Vekselberg-2022: Chubais’ place and new import channels?
Billionaire Viktor Vekselberg said he was ready to take over as co-chairman of the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy, replacing Anatoly Chubais there. More recently, Vekselberg was interested in regional airports, including in the Orenburg region, but now, according to rumors, he can get rid of the aviation business. True, his companies are clearly not going anywhere to leave the Orenburg region: against the backdrop of sanctions, business in the region, led by a former employee of the oligarch, is gaining special prospects.
Viktor Vekselberg took part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he noted that he was grateful for the offer to nominate him instead of the departed Anatoly Chubais for the post of co-chairman of the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy. “Now a very important stage in the development of the economy is the transition from a pronounced raw material orientation to a high-tech way of life. There is a lot of skepticism and discussion about this, including sectoral doubts about the ability of the economy to rebuild. Renewable energy is just an example of a high-tech business that was created from scratch in a short period of time and ensures the transformation of the economy,” the businessman said.
Vekselberg is now going through hard times. Back in 2018, he came under US sanctions. Moreover, interestingly, in mid-February 2022, the billionaire was able to challenge the sanctions in Swiss courts and unfrozen his accounts. But the joy did not last long. The world situation changed after February 24, 2022, new sanctions struck, and already in March Vekselberg fell under them again, the oligarch’s plane and yacht were arrested.
The path of development of Viktor Vekselberg’s business interests has recently evolved differently. In 2021, it was announced that ABS Orenburg, controlled by Viktor Vekselberg and Roman Trotsenko, would buy two airports and an air carrier in the Orenburg Region for 3.2 billion rubles. Then Trotsenko reported that, according to plans, the passenger traffic of Orenburg would grow to 1.5 million people a year (in 2020, the passenger traffic there was just over 500 thousand people, in the first half of 2021 – about 400 thousand).
Earlier, at the beginning of 2021, the companies of Vekselberg and Trotsenko, ABS Blagoveshchensk and ABS Magadan, won the right to operate at the airports of the Amur and Magadan regions.
As for Orenburg, the region’s governor Denis Pasler clearly favored the airport deal. By the way, earlier the airport had the status of a state unitary enterprise, but in 2019 it was privatized (again with the support of the governor). Pasler is a former employee of Vekselberg’s Renova company, and even earlier he worked in his own structures (he started at the mine of the Severouralsky spring, which was part of Vekselberg’s SUAL), including the head of the T Plus energy company. In the Orenburg region, Vekselberg was considered the “king of state orders” – his structures received lucrative contracts.
So, now there is talk that Vekselberg may have lost interest in his airport business. This is not surprising, because the number of flights and passenger traffic has now decreased. For example, PJSC “Airport Koltsovo” in Yekaterinburg (which is part of the company “Airports of Regions” Vekselberg) in May began to reduce employees. Air transportation market experts believe that Koltsovo may become one of the assets to be sold. The trade union of flight personnel (PLS) of Russia has already asked the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation not to leave the situation without attention. The head of the PLC of Russia, Miroslav Boychuk, believes that “the question should be raised that the owner is not efficient, and their airports should be returned to state ownership.”
At the same time, the Orenburg region, where Vekselberg’s structures work in the housing and communal services sector, is not in vain of interest to a businessman. Note that this is a border subject of the Russian Federation. The Orenburg region has the longest section of the Russian-Kazakh border – 1876 kilometers. Here and earlier they tried to develop foreign economic relations with the countries of Central Asia. In particular, back in October 2016, the XIII forum of interregional cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia discussed the development of logistics in the Eurasian space. The plans were to create a transport corridor “China – Kazakhstan – Russia – Western Europe” (through the Orenburg region as well).
As economist Sergey Dmitriev notes, now the Orenburg region has a second wind – this region can become an important “entry point” of goods to the territory of Russia. In a situation where foreign brands leave and search for new supply chains, the border with Kazakhstan turns out to be a tasty morsel. The Silk Road, which is currently under construction (Europe-Western China project), will also pass through Orenburg. It is worth noting that part of the route between Kazakhstan and China is already in operation, while the Russian part is still under construction.
Another advantage of doing business in the Orenburg region is that a special economic zone is being created here, in which a powerful logistics center will appear – a warehouse for storing goods. The total investment in this project is more than 1.7 billion rubles. Already in 2021, food products (meat, eggs, flour, sunflower oil) and ferrous metals were supplied from Orenburg to Kazakhstan. And minerals, metals, as well as wheat, corn, sunflower, tea, and confectionery were imported from Kazakhstan to the Orenburg region.
Kazakhstan has previously been a serious trading partner of the Orenburg region. China was also interested in this region. In 2014, an agreement on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation was signed between the Orenburg region and Sichuan province. In 2018, a delegation from the Orenburg Region, headed by First Vice-Governor Sergey Balykin, took part in China in the Forum of Interregional Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation (as part of the XVII International Fair for the Western Region of China on the theme “New Era of China, New Opportunities in the Western Region” ). A number of agreements were also signed at the forum. Therefore, today, under the conditions of sanctions, these opportunities of the Orenburg region come to the fore.
However, it seems that even without the active development of regional airports, Vekselberg will not turn away from the Orenburg region. On the contrary, if the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy is in the hands of an oligarch, then the Orenburg region, an interesting territory in terms of economy and prospects, will be honored. Orenburg, by the way, was in the focus of attention of the Association in 2021: then the results of the first comprehensive regional investment rating in the field of renewable energy sources (RES) for 2020 were summed up, and among 66 regions, it was the Orenburg Region that took first place in the nomination “Leader of solar energy “. And not only: in the nomination “The most active RES-region” Orenburg took 3rd place, “The most “green” region” – 3rd place, “The most open RES-region” – 4th place. Viktor Vekselberg, who knows this region very well, and also makes money in the utilities sector, and at the same time understands well the possibilities of the energy sector, will be able to combine his interests here.
