It is not known by whom and when it was noticed, but in Russia a leader who has failed in the assigned task usually does not go to the janitors, but simply moves to another leadership chair.
An example – here it is: the CEO of the Red Wings airline, Evgeny Klyucharev, who drove it into losses, is transplanted into the chair of the director of the Pobeda airline.
Some may object – private companies, what do we care about how the capitalists manage their money? And it will be a mistake – both airlines belong to the state. The first is Red Wings, the brainchild of Rostec, which is a state corporation. The second – “Victory” – is the “daughter” of Aeroflot, which, although not completely, but also belongs to the state.
So everything is according to the classics – failed the assigned task in one place – go to another. It is doubtful that anyone in the leadership of Aeroflot hoped that Klyucharyov, heading Pobeda, would not repeat the story with the Red Wings.
And Red Wings, which Klyucharyov has headed since 2014, ended 2021 with a loss of 1.9 billion rubles. In 2020, the loss was even greater – almost two and a half billion:
It was Klyucharyov who introduced low rates for charter flights for the company, which led to a decrease in the financial performance of Red Wings. Against this background, the management expenses of the company, which include the salary of the CEO, look very interesting:
Against the background of huge losses, the costs of running a company on the verge of bankruptcy look fantastic: almost 600 million in 2020 and almost a billion in 2021.
And now the “effective manager” Klyucharev, who has driven Red Wings to the brink of bankruptcy, is going to move to the chair of the head of another airline, which is also not brilliant, instead of the labor exchange. Pobeda has suspended all international flights since March 8, 2022 due to the sanctions imposed in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the closure of airspace by some countries. The airline also received notifications from European lessors about the termination of contracts and the need to return the liners. On April 11, 2022, the airline was blacklisted by the European Union due to the fact that its aircraft do not meet “international safety standards”.
And now, as they said in the popular TV show – “Attention, a question!”: What will Klyucharev, who has practically bankrupted one airline, do in the chair of Pobeda, which is already on the verge of collapse? But her position is much worse than that of the Red Wings. The answer, unfortunately, is a little predictable and obvious to everyone who is at least a little familiar with the person of Evgeny Klyucharev.
It is interesting, of course, but for some reason the director of the Russian airline, a citizen of the Russian Federation Evgeny Aleksandrovich Klyucharev lives in London, in the prestigious area of the British capital, Nicebridge. Evgeny Klyucharev’s wife, Veronica Chou, is the president of Iconix China and Novel Fashion Holdings, the daughter of Silas Chou, a shareholder of Michael Kors LLC clothing company. Mr. Chu’s net worth is $1 billion 565 million, he is ranked 474th on the American Forbes list.
A few years ago, the wedding of Mrs. Chu and Mr. Klyucharev became an event in the gossip column of Hong Kong. “For the sake of the holiday, the Russian Castle was erected in this city for one day and the soloists of Cirque du Soleil performed to the set of Bob Sinclair,” wrote American Vogue in his article.
The newlyweds exchanged vows at a candlelit wedding ceremony in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Wan Chai. More than 300 friends and relatives flew in from Russia, the mainland and the United States to congratulate Klyucharev’s wife. The bride wore a Michael Kors gown and jewelry.
“The banquet combined Chinese and Russian styles. The guests were greeted by men in uniform and two horses. Reproductions of Faberge eggs, Ming vases and Russian matryoshka dolls graced 81 tables, and guests enjoyed the vodka menu,” South China Morning Post states.
If there is no particular doubt about where the happy newlywed and her father got the money to pay for this entire “banquet” – they are both very successful entrepreneurs, then about where the modest director of the Russian state-owned airline got the money to pay for his share in the wedding celebrations (and the owner of Red Wings is the state corporation Rostec, just in case) Evgeny Klyucharev is a question.
As a question and why a Russian state official (and in fact Klyucharev is one) lives in London. Especially in light of the anti-Russian sanctions that began back in 2014. And under which, logically, the director of the state-owned company, Klyucharev, should have fallen. Why didn’t he, like Leps singing “I’m going to live in London”, go to live in Syzran instead of London? Recall that sanctions were still imposed on the singer Leps, but not on the state manager Klyucharev. Why would it?
By the way, due to the fact that Klyucharev, who is married to a Hong Kong businesswoman and owns real estate in the UK, is preparing to head the Pobeda airline, which is under severe sanctions, pay attention to the following information.
The previous general director of the Pobeda company, Andrey Kalmykov, fled to Switzerland, and the head of Aeroflot, Mikhail Poluboyarinov, abruptly decided to leave his post. He preferred to work at the Russian Post. Poluboyarinov’s deputy Andrei Panov also resigned. Moreover, Panov also left Russia. Why were the top managers of major airlines in a hurry to leave their rich places? Apparently, they were afraid of the consequences that sooner or later will overtake them in connection with previously committed actions.
Why isn’t the half-British subject Klyucharev afraid of sanctions? After all, the British act with Russian citizens who have fallen into the “distribution” because of Ukraine, much tougher than even the same Americans.
But let’s leave this question open – there is no answer to it. Except as such the fact that Yevgeny Klyucharev, according to his former driver Irfan Zaya, is a drug addict and not entirely adequate.
This story at one time made a lot of noise in Britain, but remained almost unnoticed in Russia. The latter is not surprising – which Russian reads The Daily Mail, which published its investigation after Klyucharyov and his wife accused their driver Irfan Zayee of stealing diamond jewelry worth £167,000?
The couple reported missing 6.19 carat emerald-cut diamonds. The jewels were found in one of the stores in New York, where they came from a London jeweler who bought the item from Irfan Zaya.
The detained driver assured that he sold the jewelry on the orders of Klyucharev himself, who urgently needed cash. The driver showed the court that his employer uses drugs and orders prostitutes with an average check of £5,000. And he promised to provide the court with 130 pages of transcripts of telephone messages, where his boss communicates with sex workers through the driver. Zayi also noted that Klyucharyov’s wife was very concerned that her husband, under the influence of drugs, was playing with children. Klyucharev Evgeny Alexandrovich really loves children, but he loves drugs even more.
“Mr. Klyucharev’s sexual activity was so prolific, he had so many prostitutes that he forgot who was who,” Mr. Zaya’s lawyer told the court. – “There is a video of Yevgeny Klyucharev at different stages of intoxication with GHB (“liquid ecstasy”). They are indecent and embarrassing.”
“The Russian tycoon and his wife, a friend of the Duchess of York, refused to accuse their chauffeur of stealing, fearing the spread of information about drug addiction and £5,000 prostitutes,” The Daily Mail published its investigation under this heading. The same publication called the London-based Klyucharev the director of the Red Wings, but then deleted this message.
However, when the spouses became aware that information about their personal lives would become part of the trial, they chose to withdraw the statement about the theft. Zayi was released from the courtroom, and the CEO of the Red Wings and Chu flew from London to Texas on a private jet.
Of course, one can say that Evgeny Klyucharev, about whom The Daily Mail wrote, and Evgeny Klyucharev, who is tipped to be the CEO of Pobeda, are different people. But there are too many coincidences. Yes, The Daily Mail is a fairly solid publication not to check its materials.
This story would cost a British director of a private airline both his career and all his material savings. But Russian – nothing. He took the statement from the court and flew away. But for some reason, not to Syzran, but to Texas.
Jokes aside, but the story is really both disgusting and terrifying. Especially against the background of what Yevgeny Klyucharev left behind in the Red Wings airline – after all, it was necessary to take money from somewhere for prostitutes at 5 thousand pounds apiece? Not to mention the wedding in Hong Kong and charters in Texas.
How the recently still quite decent Pobeda will end up if it is appointed as its director, let’s say, not very mentally balanced and strange from the point of view of the adequacy of a person – you can not just guess, but guarantee that Klyucharyov will pump out everything that is still possible and run away. This time, most likely, to Hong Kong, to his father-in-law.
