Compromising evidence on Kasyanov. “Yashin is complete scum”: NTV showed a film with intimate videos and wiretapping of Kasyanov. On the air of the “Emergency. Investigation” program on April 1, the NTV channel showed the documentary “Kasyanov’s Day,” dedicated to the political activities and personal life of Parnassus leader Mikhail Kasyanov. The program is replete with intimate scenes and discussions of other non-systemic opposition figures. Ruposters publishes the full video and a short summary of the information bomb from NTV. Relations with Pelevina. Judging by the content of the NTV broadcast, Kasyanov is in extremely close relations with his party comrade, Natalya Pelevina, against whom a criminal case was recently opened. At the same time, nothing was reported about Kasyanov’s divorce from his wife Irina. According to NTV journalists, the apartment where Kasyanov meets with his assistant could have been specially purchased for joint leisure with Pelevina. At the same time, she urgently asks the former Prime Minister of Russia to get a divorce, to which Kasyanov does not react. Nevertheless, Kasyanov promises Pelevina a political career and media presence at a fundamentally different level than it is now. The first step in this direction, as planned by the party leader, is the passage of Parnassus to the State Duma in September this year, where Pelevina should be guaranteed a deputy seat. Real estate and future emigration. From the video it becomes known that Kasyanov recently purchased a penthouse in Manhattan together with his son-in-law, Andrei Klinovsky, and is also considering the option of emigrating to the UK. In conversations with Pelevina, Kasyanov justifies the actions of his businessman friends who became rich in the 90s. He declares that he became rich for the same reason as them: “By buying for five kopecks, selling for five rubles.” In response to Pelevina’s words about “stolen” money, Kasyanov emotionally says that “he is also a thief,” if we are guided by this logic in assessing such a business model. “I have five apartments and a couple of houses,” admits Kasyanov. Kasyanov's houses on Rublevka (Zhukovka village) The program demonstrates the ex-premier's real estate on Rublevskoye Shosse - "two luxury houses and a hectare of land" in the famous Zhukovka village. This property is registered in the name of the ex-prime minister’s wife, Irina Kasyanova. In addition, footage of the Kasyanovs’ well-known 8-room apartment on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow is shown. Conflicts with Navalny and Yashin. NTV journalists also published a wiretap of Mikhail Kasyanov, based on which he intends to nominate as many of “his” candidates from Parnassus as possible in the primaries in opposition to Alexei Navalny’s people from the Anti-Corruption Foundation. “How to construct a front against Navalny, my dear?! This is the main task - everything must be subordinated to it,” states Kasyanov. Pelevina dissuades him from direct confrontation, although she confirms that as a person and comrade-in-arms, Navalny is “shit.” The main argument to remain in a coalition with Navalny is his information resource, but in exchange for this, Navalny may demand too much political influence in Parnassus. If Kasyanov’s main opponent in Parnassus is Navalny, then Pelevina considers Ilya Yashin her main rival, whose people (according to her) are “running over” to her camp. She sharply criticizes Yashin, who allegedly promised to give up his place in the election campaign for 30 thousand dollars - these words of Pelevina can be confirmed by a certain “Kostya” (apparently, this means Konstantin Yankauskas from Solidarity). Pelevina calls Yashin “complete scum,” because of whom his party comrades are changing in a negative way. Khodorkovsky's money. During one of the dialogues, Kasyanov shares with Pelevina his thoughts on cooperation with Khodorkovsky, who could help Parnas financially. However, the party leader doubts that Khodorkovsky will agree to this, given that there is the Open Russia project, which is positioned as a socio-political movement. After a meeting with Khodorkovsky in London (its outcome remains unknown), Kasyanov and Pelevina, according to NTV, arrived in Paris, staying at a five-star hotel near the Champs-Elysees. Connections with Washington. During the investigative film, the issue of financial support for prisoners in the case of mass riots on Bolotnaya Square is raised. Pelevina regularly gave several tens of thousands of rubles to relatives of activists, but financial documentation does not confirm the legality of these transactions and the source of significant funds. According to journalists, these donations could be sponsored by Pelevina’s overseas partners from non-state foundations, as well as organizations close to Bill Browder and Senator John McCain. In one of the conversations towards the end of the film, Pelevina raises the issue of a possible departure to the United States, where, according to her, she could get a position as an adviser to Hillary Clinton.
Unknown facts from the life of Mikhail Kasyanov
Oleg Lurie
The country needs new heroes. Tired of Berezovsky and Abramovich. There is no place to put samples on them without us. I glanced around the Kremlin and the White House and discovered in the dust of the Ministry of Finance a real diamond from the crown of the future president - this is none other than the second person in the Russian state, Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. Having begun to study the life of my “hero,” I soon realized that this seemingly modest negotiator with the IMF was simply a godsend for journalistic investigation. The quiet and outwardly pleasant Mikhail Mikhailovich has very, very strange traces trailing behind him... So, a few stories from the life of the new “hero” of Russia, Mikhail Kasyanov
From our dossier
Kasyanov Mikhail Mikhailovich was born on December 8, 1957 in Solntsevo, graduated from the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute. From 1981 to 1990 he worked at the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR, specializing in foreign economic relations. From 1990 to 1993, Kasyanov worked at the Ministry of Economy, where he was also responsible for foreign economic issues. In 1993, he moved to the Ministry of Finance, where he headed the department of foreign loans and external debt. In 1995, Mikhail Mikhailovich was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation, and on May 25, 1999, our “hero” took the post of minister. Currently, Kasyanov is First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and practically acts as head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Vladimir Putin.
Kasyanov and Mabetex
Before us is an amazing document from the heyday of the scandal called “Mabetex”. Remember? This very frank paper, called “Permit No. 1972 dated August 2, 1995,” states the following: “The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation authorizes the transfer... twenty-three million six hundred five thousand eight hundred ninety dollars to pay for equipment and a set of works for the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin, produced by Mabetex (Switzerland). Vneshtorgbank of the Russian Federation cannot control the transfer of ruble coverage.”
Such a significant permit was issued by the Russian Ministry of Finance, and almost 24 million dollars flowed to the notorious Mabetex, but at the same time no ruble coverage was received into the Russian budget. The letter was signed by Deputy Minister of Finance A. Golovaty and Treasurer V. Volkov. But, as I learned, Golovaty just put his own squiggle on this document, and the real author of the indulgence was none other than the current First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. It was Mikhail Mikhailovich who in 1995 was the Deputy Minister of Finance and was solely in charge of all currency transactions of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and, accordingly, all payments under Mabetex. Well, specifically, this permission to pay for Mr. Paccoli’s services was drawn up and prepared by Kasyanov personally, and in the archives of the Ministry of Finance there are documents on these 24 million signed by the current first deputy prime minister. According to our source, who worked in Kasyanov’s inner circle in 1995-1996, all financial settlements with Mabetex, Mercata and other companies that “diverted” budget money through the presidential administration were prepared personally by Mikhail Kasyanov. And, by the way, in the criminal case regarding Mabetex, which is being conducted by the Swiss prosecutor’s office of the canton of Geneva, there are three more similar permissions for payment of $20 million each. And Kasyanov had a very direct relationship with each of them, and on many of the documents filed in the same criminal case, there is a neat flourish of the current First Deputy Prime Minister.
Kasyanov and debts
There is such a thing as commercial debts of the state. Nowadays a lot is said and written about the fact that Russia owes billions to various countries, funds and companies. And it is precisely these debts that have been in charge of the last four years by none other than Mikhail Kasyanov. This is where the unique game scheme, invented by Kasyanov and his closest partner Alexander Mamut, comes into play. The point is this.
Russia's debt to any company or fund amounts to, say, hundreds of millions of dollars. Kasyanov reports at the international level that we cannot repay the debt, and immediately banks “affiliated” with Mr. Mamut (MDM-Bank, Sobinbank and others) buy Russian debt obligations for next to nothing, paying approximately 25-30 percent of the cost for them . As you know, a desperate creditor often goes to great lengths to get at least part of the debt.
And Mikhail Kasyanov’s responsibilities in recent years have included compiling a list of Russia’s priority debts that urgently need to be repaid. This paper is subsequently placed on the Prime Minister's desk. And this is where the “Kasyanov’s monthly list” necessarily includes those debts that Mr. Mamut acquired. And the state pays Kasyanov’s partner almost the full amount of the debt. And the difference of 60-70 percent remains in Mamut’s structures. Next, Mamutov-Kasyanov’s money is transferred to subsidiaries owned by partners, and from there millions of dollars go through correspondent accounts either to the Bank of New York or to offshore zones.
A number of documents testify to the scale of the amounts passing through the Kasyanov-Mamut scheme. Let's give one of them. Before us is a payment order in which the Project Finance Company, owned by Mamut, transfers twelve million US dollars through the Bank of New York to an offshore company registered in Barbados. The document is dated April 18, 1996. Shortly before this, Russia paid off a number of debts to large Western tobacco companies. And, by the way, it was at that time that the Deputy Minister of Finance, in charge of external commercial debts and payments on them, was... Mikhail Kasyanov. But, as eyewitnesses testify, the amount we cited of 12 million dollars is only a small part of the money “rolled” by the Kasyanov-Mamut duo.
Kasyanov and credit
Remember 1998 - that sweet time when the IMF still gave large loans to Russia? It was then that our fatherland received another loan in the amount of 4 billion 800 million dollars to stabilize the ruble exchange rate. This considerable money went to the Ministry of Finance’s account in the Federal Reserve of the Central Bank. After which Mikhail Kasyanov ordered the transfer of billions to foreign correspondent accounts of authorized banks (SBS-Agro, Menatep, Inkom, United Bank, etc.) so that these banks would transfer rubles to the Russian budget for an equivalent amount and thereby stabilize the domestic currency. Various officials, including the IMF, thought so. But Kasyanov probably didn’t think so, being the organizer and brain center of this entire operation.
But the point is that the banks, having received 4 billion dollars, instead of real rubles, handed over to their beloved state government bonds GKOs and OFZs, which by that time had turned into worthless pieces of paper and could only be used as wallpaper. And then all the large banks that pulled off the IMF loan scam began to instantly go bankrupt, transferring capital to their smaller structures. Remember: first Inkom, then SBS-Agro... That is, no one was left offended - of course, except for the Russian budget and the “suckers” from the IMF.
And another no less fascinating episode from the story of the IMF loan. In 1998, most Russian banks that received loan money kept their foreign correspondent accounts with the National Republic Bank of New York, which was owned by the late millionaire banker Edmond Safra. So, Safra, being a smart person, saw that a multi-billion dollar scam was being run through his bank by Russian bankers and the Ministry of Finance. A naive businessman wanted to inform the FBI about where the IMF loan went. And this is where Safra got into trouble. And they began from the moment a certain emissary of Russian financiers named Boris Berezovsky arrived on the Cote d'Azur in the summer of 1999, who, by the way, is the owner of the United Bank - one of those that received loan money. What Berezovsky and Safra talked about remains a secret behind seven seals. It is only known that after the conversation, Safra urgently moved to his residence in Monaco, where there was enhanced security and even a bunker in case of nuclear war. But reliable security did not help the frightened banker - three months later he was killed...
I, of course, do not claim that Berezovsky or Kasyanov, who by that time had already risen to the level of Russian Finance Minister, were to blame for the death of Safra, who wanted to reveal the history of the loan scam to the FBI. But there are so many strange coincidences!
Here are just three stories from the life of the second person in the Russian state, Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov. But our investigation into the life path of the First Deputy Prime Minister does not end there. To be continued.
Now she coordinates the work of the youth department and serves as Kasyanov’s assistant. And, judging by the discovered footage, not only assistants. Meetings between party members take place in a safe house, most likely purchased specifically for such meetings.
What happens on film is a private matter between two people who look like oppositionists. But what they are discussing, on the contrary, concerns very many. These are the political plans, goals of the opposition and methods of achieving them.
Pelevina is going to “run for office in this country.” Kasyanov talks about his family and plans: it turns out that his daughter and son-in-law, businessman Andrei Kalinovsky, have already bought a 500-meter penthouse in Manhattan and are planning to emigrate to the UK.
Mikhail Kasyanov: “I think this is the right decision. Because if chaos starts here and killing each other, then we need to leave and take our family and children there.”
Pelevina accuses the Kasyanov family of greed and theft. Kasyanov makes excuses, simultaneously denounces his oligarch friends and speaks in earnest about the origin of his own capital.
Mikhail Kasyanov: “I have it precisely for this reason: I buy for 5 kopecks, sell for 5 rubles. They are the same, they just have different scales. I have five apartments and a couple of houses there. And they have hundreds of hectares of land there.”
Kasyanov considers the resale of state property to be an excellent business and confirms that he was actively involved in this business as prime minister.
Now the ex-prime minister is actively preparing for the State Duma elections. In this situation, Kasyanov’s relationship with another well-known oppositionist, Alexei Navalny, is especially interesting. Allies in public, in reality they are competitors and even enemies. Kasyanov is interested in having as many of his candidates participate in the elections as possible, and is actively promoting Pelevina. Navalny only gets in his way, but Kasyanov is interested in him because he can provide information support on the Internet. Kasyanov and Pelevina fear that in exchange for this support, Navalny will demand that too many of his supporters be included in the lists for the primaries. “The slacker” Navalny, who enjoys the fruits of other people’s labor, as Pelevina characterizes him, will not go to the polls because of his criminal record, but his people can create problems, and above all for Pelevina. Kasyanov talks about his primary task - to get his mistress into the Duma.
Mikhail Kasyanov: “How to construct a front against Navalny this is the main task, everything must be subordinated to this! How to ensure your victory in the primaries? How to ensure your victory now, and then how to ensure your victory, so that you are in thought, so that your star sparkles in full color?”
Natalya Pelevina, who has never really worked in Russia, regularly travels to the USA. According to some reports, she maintains constant contacts with McCain, Browder and people from Hillary Clinton's team. It was Browder and McCain who were the main lobbyists for sanctions lists against Russia, and Pelevina personally participated in hearings on the Magnitsky Act in the British Parliament.
Natalya Pelevina knows how to benefit from her connections. Mikhail Kasyanov former prime minister, who became rich from the resale of property an ideal target for manipulation and recruitment. Now Pelevina is obviously trying to become more than just one of the co-chairs of PARNAS. Its plans include eliminating other competitors. Incredibly, Kasyanov guarantees this to her. From time to time in conversations some very good connections of Pelevina in the USA are mentioned. Not a word about the CIA, but Pelevina makes it clear: if she fails in the elections in Russia, her patrons will provide her with a warm place in Washington, either in the State Department or with Hillary Clinton.
How did Kasyanov go to ask Khodorkovsky for money? Where do opposition leaders get real estate abroad and who pays for their election intrigues? Revelations, after which the life of the opposition will never be the same, in the film “Kasyanov’s Day” from the series “”.
Kasyanov Mikhail Mikhailovich - born on December 8, 1957 in Solntsevo, Moscow region. Third child in the family. Father, Mikhail Fedorovich, is a mathematics teacher, mother, Maria Pavlovna, is an economist at the USSR State Construction Committee. In 1974 - 1976 - student at MADI. In 1976-1978 he served in the ranks of the Soviet Army - in the honor guard company of the security brigade of the USSR Ministry of Defense. In 1978 - 1981 he worked as a senior technician, then as an engineer at the All-Union Design and Research Institute of Industrial Transport of the USSR State Planning Committee. In 1983, he graduated from the evening department of the “Roads and Airfields” faculty of the Moscow Automobile and Highway Institute (MADI) with a degree in civil engineering, then from the Higher Economic Courses under the State Planning Committee of the USSR. From 1981 to 1990, he was an engineer, then a leading economist, chief specialist, and head of a subdivision of the department of foreign economic relations of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR. In 1990, he was appointed head of the subdivision of the foreign economic relations department of the State Committee of Economics of the RSFSR. In 1991 - deputy head of the department, then head of the department of the Department of Foreign Economic Activity of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation. From 1992 to 1993 - head of a subsection of the consolidated department of foreign economic relations of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation. In 1992 - 1993, he was the head of a subsection of the consolidated department of foreign economic relations of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation. In 1993 - 1995 - head of the Department of Foreign Loans and External Debt, head of the Department of Foreign Loans and External Debt, member of the board of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. In September 1998, he was appointed head of the Working Group to conduct negotiations regarding the restructuring of Russian banks' debt to foreign creditors under transactions concluded before August 17, 1998. Since February 1999 - First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. In March 1999, he was appointed Deputy Governor for the Russian Federation at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In May 1999, he was appointed Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation in the government of S. Stepashin, and retained this post during the formation of the government of V. Putin. Since June 1999 - member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Since September 1999 - member of the board of directors of the Agency for Restructuring of Credit Institutions (ARCO). Since January 2000 - First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. Since May 7, 2000 - Acting Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. Since May 17, 2000 - Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Fluent in English. Married. Wife Irina. Has a daughter Natalya (born 1985).
1993
Russia's external commercial debt by 1993 was about $8 billion. This is exactly the amount the state owes to various foreign firms and companies that have ever supplied anything to Russia. To solve this problem, a special commission was created consisting of: Alexander SHOKHIN - Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Commission on State External Debt and Financial Assets of the Russian Federation; Sergei GLAZYEV - Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation; Mikhail KASYANOV - Head of the Department of External Debt and Credits of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
The Commission on State External Debt, represented by Chairman A. Shokhin, in agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Glazyev, approved a very strange scheme for calculating Russia’s external commercial debts. By the way, all the documentation on this issue was prepared by Mr. Kasyanov.
Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation “... with the aim of taking measures for the speedy repayment of debt obligations formed... in connection with procurement of critical imports in 1991 - 1992. Food products, medicines, medical equipment and other socially significant goods..." allocates various metals through Raznoimport to the German company Metallgesellschaft for sale in the West. Just $60 million. Moreover, 30% of this amount falls into the so-called overhead costs of German partners, and 70% is used to repay Russia’s external commercial debt to various firms and companies.
In addition to the fact that 18 million dollars (30% of the amount) had already disappeared in the German Metallgesellschaft, the remaining 42 million were, by decision of this External Debt Commission, directed to the disposal of the American company MG Emerging Markets, which was entrusted with acquiring Russian commercial debt obligations on the foreign market. At the same time, MG Emerging Markets was allowed to buy debts for 70% of their original cost. At the same time, when Soviet and Russian commercial debts were offered for sale for 10-15%.
This was the first attempt to test the circuit. Further, new permits for quotas and redemption of debt obligations of the Russian Federation were added to the protocols of the Shokhin-Glazyev-Kasyanov Commission. There were more than fifty of them in total. For three years, from 1993 to 1996, one billion US dollars were passed through the Shokhin-Kasyanov-Glazyev scheme, of which about 80% was spent inappropriately.
In addition, according to the list of “Priority payments of Russian debt”, which was compiled by Kasyanov, MG Emerging Markets redeemed debts not for “medicines, medical equipment and other socially significant goods” delivered to Russia, but for Philip Morris cigarettes. and Nabisco for a total of $137 million and for an incredible amount of soybeans - for $40 million. That is, the debts of those companies that agreed to sell them for 10-15%, and not for 70%, more interested in penetrating the Russian market, and not getting your money back.
On behalf of MG Emerging Markets, all documents were signed by a certain American of Russian origin, L. Fischer-Zernin, who was the owner of this company. But, as it became known, Fischer-Zernin is not the only shareholder of MG Emerging Markets; a co-owner of the company was also... Chairman of the Commission on External Debt of the Russian Federation, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin. And as an addition, Mikhail Kasyanov also had a similar company for “dealing with debts”; it was registered in Cyprus in the city of Limassol.
1994
Recently, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation published a report on the expenditure of financial resources allocated by the World Bank (WB) to carry out structural reforms in agriculture in the Russian Federation in 1994. Then the World Bank decided to help the Russian government improve the situation in the agricultural sector, develop the farming class and create conditions for investment. The so-called ARIS project involved the provision of a loan from the World Bank in the amount of $240 million. To implement this project, a seemingly excellent tandem was formed: the financial department was obliged to control the expenditure of World Bank funds, and the agricultural department was responsible for coordinating the project.
The story of this loan clearly shows how Russian officials know how to manage foreign money. For example, none of the departments took the trouble to think about how the money provided would be spent. The economic effect of this project has not been calculated. And the cost estimates for the project were approved by the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation only four (!) years after the start of its financing. At the same time, it showed remarkable abilities in drawing up estimates, indicating only the categories of costs. And it is extremely difficult to guess from their name where the foreign money went. Consider, for example, the articles “Service for providing advice and information to farmers” or “Institutional development of seed production”. All these bureaucratic tricks, as stated in the joint venture report, do not allow “to establish the correspondence of the specific expenses incurred to their volume according to the estimate.” However, soon after the start of the project, officials realized that they were unable to absorb such an amount of money: the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture decided three times to reduce the initial volume of the loan.
From the beginning of the project to the present day, World Bank funds in the amount of $117 million, as well as $11 million from the Russian budget, have been spent. More than half of the funds spent went to the construction of wholesale and retail markets and the Russian Farmer world fair. They did not skimp on remuneration for the labor of ARIS's foreign consultants. In particular, as the report says, $4 million was spent just on “maintaining the employees of Arthur Andersen LLP.” The project also helped improve the financial situation of domestic specialists. An ordinary Russian consultant at ARISAa earned more than one thousand US dollars a month , and the manager received 2.65 thousand monthly.
However, the Accounts Chamber identified the main violations on the part of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture in the provision of related loans to agricultural enterprises. The technology here was this: the Russian government provides foreign money to the private sector, and then pays the World Bank itself. The company, in turn, is obliged to return this money to the budget.
The Ministry of Finance, as a structure authorized to control the expenditure of budget funds, only once took the trouble to check how the $81 million allocated to it was spent. At the same time, the Accounts Chamber found that borrowers regularly violated their obligations, distorted financial statements, exceeded cost estimates and misused money allocated to them. For example, Malino OJSC misused $1.8 million, and the Bunyatino agricultural firm spent almost $1 million more on construction than was included in the estimate. But the Ministry of Finance, represented by Mikhail Kasyanov, continued to finance borrowers who had repeatedly failed. As a result, the total amount of debt of private enterprises, as well as constituent entities of the Russian Federation, with World Bank loans reached $36.7 million. The federal budget did not receive this money.
This is how the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture carried out a structural restructuring of domestic agriculture, building many wholesale and retail markets, instead of creating strong farms in Russia, as the project envisaged. The Accounts Chamber is not yet in a hurry to publish the identified violations, however, as has happened more than once, these departments of Sergei Stepashin always keep up with the right moment - if there is high political will. Considering that at that time these projects were supervised by Mikhail Kasyanov, who held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance, the results of the work of Stepashin’s department will cast a shadow on the current head of the Cabinet of Ministers.
1995
According to a source from Novaya Gazeta, who worked in Kasyanov’s inner circle in 1995-1996, all financial settlements with the notorious companies Mabetex, Mercata Trading and other companies that “diverted” budget money through the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation to Swiss banks, were prepared personally by Mikhail Kasyanov.
Here, for example, is the very frank content of one such Ministry of Finance document called “Permission No. 1972 dated August 2, 1995”: “The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation authorizes the transfer... twenty-three million six hundred five thousand eight hundred ninety dollars to pay for equipment and perform a set of works on reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin, produced by Mabetex (Switzerland). Vneshtorgbank of the Russian Federation. Transfers of ruble coverage cannot be controlled.” And almost 24 million dollars flowed to the notorious Mabetex, but no ruble coverage was received into the Russian budget. The letter was signed by Deputy Minister of Finance A. Golovaty and Treasurer V. Volkov. The real author of the “indulgence” was none other than the current Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. It was Mikhail Mikhailovich who in 1995 was the Deputy Minister of Finance and was solely in charge of all currency transactions of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and, accordingly, all payments to Mabetex. The archives of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation contain documents on these 24 million signed by the current prime minister. In the criminal case on Mabetex, which is being conducted by the Swiss prosecutor's office of the canton of Geneva, there are three more similar permissions for payment of 20 million dollars each. And Kasyanov had a very direct relationship with each of them, and many of the documents filed in the same criminal case bear his neat flourish.
1996
In the winter of 1996, as Novaya Gazeta and then some foreign media wrote, Mikhail Kasyanov was detained at customs at Sheremetyevo-2 while flying to Germany. Questionable financial documentation was found in his case. Many documents were signed by then Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
The documentation related to transactions between the Russian government and the German state insurance company Hermes. This structure is engaged in insuring the investment risks of German banks and companies investing money, including in Russia.
In Russia in 1995 - 1996, many companies dreamed of receiving a line of credit from Germany to supply something to Russia. Yes, so that the loan is insured at Hermes. That is, you can steal money or goods, and Hermes will pay for everything. The only problem was that Hermes only insured those loans and contracts that were certified by the Russian Ministry of Finance. And these documents were drawn up at the Ministry of Finance by Mikhail Kasyanov, who received from 10 to 15 percent of the contract amount for each approval of documents for Hermes by the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, the money was accumulated in most cases in the United States.
One can imagine the scale of the amounts, given that Hermes insured the risks of the Germans for many hundreds of millions of dollars. In the winter of 1996, Kasyanov was carrying contracts with Western companies that needed to be visaed by the Ministry of Finance for Hermes. Customs officers were surprised by the fact that an employee of the Ministry of Finance was bringing back from a business trip documents from German and Russian companies and banks that have no direct connection with his ministry.
Kasyanov was released from the country after Chernomyrdin’s call without any consequences.
1996-97
In 1995, due to poor tax collection, the Russian Ministry of Finance allegedly had difficulties financing the current expenses of regions, federal ministries and departments. It was necessary to find additional sources. And then the government allowed, in exceptional cases, to involve commercial banks in financing current expenses. For this purpose, the special commission selected the most “reliable” ones - that is, those who showed loyalty and made up the election bullet. There is reason to assert that this scheme was developed from start to finish by banker Alexander Mamut with the participation of Mikhail Kasyanov.
Mamut Alexander Arkadevich- 41 years old, graduated from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University. One of the founders, and from February 1993 to July 1997 - chairman of the board of JSC "Project Finance Company" (KOPF), until July 1999 - head of the bank of the same name. For a year and a half, until August 1999, he served on the board of directors of Sobinbank. From there he moved to MDM Bank, replacing Mikhail Pomazkov as chairman of the supervisory board (the latter now works as an assistant to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov). Now he has moved to work at Rosbank, part of Vladimir Potanin’s Interros holding.
The mechanism for lending to public sector employees by selected commercial banks was as follows. Let's say the Ministry of Finance is obliged to pay 50 million dollars from the budget due to a budget organization, but it does not have the money. Then a specific bank is indicated to this organization, which will provide it with a loan for the appropriate amount. The department or region does not have the right to independently select a creditor. A strictly defined bank, which has already deposited money into the election treasury, issues a loan to the public sector employee, and two months later receives from the Ministry of Finance, that is, from the budget, 50 million plus a certain percentage for providing the loan.
In principle, a normal scheme. But in fact, it worked as the cunning bankers intended. First, “exceptional cases” have become regular lending. From 1995 to 1997, banks issued more than eight hundred loans under the guarantee of the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, loans were often issued either incompletely (obvious underfinancing), or with promissory notes with a maturity date of a month or two, but in reality - much more. And while the recipient of such a loan tearfully beat the money out of the lender, the commercial bank rolled it over several times, investing in the same GKO-OFZ. The oligarchs-“electors” received their main profits from such “credit operations.” According to the Accounts Chamber, up to 90% of all loans were issued by Menatep, ONEXIM Bank, Alfa Bank, Moscow National Bank, and the National Reserve Bank. As a result, of the 67 trillion rubles (old price scale) allocated from the budget for lending to public sector employees through commercial banks in 1995-1997, the underfunding of budget recipients amounted to 36 trillion rubles. This money ended up in commercial banks. If, for clarity, they are converted into dollars at the April 1997 exchange rate, then the amount will be 6.3 billion dollars.
1998
In August 2000, the London Times published a sensational article under the headline “Kasyanov accused of trying to give a bribe of 500 thousand dollars.” The article, in particular, alleged that Viktor Gitin, a deputy and deputy chairman of the budget committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the previous convocation, was allegedly offered money to stop the investigation into the circumstances of the 1998 financial crisis. Let us recall that Viktor Gitin was arrested on March 24, 2000 in Moscow on charges of embezzlement of budget funds; he was later released on his own recognizance. Now the “Gitin case” appears in a new light: according to The Times, the ex-deputy’s archive, seized during the search, contained many unpleasant documents for the current Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The Segodnya newspaper published the following interview with Gitin.
“Do you have evidence of Mikhail Kasyanov’s involvement in any abuses?
- Here we are intruding into a situation that should be dealt with by the investigative authorities. I look at it purely from a budget point of view. When receiving the last pre-crisis IMF tranche, there was a violation of budget legislation. By the summer of 1998, the government had exhausted the limits on external borrowing determined by the Duma. It is no coincidence that a scheme was first applied when the direct recipient of the money was not the government for budget accounts, but the Central Bank. Deputy Minister of Finance Mikhail Kasyanov conducted the necessary negotiations and actions directly. At the same time, the government wrote a memo to the presidential administration, complaining that the Duma had adopted a bad resolution, and asked for approval to violate the external borrowing program. The Presidential Legal Department prepared the necessary conclusion, and Yeltsin’s resolution appeared on it, if my memory serves me correctly - on August 2, 1998. After all this, they were able to carry out the well-known operation (meaning the purchase of currency at a low rate by some banks, warned of the impending devaluation). When everything came to light, I tried to explain to the US Congress at hearings on the Bank of New York scandal that in fact the problem was that the legal unresolved nature of these issues allowed a simple presidential resolution to sanctify everything that then happened. To what extent did the violation have criminal consequences? Available information leads to the idea that it was not the country’s foreign exchange reserves that were strengthened, but the foreign exchange positions of some commercial banks. Why did some banks turn out to be favorites and others not? This is a subject for study not by the deputy, but by the investigative authorities.
- If the documents confiscated from you had been made public, would Kasyanov not have become prime minister?
- He would have problems. Everyone is grasping for this IMF tranche of $4.8 billion, and just the day before, two weeks before August 17, an equally serious operation was carried out - Eurobonds were issued for $6.5 billion and exchanged for collapsing state bonds. Falling GKOs were exchanged for foreign currency securities, and at a discount of 25%! Only a few authorized financial institutions were allowed to participate in this exchange operation, when it was clear to everyone that tomorrow GKOs would turn into candy wrappers. I spent a year trying to get documents from the Ministry of Finance on this matter. They answered me that the Ministry of Finance does not have money, they do not have the opportunity to reproduce these documents, there is no money for their translation from foreign languages. Then I sent Kasyanov a letter: my salary is small, but I am ready to pay the expenses. This correspondence went on for a year! In the end, I received a package of documents, untranslated, marked “confidential”, but it did not contain everything I requested. Where are the documents for this $6.5 billion deal now? They were confiscated and not returned, although the Krasnoyarsk prosecutor’s office demands that the operatives hand them over, but they do not listen.
- Was there a similar situation later, when Kasyanov “leaked” information on his obligations to the London Club?
- Absolutely right. On a small operation of $6.5 billion, a scheme was tested, which then worked on a large part of the debt.
- Were IMF loans and loans on the free financial market the main possible area for violations of the law?
- The largest number of violations occurred on so-called tied loans. There are more specifics, some things are easier to see. These loans are provided with government guarantees. This was also Kasyanov’s sphere of activity before Mikhail Zadornov came to the Ministry of Finance, under whom Kasyanov was simply deprived of the right to endorse documents on behalf of the Ministry of Finance. Loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars passed through Kasyanov. Many of them raise big questions today.
- Who offered you 500 thousand, as the Times writes?
“These were people from Kasyanov’s entourage...”
1998-99
On August 14, 1998, three days before the default, a $4.8 billion IMF loan ends up not in Russia, but in the National Republic Bank account owned by banker Edmond Safra.
The Italian newspaper Repubblica published sensational material that in August 1998, a loan of 4.8 billion dollars provided by the IMF to Russia was simply stolen through an intricate system of transferring money from bank to bank. But the thesis that people have been stealing a lot in Russia for a long time now no longer raises any doubts. The sensational nature of the Italian publication is that the fraud was “settled” by none other than the current Prime Minister and then Deputy Minister of Finance Mikhail Kasyanov.
The details of the transaction are as follows: On August 14, 1998, Russian loan money leaves the New York Federal Reserve Bank (account number 9091). And then very strange events happen. For some reason, 4.8 billion ends up in account No. 608555800 at the National Republic Bank. And from this bank, billions, by order of Kasyanov, are “dispersed” to various foreign accounts and ultimately end up in the USA and Switzerland, never reaching Russia, where the largest financial crisis occurred on August 17.
After the money from the IMF loan left the National Republic Bank, owned by Safra, and disappeared almost without a trace, the billionaire became concerned about its fate, especially since they had already tried to accuse him of financial fraud in laundering Russian money. Edmond Safra contacted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and stated that he was ready to show them the entire scheme of laundering by Russian officials of $4.8 billion in IMF stabilization loans. Safra's periodic conversations with FBI representatives lasted almost a year. By the summer of 1999, relations between Safra and the FBI had developed most favorably, and he began to give very specific testimony about the ways of money laundering and those who were behind it, naming the names of high-ranking Russians and revealing the entire complex system corruption and theft. The Swiss prosecutor's office also became involved in the case. As our source from Bern reported, a warrant could well have been issued for the current Russian Prime Minister Kasyanov to be forcibly brought in for questioning by an investigator from Switzerland.
In the early autumn of 1999, an unofficial representative of Russian officials, Boris Abramovich Berezovsky, came to the residence of Edmond Safra in the south of France. He spoke with Safra for three hours behind closed doors. The conversation was conducted in a raised tone, and after the conversation, Berezovsky, clearly upset, left for his villa in Antibes. Edmond Safra was seized by uncontrollable panic. He said that they were going to kill him for his revelations in conversations with FBI employees. Despite the fact that the Villa Leopoldo, which he owned, was equipped with the latest technology security system, Safra and his family urgently moved to Monte Carlo, where they settled in a specially prepared bunker with an area of 1000 square meters. meters on Boulevard Ostend, which had all possible security measures and each room had its own security system and armored coating. This bunker, according to experts, could withstand even a small nuclear explosion.
In December 1999, Edmond Safra died at his residence in Monaco under very strange circumstances. According to the Prosecutor General of the Canton of Geneva, Bertrand Bertossa, the reason for the murder of Edmond Safra could have been his revelations with the FBI and Swiss prosecutors who were investigating the disappearance and laundering of a $4.8 billion stabilization loan for Russia. According to one FBI employee, the terrible death of Edmond Safra frightened the management of the banks through which the money was laundered, and many witnesses to this scam refused to testify due to skepticism about the American witness protection system.
year 2000
On March 31, 2000, Mikhail Kasyanov, at that time First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, signed on behalf of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation agreement N01-01-06/26-311 on the assignment of claims, or, simply put, on the transfer of the right to claim the debt of the Ministry of Railways to The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to the unknown offshore Cypriot company Felirio Trading Co. Limited. That is, as a result of the actions of Mikhail Kasyanov and the head of Vnesheconombank Andrei Kostin, whose signature is also on the agreement, the budget seemed to renounce its rights to 77.7 million German marks, which the Ministry of Railways owed and did not refuse to return to the treasury.
Background: in November 1995, the Ministry of Railways received a loan from the Russian government, under which it was obliged to return 77.7 million marks to the state. The Ministry of Railways is a wealthy organization and, of course, recognizes its debts, as follows from the text of the aforementioned agreement, signed by the head of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Railways, P. Korotkevich. Kasyanov, it must be understood, decides that the budget does not need this money, and, as it were, sells this debt to Andreas Sofocleous, director of Felirio Trading. In exchange for real money, the Cypriots Kasyanov loved gave the Ministry of Finance securities, the so-called PRIN's. These papers are something like Vnesheconombank's receipts for the debts of the former USSR, which became the debts of Russia. These "receipts", like any securities, have their own price , which is determined on the London interbank market.
So, as a result, 77.7 million marks, which the Ministry of Railways could and should have given to the state, with the help of Mikhail Kasyanov and Andrey Kostin, end up offshore in Cyprus, and the treasury receives from the Cypriots securities, which at the time of signing the agreement were worth $26 million. If we convert the marks that Kasyanov refused in favor of the Cypriots into dollars, we get 38.4 million. The difference, that is, the damage to the state budget, amounted to $13 million.
A curious detail is that for some reason the exchange rate for converting marks into dollars in the contract was indicated for February 15, although the transaction took place a month and a half later. The difference in rates was about 800 thousand dollars. In favor of the Cypriots.
It is impossible to explain such a deal by any rational motives and interests of the state. This means that there are some other interests for the benefit of which budget funds were given to the offshore company.
It is difficult not to call this operation theft of public funds on an especially large scale. But people, including officials, must be classified as thieves by the court. On the other hand, who in this case will file a lawsuit in defense of state interests, if the persons involved in the transaction are representatives of the state, moreover, the heads of the currency control authority (which, by law, is the government of the Russian Federation), who should have killed such a strange contract .
Of course, Mikhail Kasyanov or Andrei Kostin may object: we are, they say, buying up Russia’s debts in order to pay less to creditors later. But, firstly, debt obligations have their own price, and for PRIN’s securities the treasury paid one and a half times more than they actually cost. In addition, the maturity date of these securities is 2020. Why was it necessary 20 years earlier deadline to buy back debts, and at one and a half prices?
To implement a debt assignment agreement, permission from the Central Bank was required. He was absent.
The currency control agent, which Vnesheconombank is by law, had to stop this operation due to the lack of permission from the Central Bank. But VEB is one of the parties to this agreement, ruinous for taxpayers.
MDM Bank, through which $39 million was transferred to the Cypriots, should also have refused to fulfill such an order from its clients. But can you refuse such clients? By the way, according to the agreement, MDM Bank transferred money in favor of the offshore Felirio Trading to the client’s account in Business Mediterranean Bank Ltd, also registered in the offshore zone, but in Nauru.
year 2001
Some details of the restructuring of the Russian debt to the Czech Republic have become known. The Russian government, led by Kasyanov, allegedly managed to write off almost half of this debt. At least, following his visit to Prague, Mikhail Kasyanov said that out of $3.6 billion, 46%, or $1.6 billion, had been written off.
However, upon closer examination, the achievements of “restructuring” looked very strange. Firstly, in Prague, Kasyanov confirmed the payment of $1.1 billion. Secondly, the Czech government did not restructure the remaining $2.5 billion in any way, but simply sold it at auction to Falcon Capital for $580 million. Thirdly, our the government agreed to pay this company $1.35 billion. That is, $770 million more than our debt was worth at auction.
People who understand business have a question: why, in fact, did not we ourselves participate in this auction? But our prime minister does not give an answer to this, nor does he seek to discuss other details of this dubious deal. According to Deputy Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic Vladislav Zelinka, about a dozen Hungarian, Austrian, and American companies took part in the competition. “I expected the Russians to be there too, and I’m surprised why they weren’t there,” he said.
At the same time, the mentioned Falcon company has long been closely associated with Russian government agencies. In fact, it has nothing to do not only with Switzerland, but it can also be called Czech with a great stretch, and even then only on the basis of the place of registration. The Falcon Capital company arose in the Czech Republic on November 28, 1995 through the efforts of citizens of the former USSR Paata Mamaladze, Inga Mamaladze, Vazha Kiknavelidze, Stanislava Kiknavelidze and Aristarkh Alaverdyan who joined them. All of these citizens simultaneously formally resigned from the directors of the company on February 17, 1997, remaining in fact the owners and driving force of the said company. 04/29/98, in order to give the company a more respectable sound, apparently due to the intensified work on Russian debts, Swiss citizens were formally introduced into the executive body of the company (Hans Peter Moser; Beat Urs Moser), judging by the data and residence address of close relatives .
Czech newspapers have repeatedly written about the dubiousness of the Falcon Capital company, citing data from the Security Information Service of the Czech Republic, but the Russian participants in the process did not seem to be particularly concerned about this information, which indirectly confirms the statement made by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta about the good connections of the company’s figures in the Government of the Russian Federation . So it’s not difficult to figure out into whose pockets three quarters of a billion dollars will flow from the Russian budget.
In the future, settlements for this transaction will be extremely confusing. To pay off the debt to Falcon, RAO UES of Russia will have to supply hundreds of millions of dollars worth of electricity over several years. It will be extremely difficult for Russian fiscal authorities to control this process. Only Anatoly Chubais will know the exact amount of electricity, therefore there will be a possibility of its theft. Scandalous proceedings on this matter are still ahead.
When will Kasyanov's resignation follow?
The management noticed Kasyanov’s efficiency and efficiency long ago. In Gosplan times, Yuri Maslyukov protected him. In 1993 - 1994 - then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Boris Fedorov. The appointment of Kasyanov as Deputy Minister of Finance in 1995 took place, according to old-timers of the White House, not without the intervention of former Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Davydov, who was then responsible in the government for negotiations with the Paris and London Clubs. Kasyanov’s elevation to the level of First Deputy Minister of Finance in January 1999 was again achieved by Yuri Maslyukov, then First Deputy Prime Minister.
As you can see, among Kasyanov’s high patrons there were politicians completely different in their views, experience and ideas of what to do next with Russia. This is no coincidence. They say about Kasyanov that he is a complete pragmatist. He does not like to delve into economic theories, but is always focused on results. Therefore, among economic programs, he prefers those that can give a guaranteed result at the time appointed by the management.
The nomination of Mikhail Kasyanov to the first roles in the government of the Russian Federation in 1999 was lobbied by the Yeltsin “family” group, incl. Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Mamut, Valentin Yumashev, Oleg Deripaska, Nikolai Aksenenko. The appointment of Kasyanov as Deputy Prime Minister became a sensation and even caused the threat of a government crisis: Mikhail Zadornov, appointed curator of the government's financial block, resigned in protest. Sergei Stepashin, who had just become prime minister, hesitated for some time, but still did not dare to openly protest against this decision.
Kasyanov's next appointment, first deputy prime minister in January 2000, was already an initiative of Vladimir Putin. Thus, acting The president demonstrated to the Western community the importance of the issue of external debts for Russia, avoided the nomination of some ambitious politician to the post of prime minister “without five minutes”, and demonstrated his readiness to take into account the interests of the Yeltsin “family.” At the same time, the appointment of Kasyanov as prime minister was a compromise with Yeltsin’s entourage, which allowed Putin to appoint his “macroeconomic” ministers - Alexei Kudrin became the Minister of Finance, and German Gref became the Minister of Economic Development.
Kasyanov does not belong to Vladimir Putin’s “St. Petersburg team.” At the same time, three years ago Anatoly Chubais once praised Kasyanov: “There are only two people in the government who, under any circumstances, can borrow any amount from the West. These are Koch (Alfred Koch was then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Property) and Kasyanov “Only Koch takes a long time to figure out how much and on what conditions, and Kasyanov doesn’t ask unnecessary questions.” Kasyanov’s closeness to Chubais (see details above on the deal with the Czech debt) so far allows the prime minister to feel relatively safe from the “attacks” of the “St. Petersburg security officers” (Patrushev, Sechin), to which today, first of all, the head of the presidential administration, Alexander Voloshin, is exposed.
Kasyanov’s commercial approach to the civil service allowed him to establish “warm” relations with a number of Russian oligarchs, in particular, with Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. This circumstance also contributes to Kasyanov’s political stability today.
But the intentions of the presidential entourage to break through to the main financial flows of the country will sooner or later push the old Yeltsin guard away from the budget trough. That is, the fate of Aksenenko, Vyakhirev, Stroev also threatens Kasyanov. And the attacks of the head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, Sergei Stepashin, who has increasingly criticized Kasyanov’s activities as chairman of the Russian government in recent months, are not superfluous confirmation of this.
