Among Putin’s possible successors, no one is named. What criteria are used in the selection of “competitors” by those who periodically with a mysterious facial expression and aspiration voice the next name of the “applicant” – is unknown.
But among this stream of the subconscious there are several people whose names on this list sound most often. Moreover, the owners of these several surnames are really people who have every chance to occupy the throne of the supreme ruler of Russia, which will soon be vacated.
Meet Dmitry Nikolayevich Patrushev, Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation since May 18, 2018, Chairman of the Board of Rosselkhozbank (2010-2018), Member of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, graduated from the FSB Academy in 2006. But there are more weighty reasons to consider Dmitry Patrushev one of the real contenders for the post of President of the Russian Federation.
This is Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev. Yes, the same one – the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, the former director of the FSB (in this post he replaced Putin) and the man about whom the judge of the High Court of Britain, Sir Robert Owen, during the announcement of the results of the public inquiry into the case of Alexander Litvinenko, said that this was a murder, “most likely, personally approved by the head of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev and Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Nikolai Patrushev has known Putin since the 1970s, they worked together in the Leningrad KGB.
And he is also the father of Dmitry Nikolaevich Patrushev. So this alone gives good reason to believe that Dmitry Nikolayevich’s candidacy for the “position” of the successor is being considered quite seriously. It’s funny, but in 2006 his father (Nikolai Patrushev) was also named by political commentators as one of Putin’s possible successors to the presidency.
Naturally, in that squabble over the still possibly vacant seat of the President of Russia, which is already almost openly being waged in the Kremlin, Dmitry Patrushev also has, let’s say, ill-wishers. And they have their own arguments that could cross out all the hopes of the Patrushev clan for the supreme power in the country – and the Patrushevs, although they do not directly declare such a desire, they are clearly not going to refuse the chance, if it turns up. And they also participate in this division of the future throne, no less violently “drowning” potential competitors.
Echoes of this fight of rats in a jar periodically fly from the Kremlin skies and to the sinful earth, therefore, some very unpleasant details about Dmitry Patrushev also became known to mere mortals. Which, in addition to their impartiality, very significantly reduce his chances for the title of supreme ruler.
First, of course, Dmitry Nikolayevich will not fail to be reminded that the Russian agriculture, which he has been leading for four years now, is by no means in the best condition. Russia is simply not able to feed itself, and this is despite the presence of huge agricultural lands located in different climatic zones, and allowing you to grow everything – from potatoes to pineapples.
But none of this happens – if there are no questions about the import of pineapples, then there are questions about the fact that Russia buys potatoes, onions and tomatoes abroad. They will become especially acute in the coming months, when the Russians will feel the fullness of Western sanctions, which, for the most part, they only know about from TV and have little idea of what empty store shelves are. So, Patrushev’s opponents have a bunch of excellent arguments ahead – it has long been clear to everyone that Russia’s agriculture is characterized as “the patient is more dead than alive.”
But this is the future, albeit the near future. And there is also the past and the present. There, Dmitry Nikolayevich also has a bunch of “skeletons in the closet.” Even at the time of his appointment to the post of minister, Patrushev turned out to be the richest among the newcomers to the government – in 2018 he declared 183.8 million rubles. Patrushev also declared four land plots, four garages, a Toyota Land Cruiser car and two residential buildings (297.9 and 335.1 sq. m.), an apartment with an area of 220.4 sq. m. m. However, subsequent years also did not bring Dmitry Nikolaevich any special material worries:
But if we compare the declarations of 2013, when Patrushev was a banker, and 2018, when he became an official, the difference is impressive:
The growth of the income of the banker, who turned into a minister, is almost three times.
In addition, not a single declaration shows an apartment registered in the US state of Illinois in the name of Dmitry Patrushev, which in a very strange way coincides with the name and surname of the Russian minister.
Of course, in Russia you will not surprise anyone with such things, but if desired, the Federal Tax Service knows how to work very strictly and biasedly. And who will control it at the moment when the question of a successor will rise “in full growth” is also a question, pardon the pun.
And this is where Patrushev can be remembered for his work at Rosselkhozbank, the transition from which to the government was called “evacuation” by evil tongues.
Here is what she wrote about this appointment “Novaya Gazeta” in the article “Patrushev was sent for potatoes”: “To call Dmitry Patrushev an effective bank top manager would be an exaggeration. Even despite the fact that the bank fell under sectoral sanctions because of Ukraine and Crimea in 2014, it went into the red much faster than all other financial structures.
It is known that in 2016 the bank’s loss (according to official reports) amounted to almost 59 billion rubles, and a year earlier – almost 70 billion rubles. This, however, did not prevent Dmitry Patrushev from becoming the winner of the Banker of the Year award according to the Association of Russian Banks (ARB). Probably, when determining the winner, the ARB did not take into account the fact that the bank issued loans to the companies of Maxim Khromtsov.” (Khromtsov is the owner of Misam Investments: it appears in the Panama Dossier, and in 2012 Nikolai Patrushev, father of the Minister of Agriculture, sold his share in it to Khromtsov).
Some financial indicators of the Rosselkhozbank led at that time by Dmitry Patrushev raise many questions.
But there were also quite interesting loans that were issued by the bank led by Patrushev. According to the audit of the Accounts Chamber, the bank created to support the agro-industrial complex, to the detriment of agricultural work, issued loans for the purchase of elite housing and cars, including for its own employees.
Patrushev has a particularly close relationship with Alexander Tkachev, the owner of an agrarian empire in the Krasnodar Territory, who became the Minister of Agriculture in 2015 and was replaced in this post by Patrushev. At the same time, Tkachev also became the chairman of the Supervisory Board of Rosselkhozbank JSC. The media wrote about the scheme when Rosselkhozbank issued loans to Krasnodar agricultural companies, and then they went bankrupt. Private security companies came to the bankrupt companies, which were associated with the Tkachev family business.
Thus, the grain company “Nastyusha” took a loan from the RSHB, but was unable to repay the money and gave the bank ten elevators valued at 4.75 billion rubles, of which 3.15 billion were credited to the debt. Patrushev put the elevators up for sale for just 612 million rubles, and sold seven of them for 443 million rubles. At the same time, part of the granaries at a bargain price was bought by Agrocomplex im. N. I. Tkachev.
The state turned a blind eye to the obvious loss and compensated for it. Similar stories happened with Pavlovsky Sugar Plant LLC and with many other enterprises and lands. The largest acquisition of the Tkachev clan was 40,000 hectares of the famous Tsapkov gang, who owed over 7 billion rubles to Rosselkhozbank. After the annexation of the Tsapkovsky estates, the ownership of the Agrocomplex named after. N. I. Tkachev” grew to 649 thousand hectares and became the third in Russia in terms of the area of the land fund.
The result of Patrushev’s activities at the bank was that at the end of 2017, for the first time in many years, the government of the Russian Federation recognized the work of Rosselkhozbank as unsatisfactory. Apparently, something that has been accumulating for many years has “poured out”. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with TASS at the time that all the bank’s profits would be used to pay off debts.
Rosselkhozbank, which became toxic against the background of all this, ceased to suit Dmitry Nikolayevich, and his father began to look for new options for him. At first, they actively tried to “woo” Patrushev for the post of chairman of the board of Gazprom, but this caused concern among a significant part of the top management of the corporation. Then they looked for a place in the renovated Promsvyazbank, but the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov staked it out for his son. In the end, Dmitry Nikolayevich was agreed to the post of Minister of Agriculture.
These are just a few episodes from the activities of Dmitry Patrushev as head of Rosselkhozbank. By the way, they shed light on the income of the newly minted minister. But they also serve as a kind of “club” in the hands of the opponents of the Patrushev clan. And what else will be revealed as a result of the investigation of Patrushev’s work at Rosselkhozbank is known only to him. No wonder that his powerful father decided to remove his son from sin away.
Another line of Patrushev Jr.’s income, which he never explained, is a remuneration from Gazprom. He was also appointed to the board of directors of the monopolist by the state and received 25.5 million rubles for this last year. Why he was paid this money is not clear until now. But Gazprom knows better how to dispose of income from losses – and Gazprom has been demonstrating losses in the past few years. But nevertheless, he finds money for the salary of Dmitry Patrushev.
As for today, according to the Kopromat 2.0 telegram channel, the minister’s wife, Marina Artemyeva, got a new estate in Serebryany Bor a few months ago. Yes, according to official data, Dmitry Patrushev is not married. But after all, someone bore him six children, about whom the same official biography writes?
In addition, the story of Rosselkhozbank is far from being written off to the archive. Together with Dmitry Patrushev, Oksana Lut worked there, who now holds the position (who would have thought?) Deputy Minister of Agriculture.
Ms. Loot worked at the bank from 2010 to 2018 and headed the department for customer service and business development, and also held the position of deputy chairman of the board of the RSHB. And in the spring of this year, material suddenly flashed in the press, where Oksana Lut and her boss Patrushev were connected with possible corruption schemes in the agricultural sector. The Moscow Post wrote that the Ministry of Agriculture “may be exposed to corrupt schemes for regulating the agro-industrial complex.”
In 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture developed the so-called system of unions, which included all companies in each sector (grain, dairy, etc.). They were obliged to pay membership dues, receiving state support as compensation. The duty to control these cash flows fell directly on the shoulders of Oksana Lut. Therefore, Mrs. Lut, in general, could, roughly speaking, give someone less, and give someone more. At the same time, she reported to her direct leader Patrushev, who arranged the whole situation.
More specifically, the Union of Grain Exporters, judging by the current state of affairs of the companies, was established to promote RIF, Aston and Sodruzhestvo – they are now the largest Russian grain producers.
Moreover, in 2020, the Russian government introduced quotas for the export of wheat, rye, barley and corn, most of which were received by RIF and Astor. It was rumored that for unknown reasons they began to detain ships in the ports – everything except the Commonwealth.
And such precedents, when some companies “grew by leaps and bounds”, receiving state preferences, and some “bended”, a fair amount has accumulated since 2018 – they say that those who cannot “pay with a minted coin” to Ms. and her patron, quickly lose access to preferences.
The Accounts Chamber published information on its website that, following the results of 2018, a number of the largest organizations receiving subsidies to reimburse part of the interest rate on investment loans, which is almost 1 billion rubles, either did not complete investment projects or did not reach a break-even level of activity.
It turns out that, although subsidized companies are market leaders, in fact it turns out that these leaders cannot reimburse even part of the interest rate on investment loans and are forced to live on state subsidies.
In this little information, The Moscow Post, in fact, made it clear that corruption schemes are flourishing in the Ministry of Agriculture under the leadership of Dmitry Patrushev. But this material did not receive a continuation – either the Kremlin was not up to it, or the powerful Patrushev Sr. pressed the necessary levers in time.
But in light of the fact that in recent weeks the issue of the transit of power has become more acute and the horizon of this event is getting closer, the struggle for the legacy of a leader weakening every day has intensified. Therefore, the question of whether competitors in this fight will be able to drown Dmitry Patrushev with this and other compromising evidence is no less acute.
