Boris Baum
President Zelensky’s intention to legalize the gambling business has excited the appetite of lovers of easy money not only in Ukraine, but also beyond the “curb.” And although the legalization of casinos is still only at the stage of developing laws, it is already being taken under control by Russian “scammers” acting through their representative Boris Baum. He managed to fit into Zelensky’s circle, enter the Verkhovna Rada committee as a “presidential representative,” and become a co-author of bill No. 2285.
At first they didn’t pay much attention to Baum, not really knowing what kind of person he was. And more worrying was the active participation in the process of legalizing the gambling business of such sharks as the bookmaker company Pari-Match (owner Eduard Shvindlerman), which operates in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Georgia and Moldova, illegally organizing virtual casinos. The law firm associated with it, Eterna Law, and former Pari-Match employee Irina Sergienko, who became president of the Ukrainian Gaming Industry Association and chairman of the Coordination Council for Socially Responsible Legalization of Casinos, are participating in the development of the bill. Or people like the bookmaker company “Fovorit” (Andrey Matyukha), which, under the guise of distributing state lotteries, opens illegal gambling halls. And, despite the fact that in 2016 alone the SBU closed down 28 such establishments (more than a thousand pieces of computer equipment were seized), no criminal cases were ever brought against Favorit. Matyukha has a strong “roof”!
But then, having become interested in who this previously unknown Boris Baum was, the journalists found out that he was one of the top managers of VS Energy, which owns several oblenergos in Ukraine, a chain of hotels and shares in metallurgical plants, and was also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the First Investment Bank. And that all these enterprises belong to a group of Russian businessmen Babakov, Giner and Voevodin, known as the leaders of the Luzhnikov group. And Alexander Babakov is also a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), in the past – deputy chairman of the State Duma. And now it became clear that this problem goes far beyond the issue of legalizing casinos…
Latvia-America-Ukraine
Although Boris Baum has recently been mentioned quite often in the Ukrainian media in the context of the topic of legalizing gambling, information about him is extremely scarce and contradictory. Finding his biography is almost impossible, his past in Ukraine seems to be erased, and his connections in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) cause confusion. For example, when they talk about his belonging to the Luzhnikov group, this automatically leads to the question of his possible relationship with Moscow businessman Pyotr Friedrichovich Baum, the owner of such enterprises as Russtekhinvest and Ruskeramika, the former owner of the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant. Isn’t he his father? If you dig deeper, it turns out that no.
Peter Baum
Skelet.Info We managed to find out that Boris Petrovich Baum was born on December 8, 1973 in Jurmala (then Latvian SSR, now Latvia). His parents Peter Baum (born 1948) and Rosa Baum (born 1952) grew up, got married and worked there, and still live in Jurmala – although many of their friends left for Israel and the USA. Their son Boris also lived in America for several years.
In 1991, Boris Baum graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 40, and a year later he entered the then newly opened Riga International School of Economics and Business (RISEBA), where he studied until 1996 and received a bachelor’s degree in economics. Then Boris Baum left for the USA: the reasons for this are not indicated anywhere, perhaps it was related to business or he was offered a good job, or Baum simply took the opportunity to emigrate to America. He lived there for at least two years and during this time he graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu – one of the many American private universities of the second category, producing lawyers, accountants and managers. There Boris Baum received a master’s degree in management and economics.
Rosa Baum
But the next few years of Baum’s life are completely unknown. He hides them even in his profiles as a member of the supervisory boards. But why? After all, a young specialist with two diplomas (one American) has probably found a job in some Western company – which is considered a highlight of the resume of any Ukrainian top manager. But for some reason, Baum does not want to advertise what exactly he did in the period between graduating from Pepperdine University in 1998 and his appearance in Ukraine in 2006 as the head of the supervisory board of PJSC First Investment Bank and the first assistant to the head of LLC “VS Energy International Ukraine” by Mikhail Spektor. Who just then replaced Alexander Prityka at the head of a business group operating in Ukraine, owned by the Luzhniki group.
At the same time, in 2005-2006, the Luzhniki group covered their tracks and changed their image, adapting to the new Ukrainian government. Perhaps, in the course of this, the biography of Boris Baum was also very much cleaned up, which hid the answer to the most intriguing question: how and why did an emigrant from Latvia who settled in the USA get involved with the Luzhniki family and go to serve their business in Ukraine?
To some extent, the answer to this question, as well as the appearance of Baum in Zelensky’s entourage, can be explained by the following fact: on May 2, 2010, a large group of distinguished guests arrived in Israel for the wedding of Dnepropetrovsk businessman Timur Mindich on Mikhail Spector’s personal plane. Among them were the head of the Dnepropetrovsk Chabad community Shmuel Kaminetsky, oligarchs Viktor Pinchuk, Mikhail Kiperman, Mark and Yevgeny Kogan, former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Mikhail Reznik, and Boris Baum.
How “Puddle” grew
In 1992, the famous Moscow sports complex in Luzhniki was corporatized, and JSC Luzhniki received the right to independently engage in economic activities. First of all, the shareholders opened a clothing market of the same name on the vacant territory near the stadium, which was popularly nicknamed “Puddle” and for several years became the largest flea market not only in Moscow, but throughout the CIS. Literally immediately, a fierce war began over the market between the largest organized crime groups: Solntsevskaya, Izmailovskaya and Lipetskaya. Behind each of them there was a “roof” in power, in law enforcement agencies, in the intelligence services.
Luzhnikovsky market, 90s
As a result, the market went to the Lipetsk people, but not as a trophy, but rather as their lot in the division of spheres of influence. For example, the Solntsevskys secured the oil and gas business and expanded their influence to the West (Europe and the USA), the Izmailovskys began to take control of metallurgical enterprises, and the Lipetsk ones were allowed to establish control over clothing markets. True, Luzhniki was for some time the only major market they owned. During 1993-97 The Lipetsk gang was pretty much crushed, but that part of the group that gained a foothold in Moscow actually formed a new organized crime group, which received its name from its Luzhniki market. The criminal leader of the group was the “authority” Mikhail Voevodin (Misha Luzhnetsky), a native of Ryazan who graduated from Bauman State Technical University. His closest henchmen were Muscovite Maxim Kurochkin (Max Besheny), who commanded militants in the organized crime group, and Alexander Babakov (a native of Chisinau, worked in Nikolaev) and Evgeniy Giner (Kharkov resident) who came to Moscow from Ukraine – the economic brains of the group.
Alexander Babakov
Also, brothers Vladimir and Konstantin Gladkov (from Lugansk) joined the Luzhnikov gang, and in 2001 Kharkov resident Pavel Fuks, who was brought to Moscow by the criminal “authority” Sergei Batozsky, an old friend of Giner and Kernes, became close to them. However, literally at the same time, a conflict arose between the Luzhnikov gang and Batozsky, after which the “authority” was killed.
Voevodin and Babakov first of all created Bavas LLP, which managed the market, and Kurochkin and Giner opened the private security company Garant Plus, under whose roof militants and Luzhniki racketeers worked. But they fed not only on tribute from merchants and profits from the sale of goods of criminal origin (smuggling and stolen goods). As the media wrote, Babakov and other “crests” who came to Moscow and joined the Luzhnikovskaya organized crime group were “scammers” who scammed naive ordinary people out of money, who came to the market with a full wallet.
Evgeniy Giner
The income from this was so great that in 1996 Babakov decided to legalize his “scams” and established Lotby LLP, which received permission from the Moscow mayor’s office to conduct “instant lotteries.” Babakov’s imagination was the key: new tents with lottery tickets and “electronic roulettes” (a set-top box with a TV set), then halls with slot machines and casinos, had already legally grown on Luzhniki and around. We can say that the Luzhniki members rose mainly through gambling – which is why they still have a special interest in this business.
At the same time, they settled in very well. Babakov began teaching economics at Moscow State University in 1998, made many useful contacts at the Moscow mayor’s office, joined the Rodina party in 2003 and was elected to the State Duma – this is how his political career began. Which was not at all hampered by Babakov’s Israeli citizenship! According to Skelet.Infosince 1996, being the founder and director of the company “Eventa” registered in Switzerland, Babakov indicated in its documents that he was a resident of Ramla (Israel), and since 2001 he had already entered himself as a citizen of Israel.
But Maxim Kurochkin was friends with his Milesian curator Vladimir Rushailo. An experienced Moscow “cop”, Rushailo held senior positions in the capital’s Organized Crime Control Department from the late 80s, and in 1999 became the new Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). Among the tasks assigned to him was counteracting “armed gangs of the North Caucasus.” Under this brand, Rushailo decided to cleanse Moscow of Chechen organized crime groups, but only with his own methods: to “squeeze” the business from the “bearded ones” and transfer it to his wards. And, in particular, Rushailo met with Kurochkin and blessed the Luzhnikovites for the war with the Chechens for the Moscow bazaars. The largest successful operation of the Luzhniki gang was the seizure of the CSKA stadium (and the market of the same name). In the 90s, they were controlled by the Chechen “authority” Shahrudi Dadakhanov (Shah), who had a “roof” in the Russian Ministry of Defense and important allies in the criminal world (for example, Taiwanchik). The Chechens were attacked by everyone at once: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the prosecutor’s office and the Luzhniki gang, so that in February 2001, the stadium and the CSKA market were handed over to them – they were transferred to the companies that were indicated to them. And their general management was now carried out by the new president of the CSKA club, Evgeny Giner.
“Russian Club” in Ukraine
All this money had to be laundered and invested. The Luzhnikovskys did this not only in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism): in the late 90s, their economic expansion into Ukraine began. The choice was obvious, because many of the Luzhniki members came to Moscow from Ukraine, they knew their homeland well and had many useful connections there. One of the first acquisitions of the Luzhniki group back in the mid-90s was the Yalta hotel Oreanda (where the future head of the Kyiv Department of State Administration Sergei Semochko was then fed. But they received their main assets in Ukraine in a roundabout way, through their companies registered in Europe. Their there were quite a few, but the most famous was the Slovak “Vychodoslovenske Energeticke Zavody”, a former state-owned company, gradually bought out by the Luzhnikovites and controlled by Alexander Babakov, Evgeniy Giner, Mikhail Voevodin, Sergei Shapovalov and (until 2005) Maxim Kurochkin. This is how the Luzhnikovskys changed. their criminal image and hid their Russian registration, becoming “Slovaks”! Moreover, Kurochkin’s share was quite large: shortly before his death. he statedthat after leaving the “Slovak group” his former partners owed him about $170 million.
Maxim Kurochkin
Then Vychodoslovenske Energeticke Zavody established its subsidiary VS Energy International NV in the Netherlands, which came to Ukraine in the late 90s for large-scale privatization. At that time, Ukrainian oligarchs fought for metallurgical and chemical plants, for oil refineries and mining and processing plants, and only a few of them paid attention to enterprises distributing electricity (oblenergo) and gas (oblgazy). Among the first Ukrainian “energetics” were Grigory Surkis and his ally Konstantin Grigorishin, who took part in the partial privatization of 1997 – closed, the most corrupt, when 20-45% of the shares of nine regional power companies were distributed behind the scenes. Due to numerous scandals, the next stage of privatization of oblenergos was postponed to 2001, but even then they could not be avoided.
The situation developed approximately as follows: through the efforts of the Yushchenko government, the Surkis group was pushed out of the second stage of the privatization of oblenergos, including due to the reluctance to give these enterprises to “Russian business” (and RAO UES of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) was simply excluded from the number of bidders). But the Americans were invited as VIP participants in the privatization – the companies AES Washington Holdings BV and AES Silk Road BV, which are part of the AES Corporation. It is worth noting that the Americans even carried out a preliminary reform of the Ukrainian energy market (under the leadership of American and British specialists). However, Surkis, together with his companion and fellow party member Medvedchuk, dragged the “Slovaks” – that is, the European companies of the “Luzhniki” – into privatization. This is where their disguise as “European investors” came in handy!
The Slovaks beat the Americans: in April 2001, they got controlling stakes (92.5-94.5%) in Zhytomiroblenergo, Sevastopolenergo, Khersonoblenergo and Kirovogradoblenergo, while AES Washington Holdings BV received only Kiev-oblenergo and Rivneoblenergo. Babakov paid about 100 million dollars for four oblenergos, the Americans paid about 60 million for their two, and this was one and a half times less than what the State Property Fund expected to receive from this privatization. Not surprisingly, this ended in a new corruption scandal – which turned political when it turned out that the “Slovaks” were in fact Russians. And it worsened when the Luzhnikovites began to implement their “Russian Club” project in Ukraine, which was actively supported by the new head of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Medvedchuk. The “Russian Club” also fit into the pro-Russian vector of Viktor Yanukovych. And also, which few people remember, a member of the “Russian Club” in 2003-2004. there was a socialist Yuri Lutsenko.
Many believed that Kurochkin was behind the Russian Club, but this was not the case. Already from the name itself it was clear that this was a project of Babakov, who just then joined the jingoistic party “Motherland”. But since the Luzhniki team were then one team, everyone participated in the Russian Club together. It’s just that subsequent events separated them.
This privatization was accompanied by a number of strange deaths and even murders. The most notorious was the murder of Deputy Chairman of the State Securities and Stock Market Committee Alexei Romashko, who was shot dead on October 29, 2001 in the entrance of his own house. The case was literally immediately put on hold and quickly shelved without really being investigated. Meanwhile, among the potential customers was his colleague, another deputy chairman of the State Securities and Stock Market Committee Andrei Portnov, who had a serious conflict with Romashko the day before. For a long time it was believed that the cause of their quarrel was the Southern Mining and Processing Plant, for which the Privat group (its interests were defended by Portnov) and Vadim Novinsky (Romashko was on his side) fought. However, later, People’s Deputy Nikolai Tomenko claimed that the Luzhniki group was involved in Romashko’s murder, and it was organized by Maxim Kurochkin – and the reason was OJSC Poltavaoblenergo, which Romashko did not allow to auction, protecting the interests of another business group. According to some sources Skelet.InfoPortnov was then friends with the Luzhniki gang, so one version does not contradict the other. And then, is it a coincidence that in 2019 in Ukraine both Portnov and the Luzhniki gang became so active at the same time – supposedly not knowing each other?
Andrey Portnov
And in November 2003, the head of the board of Zhytomiroblenergo, Petr Starovoitov, died in an accident, whose car crashed at full speed into a KrAZ, which suddenly decided to turn around in the middle of the highway. Then that’s it noticed that this accident was exactly similar to the one in which Vyacheslav Chernovol died – that is, it resembled the handwriting of a “custom misfortune”…
Until 2004, everything went like clockwork, and VS Energy International NV also acquired 21.97% of shares in Chernivtsioblenergo, 20.36% in Odessaoblenergo, 11.78 in Khmelnytskoblenergo and 10.53% in Zakarpattyaoblenergo. . The company also became the owner of several hotels in Western Ukraine and Crimea. But then two force majeure events occurred. Firstly, the first Maidan broke out in Ukraine and power passed to the “orange”. Secondly, in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Vladimir Rushailo fell into disgrace and was sent into political retirement, and the Rodina party split into three factions – and Babakov remained in the Rogozin party (having headed it in 2006). All this put an end to the prospects of the “Russian Club” in Ukraine, and the “Luzhnikovsky” decided to change their colors and move towards rapprochement with the “orange”.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Info
CONTINUED: Boris Baum: servants and managers of the “Luzhniki lads” in Ukraine. PART 2
Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – Only dossiers, biographies and incriminating evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!
