Of course, the figure of Elena Baturina occupied, occupies and will occupy one of the key positions on the Olympus of Russian entrepreneurship. The wife of the former mayor of the capital is considered the richest woman not only in our country, but also abroad. In 2010, Elena Nikolaevna had financial assets amounting to $2.9 billion.
Of course, without certain business qualities, she would hardly have been able to “put together” such a huge fortune. And she has them: toughness, assertiveness, determination, cold-bloodedness … Largely due to these qualities, she succeeded in business. However, not everyone agrees that good luck in business affairs would always accompany Baturina if she were not married to an influential official.
Really, would Elena Nikolaevna have achieved little if not for the help of her husband, who held a high position in the capital's government? Let's take a closer look at this issue.
Biography
Baturina Elena Nikolaevna is a native of Moscow. She was born on March 8, 1963 in a family of workers. Father and mother worked at the factory from morning to evening to feed a large family. Baturina, in addition to her brother Victor, has cousins and a cousin. Elena Nikolaevna once let slip in an interview that she actively involves her relatives in running a joint business, because she completely trusts them.
As a child, the future wife of the mayor of the capital was very often sick: her lungs were weak. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the girl, who grew up in the proletarian Vykhino district, from developing such an important quality for a businessman as determination.
Start in employment
Having received a matriculation certificate, Baturina becomes a worker at the Fraser plant, because she did not enter the university.
After some time, Elena Nikolaevna becomes a student of the evening department of the Institute of Management named after Ordzhonikidze. In parallel with this, she works at the Institute of Economic Problems of the Integrated Development of the National Economy of the City of Moscow.
Fateful meeting
Baturina Elena Nikolaevna in her youth became a member of the working group of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee on individual labor and cooperative activities. In a new capacity, she began to study the problems of the public catering system. At the same time, she received her first experience of conducting cooperative activities. At this time, a fateful meeting with Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov takes place,who chaired the executive committee. After some time, Yuri Mikhailovich becomes a widower, and Elena Nikolaevna marries him. It was not an office romance: the relationship arose at a time when they were no longer working together.
Start a business
Elena Nikolaevna, whose biography contains many interesting and remarkable things, takes her first steps in the entrepreneurial field in the early 90s.
Together with her brother Victor, she creates the Inteko cooperative. The production of polymer products was chosen as the profile of activity. The political career of her husband Baturina developed rapidly, and soon he took the post of mayor of Moscow. Naturally, Yuri Mikhailovich helped his wife's business develop in every possible way, providing Inteko with profitable municipal orders. Over time, Elena Nikolaevna's company turned into a major supplier of plastics and organized a powerful production area on the basis of the capital's oil refinery. An enterprise for the production of polypropylene was built, and very soon Inteko won a third of the entire plastic products market.
Business is booming
In the late 90s, the geography of entrepreneurial activity of the wife of the capital's mayor expanded significantly. For example, Inteko became the main developer of the Chess City (City-Chess) project in Kalmykia. It was Baturina with her brainchild that became a defendant in the investigation into the misuse of budget funds during the construction of the aboveobject. Nevertheless, Elena Nikolaevna, whose photo was printed on the front pages of the regional media in connection with the incident, decided to take part in the parliamentary elections in Kalmykia, but did not win them.
Baturina focuses her efforts on business. Very soon, Inteko turns into a large investment and construction holding, which occupied almost 25% of the panel housing market. The company establishes a division of monolithic construction.
In 2002, Elena Nikolaevna (position - president of Inteko) buys several large cement plants. Some time later, the owner of the construction holding announced the issue of a bonded loan. Most of the shares of Inteko belonged to Baturina (99%) and only 1% of the securities were owned by her brother Viktor. Later, Luzhkov's wife announces the creation of her own real estate structure called Magistrate.
Illegal shade scandals
At the beginning of the 2000s, Baturina's construction holding was at the center of scandals. In particular, in 2003, pen sharks informed the public about the illegal activities of Elena Nikolaevna's subsidiary (Inteko-agro), which was buying up agricultural land in the Belgorod region under "grey schemes".
Then "daughter" "Inteko" invaded the sphere of commercial interests of the son of Viktor Chernomyrdin, preventing the development of the Yakovlevsky mine. Events such as the attack onexecutive director and the murder of a lawyer for Inteko Corporation.
The Russians were even more excited by the news of the theft in the Bank of Moscow. Journalists could not ignore this fact. According to the employees of the printed edition, Elena Nikolaevna (Ekaterinburg, the newspaper "Vecherniye Vedomosti") was interrogated as a witness in the case of fraud in a banking institution. At the same time, Asnis's lawyer had written evidence of her non-involvement in the crime.
Change of business priorities
In 2005, Baturina sells cement plants and temporarily withdraws from the panel construction market. But after a while, Inteko returns to its profile again, having bought the Verkhnebakansky cement plant in the Kuban.
Then Elena Nikolaevna announced that her brother was “retiring” and was no longer the owner of the holding. Luzhkov's wife decides to buy back his shares and become the sole owner of Inteko. However, Viktor Baturin considered this state of affairs unfair and wanted to return part of the shares. As a result, a lawsuit started, which eventually ended in the reconciliation of the parties.
After Yuri Luzhkov was removed from the post of mayor of Moscow, Elena Nikolaevna began to sell off her business assets. In the fall of 2011, the Inteko commercial structure was put up for sale.
Hospitality
Since the end of Luzhkov's political career, Baturina has been living abroad with her husband. However, "in a foreign land" Elena Nikolaevna did notlost her entrepreneurial acumen and invested in the hotel business. In Kitzbühel (Austria), she bought the Grand Tirolia Hotel for almost 40 million euros. It hosts an annual awards ceremony for the best journalists covering sports life. Baturina also owns the Morrison Hotel in Ireland and the Quisisana Palace mini-hotel in the Czech Republic.
Elena Nikolaevna's hotels are managed by Martinez Hotels & Resorts, which is located in Austria. The hotel owner plans to expand the geography of her business, in which about three hundred million dollars have already been invested.
Private life
Yuri Luzhkov's wife has always tried to stay in the shadow of her influential patron. She reluctantly took part in the ceremonial events that were regularly held in the metropolitan metropolis. Sometimes there was a feeling that Elena Nikolaevna, whose personal life has developed in the best possible way, eschews publicity in every possible way. The businesswoman also ignored the official receptions hosted by the mayors of other cities.
Her interests outside of business include golf, horseback riding, skiing, reading.
In her marriage to Luzhkov, she gave birth to two daughters - Elena and Olga. They study in England. Relations with her brother Victor leave much to be desired, as the litigation initiated by her relative in 2007 is still fresh in memory.
After Yuri Mikhailovich was relieved of his post, the Luzhkov couple moved to the British capital. ex-mayorexpressed the hope that the family would someday be able to return to Russia, when the authorities turn their anger into mercy.
