Igor Yusufov “scored” the meeting in Tasi
The interests of Igor Yusufov and Leonid Mikhelson may clash in the struggle for the East Tasi gas area. “Yamal Shelf Company” (“Yamalshelf”) of the former head of the Ministry of Energy (2000-2004) Igor Yusufov is in a hurry to obtain a license for the development of the East Tasi gas area in Yamal. The day before, she presented the corrected boundaries of the site, which was previously “turned up” in Rosnedra due to a small “cartographic” inaccuracy.
Igor Yusufov has been trying to obtain a license for this site on a declarative basis since 2021, and is clearly in a hurry. After all, in the struggle for it, he may collide with the interests of the Novatek corporation of Leonid Mikhelson, which is developing its deposits very close by.
At one time, the structures of Igor Yusufov were one of the initiators of the idea of licensing such plots and were the first to receive plots in the Ob and Baydaratskaya bays according to the declarative principle. Applications are accepted in two windows: in December-January and June-July, therefore, as they say, whoever had time, he ate.
Sit on the “point” first
In the case of the Vostochno-Tasiysky gas area, the application for it from Yamalshelf was approved by Rosnedra back in 2021, but the license was never obtained. It turned out that the application did not receive the approval of the Government of the Russian Federation – allegedly incorrect coordinates were attached to it, which led the site to the zone of a specially protected natural area. As a result, last winter, Yamalshelf had to apply for a new one – already in the correct version.
It looks strange: a small inaccuracy in documents in the Russian Federation is usually cleverly smeared with a corruption mechanism. Perhaps the site is being held for some other player, which could be both Gazprom and Leonid Mikhelson’s Novatek. Is Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin acting in the interests of a major gas oligarch?
At the same time, the plots, as they say, have already been “cut”, but they may again end up in the unallocated fund, from where it will be much easier for Mikhelson to get them. Earlier, Kommersant wrote about the possibility of redistributing sections of the Tambey cluster, where Gazprom operates – it also includes the Tasi section – adjacent to the one claimed by Yusufov.
At the same time, Yusufov, Gazprom and Novatek are not the only ones who want to enter the “glade”. Roman Abramovich may have his own interest in these deposits, and, consequently, in the redistribution of the fund.
In February this year, Rosnedra received an application from Promgazresurs LLC to obtain a license to develop the Yenisei-Karsky-1 and 2 blocks. This office belongs to TsGK Gazresurs and Bonanza. TsGK Gazresurs is owned by Tatyana Morozova and Dmitry Kamyshev. Morozova, a native of Gazprom, has been head of Gazprom Neft’s Mergers and Acquisitions department for more than a decade. She is still cooperating with the corporation through the New Industry investment fund.
“CGK Gazresurs” is headed by a native of the structures of Arkady Abramovich – Sergey Eliseev. Arkady Abramovich is the son of “that same” Abramovich, who can act with his son’s hands where his own do not yet reach.
Collision with Michelson
In the case of Yusufov and Mikhelson, their possible conflict may lie on fertile ground, because they had already had a corporate dispute before. These two businessmen have a joint project – the Yargeo mining company, where Novatek owns 51%, and Yusufov – 49% through the Swiss offshore Nefte Petroleum Limited.
Against the backdrop of the crisis in 2014, Novatek accused the partner of slowing down the development of the project and not contributing its share of funding, while Igor Yusufov insisted on a number of “tasty” conditions for him.
In July 2015, the parties entered into a settlement: Yusufov achieved the conclusion of a shareholder agreement for Yargeo under English law and the payment of 50% of profits in the form of dividends. At the same time, he pledged half of the share in the project to Gazprombank under a loan of 16 billion rubles in order to fulfill financing obligations.
That is, already then Yusufov could have pushed two “sworn colleagues” – Leonid Mikhelson and Alexei Miller – with their foreheads. It seems that such a conflict may flare up again. It is noteworthy that after this story, only in 2017, Yusufov received 5.5 billion rubles of dividends from the project – wouldn’t it be “fat” with such loans? Considering that Yusufov was supposed to receive this amount through offshore, it is unlikely that the money remained in Russia …
Given the above, a possible conflict between Yusufov and Mikhelson over the fields in Yamal, in addition to corporate ones, could also damage state interests.
At the same time, it was said that Yargeo is Yusufov’s largest asset in the fuel and energy complex. It is hard to believe in this, since the mass of deposits and assets in the industry is recorded in his Energia fund. For example, there were assets of JSC Energia Corporation, the founder of which was directly the former Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov. The company was liquidated under given circumstances in the summer of 2020.
From state reserves to killers
To allow Yusufov to national wealth means to bear risks. The current oligarch himself, as they say, made himself in the dashing 90s, and obviously not without the help of the authorities of those years. It seems that he ended up in state administration by accident: he was invited to a meeting with President Boris Yeltsin on the export of resources from the country, and the Head of State allegedly liked Yusufov’s speech so much that he asked to employ him “closer to the body.”
So Yusufov became deputy chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Russia’s Economic Interests. Later, the committee was disbanded, its employees were transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations (MFER). Which oversaw, among other things, the arms trade. How many barrels, missiles and other things were taken out of the country at that time through gray schemes – one can only guess.
And from 1997 to 2001, Yusufov was the general director of the State Committee for Reserves (since 1999 – Rosreserve). The agency gave out interest-free loans to its suppliers even before it. But a year after the appointment of a new CEO, their volume has tripled. Forbes wrote about it.
How this often ended can be seen from the example of Sibneft. In September 1999, the company received 434 million rubles in advance for oil products, which were to be delivered to Rosrezerv by the beginning of the year. For six months, less than half of the order reached the warehouses.
No investigation of this and other similar situations was achieved. But after Yusufov left, a whole landing of inspectors landed in the Federal Reserve. As a result, as many as 35 criminal cases were opened, Versiya wrote. But they did not touch Yusufov.
And he also has a son, Vitaly, the owner of Nordic Yards, co-owner of Osnova Telecom. It seems that from a young age he was pulled into the undertakings with which his father was associated. In 2004-2006, Vitaly Yusufov worked as an assistant to the general director of Gazprom Export, Alexander Medvedev. Around the same time, Yusufov Sr. was on the board of directors of Gazprom.
During all this time, the Yusufovs have acquired a huge number of connections. They are also credited with some kind of relationship with the famous killer Aslan Gagiev. As Versiya wrote, when Gagiev was caught in Vienna, at the extradition trial in the Russian Federation, he allegedly said that Yusufov had allegedly seized his business for $ 3 billion.
Igor Yusufov denies any connection with the killer Aslan Gagiev (pictured left).
Apparently, we could talk about the shipbuilding company Wadan Yards, where Gagiev allegedly worked. During that conflict, Andrei Burlakov, chairman of the board of directors of the shipbuilding group Wadan Yards, was killed. As a result, this crime was “hung up” on Gagiev’s group. Did this affect, albeit indirectly, the interests of the Yusufov family?
The company’s shipyards were located in Germany, they were bought after bankruptcy by Vitaly Yusufov for 40 million euros. In 2010, the shipyards, the cost of which was estimated at 722-911 million euros, were mortgaged by Yusufov Jr. under a credit line from the Bank of Moscow. As a result, Yusufov Jr. became the owner of a 20% stake in the bank.
And the former owner of these shares, the head of the Bank of Moscow, Andrei Borodin, was forced to flee abroad. Later, he was sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison for embezzling 14.5 billion rubles from a credit institution. The Yusufovs had nothing to do with it?
Shadow of the disgraced oligarch
Returning to Gagiev – could a well-known killer work for people whom Yusufov knew? The businessman and former official flatly refuses to acknowledge any connection. But these rumors make him related to another well-known businessman, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, previously convicted and now fleeing the country (recognized as a foreign agent, extremist and terrorist in the Russian Federation).
Previously, Khodorkovsky (recognized as a foreign agent, extremist and terrorist in the Russian Federation) was also associated with contract killings, in particular, with the murder of Nefteyugansk Mayor Vladimir Petukhov in 1998.
According to evil tongues, allegedly Mr. Yusufov has been friends with the scandalous oligarch since the 90s, and then he could patronize him as head of the Ministry of Energy. They even celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Yukos company together – Yusufov was the guest of honor and one of the first to take the floor, congratulating the company’s employees on the anniversary.
Igor Yusufov at the anniversary of Yukos.
That is, it can be assumed that Mr. Yusufov could well have used the methods of his alleged friend, who now lives in Germany. Maybe Igor Yusufov himself, after the labors of the righteous, is going there too – to rest?
At the same time, surprisingly, Mr. Yusufov somehow managed to avoid Western sanctions. For what? Old connections with runaway businessmen?
Now the oligarch is entering the largest gas fields in Russia, and even risks getting involved in a serious conflict with other major players. Why does the state need this, it seems, is a rhetorical question ..