Yuri Trutnev biography. Yuri Trutnev

He became Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation on August 31, 2013, that is, he has been in this position for almost exactly 5 years.

But he is also the former mayor of Perm, and the governor of the Perm region, and the minister of resources and ecology, and even an assistant to the president. As they say, he is a Swede, a reaper, and a player of the pipe.

Now Yuri Trutnev is 62 years old and he still remains as Putin’s plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern Federal District.

Trutnev has been married three times. Has 5 children: two daughters and three sons. Now his wife is Natalya Petrova. He proposed to this woman 8 years ago. It was his previous wife, Marina Lvovna, who gave him two sons, Alexander and Dmitry. She is a master of sports in rhythmic gymnastics. Now her fate is not entirely known, but it is known that in Perm she owns her own clothing store.

Trutnev is interested in sports, namely auto racing and karate.

And in 2016 he was honorably awarded the Order "For services to the Fatherland" IV degree, that is, for many years of “conscientious” work. Hah.

Yes, he certainly worked very conscientiously. Now you will find out for yourself how much!

Some people are very mistaken in thinking that Trutnev is a completely good person:

But why on earth does this good man and a worthy presidential candidate earn hundreds of millions of rubles annually? The answer is as simple as three rubles. He's robbing us all. What other official in the world can boast of such a large salary as Yuri Petrovich? This good man in 2009 and 2012 broke the record as the person who earned the largest amount among the entire government.

In order not to be verbose, I will tell you from his own declarations how much he earns.

So, 2015. Our faithful servant of Putin earned 153 million rubles.

2016. The amount increased by as much as 203 million, that is, he has already earned 356 million.

2017- 377 million.
Indeed, having reviewed so many different declarations, I have never seen such impressive amounts.

But to be honest, this is not all that Trutnev can boast of.

Two large residential buildings, a land plot with an area of ​​3742 sq.m., just a huge pile of technical buildings and non-residential premises. And he completely provided for his wife and children from start to finish: each had their own house, their own plot.

The car is from BMW, his declaration shows X6, its price is:

This is how, friends, this is how our officials profit from you and me. They live in luxurious conditions, in houses of incredible beauty, relax on their own yachts, drive new cars almost every day, and provide their children and relatives with a further calm and luxurious life.

What can an ordinary average Russian do with a salary of 20 thousand? What kind of life will he provide for his children? Not even for the children, but for myself. None. Poverty and poverty. There are more than 20 million people below the poverty line in Russia, while officials are already going crazy. May God be their judge.

Yuri Trutnev - Mayor of Perm, Governor of the Perm Territory. Head of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation. Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Council member "United Russia".

Childhood and youth of Trutnev Yuri Petrovich

The future statesman was born on March 1, 1956 in the Perm region, in the village of Polazne. The small town is located near the beautiful Kama Reservoir. It was there that his happy years of childhood and youth passed. He grew up in a not poor family; his parents worked as oil workers.

His father was in charge of the site and he was often called to work on weekends, holidays and even at night, because there were always accidents and breakdowns on the lines. The head of the family was not at home for 2-3 days, all the difficulties of housework fell on the shoulders of the mother. But the fact that the father did not complain or leave his job under any circumstances was reflected in the character of the future capitalist. He inherited his passion and determination for his profession from his parents. He graduated from the local village school, was an ordinary student and did not amaze everyone with his abilities and talents, then he entered the Perm Polytechnic Institute. He followed in the footsteps of his parents and also chose their profession and entered the faculty where future specialists in the oil industry are trained.

Yuri Trutnev: “The Eastern Economic Forum is in demand”

From the first to the third year, Yuri did not particularly like his future profession and studies; during these years he felt all the delights of student life, but in the fourth year he surprised everyone and worked hard and received a long-awaited increased scholarship.

In 1978, the young student graduated from university and received a diploma of higher education. Yuri Trutnev was a wise guy beyond his years; during his student life he decided to work in a new oil and gas organization "Polazneft", there he gained work experience and acquired a lot of skills and knowledge. In this department, he served as an assistant driller and gas and oil production operator.

Since he graduated from the fourth year with an increased scholarship, he was enrolled among the best students of the university. And the best student of the Perm Polytechnic Institute, Yuri Trutnev, was sent to the Perm Research Institute as a junior researcher.

Yuri Trutnev: “The Perm region has wonderful prospects”

The beginning of the career and commercial activities of Yuri Trutnev

Yuri Petrovich began his career as a junior researcher at the Perm Research Institute. But the work quickly became boring for him, and he decided not to engage in scientific activities. He left the institute and refused graduate school, but his teachers and staff shared with the press that they expected a professorship from him. But Yuri considered that the position of instructor of the Komsomol city committee would be much more important for him and for society. His responsibilities included organizing all kinds of student fraternities, construction teams and youth rallies. Trutnev was delighted with this work and enjoyed coming up with something new for the students. This passion for work was inspired by his love for sports, wrestling, sambo, tourism and karate.

At the beginning of perestroika, Yuri Trutnev decided that he wanted to connect his life with the cooperative movement and this matter fascinated him very much. He became interested in how an organization could earn money itself and manage the money it earned. He set himself the goal of organizing his own cooperative or company. To do this, he left his job and decided to start a new business.

Most of all, his mother was worried about an incomprehensible and unknown matter; she did not understand how he could exchange a good position with a stable salary for a ridiculous decision. He and his companions created a small cooperative called “Contact”; it was located in a rented room on the ground floor of the sports committee’s territory.

They earned their first money easily; they came up with a program of sports performances and performed independently in small towns. The partners collected a considerable amount of money and donated it entirely to the development and installation of training complexes. After some time, quite a bit, good simulators were supplied to schools and boarding schools in the Perm region.

In the 1990s, the Contact company was replaced by the EKS Limited organization. She specialized in supplying food products to the region from abroad. Capital grew and business flourished. After some time, Yuri Trutnev opened a new company - Doctor EKS, which supplied imported medicines.

Yuri Petrovich loved his job very much and helped him develop in every possible way, but over time he decided that this was not the peak of his capabilities. I decided to try myself in a political career. He moved up the career ladder very quickly and at the beginning of his career he took a good place. Yuri Petrovich immediately took a place among a number of officials of the local district, where he became the head of the Committee on Economic Policy and Taxes. Already in 1996, Yuri Petrovich Trutnev was appointed Mayor of Perm. With the arrival of such an important position, things began to improve in the city and region, the people were very pleased with this representative of the authorities. Thanks to him, a tunnel was built under the Trans-Siberian Railway. This project has changed the transport situation in the city for the better.

Thanks to his good reputation, at the end of 2000, Yuri Petrovich became the governor of the Perm region. Under his leadership, the unification of the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug with the Perm region took place. And in 2003, a referendum agreed to the unification of these two territories, and the Perm Territory was formed.

Yuri Trutnev communicates with young people at the Islands forum

In 2004, the capitalist heading the Perm region was offered to become the head of the Ministry of Nature, instead of Vitaly Artyukhov, who had held this position for the last three years. Trutnev could not refuse and headed the Ministry of Nature of the Russian Federation until 2012. His first, important and serious task in this position was the formation of inspections of the Sakhalin-2 project, after which Gazprom became its controlling partner and shareholder, receiving 52% of the shares.

Already in 2012, Yuri Trutnev became the first assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He was obliged to supervise the resource department and supervise the State Council. Already in August 2013, Yuri Petrovich was appointed to a new position - he became the plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern District.

Family life of Yuri Trutnev

The government official has five children - two daughters and three sons. He is currently married for the third time. The second wife, Marina Lvovna Trutneva, is an athlete. She is an Honored Master of Sports in rhythmic gymnastics. Now she has a clothing store in Perm. Both of his sons, Dmitry and Alexander, were born from his second wife. The businessman married for the third time in 2006, to Natalya Sergeevna Petrova.

Yuri Trutnev now

From an early age he was interested in sports, but in recent years he became seriously interested in karate. He has the highest degree of wrestling - fifth dan, and since 2005 he has become the chairman of the Union of Martial Arts of the Russian Federation. And since 2011 - co-chairman and one of the organizers of the World Kyokushin Union. He is also an avid extreme sports enthusiast and racing driver.

Governor of the Perm Territory, thanks to whom the region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug united. Former Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation. Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation in the Far East.

In 1978 he graduated from the Perm Polytechnic Institute.

The former mayor of Perm and governor of the region, Yuri Trutnev, led the process of uniting the region with the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug into a single Perm region. In 2004-2012, the official headed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, then worked for a year as an assistant to the president. Since August 2013 - Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far East. Reappointed to the position in May 2018. Member of the Supreme Council of United Russia.

Childhood and youth

Born in the spring of 1956 in the Perm region. In the village of Polazne, located on the banks of the picturesque Kama Reservoir, I spent my childhood and youth. He grew up in a family where both parents were oil workers.

The father, who managed the site, was often awakened from bed by night calls: breakdowns and accidents on the lines happened regularly, the head of the family was absent from home for 2-3 days. My mother also experienced all the hardships of working in the industry. But Yuri Trutnev took over his parents’ passion for the profession and, after graduating from the village school, followed in their footsteps: he became a student at the Perm Polytechnic Institute, choosing the faculty where future oil workers were trained.

Yuri studied the first three years without much zeal, but in the fourth he became so enthusiastic that he earned an increased scholarship.

In 1978, the young engineer was awarded a diploma of higher education. At the time of graduation from university, Trutnev turned out to be savvy both theoretically and practically: during his student years he worked in the oil and gas production department of Polaznaneft, gaining experience as an assistant driller and gas and oil production operator.

According to the distribution, one of the best students was sent to the Perm Research Institute as a junior researcher.

Career

Scientific work quickly bored Yuri Trutnev, and after 3 years he left the research institute, switching to Komsomol work. The enterprising young man was entrusted with the position of instructor of the Perm City Committee of the Komsomol, whose duties included organizing student construction teams and youth rallies.

In 1986, a sports chapter appeared in Trutnev’s work biography: the 30-year-old Komsomol functionary was appointed chairman of the sports committee of the Perm Executive Committee. The decision to entrust this area of ​​work to Yuri Trutnev was made taking into account his long-time passion for martial arts and tourism.

At the end of the 1980s, Yuri Trutnev showed an entrepreneurial spirit: together with like-minded people, he joined the cooperative movement that was gaining strength during the perestroika years. According to the official’s recollections, the most worried person was my mother, who did not understand why she should leave a solid position in the regional executive committee to work in business, which was unpredictable and risky.

The cooperative was named “Contact”, renting a room in the sports committee for an office. At first, Contact organized sports competitions in Perm, in which the cooperators themselves participated. Then, having collected the first capital, enterprising young people invested it in the development and production of simulators, which they sold to schools, technical schools and universities in the region.

In the 1990s, the Kontakt cooperative transformed into the EKS Limited company, which traded food products in the Perm region. In the mid-1990s, Trutnev headed the joint-stock company "E. K.S. International". Entrepreneurial activities expanded from selling exercise equipment to trading in cars and chocolate. Yuri Trutnev and his partner became co-owners of the 7ya chain of stores.

In 1994, Yuri Trutnev became a deputy of the Perm City Duma and the Legislative Assembly of the region, where he was entrusted with the leadership of the Committee on Economics and Taxes. Two years later, the former entrepreneur became the head of the city mayor’s office, and in December 2000, Trutnev was elected governor of the region: in the first round, he left behind the current head of the region.

At the end of 2003, a referendum was held, the result of which was the unification of the Perm region with the Komi-Permyak autonomy. In the spring of 2004, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree appointing Yuri Trutnev as Minister of Natural Resources in the Cabinet of Ministers of Mikhail Fradkov. In May, who replaced Medvedev in the post, reappointed Trutnev to a ministerial post.

In the spring of 2012, Yuri Petrovich became an assistant to the president, whose responsibilities included supervising the State Council. A year later, in the summer, Trutnev was appointed deputy chairman of the government and presidential envoy to the Far Eastern District of the Federation.

In 2014, ITAR-TASS disseminated false information about the resignation of Yuri Trutnev, confusing the plenipotentiary representative for the Far Eastern District with Viktor Ishaev, who had previously been removed from office.

The presidential decree, incorrectly interpreted by the media, is a technological document on the removal of the previous plenipotentiary from office. The news was duplicated by the central media, which soon apologized for the confusion.

Yuri Trutnev is interested in auto racing and kyokushinkai. Since 2011 - co-chairman of the World Kyokushin Union. In March 2018, he became the owner of 6th dan of the International Organization of this type of karate.

Personal life

Yuri Trutnev is married for the third time. There is no information about the first student marriage. He met his second wife, master of sports in rhythmic gymnastics Marina Trutneva, at the city committee of the Komsomol. The wife gave birth to her husband's sons Dmitry and Alexander. She remained in Perm, where she heads the Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.

The eldest son, Dmitry Trutnev, is a financial adviser to the Central Cooperative Bank and is on the board of directors. Alexander Trutnev, after graduating from Perm school, became a student at a European university.

In 2009, Trutnev married Natalya Petrova, who bore her husband a daughter and twin sons.

Yuri Trutnev now

In May 2018, Deputy Prime Minister Trutnev was reappointed to the post and entered the. Vladimir Putin left the official as plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern Federal District.

Information on the work of the department is updated on the official website of the plenipotentiary representative. In April 2018, Yuri Trutnev visited Mongolia, where he met with the president of the republic and discussed a project to build a hub terminal for the export of coal and cement to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

On May 22, Yuri Petrovich introduced the new Minister for the Development of the Far East, a native of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, thanking his predecessor Alexander Galushka for the work.

For 2017, the Deputy Prime Minister declared income in the amount of 377.28 million rubles.

Awards

• 2016 – Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree
• 1998 – Order of Honor
• 2006 – Certificate of Honor from the Government of the Russian Federation
• 2011 – P. A. Stolypin Medal, II degree
• 2009 – Order of Honor (South Ossetia)

Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far East and Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev gained scandalous fame thanks to the services of the shaman “Nicholas with the bells.” Trutnev trusted the psychic so much that he could advise him to his companion, billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who emigrated from Russia. In addition to other tasks, “Nikolai with the bells” tried to damage Rybolovlev’s wife, who was trying to sue for family property during the divorce. Experts suspect that Trutnev is the shadow owner of these assets. Both the plenipotentiary and the oligarch still sincerely believe in the magical talent of the shaman.

An important source of informal income for Yuri Trutnev is the Alrosa diamond corporation, which he supervises. The gem control center, which makes Trutnev richer every day, is located in a white three-story building on the northern outskirts of Moscow at 12 Smolnaya Street. The Art Nouveau building looks like a large Soviet cultural center. You can only get inside with a special pass. The main entrance leads into a spacious hall, in the center of which there are shelves with jewelry, and around the perimeter there are small offices for viewing jewelry. The second floor is a production area with seven-meter ceilings: diamonds are cut here.

In Soviet times, the building on Smolnaya housed the production of the Moscow cutting plant "Crystal", and now the premises belong to OJSC "Almazny Mir" (52.37% belongs to the Federal Property Management Agency, the rest to Alrosa and several minority shareholders). In 2002, Gokhran, the Central Excise Customs, the Assay Office and the customs broker TBSS moved under the roof of the Diamond World. Until recently, it was possible to register the import and export of all types of precious stones and metals and pass state control only here.

In September 2016, another special post was opened - in the Far East. “Vladivostok fits more logically into the structure of trade relations between Yakutia (Alrosa’s mining center) and China than, for example, Antwerp,” Trutnev said in September 2016 at the opening of the diamond exchange in Vladivostok. Forbes sources at Alrosa are confident that Trutnev has the “highest influence” on the company. Every Monday, Alrosa President Andrei Zharkov, who took office in April 2015, reports to Trutnev on the state of affairs.

For Trutnev and Zharkov, 2016 was eventful: a diamond center opened in Vladivostok, a 10.9% stake was privatized, the export duty on diamonds was abolished, and joint projects were being prepared in Africa.

Brokerage rollback frequency

The idea of ​​developing a diamond cluster in Primorye is attributed to Trutnev. But the TBSS project is being handled by the same customs broker that processes diamonds at Smolnaya; it is he who owns Eurasian Diamond Center LLC. The company will lease space to residents of the cluster, engage in transportation, customs clearance and storage of valuable cargo, explained Evgeniy Sachkov, general director of the Eurasian Diamond Center.

Almost the entire export flow of diamonds passes through TBSS. Historically, Alrosa, the largest diamond exporter, exclusively cooperates with TBSS. TBSS's revenue for 2015 amounted to 1.18 billion rubles, net profit - 405 million rubles.

TBSS was founded in the 1990s by people from the state special communications, the abbreviation in the company’s name stands for “Customs Broker of Special Communications,” said participants in the diamond and logistics markets. The co-founder of TBSS in 2002 was Mikhail Poletaev, whose full namesake in the late 1990s worked as the first deputy head of the Main Center for Special Communications (GCSC), and in 2007 he was acting. O. Head of the State Center for Social Sciences. The current main owner of TBSS, Sergei Khiryakov, also comes from special communications, say two of his acquaintances. In 1999, the Yakut news agency YASIA called Sergei Khiryakov deputy head of the State Center for International Relations and Customs Operations. How did his company manage to virtually monopolize the processing of diamond exports?

TBSS fulfills its function, testifies one of the diamond market participants: “On the same day that the goods leave (to TBSS), I receive documents.” TBSS charges about $2,500 per $1 million of item cost (0.25%). TBSS's competitive advantage comes from its registration in the Diamond World. State control procedures actually take place on the territory of TBSS, so valuables are necessarily placed in the broker’s warehouses.

A broker can influence the time of cargo clearance and delay it if this cargo is carried by a competitor, complains a manager involved in the transportation of jewelry. There is no alternative to TBSS, because its warehouse is the only place where controllers of Gokhran, headed by Andrei Yurin, are present, explains one of the broker’s competitors. All over the world, global jewelry carriers act as customs brokers: Brink’s, Malca-Amit, Ferrari. TBSS only deals with customs clearance and engages third-party companies for transportation. “This is an outright farce,” says Oleg Khanukaev, president of the African Mining Company (AMC) diamond mining holding.

This approach is consistent with world practice, Andrey Yurin is not ashamed. The main owner of TBSS Khiryakov is well acquainted with Yurin’s first deputy, Andrey Kutepov. He oversees customs at Gokhran.

“Diamond World” became the prototype of the diamond center in Vladivostok, says an Alrosa representative. For the Ministry of Finance, the appearance of TBSS at the special post in Vladivostok came as a surprise. “We did not take part in making this decision,” says Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev. TBSS and Alrosa agreed on this after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Trutnev, the press service of the diamond monopoly responded.

Launders diamonds through Leviev

The creation of a diamond cluster in Vladivostok caused a lot of noise and allowed Alrosa to lobby for changes in legislation.” By the time the second special post for customs clearance of diamond exports was opened, the Russian authorities had lifted restrictions on the export of large diamonds and, in agreement with the WTO, canceled the export duty. “The speed with which decisions are made is amazing,” admits one of the market participants. Exporting diamonds has become much easier.

“Our goal is to increase direct sales to China and the countries of the Asia-Pacific region by at least two to three times,” says Alrosa President Andrey Zharkov. In 2015, sales to China and India brought Alrosa 44 billion rubles, or 20% of revenue, according to the company’s IFRS. Legislative initiatives will allow Alrosa to increase diamond exports by 20–25%, or approximately $1 billion.

Almost 70% of the world diamond market is occupied by Indian manufacturers. They often sell cut stones 20–25% cheaper than the market, says Maxim Shkadov, general director of the Smolensk Kristall plant: “They need cash to close the loan and get the next one. Otherwise they face bankruptcy.” And the first resident of the diamond cluster in Vladivostok was the Indian cutting company Shree Ramkrishna Export Private. The Indian group KGK Diamonds announced plans to invest up to $8 million in a new production facility in Vladivostok.

Foreigners organize processing in Russia only for preferential access to raw materials. KGK has already asked Alrosa to conclude a five-year contract (currently a maximum of three years) and to increase the volume of raw materials sold. The group annually purchases $200 million worth of diamonds from Alrosa. The list of Alrosa’s long-term clients includes three companies of the KGK group. Also widely represented among Alrosa’s clients are the structures of the Israeli billionaire and Trutnev’s longtime acquaintance, Lev Leviev. From the archives of the Ruspres agency it follows that Leviev was suspected of diamond smuggling.

In 2016, Leviev, with a fortune of $1 billion, entered the Forbes world ranking and took 15th place on the Israeli list. On the website of LLD Diamonds, which manages Leviev’s diamond projects, the billionaire is called the “diamond king”, and the company itself is the world’s largest private diamond producer. The company also points out that Leviev “made a name for himself by ousting the De Beers diamond cartel by independently striking deals with diamond-producing countries such as Russia and Angola.”

It was diamonds that brought Leviev together with Yuri Trutnev. They knew each other well since the mid-1990s, when Trutnev, as the mayor of Perm, visited Leviev’s production in Israel, says former governor of the Perm region (now Perm region) Gennady Igumnov. This official covered Rybolovlev’s (actually Trutnev and Rybolovlev’s) business from the interest of law enforcement agencies. Trutnev accompanied Igumnov on that trip. Perm officials and Leviev agreed to create the Kama-Crystal cutting enterprise, which later became a monopolist in cutting Perm diamonds - close in quality to Namibian diamonds, Igumnov claims. And when Trutnev took the governor’s chair, Leviev also gained control over the Perm miner Uralalmaz. In 2013, Uralalmaz ran out of reserves and went bankrupt. Kama-Crystal was liquidated in 2014.

After Trutnev became the curator of Alrosa, Leviev’s business on the Russian diamond market went uphill. In 2014, Alrosa’s list of long-term clients included only one billionaire’s structure - the Moscow cutter Ruiz Diamonds. A year later, in addition to Ruiz, the list included LLD Diamonds and the Yakut Tunalgy LLC, affiliated with Leviev. In addition, in October 2015, UralTransService LLC won the auction for the development of a diamond deposit in the Perm region with total reserves of more than 1 million carats. Until August 2013, the company belonged to Uralalmaz, and then went to the Moscow-based AV-Invest. Its owner and general director, Mikhail Medvedev, heads the Ruiz Leviev Group of Companies and is on the board of directors of his Moscow Jewelry Factory. In addition, AV-Invest is registered at the same address as the Ruiz Group of Companies, and the telephone numbers are the same.

Zharkov confirmed that three of Leviev’s companies are now among Alrosa’s long-term clients. At the same time, he noted that LLD has been a long-term client since 2012, and Tunalgy is a long-time client of Alrosa for one-time transactions. According to Zharkov, Alrosa “is trying to sell no more than $20 million per month to one person.” Each of Leviev’s two Russian enterprises purchases $2–3 million worth of diamonds from Alrosa per month, he notes. It turns out that the structures of the Israeli “wallet” of Yuri Trutnev may have access to Alrosa diamonds worth approximately $300 million per year.

At the beginning of 2014, Alrosa bought 11 thousand square meters for $91.5 million. m in the Aquamarine complex on Ozerkovskaya embankment near AFI Development. This development company belongs to Leviev. In fact, the residential apartments had to be converted into an office, an Alrosa employee complains. Almost 2 billion rubles were spent on repairs, as follows from government procurement data.

Through the diamond center in Vladivostok, Trutnev opened up another route for Leviev to Alrosa’s raw materials. LLD Diamonds became the largest buyer at the first diamond exchange auction, buying almost half of the diamonds. Auctions at the site of the Eurasian Diamond Center will become regular, Zharkov said.

Suleiman's acquaintances

“If no measures are taken, we will go to Africa after 2021,” Alrosa Vice President Rinat Gizatulin stunned the participants of the Geological Exploration 2016 forum, held in September. There, the cost of geological exploration is 14 times cheaper than in Russia, he explained. Alrosa President Andrei Zharkov rushed to establish ties with Africa almost immediately after his appointment. Just two months later, he already met with Manuel Vicente, vice president of Angola, where Alrosa is involved in several projects. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has long-standing ties with the USSR and Russia. His daughter Isabel dos Santos, born of a Russian wife, owns assets worth $3 billion.

An entire team from the gold mining company Polyus Gold flew to Angola with Zharkov, says a source close to Alrosa shareholders. The controlling stake in Polyus Gold belongs to Said Kerimov, the son of businessman Suleiman Kerimov.

The day after Zharkov’s meeting with Vicente, the Angolan press reported that Alrosa planned large-scale investments in the country, in particular in the project to develop the Luaxe diamond mine with a total value of $1 billion. Alrosa could receive up to 30% in the project and claims reserves of up to 350 million carats. The company's current reserves are estimated at 0.66–1 billion carats of diamonds.

Kerimov has been interested in Alrosa since 2011. Then the government was considering the issue of complete privatization of the company, and Kerimov intended to buy it out. Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich works in the Russian government. His wife Zumrud Rustamova received large sums from Suleiman Kerimov and at the same time represented the interests of the state in Alrosa.

A friend of the Rustamov-Dvorkovich family had serious ambitions, a federal official claims: “He didn’t just want to compete with De Beers and Anglo American, he had a coherent concept of how Russia could dominate the world diamond market.” Kerimov enlisted the support of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, but the deal fell through. The head of Yakutia, Yegor Borisov, said that he was against the full privatization of Alrosa and appealed personally to Putin. The head of the Ministry of Finance, Alexei Kudrin, also drew the president’s attention to the low valuation of Alrosa (about $9 billion). Kudrin was also involved in Alrosa; the corporation’s funds were transferred to the structures of Kudrin’s friends among the leaders of St. Petersburg criminal groups.

As a result, only 16% of the company was put up for sale. Kerimov lost interest in the deal and, before the IPO, sold his stake (1%) in Alrosa.

The connection between Kerimov and Alrosa was discussed again after Zharkov’s arrival. The reason was the appointment of several people from Kerimov’s structures to significant positions in Alrosa. The sales division of the company was headed by former top manager of Uralkali Oleg Petrov, and Andrei Rodionov, a native of Nafta Moskva, became Zharkov’s financial adviser. It was Dmitry Rybolovlev who sold Uralkali to Kerimov. Zharkov claims that he met Kerimov when he was already the president of Alrosa, through the CEO of Polyus Gold, Pavel Grachev. According to him, Petrov was recommended by the current co-owner of Uralkali, Dmitry Mazepin, and he contacted Rodionov himself.

Kerimov is familiar not only with Zharkov, but, more importantly, with Trutnev. They met even before Trutnev became the presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District. Uralkali, owned by Rybolovlev and then Kerimov, is one of the largest taxpayers in the Perm region. At the same time, it was believed that Yuri Trutnev had an informal share in this company, the interests of which he lobbied for.

Kerimov became the owner of Uralkali in 2010. Trutnev then headed the Ministry of Natural Resources and the government commission to prevent the negative consequences of the disaster at the Uralkali mine. Thanks to the commission, Dmitry Rybolovlev and other leaders of Uralkali did not go to jail. After some time, Murad Kerimov became Trutnev’s adviser. This is the nephew of Suleiman Kerimov, says a former official of the Ministry of Natural Resources. In 2013, Murad Kerimov, following Trutnev, moved to the presidential administration, and then, when he was appointed plenipotentiary representative in the Far Eastern Federal District, he became his assistant. In 2016, Murad Kerimov was appointed Deputy Minister of Natural Resources. He took the place of Rinat Gizatulin, who became vice-president of Alrosa and is considered Trutnev’s creation. Close ties and appointments gave rise to market rumors about plans to merge Alrosa and Polyus Gold. But both companies subsequently denied negotiations.

Polyus claimed 4% of Luashe. But now the company has distanced itself from the project. Its prospects are unclear: the Ministry of Finance is wary of projects in Africa. And the relationship between Trutnev and Kerimov could have deteriorated. The reason is considered to be the fight for the Sukhoi Log gold deposit, which both companies lay claim to.

Kerimov’s influence on Alrosa is not the main one. Since the time of Alexei Kudrin, the Ministry of Finance has been closely monitoring everything that happens in the company, and representatives of the Yakut administration (the authorities of Yakutia and the uluses own a total of 33% of Alrosa) find fault with everything that seems to them “an attempt by other shareholders to pull the blanket over themselves.” Egor Borisov said that Kerimov does not influence strategic decision-making at Alrosa. “We clearly control this,” the head of Yakutia emphasized.

Battle of the Yakut Khans

There are a lot of Alrosas in Yakutia, says Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev. In houses, in maintaining infrastructure, in providing heat and work. “This is everything for us!” - admitted the head of Yakutia Egor Borisov in October at a press conference in Moscow.

In 2015, the company paid 43.3 billion rubles to the budget of Yakutia (77% of its tax and non-tax payments). Alrosa is also the largest employer (about 40 thousand employees) in the region. In 2015, Alrosa’s social investments amounted to 5.4 billion rubles. Of these, the company allocated 1.7 billion to maintain local infrastructure, and 2.9 billion to charity.

Under an agreement with the Yakut government, Alrosa annually transfers more than 500 million rubles to the Fund for Future Generations of Yakutia. Formally, these funds are spent on social infrastructure. In fact, the money is spent in an extremely non-transparent manner, note two sources close to the Yakut authorities. In 2011, the republic’s prosecutor’s office revealed that the foundation carried out commercial activities “not pursuing socially beneficial goals.” For example, in 2009–2010, the fund issued loans worth 700 million rubles to various companies. After the audit, the fund's management changed. But, apparently, the fund continued its commercial activities. So, at the end of 2015, the central hospital of the city of Mirny entered into a contract with him to purchase 35 apartments for 90 million rubles, according to data from the zakupki.gov portal.

Historically, the management located at Alrosa’s headquarters in Moscow controls the sale of diamonds, and purchases for the needs of its mining subsidiaries are “farmed out to the Yakuts.” An analysis of contracts of Alrosa structures showed that one of its largest contractors is Alexey Pavlov. Since 2015, companies affiliated with the entrepreneur have won more than fifty tenders worth about 4 billion rubles. The main customer for Pavlov’s structures is Alrosa’s subsidiary Almazy Anabara. Its former general director, Matvey Evseev, who led the company for almost 20 years, according to SPARK, in 2007 owned ADK LLC - now the largest contractor for Alrosa among Pavlov’s structures (orders for more than 2 billion rubles since 2015). Pavlov is a relative of Yevseev, says a source close to the Yakut authorities. Between Evseev and Pavlov, ADK LLC belonged to Olga Zemskova, its current director. Zemskova’s full namesake appears in documents for some purchases of Almazov Anabar as the head of the competitive procurement department. Another major contractor of Almazov Anabar is GRP-group LLC (since 2015, it has won three tenders totaling 4 billion rubles). Its owner, Dmitry Anatolyevich Gorshunov, acted in Omega-Orion LLP as a partner of a person with the same last name and initials as Evseev. The son of Evseev’s cousin, Mikhail Vitalievich Evseev, heads Almas LLC, which since 2015 has won more than 30 tenders of the same “Almazov Anabar” for 710 million rubles.

An internal audit revealed multiple violations at Almazy Anabara: interested party transactions, non-transparent purchases, and expenditure of funds. In the spring of 2016, Evseev left Almazy Anabar and moved to Alrosa with the status of vice president for non-core assets. Recently, Evseev left the company altogether.

According to sources, Evseev was let down by the fact that he “behaved like a khan” and did not work well with the like-minded Yegor Borisov. After Evseev’s departure, Almazy Anabar was headed by Pavel Marinichev, the former first deputy prime minister of Yakutia Galina Danchikova, whom Yegor Borisov called “his faithful comrade-in-arms.” Last fall, Danchikova became a State Duma deputy from Yakutia and deputy chairman of the strategic planning committee under the Alrosa supervisory board.

There have also been changes in Alrosa's procurement. A year ago, Zharkov introduced a new position of vice president for procurement and appointed Alexander Parshkov, a native of Rosneft and Gazprom, to it. In the year since Parshkov’s appointment, Alrosa’s largest suppliers included Gazprom’s subsidiary Gazenergoset Resurs, Rosneft and NG-Energo, a contractor for Gazprom (Alexey Miller) and Rosneft ( Igor Sechin).

Exchange fraudsters Trutnev

In the summer of 2016, the Federal Property Management Agency sold a 10.9% stake in Alrosa for 65 rubles, gaining just over 52 billion rubles. At the end of November, the company's capitalization was 655 billion rubles (revenue for the nine months of 2016 was 256 billion rubles, EBITDA was 150 billion rubles). A significant part of the state stake was bought by RDIF and its co-investors from Asia and the Middle East. Among Russian buyers, the main share came from non-state pension funds, but there were also family offices of large businessmen. The latter “did not dominate,” assured Deputy Finance Minister Moiseev. Kerimov was not among them, assure two federal officials and a person close to Alrosa.

Officials and organizers of the SPO unanimously insist that “the deal exceeded expectations.” For a budget, it’s unlikely: shortly before the placement, even Trutnev indicated that the price was at rock bottom. “The level of skepticism was high,” admits one of the organizers of the deal. According to him, at first even the Ministry of Finance was against it, although the money from the sale of Alrosa at such a low oil price is definitely not superfluous.

But investors were right. Upon purchase, they received a 3% discount to the market price and 50% of the profit under IFRS in the form of dividends. Three months after the SPO, the shares rose in price by more than a third; at the end of November, one Alrosa paper on the Moscow Exchange cost about 90 rubles. Quotes are rising on news about Alrosa's export prospects. In order to sell the stake at a higher price, it would be logical for Trutnev to organize the placement after all the legislative changes. But Trutnev's task was probably the opposite.

Cutting Pest

Alrosa was the main payer of the export duty and will benefit from its abolition. Moiseev estimates its size at 10–12 billion rubles. Alrosa is not able to sell any stones for export, so the remainder will go to the domestic market at lower prices, the Deputy Minister of Finance believes.

“Alrosa is destroying the entire cutting industry of the country,” says Oleg Khanukaev. “Alrosa’s task is to extract and sell,” says Maxim Shkadov, general director of the Smolensk Kristall plant. According to him, already in September Alrosa raised selling prices for diamonds on the domestic market by 8%. Now the diamond cutting business may become unprofitable, because even before the abolition of export duties, the margin here did not exceed 1–2%. As a result, the most advantageous position will be for the Alrosa branch - the diamond cutting company ALROSA Diamonds. “Within a year they will have no competitors left on the Russian market,” says Khanukaev. Zharkov does not agree with this and cites the example of profitable Russian enterprises of the Indian KGK. True, they have a significant advantage over their Russian competitors, the head of Alrosa admits: they are part of an international group with their own sales channels.

Perm Governor Yuri Trutnev became the new Minister of Natural Resources. Perhaps Trutnev was promoted for the successful unification of the Perm region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug. Perhaps Economic Development Minister German Gref put in a good word for him. Perhaps the president wants to see at least one minister in the government who is interested in martial arts. It is possible, finally, that Trutnev’s appointment was a kickback to LUKoil for the consistent statist position characteristic of this company.

The story of the appointment to a ministerial post in Yuri Trutnev’s version is as follows: “Everything turned out completely unexpectedly. I was then going to Cannes for an exhibition on real estate investment. But then I received a call from Moscow: I was advised to change the route.” Trutnev heeded the advice and, instead of Cannes, flew to Moscow, where he received an offer to head the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Yuri Petrovich Trutnev was born on March 1, 1956 in Perm into a family of oil workers. “Since childhood, I’ve been accustomed to the way of life of oil workers,” he recalls. “Now they work neatly and cleanly, it’s fun to watch. But then everything was completely different: something was constantly falling somewhere, breaking. I remember how the phone would ring at our house and my father would jump up and leave somewhere into the night.”

However, the hardships of life for Soviet oil workers did not affect Trutnev’s desire to be like his parents in everything, including his profession. Therefore, after graduating from school, he entered the mining department of the Perm Polytechnic Institute. Until the third year, I studied according to the principle “the main thing is to pass the exam, but how is not important,” and then I suddenly became interested in studying and even began to receive an increased scholarship.

After graduating from the institute, Trutnev was assigned to the Perm Research and Design Institute of the Oil Industry. However, he did not pursue a scientific career. He refused graduate school and left the institute. The reason for such a sharp turn in life turned out to be quite banal: Trutnev preferred the fate of an instructor of the local city committee of the Komsomol to the thorny path of science. “We were engaged in very important work, which now, unfortunately, has collapsed. We had student construction teams, youth rallies. People met there, sang songs, burned bonfires, and just communicated kindly,” says Trutnev.

However, as it turned out, in addition to romance, Komsomol work also had a number of practical advantages. At the end of 1986, an active city committee instructor, Yuri Trutnev, was invited to work at the regional sports committee. Apparently, his passion for sports played an important role in choosing Trutnev’s candidacy: at different times he was involved in sports tourism, freestyle wrestling, sambo, and then karate. Despite the fact that at the beginning of perestroika the affairs of the committee were in a deplorable state, Trutnev willingly agreed to head it. Having become the head of the sports committee, which was part of the structure of the regional executive committee, Trutnev became a representative of the local executive power with all the ensuing consequences, such as numerous nomenklatura benefits.

Trutnev did not use them for long, however. The cooperative movement that began in the country captivated the young and enterprising social activist and athlete. “I ran away almost immediately after it was allowed to create cooperatives,” he recalls. “I was just interested in understanding how an enterprise could earn money and independently manage its profits. But my mother was terribly worried then, saying that I was crazy : How is it, they say, to resign from a respected position in order to die of hunger.”

Business "Contact"

Yuri Trutnev, however, did not die of hunger. And he didn’t go far from the executive committee. In the building of the same sports committee, a room was rented, in which the Kontakt cooperative, created by Trutnev, was located - one of the pioneers in the region. The cooperative earned its first money in a very original way. “We all had serious sports qualifications,” says the former head of Contact. “So we came up with a program of demonstration sports performances, performed with it in several districts of the city and earned our first capital from this. And then we decided that enough was enough. Not We are actors after all."

The money earned on stage was used by Trutnev and his companions to develop simulator systems, which were then supplied to educational institutions in the region. Most likely, the cooperative received such a contract thanks to established connections in the regional leadership.

Trutnev, however, did not have to engage in the “training” business for long. In the early 90s, on the basis of the Contact cooperative, the company EKS Limited was created, which was engaged in supplying products to Perm from abroad. Neither the machinations of competitors nor criminal attacks could prevent the prosperity of the future governor’s enterprise. According to rumors, a significant role in this prosperity was played by Trutnev’s friendly relations with the local police authorities, primarily with the then deputy head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Perm Region and the future presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Ural Federal District, Pyotr Latyshev. Obviously, not without the help of reliable patrons, the company's business quickly went uphill. On the basis of EKS Limited, other companies soon emerged, including Doctor EKS, which supplied imported medicines to Perm.

Having mastered the business, Yuri Trutnev soon decided to try himself in the political field. “I suddenly had this feeling,” he explains, “that although doing business is interesting and profitable, if at the same time you walk through the ruins of city streets and trip over officials, you will never be able to live a normal life.” The launching pad for his path into politics was the local Legislative Assembly, in which Trutnev headed the committee on economic policy and taxes. And a little later, in the summer of 1996, he was elected mayor of Perm.

According to the official version, the decision to run for mayor of Yuri Petrovich was prompted by the disastrous state of the Perm streets and the categorical reluctance of the local authorities to fight this disgrace. It was rumored, however, that the reasons for this decision could have been somewhat different: supposedly in the mid-90s, the hitherto successful business of EKS began to bring its owner not so much profit as loss. Trutnev decided to rectify the situation with the help of his election to the post of mayor of Perm, the richest city in the region. Detractors claimed that it was precisely as a result of Trutnev’s active work that several local banks went bankrupt. The scheme of this bankruptcy is described as follows: Trutnev was on the board of the bank, after which his company took out a substantial loan from the same bank for the supply of popular goods, for example the same food products. However, high inflation rates, with the help of which it was supposed to recoup costs and repay all debts, suddenly began to decline, and businessman Trutnev had very serious problems. As a result, problems arose with the repayment of loans. And Yuri Petrovich himself, by coincidence, decided to be elected mayor of Perm. It is clear that the city banks did not demand debts from the mayor.

However, after the election of Yuri Trutnev as mayor of Perm, things in the city really began to improve. The streets, in any case, were paved. However, ill-wishers argued that the Perm mayor himself was not at a loss. It was rumored, for example, that the main supplier of medicines to the city's pharmacies was the company "Doctor EKS", and the city budget overpaid almost twice for its services.

Dream Team

Meanwhile, Yuri Trutnev’s political career developed as usual. In October 2000, he stood as a candidate in the elections for governor of the Perm region, which he successfully won in December. Moreover, the elections could provide a plot for an adventure novel.

According to the official version, at first Yuri Petrovich had no intention of participating in the gubernatorial elections. However, certain “competitors” (as Trutnev put it) began to put pressure on the current governor, Gennady Igumnov, in order to force him to withdraw from the fight. Then he trusted the Perm mayor, asked him to stand for election and publicly recognized him as his successor. However, as soon as Trutnev heeded his requests, Igumnov suddenly changed his mind, allegedly receiving support from the presidential administration (as they say, personally from its then head, Alexander Voloshin). But Trutnev did not change his mind and still took part in the elections.

There is, however, a slightly different version of events from the official one. “I was one of the initiators of the electoral combination in which Trutnev would become governor, and Igumnov would become a representative of the region in the Federation Council,” says Viktor Pokhmelkin. “I proceeded from the fact that Igumnov invested a lot in the development of the region, but "Nevertheless, he is still a man of the old, Yeltsin era, and another four years of his tenure at the head of the region threatened complete stagnation. Then this option with Trutnev arose. Igumnov agreed, but then he was summoned to the Kremlin and forced to run for office."

Trutnev countered the Voloshin administrative resource with solid sponsorship assistance in the elections. According to rumors, he was supported by the largest businessmen in the region, to whom rumor included not only the head of the Uralkali company, Dmitry Rybolovlev, but also the general director of the LUKoil-Perm company, Andrei Kuzyaev, who was also part of the initiative group for nominating the Perm mayor in the gubernatorial elections. Who knows, maybe these were the same “oligarchic circles” that, according to Yuri Trutnev, wanted to send Igumnov into retirement.

What added piquancy to the situation was the fact that Igumnov was a member of the Unity political council, while only Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky expressed open support for Trutnev. By the way, Grigory Alekseevich still speaks warmly about Trutnev: he is smart, self-possessed and very promising.

Be that as it may, the outcome of the Perm elections became, from the point of view of political strategists, a kind of sensation: the non-party Yuri Trutnev, not at all in the spirit of the times, won the elections against the current “United Russia” governor.

Having headed the Perm region, Yuri Trutnev zealously began to fulfill his gubernatorial duties. Including for the project of unification of the Perm region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug. It was then that the presidential administration became interested in the project of consolidating Russian regions, and it was decided to stage the first experiment of this kind in Perm.

In a referendum held in December 2003, residents of the Perm region and the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug voted to merge the two subjects into one - the Perm Territory. Observers unanimously counted this victory as the personal asset of Governor Yuri Trutnev. Which in this way not only pleased the supporters of unification in his area, but also brought to life the dream of some Kremlin officials, who had long thought about having fewer governors in Russia.

Apparently, it was not difficult to persuade the residents of the region and the district to unite. Governor Trutnev enjoyed authority. And this authority rested, among other things, on LUKoil. Many believed that one of the sources of stability for local authorities was established contacts with LUKoil, the main developer of Permian oil wells. It is noteworthy that cooperation with the company went far beyond purely business. When an avid race car driver, Yuri Trutnev, suddenly decided to take part in the Russian rally championship, his main sponsor was LUKoil, whose car team included the governor. Trutnev, by the way, did not let his patrons down and took an honorable third place in the national sports championship.

Error of the Ministry of Natural Resources

Oil, gas and timber, as you know, are our main export goods. According to this logic, the Ministry of Natural Resources, which manages the reserves of all these goods, is our main ministry. No worse than the Ministry of Economic Development or the Ministry of Finance. By the way, everything is in order with the Ministry of Natural Resources’ political weight. At the end of last year, this ministry began to be jokingly referred to as a security ministry: with such zeal it rushed to attack YUKOS, taking away one license after another.

Apparently, under Trutnev, the influence of the Ministry of Natural Resources will only increase. In any case, the new minister masterfully finished off his successor Vitaly Artyukhov.

The fact is that after his resignation, Artyukhov clearly intended to become the head of the structure within the Ministry of Natural Resources that deals with licensing. It is clear that Trutnev did not need a stranger in a new place. But Artyukhov was by no means one of his own: the Perm governor repeatedly criticized the leadership of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

The former minister, of course, set himself up. On the evening of the same day, when Yuri Trutnev was introduced to the ministry staff, Artyukhov ordered the signing on behalf of the ministry of 62 license agreements, some of which were received by companies close to the ex-minister’s son, Senator Vadim Artyukhov, and also ordered the transfer of 418 million rubles to the account of one of the ministerial departments, which immediately began to transfer this money to some mysterious companies. However, Trutnev used this mistake to his maximum benefit.

He didn’t just cancel these orders from Artyukhov. Information about the ex-minister's prank hit the media. A scandal broke out, and the former head of the Ministry of Natural Resources could no longer count on the position he was interested in.

However, it seemed to many observers that the new minister would approach some of the recent decisions of the former minister thoughtfully. After all, part of the licenses finally issued by Artyukhov was received by LUKoil, for whose team Trutnev competed in auto racing.