Rutube is trying its best to “import replace” YouTube, but it doesn’t work very well: recently the service almost “died” due to attacks one and only (!) Ukrainian IT specialist. Few people remember that 15 years ago, Rutube, created by Oryol programmers, really had every chance of ousting YouTube from the domestic market. But in 2008, the Russian platform was taken over by Gazprom-Media, after which the service began to stagnate and fall further and further behind its Western competitor.
Baza found out how the fate of the former first deputy general director of Gazprom-Media Igor Goykhberg, who oversaw Rutube at that time, developed. It turned out that it was much better than the service itself: Goichberg bought three apartments in the center of London for 3 billion rubles, then moved to Canada, where he races on his own sailboat, but at the same time continues to receive money from government agencies at home. […]
According to media reports, in 2007 YouTube was watched by 40 million viewers every month – but these are statistics around the world, there is no separate one for Russia for that period. The monthly audience of Rutube then amounted to 1.5 million people, and a year later it grew to 5.5 million. At the same time, the service was transferred to Gazprom Media, which valued the platform at about $15 million. […]
A source close to Gazprom-Media told Baza that the buyer of Rutube had no interest in developing the service even before the deal:
“Gazprom in 2007 allocated quite a large amount of money for the purchase of Internet resources. There were plans to “buy something”. Some people formulated these plans rather vaguely, while others were instructed to carry them out. Gazprom calmly spent part of this amount on Rutube. But the people who did this were not interested in the service itself and its development, their main goal was to spend a significant amount of money.
He also noted that the deal itself was not easy and could raise questions from corruption watchdogs:
“As far as I know, the Cypriot company, controlled by the top management of Gazprom-Media, for some reason gave a loan to Rutube CJSC (then it was a legal entity of Rutube. – Approx. Bases) secured by shares,” the source said. – It is known that such schemes can be used so that the borrower then specifically does not repay the money on time and the shares remain with the lender. I don’t know exactly what this scheme was for. But I suppose that on the way from Gazprom-Media to Paulukin and Volobuev, part of the money could have been lost somewhere. I think that out of those 15 million potential dollars, God forbid, half reached the seller.
By the way, in 2009, according to SPARK-Interfax, two Cypriot companies actually appeared among the shareholders of Rutube CJSC – Ecofran Marketing Consalting & Communication Service Company Ltd. (50%) and Factorline Services Ltd. (25%).
Mikhail Paulkin, in a conversation with “Base”, was cautious in his assessments:
“If memory serves, in 2008 we left the company’s management, and then they [менеджеры из “Газпром-медиа”] made their own decisions. Good or bad? In fact, we see that it could be much better. Why did it happen? I’m afraid that, probably, this was some kind of incompetence of the leadership at that time … They didn’t believe it … They didn’t realize that this was promising.”
Oleg Volobuev noted that at the time of the transaction, Gazprom-Media “clearly understood that they needed to go digital, into an online presence.” This was done “by the forces of the TNT team” (part of the structure of Gazprom Media): Rutube CEO in 2008 became Mikhail Ilyichev, who previously held the position of director of the department for managing TNT’s own stations.
“We sold Rutube at its peak [успешности], and then his positioning changed dramatically. The buyer has already positioned it as a showcase for TNT, and, accordingly, the role of the site has completely changed,” says Volobuev.
Askar Tuganbaev, who was then the first producer of Rutube, believes that Gazprom was probably given the command to purchase the service for political reasons, and then no one needed it:
“Rutube then posted videos from protests in Moscow. Thus, we poked the authorities a little with a stick and a nail in the side: look, there is such video content and all this will expand … – he said. – I think that someone in power saw the potential, realized that if this thing is not controlled now, then at some point an independent video platform will appear, which will host any political content. They realized that this is the kind of story that needs to be controlled. And, apparently, “Gazprom” was given the command that it should be bought. I assume so, but I don’t know for sure. But when they bought it, they seemed to lose interest in all this – and they did not understand why they needed this suitcase without a handle.
In April 2022, Oryol entrepreneur and member of the first Rutube team of creators Roman Kiselyov expressed another version of what happened to the service: someone from Gazprom-Media initially deliberately hindered the development of the service.
“At that time, Gazprom-Media commanded Nikolai Senkevich and his deputy Igor Moiseevich Goykhberg. He led us directly. And literally within a short period of time after they bought us, they move our Oryol team away from technical support. And put some kind of Moscow. And the next day, the download starts to hang … “- said Kiselyov about 2008.
According to him, it was pure corporate sabotage: “And the customer was Googleas the owner of YouTube. They’re just through it [Гойхберга] removed a competitor. They thanked him, gave him, perhaps, to steal and so on.
Kiselev claims that Rutube’s problems began a few months after the sale of Gazprom-Media.
“Igor Moiseevich is not a stupid person, and he could not do something stupid when he moved the Oryol team away from technical support. Well, what is it, but we will never accuse him of stupidity. This is the smartest person! Only the whole question is in whose interests he worked, ”said Roman Kiselev.
To the remark that Goykhberg was just a deputy at Gazprom-Media and had to report at least to his immediate superior, Kiselev retorts: this boss was a doctor and could simply not understand the details. The head of Gazprom-Media at that time was Nikolai Senkevich, the son of Yuri Senkevich, the legendary host of the Travelers Club program. A doctor by education, he came to the media sphere, presumably under the patronage of his father, and television people, as the media wrotewere deeply outraged that he immediately took a high post.
According to a Baza source, “when Paulkin and Volobuev were selling Rutube, they negotiated directly with Goykhberg.” Volobuev also confirmed that Goykhberg “completely made and controlled the entire deal.”
Mikhail Paulkin noted that Rutube was managed by a “board of directors”, in which “there were people from both TNT and various representatives from Gazprom-Media.”
“I can’t say what exactly it is. [Гойхберг] he made all the decisions there, – no, there was a board of directors, ”he clarified.
The entrepreneur also does not believe in sabotage:
“For someone to sit and insidiously think how to destroy [Rutube]I doubt it, he said. “Usually, there are enough completely different stories in our country – just banal incompetence.”
Who is Mr Goichberg?
Igor Goykhberg began his career in 1987 in St. Petersburg PJSC “Priboy”, after graduating from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute of Communications. “Priboy” – the heir to the Soviet “NPO them. Comintern”, produced radio components. Goichberg, who was then 23 years old, was developing and testing new equipment for broadcasting a television signal.
Four years later, he quit and became an employee of the first Soviet news agency for young people, IMA-Press. Since 1991, Goichberg’s career has been associated with the media market: before the 2000s, he managed to work in advertising, PR, and a car magazine.
In 2004, after successful work in Germany and Canada on the development of the network of NTV-International, Goichberg was taken to the position of head of development at Gazprom-Media. In this capacity – as “developing” promising areas – he appeared in the fate of Rutube in 2008.
In 2013, Goykhberg took over as CEO of TNT in order to leave the entertainment channel in just six months. His traces in the official biographies TASS and in other public sources are lost. Chronologically, his departure from the media business coincided with the start of mass protests on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in 2014 and the subsequent secession of Crimea.
The residential complex is a so-called club house – three equal-story blocks with floor-to-ceiling windows, standing on Primrose Hill. These windows offer views of the park and the rowing canal flowing nearby, and further, over the neighboring houses, to Regent’s Park. In a fenced complex – swimming pool, gym, underground parking and security.
In the same period, an apartment in this residential complex was bought by the ex-owner of the Yukos oil company, a disgraced oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who in 2014 was just released from the Russian colony. It is noteworthy that information about Khodorkovsky’s apartment in London was the first dug up NTV – the channel, which at one time was led by Goykhberg.
In the UK, there are problems with data on the area of u200bu200bresidential premises – no one measures them. One real estate agency released a study, according to which 57% of Britons do not know the area of their own housing. Therefore, it is impossible to name the exact dimensions of the two-level apartment according to the available documents – they are not indicated in any of the extracts that we received from the official register, only the general boundaries of the apartment on the plan are outlined in red.
We drew these boundaries over the roof on Google maps and calculated the area with the built-in Measure Distance tool – it turned out that one level occupies 161 square meters. m, and two, respectively, – 322 sq. m.
By the same principle, we measured the approximate area of the second apartment – a penthouse, which Goichberg bought in July 2015. Since it occupies the entire fourth floor, we outlined its boundaries on Google maps and got an area of 353 square meters.
Goichberg paid £16m for the penthouse, making it the most expensive apartment in the complex, according to The Move Market.
Goichberg bought a third apartment on the second floor. The deal took place in April 2016. This is the cheapest apartment he owns in this residential complex – £ 6.44 million.
Apartments in 50 St Edmunds Terrace are sold, as a rule, finished, and from the photos on the websites of real estate agencies, you can restore how typical apartments in this residential complex look like.
In Britain two types of property – freehold (full ownership, “forever”) and leasehold – the right to long-term lease of property, as a rule, for a period of 90 years or more. Most apartments are sold on a leasehold basis, while land and country estates are sold on a freehold basis. In 2002, legislation changed in Britain: now a leasehold for a period of more than 90 years costs almost the same as freehold, and it is called “essentially freehold”.
Goichberg bought all his apartments on leasehold for a period of 999 years.
In May 2019, Goichberg pledged one of the apartments, valued at £9.49m, to a bank. It probably became collateral for the loan.
According to Roman Kiselyov, Goykhberg now lives in Canada and rents out offices. In the Canadian database of legal entities you can find record that Igor Goykhberg was the CEO of RNetTV Corp., which existed in 2003-2006. She is tied with another company – HTB CANADA INC – and, probably, is related to the same NTV-International network that Goichberg developed at the beginning of the 2000s.
The RNetTV card shows his Canadian address, a pretty cottage in Richmond Hill. But, according to the extract from the Canadian registry we received, Goichberg never owned this house.
Reference books (eg. this) there are several more addresses of a person named Igor Goykhberg in Canada (perhaps these are the namesakes of our hero). We ordered an extract from a private home in Toronto that is on this list. Igor Goykhberg was not among the owners, while earlier the house belonged to another person with Russian roots – Igor Tregubov, this is a poker player who plays in tournaments speaks under the flag of Canada.
It is possible that Goichberg may be somehow connected with him or simply rented this house. By the way, the cottage is located in the heart of Russian emigration – the Westminster-Branson area. Local sociologists put it to the first place among the areas “in which you are most likely to hear Russian speech.”
According to a Baza source, Igor Goykhberg has dual citizenship: the second is Canadian. By the way, the website of the International Association of Sailboats Class40 indicates that Goichberg has Canadian citizenship. He is the owner of the Influence sailboat, which occasionally competes in offshore races. Such sailboats cost $100-300 thousand.
Goichberg has loved sailing for a long time. In general, in Gazprom, in whose “daughter” he worked, this is a corporate hobby. For example, in 2016, the European Championship in the Dragon yacht class was held in St. Petersburg, where 45 crews from 14 countries participated. The title partner of the event was Gazprom. In the news about the championship, you can also meet Igor Goykhberg – he, however, did not manage to take a prize.
Goichberg’s son is also fond of racing – but in cars. Mikhail is a Russian-born Canadian racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the Prototype class – so write sports websites of Canada about him. In 2014, Goichberg Jr. became the IMSA Prototype Lites champion, and in 2016 he won the Prototype Challenge class at the Daytona 24 Hours.
Sergei Fokin, as the media wrote, previously worked on the NTV-plus TV channel, where he could meet Goykhberg, who was also associated with NTV. The pilot’s father Georgy Fokin, as reported, is the general director of Gazprom Transgaz St. Petersburg and could well have crossed paths with Goykhberg at work.
Sergei Fokin has previously attracted the attention of journalists, but by no means as an entrepreneur or NTV employee. In 2019 Russian President Vladimir Putin examined on the Gulf of Finland, the place of the death of a submarine during the Great Patriotic War.
He did this on board the bathyscaphe. Prior to this, the president had already twice dived into the depths of the sea: in 2013 to the crash site of the frigate Oleg and in 2015 in the Crimea, he examined the remains of ships of the 9th-10th centuries.
All three times, the president’s bathyscaphe was piloted by an employee of the Expeditionary Center of the Ministry of Defense, Sergei Fokin, the same business partner of Goykhberg.
The press service of “Gazprom-Media” reported that from the common between today’s Rutube and this video hosting ten years ago, only the name. According to a company representative, these are completely different both in terms of functionality, code and engine, and in terms of platform content.
“The task of “becoming a YouTube killer” is not for the national video hosting. Now Rutube is a large ecosystem, a national video hosting, an aggregator of both UGC and licensed and original content with more than 25 million monthly audiences. Moreover, it is inappropriate to estimate the value of the asset at the time of acquisition, as well as the amount “invested in Rutube in total”.
Igor Goykhberg did not respond to Baza’s inquiries.
