Kukura Sergei Petrovich family. Kukura Sergey Petrovich

First Vice President of NK Lukoil Sergei Kukura was kidnapped on Thursday morning near Vnukovo airport on his way to work, Interfax reports citing a Lukoil press release.

The document states that Kukura's Mercedes official car was stopped at a railway crossing under the pretext of checking documents by people in camouflage masks armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

“These people handcuffed the driver and the security guard of the first vice president and took Kukura away in a car with blue license plates, which are equipped with vehicles belonging to the internal affairs bodies,” the oil company said in a press release.

The driver and Kukura's security guard woke up a few hours later in the company car, which was located in a forested area. “Apparently, they were given a tranquilizer injection,” the document notes.

The management of the Lukoil company appealed to law enforcement agencies with a request to do everything possible for the speedy release of Kukura and the punishment of those responsible for his abduction.

Sergey Kukura is one of the leading managers of the company and a major specialist in the oil industry, who possesses confidential information, including state secrets.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on September 12 at 07:20 Moscow time, near the village of Vnukovo, Leninsky district, Moscow region, 300 m from the railway crossing, four unknown masked men armed with automatic weapons blocked the roadway with a black Volga car with blue police license plates . They stopped a Mercedes car in which Sergei Kukura, a driver and a security guard were traveling.

Unknown persons transferred Kukura into a Volga car and drove away in an unknown direction. The driver and the guard were put bags over their heads, injected with an unknown drug, and then taken in a Mercedes car to a forest near the village of Zaitsevo, Odintsovo district, where the car was abandoned. At the same time, the guard's service pistol "Izh-71" was stolen.

Subsequently, the guard managed to free himself and report the emergency to the Aprelevsky city police department of the Naro-Fominsk Department of Internal Affairs. The driver and security guard are currently receiving medical assistance.

A criminal case has been opened into the kidnapping of Sergei Kukura

The prosecutor's office of the Moscow region on Thursday opened a criminal case into the kidnapping of Sergei Kukura, first vice-president of NK Lukoil for economics and finance, a representative of the Moscow region prosecutor's office told Interfax.

The case is being investigated under Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - kidnapping, the agency's source said. The article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of up to 15 years. According to the source, the operational services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB joined the search for Kukura.

Meanwhile, the head of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime (GUBOP) of the criminal police service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Alexander Ovchinnikov, told Interfax: “Upon receiving a signal about the kidnapping of the vice-president of Lukoil, a specially developed plan was put into effect.”

Ovchinnikov also said that the forces of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region and the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the SCM of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia were involved in the operation to search for Kukura. “In addition, we work closely with the management and security service of Lukoil,” Ovchinnikov said.

The head of the GUBOP noted that it is premature to talk about versions and circumstances of the kidnapping of the vice-president of the oil company. “Lessons are not born in the first hours after the abduction. We first need to find the traces left by the criminals,” Ovchinnikov said.

The investigation is pursuing a version of Kukura’s abduction related to his professional activities

The investigation into the kidnapping of the first vice-president of the Lukoil oil company Sergei Kukura is primarily pursuing a version related to his professional activities, said acting. Prosecutor of the Moscow Region Alexander Mitusov. Mitusov also said that the progress of the investigation into this incident is under the control of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. “We have already sent a special report to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation,” he said.

The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation takes control of the investigation into the kidnapping of the vice-president of Lukoil

The investigation into the abduction of the first vice-president of the Lukoil oil company Sergei Kukur was taken under personal control by the State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Vladimir Vasiliev. “Now I am monitoring this case,” Vasiliev told reporters in Moscow on Thursday evening.

According to Vasilyev, an operational headquarters has been created in connection with the kidnapping of the businessman, RIA Novosti reports. The Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation noted that an investigative team is currently working on the spot, information is being collected, and special events are still being carried out as part of the Interception plan.

Vasiliev said that he personally spoke on Thursday with the general director of Lukoil and the investigation is being carried out in close contact with the company's security service. As the deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated, the investigation is considering all versions of what happened, but Vasiliev refused to name the main ones, citing the interests of the investigation.

Answering a question about the ownership of the car in which the kidnappers fled, Vasiliev emphasized that information about this is currently “being studied and is not being reported in the interests of the investigation.”

A law enforcement source said that Sergei Kukura’s kidnappers did not ask for ransom. “All possible versions are currently being pursued,” the source said. At the same time, it has not yet been possible to obtain information from official representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor’s office about whether Kukura’s kidnappers applied for ransom.

From the biography

In 1979 he graduated from the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Oil and Gas. He began his career in 1979 at the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz Production Association in the Tyumen Region.

From 1992 to 1993 - vice-president of the oil concern LangepasUrayKogalymneft, from 1993 to 1996 - first vice-president of JSC NK Lukoil, since 1996 - first vice-president of JSC Lukoil. Doctor of Economic Sciences, Honored Economist of the Russian Federation.

OJSC Lukoil is the leading vertically integrated oil company in Russia. The company's main activities are exploration and production of oil and gas, production and sale of petroleum products. Lukoil's market capitalization exceeds $13 billion.

Lukoil shares fell in price by 3% after the report of the kidnapping of the company's first vice-president

Ordinary shares of Lukoil on the RTS exchange in the period from 16:35 to 17:30 Moscow time decreased in price by 3% - from 16.4 dollars to 15.9 dollars per share, in the stock section of the MICEX - by 2.8 % - from 519 rub. up to 504.7 rub. a piece. Then the price of the securities began to gradually adjust upward.

According to operators, messages of this kind almost always cause a wave of speculation in the market, and this information concerned the management of one of the largest oil companies in Russia.

“Lukoil’s securities immediately began to fall in price, pulling the entire market with it, and this negative news was superimposed on unfavorable statistical data on the US economy,” Dmitry Druzhinin, chief analyst at Prospekt Investment Company, told the Interfax agency. Since the message concerned one of the top officials of the management of such a large oil company as Lukoil, speculators could not help but take advantage of such news for the game,” he added.

Meanwhile, according to operators' estimates, sales of Lukoil shares by speculators against the backdrop of such news are unlikely to last long and will end quite quickly. “I think that a radical revision of recommendations for Lukoil shares or a change in the market’s attitude towards the company itself is unlikely to happen. Moreover, it is still unclear how events will develop further,” says ATON Investment Company analyst Vladimir Detinich. “The market will sink a little, then a rebound will follow, investors will wait for further news,” he added.

Centrist deputies consider the kidnapping of the vice-president of Lukoil an intrusion of crime into big business

Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, who know the first vice-president of the Lukoil company Sergei Kukuru well, believe that his kidnapping should be considered as a new phenomenon in the relations of the criminal world with big business.

“This is something new in modern large Russian business, since a figure of this magnitude from this kind of structure has never been involved in such stories,” Oleg Morozov, leader of the Regions of Russia group, said in an interview with Interfax on Thursday.

“I would characterize what happened as a criminal intrusion into the largest business in Russia,” the parliamentarian added. He is convinced that the kidnapping is connected with Kukura’s work at an oil company, where he is involved in financial management.

Oleg Morozov did not rule out that in this case “an attempt was made to obtain some confidential information.” The deputy believes that the nature of the abduction is not similar to an ordinary gangster “showdown.” “Most likely, this action is directed not so much against Kukura himself, but against the company,” he said.

In turn, the leader of the People's Deputy group, Gennady Raikov, said that what happened with the vice-president of Lukoil once again demonstrates that “the bandits have finally lost their belts.” “I would like to draw attention to the fact that in the United States, 38 states have legislation that provides for the death penalty for kidnapping,” Raikov added.

Today, everything that concerns the personal life of the first vice-president of NK LUKOIL Sergei Kukura is a secret behind seven seals. His family, wife Tatyana and children, are carefully hidden by the LUKOIL security service. At the metropolitan acquaintance of the vice president, at the mere mention of Kukura, they hang up the phone or rudely end the conversation. They took a non-disclosure agreement from the neighbors about everything that was happening in the entrance of the house in which Sergei Petrovich lived.
We managed to contact the head of the department of “Enterprise Economics” of the Ivano-Frankivsk National University of Oil and Gas, Nikolai Daneluk, who still maintained warm relations with the former student.
-Serezha has changed a lot in recent years. This is not surprising - he holds such a position. I remember him when I was just a boy. I taught him basic economics in the late seventies. Then he was an open, cheerful person. And even after graduating from university, he remained carefree and sociable for a long time. But after moving to Moscow, he became somehow gloomy and closed. Started smoking. And two packs a day. He used to have so many friends! And now I have deliberately broken off relations with many. Communicates exclusively with those classmates who occupy a high position. One of his best friends, Vasya Grigoriev, has now become the director of one of the largest oil companies in Kyiv.
- Did Sergei Petrovich often come to Ukraine?
- The last time he visited our university was in 1999, he came for the 20th anniversary of his graduation. And only then did he allow himself to relax, even drinking a little. In general, he is indifferent to alcohol. Protects health. He plays sports. He enjoys tennis and scuba diving. Seryozha recently boasted to me that he was planning to go to Egypt with his wife, and allegedly even purchased scuba gear.
- As far as I know, you recently visited Kukura?
- Well, visiting is a big word! It was a business trip; Sergei and I had negotiations on the possibility of cooperation between graduates of our university and the LUKOIL company. The negotiations were successful. He promised to come to us in October.
- Where did Sergei Petrovich meet his wife?
- They met Tanya even before entering our institute. At first, Seryozha studied at a military school and only two years later he entered the Oil and Gas University. As far as I know, Tatyana followed him to our institute. So we studied together. We got married in our second year. The wedding was celebrated in the student canteen; there was no money for a magnificent celebration at that time. Where could students get funds in the 70s? Tanya came from a distant outback; her parents still live in some remote village near Ivano-Frankivsk. Seryozha is from Belarus and lived in a hostel here.
- By the way, what kind of person is Tatyana?
- They say about such people as “gray mice”. At the course where Seryozhka studied, there were such prominent girls, purebred Ukrainians. But Tanya was not even audible in class, and she did not study well, while Sergei was an excellent student.
- Did she come to the alumni meeting?
- Not once. In my opinion, Tanya has never even worked anywhere. When I came to Moscow, I never met her.
- Nikolai Alekseevich, do you know where Sergei Kukura’s family is now?
- I don’t know, we always communicated through the secretary. To be honest, he didn’t give me his home phone number.
- Nikolai Alekseevich, knowing the character of your student, can you guess how he will behave in this situation?
- He is a decisive person, his character is tough. Even at the institute, he always set himself impossible tasks, and until he achieved what he wanted, he did not give up. Of course, life has toughened him up. In this situation, he cannot break, the main thing is not to overdo it... Well, you understand what I mean. He's a principled guy. Maybe argue something stupid.

The fact that the first vice-president of the oil company was not just kidnapped, but was taken hostage for ransom, became reliably known a day later, when LUKoil security officers and police watched a videotape recording the address of the kidnapped person himself. The cassette was found at the grave of another vice president of the company, Vitaly Schmidt, who died mysteriously after a conflict within the corporation. It was this place at the Ankudinovsky cemetery in the Moscow region that unknown people called the security service. The video message confirmed the seriousness of the kidnappers' claims for three million dollars and three million euros in small denominations.

And then the games began between oil workers, operatives and analysts from various intelligence agencies around the ransom and the conditions for its transfer. The media has been used as a weapon in the information war. LUKoil announced a million-dollar reward for anyone who can help find the first vice president. On TV they showed two travel bags with banknotes, supposedly prepared for the kidnappers, and the newspapers came to the conclusion that only a helicopter could lift such an amount of money. Versions flashed: internal squabbles, machinations of competitors from other oil giants, security racketeering. They haven't forgotten about the Chechens either. Even Spartak turned up in hot hands - a conflict over Dmitry Sychev had just broken out in this football club, part of the LUKoil empire.

The official version seemed the most exotic - “kidnapping for ransom.” Even the amount of the ransom (three million dollars and the same number of euros) raised doubts. Meanwhile, journalists got it from somewhere that Kukura’s shares alone are worth at least $50 million. One newspaper reported that he earned almost two million dollars a month, drawing analogies with other famous hostages. Is it worth starting such a terrible case as kidnapping the “second man” of a powerful company just to intercept some cash? Therefore, they started talking about foreign accounts in the name of the top officials of the corporation, which Kukura, who oversaw all financial transactions of the oil workers, should have known by heart. They remembered Schmidt, who died just after an attempt to streamline the financial relations of LUKoil with offshore companies... They learned that it was on Kukura’s initiative that Nikolai Kulikov, who led the corporation’s subsidiary for Arctic tanker transportation, was removed the day before. In response, Kulikov disappeared with company documents that could relate to a new project to transport fuel from Murmansk to the USA, where LUKoil bought a network of gas stations.

Kitchen conversation

Just in those days - between the kidnapping and the return of Kukura - three people accidentally gathered at the tea table: an FSB officer with a doctorate in economics, a FAPSI officer with interests in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a journalist. He began to bother competent people:

Strange affair! How is it that, in violation of all the rules, a security guard came out of the car to people wearing masks? Where does such caring attitude towards him and the driver come from? It looks like a re-enactment. Most likely, the task is not a ransom, but to pump out confidential information from Kukura. This may be necessary for both business colleagues and government officials, who right now, at a time of redistribution of property and oil companies entering the American market, want to obtain grounds for blackmail, for “biting off” pieces of LUKoil. In any case, you will see that there will be no operation to free him, the money will not be transferred, and Kukura himself will show up somewhere. His one temporary absence, uncontrolled by LUKoil, is already a blow to the company; it discredits all the developments that he could know about, and jeopardizes not only semi-shadow financial transactions, but also the stock exchange successes of the corporation.

As in the case of Belenko, who flew to Japan, when he had to change the entire army coding system for aircraft, now we have to redo the entire financial circulation system of the company. Who knows what they'll get out of Kukura on drugs.

Rather, there is intrigue here outside LUKoil, and not inside. Or nearby... - the officer-economist shared his thoughts. - Alekperov himself, the president of the company, does not need such a scandal; none of his deputies is yet capable of organizing such an operation. In addition, Alekperov and his company have reached the limit of development; it is increasingly difficult for him to guarantee the integrity of its organization and its funds. The kidnapping is further evidence that the state does not take on this function. And no one will allow him to create a “state within a state.” This means that in order to preserve those billions that he has already officially recognized as his property, he needs his own state. Azerbaijan, for example...

But there is both a khan and an heir?

Firstly, it is not known which of Aliyev Jr. will be the heir; there are serious doubts. And LUKoil means a lot for Azerbaijan. Like Azerbaijan for Alekperov, it was not without reason that a few years ago there was a rumor that he had built a mausoleum for himself in the sands there.

I don’t know about the mausoleum, but I think Alekperov has little chance of winning the Azerbaijani throne: the Aliyev clan will not leave him,” said an officer with police connections. - Another thing is that somewhere in the States there could be former Baku residents who stood at the financial and organizational origins of LUKoil, in other words, who served as its “roof”. No, not some petty “authorities”, but respectable people who controlled the “guild workers” back in Soviet times. Do you think that without American support LUKoil would have been able to acquire a thousand gas stations on the East Coast? So, such people look at Alekperov, and even more so at Kukura, like “thieves in law” at a “cow”. Sergey Petrovich, there is information, he wanted to leave the company. In this context, his abduction is a signal to Alekperov: “Don’t try it!” from other, no less real owners with no less real, but not announced billions.

Let's say you're right. Let's summarize the forecasts? I say that Kukura will soon appear himself.

“And I,” the economist smiled ominously, “I think that Alekperov will soon begin a “dark streak.” He alone will not be able to manage such a closed colossus in all three spheres - political, economic and criminal. Despite the fact that the politicians surrounding the company are ready to tear it apart, the security forces are ready to snatch it, and the criminals are ready to bite it off.

“My forecast is the most primitive,” the journalist who provoked the conversation concluded with gloomy cynicism. - Perhaps these days some connection between the leaders of LUKoil and the shadow world will come to light. In addition, I think that the former president of LUKoil-Arctic will have very bad luck in the near future...

This, of course, is nothing more than idle talk. But I was nevertheless convinced that there really was an application by S.P. Kukura for employment in a private organization as deputy general director for scientific affairs.

According to him, at dawn on the 25th he was picked up, taken to a field and left with a bag over his head. At first he thought he was going to be killed, but then he discovered that the kidnappers had disappeared, leaving him with a neatly folded work suit and some money. Having wandered along rural roads, train stations and trains, he found out that he was in the Bryansk region (and he was apparently being held beyond the neighboring border, in his native Belarus). From there, Bryansk taxi driver Viktor Filin took him to his personal dacha near Moscow; on the way, Kukura did not call anywhere, but bought two buckets of apples and a bottle of beer. Owl, who became a star, then showed the empty container to curious television crews.

Alekperov was the first to learn about the happy deliverance of his right hand when he arrived at the vice-president’s official dacha, where he was immediately transported. Then the police, prosecutors and other serving public arrived. Sergei Petrovich did not say anything intelligible about the kidnappers. The next day, it was shown as a protocol on all channels. And everyone who could have anything to do with his search started talking about their own great success. The behavior of the oil workers, who most likely found ways to influence the invaders, looked most solid. But before telling what is known about their negotiations, it’s time to tell the parameters of the main negotiating party.

Gagik with Bogomol against LUKoil?

The oil company LUKoil employs about 120 thousand workers. Only RAO UES and Gazprom have more. In 2001, she paid taxes of 21 billion 190 million rubles. In August of this year, as newspapers reported on the day of Kukura’s abduction, she pumped 6.8 million tons of oil out of 32.831 million produced in Russia in a month. Most. For the first half of 2002, revenue amounted to $6,676 million, a decrease of $208 million compared to the same figures last year. Profits fell 46 percent. The investment attractiveness rating, which is difficult for economists to determine, still remained the highest among Russian companies in the fuel and energy complex.

And a gang of petty racketeers raised their hands against such a whale? And this is exactly what representatives of different levels of internal affairs bodies and the prosecutor’s office began to prove, while quarreling among themselves and putting each other in a funny position at press conferences. Shortly after the return of the hostage, portraits of the three suspects, found in the archives of the already disbanded Moscow region RUBOP, were even distributed through the media. A certain Alexander Vetlugaev, Sergei Melchakovsky and Gagik Bgdoyan, as it later turned out, were previously suspected of a kidnapping committed according to a similar scheme. And on this basis they were remembered and presented to the persistent public.

There was confusion. Because Gagik Bgdoyan, who was put on the wanted list, immediately appeared. Accompanied by journalists and under the gun of television cameras, he came to give evidence directly to the Prosecutor General's Office. There they could not present him with anything serious and on old matters he was sent to a unit near Moscow.

How the investigation is going now is unknown; only what comes to light is what is brought to the public for one purpose or another. In particular, the name of the intermediary appeared, whom Kukura named in the video message. This is a three-times-convicted native of Odessa, Gennady Bogomolov, 52 years old, who spent a total of twelve and a half years behind bars and was apparently crowned there as a “thief in law” nicknamed Bogomol. After liberation, he lived in Kogalym, the cradle of LUKoil. There he met its founders, among whom was the future hostage. He started his own business with the company, but soon broke away from it and renamed his company from LUKoil-Market to the Agrika company.

Petrovich and the owner from the high road

Due to the obvious “sloppiness” of the official version, the journalistic version about the staging of the kidnapping continued to live, confirmed both by the care of the kidnappers and the strangeness of his release. I needed one more conversation - with an old acquaintance of Sergei Petrovich Kukura. Naturally, on condition of anonymity.

Yes, he could not do this to himself! Not the kind of person to scare his family or ruin his reputation. Note that before his abduction he was little known, although his post and influence allowed him to “shine.” He avoided public fame. But this is precisely modesty, not secrecy. He shook hands with the workers at the construction of the dacha, and could tinker with them. He went through the entire social structure of society from the very bottom and never forgot where he came from. Not a gentleman, let alone Ralif Safin - he doesn’t even know what’s in his refrigerator. Out of the same simplicity, he bought a bucket of apples and ate them on the way home.

Is it really possible for a person who earns two lemons to eat a bucket of apples?

What bucks! According to my ideas, Petrovich earns no more than two million rubles. The journalists got it wrong. He spends money on real estate and on children who study abroad with him. My son recently arrived from London to get married. In Russian. Although the family is afraid to live in Russia, as we see, it is not by chance. And it was not for nothing that he wanted to leave LUKoil - he felt uncomfortable there. He wanted to organize his own higher school of managers, because he has scientific works. Alekperov did not let him go, and in a rather harsh manner... And Sergei Petrovich still dreamed of social and scientific, and not industrial activity. He is a statesman in his worldview...

One can only guess what is happening inside LUKoil now. As well as what prompted Sergei Petrovich Kukura to ask to resign. But there is one case that sheds light on “their morals.” The case is old, but bright, since it was connected with the default of 1998, which worried everyone, when many depositors of many banks were cheated out. Among them are depositors of the Imperial Bank, attracted to it by advertising about world history.

I conducted this investigation four years ago, now I have only clarified some names and dates in it. It was not published: the newspaper where I worked at that time preferred not to quarrel with the rich and influential in difficult days. No, the main one had no complaints about the material, it was simply decided to direct all the post-default rage of the masses at the “boy” who said: “But the king is naked.” That is, to Kiriyenko.

So - evidence from the past.

It is clear when a gangster “roof”, having milked a bank organized specifically for money laundering, then makes it bankrupt. But here one of the first large commercial banks in modern Russia, which from the first day created for itself the image of a solid successor of conservative traditions, was thrown into the wind. “Imperial” collapsed not because of state bonds, not because of budget shortfalls - it had little to do with state money. He fell precisely because of his obsessive desire to work with domestic industry. Its leaders, Gazprom and LUKoil, who are also the main shareholders of the bank, deliberately failed it. Obviously, the captains of our capitalist industry, being true communists at heart, considered that they had every right to solve all their problems by expropriation at the expense of the financial bourgeoisie. And the current heads of other banks who flew out of the Imperial nest and took their first banking lessons there, including the then head of the Central Bank Sergei Dubinin, were unable to help.

Gazprom, being the last holder of a blocking stake in Imperial before the 1998 default, was also one of its main borrowers. Rem Vyakhirev urgently needs to pay taxes - and the head of the concern, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of the bank, finds hard cash nearby. At one time, the idea of ​​holding banks that would service the accounts of our gas hope and support was even explored. But the proud “Imperial” did not want to go under the wing of its pupil Alexander Lebedev, who headed the National Reserve Bank, around which it was planned to rally the holding.

And then a proposal from another “blocker” arrived - LUKoil, which owned a 26 percent stake in Imperial. The oil giant bought another 7 percent of shares from the gas giant, and Vagit Alekperov replaced Rem Vyakhirev at the head of the board of directors of the bank. The bank was happy to lean against the new powerful shoulder. The new owner announced a plan for the sixth issue of shares of the bank, designed to form a controlling stake in Lukoil hands. The prospectus for the issue was even registered, but the initiator did not contribute money, and the new redistribution of shares somehow stalled.

But in June 1998, a press release to the whole world announced that LUKoil was linking its financial destiny with a new prestigious acquisition. Cash flows were supposed to move through Imperial, connecting the oil empire with the external and internal world. But LUKoil even preferred to formalize its relations with its subsidiaries through accounts in other banks. By this time, the concern was late in returning $33 million to the bank. The loan repayment period expired in early spring, and by the summer, the bank had to borrow 200 million rubles daily on the interbank short-term loan market just because of this, in order to plug the unplanned hole.

Let us recall that it was in February-March 1998 that the next round of the global oil crisis began. This is precisely how the new owners explained their debt. However, why then did Vagit Alekperov, speaking at all sorts of geopolitical seminars, advocate for ending the economic blockade of Iraq? He said that his company has a share in the deposits there, which, if international sanctions are lifted, will allow it to earn money from exports. But in this case, firstly, the price of oil on the world market would drop sharply, and secondly, who would then would we need Russian oil of worse quality? Obviously, Alekperov had some other goals than the survival of our industry.

The bank began to guess with horror about other goals that were not declared when seizing power at Imperial: Alekperov does not transfer the accounts of his subsidiaries, does not contribute money for a new issue, and does not pay for loans. Then Vagit Alekperov, together with First Vice President Sergei Kukura, paid a visit to the Central Bank. According to some reports, they appeared there more than once at the end of July - beginning of August 1998, just before the default. We met with Dubinin’s then first deputy, Sergei Aleksashenko. It is known for sure that they asked him for a stabilization loan of $100 million.

I can’t vouch for the literalness, but the Central Bank said something like this: it’s better to let LUKoil return the loans it took from Imperial - and it won’t need any stabilization from the Central Bank. It is quite possible to assume that the conversation continued like this: won’t you give it? Then I will deal with the bank differently! And Alekperov dealt with “Imperial” according to the principle of “push if you fall.”

On August 13 (four days before the default), LUKoil reissued its debt to Imperial into promissory notes for 161,904,200 rubles - maturing in three years and for 379,414,000 rubles - for a period of fifteen years. That is, the amount of his deferred debts - more than half a billion rubles - is almost equal, when converted into dollars at the then exchange rate, to the amount that Alekperov asked from Aleksashenko. And the bank collapsed under the weight of the owner's affection. On August 26, Imperial’s license was revoked, so in 15 years there will be no one to repay the debts.

But on August 26, another significant event took place for the world-historical bank. President of Imperial Vladimir Forosenko issued Order No. 45 “On the transfer of assets and liabilities of branches of JSB Imperial”. Wrote: “Transfer to the Petrokommerts Commercial Bank the assets and liabilities of the balance sheets of the branches of the Imperial Bank in Perm, Astrakhan, Moscow, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Novorossiysk, Kirov, Berezniki Perm region as of August 26, 1998." Everything would be fine; businessmen have the right to make such decisions. But not on the day the license is taken away! According to the bankruptcy law, Forosenko could only make utility payments in his frozen bank.

As a result, he deprived the bank's depositors of assets rather than liabilities. Under the same bankruptcy law, depositors will try to get their money back, but it will turn out that the bank's property is their property! - transferred to some stranger “Petrokommerts”. One of Imperial’s private depositors called the Central Bank hotline and complained that even Sberbank (there was such a procedure then, in September 1998, that made it possible to receive at least something in the future) could not transfer his account, since the license "Imperial" was withdrawn before the general collapse.

But for the poor private owner, Petrokommerts is alien and little-known. Alekperov and Forosenko know him well: Forosenko headed it before Imperial, while Alekperov made the quiet and not world-famous bank the financial capital of his empire. Even before the latest story, he transferred to Petrocommerce the branches of the Langepas and Kogalym banks serving oil workers. Again, capitalism with a Soviet face. A large, reputable enterprise should have its own everything: a state farm, social services, and a sports team. And a real red director has a faithful accountant. In modern times, the president of the company has his own bank with his own banker.

Under real capitalism, American capitalism, it also happened that the main shareholders, the owners of the bank, also became its main borrowers. It all ended with the Great Depression. Coming out of the systemic crisis of the first third of the twentieth century, American legislators decided that it was better to separate such ambiguous relations between the bank and the owner. And the combination was prohibited.

Returning to the new millennium, I report that today Petrocommerce Bank is in tenth place in the Izvestia rating, that is, approximately where the default stopped the Imperial Bank, whose depositors continue lawsuits, demanding the return of what was taken away. Alekperov continues to worry about the fate of Iraq, thereby pushing the price of Russian oil to fall. However, this is a separate topic.

Big trouble

The cost of a ton of Lukoil oil is now 27 percent higher than that of YUKOS, and 40 percent higher than that of Sibneft. Maybe because of the state of the deposits, maybe because of the weight of social costs. Maybe because of the slowness and opacity of management. Most likely - from the combination of all these factors. In any case, LUKoil is more active than other Russian oil sisters in trying to escape from itself, from its Langepass-Kogalym dependence.

He invests in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, hoping to make money from offshore oil fields. He plans to extract fuel at the gates of a united Europe - from the shelf near Kaliningrad, build a deep-water terminal in Murmansk and pull a pipe to it from new fields in Yamal. And he actively goes abroad - to the Balkans, Central Europe, Iraq and America.

So, in many areas these days he is experiencing misfires (remember the forecast of the economist officer!). “Severnaya Neft” has won the favor of the governor of the Nenets Okrug Butov - and it has been entrusted to unpack the promising fields of “Gamburtsev Shaft”. Despite the PR campaign with the initiation of criminal cases and arbitration proceedings. In Murmansk you have to fight with your own former manager. Kaliningrad will not decide on its own status. The Federal Energy Commission is going to include the Caspian Consortium among the natural monopolies in order to then forcibly regulate its tariffs. The 5.9 percent of LUKoil shares, which the state has been planning for the second year to tear away from its stake in the company and sell into the hands of managers of LUKoil itself, the Ministry of Property is in no hurry to put up for auction, allegedly because of poor quotes. The story with SIBUR led to LUKoil losing undivided control at one of the gas processing plants.

The English partners, with whom the company went to tender for the purchase of 75 percent of the shares of the Gdansk Oil Refinery, refused to cooperate. And before that, Alekperov, barely convinced of the health of his first deputy, spent a lot of effort convincing the Polish government of his own loyalty. The Greek oil refining company won the competition for the privatization of the Montenegrin state-owned company, beating LUKoil, although before that the Russians had negotiated the purchase of 23.17 percent of the shares of the Greeks themselves.

Foreign partners are not satisfied with the level of transparency of the company, or, simply put, with the lack of transparency of its motives and mechanisms. Although LUKoil, in the rating of the international agency Standard & Poor's, came in ninth place in Russia in terms of this integral indicator, the degree of openness of information about its shareholders, market capitalization, management and its remuneration does not even reach the average level. That is, high Some of the data is not available in open sources. True, Alekperov believes that direct investment, which any production so needs, depends more on the climate created by legislators and the government. But why then is he having so many “bummers” right now? Maybe, by the way, Is someone at the top waging a war with him, one of the battles of which was the kidnapping of Kukura?

In any case, the secrecy applies to everyone who has ever touched LUKoil. I was unable to get comments on the “tea conversation,” even on condition of anonymity, from one of its former leaders. We will be content with the opinion of the former president of the bank, who once worked with the company. By the way, he defended his dissertation at the same time as Sergei Kukura.

Expert opinion

Are you saying that without help from inside the US it is impossible to get a network of gas stations there? This is not our capitalist jungle; their tenders are held openly. Paid half a billion dollars - get a thousand columns. I think that with your gasoline, you can recoup this amount in two years. Of course, no one will help our oligarchs infiltrate, but they won’t immediately become enemies either. The relationship between the oil giants can be described by the old term "frenemies."

But they have it. And we have?

We have more players: different groups at the top, in the security forces, in the shadows. And corporations enter into all kinds of relationships. Why should oil workers have anything to do with the TV-6 dispute? But there Berezovsky was handed over through the hands of LUKoil-Garant.

The strength of the attack on LUKoil indicates the closeness of the attackers to power. By the way, there is a version that Kukura was kidnapped by active police officers...

Don't know. But I see a problem within the company. It has reached the stage of a “corpuscular corporation” and now must move into a new quality. Or fall apart.

Alekperov and world history

The transition to a new quality is taking place before our eyes: Alekperov is forced to interfere in world politics. On the one hand, he has two concessions in Iraq, and he is interested in the entry of cheap oil there into the open market; on the other hand, he has an emerging business in America. In the Caucasus, he is interested in the political stability of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes (for uninterrupted pipes) and at the same time can fish in the muddy Caspian wave. He is participating in the complex division of the Caspian shelf, beating Iran and achieving the desired decisions from other Caspian countries. But if America doesn’t like all this, it will refuse to take into account the interests of LUKoil when changing the regime in Iraq. And cheap Iraqi oil, including from wells that LUKoil is still counting on, will push expensive Siberian oil out of the market. That's when the company will fall apart.

Alekperov decided alone, without the British, to join the tender for a controlling stake in the Gdansk plant, and intensified negotiations on the purchase of a network of gas stations in Germany from British Petroleum. He negotiated with Transneft to expand export opportunities, participated in the discussion of a project to create reserve storage facilities for domestic needs and for the uninterrupted supply of Russian oil to the American market. He was clearly looking for confirmation of his position from Russian and world oil sisters. And at that time they were solving their own problems: TNK and Sibneft, which are closer to the current government, created an alliance on the eve of the privatization of Slavneft. This alliance will oppose LUKoil in the fight for the state-owned stake in the Russian-Belarusian company that is being put up for auction.

If Alekperov loses - and his chances of winning are slim - then further opportunities for the company's extensive development within Russia will be sharply narrowed. What remains is abroad with its demands to modernize the management system and obey its rules of the game. In general, today the giant corporation is going through a difficult period, and the mysterious story of the kidnapping and rescue of its vice president only crystallizes the multifaceted complex situation in which LUKoil finds itself.