Gref was born in 1964 in the village of Panfilovo in northern Kazakhstan to a Jewish mother and a German father, expelled from the Donbass in 1941 (so the label “German-Jewish fascist” that arose during his reformation is correct). When he was one and a half years old, his father died, the boy was raised by his Jewish mother and grandmother. He studied averagely, with C's and B's, but was persistent and managed to enter MGIMO, which was then the main humanitarian university of a huge country (this was possible in the USSR), but was expelled after the first year. According to his official biography, the 17-year-old boy became a legal adviser to the district agricultural administration.
He served in the special forces of the internal troops, whose functions included escorting dangerous prisoners, searching for fugitives, and suppressing riots. How someone who served in the army without exams got into the workers' faculty of Omsk University and entered the Faculty of Law, where he became a Komsomol organizer and head of a student operational detachment. After graduating from high school in 1990, Gref entered graduate school at Leningrad State University, but did not defend his dissertation: it was no longer needed for a career in modern times.
Gref's scientific advisor turned out to be Sobchak, and in 1991 the graduate student became a legal adviser to the Committee for Economic Development and Property of the Administration of the Petrodvortsovo District of St. Petersburg, and in 1992 headed the Committee for Property Management of this district. In 1994, he became deputy chairman of the City Property Management Committee (KUGI) of the “northern capital” and managed all the city’s real estate.
After Yakovlev’s victory over Sobchak, Gref took the initiative and, as one of the ideologists of the housing and communal services reform, climbed to a new step on the career ladder, becoming the first deputy chairman of KUGI, although the liberal reform led to the usual results (rents doubled without improving service). After the murder of the head of KUGI Manevich, Gref took over his post, becoming vice-governor.
Numerous accusations against Gref of crimes characteristic of liberal reforms had no consequences; Thus, the case of the illegal transfer of the Sennaya Market in the center of St. Petersburg for a bribe was closed after the murder of the only witness.
Five days before the 1998 default, on the recommendation of Chubais, he was appointed First Deputy Minister of State Property of Russia.
After Primakov’s resignation, Gref reached a new level: he became a member of the board of state representatives at Rosgosstrakh and Transneft, the board of the Federal Securities Market Commission, the boards of directors of Aeroflot and Gazprom, and chairman of the board of directors of Sheremetyevo airport.
In December 1999, he headed the Center for Strategic Research, which Putin instructed to develop a strategy for 10 years. Titled reformers seemed to shy away from this honor as troublesome and unrelated to material benefits, but Gref jumped at the chance to come to the fore.
And just as the “500 Days” program brought Yavlinsky into politics, the 2010 strategy brought Gref into the government: in May 2000, he headed the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade created for him.
Lord of reforms
The CSR gathered the vast majority of qualified Russian experts, but their work was wasted.
An example is work on banking reform. Almost all the country's specialists presented reasoned proposals, which were discarded, and the text was written “from scratch” by one person who did not even know what types of banking licenses there are in Russia. The absurdity of the result caused a categorical protest from the leadership of the Central Bank, and this section was excluded from the strategy.
It was an undeveloped, incoherent, unstructured set of unreasonable demands. The summary attributed by Kommersant to Prime Minister Kasyanov, “The mountain gave birth to a mouse. It’s good that it wasn’t a cockroach,” was perceived as a soft and balanced assessment.
The government never approved it.
However, a number of its provisions were pushed through by liberals in the form of separate reforms, which caused enormous damage to Russia.
The key mechanism of the strategy is to stop the outflow of capital from the country by improving the investment climate, although with a strong outflow of capital such an improvement is impossible with liberal prescriptions (it is reminiscent of taking pills to treat dizziness caused by blood loss due to a ruptured artery). The investment climate can only be improved through government regulation measures, primarily the modernization of infrastructure, which contradicts the interests of global business and is therefore rejected by liberals.
Helpless babble about reducing capital outflow for unknown reasons served as a simple cover for the main and only well-developed tool for ensuring economic growth: cutting government spending by a quarter, primarily through social spending in the regions.
The state's refusal of social obligations, “social default” as the core of the strategy gave it the character of social genocide and made a liberal dictatorship its necessary condition.
The strategy required the abandonment of non-tariff regulation of foreign economic activity, which soon led to the destruction of the standardization system and the destruction of the product quality control system. The demand to join the WTO, of which Gref was the main lobbyist, was fulfilled - on completely colonial terms - and sharply slowed down the economy, replacing confident investment growth with a recession.
The promise to “remove obstacles to the bankruptcy of ineffective enterprises” resulted, along with the “de-bureaucratization” of the economy, the engine of which was also Gref, in the creation of ideal conditions for unpunished raiding, the rampantness of which destroyed the very idea of property rights.
The “legalization of the export of capital” resulted in the abolition of currency regulation, which made Russia defenseless against fluctuations in the global market. How can one not remember the oligarch Bendukidze, for whom the main human right and criterion of democracy was the right to freely export a million dollars!
The reform of natural monopolies outlined in Gref's strategy was realized in the disaster of the electric power industry and the lesser-known disruption of railway transportation.
The housing and communal services reform led to a terrifying increase in tariffs while disorganizing the industry.
Labor relations reform has deprived workers of real opportunities to protect their inalienable rights.
The cuts to social assistance were implemented in the form of cannibalistic monetization of benefits, pension reform, and the destruction of education and health care.
In the first versions of the draft strategy, Gref directly pointed out the need to overcome the tendency to form a “welfare state.” The attempt to abolish the Constitution, which enshrines the social character of the state, failed: direct self-exposing formulations were removed from the text, but the ideology was implemented.
Finally, the judicial reform, as far as one can judge, created administrative control over the courts and led to the disintegration of the latter, essentially depriving Russians of access to justice.
Gref was the driving force behind almost all liberal reforms, both in his position and due to his personal preferences.
When creating the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT), he tried to take on as many functions as possible in order to maximize his influence. As a result, it turned out to be a cumbersome monster, unmanageable due to the volume of its functions (only at the beginning there were 159 of them, and the number of departments exceeded 50).
The unmanageability of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was caused by the unification of heterogeneous, unrelated functions (for example, regulating foreign trade and ensuring northern supplies), as well as the unification of tasks, the implementation of which required different types of management organization. Their unification ensured organizational incompatibility of the corresponding control contours, permanent internal conflict and, as a consequence, loss of controllability. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was reminiscent of Kurchatov, who would have been tasked with making an atomic bomb in three years... provided he simultaneously worked as a traffic controller.
The inability to work was aggravated by the lack of professionalism, which became the hallmark of the “Grefdom”: the Minister of Economic Development himself was a lawyer, M. Dmitriev, who studied banks until 1997, was in charge of pension affairs, A. Sharonov, who was involved in social policy, was in charge of reforming natural monopolies, and A. Dvorkovich, who analyzed the budget.
This is probably no coincidence: the destructive nature of liberal reforms in Russia precludes their implementation by specialists.
The owner of the people's money
In 2007, Gref suddenly became head of Sberbank, leaving the government, following the example of Chubais, for a large state-owned company. He was probably bored with the apparatus struggle, and he wanted to become the absolute owner of a large structure that would provide him with legal wealth and not administrative, but socio-political influence.
Sberbank, which permeated the daily life of most Russians and had branches in all more or less significant settlements, corresponded to this goal no less than RAO UES of Russia.
The Sberbank reform caused numerous scandals; Thus, the rebranding, carried out in a crisis, not really justified and hardly noticed by anyone, cost 20 billion rubles.
Gref sharply increased the pay of Sberbank’s top management and in 2013 became the fifth most paid manager in Russia, according to Forbes.
With the most severe cuts in other costs, a significant part of the old employees were fired, and their place was taken by young people (probably agreeing to lower salaries), whose efforts, I remember, were not often supported by professional knowledge. The result, as far as one can judge, was a decline in the bank’s service and reputation, but also an increase in profits.
The employee who wrote on the social network “If you stick a Sberbank sign in an open field, she will immediately have a line of pensioners” was fired, but this joke seemed to clearly reflect the state of Sberbank during the reform.
The increase in fees for household payments, with the widespread introduction of payment at automatic machines and Internet banking and the closure of many branches, was intended to reduce costs. There was a feeling that Sberbank, earning most of its money from corporate clients and financial transactions, was striving, under the guise of talk about “customer focus,” to minimize face-to-face communication with the public, viewing it as nothing more than a source of costs to be cut.
During the 2008-2009 crisis, Sberbank loans became fatal for a number of businessmen. A classic example is MAIR, from which Sberbank structures, as far as one can understand, demanded early repayment of the loan; the case ended with the destruction of the business, the elimination of a mass of jobs and the criminal prosecution of the creator of MAIR, Makushin, who was forced to flee the country. The degree of absurdity of the accusations is evidenced by Cyprus’ refusal to extradite him to Russia - the second in the entire history of relations between our countries.
As a result, Sberbank's profitability increased, but the attitude towards it, as far as one can judge, worsened. The situation was aggravated by stories about frequent “technical failures” in Sberbank’s payment machines and even in its Internet banking, leading to financial losses for clients. This may be due to the large volume of transactions - but I have never heard anything like this about other banks.
The memorable liberal initiative to corral all of Russia into 28 huge megacities, which reached the government, was apparently caused by Sberbank’s desire to cut costs. After all, the smaller the settlement, the lower the profitability of the Sberbank branch located there (in small settlements they can be unprofitable). But it is impossible to deprive the population of Sberbank due to its unique position. This means that for maximum efficiency of Sberbank, the entire population must be gathered into huge megacities.
Consideration of this idea discredited the government apparatus, but it was probably not born of evil liberal intent, but only of Gref’s desire to minimize Sberbank’s costs, without regard to anyone’s interests and values.
A man of liberal ideas
Gref has a reputation as a strong market man, even compared to Kudrin, giving the impression of a man not burdened with economic knowledge, which, of course, strengthens his liberal beliefs.
For example, when he took up the task of stimulating investment, he was surprised by both the lack of ready-made large investment projects (in 2006 they simply had nowhere to come from), and the fact that they needed at least a year to prepare.
And in July 2013, when corruption, monopolism, the Medvedev government’s refusal to develop and the colonial WTO rules were breaking the back of the Russian economy, when industrial production was declining, and the slowdown in GDP growth promised to turn into recession, Gref said: “Russia has one of the best in the world among all countries of macroeconomic situations."
According to those who know him, without an economic education, Gref does not like and cannot conduct a reasoned debate. Blind faith in the absolute intrinsic value of private property, the need for the state to withdraw from the economy, redundancy of social assistance to the population and intolerance to objections very successfully replace knowledge for him.
Gref is hot-tempered; Thus, at a government meeting, he demanded that the people who burned his effigy, who were protesting against the criminal pushing of Russia into the WTO on obviously enslaving conditions, should be severely punished for extremism. During a visit to Brussels, in front of his subordinates, he gave a beating to the head of the Russian delegation to the European Commission, Fradkov, which “backfired” on him in the latter’s premiership. True, stories about Gref’s promises to “hang” his subordinates with a rope are accompanied by ritual assurances of his politeness.
When Putin met with the Pope with him in 2003, some media called Gref a Protestant, while others called him a Catholic.
At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2012, a completely innocent question suddenly provoked Gref into scandalous frankness, which revealed the categorical unacceptability of democracy not only for Russian reformers, but also for modern liberals in general.
“You are saying terrible things,” Gref replied. “You are proposing to transfer power into the hands of the population... As soon as people understand the basis of their “I” and self-identify, it will become extremely difficult to control them, it will become extremely difficult to manipulate. People do not want to be manipulated when they have knowledge. How to live, how to manage such a society, where everyone has equal access to information, everyone has the opportunity to judge directly, receive unprepared information through government-trained analysts, political scientists and huge media machines engaged in building and preserving (social) strata? “Your reasoning makes me a little scared; to be honest, it seems to me that you don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”
Gref's work in St. Petersburg;
1991 - Legal Adviser of the Committee for Economic Development and Property of the Petrodvorets Administration
1992 - Head of the Petrodvortsovo District Agency of the Property Management Committee of the City Administration of St. Petersburg. Chairman of the Property Management Committee - Deputy Head of the Administration of the Petrodvortsovy District of St. Petersburg.
- 1994 - Deputy Chairman - Director of the Real Estate Department, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for City Property Management of the Administration (KUGI) of St. Petersburg.
- 1997 - Vice-Governor, Chairman of the Committee for City Property Management of the Administration (KUGI) of St. Petersburg, member of the Board of Directors of JSC Lenenergo.
- 1998 - joined the board of directors of the Sea Port of St. Petersburg company and the board of directors of the Petersburg - Channel 5 company.
While working in the administration of St. Petersburg, German Gref met Alexei Kudrin, Dmitry Kozak, Dmitry Medvedev.
Work in the Government of the Russian Federation (2000—2007
German Gref was the main lobbyist for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. Also, at various times, he was a member of the board of directors of many state-owned companies (Gazprom, Svyazinvest, etc.) On February 24, 2004, Kasyanov’s government was dismissed. Gref also resigned from his post as minister.
At the beginning of March 2004, the first Fradkov government was formed, in which German Oskarovich again headed the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. On March 14, presidential elections took place, in which Vladimir Putin was re-elected. On May 7, having existed for only two months, this government resigned its powers to the newly elected President of the Russian Federation. Mikhail Fradkov retained the position of Prime Minister, and a second Fradkov government was created in May, with German Gref continuing to serve as Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
From October 2007 to the present, Gref G. O., who does not have an economic or financial education, has been the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia. The former head of the bank, Andrei Kazmin, was transferred to work at Russian Post, which caused dissatisfaction among the bank's leading managers who voted against Gref. Gref's four-year contract as president and chairman of the board of Sberbank expired in November 2011. After which he was appointed by the President of the Russian Federation for another term.
In October 2011, German Gref was noted by Forbes magazine as one of the nine most unusual Russian businessmen - madmen, eccentrics and eccentrics.
In 2013, he entered the top 5 Forbes list (5th place) of the most expensive managers in Russia. His income for the past year amounted to $15 million. The share of shares of Sberbank of Russia owned by G. O. Gref: 0.003096% (the price of the package is $2.19 million US dollars).
German Gref is married for the second time. His wife Yana Golovina (Glumova, Gref) is a designer. Their wedding took place in the throne room of the Peterhof nature reserve. In 2006, Gref had a daughter. In 2008 - second child.
Gref's son from his first marriage, Oleg, graduated from Moscow State University in 2004, and is vice-president of the company created by Gref G.O., accredited by Sberbank. special consulting company "NEO Center". Oleg Gref's company was involved in a number of corporate conflicts of Sberbank, involved in the bankruptcy and seizure of assets of various companies.
German Gref's older sister Elena Peredriy graduated from the pedagogical institute, married Sergei Peredriy and moved to Nakhodka. Owns a large block of shares in the Primorye Bank, owned by the family of Sergei Darkin, since 2001 - the governor of the Primorsky Territory, since 2012 - the Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation. Vice-Governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergei Peredriy resigned in 2006 due to the start of inspections of housing financing. Utility payments received from the population of the region were transferred to the accounts of the wife of the governor Larisa Belobrova, vice-governor Sergei Peredriy and his wife Elena Peredriy (Gref).
Elder brother Evgeny Gref is a businessman in Omsk, co-owner of the Tekhnosofiya and Sibir-Keramika store chains, the Geomart and Letur shopping centers, in 2008, with the assistance of G.O. Gref. received a credit line from Sberbank in the amount of 500 million rubles.
Since 2009, Evgenia Gref’s niece (daughter of German Gref’s brother) has been leading projects for the Krasnov design company, which services Sberbank. In particular, in 2011, Krasnov design held at least five corporate events for the bank: New Year celebrations, March 8, Valentine's Day on February 14, and the Sberbank of Talents concert. The owner of the company, Boris Krasnov, was charged with racketeering in 2011; a number of defendants in this criminal case were arrested
Criminal activity acting Minister of Economic Development German Gref is as follows: In August and September 2007, abusing his official position before resigning, he apparently decided to ensure a decent standard of living at public expense before leaving. Gref set the amount of severance pay for himself, not much, not little, at 1 billion euros. Employees of the Ministry of Economic Development, literally at the last moment, on his instructions, hastily finalized a deal to allocate 1 billion euros at public expense to the Sitronics company, in the form of a project for “Organizing the production of integrated circuits on wafers with a diameter of 300 mm with design standards of 65-45 nm.” German Gref, as is known, has close business relations with the management of this company Sitronics. In other words, the overall picture is this: before his resignation, German Gref invested an unprecedented amount from the state budget in an unprofitable company with which he has long-standing friendly ties, without mandatory conditions for the return of funds. What this means in modern Russian conditions, I think, does not need to be explained. In freedom, Mr. Gref will have a very sweet life thanks to illegally invested public funds in an unprofitable company.
In addition, as Novaya Gazeta reported, seven years ago, while still the head of the State Property Agency of St. Petersburg, German Oskarovich Gref was already involved in four criminal cases at once. By a curious coincidence, all these cases had a background worth millions of dollars: In one case, Gref was suspected of illegally privatizing the palace of Prince Gorchakov; in another case, Gref was accused of taking a bribe, but the criminal case was dropped because the only witness was killed. The third criminal case was related to Gref’s interference in the activities of the joint-stock company, and, finally, the fourth - to the “black” redistribution in the real estate market of St. Petersburg. They say that on the eve of his disappearance, US citizen Mr. Corcoran, who was involved in the same case with Gref, uttered a mysterious phrase: “This Gref is a terrible person, and things could get much worse in the future.”
With Gref’s arrival at Sberbank, he, as an active participant in the liberals’ efforts to destroy the country and associated with the international secret government and the Federal Reserve System, received the task from the Rothschilds and Ruckfellers to lower the ruble. For speculative attacks on the ruble, Gref has not only a powerful lobby in the Central Bank, but also a trained team of experienced international speculators. To do this, he changes the structure of Sberbank, he acquires the investment company Troika Dialog, known since the early 90s for its insider opportunities in Russia and connections in the West, but going to the bottom due to debts. Gref paid for this Troika Dialog company with the money of Russian investors from Sberbank in the amount of $1 billion, surprising even the seasoned Russian market with the price. He appointed his son Oleg as vice president of this company. The entire team of this company in its Moscow, London and New York offices has been transferred to the Sberbank CIB division. Other leaders of this company are foreign specialists - skilled agents of influence Nick Harwood, Andrey Howe, Chris Osborne, A.V. Bazarov. The head of the sales department, debt securities, currencies and commodities, surrounded by young and attentive Russian assistants, all boast about how they, together with Gref and his son Oleg, successfully deceived and deceived Putin, seizing the assets of many bankrupt and bankrupt companies.
In addition, Gref, together with his friends as part of a criminal community, creates the Sberbank Capital company. This company was created in 2008 specifically for the purpose of accumulating “troubled assets.” It is not known whether the global economic crisis had an impact, or whether Sberbank greatly tightened its attitude towards its not very reliable borrowers, but immediately after the creation of Sberbank Capital, the activity of the parent credit structure in the corporate mergers and acquisitions market increased significantly. The activities of these two companies created by Gref and his criminal activities as part of a criminal community will be discussed below.
The head of Sberbank, having seized the main assets of many companies, gradually got rid of the former shareholders of Sberbank, who invested their funds when creating Sberbank of the Russian Federation in 1992. He, abusing his official position, brazenly, rewrites and falsifies documents and removes persons he dislikes from the shareholders. For example, in 1992, when Sberbank was created, Sedukors CJSC contributed 150 million rubles for the bank’s shares through the Perm branch of Sberbank. However, at present this organization has been deleted from the lists of shareholders and shareholders of Sberbank. Other organizations that invested their funds in Sberbank shares also lost their shares. Recently, almost all previously listed shareholders do not have their shares and other persons are registered instead of them. Above these new shareholders Gref G.O. his longtime friend, an inveterate swindler, was appointed - Mikhail Semenovich Tanna, who in 1993-1998 robbed the money of USSR citizens under the leadership of Gerashchenko, heading the branch of the Central Bank of the USSR, Tan Bank in the city of Alma-Ata, taking this money abroad. This citizen is currently continuing this work of withdrawing money from Russian citizens from Sberbank and is now under the management of Gref. At the same time, Gref, without hesitation, transferred the Sberbank shares taken from other shareholders to himself and to his family and friends. So, he already has shares worth $2.19 million), although before his appointment to Sberbank, he had no shares at all.
In 2012, the leaders of the secret world government and the Bilderberg Club - the Rothschilds, Ruckfellers, Morgans and other managers of the US Federal Reserve for the contribution of G.O. Gref. During the collapse of the Russian economy, while he was performing his duties as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, he was appointed - G.O. Gref. senior curator for Russia, instead of Chubais A.B. After this, Gref, as a member of the Bilderberg Club and one of the leaders of the “fifth” column in Moscow, received an order from his foreign patrons to attack. Therefore, at various forums, he made a strong bid for the place of the “godfather” of the liberal lobby, clearly showing who really controls Russia’s wallet, sending Putin a “black mark” on the “red” day of the calendar, and then persistently reminded that he has a couple of trump cards ladies from the Central Bank on “black” Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It appears that the usually cautious Herman has shown his cards. But the president has already guessed what game his liberal manipulators have drawn him into. It is no coincidence that Putin’s statement about speculators known to him was made while a television camera was pointed at the blushing Nabiullina. As a result, unexpected searches took place in the St. Petersburg offices of Sberbank, and on one of the federal channels the trio of high-ranking liberals were directly compared to the jackals from “Mowgli” and Putin jokingly called Gref a swindler.
Gref is often accused of having a non-traditional sexual orientation, - the leader of Gay Pride said about him Nikolay Alekseev.
In January 2016, a whole socio-political campaign was launched against German Gref.
Speaking at the Gaidar Forum, Gref harshly criticized the domestic economy and called Russia a “technically enslaved country” and a “downshifter country.” Gref's statement immediately caused a wide resonance.
A number of politicians accused Gref of Russophobia and refusal to admit his own mistakes in the past. The Other Russia called Gref a “liberal gnome” and demanded that he resign.
It’s no secret that Nabiullina’s team, which headed the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, is under the complete influence and control of Gref on the orders of the Rothschilds. Therefore, this group, under the influence of Gref and Nabiullina, in the second half of 2014 and subsequently carried out a transfer to a floating dollar exchange rate and reduced the purchasing power of the Russian ruble several times, collapsing it, continuing the destruction of the country’s economy and the impoverishment of the peoples of Russia. After the collapse of the ruble in early October, Gref made an open demarche at the “Russia Calling” investment forum, publicly expressing his disagreement with the president’s chosen course for Russia’s economic sovereignty, calling it a “scoop” worthy of “old Soviet senile people.” Gref had previously repeatedly provoked the president, expressing dissatisfaction with Putin’s new course. A clear example is the order to Sberbank institutions in Crimea to work according to the laws of Ukraine, and to the surprised Russian clients to send money transfers to Crimea as if abroad. Sberbank under the management of Gef, contrary to the opinion of President Putin, is actively lending to the current Kiev regime, buying up shares of this state and thus financing the army, which is destroying Russian people in Donbass and Lugansk, fearing for its business interests, but despite this, facing a record outflow Ukrainian investors. Currently, under an agreement with the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, Sberbank, represented by Gref, is buying... Ukrainian military bonds. That is, it actually sponsors the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and finances the war and writes off Ukraine’s debts without the consent of the government and the president of the country.
German Gref’s recipe is simple, Sberbank must cut up the budget, and then force the state to pay triple the amount for the theft of bankers. In the press of this operation it was repeatedly mentioned that all close relatives of the head of Sberbank German Gref are involved in all sorts of opaque schemes that are used to enrich the family. Often this enrichment occurs at the expense of the state, less often at the expense of those imprudent merchants who risked connecting their business with this banking institution. Let us briefly mention that Gref’s wife Yana runs a joint business with Kozak’s ex-wife and the top manager of the AFK Sistema corporation, her sister is the business partner of the ex-governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergei Darkin. The elder brother is one of the largest retailers in Omsk, actively taking loans from Sberbank. The niece organizes corporate events for the bank, and even the mother-in-law managed to enter into a work conflict with the daughter of the Saratov governor Pavel Ipatov. German Gref’s son Oleg is a co-owner of the consulting company NEO Center, accredited by Sberbank as a partner appraiser, which became famous in its time thanks to a number of scandals in which the company significantly underestimated the value of collateral, allowing the bank to purchase them for next to nothing. We must pay tribute: of all possible banking operations, Sberbank has fully mastered only one - the seizure of someone else's property.
Thus, businessman Mikhail Bezelyansky says that economic processes in the country are regulated by gangster methods. A native of Alfa-eco, who founded the Perekrestok trading house in the 1990s, in 2010 had to give the Mosmart chain to the people of German Gref. The network was taken away from its creators by a special “daughter” of Sberbank, organizing forceful takeovers - the Sberbank Capital company, then assets were withdrawn from the enterprise, after which Mosmart was given a long life. Bezelyansky and his partner Andrei Shelukhin escaped with little blood. For other businessmen whose property was liked by Gref or his relatives, the clash with Sberbank Capital became fatal. Now the victims are hiding abroad or in prison, cursing corruption in the state bank and accusing its “daughter” of raiding.
General Director of Sberbank Capital Ashot Khachaturyants, German Gref’s best friend, recalled in an interview with Vedomosti that when the company was created, there was no talk about managing problem assets. Sberbank, according to him, needed an investment banking division. “The company was registered in July 2008 [as a 100% subsidiary of Sberbank], Ashot Khachaturyants took office in September 2008. The 2008 crisis mixed all the cards, Sberbank Capital became something between a raiding group and a collection agency - the line between these structures in Russia is very arbitrary.
After the creation of Sberbank Capital in the fall of 2008, Shalva Chigirinsky faced margin calls on a Sberbank loan issued as collateral for a 23.3% stake in his company Sibir Energy. “Chigirinsky came to us and offered to structure the loan according to English law. Before we even had time to say “yes,” he ran to the presidential administration,” says Khachaturyants. - And how did it all end? He... lost everything. We were eventually able to sell this company to Gazprom Neft and return $1 billion to Sberbank.”
German Gref set conditions for creditors and all problem borrowers: the debtor gives Sberbank Capital a controlling stake for a symbolic amount with the possibility of repurchase, and the bank writes off his debts. But the debtors did not always agree to this.
12 missing billions captured by the criminal community led by Gref.
Poymanov’s fears that Sberbank Capital would not be able to cope with management were perhaps not unfounded. This is evidenced by the stories that happened with the retail chains managed by Sberbank Capital: Alpi, Mosmart and Vester.
The Mosmart retail chain, which was founded by Bezelyansky and Shelukhin, owed Sberbank 3 billion rubles, and Gref involved Sberbank Capital in working with this debt. Mosmart was on the list of enterprises that could receive government support during the crisis. But, recalls Bezelyansky, Gref and Khachaturyants liked Mosmart stores as real estate, “they understood little about business.”
According to the usual scheme, the owners of Mosmart were offered to transfer a controlling stake to Sberbank Capital; they did not agree for a long time. Negotiations lasted a whole year, Bezelyansky recalls, “until the company died, and when it died, they began to manage it.” While negotiations with Gref were ongoing, the work of Mosmart was practically paralyzed - suppliers who had stopped paying one after another filed lawsuits.
In June 2009, the chain of 25 stores came under the control of Sberbank Capital - it received 50% plus 2 shares, about 40% remained with Bezelyansky and Shelukhin, another 10% went to the company of Evgeniy Novitsky, a member of the board of directors of AFK Sistema.
Some of the Mosmart stores were immediately withdrawn from the company by German Gref’s entourage, since the banker was primarily interested in the behind-the-scenes cutting of real estate properties. By the fall of 2009, managers restored relations with suppliers, the network began to operate and was actively receiving loans from Sberbank. “Sberbank has always declared that it has two resources - time and money. Sberbank can wait a year, or two, or ten, and “add” any amount to any business at any time - during the crisis, it received secured loans through the Central Bank,” says Belenov. In the case of Mosmart, it seems that they were “overflowed” - the network’s debt to Sberbank grew to 12 billion rubles, the money was transferred to private structures as well as buildings. In 2011, the chain ceased to exist, its remains in the form of seven hypermarkets (four owned, three leased) were sold to the owner of the Seventh Continent, Alexander Zanadvorov, for a symbolic $1000. The state budget, as the owner of the bank, paid for the personal enrichment of Gref and Khachaturyants by 12 billion rubles.
Alpi, which was acquired by Sberbank Capital as one of its first assets, was disposed of even earlier. 23 shopping complexes for 3.5 billion rubles. bought AMK-Pharma (part of the Regions Group of Companies; it went to Gref’s friend, the Mutsoev family).
Among the first assets of Sberbank Capital was the problem debt of the structures of the oil company Urals Energy Sergei Bezhanov, Vyacheslav Rovneiko, Georgy Ramzaitsev and Leonid Dyachenko. The unpaid loan was estimated at $635 million. The loan of $500 million was secured by 35.55% of Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha LLC. There was no collateral for the $135 million loan issued for the purchase of 100% of NK Dulisma LLC, and for the credit line allocated for the Dulisma investment program, the collateral was Dulisma itself, which produced 50,000 tons per year.
Sberbank Capital had to tinker with Dulisma. After the debtor stopped servicing the loan, Dulisma changed its form of ownership from LLC to CJSC. This happened at the request of the bank itself, but the documents were drawn up in such a way that the collateral was lost, says Belenov. After six months of negotiations, Sberbank Capital achieved that an unsecured loan of $135 million was transferred to CJSC NK Dulisma, and then transferred both Urals Energy assets to itself.
Sberbank Capital managed the former assets of Urals Energy until 2012. “The situation there was dire,” says Khachaturyants. “We did a great job.” Sberbank issued 7.5 billion rubles to Dulisma. development loans. According to Khachaturyants, a pipe was built to the Transneft main pipeline, and an export quota was achieved. And Sberbank President German Gref was personally involved in preserving the preferential export duty rate, which was abolished for small fields in 2011: in November 2011, he wrote an appeal to the curator of the oil and gas industry, Igor Sechin. He held a meeting at which they decided to keep Dulisma at a preferential rate.
Later, in the summer of 2009, Sberbank Capital suddenly found itself the owner of quite impressive oil assets - the British structure Urals Energy operating in Russia transferred 100% of the Dulisma oil company and 35.3% of the shares of Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha to Sberbank to pay off the debt loans for $630 million. It is curious that one of the managers and shareholders of this “British company” was Leonid Dyachenko, former son-in-law of Boris Yeltsin. As the media directly indicated, in order to “knock out” the shares from Dyachenko, Sberbank-Capital, at Gref’s request, then turned for help to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which summoned Urals Energy shareholders for “preventive conversations.”
In 2012, Sberbank Capital decided to sell its oil assets. 35% of Taas-Yuryakh Oil and Gas Production was bought by Rosneft for $444 million, and Dulisma was bought by the family of father and son Alexey and Yuri Khotin for $95 million. . Over the four years of operation, Sberbank Capital returned about 60 billion rubles, proceeds from the sale of assets and shares in companies (see table). Khachaturyants says that the company sold all assets except one, Alpi, at a profit.
What is the profit if Mosmart owed 12 billion rubles, but sold it for $1000? Giving the last stores to the owner of the Seventh Continent for $1000, Sberbank Capital lost them to Alexander Zanadvorov and grew from 3 billion to 12 billion rubles. network debt. The Mosmart price was “market price”. The market was that it seemed to Gref that the loss of 12 billion was not enough - in order not to bring his creativity to criminal cases and scandals, under a deal designed to help Sberbank financially, the state banker transferred another 31 billion rubles to Zanadvorov. We can hardly talk about repaying this loan seriously.
It turns out that by managing enterprises, Sberbank Capital increases their debts to Sberbank, only these debts turned from “bad” to “good”, that is, those that Sberbank can increase significantly. Apparently, this is why almost none of the previous owners were interested in the “window of opportunity” and bought their business back. The owner of Pavlovskgranit, who lost his business due to unwillingness to meet Sberbank Capital halfway, one might say, got off lightly. Others are now on the run, or even in prison.
In 2008-2009, entrepreneur Vachevskikh received a number of loans from Sberbank totaling more than 700 million rubles. The money was not returned on time and the accounts payable were recognized as a “problem asset.” The relevant department of the Srednerussky Bank of Sberbank was entrusted with solving the problem. In the summer of 2012, a mediator reached out to the Vachevskys - Denis Vasekha, who said that he had serious connections in Sberbank and offered him to “settle” the debt for 100 million rubles. Vachevskikh agreed for the sake of appearance, and he himself turned to FSB with a statement of extortion. Further conversations with Vasekha and Sberbank employees were under the control of operatives and recorded. Upon receiving a copy of the payment order for the transfer of the first tranche of 60 million rubles, the extortionist was detained right at the head office of Sberbank on Vavilova Street in Moscow. Later, his accomplices, bank managers, were also captured. Formally, Sberbank took a neutral position in the case of the detention of its managers. But, according to some reports, he provided them with unspoken support. At the end of last year, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, appealed to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the capital police with a statement to initiate a criminal case against Konstantin Vachevskikh for the theft of 700 million rubles, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to initiate a case. As a result, the management of Sberbank was forced to admit the fact of harm to the credit institution from the actions of its own regional managers.
Sberbank Capital had many similar conflict stories involving the business interests of Gref and members of his family (see diagram)
War for MAIR
The owner of the MAIR industrial group, Viktor Makushin, now lives in Cyprus, and the general director of the group’s metallurgical plants, Sergei Musatov, was sentenced to four years. This is how the credit history of MAIR and Sberbank ended.
IARC calls itself the world's largest network of scrap recycling enterprises; in 2008, its enterprises had revenues exceeding $100 million per month. MAIR had loans from Sberbank for 2.5 billion rubles. At the beginning of 2009, Sberbank demanded that Makushin increase the deposit or return the money. Makushin responded by asking for restructuring (prices for MAIR products fell fivefold, and the group could not service its debts), but the bank refused. Then Makushin initiated the bankruptcy of the factories and publicly accused officials and bankers of raiding. After this, at the request of Sberbank, a criminal case was opened against him for fraud. This is how the businessman ended up in Cyprus.
In the summer of 2010, Makushin gave the creditor 77% of Rusvtormet Center, which owned the MAIR metallurgical plants in Krasny Sulin and Georgievsk, which were undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. In an interview with the Cypriot portal CJN, Makushin said that he signed the agreement on the sale of Rusvtormet Center while in a Cypriot prison awaiting extradition.
War for Izhavto
One of the first to feel the “iron grip of Sber,” supported by prosecutorial response measures, was the owner of the SOK group, Yuri Kachmazov. Since 2011, Russia has been trying to extradite the former owner of the Samara SOK group, Yuri Kachmazov, from the UAE. SOK included the Izhavto plant, where Kia cars were assembled. In 2008, Izhavto’s revenue was almost 21 billion rubles.
During the crisis, Izhavto began to have difficulties - it owed 8 billion rubles to Sberbank alone. SOK found a way to get rid of the over-credited asset: it sold Izhavto to related companies, and the plant itself actually paid it off - with $200 million worth of cars. They said that Kachmazov took some of the cars out of Sberbank's collateral by simply moving the fence of the finished products warehouse. “We will not forgive those people who committed fraudulent actions for this situation. We will do everything to bring them to justice, I think they should do business in the country<...>it will be very difficult,” Sberbank President German Gref promised in an interview with Business FM. At Gref’s request, a criminal case was opened against Kachmazov, and Izhavto was bankrupt. The plant's assets were sold at auction and ultimately went to AvtoVAZ. And most of Izhavto’s debts were bought from Sberbank by AvtoVAZ’s shareholder, Rostekhnologii.
Other unlucky bank debtors had to experience a similar practice of “preventive conversations” with prosecutors, employees of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and FSB operatives. As a result, by the end of 2009, the property portfolio of Sberbank Capital, according to media estimates, exceeded $14 billion.
War for Energomash
The owner of the Energomash holding, Alexander Stepanov, did not have time to go abroad, as he had already been sentenced by an English court to two years and put on the international wanted list. In Russia, a criminal case of fraud amounting to 12.7 billion rubles. was initiated at the request of Gref. The businessman was arrested in February 2011 right in the office of Sberbank, where he came to negotiate debt restructuring. In 2012, Stepanov was sentenced to 4.5 years.
Energomash is one of the largest Russian holdings, uniting eight machine-building plants, the products of which were supplied to nuclear power plants and thermal power plants. Forbes in 2009 estimated his assets at $4.3 billion (including $1.3 billion in debt).
In 2005, Stepanov relied on the production and operation of small gas turbine thermal power plants; For this program, GT-CHEnergo, part of the holding, received a loan of 17.5 billion rubles from Sberbank. During the crisis, events began to develop according to a familiar scenario. Sberbank refused to restructure and demanded a debt of 7 billion rubles. transfer assets to a third structure. Stepanov, in response, tried to “restructure” the assets in his own interests, but was unsuccessful. Now the Energomash companies are going bankrupt; Sberbank is the largest creditor.
Out of love, out of duty and just because
Currently, Sberbank Capital manages about 70 assets worth 46.7 billion rubles. In the presentation, the investment company divides them into three categories: “investment” (7.8 billion rubles, 17%), “under management” (16.8 billion rubles, 36%) and “technical” (22.1 billion rubles. , 47%). The investment company, relatively speaking, received the first ones out of love from Gref, the second ones out of obligation, and the third ones belong to it only formally.
“Investment assets” are those assets that Sberbank Capital received “on terms fully approved by the company, and in respect of which the company has significant influence<...>and complete freedom of action, including the decision to withdraw from the project.” Some of these assets came from Sberbank under assignment agreements, for example, Crystal Towers, received as compensation for a debt of 2.3 billion rubles. (debtor - Coalco), shopping center "Five Seas" (debtor - Stroitel-M). Some are direct investments. For example, a borrower does not have enough money to receive a Sberbank loan under a project scheme - in the proportion of 30% (borrower) to 70% (Sberbank). Sberbank Capital is included in its capital to maintain this proportion. Thus, the company received a share in the Esmerald residential complex of Glavstroy and 49% in the Armenian gold mining project Paramount Gold Mining.
Assets “under management” means “obtained on terms not fully agreed with the company (for example, an assignment without an assessment of market value), but in relation to which the company has significant influence<...>and relative freedom of action." For example, development projects “Tsarev Sad” and “City of Yachts”, car manufacturer “Derways”.
“Technical” - assets “in respect of which the company performs the functions of a balance sheet holder and does not have significant influence; decisions on exit are made outside the company.” These include 2% of shares of Russneft, about 3% of the oil company Aurora Oil, shares of Krasnaya Polyana, Soda-chlorate, etc.
The main and main conflict occurred in Gref with businessman Sergei Poimanov, as the main owner of the Pavlovskgranit corporation in the Voronezh region (a leading producer of crushed stone), who refused to transfer control to the bank. One of Poimanov’s companies, Pavlovskgranit-invest, took out a loan of 5.6 billion rubles just before the crisis, in August 2008. in the Central Chernozemny Sberbank on the security of Pavlovskgranit, and in 2009 she was unable to pay her debts. The Credit Committee of Sberbank decided to restructure the debt of Pavlovskgranit-invest. Poymanov’s structure was supposed to transfer 51% of the shares of Pavlovskgranit to Sberbank Capital (for 1 million rubles, Poymanov himself clarified). In exchange, Sberbank removed the debt from Pavlovskgranit-invest and re-registered it as Pavlovskgranit. Loan payments began after two years - until the summer of 2011, the new borrower received a loan holiday, and the rate was reduced from 15 to 14.75%.
Poimanov refused - he was embarrassed by the complete loss of control over the enterprise for two years: “During the negotiations, it turned out that, having received 51% of the shares of Pavlovskgranit, Sberbank Capital would replace the board of directors there. It is unknown in what condition I would have received the enterprise back.” Sberbank Capital went to the courts. The first 36.37% of the shares of Pavlovskgranit were written off from Poymanov’s structures in May 2011. From the Accounts Chamber report on Sberbank Capital, Sberbank loan agreements and other documents, from which it follows that this package of Pavlovskgranit, and then and the rest of his shares, along with Poimanov’s debts, went to structures associated with the National Non-metallic Company of the partner of the head of Sberbank German Gref - a “black developer” known for a number of financial scandals, Gref’s friend Yuri Zhukov. Sberbank, on the instructions of Gref, who had his own interest in Poimanov’s business, immediately refinanced the new owner of Pavlovskgranit. Let us remind you that we are talking about the same Zhukov who was appointed by Gref to head the name “Sberbank-Development” immediately after the scandal with the withdrawal of the shares of “First Mortgage Company” from the collateral of “Nomos Bank”. Moreover, Gref openly suggested to Zhukov that the PIK shares captured by raider be included in the charter of the Sberbank subsidiary, which caused a real shock among the professional community. To complete the picture, it is probably worth mentioning that after the Pavlovskgranit loan was recognized as problematic, the bank assigned its rights of claim to Ashot Khachaturyants’ company. At the same time, German Gref ordered the assessment of the stake in Pavlovskgranit, owned by Vitera LLC, to the NEO Center company, which determined their value at only 1.144 billion rubles, underestimating the amount by 3.5 times, while independent appraisers called figures of at least 4.6 billion rubles. But NEO Center, as already mentioned, is a very dependent company on Sberbank, because it is headed by German Gref’s son Oleg Gref.
When financing from the Sberbank cash desk the raider takeover of Pavlovskgranit in favor of his son Oleg Gref and his accomplice, member of the criminal community Yuri Zhukov, German Oskarovich knew in advance the details of the further development of events. He foresaw a change of ownership in the shell company through which the purchase of Pavlovskgranit shares was paid, he foresaw in advance the competition for the sale of another block of shares, and even predicted the victory of another shell company in the auction, which seemed to involve fair competition. According to the loan agreement, which allowed the raiders to establish control over the shares of Pavlovskgranit, German Oskarovich, long before the events themselves, knew about them details that his relative and comrade, Yuri Zhukov, direct participants in these very events, are still trying to forget and hide.
This loan, provided to the shell company Atlantic, allowed the tandem Yuri Zhukov - Oleg Gref to buy back from the same Sberbank the pledged shares of Pavlovskgranit for next to nothing - 1 billion 147 million rubles, the real value of which was 4.5 billion rubles.
Simply, Sberbank Capital LLC, by order of Gref, transferred 36% of the shares of Pavlovskgranit OJSC, owned by Vitera LLC, to its personal account. The transaction was carried out secretly, without notification of the valuation, contrary to the laws and clarifications of the market regulator.
As proven by father and son Grefs, laws can be completely optional, if, in addition to the necessary appraisers from the NEO Center, you have your own registrar at your disposal. OJSC "Sberbank of Russia" without noise, dust and even informing the owner, wrote off shares in favor of Oleg Gref's structure. Which, in turn, instantly resold them in favor of Cypriot companies (one of them allegedly belongs to a competitor in the production of crushed stone, Yuri Zhukov, Even the court cannot establish the owners of others). What made the case especially piquant was the fact that Oleg Gref sold the shares for 1,147 million rubles - that is, at the price invented by Gref Jr. himself.
Regarding this illegal seizure of 36% of the assets of Pavlovskgranit shares, Poymanova repeatedly appealed to Gref, law enforcement agencies and the courts.
Based on these statements, criminal cases were initiated, courts of various instances decided to recognize as illegal the actions of Gref’s group to seize the above-mentioned shares, but Gref’s criminal community ignores court decisions, including decisions of the Supreme Court of Russia. Gref, using administrative resources and corrupt connections with law enforcement and judicial authorities of the capital’s investigative headquarters, wrote false statements that the shares appropriated by his criminal group were allegedly stolen by Poimanov himself. Corrupt law enforcement agencies illegally initiated criminal cases against Poymanov, although the courts recognized, at Poymanov’s claim, the illegality of the seizure and ownership to date of the shares of Pavlovskgranit by the Gref group. Many articles have been written on this issue exposing numerous judges and investigators who received bribes from representatives of Gref’s indicated criminal community for making clearly illegal decisions, but the seized capital remains in the hands of Gref and his accomplices.
The head of Sberbank of Russia, German Gref, is proud of his unblemished reputation as a liberal and market leader, as untouchable and inaccessible to the country’s law enforcement system. The credit organization headed by him, with all its scale and with all the breadth of interests, remains one of the strongest and “civilized” - i.e. open and focused exclusively on civilized means of doing business.
Gref’s companies are especially successful in working with construction assets. Today it owns a controlling stake in DB Development, a share in the capital of the Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye project, as well as a number of projects of the Don-Stroy and Capital Group companies: City of Capitals, City of Yachts and projects for the construction of affordable housing , which are conducted by GVSU "Center". According to unconfirmed information, the company also controls about 7% of the shares of PIK Group of Companies - the market value of this stake, even after the crisis, was over $200 million. German Gref did not admit his interest in PIK for a long time. But last week it became known that Sberbank intends to create its own development company, and it could be headed by the founder and co-owner of the PIK group Yuri Zhukov.
“Recently, an alarming message appeared on one of the Tula websites about the raider seizure of one of the Tula enterprises by an appraisal firm"Neo-center" . The capture method is very simple, one might say primitive. A Tula enterprise applied for a loan from a bank [...] To obtain a loan, it is necessary to evaluate the property of the enterprise, which was pledged as collateral. The bank offered Neo-Center as an appraiser.General Director of Neo-Center Valery Esaulenko In addition to the contract, he offered to pay another $50 thousand for the appraisal. This money was allegedly intended for an employee of the credit department of the Tula branch of the bank. The company's management agreed.When the company was unable to pay interest on time, Moscow private security companies appeared at the company’s office and threw the director of the company out of the office. Employees of the Tula company were told that now the new owner will be Valery Esaulenko.
Having made appropriate inquiries, Tula PRyaniki established that according to this scenario, Neo-Center carries out raider attacks in the cities of the Volga region and the South of Russia.General Director of Neo-Center Valery Esaulenko works in conjunction with Vneshtorgbank and Vnesheconombank. Through one of VTB's vice presidents, the appraiser gains access to the bank's collateral bases and then absorbs the enterprise. Raiders are mainly engaged in the seizure and resale of construction sites and factories. On Arbat for some time there was a banner “Eat or absorb - more than consulting. “Neo-center””].
“Eat or absorb” - this is, apparently, where Gref’s father and son see their true values. And for those who want to have some kind of business with Sberbank of Russia in the future, it is enough to know only one thing - the above-mentioned Valery Esaulenko still holds the post of General Director of NEO Center today.
German Gref issued a loan to Minnikhanov for the construction of an already built plant."Kazan oil extraction plant" In October 2007, the Kazan Oil Extraction Plant plant was built and put into operation; at the end of that year, the group reported that the Kazan Oil Extraction Plant's share in the rapeseed oil market was 8%. At first, rapeseed indeed remained a priority for the group: at the end of 2008, the share of rapeseed oil in the total sales of finished products was 17%, at first logically inferior to sunflower oil (69%).
Credit funds in the amount of 3 billion rubles were issued to the Kazan oil extraction plant by the state-owned Sberbank and AKB AK BARS. Part of this money was used by the group’s parent company (“Nefis-Cosmetics” acted as the general contractor).
But then, instead of the expected increase in rapeseed processing volumes, there was a permanent decrease: in 2008 - 8%, in 2009 - 7%, in 2010 - 6.2%, in 2011 - 6%.
At the same time, the main consumers of the products of OJSC Kazan Oil Refinery Plant remained the enterprises of the group OJSC Nefis Cosmetics and OJSC Kazan Fat Plant.
But in accordance with the documents regulating the provision of subsidies, the type of activity to be subsidized had to be at least 70%. Thus, it can be assumed that government funds allocated to repay the commercial loan allowed the enterprise to develop its own oil and fat business - producing ketchup and mayonnaise.
In addition, in order to develop rapeseed production, the group received benefits in terms of property tax, as well as support for creating its own transport workshop for the transportation of rapeseed oilseeds, as well as rapeseed meal.
However, instead of intensifying the production of rapeseed products, the group - on the basis of the newly created JSC Nefis-Bioproduct - presented a new project in 2011: a production complex for deep processing of rapeseed oilseeds worth 16 billion rubles, 12.8 billion rubles of which Gref expressed his readiness to provide from named after Sberbank. 2/3 of the interest rate and this time the state agreed to compensate.
In 2012, Nefis-Bioproduct OJSC received 5.1 billion rubles from Sberbank for the construction of one of the phases of the facility—an oil extraction plant. In terms of its intended purpose, this plant, which was put into operation in November of this year, actually duplicates the one built back in 2007. It is unknown who from Gref’s group pocketed 5.1 billion rubles, since the Tatarstan prosecutor’s office is not interested in this fact.
After German Gref joined the international board of the American bank J.P. in 2013. Morgan Chase. According to the famous economist and consultant Vladislav Zhukovsky, Gref is close to the sharks of world business “ideologically and ideologically”:
- His election to the international council of the largest bank not only in the United States, but also in the world, indicates that transnational capitals, the largest international financial institutions, and global corporations are extremely closely monitoring the situation in the Russian economy. They have their own, quite objective from a commercial point of view, long-term and large-scale interests in Russia and want to exert maximum influence on the internal political and internal economic processes of our country. Gref, as a person of ultra-liberal views, a supporter of market voluntarism, is for J.P. Morgan Chase and the world's business sharks are the mouthpiece and spokesman for the interests of global business. In 2012, the authoritative Forbes magazine ranked Gref in 5th place in the ranking of the most expensive top managers in Russia with an income of $15 million, stipulating that the banker had the opportunity to earn several tens of millions more. Sberbank then officially stated that “German Gref’s remuneration is significantly lower,” but for some reason did not provide the correct figures.
German Gref’s salary is still classified as “secret”. According to our information, it should be at least a million rubles per month plus quarterly and annual allowances. Plus the traditional reward “for good work.”
“The amount of all payments accrued to members of the board for 2013 amounted to 3.2 billion rubles (for 2012 - 2.4 billion rubles), says Sberbank in its latest report. “The increase in payments is explained by an increase in the number of board members from 13 people as of December 31, 2012 to 14 people as of December 31, 2013 (including the president, chairman of the board).” Even if these billions are divided equally, it comes out to almost 230 million rubles per board member, and the president, of course, should receive several times more than others. A billion rubles? Quite possible.
It is clear why German Gref is in no hurry to disclose his income: against the backdrop of stingy interest on deposits and rising loan prices, one may get the impression that Sberbank depositors are simply paying for the banker’s growing appetites.
In January 2016, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the restructuring of the debt of two of its state-owned companies - Ukravtodor and Yuzhnoye Design Bureau named after Yangel - to the Russian Sberbank. One of the conditions of the agreement was that Gref wrote off 25% of the debt. These companies owed Sberbank of the Russian Federation - $367.4 million.
25% - Gref writing off the nominal value of the debt, that is, $91.8 million, extending the repayment period until September 1, 2019 and issuing a new debt with external government loan bonds and the corresponding issue of government derivatives,” Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalya Yaresko is quoted as saying.
In July 2011, Sberbank provided $376 million in loans to the State Highway Service of Ukraine (Ukravtodor), and then in September of the same year, a $260 million loan to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau named after Yangel.
Natalya Yaresko claims that 25% of the debt of Ukrainian state-owned companies ($91.857 million) was written off by Sberbank.
We are talking about loans guaranteed by the state, which were attracted by Ukrainian state-owned enterprises.
In July 2011, Sberbank of Russia PJSC provided a loan in the amount of $376 million to the State Highway Service of Ukraine (Ukravtodor). Terms of the loan were not disclosed.
In September 2011, the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau named after Yangel (GKB, Dnepropetrovsk) received $260 million for 7 years at 6% per annum to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian project to create the Cyclone-4 rocket and space complex.
Total amount: $636 million.
In 2014, obligations under these loans decreased by $107.4 million, and by the end of 2015, when a moratorium on the payment of debts to Russia was announced, they settled at $367.4 million.
Recently, an official message appeared on the website of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine:
As part of the transaction, loan debt in the amount of approximately $367 million and accrued interest were repaid in full. In return, Sberbank of Russia received external government loan bonds for $284.152 million with a yield of 7.75% per annum and maturity in 2019, which corresponds to 75% of the principal amount of the loan and accrued interest, as well as government derivatives for a total notional amount of 91.857 million US dollars, which corresponds to 25% of the debt. Thus, 25% of the debt was written off by Gref based on the decision of the Government, the State Duma and the President of Russia.
If we list all the titles, responsibilities and regalia from the biography of German Gref, the list will take more than one page. Current activities alone eloquently show the seriousness and breadth of his activities: president and chairman of the board of Sberbank of Russia, co-chairman of the board of trustees at the Mariinsky Theater, chairman of the board of trustees of the Higher School of Economics, member of the boards of directors of Yandex and the famous American banking group Morgan Stanley.
German Gref is one of the most talked about people in business Russia. His popularity is not at all the result of PR, as often happens with other media figures. German Gref is one of the most influential people in Russia. It is associated with the concepts of trends, challenges, reforms and transformations. Not a single report on any significant economic event in Russia is complete without a close-up photo of German Gref.
From Kazakh Germans
The Soviet ethnic Germans of the post-war generation had one homeland for all - sunny Kazakhstan. The Gref family from the Volga region was sent there. Little Herman was born in 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Pavlodar region.
This was an educated family. Father, Oscar Fedorovich Gref, was an engineer, but died very early, when German was only one and a half years old. Mother, Emilia Filippovna, had an economic education, worked in the village council and raised three children alone.
Herman's schooling was quite normal and generally not bad. Everything was fine with the Komsomol member too - he was a class Komsomol organizer. But when German had a goal - to enter the Moscow Institute of International Relations, at his native school they explained to him in detail that he would never receive a reference for admission to such a university: his biography let him down, because his parents were not the same, and his last name was not very good...
Solving the national question
Surprisingly, even in the expert community there is often a statement that German Gref is Jewish by nationality. Biography is not taken into account by such “experts”. Meanwhile, the guys with German “exile baggage” behind them suffered from the restrictions of the Soviet regime no less than other “defective” nationalities, including, of course, Jews.
It was not possible to enter the institute even in Omsk. The solution to the problem of nationality in German Gref’s biography was simple and effective. He went to serve in the army in order to receive a recommendation to a university of a completely different nature - from the military command. The status of applicants after the army was solid; they always followed a separate quota.
The job was done, he graduated from Omsk University with a law degree, where German remained as a teacher.
St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak and all, all, all
In 1990, the St. Petersburg period began, which changed the life and career of German Gref in the most radical way. He entered graduate school at Leningrad University under the scientific guidance of Anatoly Sobchak. His dissertation defense did not take place then (he would defend his dissertation only in 2011), but much more important events, as it turned out later, took place.
While studying in graduate school, Gref worked as a legal consultant in the Petrodvorets district administration. His career took off, from a legal adviser Gref turned into the head of a property management agency, and two years later - into the deputy head of the district administration.
Two more years passed, and a new chapter appeared in the biography of German Gref: the vice-governor's post in St. Petersburg, participation in the management of the city's largest economic facilities and... acquaintance with Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexei Kudrin and other “St. Petersburg” - a fateful team like-minded people.
Government Jobs
German Oskarovich had two government posts. From the beginning of 1999, he headed the Center for Strategic Research, already possessing serious capabilities and powers. And since 2000, German Gref became Minister of Economic Development at the invitation of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.
German Oskarovich performed ministerial duties for exactly seven years. Regardless of the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers and the general mood in the government, he was known as an unshakable supporter of liberal reforms and market management of the economy. Minimal state participation in the country's economy, strengthening the institution of private property, integration into the world economy in the form of joining the World Trade Organization - these are the main vectors of German Gref's work in the Russian government. The photo of German Gref with Putin at the same table speaks for itself: German Oskarovich was and remains one of the most trusted persons of the President of Russia.
In 2007, the government of Mikhail Fradkov resigned. German Gref left with everyone and... did not return. There were completely new horizons ahead.
Green light from Sberbank
In 2007, a new long path began in the biography of German Gref, illuminated by the green neon signs of Sberbank. His position sounds simple and short: Chairman of the Board, President.
The task was serious - to transform the country's largest bank with outdated operating principles into a modern, dynamic financial organization capable of changes in the unstable world of today's business.
The first stage was extremely difficult: it concerned a tough purge of the management team. The bank's management reform was not only about dismissing incompetent managers. The remaining top managers received significant salary increases.
The reforms covered many things. The most difficult issue was changing the attitude of bank employees (in those same notorious savings banks originally from the USSR) towards their clients. The client-oriented approach became the main topic of seminars and trainings at the new corporate university. A lot of “blood, sweat and tears” also went into its creation.
One of the most difficult episodes of working with front office staff to improve the quality of service was the unexpected anonymous appearance of Gref in one of the cash settlement departments in a special suit and dark glasses. The suit simulated various forms of motor impairment - from a paralyzed hand to the inability to move independently.
The episode was filmed and widely distributed in the media and social networks, where many did not understand it and condemned Gref for cheap PR and a useless expensive suit: “everyone already knows that it’s hard for people with disabilities.”
Changes in the bank resulted in positive financial results quite quickly: literally a few years later, Sberbank began to receive record profits, which had not been seen during the entire period of its existence before Gref’s arrival.
Scandals, intrigues, investigations
German Gref never changed his beliefs and status as a liberal economist. In the last few years, his speeches have become brighter and tougher: he continues to defend his views on economic and political events. Gref loves to talk about prospects, and it’s only a stretch to call his recent speeches optimistic.
His speech in 2016 at the Gaidar Forum ended with a particularly loud scandal, where Gref called Russia a downshifter country because it had irrevocably lost global economic competition. After this speech, demands to remove German Gref from his post were heard by the State Duma. The deputies spoke passionately and for a long time. “Herman Gref about the people” was the title of the ill-fated speech in the Duma, although the topic was devoted to competition in the global economy.
There are plenty of scandalous statements in German Oskarovich’s speeches. Just the phrase that it is easier for him to buy a hundred Boeing aircraft than to give this money into the hands of Russian manufacturers is worth it. Gref is still periodically reminded of it.
German Gref talks a lot about the imminent depletion of commodity markets with a complete restructuring of the world economy as a whole. Listening to him is always interesting and useful, regardless of the listener’s point of view. You can agree with him, or you can argue with him. But the points of dispute raised by Gref are always relevant and well formulated.
Public image of German Gref: is everything okay?
The expert community, which closely follows the statements of the chief of Sberbank, notes a decrease in the positive degree in the perception of Gref’s image in comparison with his early speeches. Forbes writes about the same.
It is one thing for the deputy corps and the broad masses of the public to guard the concept of “patriot of Russia” in their own interpretation. And something completely different is the audience to whom Gref is speaking. These are entrepreneurs of a new generation who know how to think beyond today. So, a decrease in degree is observed precisely in this advanced audience:
- We don’t need programmers, we fight them;
- lawyers will also soon cease to be needed, they will be replaced by robots;
- bankers will disappear along with banks, which will turn into user platforms...
These are just some of Gref's latest futuristic statements. Where is shocking for the sake of shocking, and where is serious and reasoned forecasting?
The gap between the established image of German Gref as a visionary and what is happening in his own bank in reality is becoming more and more noticeable. There is a separation of the concept “Gref” from the concept “Sberbank”. Perhaps this disconnect from reality is explained by the fact that Gref simply got bored at his post? Time will tell in any case, it will be interesting to watch.
Sberbank business breakfasts
An invitation to one of Sberbank's breakfasts is considered a great success in business circles. Not for the now fashionable networking, but to learn about the latest trends in the business world from truly competent experts. The topics of business breakfasts with German Gref in Davos, at forums in Sochi, and in St. Petersburg at economic forums always reflect the most pressing problems and issues of the business world. The breakfast at SPIEF 2018, for example, was dedicated to the NEP - the new economic agenda in Russia against the backdrop of global economic changes. The breakfast in Davos with the participation of the robot Sophia became a sensation at the international forum.
Events supervised by German Oskarovich have long become a powerful brand. Just one lecture in Skolkovo about the results of his trip to Silicon Valley collected millions of views and comments. The statements of German Gref and everything that his team talks about from the stands of Sberbank begins to be discussed and continues to live in development.
So German Oskarovich has another important role in the business world of modern Russia: he is the main trendsetter.
Personal life in the biography of German Gref
German Oskarovich is married twice. Elena Velikanova, Gref's first wife, studied at the same school with him. It was an early marriage with the birth of a child even before Herman left for the army. The son from this marriage, Oleg, has a very prosperous career: after graduating from Moscow State University, he runs a large consulting group at the NEO Center.
In his second marriage to Yana Golovina, he had two daughters. The granddaughter from his first son and the children of German Gref study at an elite school - the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium, where Yana Gref is one of the co-founders. These are not random biographical details. The fact is that the modern school building was built exclusively at the expense of the personal funds of the Gref family. Photos of German Gref's wife Yana are often published in glossy magazines in connection with this school initiative.
Forbes magazine annually includes him among the top five highest paid TOP managers in Russia with an annual income of 11 to 15 million US dollars. In discussions of the facts of the biography of German Gref, the question of his personal capital is often raised. Although the fabulous salary is often refuted by the press service of Sberbank. One way or another, German Gref’s fortune includes a stake in the bank itself - 0.003096%, the price of which is no less than several million US dollars.
And finally about character
Numerous versions of the biography of German Gref often mention negative comments from others about his character and leadership style. One of the most popular comments is “he loves to scold his subordinates.”
This kind of comment can be written and taken on faith only by those who have never led people. Life is not easy for a manager, but for TOPs it is simply crazy. The tools for managing people are varied, and there are also many leadership styles, but all of them will work only under one condition. This is the ability of a leader to be tough and, if necessary, make the same decisions.
No effective leader likes to scold his subordinates. They just have to do it sometimes.
Assessing character is a purely subjective matter, and arguing about the negative qualities attributed to Gref is pointless. But we can say with confidence that a “proud, arrogant and hot-tempered” person will never be able to do what German Gref did in his life.
They listen to him, they follow him, they quote him, they set him up as an example. And there are countless numbers of people willing to work under his leadership. German Gref is a true leader of public opinion in the most advanced business circles in Russia. And, of course, a top-flight manager.
[Ruspres: Below is an investigation into shadow business published by the website Slon.rus with the editorial title “What are German Gref’s relatives doing?” After a short time, the information was erased by order of the owners of the publication - Natalia Sindeeva and Alexander Vinokurova . At the same time, Gref’s employees organized a large-scale cleanup of the network, achieving the complete removal of text from the Runet. Ruspres news agency is restoring the material that caused such an active reaction from Sberbank. There are some gaps in the article that the editors will fill in during the upcoming update headings ]
Studying the biographies of relatives of the president of Sberbank German Gref , you can’t help but wonder how closely the destinies of family members of German exiles from a remote Kazakh village can be intertwined with representatives of the current elite of Russia.
Jan's wife runs a joint business with ex-wife Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Kozak and a top manager of the AFK Sistema corporation, her own sister is a business partner of the richest family of Russian officials - Governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergei Darkin. The elder brother is one of the largest retailers in Omsk, actively taking loans from Sberbank. The niece organizes corporate events for Sberbank, and even the mother-in-law managed to get into a work conflict with the daughter of the Saratov governor Pavel Ipatov.
The other day, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that German Gref’s son Oleg is a co-owner of the consulting company NEO Center, accredited by Sberbank as a partner appraiser. Slon figured out what other businesses are owned by the relatives of the head of Sberbank.
Wife - Yana Golovina
[...] Born in 1972 in the city of Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory, in a family of workers of Black Sea health resorts [Ruspres: in fact, she was born on August 5, 1975, and lived in the Krasnodar Territory with her first husband Alexei Glumov. At the same time, Estonia appears in a number of personal documents as the place of birth of Golovina-Glumova].
Yana's first marriage broke up a few years later. Yana left behind him a son born in 1997. At the end of the 1990s, she moved to Moscow, where she began working as an interior designer.
In May 2004 she married German Gref. The wedding took place in St. Petersburg, from the Wedding Palace located on the English Embankment, the newlyweds went on a journey along the canals of St. Petersburg. The boat was greeted on the Malaya Nevka embankment with cannon shots, from which golden tinsel fell from the sky onto the newlyweds. The throne room of the Grand Palace of Peterhof was rented especially for the celebration, which caused irritation among State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation , who demanded to conduct an investigation and find out who allowed the rental of architectural monuments.
In May 2006, a daughter was born to German and Yana Gref in one of the Moscow maternity hospitals. In 2008, the couple had a second child, whom Yana Gref decided to give birth at home.
In 2004, Yana Golovina together with [the first] wife of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak Lyudmila and the wife of State Duma deputy Vladimir Pligin, Nina, founded Gift Studio LLP LLC (the main activity is retail trade in accessories). Probably, the business did not work out, because already in 2006 the company was liquidated.
In November 2005, Yana Golovina created her own company, CJSC Dar.ru, which engaged in “retail trade in works of art in art galleries.” The vice president for corporate property of OJSC Sitronics became a partner of German Gref’s wife in this business. Oleg Shcherbakov [Ruspres: works for Vladimir Yevtushenkov]
Brother - Evgeny Gref
Born on September 8, 1952 at the Panfilovsky state farm in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan.
In 1967 he graduated from eight-year school. From 1967 to 1971 he studied at the Omsk Motor Transport College, after which he was drafted into the army, into the armored forces. Served in Semipalatinsk.
From 1974 to 1991, he worked as a senior technician, then as a design engineer at the Omsk Machine-Building Design Bureau, while simultaneously studying and graduating from the Siberian Automobile and Highway Institute.
In the 1990s, he was elected as a people's deputy of the Omsk City Council and chairman of the council of the labor collective of the Omsk MashKB.
In 1991, he went into business and became the chief engineer of the small research and development enterprise Primer.
In 1994, he founded the Siberia Association, which engaged in the wholesale supply of household appliances. In the same year, Evgeny Gref opened the first store of the future Technosophia retail chain in the Chkalovsky public service center. By 2011, the Tekhnosofiya chain (revenue of about 140 million rubles) had 8 electronics stores in Omsk, and was one of the three largest chains in the region.
In addition, Evgeny Gref owns the Geomart hypermarket chain, which has 7 cash & carry stores in the Omsk and Kemerovo regions (revenue of about 2.5 billion rubles) and the Siberia-Ceramics chain of building materials stores, consisting of 5 wholesale and retail warehouses in Omsk and Novosibirsk (revenue about 300 million rubles).
Gref also owns the Letur shopping complex (about 3,000 sq. m) in the very center of Omsk, and the pasteurized egg production plant of Polimax-Agro CJSC. In the summer of 2008, Letur-invest LLC (50% owned by Evgeny Gref) built the Staraya Roshcha microdistrict in the center of Omsk for 300,000-400,000 sq. m. m of luxury housing and commercial real estate. The co-investor of the project is the St. Petersburg development company Setl City. The project is now frozen.
With the arrival of German Gref at Sberbank, his older brother’s companies intensified their relations with the state bank. In the summer of 2008, Evgeniy Gref’s retail companies announced a marketing campaign in which customers who paid for a purchase over 500 rubles with a Sberbank bank card could receive gift certificates worth up to 15 thousand rubles,
In the fall of 2008, at the height of the crisis, Sberbank opened a three-year credit line for Evgeny Gref by 500 million rubles. Later, German Gref explained that his brother Evgeniy “has been a bona fide client of Sberbank for 12 years and has concluded over 70 transactions with the bank. The transaction was public, the decision on it was made by the bank's supervisory board. This is a normal practice accepted throughout the civilized world. My brother and I have completely different interests. He lives his own life and does not depend on me, including financially.”
In 2010, the Geomart hypermarket chain, owned by Evgeniy Gref, acquired four stores of the bankrupt Mosmart chain in Kuzbass. The main creditor of Mosmart was Sberbank. The transaction amount was not disclosed.
In 2010, Evgeny Gref acted as the main sponsor of the election campaign of the candidate for the post of mayor of Omsk - General Director of OJSC Omskneftekhimproekt Igor Zuga, who is tipped to be a candidate for the post of governor of the Omsk region, after leaving Leonid Polezhaev .
He practices boxing, skiing, martial arts, and prefers tennis.
Married. Two children.
Daughter - Evgenia
[Ruspres: Probably we are talking about Evgeniy Valerievna Gref, born in 1987, registered in Omsk together with Evgeny Gref and Olga Alekseevna Gref]
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Omsk State University. Studied at a Western business school.
Since 2009, he has been working as a project manager at the Krasnov design company, owned by the famous designer and concert set designer Boris Krasnov. In 2010 alone, Krasnov design organized five corporate parties for Sberbank, including celebrations of the New Year, March 8, Valentine's Day on February 14, and the Sberbank of Talents concert.
Lives in Moscow.
[Ruspres: friend of Sberbank Boris Krasnov has been an acquaintance of thief in law Aslan Usoyan since the 1990s. Months ago the decorator was charged in a racket. The investigation found that in 2011, the employer of German Gref’s niece extorted property worth about 5 million rubles from the director of the Inconnect group of companies. Krasnov’s accomplices were employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Yuri Bogdanov and Sergei Shilov, lawyer of the Magma company Ivan Dunaev and deputy general director of the non-profit partnership Sports Information Agency Oleg Litoshenko. In September 2011 they were arrested. His patrons stood up for Krasnov - after their intervention, the court released the businessman on bail. Then the investigator discovered that the accused Krasnov fell ill, and the case against him was suspended]
Son - Oscar
Born July 22, 1994
He studied at Gymnasium No. 19 in Omsk.
Since 2008, he has continued his studies at the British private school Taunton School.
Sister - Elena Peredriy
Co-owner of Primorye Bank, which is controlled by the family of Primorsky Territory Governor Sergei Darkin
Graduated from Omsk Pedagogical Institute.
She married sailor Sergei Peredria and moved with him to Nakhodka.
Since the early 1990s, Sergei Peredriy worked in the fishing company Roliz, which was founded by the current governor of the Primorsky Territory Sergey Darkin . From 1992 to 2001, Peredriy made a successful career at Roliza, rising from the position of leading specialist in courts to a member of the board of directors and co-owner of the company [Ruspres: Elena Peredriy was registered as a shareholder of CJSC Roliz]
From April to June 2001 he was Sergei Darkin's confidant during the election campaign. After Darkin was elected governor of Primorye, Peredriy was appointed vice-governor in charge of housing, communal services and environmental management.
In the fall of 2006, Peredriy was forced to resign from the post of vice-governor due to the outbreak of a scandal in the housing and communal services sector of Primorye. It turned out that the state company Primteploenergo, which accumulated utility bills from the population, transferred 93 million rubles. to the accounts of Governor Darkin’s wife Larisa Belobrova, Vice-Governor Sergei Peredriy and his wife Elena Peredriy (Gref). The prosecutor's office became interested in this fact, but the results of the investigation were not reported.
[Vrez Ruspres: “People's Assembly”, 08/20/2008“The Assistant Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation […] reported: “On May 19, 2006, the Investigative Department at the Pervomaisky District Department of Internal Affairs of Vladivostok opened a criminal case under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) regarding the commission of fraudulent actions by the management of Christmas-Vostok LLC when supplying petroleum products for the needs of the housing and communal services of Primorye. This criminal case has been sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Far Eastern Federal District for further investigation.” The question is: is the case being investigated? Judging by the fact that the main suspects in the theft of fuel are either abroad or simply at large and are not being summoned for any interrogations, there is no progress in this case. But only one amount of money from Primteploenergo, illegally transferred to the accounts of the wife of the governor L. BELOBROVA, vice-governor S. PEREDRIY and his wife E. PEREDRIY (who left for residence in Germany), is estimated at 93 million rubles […] Darkin's wife (now the founder of Roliza) - with this money acquired the Nakhodka active marine fishing base through cunning schemes . After which the magazine “Finance” named the governor’s wife Belobrova the richest woman in the Far East […] The gang, through controlled suppliers, inflated the price when purchasing fuel for the region by 1.5-2 times. The fat was sent to the companies Prefect-Alliance LLC (Moscow) and Apex CJSC (Vladivostok). The founders of Apex are Roliz and Christmas. Let us remember that the founders of “Roliz” are 2 individuals: the wife of Governor S. Darkin and the wife of S. Peredria. Criminal case No. 5301521 was opened against the small fry [the head of Christmas LLC] for fuel fraud, as mentioned above. A second criminal case, No. 761021, has also been initiated against this gentleman - on the basis of tax evasion on an especially large scale by distorting accounting data. Regarding larger criminal piranhas, the matter has not progressed beyond approvals from the Pinkertons”]
According to data for the third quarter of 2011, Elena Oskarovna Peredriy owns 6.21% of the shares of Primorye Bank. The wife of the governor of the Primorsky Territory, Larisa Belobrova, owns 52.5% of the bank’s shares.
Elena Peredriy also owns the construction company Megastroy and the professional cosmetology clinic D-Aesthetic LLC.
Married. Has a son and daughter.
[Vrez Ruspres: An open letter from Mark Deitch to Sergei Darkin, “MK”, 11/21/2005“According to an inspection by the [Accounts Chamber], in 2001-2003, illegal supplies of fishery products (including crab and sea urchin) to Japan annually ranged from 83 to 117 thousand tons […] I have copies of financial documents that irrefutably prove the presence accounts for many billions of dollars. And these accounts are in the banks of Japan, Singapore and Panama. The owners of these accounts are you, Mr. Darkin […] Mr. Peredriy (vice-governor of Primorye) […] The most piquant thing is the following: Receipt of money to your Mr. Darkin, the accounts, as well as the accounts of your associates, fall precisely on 2002-2003 - these are the years that are discussed in the report of the Accounts Chamber"]
Daughter - Olga Tyshchenko
Born in the city of Nakhodka, Primorsky Territory.
She graduated from high school in St. Petersburg.
In 2004 she received higher education at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of the Russian Pedagogical University. Herzen in St. Petersburg. In 2008, she received a second higher education at the Higher School of Economics with a degree in organizational management.
In 2006, she worked in the HR department in the Russian office of the oil company BP.
Since 2008, chief specialist of the HR department of Sberbank of Russia.
Son - Oleg Gref
Born in 1982, in Omsk.
In 1999-2002 he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University.
In 2002-2003, he took a break from studying and worked at the London branch of Credit Suisse First Boston.
In 2004 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Department of Civil Law.
In 2003-2007 he worked in the London office of Deutsche Bank AG London.
From 2007 to 2009 - at Deutsche Bank in Russia. His former boss, head of Deutsche Bank in Russia and the CIS Igor Lozhevsky [compatriot of Gref Sr., native of Omsk] characterized Oleg Gref as “a young specialist in the debt obligations division. From time to time he participates in communications with Sberbank and VTB. His family relations do not give us any preferences.” It is curious that the immediate superior Oleg Gref was the son of the president of VTB Bank, Andrei Kostin Jr., who at that time served as co-head of the Russian division for debt obligations of Deutsche Bank in Russia and the CIS.
Since the spring of 2009, Oleg Gref has held the post of vice president and is a shareholder [appearing in Sberbank's operations to seize property ] consulting group "NEO Center", is responsible for strategic development, as well as promotion of the group in the Russian and international markets.
The main owner of the NEO Center, Artem Avetisyan, who since the summer of 2011 has held the position of director of the New Business direction at the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, describes the role Oleg Gref in the company: “I needed an energetic person with knowledge and experience working in Western structures. If he had a different last name, I would still invite him to my place. It’s very difficult to be a relative of famous people - you are judged by your parents, although you yourself are a person.”
Mother-in-law - Tatyana Golovina
In 2004, shortly after the eldest daughter Yana married Gref, she took over the post general director sanatorium "Golubaya Dal" in the Black Sea village of Divnomorskoye.
In Soviet times, the Golubaya Dal sanatorium was a departmental health resort of the Ministry of Atomic Industry. In the mid-2000s, the shares of the sanatorium began to be bought by the structures of the governor of the Saratov region, Pavel Ipatov. In 2007, Ipatov’s daughter Anna took over the leadership of the board of directors of Blue Distances " One of Anna Ipatova’s first decisions was the dismissal of Tatyana Golovina from the post of general director of the sanatorium. This decision coincided with Gref’s resignation from the post of Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Tatyana Golovina was not without work for a long time. Since the end of 2008, she has headed another sanatorium in Gelendzhik - “Rus”, owned by the Tyumen “daughter” of Transneft - the Sibnefteprovod company. Since 2008, the Rus sanatorium has transferred its accounts to Sberbank.
In 2011, Tatyana Golovina participated in the economic forum in Sochi.
Two daughters.
The eldest daughter Yana is married to German Gref.
The youngest daughter is Tatyana.
Born on March 20, 1991 in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory
In 2011 she graduated from the Russian International Academy of Tourism with a degree in hospitality management.
Tatyana admires her older sister’s husband, collects all his letters to employees, and even posted the Sberbank corporate anthem on her VKontakte page.
“Such large-scale changes cannot take place perfectly, but it’s good that the elephant (as Gref affectionately called Sberbank after his appointment. - Vedomosti) came to life,” says Ruben Vardanyan, the former owner of Troika Dialog, who sold the company to Sberbank, after which worked in it.
Gref for the people
Of course, the transformation of Sberbank would have been impossible without German Gref and the team he assembled, albeit not the first time, says Sergei Guriev, chief economist of the EBRD.
He is now probably one of the best financial CEOs in the world, because the return on capital that Sberbank shows is one of the highest, says Oleg Tinkov, co-owner of Tinkoff Bank.
Gref’s management style is far from all these principles of agile and turquoise corporations (complete freedom reigns, there are no clear job descriptions and strict KPIs. - Vedomosti) that he is so keen on - rather, it is a vertical structure, closed on the personality of Gref himself, there is no democracy , his subordinates are afraid to once again make any comments to him, one of the federal officials knows. At the lower levels, he undoubtedly managed to build a corporate culture, working mechanisms, he introduced a project approach - in this sense, Sberbank is far ahead of other banks, argues another official.
“Gref is very confident in his ideas, he defends them fanatically, but then he can admit that he was wrong and lose faith in them forever,” says an official who has known Gref for a long time. When he came to Sberbank, he was pestered by these lines of grandmothers, such disrespect for people, and he said from the very beginning how he would like to change this, he recalls.
“Gref once strongly scolded our team at a meeting, declaring our proposals fascist. And after a short period of time, he himself offered a job. Gref cuts from the shoulder, can say unpleasant things, and then changes his point of view, even if it may take time,” says the second official, an acquaintance of Gref.
“I feel comfortable working with Gref. We have a friendly relationship. We are probably quite similar in temperament: quite emotional, maybe even sometimes explosive,” says Kostin. If we take, for example, the situation with Mechel, he continues, then “as creditors we were definitely on the same side. It seems to me that in this situation we were able to achieve good results for both the company and the banks.”
The role of Gref’s personality is enormous; all changes began with him, Vardanyan notes: sometimes thanks to perseverance, sometimes through audacity and emotionality. Not everyone could receive such a credit of political trust, he points out, and, despite the fact that political weight plays an important role, Gref’s personal contribution to the history of changes at Sberbank is colossal.
“It was quite difficult to negotiate with him [Gref] [on the sale of Troika Dialog]; nevertheless, he is first and foremost a strategist and a visionary, and only secondarily a businessman. But if you come to an agreement, then there are no more problems,” says Vardanyan.
“In Russia, clients are divine”: this is what German Gref said
Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS
“We live in managerial chaos for very long periods of time. Then, when the problem is already upon us, we mobilize all conceivable and inconceivable resources and rush to solve the problem. In such a situation, no one counts either money or human lives - no resources. Everything is thrown into the furnace of the result, and in the end the problem is heroically solved” (interview with Forbes, 2016)
Dmitry Serebryakov / TASS
“We are all in the abstract for change. Let everything change around, let all the power change. But what if the changes affect you personally? For example, you will have to change your existing lifestyle and habits. Let’s say you’re used to getting up at 8.30 in the morning, “catch” something and go to work. And you will have to get up at 6.00 in the morning and start the morning with a 7 km cross-country race, and then go to work not by car, but by bicycle, for example. I'll see if you want these changes. Yes, you will say: leave me alone, you will agree to any changes, just not those that directly affect you" (Vedomosti, 2015)
Denis Grishkin / Vedomosti
“If you use the Russian management style from morning to evening in management, then it’s hard to demand satisfaction from employees and ask them to pass it on to clients” (interview
Denis Abramov / Vedomosti
“Even respected professors often say that my ideas about introducing regular management in public administration are not applicable in practice. I said at one meeting: don’t you think it looks funny when professors who have never worked a day in the civil service or in business sit and tell a person who spent 16 years in the civil service and eight in big business that Is this not applicable?! I worked in a municipality, worked in a large city, in a large state and was responsible for reforms in the country. And you tell me what applies and what doesn’t!” (Harvard Business Review interview, 2017)
Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti
“I worked in the government for eight years. It turns out to be an eight-year cycle - now I have already gone into an extra cycle. You know, fatigue depends on interest. There is a result - there is interest. We are an amazing place to work” (Harvard Business Review interview, 2017)
The best version of yourself
The hardest thing then was to hire talented people for the team, recalls Sberbank CFO Alexander Morozov. In 2007, the state bank was associated with bureaucracy, confirms Moody’s Vice President Olga Ulyanova, who in 2007 herself preferred an international rating agency to the state bank.
The changes began with a complete change of the management team, improvement of business processes, rebranding, Ulyanova lists. The transformation took place using the tactics of “small steps”, which allowed Sberbank to maintain its historically established unique competitive advantages. The new team, in her opinion, skillfully used an extensive network, national recognition of the brand, the image of a calm haven where one can wait out the storm, especially since the Central Bank and financial authorities were and remain ready to support the bank.
“The new team realized in time that the state bank, with its huge and relatively cheap passive base and its normal established credit process, is a goose that lays golden eggs. The main thing is not to deviate from this course into risky segments and transactions,” says Danilov.
True, of the 10 managers who came to Sberbank to work for Gref, only two remain - financial director Morozov and co-head of Sberbank CIB Alexander Bazarov.
“When selecting candidates for the highest level 10 years ago, we used a negative filter - there is a super goal and mission, if you are in doubt, we go to the next one,” recalls Ward Howell President Sergei Vorobiev. Only a third of top managers could not withstand the pace of change and the rigid corporate culture, he believes, a third left with a promotion, and the rest are evolving. And this is a good result for such a rate of change in a huge organization, he believes.
At Sberbank, Gref quickly realized that you can’t just go from point A to point B, the latter always eludes, continues Vorobiev. Gref and his employees have to live in a constantly changing world, he explains, and if, surprising the market, they manage to change technologically quickly, then the corporate culture does not always keep up with the changes. But this is logical: it is more difficult to change people’s behavior and habits.
“Gref correctly creates for employees a feeling of burning earth under their feet, a sense of urgency of changes, to which the team must respond more quickly every year,” states Vorobiev. “It’s especially hard for those who are closer to him, the top management: they live at the highest speeds, at the mouth of a volcano.”
In the strategy until 2020, Sberbank will write that it will strive to move from bureaucracy and hierarchy to team play, promised the deputy chairman of the board of the state bank, Yulia Chupina, in November at the Winning The Hearts management forum. Feedback from employees showed that the corporate culture lacks humanity, respect, openness and cooperation, Chupina noted, and Sberbank is ready to help them become the best version of themselves.
“There is a feeling that Sberbank is becoming the reincarnation of Uralsib from the time of Nikolai Tsvetkov,” says one of the former top managers of Sberbank. – This is quite a strong intrusion into the lives of employees. And of course, not everyone likes it, but it’s almost impossible to convince Gref.”
The leader’s task is to set the direction and manage to maneuver between threats and opportunities, reliability and changes, which in itself is a big test that forces a change in style, Vorobiev points out: “The ability to play well with the team, achieving greater efficiency and speed, constantly raising the bar, but also supporting you at every next step requires both effort and patience from all participants.”
Monopoly and risks
Gref’s team inherited the rich monopolistic heritage of Sberbank, but its market share has been growing all these years in all areas: lending, deposits, investment business. With the arrival of new managers, Sberbank increasingly influenced deposit rates, says one of the former employees of the state bank, and made good money from it: “Just calculate how much you can earn if, having a deposit base of 20 trillion rubles, you reduce the rate by only 1 percentage point."
Ulyanova considers the main factor in Sberbank’s successful history to be a balanced approach to risk taking: “Among all state-owned banks, Sberbank has the most balanced and diversified loan portfolio.” Sberbank's twenty largest borrowers in total make up about 1.5 of its Tier 1 capital, while other large state-owned banks - VTB, Gazprombank and Rosselkhozbank - have the same or a greater proportion of capital made up by their 10 largest borrowers. Diversification of credit risks allowed Sberbank to incur fewer credit losses during the crisis, Ulyanova is sure, to remain profitable and accumulate capital, which lays the foundation for technological transformations.
“It’s nice to talk about Sberbank; it’s a rare success story of this magnitude,” admits Ulyanova. Sberbank is a rare case: a large financial institution does not ask for money to replenish capital. In particular, unlike VTB and Rosselkhozbank, it did not participate in the additional capitalization program through OFZ.
The bank does a lot of project lending and, although loans issued for political reasons cannot be ruled out, they are insignificant from the point of view of the bank’s business, Ulyanova concludes.
The main challenge for a state-owned company is the ability to resist political temptations, for example, not to comply with proposals to issue loans to companies with political connections, Guriev is convinced: “As a member of the board of directors in 2008–2014, I can say that in the vast majority of cases Sberbank succeeded cope with".
“Success is determined, first of all, by the team, by the professionals who work in the bank, by the technologies that the bank uses,” says Kostin. – I would say this: relations with the shareholder, relations with the authorities, of course, are important, but they are not the determining and key factor of success. Because you can have great political resources and poor performance results.”
Europe, space, friendship and other failures
Expansion into Europe and Turkey began in 2012 - but ran into sanctions and negative rates from the European Central Bank and began to resemble traveling with a suitcase without a handle. Sberbank Europe AG (formerly Volksbank International) was bought by Sberbank for 505 million euros; it is represented in 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Sberbank paid 2.8 billion euros for Turkish DenizBank. In Europe, geopolitical tensions and the specifics of the market with low rates and profitability played a role, and in Turkey, where DenizBank has good performance, the environment is very difficult and competitive, Danilov points out.
Sberbank - primarily due to its scale - does not always show flexibility, Zadornov points out: the reform of the organizational structure there has not been completed, the tasks set in Sberbank's headcount reduction strategies are not regularly fulfilled. Only in 2017 did Sber carry out a noticeable optimization of its staff.
While Sberbank has been able to standardize its work with small businesses and the public, so far it has not done so well with the titans of Russian business. One of the largest borrowers - according to bankers, this is $5-7 billion in debt - are businesses owned by the family of Mikhail Gutseriev. This is an unprecedented amount of risk that Sberbank has taken on one group of clients. Among the twenty largest borrowers of Sberbank, Fitch notes two related to the oil and gas sector and real estate, which owe 500 billion rubles, which is a similar $7 billion. Danilov refused to talk about these borrowers. Several bankers explained this situation by the good relations between Gutseriev and Gref.
Gref did not stand on ceremony with another large borrower, the main owner of the Eurocement Group, Filaret Galchev. He was not present at the Sberbank credit committee, where the restructuring of the company’s debts was discussed. Galchev was preparing to go into space and studied at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Gref, Vedomosti wrote in 2015, contacted the leadership of Roscosmos and asked to leave Galchev on Earth - “he has a lot of problems here.” Representatives of the businessman do not comment on the situation, but point out that Galchev did not fly by decision of the management of Roscosmos: test cosmonaut from Kazakhstan Aidyn Aimbetov went to the ISS instead of Sarah Brighton.
To Sberbank’s credit, it must be said that it never delays in admitting losses, Danilov points out, citing as an example the restructuring of Mechel’s debts by more than 80 billion rubles. Sberbank was the only creditor who created a 100% reserve for them and threatened Mechel with bankruptcy. VTB and Gazprombank took a softer position towards the company and its owner Igor Zyuzin, while Gref repeatedly said that things were heading towards bankruptcy.
System support
Ten years ago, no one could imagine how far Sberbank could go, says Guriev: it has become a leading Russian company not only in capitalization, but also in the quality of service and focus on innovation at an international level. But Guriev considers his main achievement to be the proof of the “existence theorem” of meritocracy: “The team managed to show that in Russia – as in other countries – it is possible to build a successful service business based on human capital and innovation. This is critically important for the Russian economy.”
Sberbank, even in the worst years, was the main profit generator of the banking system, but if before its share was 40–50%, then after the crisis it was 60–70%, Ulyanova points out. The crisis contributed to the deepening of the gap between strong and weak players, which Sberbank was able to effectively take advantage of: it relied on an even greater attraction of retail deposits and by the end of 2015 - much earlier than other banks and the system as a whole - it replaced expensive Central Bank money with deposits .
Before the last crisis, the banking sector provided a seventh of the profits in the Russian economy, now it is about a tenth, so the role of Sberbank is very large, Zadornov admits. Sberbank, in addition, sets trends in the technology market, which is important both for competitors and for companies from other sectors of the market, he is sure. The former owner of B&N Bank, Mikail Shishkhanov, admitted to Vedomosti that he simply looked at Sberbank and repeated after him.
Foundations instead of oligarchs
“It is known how we had some additional issues [people’s IPOs] - they were bought by oligarchs on instructions,” said banking business guru and owner of Vozrozhdenie Bank Dmitry Orlov in 2010, clearly referring to Sberbank. Among the shareholders then was the owner of Nafta-Moscow Suleiman Kerimov, Galchev, the founder of Inteko and the wife of the then mayor of Moscow Elena Baturina. The previous team of managers actively lent to businessmen when they bought Sberbank shares, fortunately they could be pledged to the bank. Gref stopped this practice. Later, Western funds became interested in investing in the bank - in 2017, non-residents owned 45.4% of the shares of the state bank. Only the Central Bank has a large share.
Western investors are buying and holding its shares despite sanctions. Such shareholders make decisions based on profits and dividend payments, and these indicators at Sberbank are very strong and are based on fundamental, not opportunistic factors, Ulyanova notes.
The question of what will happen to the bank when Gref is not there is discussed by Tinkov: “In a sense, investors are hostages of this success - if he leaves, the bank’s capitalization will decrease. But Apple went through this with Steven Jobs, and Google.”
Even after Gref leaves, the bank will continue to move by inertia - this aircraft carrier is equally difficult to transform and to sink, Vardanyan is sure.
Tinkov believes that Gref’s personal managerial resource prevails over politics: “We compete with them [Sberbank], and their decisions are subordinated to commerce, not politics.”
Margarita Papchenkova and Elena Mukhametshina participated in the preparation of the article