Lugovskoy Nikolay Petrovich. Lugovskoy, Nikolai Petrovich Participation in the Second World War

Former Russian oligarch, and today just a resident of the Saratov region, Nikolai Lugovskoy spoke about his communication with Boris Yeltsin, about how he wanted to buy a seat in the State Duma and how much the first Russian president could drink

Former Russian oligarch, and today just a resident of the Saratov region Nikolay Lugovskoy spoke about his interactions with Boris Yeltsin, about how he wanted to buy a seat in the State Duma and how much the first Russian president could drink. The interview was published today on The Insider website.

It should be noted that a person with a similar appearance and data today heads the Zolotaya Trout recreation center in the Novoburassky district.

In particular, Nikolai Lugovskoy said that he knew her husband well Tatyana Dyachenko- the daughter of Boris Yeltsin, who often visited the Kremlin with his comrades and even told one funny “alcohol case”.

"We are Vitya Khrolenko came to him (Yeltsin, - ed.) to the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked for the book (Lugovskoy helped him publish the book), poured us two hundred grams into a glass of wine for himself. He drank himself, and Vitya and I only sipped. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured himself our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o'clock in the morning. Then he wrote an autograph on the book with a drunken hand and tore the page with a fountain pen,” he said.

In the 90s, a criminal case was initiated against him for smuggling and re-export of petroleum products, the businessman was forced to go abroad, where he lived for 10 years. Returning home, Lugovskoy decided to become a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

“In 2003, I was brought together with one St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded up to Gryzlov"United Russia". I brought him a large box of cigars, cognac, drank a glass each, and he said: “It costs $3 million to enter the Duma. But the Communists have it cheaper. You will go through the communists, and then I will give you any committee you want.

Further, the businessman tells how in the Communist Party they "cheated" 2 million dollars from him. “They put me as the third passing number in the Saratov region. The first was the first secretary Rashkin, the second - Aparina, and I went third ... ”, - said the ex-oligarch.

He allegedly paid this money, but he never became the State Department due to the dissatisfaction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with the fact that he worked in trading house"Kremlin". When asked by a correspondent whether the money was returned to him, the Saratovite answered that he was told that everything had gone to the elections. “And there were thirty-two people like me then. They were all thrown…,” he said.

In 2008, Nikolai Lugovskoy “dropped everything” and came to the Saratov region. In the same year, due to the crisis of mortgage lending in the United States, he became bankrupt, because he kept funds in American bonds.

“I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. The locals called me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm to have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched the fish, I arrange fishing competitions. Immediately, hints from prosecutors and bandits began, like you need to pay, ”he added.

However, his adventures did not end there. In the region, a certain prosecutor asked him to "congratulate" on the day of the prosecutor's office, probably, we are talking about extorting a bribe, but the ex-oligarch laid siege to him.

Sergei Kanev

The once influential businessman Nikolai Lugovskoy, who from 1993 to 2000 was part of the so-called inner circle Yeltsin never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remnants of his business were put up for auction and he was on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview, you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party, and how much for United Russia, what links Sberbank and a gang that kidnaps businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

inner circle

I courted Nikolai Lugovsky for four long years, but he still did not agree to an interview. And then he called and asked to come to Saratov. To be honest, I did not recognize the once successful and cheerful businessman: he lost weight, walks with a stick, anxiety appeared in his eyes.

It doesn't matter to me now - Nikolai is dragging his left leg. - I will tell everything about my life, and you write it down. I was killed and robbed so many times, but I did not give up ...

- How did you get into Yeltsin's inner circle?

Under the Soviet Union, I was the head of the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz support base. I built workshops, roads, viaducts, and I was awarded the medal "For the development of Siberia." Once, you can imagine, I almost froze on the march. Later, on the basis of business, I met Viktor Khrolenko, and we supplied vodka to Russia with him. He was a breeder in these cases, with Tanya Yeltsina and with her husband Yumashev he was a good friend and constantly communicated with Korzhakov. Through them, Khrolenko was close to Yeltsin, so I entered the very top social circle. I myself knew Tanya's second husband well - Leonida Dyachenko- and he visited me more than once in Switzerland.

I often went on cruises in the Mediterranean, where our entire beau monde gathered together with the bosses. Leshchenko, Vinokur, Zhvanetsky, Dolina performed there, and the late Vladislav Listyev.

What kind of officials were they?

I knew the characteristics of everyone, that of big bosses, that of bandits, but I shunned them. My job was business.

- And about the daughter Tatyana?

What can I tell you about Tanya? The fact that she was given a Zhiguli and she took gifts? Her Berezovsky gave a Zhiguli, and she was happy. It was before my eyes. He then drove hundreds of them abroad. Then everything was different. Although Yeltsin himself did not box, he was such a drunken shirt.

- How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin's entourage?

To the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets the first time Berezovsky was brought in by Vitya Khrolenko, and then Roman Abramovich and this whole company.

- Did you sponsor Yeltsin's book "Notes of the President"?

Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the print run in Finland, and we would print the other half in America. They took $100,000 of personal money from me.

- Did Yeltsin thank you?

Of course. Vitya Khrolenko and I came to see him in the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked for the book, poured us a glass of wine for himself, two hundred grams. He drank himself, and Vitya and I only sipped. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured himself our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o'clock in the morning. Then he wrote an autograph on the book with a drunken hand and tore the page with a fountain pen.

Viktor Khrolenko was born in Abakan in 1953, in 1971 he entered the Moscow Higher Border School of the KGB of the USSR, but then transferred to Moscow State University. In the late 1980s, he began publishing and distributing books by Soviet writers Yuri Trifonov and Vladimir Soloukhin abroad, as well as albums by the artist Ilya Glazunov. He sponsored the recording of Boris Grebenshchikov's first English-language album Radio Silence, and at one time was the owner of the Manhattan Express nightclub in the Rossiya Hotel. In 1988, he took part in the organization of a joint project of the Ogonyok and Life magazines and teleconferences between the USSR and the USA (the Posner-Donahue project). In the late 80s, he met Boris Yeltsin, and after the collapse of the USSR, he founded a company in the USA Belka Trading engaged in the sale of cigarettes, vodka, oil and non-ferrous metals.

In 1998, the FBI became interested in the activities of Belka Trading and East Coast Petroleum, and a big scandal erupted. Khrolenko and former son-in-law of the president Leonid Dyachenko got into the pages of the largest American newspapers, and they had to testify before the Grand Jury in the USA.

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK "(extraction of iron ore in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

From left to right: Naina Yeltsina, Valery Okulov, Leonid Dyachenko, Katya Okulova, Elena Okulova, Boris Yeltsin, Boris Yeltsin Jr., Maria Okulova, Tatyana Dyachenko

The business interests of Leonid Dyachenko were previously focused on oil production in the Komi Republic: he was a member of the management of Dinyu LLC, Komineftegeofizika OJSC, NK Dulisma CJSC and Petrosakh JSC, and in 2001, Land Cruiser, and to the arriving operatives he introduced himself as the vice-president of Ukhtaneft.

The Insider failed to contact Dyachenko and Khrolenko.

Abroad

- Tell us how a criminal case was brought against you.

Then the oilmen gave oil to the city executive committees, but they did not know what to do with it. I collected a million tons of oil for export, Soskovets signed the papers, and then returned the difference. And there was half a billion dollars of net earnings. Soskovets received $400,000 for this, I sent him money from the States.

Then I drove diesel fuel from Ryazan supposedly to Kaliningrad. But after Smolensk, they turned trains to Lithuania, to seaports, and then they were caught right in Australia. In short, these trains went all over the world. And some of the trains were caught, as I said, in Smolensk, allegedly the documents were incorrectly drawn up. They drew an article for me about an attempted smuggling, the case was handled by investigator Markov.

Vidmanov said, at first, that he would return, and then he said that everything had gone to the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

The mentioned Viktor Vidmanov was called in the media a “red oligarch” and a purse of the Communist Party. For a long time he headed the Rosagropromstroy corporation, and his son Oleg was related to ASB-bank and its "daughter" in Cyprus.

In 2003 the prosecutor's office filed a criminal case on the fact of misuse of budgetary funds by the Rosagropromstroy corporation. The case was dismissed, but the corporation itself came under external management, and ASB-Bank was declared bankrupt.

According to our source in the Communist Party, now Mr. Vidmanov often appears in the State Duma and communicates with the top of the party.

The Insider sent three official requests to Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, asking him to comment on copies of payments to the Cyprus branch of ASB Bank. However, at the time of publication of the material, the answer did not come.

“Hints of prosecutors and bandits began - you need to pay”

After these unsuccessful elections, I went to LUKOIL, hustled there, transported gasoline for An-2 to Turkmenistan. In our country, this gasoline was recognized as poisonous and production was closed in Kazan. I drove it all the way through Scandinavia, the Turkmens first bought gasoline, and then banned it. I dropped everything and came here to the Saratov region and started everything from scratch. And in 2008, I got another blow: I kept my money in American bonds, and a mortgage lending crisis began there. And all at once disappeared ...

- How were you met in Saratov?

I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. The locals called me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm to have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched the fish, I arrange fishing competitions. Hints of prosecutors and bandits immediately began, such as you need to pay. One prosecutor calls into the office and says<фамилия известна The Insider>: "Why don't you congratulate me on the day of the prosecutor's office?". I told him: "Congratulations." He: "That's not the way to congratulate." I told him: “I worked together with your parents, asshole, and you extort money.”

- When did the trouble start?

As I remember now: on April 29, 2010 at 10 pm the dam broke and a huge mass of water went along the river bed, sweeping away fences, gardens and flooding houses. In the morning I went around all the pensioners and veterans: I installed a new fence for some, repaired blockages for some, and paid the cost of seeds to others. You know, it was a tragedy for me, as the old people cried then.

I immediately began to look for a construction contractor - the owner of Prof-Service LLC Alexei Zuev, to whom I paid a total of 8 million rubles. I sued him and he sued me. In short, courts, criminal cases began, and it seems that there is a corruption conspiracy against me. Skinned like sticky, and justice is nowhere to be found. Almost all property described and put up for auction. I already wrote to Putin and Medvedev, but all the papers are being returned back to Saratov (Lugovsky's appeal to the prosecutor's office can be read). Smart people immediately told me: it was necessary to immediately pay whoever needed it - and the problems would have passed.

- And if Yeltsin was alive?

Of course, I would turn to him for help, and it is unlikely that he refused. And I was disappointed in Putin. He let everything take its course and did not delve into economic issues.

N. P. Lutovskoy was born in 1911 in the village of Reuchye, Tolochin district, Vitebsk region, in the family of a poor peasant. Belarusian, member of the CPSU. In 1932, he graduated from an electrical engineering school in Moscow and worked as an electrician, a rationing worker at one of the aircraft factories. From August 1934 to November 1939, that is, before being drafted into the Red Army, Nikolai Petrovich Lugovskoy lives and works in Alma-Ata. Member of the Great Patriotic War from June 22, 1941.

For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command during the crossing of the Western Dvina, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 22, 1944, Captain Nikolai Petrovich Lugovskoy was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

N. P. Lugovskoy passed a glorious military path: he grew from a private to a captain's guard. In a letter to his wife in Alma-Ata on January 5, 1944, N.P. Lugovskoy wrote: “I am in my homeland. This means that soon I will have to fight for the area in which I was born and spent my childhood. I hope that I will meet my relatives, if any of them are still alive.”

The offensive of the Soviet troops in Belarus, which unfolded on a huge 500-kilometer front, was one of the most grandiose operations of the Soviet Army in terms of the number of forces participating in it. On June 23, 1944, from the area northwest and southwest of Vitebsk, the troops of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian fronts went on the offensive. The 334th Rifle Division, in which N.P. Lugovskoy served, was part of the 43rd Army of General A.P. Beloborodov. The command of the division organized assault battalions by the beginning of the offensive. Captain N.P. Lugovskoy was appointed commander of the 1st assault rifle battalion.

On June 23, artillery preparation began at four o'clock in the morning, and an hour later, as soon as the command was given to launch an attack, Captain Lugovskoy was the first to rush at the enemy, dragging the fighters with him. The Nazis could not withstand the strong onslaught of our fighters and retreated, leaving the settlements of Gura and Ermaki. Then, having collected the remnants of the defeated units, they launched a counterattack on the flank of the attackers. The fall was critical. In these difficult moments, the military qualities of officer N. Lugovsky were especially manifested. Using the tanks attached to him, he quickly put on the armor the reserve he had - submachine gunners, machine gunners and armor-piercers - and organized their breakthrough behind enemy lines.

On one of the tanks was Lugovskoy himself, who led the battle. The paratroopers fought off nine strong counterattacks. Having organized a battle in the depths of the enemy’s defense, on the next day of the offensive, Lugovskoy with his attack aircraft knocked out the enemy and occupied the villages of Kruchino and Zasilniki. Heavy fighting broke out on June 25, 1944. In a short period of time, with the support of aviation, artillery and tanks, the battalion of the guards of Captain Lugovskoy crossed the Western Dvina and repulsed several counterattacks of the Nazis in fierce battles. Having broken a gap in the enemy's defense for several kilometers and having ensured the connection of his battalion with the advanced units of the 3rd Belorussian Front, he occupied the settlements of Budilovo and Gnezdovichi. In these battles, the guard unit of Captain Lugovsky destroyed 12 enemy tanks, 17 guns, 40 vehicles, several dozen Nazi soldiers and officers. But Lugovsky failed to reach his native places and liberate them. In the last battle, an enemy bullet cut short the life of the faithful son of the Soviet people N. P. Lugovsky.

Confessions of Yeltsin's friend Lugovsky, a millionaire downshifter

The once influential businessman Nikolai Lugovskoy, who from 1993 to 2000 was part of Yeltsin's so-called inner circle, never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remnants of his business were put up for auction and he was on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview, you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party, and how much for United Russia, what links Sberbank and a gang that kidnaps businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

inner circle

“I don’t care now,” Nikolai drags his left leg. I will tell everything about my life, and you write it down. I was killed and robbed so many times, but I did not give up ...

Nikolai Lugovskoy in Saratov

How did you get into Yeltsin's inner circle?

- Under the Soviet Union, I was the head of the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz support base. I built workshops, roads, viaducts, and I was awarded the medal "For the development of Siberia." Once, you can imagine, I almost froze on the march. Later, on the basis of business, I met Viktor Khrolenko, and we supplied vodka to Russia with him. He was a divorcee in these cases, he was good friends with Tanya Yeltsina and her husband Yumashev and constantly communicated with Korzhakov. Through them, Khrolenko was close to Yeltsin, so I entered the very top social circle. I myself knew Tanya's second husband, Leonid Dyachenko, well, and he visited me more than once in Switzerland.

Leonid Dyachenko

What kind of officials were they?

- I knew the characteristics of everyone, that of big bosses, that of bandits, but I shunned them. My job was business.

- And about the daughter Tatyana?

What can I tell you about Tanya? The fact that she was given a Zhiguli and she took gifts? Berezovsky gave her a Zhiguli, and she was happy. It was before my eyes. He then drove hundreds of them abroad. Then everything was different. Although Yeltsin himself did not box, he was such a drunken shirt.

- How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin's entourage?

- Vitya Khrolenko brought Berezovsky to the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets for the first time, and then Roman Abramovich and the whole company appeared.

- Did you sponsor Yeltsin's book "Notes of the President"?

- Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the print run in Finland, and the other half we would print in America. They took $100,000 of personal money from me.

Did Yeltsin thank you?

- Of course. Vitya Khrolenko and I came to see him in the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked for the book, poured us a glass of wine for himself, two hundred grams. He drank himself, and Vitya and I only sipped. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured himself our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o'clock in the morning. Then he wrote an autograph on the book with a drunken hand and tore the page with a fountain pen.

Viktor Khrolenko was born in Abakan in 1953, in 1971 he entered the Moscow Higher Border School of the KGB of the USSR, but then transferred to Moscow State University. In the late 1980s, he began publishing and distributing books by Soviet writers Yuri Trifonov and Vladimir Soloukhin abroad, as well as albums by the artist Ilya Glazunov. He sponsored the recording of Boris Grebenshchikov's first English-language album Radio Silence, and at one time was the owner of the Manhattan Express nightclub in the Rossiya Hotel. In 1988, he took part in the organization of a joint project of the Ogonyok and Life magazines and teleconferences between the USSR and the USA (the Posner-Donahue project). In the late 80s, he met Boris Yeltsin, and after the collapse of the USSR, he founded Belka Trading in the United States, which sold cigarettes, vodka, oil and non-ferrous metals.

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK "(extraction of iron ore in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

The editors failed to contact Dyachenko and Khrolenko.

Abroad

- Tell us how you got a criminal case.

- Then the oilmen gave the city executive committees oil, but they did not know what to do with it. I collected a million tons of oil for export, Soskovets signed the papers, and then returned the difference. And there was half a billion dollars of net earnings. Soskovets received $400,000 for this, I sent him money from the States.

Korzhakov and Khrolenko called: “For now, go to America and sit there, and we will destroy everything here.” And two months turned into more than ten years.

Viktor Khrolenko

At the beginning of 1994, I left for America, and Khrolenko lived there, he has a family, his wife is an American, Sinti. Then he moved to Europe and lived either in Switzerland or in France. I built a villa in Frejus, not far from Cannes, and in Geneva I bought a house and began to live on the sly. Thank God that he was not in prison, and that he was not empty, like a drum, and did not sweep the streets.

Villa Lugovskoy in Cannes

— With whom did you make friends in a foreign land?

“I was on my guard all the time and tried not to shine. I was on good terms with the rector of the Cannes Orthodox Cathedral, Bishop Barnabas. I remember how he called Yeltsin drunken bear and did not let Luzhkov into the cathedral. It was with me. There were some calls from Russia, with a proposal to meet, but I understood that the cops or bandits wanted to spud me.

What about local authorities?

- They tried to recruit me, they called me, and let's ask about the Russian mafia. But I avoided direct answers. In short, I was very homesick. And here, for my fiftieth birthday, close friends came to Switzerland. They walked for three days, danced and sang until they were hoarse. Leva Leshchenko and says: "Kolyun, let me introduce you to the lawyer Heinrich Padva." Padva came to me and lived with me for a week. Then he took me by the hand and brought me to Russia. The criminal case was closed for lack of corpus delicti. True, the prosecutors never returned the $800,000 seized from the safe deposit box. Looks like one of them got rich...

Lev Leshchenko and Vladimir Vinokur visiting Nikolai Lugovskiy (center)

According to the materials of the criminal case No. 403, “Lugovskoy, with the help of employees of TO JV Sibneft subordinate to him and a number of citizens of Lithuania and Latvia, organized and committed large-scale illegal re-export of oil products from Lithuania, and then attempted smuggling from the Russian Federation to Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan , the Baltic countries, Western Europe and the USA. For these purposes, he fabricated fictitious contracts for the supply of petroleum products with firms that never existed ... ".

As for the First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets mentioned in the interview, allegedly signing documents, on June 20, 1996, Boris Yeltsin removed his post and now he heads the Russian Union of Commodity Producers. The editors failed to contact Soskovets, and the former head of Yeltsin's bodyguard, Alexander Korzhakov, did not hide in a telephone conversation that he remembered Lugovskiy, but said: “He is lying, I did not ask anyone to hide abroad. They all got rich except for me.” (Audio recording is available in the editorial office).

They hit me in the teeth with a flashlight

Tell me about your kidnapping.

- One plenipotentiary told me: “Kolya, where and why did you return? Then there were bandits, and now lawless people in uniform. It's worse now than it was in the 1990s." In short, he completely lost his vigilance in the West. I am sitting in my house in Myakinino, and the gardener is digging in the garden. I hear the door slam, I turn around: there are two bulls, a hundred and fifty kilograms each. How they hit me, and I lost consciousness. I woke up in some kind of bunker, and nearby the gardener was moaning. In short, there is the Krutyshki airport in Stupino, where they kept us in a bunker. We heard boxes being carried upstairs and planes taking off. And we were constantly hit in the teeth with a flashlight for talking and beaten terribly. A young soldier brought us stew and canned food. One of them was the eldest there, I called him the captain, he laughed disgustingly all the time, so, hehehehe. During telephone conversations with relatives, I heard the voice of some Chechen and a woman. They controlled my conversations with my wife and put a microphone in the hole in the bunker. While they were holding me hostage, they also robbed my apartment.

And what ransom was demanded?

- In short, they were held hostage from August 12 to 28, 2003. They blew $3 million from me. I sent a ransom to Rietumu Bank in Latvia, and then it went offshore. Look at these bills:

Lugovskiy's payment order to the Latvian bank "Rietumu"

- How did you let go?

- On August 28, one of them comes in and says: "The elders decided not to kill you and let you go." And they immediately put a sleeping pill in my leg. Then they put me in a car with a gardener and threw me out at a gas station in Kashira. The gardener immediately ran away and I never saw him again. I feel like I'm about to pass out, I run up to the driver, you know, I haven't washed or shaved for eighteen days. But the guy took pity on me and drove me to Moscow. I passed out and slept all the way, and in Moscow my mother-in-law picked me up.

- Where did they go then?

- I complained to Putin, sent a paper. The cops called me, asked me, then they kicked me and everything died out.

- you were familiar with Maxim Kan nicknamed Max-Korean?

This Korean from France to Switzerland drove my car.

The mentioned Maxim Kan previously worked as the Deputy Mayor of Khabarovsk. Then he moved to Moscow and got a job as a financial expert in the apparatus of the State Duma. At one time, he presented himself as an assistant to the State Duma deputies from United Russia Margarita Barzhanova and Andrey Skoch and, according to some reports, actively participated in the sale of deputy mandates and positions in government structures.

Along the way, Kan was a gunner in the notorious gang of kidnappers, the leader of which was a former paratrooper and FSB informant Denis Shilin, nicknamed Shilo (aka Shimin, Zhilin, Marchenko, Popov). According to operational data, the Shilo gang kidnapped about 20 businessmen in Russia and Ukraine, and three hostages were never released after paying the ransom.

In 2006, Koreyets was exchanged for student Maxim Parshin, who was held hostage (the ransom price was $7.2 million), and allowed to leave for Turkey. Then he moved to Paraguay and there he completed a false certificate of his death. In 2012, at the request of Interpol, the criminal was arrested in France and extradited to Russia three years later. In 2016, Kan made a deal with the investigation and, according to the verdict of the Solnechnogorsk court, received only 4 years. Shilo, who was arrested in 2013 with another hostage, made a similar deal with the investigation and was sentenced to 9.5 years. Thus, the investigation did not begin to find out the identity of those who ordered the abductions, and they still roam free.

Aleksey Ikonnikov, mentioned in the payment, previously worked in the Russian Foreign Ministry, and then moved to permanent residence in Switzerland, where he was engaged in financial intermediation and investment management, including for Russian citizens. Now Ikonnikov heads the management company Sberbank Asset Management (until 2012 - Troika Dialog).

Another is Ikonnikov's partner, Pierre-Noël Formigé, a Swiss citizen who has been engaged in financial intermediation for more than 20 years.

As for the offshore Blentix Investments Limited, where, judging by the payments, $3 million was transferred for the release of Lugovskiy, it was registered in July 2003 in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by the infamous largest registrar of offshore companies Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). As you know, CTL often appears in high-profile criminal money laundering scandals, including being mentioned in the Sergei Magnitsky case, when $230 million was stolen from the Russian budget.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the beneficiary of Blentix Investments Limited is a certain Ksenia Semionova from the law firm Cliff Legal Services, located at 36 Kutuzovsky Prospekt, building 3. In addition to Blentix, this person is directly related to 1136 offshore companies registered on BVI.

The Insider sent a request to the head of Cliff, Kirill Stupachenko: a week later, Vitaly Kutin, head of the firm's PR projects, said in a telephone conversation that Ksenia Semionova had never worked for them.

"Communists blew me two million"

- And how did you want to become a deputy of the State Duma?

“It was right after my kidnapping. When I returned from Switzerland, I wanted to benefit the country. I studied local laws and economics abroad and knew how to apply them here. In 2003, I was brought together with one St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded United Russia before Gryzlov. I brought him a large box of cigars, cognac, drank a glass each, and he said: “It costs $3 million to enter the Duma. But the Communists have it cheaper. You will go through the communists, and then I will give you whatever committee you want. They set me up with Zyuganov, and he blew $ 2 million from me. They put me in the third passing number in the Saratov region. The first was the first secretary Rashkin, the second was Aparina, and I was the third ...

Did they bring cash to the Communists?

- I transferred it to Cyprus, they had a bank and a furniture factory there, and I still have the payments. Zyuganov's friend Viktor Vidmanov and I also flew to organize a meeting of communists in Abakan and Altai. On the plane, they gave in well, in addition to those two million, I gave another $ 500 thousand and $ 100 thousand.

Payment for a deputy mandate. full size image

And then Aparina found out that at that time I worked in the Kremlin trading house, also traded in oil, and raised a screech: “Why are you slipping the Kremlin Cossacks to us, Zyuganov?” Of course, she didn't know that I was scammed for two million. In addition, the newspapers went negative about me, there is a TV show Karaulova that the Communist Party takes a person with citizenship of Belize. Volodin himself [today the speaker of the State Duma] wrote about me in a newspaper: “Lugovskoy picked up communist ideas while in the Caribbean.” He teased me so...

How did you get Belizean citizenship?

- I paid $100,000 for Belizean citizenship, $75,000 for my wife, and $50,000 for children. Well, listen further. In his program, instead of my photo, Karaulov gave a picture of another person. Lawyer Padva and Karaulov are great friends, he calls him: “Andryusha, why are you cutting garbage on your TV?” And that type, well, let him come to my dacha, and I will fix everything.

Then Vidmanov calls me and says: "Urgently leave the Kremlin trading house" - and I moved to LUKOIL. But it was already too late, and they told me that I had incorrectly submitted documents to the CEC and were removed from the elections.

Candidate Lugovoy's certificate

- Did you get your money back?

- Vidmanov said, at first, that he would return, and then he said that everything had gone to the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

In 2003, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on the fact of misuse of budgetary funds by the Rosagropromstroy corporation. The case was dismissed, but the corporation itself came under external management, and ASB-Bank was declared bankrupt.

According to our source in the Communist Party, now Mr. Vidmanov often appears in the State Duma and communicates with the top of the party.

"Hints of prosecutors and bandits began - you need to pay"

- After these unsuccessful elections, I went to LUKOIL, worked hard there, transported gasoline for An-2 to Turkmenistan. In our country, this gasoline was recognized as poisonous and production was closed in Kazan. I drove it all the way through Scandinavia, the Turkmens first bought gasoline, and then banned it. I dropped everything and came here to the Saratov region and started everything from scratch. And in 2008, I got another blow: I kept my money in American bonds, and a mortgage lending crisis began there. And all at once disappeared ...

— How were you met in Saratov?

- I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. The locals called me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm to have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched the fish, I arrange fishing competitions. Hints of prosecutors and bandits immediately began, such as you need to pay. One prosecutor calls into the office and says<фамилия известна The Insider>: "Why don't you congratulate me on the day of the prosecutor's office?". I told him: "Congratulations." He: "That's not the way to congratulate." I told him: “I worked together with your parents, asshole, and you extort money.”

Nikolai Lugovsky with his son Ivan

- When did the trouble start?

- As I remember now: on April 29, 2010, at 10 pm, the dam broke and a huge mass of water went along the riverbed, sweeping away fences, gardens and flooding houses. In the morning I went around all the pensioners and veterans: I installed a new fence for some, repaired blockages for some, and paid the cost of seeds to others. You know, it was a tragedy for me, as the old people cried then.

- And if Yeltsin was alive?

- Of course, I would turn to him for help, and it is unlikely that he refused. And I was disappointed in Putin. He let everything take its course and did not delve into economic issues.

Once Influential businessman Nikolai Lugovskoy, who from 1993 to 2000 was part of Yeltsin's so-called inner circle, never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remnants of his business were put up for auction and he was on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview, you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party, and how much for United Russia, what links Sberbank and a gang that kidnaps businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

inner circle

It doesn't matter to me now - Nikolai is dragging his left leg. - I will tell everything about my life, and you write it down. I was killed and robbed so many times, but I did not give up ...

Nikolay Lugovskoy does not look like a once influential oligarch today

- How did you get into Yeltsin's inner circle?

Under the Soviet Union, I was the head of the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz support base. I built workshops, roads, viaducts, and I was awarded the medal "For the development of Siberia." Once, you can imagine, I almost froze on the march. Later, on the basis of business, I met Viktor Khrolenko, and we supplied vodka to Russia with him. He was a divorcee in these cases, he was good friends with Tanya Yeltsina and her husband Yumashev and constantly communicated with Korzhakov. Through them, Khrolenko was close to Yeltsin, so I entered the very top social circle. I myself knew Tanya's second husband, Leonid Dyachenko, well, and he visited me more than once in Switzerland.

Leonid Dyachenko

What kind of officials were they?

I knew the characteristics of everyone, that of big bosses, that of bandits, but I shunned them. My job was business.

- And about the daughter Tatyana?

- How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin's entourage?

For the first time, Vitya Khrolenko brought Berezovsky to the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, and then Roman Abramovich and the whole company appeared.

-Did you sponsor Yeltsin's book Notes of the President?

Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the print run in Finland, and we would print the other half in America. They took $100,000 of personal money from me.

- Did Yeltsin thank you?

Viktor Khrolenko was born in Abakan in 1953, in 1971 he entered the Moscow Higher Border School of the KGB of the USSR, but then transferred to Moscow State University. In the late 1980s, he began publishing and distributing books by Soviet writers Yuri Trifonov and Vladimir Soloukhin abroad, as well as albums by the artist Ilya Glazunov. He sponsored the recording of Boris Grebenshchikov's first English-language album Radio Silence, and at one time was the owner of the Manhattan Express nightclub in the Rossiya Hotel. In 1988, he took part in the organization of a joint project of the Ogonyok and Life magazines and teleconferences between the USSR and the USA (the Posner-Donahue project). In the late 80s, he met Boris Yeltsin, and after the collapse of the USSR, he founded Belka Trading in the United States, which sold cigarettes, vodka, oil and non-ferrous metals.

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK "(extraction of iron ore in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

Contact Dyachenko and KhrolenkoThe insiderfailed.

Abroad

- Tell us how a criminal case was brought against you.

Korzhakov and Khrolenko called: “For now, go to America and sit there, and we will destroy everything here.” And two months turned into more than ten years.

Viktor Khrolenko

Villa Lugovskoy in Cannes

- With whom did you make friends in a foreign land?

I was always on my guard and tried not to shine. I was on good terms with the rector of the Cannes Orthodox Cathedral, Bishop Barnabas. I remember how he called Yeltsin a drunken bear and did not let Luzhkov into the cathedral. It was with me. There were some calls from Russia, with a proposal to meet, but I understood that the cops or bandits wanted to spud me.

What about the local authorities?

They tried to recruit me, they called me, and let's ask about the Russian mafia. But I avoided direct answers. In short, I was very homesick. And here, for my fiftieth birthday, close friends came to Switzerland. They walked for three days, danced and sang until they were hoarse. Leva Leshchenko and says: "Kolyun, let me introduce you to the lawyer Heinrich Padva." Padva came to me and lived with me for a week. Then he took me by the hand and brought me to Russia. The criminal case was closed for lack of corpus delicti. True, the prosecutors never returned the $800,000 seized from the safe deposit box. Looks like one of them got rich...

Leshchenko and Vinokur visiting Lugovsky

They hit me in the teeth with a flashlight

- Tell us about your kidnapping.

- And what ransom was demanded?

In short, they were held hostage from 12 to 28 August 2003. They blew $3 million from me. I sent a ransom to Rietumu Bank in Latvia, and then it went offshore. Look at these bills.

- How did you let go?

On August 28, one of them comes in and says: "The elders decided not to kill you and let you go." And they immediately put a sleeping pill in my leg. Then they put me in a car with a gardener and threw me out at a gas station in Kashira. The gardener immediately ran away and I never saw him again. I feel like I'm about to pass out, I run up to the driver, you know, I haven't washed or shaved for eighteen days. But the guy took pity on me and drove me to Moscow. I passed out and slept all the way, and in Moscow my mother-in-law picked me up.

- Where did they go then?

I complained to Putin, sent a paper. The cops called me, asked me, then they kicked me and everything died out.

- Were you familiar with Maxim Kan, nicknamed Max-Korean?

This Korean from France to Switzerland drove my car.

Along the way, Kan was a gunner in the infamous gang of kidnappers, the leader of which was a former paratrooper and FSB informant Denis Shilin, nicknamed Shilo (aka Shimin, Zhilin, Marchenko, Popov). According to operational data, Shilo's gang kidnapped about 20 businessmen in Russia and Ukraine, and three of the hostages were never released after paying the ransom.

Denis Shilin nicknamed Shilo

In 2006, Koreyets was exchanged for student Maxim Parshin, who was held hostage (ransom price $ 7.2 million) and allowed to leave for Turkey. Then he moved to Paraguay and there he completed a false certificate of his death. In 2012, at the request of Interpol, the criminal was arrested in France and extradited to Russia three years later. In 2016, Kan made a deal with the investigation and, according to the verdict of the Solnechnogorsk court, received only 4 years. Shilo, who was arrested in 2013 with another hostage, made a similar deal with the investigation and was sentenced to 9.5 years. Thus, the investigation did not begin to find out the identity of those who ordered the abductions, and they still roam free.

Gunner "Max Korean" made a deal with the investigation

The other is Ikonnikov's partner - Pierre-Noël Formigé,Swiss citizen, more than 20 years engaged in financial intermediation.

As for offshore BlentixInvestments Limited, where, judging by the payments, $ 3 million was transferred for the release of Lugovskiy, he was registered in July 2003 in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by the infamous largest registrar of offshore companies Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). As you know, CTL often appears in high-profile criminal money laundering scandals, including being mentioned in the Sergei Magnitsky case, when $230 million was stolen from the Russian budget.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a beneficiary of BlentixInvestments LimitedsomeKsenia Semionovafrom a law firmcliff Legal Services, located at: Kutuzovsky Prospekt 36 building 3. In addition to Blentix, this person is directly related to 1136 offshore companies registered in the BVI.

The insidersent a request to the headcliff Kirill Stupachenko: a week later, the headPR-projects of the company Vitaly Kutin said in a telephone conversation thatKsenia Semionovanever worked for them.

« The communists blew two million from me.

- And how did you want to become a deputy of the State Duma?

This was right after my kidnapping. When I returned from Switzerland, I wanted to benefit the country. I studied local laws and economics abroad and knew how to apply them here. In 2003, I was brought together with one St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded United Russia before Gryzlov. I brought him a large box of cigars, cognac, drank a glass each, and he said: “It costs $3 million to enter the Duma. But the Communists have it cheaper. You will go through the communists, and then I will give you whatever committee you want. They set me up with Zyuganov, and he blew $ 2 million from me. They put me in the third passing number in the Saratov region. The first was the first secretary Rashkin, the second - Aparina, and I was the third ...

- Did they bring cash to the Communists?

I transferred it to Cyprus, where they had a bank and a furniture factory, and I still have the payments. Zyuganov's friend Viktor Vidmanov and I also flew to organize a meeting of communists in Abakan and Altai. On the plane, they gave in well, in addition to those two million, I gave another $ 500 thousand and $ 100 thousand.

Payment for a deputy mandate - money for the Communist Party goes offshore

And then Aparina found out that at that time I worked in the Kremlin trading house, also traded in oil, and raised a screech: “Why are you slipping the Kremlin Cossacks to us, Zyuganov?” Of course, she didn't know that I was scammed for two million. In addition, negative things about me went in the newspapers, Karaulov's telecast came out that a person with Belize citizenship was being taken to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Volodin himself is next <сегодня - спикер Госдумы - The insider> wrote in the newspaper about me: "Lugovskoy picked up communist ideas while in the Caribbean." He teased me so...

How did you get Belizean citizenship?

I paid $100,000 for Belizean citizenship, $75,000 for my wife, and $50,000 for children. Well, listen further. In his program, instead of my photo, Karaulov gave a picture of another person. Lawyer Padva and Karaulov are great friends, he calls him: “Andryusha, why are you cutting garbage on your TV?” And that type, well, let him come to my dacha, and I will fix everything.

- Did you get your money back?

Vidmanov said, at first, that he would return, and then he said that everything had gone to the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

The mentioned Viktor Vidmanov was called in the media a “red oligarch” and a purse of the Communist Party. For a long time he headed the corporation « Rosagropromstroy", and his son Oleg was related to ASB-bank and its "daughter" in Cyprus.

According to our source in the Communist Party, now Mr. Vidmanov often appears in the State Duma and communicates with the top of the party.

“Hints of prosecutors and bandits began - you need to pay”

- How were you met in Saratov?

I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. The locals called me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm to have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched the fish, I arrange fishing competitions. Hints of prosecutors and bandits immediately began, such as you need to pay. One prosecutor calls into the office and says <фамилия известна The insider>: "Why don't you congratulate me on the day of the prosecutor's office?". I told him: "Congratulations." He: "That's not the way to congratulate." I told him: “I worked together with your parents, asshole, and you extort money.”

With son Ivan

- When did the trouble start?

I immediately began to look for a construction contractor - the owner of Prof-Service LLC Alexei Zuev, to whom I paid a total of 8 million rubles. I sued him and he sued me. In short, courts, criminal cases began, and it seems that there is a corruption conspiracy against me. Skinned like sticky, and justice is nowhere to be found. Almost all property described and put up for auction. I already wrote to Putin and Medvedev, but all the papers are being returned back to Saratov (Lugovsky's appeal to the prosecutor's office can be read here). Smart people immediately told me: it was necessary to immediately pay whoever needed it - and the problems would have passed.

- And if Yeltsin was alive?

Of course, I would turn to him for help, and it is unlikely that he refused. And I was disappointed in Putin. He let everything take its course and did not delve into economic issues.