Anatoly Chubais, who squandered Russia’s assets in the early 1990s, fled the country.
Numerous foreign and Russian news agencies have reported that the much-disliked Russian politician and official Anatoly Chubais hurriedly left the country, having previously resigned his powers as the President’s Special Representative for Relations with International Organizations.
how informs “Gazeta.ru”, with reference to the news agency “Bloomberg“, Anatoly Chubais left Russia due to disagreement with the special operation in Ukraine. And, if the official Kremlin, through the mouth of Dmitry Peskov, was indifferent to this information, then the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov said: “… they released him in vain: he should have been tried here!” Thus, Gennady Andreevich accurately expressed the “universal love” for Chubais of the Russian population, economy which he so “effectively” destroyed.
True, there is a point of view that, they say, Anatoly Chubais went abroad with some kind of secret mission (to put together a pro-Russian coalition or clarify the conditions for reconciliation between Russia and the West). But this, in our opinion, is hardly serious. Although… It would probably not be reasonable to let a secret carrier of such a level as Anatoly Borisovich out of the country just like that. But this is a topic for a separate discussion.
The Kazan business electronic newspaper “Business Online” took care of the question: “what awaits Chubais in a foreign land?” The publication, citing unnamed media outlets, claims that at an ATM in Istanbul, a man resembling Chubais tried to withdraw money, while the newspaper’s experts believethat: “… now they will take it special services West and “gutted”.
But it is hardly worth worrying about Anatoly Borisovich, who “tried to withdraw money from an ATM.” Even if this attempt failed, he should not despair – Chubais has more than enough stash outside of Russia. We will talk about one of them below.
Czech stash of Anatoly Chubais
To understand what Chubais could “earn” as the head of the country’s energy sector and successfully “torn it apart”, let’s go back twenty years and give just one example. Although, these examples, if we take a serious investigationsurely enough.
In a number publications Russian media of that time, in particular, the Kommersant newspaper dated 05/07/2001 in the article “How to make money on Russia’s debts” reported about a dubious, from the point of view of the interests of the state, deal to pay off the debt of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic with the participation of Falcon Capital. Later, in the supplement to Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Business in Russia), an article was published “Russian Pie for Czech Beer”, where the usual Czech company Falcon Capital was called nothing more than a Swiss financial group. The same article unequivocally stated the links of the specified firm with the Government of Russia. It was a deal in the amount of 2.5 billion US dollars, which was implemented through the company “Falcon Capital” with the participation of Anatoly Chubaiswho at that time headed RAO UES of Russia.
The Falcon Capital company, which was the key company in this transaction and completely suited the Russian side, not only had nothing to do with Switzerland, but it could be called Czech with a big stretch (only based on the place of registration). If we consider the publications of Czech newspapers of that time, then Czech politicians of the highest rank openly declared that the interests of this firm were being lobbied by the Russian side.
A closer look at this issue reveals that Falcon Capital was established in the Czech Republic on November 28, 1995 through the efforts of citizens of the former USSR Paata Mamaladze, Inga Mamaladze, Vazha Kiknavelidze, Stanislava Kiknavelidze and Aristarkh Alaverdyan who joined them. That is, this company is an invention of citizens of the former USSR. All these citizens simultaneously formally withdrew from the directors of the company on February 17, 1997, remaining in fact the owners and driving force of this company. And on April 29, 1998, in order to give the company a more solid status, citizens of Switzerland (Hans Peter Moser and Beat Urs Moser) are formally introduced into the executive body. Judging by the data and the address of residence, they are relatives (hence, probably, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta misconception about the territorial affiliation of the company).
Also, the company, as an executive director, included a citizen of Slovakia, a former director of special commercial operations and privatization JSC Slovnaft (oil refinery in Slovakia), Josef Chimbora. It is noteworthy that at that time, in Russia, he was a witness in the case of non-return of foreign exchange earnings to the Russian Federation in the amount of 9,144,095 US dollars, which caused damage to the Russian side in the amount of 15,689,041 US dollars (case No. 347/1995 of April 15, 1996, International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation).
The share capital of Falcon Capital at that time was distributed as follows:
– 95% owned by the Swiss company Magchim AG (3212 Neuhavsen am Rhinfall, Rundbuckstrasse 6), controlled by Pata Mamaladze;
– 5% belonged to the Slovak company KASSAN sro (Starý Smokovec 24, 062 01 Vysoké Tatry), controlled by Josef Cimbora.
At that time, Czech newspapers wrote more than once about the dubiousness of the Falcon Capital company, citing data from the Information Security Service of the Czech Republic, but the Russian participants in the process did not seem to care much about this information, which indirectly confirms the assertion of Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the good connections of the owners firms in the Government of the Russian Federation.
The Czech side (according to the Russian version, the initiator of the deal), whose interests, logically, this company should have represented, was clearly in no hurry to agree to the deal, and, judging from a number of messages from the Czech press (and some unofficial data), only at the last stage of a long-term negotiation process agreed to participate in the deal. At the same time, Czech officials, guided by the data of their special services, declared that they would officially sign the powers of the specified company only after the receipt of the main amount of foreign currency on the accounts of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic. Until recently, the Czechs doubted the solvency of Falcon Capital.
If we follow the official Russian and Czech press of that time, then there was a specific confusion in the definition of “who authorized whom”. However, to clearly understand who was the main beneficiary of this transaction, the letter ref. No. АЧ-4661 dated September 13, 2001, sent by Anatoly Chubais to Alexei Kudrin, who at that time was the head of the Russian Ministry of Finance.
It is clear that the use of a company unknown to the Czechs in a financial transaction worth 2.5 billion US dollars could not take place without interested people from Russia. It can be assumed with a high degree of accuracy that the main beneficiary of this transaction was Anatoly Chubais. An additional confirmation of this can be the fact that the above-mentioned Czech company was also used in the energy sector controlled by Chubais, but already on the territory of Russia. This is evidenced by the newspaper “Elistinskaya panorama” dated 22.08.2007.
Questionable efficiency of the Russian Ministry of Finance
At the time of the transaction for 2.5 billion US dollars, the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation was Alexei Kudrin, old friend Chubais across St. Petersburg. Therefore, the initiative Anatoly Chubais was supported, despite the questionable performance of this transaction for the Russian budget. It is possible to consider the question of the real efficiency of the constructed scheme by analyzing the parameters and conditions of the agreements underlying the final agreements of the participants in the process.
To consider the issue, based on the available official information, we will determine the initial data determined by the Russian side:
1. The amount of the assignment of debt obligations of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic to the firm “Falcon Capital” – 2.5 billion US dollars.
2. Willingness of the Government of the Czech Republic to sell the debt in question to Falcon Capital – 22.2% of the debt write-off (ie USD 555 million).
3. Estimated by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation of the actual cost of the debt of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic – 54% of the amount of debts written off (ie 1.35 billion US dollars).
4. The error in the assessment made by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (in this case, the difference between the readiness of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to pay off the debts of the Czech Republic and the wishes of the Czech Republic itself) is 31.8% of the amount of the debt in question (i.e. 795 million rubles). US dollars).
The basic scheme of the transaction looks quite simple:
On the basis of the foregoing, quite rightly, some questions arise about the scheme for conducting this financial transaction agreed by the Ministry of Finance of Russia:
1. The competence of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation in assessing the Russian debt market and the effectiveness of actions in paying off Russian debts.
2. Validity of the assignment of debt from one state entity to another, in fact, to a state entity (from the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to RAO “UES of Russia”), while with a loss in the effectiveness of the main operation (meaning debt write-off) in the amount of 31.8%.
3. How justified is the need to support the solvency of RAO “UES of Russia”, formally a joint-stock company, at the expense of the budget? It would be more correct to first settle accounts with the Czech Republic, without losing 31.8% of the total amount of the debt to be repaid in this operation, and subsequently (if necessary) financially, on a repayable basis, support RAO UES of Russia.
4. Why, in the competition for the purchase of Russian debts mentioned in the press, the Russian side did not participate with the help of Russian banks, in which there is state influence. Or maybe there was no competition?
If official Prague put up a debt for sale, wanting to get 23% for it, and in the end agreed to 22.2%, then why, in fact, the Russian budget had to pay Chubais, represented by RAO UES of Russia, an additional 31.8% of the transaction amount, which amounted to 795 million US dollars, and, at the same time, to forgive RAO “UES of Russia” debt to the budget in the amount of 1.35 billion US dollars. By the way, the additional costs of the Russian budget, caused by the services of RAO “UES of Russia” to pay off the debt of the Russian Federation to the Czech Republic, significantly exceeded Russia’s payments on debts for the month of October to the International Monetary Fund and the Paris Club of creditors, which in total amounted to 697.7 million dollars. USA. Thus, the participation of RAO “UES of Russia” in this transaction did not save state funds, but, on the contrary, more than doubled the cost of this process.
If we understand this transaction in more detail, then other, difficult to explain moments will come out. But we will only focus on the fact that in relations between RAO “UES of Russia” and the company “Falcon Capital” an amount of 795 million US dollars arose. And this amount was somehow distributed. And considering that Anatoly Chubais acted as a lobbyist for this scheme, there is every reason to believe that he is directly interested in the actions of the Falcon Capital company, which, in turn, suggests that Chubais has a fairly serious nest egg in the Czech Republic.
Therefore, the newspaper “Business Online” cares about how Anatoly Borisovich will feel in a foreign land in vain. We can say with complete certainty that it will not disappear. And, most likely, Chubais’s “Czech stash” is not the only one …