The biography of Vladimir Yevtushenkov is a classic story of a simple boy who managed to achieve everything in this life with hard and diligent work. Today, he is a we althy domestic entrepreneur who is considered one of the richest people in the country. His main asset is the Sistema investment company, in which he owns a 64% stake.
Childhood and youth
Vladimir Yevtushenkov was born in 1948 in the small and unremarkable village of Kamenshchina in the Smolensk region. His parents worked at a local dairy. My father was a director there, and my mother was an ordinary milkmaid.
The hero of our article grew up as a diligent and balanced child, who from childhood was fond of chemistry, especially loved to experiment. Of course, the experiments were not always successful, for which he was punished. But these were, perhaps, the only pranks of Vladimir. When he was in school, he dreamed of becoming a chemical scientist and opening his own laboratory.
Chemistry was his favorite subject, andthe teachers were simply lost under a hail of questions and tasks that the boy set before them.
Education
Vladimir Yevtushenkov studied diligently in his youth, intending to enter the Faculty of Chemistry at Moscow State University. But the unexpected happened - he failed the entrance exams and went to serve in the army.
Returning to the "citizen", the young man submitted documents to the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology in Moscow. And this time he successfully passed the exams, and five years later he received the speci alty of a process engineer.
Employment career
The first place of work in the biography of Vladimir Yevtushenkov was the Minmash plant named after Sverdlov, where in 1973 he got a job as an ordinary foreman. In two years he worked his way up to the head of the section, and in 1975 he moved to Moscow.
In the capital, the hero of our article gets a job at the Karacharovsky plastics plant as a shop manager. His dedication and experience help him quickly move up the career ladder. In 1981, Vladimir Yevtushenkov was already the deputy director of the plant, which is in the USSR at the forefront of production.
It is noteworthy that his career did not prevent him from improving his education. In 1980, he became a graduate of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, this university nevertheless obeyed him. Later Yevtushenkov defended his dissertation.
With a new diploma in 1982, the hero of our article gets a job at the NPO "Polymerbyt", where he is immediately appointedFirst Deputy General Director.
Up the career ladder
Vladimir Yevtushenkov, whose photo is in this article, at that time attends high meetings, makes the necessary acquaintances. For example, at a meeting at the Ministry of Chemical Industry, he meets with the head of the department for science and technology, who was then the future mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov. In the long term, these connections played an important role in the career of the oligarch.
In 1987, the policy of the first secretary of the Moscow City Committee Boris Yeltsin on the rejuvenation of personnel plays into the hands of Yevtushenkov. The future president of Russia is massively changing bureaucrats mired in corruption for young and promising specialists. So, the position of deputy head of the chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee is given to Yuri Luzhkov, who recalls the prominent specialist Yevtushenkov and arranges for him to be the head of the technical department.
Business activity
Despite a good start, Vladimir Yevtushenkov achieved major success not in public service, but in business. In 1990, the hero of our article served as chairman of the Moscow Committee on Technology and Science in the Luzhkov government. But he soon leaves this position, discovering his talent for entrepreneurship. Initially, he creates, directly on the basis of his committee, a closed joint-stock company MKNT.
At the same time, another of his offspring appears - the Region company, which becomes the founder of the Ordynka company. Last for many yearsengaged in large-scale reconstruction of buildings in the center of the capital.
The emergence of "System"
The main asset of a businessman appeared in 1993. AFK Sistema played a decisive role in the biography of Vladimir Yevtushenkov. It is noteworthy that he was personally involved in the creation of the company. At first, there was a scandal when journalists learned that a private firm was financed from the budget. The newspapers wrote that its shareholder is the committee on technology and science under the capital government.
From the very beginning, Vladimir Yevtushenkov's AFK Sistema has been engaged in diverse projects. These were finance, construction, real estate reconstruction. At the same time, the company did receive support from the city treasury. Thanks to the close relationship between Yevtushenkov and Luzhkov, Sistema was subsidized and financed from the budget.
Over time, the entrepreneur sets himself the goal of establishing full control over the metropolitan telephone network. He manages to achieve this by privatizing the Moscow City Telephone Network.
Redemption of Vimpelcom
In 1994, Sistema buys back the shares of the open joint-stock company Vimpelcom, simultaneously creating several subsidiaries under MGTS. Yevtushenkov's company is directly involved in the receipt and distribution of profits, and the state-owned MGTS is in charge of servicing the lines. As a result, it is possible to receive a net profit with virtually no costs and investments.
SimilarYevtushenkov will use the schemes more than once in the future, for example, with the Mikron and Sitronics companies. Over the next few years, under the patronage of Sistema, 98 enterprises are merged, in most of them this investment company has a controlling stake.
In 1997, the hero of our article showed interest in the mass media. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the TV Center TV channel. In the future, he even wanted to buy it out completely, but this was prevented by Luzhkov, who also needed an influential controlled media.
Yevtushenkov's media interests were not limited to one TV channel. He became the owner of controlling stakes in the newspapers Metro, Smena, Kultura, Rossiya, Literaturnaya Gazeta, acquired the radio stations Moscow Speaks and Public Russian Radio.
Among his large-scale investments in the 2000s, one should note the acquisition of MTS, Bashneft, the takeover of a controlling stake in United Cable Networks, SG-Trans. Among the main failures, it is worth noting the organization of the TV-6 channel. This did not bring Yevtushenkov any financial or political dividends.
Yevtushenkov's company is believed to have played a significant role in creating the telecommunications industry in the country in its current form. She also managed to make a significant contribution to the development of satellite systems and space technologies, often involved in the implementation of projects of national importance in the medical field. LargeSistema invests in the real sector of the Russian economy, being one of the largest employers and taxpayers in Russia, and is also involved in charity.
Income
Vladimir Yevtushenkov's fortune is entirely based on the income of AFK Sistema. She currently owns a controlling stake in MTS, Detsky Mir, Rusneft.
At the same time, in the period from 2011 to 2016, his fortune slightly decreased, as evidenced by the rating of Forbes magazine. If in 2011 he was in 20th place in the ranking of the richest people in Russia with a fortune of $ 7.7 billion, then by 2016 he dropped to 34th place. His income dropped to $2.4 billion.
Specialists attribute this to a high-profile scandal and the arrest of a businessman in 2014, when he was accused of illegally acquiring shares in the Bashneft company. He spent a year under house arrest.
The Bashneft case
In the fall of 2014, a lawsuit was filed against the Sistema company to claim the shares of the Bashneft company into the ownership of the Russian Federation.
Lawyers and economists said that this could lead to a deterioration in the business climate in the country. Now investors will have doubts about the inviolability of their private property.
Sistema's lawyers and management insisted that all claims against the company areunfounded.
The consequences of this case turned out to be very significant for Yevtushenkov and his business. The shares of his company fell by almost 37% in just one day, and the capitalization decreased from 135.5 to 79.5 billion rubles. Such a sharp decline in shares occurred against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed by Rosneft, which negatively affected the financial stability of the entire business of the oligarch.
The Bashneft case had certain consequences for the economy of the whole country. Thus, in the middle of summer 2017, experts recorded a record outflow of foreign investment from the country over the past few years, especially against the backdrop of the volume of assets that are directed to other developing countries.
Private life
The businessman does not advertise his personal life. Vladimir Yevtushenkov's wife's name is Natalya Nikolaevna. It is known that they got married early, when the hero of our article was still working at Polimerbyt. There he met his future wife. According to rumors, Natalia is the sister of Luzhkov's wife Elena Baturina, but there is no official confirmation of this information.
In 1976 their daughter Tatyana was born. At 26, she became vice president of MTS, specializing in securities and investments, and is currently an adviser to the president of Sberbank. In 1978, the son Felix was born in the family, who now holds the post of first vice president of AFK Sistema.
Return to former positions
After the Bashneft case, Yevtushenkov lost half of his fortune, as the state had to return part of the company's shares, which brought him $500 million annually.
However, lately his affairs have leveled off, he is no longer worried about this, he intends to further develop Sistema. His immediate plans include expanding the network of clinics called Medsi, which should open representative offices in most regions of Russia. He also has an interest in the forestry and agricultural business.
At the end of 2016, the media began to write that Rosneft had acquired one of Sistema's largest subsidiaries for 4 billion rubles. From the latest reports on Yevtushenkov's affairs, it became known that he brought Detsky Mir brand stores to India and Armenia. In his opinion, this should bring additional profit, and popularity for the brand itself.
In the spring of 2017, the businessman became the protagonist of a TV program called "Working Afternoon". In it, Vladimir Petrovich Yevtushenkov spoke about some facts of his biography and further plans for the future. An interview with an entrepreneur and an oligarch was conducted by Nailya Asker-zade.
