19, 1999 to July 2000 - State Duma deputy. In November 2000 he emigrated. In 2001 he created the Liberal Russia movement, from which he was expelled in October 2002.
Vladimir Gusinsky, inspiration
In January 1997, he headed Media-Most CJSC. In 2000 he came into conflict with the authorities. On July 20, 2000, he signed an agreement to sell shares of Media-Most to Gazprom. He left Russia and was put on the international wanted list. For some time he was under arrest in Spain. In April 2001 he left for Israel.
Alexander Minkin, performer
In 1997 he worked as a columnist for Novaya Gazeta. In 2000 he returned to Moskovsky Komsomolets. Currently, he is a columnist for Moskovsky Komsomolets. He is engaged in journalism. He never conducted any more investigations on the same scale as the writers’ case.
Sergey Dorenko, performer
In 1997-2000, he held senior positions at ORT and hosted an original program in which he accused high-ranking officials, in particular Yevgeny Primakov and Yuri Luzhkov. On September 11, 2000 he was taken off the air. At the beginning of 2001, he was fired from ORT. On November 9, 2001, he was sentenced to four years probation for hooliganism.
Five years ago, members of Anatoly Chubais’s team were fired from the government, accused of receiving inflated fees for an unwritten book on privatization. TV journalist Sergey Dorenko Natalya Gevorkyan shared his memories of the writers’ case, in which he took a direct part.
It is believed that the writing business and the associated scandal in the press were one of the most significant episodes of the so-called oligarchic wars. I think so too.
My relationship with Chubais did not work out back in 1994. But this is not what has to do with the outbreak of the war, but the fact that by the summer of 1997, the claims of the so-called oligarchs against Chubais became blatant. Maybe they existed before, but since the summer... It was about the privatization of Svyazinvest.
Gusinsky wanted Svyazinvest. He did his best to prepare Svyazinvest for sale to himself. They might have delayed the sale, but then Yeltsin ordered payment of salary debts - first of all to the army, in the amount of 10 trillion rubles. This amount was divided by the exchange rate at that time, and it was decided to give it to Svyazinvest for this reasonable price. The buyer was Gusinsky. This was not discussed, as far as I understand.
And suddenly there was some kind of fuss. It turned out that Potanin was also making efforts to take over Svyazinvest. Berezovsky, the informal leader of the big bourgeoisie, put Gusinsky and Potanin on the plane and flew to “settle” the situation in France, where Chubais was vacationing. We agreed: Svyazinvest goes to Gusinsky for the agreed amount, and Volodya Potanin will not play - he will simply stay at the auction, since he has already shown up.
And then something terrible happened. Without declaring war, Potanin’s people, knowing in advance the agreed amount that Gusinsky’s people would call, took and beat him with a little over a hundred million dollars, and, not entirely cynically, they could have killed him with five million. And the war began. Writing flows directly from this war.
It was not spontaneous, but very planned, it seems to me. As I now think, the papers on Chubais and his co-authors were collected by the security service of the Most group, the most advanced security service in Moscow at that time. It was known that Chubais had money. Those who transferred abroad guessed that they were abroad. There were conversations among people who were quite aware that $3 million was transferred to Chubais for managing the headquarters in 1996. I did not ask Berezovsky about this. I am sure that he knows for sure, but the data about 3 million did not raise any particular doubts in me. It was assumed that Chubais needed some legal pocket money here. Unlike many other officials and businessmen, Chubais could not live on “black cash” - cash that did not go through bank accounts. I can say with confidence that our special services were hunting for him, and not just people from Most.
So a way to legalize part of the money was invented. Let's assume so. Otherwise, we will have to assume that the extremely high fees for an unwritten book were just another payment from some businessman for regular services. That is a bribe. Alexander Minkin wrote about this somewhere in the newspapers. The people began to seethe, but were not particularly impressed. A newspaper is a newspaper, and in the theatrocracy of Russian life, an audiovisual performance is also needed.
Berezovsky called me and asked if I was going to say something about it. I then hosted the analytical program “Time” on Channel One on Saturdays. I said that newspapers are retold in special programs like “Press Review”. Since I don’t have such a program, I need to show something. It’s also new, something Minkin didn’t have. That's what they decided on. And a kind of magic began. Old sources in the prosecutor's office came back to life and promised to let me look at the materials on Chubais. Did you come to life by chance? Now, after these years, I think that, of course, Gusinsky was instigating the prosecutors. We began to bargain: we don’t have enough copies, we need the originals of the contracts of all the “writers” and the originals of bank statements. With signatures and seals. They made their way into the publishing house themselves. Grigoriev was wanted. I remember that Grigorieva (now Deputy Minister of Press of the Russian Federation.— Kommersant).
And so, in front of my operators, law enforcement officers laid out the original documents - smart, alive and rustling. Well, I couldn’t resist such luxury. And the second information war began. The first was when we issued a report about the lawlessness during the privatization of Cherepovets Azot by Potanin’s group. And this is the second one - with raids, with catching Koch in elevators, etc. You can read about this on my website.
Let me point out that every single information war of the clans led to the limitation of behind-the-scenes insider activities. They began to fear each other, which was certainly beneficial for society. I said then, and I repeat now: what Berezovsky and Gusinsky forbade Chubais or Potanin from now on is prohibited for both Berezovsky and Gusinsky. In every information war, having become political scientists, we can speculate at length about who benefits from it and what people and interests stand behind each step. But above all, it is beneficial to society. While the clans are at knifepoint, they fight in public, and this publicity limits them. Now they are quietly sawing up without any publicity. They only scare each other around the corner with criminal cases. The society sits happy and peaceful. It's easier for us to close our eyes.
Actors. Five years later
Anatoly Chubais, WRITER
On November 20, 1997, he lost his post as Minister of Finance. In March 1998, he resigned from the post of First Deputy Prime Minister. From April 30, 1998 to the present - Chairman of the Board of RAO UES of Russia. Since August 1999 - co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces, in December 1999 he was the head of the election headquarters of the Union of Right Forces.
Alfred Koch, WRITER
In August 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation. Since September 1, 1998 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - General Director of Gazprom Media. On April 3, 2001, he was elected a member of the NTV board of directors. On October 12, 2001, he left Gazprom Media.
Petr Mostovoy, WRITER
In November 1997, he resigned from his post as head of the Federal Insolvency and Bankruptcy Commission. Since December 15, 1997 - First Vice President of the Almazy Rossii-Sakha company. From April 1999 to the present - Chairman of the public organization "Russian Business Round Table". Member of the political council of the Union of Right Forces.
Maxim Boyko, WRITER
On November 15, 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation. Since December 1997 - General Director of the Video International group of companies. Since June 2000 - head of the supervisory board of studio "2B". Currently, he still holds the post of General Director of the management company CJSC Video International Group of Companies.
Dmitry Vasiliev, WRITER
In October 1999, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Federal Securities Market Commission (released by presidential decree on February 1, 2000). Then he became executive director of the Institute of Corporate Law and Management. In mid-September 2002, he was appointed deputy chairman of the board of Mosenergo, where he currently works.
Arkady Evstafiev, WRITER
In 1997 - General Director of the Center for the Protection of Private Property Foundation, member of the board of directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - Deputy General Director of Mosenergo for Public Relations. Since 2001 - acting general director, since April 15, 2002 - general director of the company.
Alexander Kazakov, WRITER
On November 14, 1997, he was relieved of his duties as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. In October 2001, he was appointed a member of the board of directors, head of the property management department of OAO Gazprom. In December 2001, he was elected a member of the Federation Council from the legislative assembly of the Rostov region.
Boris Berezovsky, INSPIRER
From April 1998 to March 1999 - Executive Secretary of the CIS. Since December 19, 1999 - State Duma deputy from Karachay-Cherkessia. In July 2000, he resigned from his parliamentary powers. In November 2000 he left Russia. In 2001, he became one of the founders of the Liberal Russia movement; in October 2002, he was expelled from this organization.
Vladimir Gusinsky, INSPIRER
In January 1997, he headed Media-Most CJSC. In 2000 he came into conflict with the authorities. On July 20, 2000, he signed an agreement to sell shares of Media-Most to Gazprom. Then he left Russia and was put on the international wanted list. For some time he was under arrest in Spain. In April 2001 he left for Israel, where he lives as a private citizen.
Sergey Dorenko, PERFORMER
In 1997-2000, he held senior positions at ORT, and hosted his own program, in which he made accusations against high-ranking officials, in particular, Yevgeny Primakov and Yuri Luzhkov. On September 11, 2000 he was taken off the air. At the beginning of 2001, he was fired from ORT. On November 9, 2001, he was sentenced to four years probation for hooliganism.
Alexander Minkin, PERFORMER
Worked as a columnist for Novaya Gazeta. In 2000 he returned to Moskovsky Komsomolets. Currently, he is a columnist for Moskovsky Komsomolets. He is engaged in journalism. He never conducted any more investigations on the same scale as the writers’ case.
Writer's Chronicle
August 4, 1997 Novaya Gazeta published an article by Alexander Minkin “I love it when the plates are very large” - a recording of a conversation between First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov and businessman Sergei Lisovsky. The postscript to it stated: “Another Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Alfred Koch (head of the State Property Committee), wrote the book “Privatization in Russia: Economics and Politics.” We don’t know how thick it is, but the Swiss company Servina Trading S.A. paid Koch $100 thousand in advance. It’s clear that no one needs this book. Those who have money for privatization in Russia will find it easier to buy Koch than his book.”
August 11 Deputy Prime Minister and head of the State Property Committee Alfred Koch went on vacation to the United States.
August 13 Alfred Koch resigned.
August 18 In Novaya Gazeta, an article by Alexander Minkin appeared, “Koch left his chair so as not to end up on a bunk,” which reported that the amount of Koch’s fee was suspiciously large. “Koch did not sell a book, but something completely different,” the author concluded.
September 11 Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Skuratov said that he had given instructions to check the accuracy of information about Koch receiving $100 thousand for an unwritten book.
October 1 The Moscow prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against Koch "on grounds of abuse of power" based on the results of an audit of information about the former deputy prime minister receiving $100 thousand from a Swiss company.
October 28 The Kommersant newspaper published an interview with Anatoly Chubais, in which he, in particular, said: “We have prepared a fundamental monograph that will answer the most important questions of the development of private property in Russia, its creation, and for this we have assembled a team that, in fact, was engaged in the creation of private property in our country: Chubais, Mostovoy, Boyko, Kazakov, Koch...".
November 12 Alexander Minkin, in an interview with Echo of Moscow, said about the fees for the book: “This is a hidden form of bribery... By being involved in the State Property Committee, officials had the opportunity to earn... tens of millions of dollars. But it is very difficult to legalize these amounts, and now they have decided to do this: we will write some books, and publishers will pay us large fees for them... This is theft.” On the same day, Anatoly Chubais announced that the book was finished and the manuscript had been submitted to the Segodnya Press publishing house. According to Chubais, each of the authors received $90 thousand as a fee, most of which the authors are going to donate to a fund to support entrepreneurship.
November 13 Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Alexander Zvyagintsev said that the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office became interested in the circumstances surrounding the publication of the monograph "History of Privatization in Russia." All facts are attached to the criminal case of Alfred Koch.
November 14 First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Alexander Kazakov was dismissed.
November 15 The head of the State Property Committee, Maxim Boyko, and his first deputy, Pyotr Mostovoy, resigned. On the same day, Anatoly Chubais met with Boris Yeltsin and Viktor Chernomyrdin “behind closed doors” and also resigned. The President did not accept the resignation. On the same day, the program “Time” with Sergei Dorenko was released. TV viewers were shown copies of payment documents on the transfer of royalties to the authors of a book about privatization. The presenter commented: “Chubais, Boyko, Kazakov, Kokh and Mostovoy... merged in creative harmony and wrote a book about privatization in Russia... Now... Chubais handed over the entire team of accomplices, and he himself is trying to get out. How many and what kind of bribes is he hoping for? get Chubais?"
November 20 Anatoly Chubais has been relieved of his post as Minister of Finance. He retained the position of first deputy prime minister until March 1998.
In May 1998 Alfred Koch brought his book from the USA. It was called "The Sale of the Soviet Empire."
In December 1999 the case of abuse of official powers, which by that time had turned from a “writer’s” to an “apartment” case (Koch was accused of illegally obtaining an apartment while he was deputy head of the State Property Committee in 1993), was dropped due to an amnesty. At the same time, the Vagrius publishing house published the book “Privatization the Russian Way.” The fee paid to the authors was, according to the publishing house's employees, $10 thousand.
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Anatoly Borisovich Chubais. Born on June 16, 1955 in Borisov, Minsk region. Soviet and Russian political and economic figure.
Since 2008, General Director of the state corporation “Russian Nanotechnology Corporation”. Since 2011, Chairman of the Board of JSC Rusnano.
Since November 1991, Anatoly Chubais, with short breaks, has held various key positions in the Russian state and state companies, and is actively involved in the socio-political life of Russia.
He was one of the ideologists and leaders of economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s and the reform of the Russian electric power system in the 2000s.
Went to secondary school No. 38 in Odessa in 1962. Later he lived and studied in Lviv. In 1967, the family moved to Leningrad. Anatoly is going to fifth grade at school No. 188 on Okhta.
In his own words, he studied at a school with a military-patriotic education. In a 2012 interview, he admitted that he “hated my school.” My friends and I tried to dismantle the school building into pieces and set it on fire, but managed to “tear off only one step on the porch and a seagull welded on a military-patriotic monument.”
In 1977 he graduated from the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute named after Palmiro Togliatti (LIEI) with a degree in economics and organization of mechanical engineering production.
In 1983, he defended his PhD thesis in economics on the topic: “Research and development of planning methods for improving management in industrial scientific and technical organizations.”
In 2002, he graduated from the Faculty of Advanced Training of Teachers and Specialists of the Moscow Energy Institute in the field of “Problems of Modern Energy”. Final work on the topic: “Prospects for the development of hydropower in Russia.”
In 1977-1982 - engineer, assistant, associate professor at the Leningrad Engineering and Economic Institute named after. Palmiro Tolyatti.
In 1980 he joined the CPSU (according to other sources - in 1977).
In 1987 he participated in the founding of the Leningrad club “Perestroika”. In the mid-1980s, he was the leader of an informal circle of democratically minded economists in Leningrad, created by a group of graduates of economic universities in the city.
In 1990, deputy, then first deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council, chief economic adviser to the mayor of Leningrad Anatoly Sobchak.
In March 1990, Chubais and a group of supporters proposed to Mikhail Gorbachev a project for market reforms, which included the option of forcibly restricting political and civil freedoms (freedom of speech, the right to strike, etc.).
According to some sources, after the events of August 19-21, 1991, Chubais left the CPSU. According to others, he was expelled from the CPSU on April 10, 1990 for participating in the activities of the Democratic Platform.
In 1994, Anatoly Chubais became the founder of the Democratic Choice of Russia (DVR) party based on the Choice of Russia (VR) bloc.
Since September 2011, he has been the head of the Department of Technological Entrepreneurship at MIPT.
Since November 10, 1991 - Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management - Minister of the RSFSR.
On June 1, 1992, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation for Economic and Financial Policy.
Under the leadership of Chubais, a privatization program was developed and its technical preparation was carried out. In addition to the law “On the privatization of state and municipal enterprises in the RSFSR” of 1991 with the participation of acting. O. Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar and Chubais in 1992 issued a decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin “On accelerating the privatization of state and municipal enterprises,” which led to the creation of a state privatization program and gave rise to reform.
On July 31, 1992, Chubais, by order No. 141, created the “Department of Technical Assistance and Expertise,” which employed American economic advisers. The head of the department, Jonathan Hay, according to the former chairman of the State Property Committee Vladimir Polevanov, was a CIA employee. In 2004, a trial began against Jonathan Hay and Andrei Shleifer in the United States on charges of fraud and financial abuse of wasting American taxpayers' money. Polevanov noted regarding the activities of Chubais’s advisers: “Having picked up the documents, I was horrified to discover that a number of the largest military-industrial complex enterprises had been bought up by foreigners for next to nothing. That is, factories and design bureaus that produced top-secret products are out of our control. The same Jonathan Hay, with the help of Chubais, bought a 30% stake in the Moscow Electrode Plant and the Graphite Research Institute, which operated in cooperation with it, the country’s only developer of graphite coatings for stealth aircraft. After which Hay blocked the order of the military space forces for the production of high technologies.”
Later, in November 2004, in an interview with The Financial Times, Chubais said that privatization in Russia was carried out solely for the purpose of a struggle for power against the “communist leaders”: “We needed to get rid of them, but we didn’t have time for that.” . The count was not for months, but for days.” Chubais also believes it was correct to hold loans-for-shares auctions when, as the newspaper writes, “the most valuable and largest Russian assets were transferred to a group of tycoons in exchange for loans and support for the then seriously ill Yeltsin in the 1996 elections.” According to Chubais, the transfer of control over enterprises with hundreds of thousands of workers to the oligarchs helped them acquire administrative resources, which prevented the victory of the opposition Communist Party in the 1996 presidential elections: “If we had not carried out mortgage privatization, the Communists would have won the elections in 1996.”
Chubais’s promise in 1992 is widely known that subsequently one voucher would be equal in value to two cars. Later in society this promise began to be perceived as a deception. In his book in 1999, he wrote that propaganda support was important for the initiators of privatization at that moment: “it was necessary not only to come up with effective schemes, write good regulatory documents, but also to convince the Duma of the need to adopt these documents, and most importantly, to convince 150 millions of people get up from their seats, leave their apartment, get a voucher, and then invest it meaningfully! Of course, the propaganda component was fantastically important.”
In Russia, about 130 thousand enterprises were privatized in 1991-1997; thanks to the voucher system and loans-for-shares auctions, a significant part of large state assets ended up in the hands of a narrow group of individuals (“oligarchs”). By purchasing vouchers for next to nothing from the impoverished population under the conditions of reforms and crisis (liberalization of prices and non-payment of wages), lost savings and ill-informed population, redistribution through financial pyramids, and the implementation of corrupt loan-for-shares auction schemes, large state property was concentrated with the “oligarchs.” Chubais was subsequently called the founder of oligarchic capitalism in Russia.
The privatization program outlined 7 main goals: the formation of a layer of private owners; increasing the efficiency of enterprises; social protection of the population and development of social infrastructure using funds from privatization; assistance in stabilizing the country's financial situation; promoting demonopolization and creating a competitive environment; attracting foreign investment; creating conditions for expanding the scale of privatization. When he was the head of the State Property Committee, V. Polevanov, having analyzed the results of privatization in a document addressed to the Prime Minister, concluded that of the seven privatization goals, only the seventh and formally the first were fully realized, while the rest were failed. Although formally there were several tens of millions of shareholders in Russia, only a small part of them actually controlled property; the desire for demonopolization at any cost led to the destruction of many technological chains and contributed to the deepening of the economic recession; foreign investment not only did not increase, but also decreased, and those that did arrive were directed mainly to the primary industries.
On December 9, 1994, the State Duma adopted a resolution in which it described the results of privatization as unsatisfactory.
In general, the Russian population has a negative attitude towards the results of privatization. As data from several sociological surveys show, about 80% of Russians consider it illegitimate and are in favor of a complete or partial revision of its results. About 90% of Russians are of the opinion that privatization was carried out dishonestly and large fortunes were acquired through dishonest means (72% of entrepreneurs also agree with this point of view). As researchers note, Russian society has developed a stable, “almost consensus” rejection of privatization and the large private property formed on its basis.
On December 23, 1992, Chubais was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation - Chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management.
In June 1993, Chubais took part in the creation of the “Choice of Russia” election bloc. In December 1993, he was elected to the State Duma from the electoral association “Choice of Russia”.
On January 20, 1994, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, retaining the post of Chairman of the State Property Committee.
From November 5, 1994 - January 16, 1996 - First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation for Economic and Financial Policy, Head of the Federal Commission for Securities and the Stock Market.
In 1995-1997 - member of the Foreign Policy Council under the President of the Russian Federation. From April 1995 to February 1996 - manager from Russia in international financial organizations.
In January 1996, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister after the defeat of the pro-government party “Our Home is Russia” in the elections to the State Duma of the 2nd convocation. Yeltsin said: “That the party got 10% of the votes is Chubais! If it weren’t for Chubais, it would be 20%!” In the program “Dolls” (written by Viktor Shenderovich), these words of Yeltsin were conveyed as “Chubais is to blame for everything!”; this formulation has become a very popular expression. The Presidential Decree of January 16, 1996 noted Chubais’s low demands on subordinate federal structures, as well as the failure to fulfill a number of instructions of the President of the Russian Federation.
Soon after resigning from the post of Deputy Prime Minister, Chubais headed Yeltsin's election headquarters.
In February 1996, he created the Civil Society Foundation, on the basis of which the analytical group of B. N. Yeltsin’s election headquarters began to work. As a result of the group’s work, Yeltsin’s rating began to grow and, as a result, in the second round of the presidential elections on July 3, 1996, he received 53.82% of the votes.
In June 1996, he created the Center for the Protection of Private Property Foundation.
In the 1996 presidential campaign, he was involved in the “copier box case,” when on the night of June 19-20, 1996, members of Boris Yeltsin’s election headquarters, headed by Chubais, Arkady Evstafiev and Sergei Lisovsky were detained while trying to take them out of the White House box containing $538,000 in cash. However, after interrogation they were released, and the initiators of their detention - head of the presidential security service Alexander Korzhakov, FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets - were dismissed.
Yeltsin’s daughter Tatyana Dyachenko, who was part of the election headquarters, recalled in December 2009 that Chubais played an important role in carrying Yeltsin to a second presidential term: “When at the beginning of 1996 it became obvious to everyone that the election headquarters, which was headed by the Deputy Prime Minister government Oleg Soskovets is failing his job, Anatoly Chubais convinced the pope of the need to create a new, informal headquarters, which was called an analytical group.”
On July 15, 1996, he was appointed head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. In 1996, he was awarded the qualification category Actual State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st class.
On March 7, 1997, he was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, and from March 17, at the same time, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
On November 20, 1997, he was relieved of his post as Minister of Finance, retaining the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Government. In 1997, five leading reformers from the Government and the Presidential Administration received an advance of $90 thousand each from a publishing company for the not yet written book “The History of Russian Privatization.” The story was publicized as a “writing affair.” The authors of this book included A. Chubais, who at that time held the positions of First Deputy Chairman of the Government and Minister of Finance. In connection with the accusations, President Boris Yeltsin removed him from the post of Minister of Finance, however, the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Government was retained by him. See The Writers' Case (1997).
In 1997, based on an expert survey of the world's leading financiers, he was named the best finance minister of the year by the British magazine Euromoney (with the wording “for his contribution to the successful development of his country’s economy”).
In April 1997, he was appointed manager for the Russian Federation at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
May 1997 - May 1998 - member of the Russian Security Council.
March 23, 1998 - together with Chernomyrdin’s entire cabinet, he was dismissed and relieved of his post as First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government.
From April 1998 to July 2008, he headed RAO UES of Russia. On April 4, 1998, at an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of RAO UES of Russia, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the company. On April 30, 1998, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of RAO UES of Russia.
Since 2000, Chubais has been mentioned in the media as the initiator and one of the developers of the concept of restructuring RAO UES. The reform provided for the withdrawal of power plants, power lines, and electricity sales organizations from the holding structure and the subsequent sale of most of their shares to private investors. Chubais indicated that this was the only opportunity to obtain funds for the modernization of the Russian electricity sector.
After a large-scale power grid failure in Russia in 2005, he was questioned by the prosecutor's office as a witness; the Rodina and Yabloko parties demanded his resignation.
A member of the board of directors of RAO UES, Boris Fedorov, said in 2000 that the restructuring of RAO is being carried out in the interests of the company’s management, as well as affiliated oligarchic and political structures, calling Chubais “the worst manager in Russia, who is trying to become a major oligarch at the expense of the state and shareholders.”
On July 1, 2008, RAO UES was liquidated, the unified energy complex was fragmented into many companies involved in generation, maintenance of electrical networks, and energy sales.
Chubais himself assesses the results of the reform of the energy industry as follows: “The approved program provides for a volume of capacity commissioning in 2006-2010 that was unattainable in Soviet times - 41 thousand megawatts. In 2010 alone we will introduce 22 thousand. At the same time, the maximum volume of annual commissioning in the USSR was 9 thousand megawatts.”
On October 3, 2009, the Rostekhnadzor commission investigating the causes of the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station named A. Chubais among six senior executives of the Russian energy industry involved “in creating conditions conducive to the occurrence of the accident.” The Act of Technical Investigation of the Causes of the Disaster states in particular that the ex-chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia, Anatoly Chubais, “approved the act of the Central Commission for the acceptance into operation of the Sayano-Shushenskoye hydropower complex. At the same time, a proper assessment of the actual safety state of the SSHPP was not given.” The commission’s conclusion also states that “subsequently, measures for the safe operation of the SSHHPP were not developed and implemented (including the decision “to begin work on the construction of an additional spillway at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP as soon as possible”; the impellers were not replaced on hydraulic units, a program of compensating measures has not been developed for the safe operation of hydraulic units involved in power regulation and, therefore, having increased wear).” Anatoly Chubais himself did not deny his share of guilt in the accident.
June 17 - August 28, 1998 - Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for relations with international financial organizations. The media published information that Chubais managed to obtain a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
From May 14 to 17, 1998, he took part in a meeting of the Bilderberg Club in Turnbury (Scotland).
In February 2000, at a meeting of the Government Commission of the Russian Federation on Cooperation with the European Union, he was appointed co-chairman of the Round Table of Industrialists of Russia and the EU on the Russian side.
In July 2000, he became president of the CIS Electric Power Council. He was re-elected to this post in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
In October 2000, he was elected to the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers).
Since September 26, 2008, he has been a member of the international advisory board of J.P. Bank. Morgan & Co.
On September 22, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree appointing Chubais as general director of the Russian Nanotechnology Corporation state corporation. Just two years later, on June 16, 2010, he received the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree, for “many years of conscientious work...” (see in the “Awards” section).
Since 2010 - member of the Skolkovo Foundation Board.
In July 2010, the State Duma adopted a law reorganizing the state corporation Rusnano into an open joint-stock company (OJSC), 100 percent of the shares of which were to become state property. In the same month, the law was approved by the Federation Council, after which the decree on the reorganization of the Civil Code was signed by President Medvedev.
In December 2010, by order of the Prime Minister, the state corporation Rusnano was transformed into OJSC Rusnano (registered in March 2011).
In 2011, Chubais was elected chairman of the board of Rusnano OJSC in connection with the transformation from the State Corporation to the OJSC.
On October 12, 2012, Anatoly Chubais joined the advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of the most authoritative US research centers engaged in analyzing and forecasting the socio-economic situation in the world.
In April 2013, the auditor of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Sergei Agaptsov, stated that during the audit of Rusnano, a large number of violations were identified. The buried program for the development of domestic tablet devices alone brought losses in the amount of 22 billion rubles. At the same time, the average salary of Rusnano managers was about 400,000 rubles. The Vedomosti newspaper writes about the deliberate fraudulent actions of the Rusnano management to siphon off money.
On January 20, 2014, the press service of Rusnano reported that the board of directors of the company plans to make a decision on January 28 on the early termination of the powers of the chairman of the board of the company A. B. Chubais and their transfer to the management company LLC Management Company RUSNANO, on the position of head of which was nominated by Anatoly Chubais.
Anatoly Chubais is one of the most unpopular statesmen in Russia. Thus, according to the results of a social poll by VTsIOM in December 2006, 77% of Russians did not trust Chubais. In a 2000 FOM poll, the overwhelming majority assessed Chubais’s actions negatively; he was characterized as “a person acting to the detriment of Russia,” “a discrediter of reforms,” a “thief,” and a “swindler.” Those surveyed also negatively characterized his work at the head of RAO UES: “it is very cruel to leave children without electricity: hospitals, kindergartens, schools,” “he turns off the electricity - children die in the maternity hospital.” At the same time, a small part of the respondents noted his business qualities: efficiency, good organizational skills, energy. In a Romir survey in August 1999, Chubais was named one of those whose political and economic activities cause the greatest harm to the country. 29% of voters (44 thousand people) in the 199th electoral district of Moscow voted for the officer Vladimir Kvachkov, who was running for the State Duma, accused of organizing the assassination attempt on Chubais.
In 2008, opposition politician Garry Kasparov was very critical of Chubais. Kasparov, in particular, stated: “The ‘liberal reformers’ did not develop the achievements of perestroika, but, on the contrary, buried them,” “Chubais is definitely not lying about one thing - he and his comrades did not lose the country. This country lost”, “the liberals of the 90s do not like their people and are afraid of them.” According to Kasparov, the “deprivations of the early 90s” were in vain.
In 2013, during the “Direct Line” of Russian President V.V. Putin, Perm journalist Sergei Malenko asked a question regarding Chubais’s responsibility for the reforms and the possibility of criminal prosecution.
On March 17, 2005, an attempt was made on Chubais. At the exit from the village of Zhavoronki, Odintsovo district, Moscow region, a bomb was detonated on the route of Chubais’s car, and in addition, the vehicles of the motorcade were fired upon. Chubais was not injured. Three people were detained in connection with the assassination attempt: retired GRU colonel Vladimir Kvachkov and paratroopers of the 45th Airborne Regiment Alexander Naydenov and Robert Yashin.
In the spring of 2006, the case of the assassination attempt on the head of RAO UES was brought to court. The defendants in the case of the attempt on Chubais demanded that it be tried by a jury. The selection of the panel was repeatedly postponed by the court due to the failure of a sufficient number of candidates to appear, as well as due to the illness of defense lawyers; representatives of the injured party filed a motion to dissolve the selected panel due to its bias (“the majority of the jurors are pensioners who will not be able to objectively consider the case”). On October 9, the lawyer of the defendant Kvachkov, Oksana Mikhalkina, reported that her client was removed from the courtroom and suspended from participating in the trial until the end of the hearing due to violations.
On June 5, 2008, the jury of the Moscow Regional Court issued a not guilty verdict. The guilt of the defendants has not been proven. All defendants - retired GRU colonel Vladimir Kvachkov and retired airborne troops Alexander Naydenov and Robert Yashin - were acquitted. On June 6, 2008, the Moscow City Court extended the arrest of Ivan Mironov, against whom a separate criminal case was opened for this attempt, for another 3 months, and on August 27, it extended the period until November 11.
On August 26, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation overturned the acquittal in the case of the assassination attempt on the head of RAO UES of Russia A. Chubais. Thus, the court granted the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and sent the case for a new trial.
On October 13, 2008, the Moscow Regional Court held regular hearings in the case of Kvachkov, Yashin, Naydenov and in the case of Ivan Mironov. During the hearings, it was decided to combine the cases into one.
On December 4, 2008, by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the cassation appeal on the issue of illegal detention of Ivan Mironov was satisfied. Ivan Mironov was released under a guarantee signed by State Duma deputies Ilyukhin, Komoedov, Starodubtsev and the leader of the People's Union party Baburin.
On August 20, 2010, the jury of the Moscow Regional Court finally acquitted the three suspects. At the same time, to the question “Has it been proven that on March 17, 2005, an explosion was carried out on the Minsk highway in order to end the life of the Chairman of RAO UES of Russia A. B. Chubais?” the jury responded, “Yes. Proven” in the following proportion: seven out of twelve jurors - the crime was proven; five - there was no crime (there was an imitation of an attempt).
Family of Anatoly Chubais:
Father - Boris Matveevich Chubais (February 15, 1918 - October 9, 2000) - participant in the Great Patriotic War, retired colonel. In the late 1960s - early 1970s he taught at the Lviv Higher Military-Political School. After retirement, he taught Marxism-Leninism at the Leningrad Mining Institute.
Brother - Igor Borisovich Chubais (b. April 26, 1947) - Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of the Department of Social Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the RUDN University. I have been boxing since childhood.
First wife - Lyudmila. Son Alexey and daughter Olga.
Second wife (since 1990) - Vishnevskaya, Maria Davydovna.
Third wife (since 2012) - director Avdotya Smirnova.
© "Kommersant-Vlast", 11/18/2002
The book by a group of authors, “Privatization the Russian Way,” was finally published - at the end of 1999. At a meeting in Kommersant in 2001, Chubais signed the long-suffering publication: “For the crime department from one of the main criminals.”
Five years ago, members of Anatoly Chubais’s team were fired from the government, accused of receiving inflated fees for an unwritten book on privatization. TV journalist Sergei Dorenko shared with Natalia Gevorkyan his memories of the writers’ case, in which he took a direct part.
It is believed that the writing business and the associated scandal in the press were one of the most significant episodes of the so-called oligarchic wars. I think so too.
My relationship with Chubais did not work out back in 1994. But this is not what has to do with the outbreak of the war, but the fact that by the summer of 1997, the claims of the so-called “oligarchs against Chubais became blatant. Maybe they existed before, but since the summer... It was about the privatization of Svyazinvest.”
Gusinsky wanted Svyazinvest. He did his best to prepare Svyazinvest for sale to himself. They might have delayed the sale, but then Yeltsin ordered payment of salary debts - primarily to the army, in the amount of 10 trillion rubles. This amount was divided by the exchange rate at that time, and it was decided to give it to Svyazinvest for this reasonable price. The buyer was Gusinsky. This was not discussed, as far as I understand.
And suddenly there was some kind of fuss. It turned out that Potanin was also making efforts to take over Svyazinvest. Berezovsky, the informal leader of the big bourgeoisie, put Gusinsky and Potanin on the plane and flew to “settle” the situation in France, where Chubais was vacationing. We agreed: Svyazinvest goes to Gusinsky for the agreed amount, and Volodya Potanin will not play - he will simply stay at the auction, since he has already showed up.
And then something terrible happened. Without declaring war, Potanin’s people, knowing in advance the agreed amount that Gusinsky’s people would call, took and beat him with a little over a hundred million dollars, and, not to be entirely cynical, they could have killed him with five million. And the war began. Writing flows directly from this war.
It was not spontaneous, but very planned, it seems to me. As I now think, the papers on Chubais and his co-authors were collected by the security service of the Most group, the most advanced security service in Moscow at that time. It was known that Chubais had money. Those who transferred abroad guessed that they were abroad. There was talk that $3 million was transferred to Chubais for managing the headquarters in 1996. I did not ask Berezovsky about this. I am sure that he knows for sure, but the data about 3 million did not raise any particular doubts in me. It was assumed that Chubais needed some legal pocket money here. Unlike many other officials and businessmen, Chubais could not live on “black cash” - cash that did not go through bank accounts. I can say with confidence that our special services were hunting for him, and not just people from Most.
So a way to legalize part of the money was invented. Let's assume so. Otherwise, we will have to assume that the rare fees for an unwritten book were just another payment from some businessman for another service. That is a bribe. Alexander Minkin wrote about this somewhere in the newspapers. The people began to seethe, but were not particularly impressed. A newspaper is a newspaper, and in the theatrocracy of Russian life, an audiovisual performance is also needed.
Berezovsky called me and asked if I was going to say something about it. I then hosted the analytical program “Time” on Channel One. I said that newspapers are retold in programs like "Press Review". Since I don’t have such a program, I need to show something. It’s also new, something Minkin didn’t have. That's what they decided on. And a kind of magic began. Old sources in the prosecutor's office came back to life and promised to let me look at the materials on Chubais. Did you come to life by chance? Now, after these years, I think that, of course, Gusinsky was instigating the prosecutors. We began to bargain: we need the originals of the contracts of all the “writers” and the originals of bank payments. With signatures and seals. We made our way to the publishing house. Grigoriev was wanted. I remember that Grigorieva (now Deputy Minister of Press of the Russian Federation - Kommersant).
And so the law enforcement officers laid out the original documents in front of my operators - smart, alive and rustling. Well, I couldn’t resist such luxury. And the second information war began. The first is when we issued a report about the lawlessness during the privatization of Cherepovets Azot by Potanin’s group. And this is the second one - with raids, with catching Koch in elevators, etc. You can read about this on my website.
Let me point out that information wars led to a limitation of behind-the-scenes activities. The clans began to fear each other, which, of course, was useful for society. I said then, and I repeat now: what Berezovsky and Gusinsky forbade Chubais or Potanin from now on is prohibited for both Berezovsky and Gusinsky. In every war, we can discuss at length who benefits from it and what people and interests are behind each step. But above all, it is beneficial to society. While the clans are at knifepoint, they fight in public, and publicity limits them. Now they are quietly sawing up without any publicity. They only scare each other around the corner with criminal cases. The society sits happy and peaceful. It's easier for us to close our eyes.
Writer's Chronicle
On August 4, 1997, Novaya Gazeta published an article by Alexander Minkin “I love it when the plates are very large” - a recording of a conversation between First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Boris Nemtsov and businessman Sergei Lisovsky. The postscript to it stated: “Another Deputy Prime Minister of Russia - Alfred Koch (head of the State Property Committee) - wrote a book “Privatization in Russia: Economics and Politics.” We don’t know how thick it is, but the Swiss company Servina Trading S. . paid Koch $100 thousand in advance. It’s clear that no one needs this book. It’s easier for those who have money for privatization in Russia to buy Koch than his book.”
On August 11, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the State Property Committee Alfred Koch went on vacation to the United States. On August 13, Alfred Koch resigned.
On August 18, Novaya Gazeta published an article by Alexander Minkin, “Koch left his chair so as not to end up on a bunk,” which reported that the amount of Koch’s fee was suspiciously large. “Koch did not sell a book, but something completely different,” the author concluded.
On September 11, Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Skuratov said that he had given instructions to check the accuracy of information about Koch receiving $100 thousand for an unwritten book. On October 1, the Moscow prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against Koch "on grounds of abuse of power."
On October 28, the Kommersant newspaper published an interview with Anatoly Chubais, in which he, in particular, said: “We have prepared a fundamental monograph that will answer the most important questions of the development of private property in Russia, its creation, and for this we have assembled a team that, in fact, , and was engaged in the creation of private property in our country: Chubais, Mostovoy, Boyko, Kazakov, Kokh...". On November 12, Alexander Minkin, in an interview with Ekho Moskvy, said regarding royalties for the book: “This is a hidden form of bribe... By being involved in the State Property Committee, officials had the opportunity to earn... tens of millions of dollars. But it is very difficult to legalize these amounts, and here they are Now we’ve decided to do this: we’ll write some books, and publishers will pay us big fees for them... This is theft.” On the same day, Anatoly Chubais announced that the book was finished and the manuscript had been submitted to the Segodnya-Press publishing house. According to Chubais, each of the authors received $90 thousand as a fee, most of which the authors are going to donate to a fund to support entrepreneurship.
On November 13, Senior Assistant to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Alexander Zvyagintsev reported that the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office became interested in the circumstances surrounding the publication of the monograph "History of Privatization in Russia." All facts are attached to the criminal case of Alfred Koch.
On November 14, First Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Alexander Kazakov was dismissed.
On November 15, the head of the State Property Committee, Maxim Boyko, and the head of the FSDN, Petr Mostovoy, resigned. On the same day, Anatoly Chubais met with Boris Yeltsin and Viktor Chernomyrdin “behind closed doors” and also resigned. The President did not accept the resignation. On the same day, the program “Time” with Sergei Dorenko was released. TV viewers were shown copies of payment documents on the transfer of royalties to the authors of a book about privatization. The presenter commented: “Chubais, Boyko, Kazakov, Kokh and Mostovoy... merged in creative harmony and wrote a book about privatization in Russia... Now... Chubais handed over the entire team of accomplices, and he himself is trying to get out. How many and what kind of bribes is he hoping for? get Chubais?"
On November 20, Anatoly Chubais was relieved of his post as Minister of Finance. He retained the position of first deputy prime minister until March 1998.
In May 1998, Alfred Koch brought his book from the USA. It was called "The Sale of the Soviet Empire."
In December 1999, the case of abuse of power, which by that time had turned from a “writer’s” to an “apartment” case (Koch was charged with illegally obtaining an apartment in 1993), was dropped under an amnesty. At the same time, the Vagrius publishing house published the book “Privatization the Russian Way.” The fee paid to the authors was, according to the publishing house's employees, $10 thousand.
"I know my opponents well"
Anatoly Chubais outlined his view of the writers’ case back in 1998, in an interview with Kommersant on March 5. Here are excerpts.
In fact, it was like this... When I returned to power (after the presidential elections of 1996 - “Power”), I said many times: “Guys, the condition is simple - equal rules of the game. Don’t be offended, I will turn anyone who will apply to be chosen..." "Svyazinvest" seemed to be the first touchstone... Before the competition for "Svyazinvest" it was said more than once:
whoever pays the most will get it... Well, it was unthinkable after international auditors were involved... after our statements that Russia would adhere to the laws of a civilized market, it was unthinkable to take everything and destroy it. Whoever paid the most became the owner... Let's forget that in the application of the consortium representing the interests of Gusinsky, the figure turned out to be lower than that of their competitors? For the sake of tactical gain, let’s lighten the budget by a hundred or two million dollars? Are we giving Svyazinvest to Gusinsky?.. The campaign (the case of the writers - “Vlast”) was worked out carefully and echeloned. Almost everyone with whom Chubais dealt in Moscow or Leningrad was interviewed; they were looking for those with whom I had bad relations. Naturally, they found it... I'm not even talking about the fact that all phones are tapped, including those of his wife's friends, that money is offered for any negative information about the past, present and future of Chubais... Work is also underway on past places of service. At the State Property Committee, when the proceedings began in the so-called writers’ case, they first confiscated all the documentation for 1997, then for 1995, and so on until 1991... Since I know my opponents well... I can both predict and assess the scope. However, the output is zero, it’s impossible to create a criminal case...
Actors. Five years later
Anatoly Chubais, writer
On November 20, 1997, he lost his post as Minister of Finance. In March 1998, he resigned from the post of First Deputy Prime Minister. From April 30, 1998 to the present - Chairman of the Board of RAO UES of Russia. Since August 1999, he has been co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces; in December 1999, he was the head of the election headquarters of the Union of Right Forces.
Maxim Boyko, writer
On November 15, 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation. Since December 1997 - General Director of the Video International group of companies. Since June 2000 - head of the supervisory board of studio "2B". Continues to hold the post of General Director of the management company CJSC Video International Group of Companies.
Dmitry Vasiliev, writer In October 1999, he resigned from the post of chairman of the Federal Securities Market Commission (released by presidential decree on February 1, 2000). Then he became executive director of the Institute of Corporate Law and Management. In mid-September 2002, he was appointed deputy chairman of the board of Mosenergo, where he currently works.
Arkady Evstafiev, writer
In 1997 - General Director of the Center for the Protection of Private Property Foundation, member of the board of directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - Deputy General Director of Mosenergo for Relations and Public Relations. Since 2001 - acting general director, since April 15, 2002 - general director of the company.
Alexander Kazakov, writer
On November 14, 1997, he was relieved of his duties as First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. In October 2001, he was appointed a member of the board of directors, head of the property management department of OAO Gazprom. In December 2001, he was elected a member of the Federation Council from the legislative assembly of the Rostov region.
Alfred Koch, writer
In August 1997, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation. Since September 1, 1998 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Montes Auri company. Since June 2000 - General Director of Gazprom Media. On April 3, 2001, he was elected a member of the NTV board of directors. On October 12, 2001, he left Gazprom Media.
Petr Mostovoy, writer
In November 1997, he resigned from his post as head of the Federal Service for Insolvency (Bankruptcy). Since December 15, 1997 - First Vice President of the Almazy Rossii-Sakha company. From April 1999 to the present - Chairman of the public organization "Russian Business Round Table". Member of the political council of the Union of Right Forces.
Boris Berezovsky, mastermind On November 4, 1997, he was dismissed from the post of Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, from April 1998 to March 1999
year - executive secretary of the CIS. From December 19, 1999 to July 2000 - State Duma deputy. In November 2000 he emigrated. In 2001 he created the Liberal Russia movement, from which he was expelled in October 2002.
Vladimir Gusinsky, inspiration
In January 1997, he headed Media-Most CJSC. In 2000 he came into conflict with the authorities. On July 20, 2000, he signed an agreement to sell shares of Media-Most to Gazprom. He left Russia and was put on the international wanted list. For some time he was under arrest in Spain. In April 2001 he left for Israel.
Alexander Minkin, performer
In 1997 he worked as a columnist for Novaya Gazeta. In 2000 he returned to Moskovsky Komsomolets. Currently, he is a columnist for Moskovsky Komsomolets. He is engaged in journalism. He never conducted any more investigations on the same scale as the writers’ case.
Sergey Dorenko, performer
In 1997-2000, he held senior positions at ORT and hosted an original program in which he accused high-ranking officials, in particular Yevgeny Primakov and Yuri Luzhkov. On September 11, 2000 he was taken off the air. At the beginning of 2001, he was fired from ORT. On November 9, 2001, he was sentenced to four years probation for hooliganism.
