Peter Aven Mikhail Fridman contract London lawyers. Rational patriotism from Fridman and Aven: what is behind the troubles of Alfa Group - the contradictions of the Russian elites, “controllers” and “orders” or the global anti-globalization trend? Invitation to

Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman at a social reception. Photo: RIA Novosti

On Monday, co-owners of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven spoke at a closed dinner at one of the influential American think tanks - the Atlantic Council.

Russian Washington is a small city, and this private dinner created a whole storm. Even before the speech of Friedman and Aven

our liberal compatriots, with their unique idea of ​​freedom of speech, wrote a letter from angry workers to the Washington regional committee,

which called for nothing less than a ban on representatives of bloody imperialism - oh, that is, the Kremlin regime - speaking within the sacred walls of the Washington think tank.

In an elaborate style that would make any political commissar jealous, the signatories declared Friedman and Aven “insiders of the Kremlin regime” and “oligarchic emissaries” who had no place in the spacious halls of the Atlantic Council on 15th Street.

Andrei Piontkovsky declared them “Putin’s emissaries” who came “to negotiate on the rescue of frozen assets,” and Karina Orlova asked an angry question about this dinner: “how unbiased and unbiased is the report of the Atlantic Council experts on Russian oligarchs presented to the US Administration? »

In short, horror-horror. Personal emissaries arrived, fed Tobi Gati and Joe Weng dinner, threw money at the think tank, and

the entire Washington regional committee sold itself to the Kremlin for cookies.

Of course, when it comes to the Russians, the atmosphere in Washington is very tense right now. All Russians - not just Fridman and Aven - are toxic. But this is still not a reason to spread conspiracy theories, sign collective denunciations and pretend that you do not know how the American think tank functions.

For starters, yes. American think tanks take money from sponsors, and this is quite official. This, by the way, is one of the ways to get a job in a think tank, well known to many signatories of the letter. A company comes to a think tank and says: “hire such and such a person, we will sponsor you, and you, minus your thirty-five percent, pay him this money as a salary, insurance, etc.” That this happens everywhere is an open secret.

That is, Friedman and Aven, in principle, have the right to sponsor any think tank. Another thing is that they don't do this. I declare: Fridman and Aven do not give money to the Atlantic Council, if only because of all the Washington think tanks, the Atlantic Council takes one of the harshest positions on Russia. “Alpha” once gave money to another think tank—I won’t name which one, in these times—it’s fraught, but it doesn’t sponsor the Atlantic Council.

Second. The American think tank system constantly organizes meetings, seminars, presentations, private dinners, etc. It is such a gigantic factory. You can live in Washington and go to different meetings endlessly, at least 3-4 times a day.

For example, at the same time as Friedman and Aven, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatars, was in Washington. He also had a lot of meetings, and at the Atlantic Council they even came face to face with Aven. Mr. Dzhemilev even became very interested in the thick book that Aven was carrying (it was his own “Berezovsky’s Time,” which is a surprisingly accurate copy of time and which I recommend everyone to read), but did not receive the book: Aven carried it further.

The fact that Dzhemilev spoke in Washington does not mean that “the Pindos decided to bet on the Crimean Tatars,” although it is very possible that some KGB emissaries will write in the reports about his trip to the FSB.

It simply means that Americans listen to everyone. And they look at everyone.

Sobchak was in Washington - we looked and listened. Vladimir Milov was there - we looked and listened. Yes, and during my fairly short stay in Washington, I spoke at several think tanks. Frankly speaking, when I heard about Fridman and Aven’s speech, I wanted to attend it, but received a polite reprimand from the organizers: they told me that only Americans were invited to this speech—there is also a format, closed performances. But the Atlantic Council is pleased to invite me to speak.

The presentation by Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven was undoubtedly interesting for experts on Russia. It was important for them to hear first-hand what potential victims of sanctions think about sanctions. It was helpful for them to hear their arguments. This is part of the decision-making process in Washington.

Russian business has found itself hostage to the Kremlin, and the United States may now get a pat on the back for lobbying its interests: naturally, experts are curious to see how Fridman and Aven will get out of this situation.

Are the owners of Alfa Group afraid of falling under a new round of sanctions, which is just around the corner? Certainly. Do they have the right to make every possible lobbying effort in their situation to avoid falling under them? Of course.

The American bureaucracy is one of the most extensive and clumsy, and often functions like Kafka’s “Castle,” especially when it’s not really about Russia, but about the internal American politics and about the establishment settling scores with Trump. The same Vekselberg, apparently, came under sanctions due to the fact that he paid $500 thousand to a firm from which Trump’s lawyer later paid $130 thousand to porn actress Stormy Daniel, and Stormy’s lawyers are now hinting everywhere that Trump paid the Russians money.

Vekselberg, in my opinion, fully deserved sanctions for his tricks with the Russian security forces. But what does this have to do with Stormy?

Unfortunately, the introduction of sanctions against certain oligarchs is a rather arbitrary process.

As one of my interlocutors in Washington put it:

“What we do is this: we bring 100 people into a room and shoot three of them. After that we ask the other 97: well, do you want to talk?”

So Friedman and Aven wanted to talk. At the same time, they were not any emissaries of the Kremlin - except in the broadest sense of the word. They didn't say anything particularly fantastic. If I understand correctly, they tried to convince their interlocutors that sanctions were finally turning Russia into North Korea and therefore counterproductive.

This view, expressed by those likely to be targeted by sanctions, deserves to be heard.

According to media reports, billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, co-owners of Alfa Group, made harsh statements against the current government of Russia at a closed discussion at the Atlantic Council in Washington. They voiced their extremely negative assessments and forecasts regarding the Russian economy and stated that even high oil prices will not save the country. The reason, in their opinion, is irreversible structural changes, brain drain, and “the short-sightedness of Vladimir Putin.”

Aven and Fridman criticized the blocking of the Telegram messenger, calling it a “tragedy for Russia” and the wrong signal from the authorities. They tried not to talk about sanctions, but when they were persistently asked about it, they said that everyone was afraid of them and told about the terrible situation in which Viktor Vekselberg, who was subject to sanctions, found himself.

Those present at this meeting had the impression, notes the Russian Monitor, that in this situation the oligarchs are primarily concerned about their own position. The source emphasized that during the meeting the bankers even touched upon the topic of their “Jewishness,” complaining that “we have been Jews all our lives, we were discriminated against as Jews, and now in our old age we are discriminated against as Russians.”

Reportedly, this “last evening” at the Atlantic Council was attended by a US Treasury official, a member of the Council on national security White House and lobbyists. Aven and Friedman were invited to this dinner by Atlantic Council expert Anders Aslund, co-author of a report prepared for the US administration in November last year. The report proposed criteria for identifying individuals in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including oligarchs, in order to then impose sanctions on them.

It was obvious that while speaking negatively about the current Russian authorities, the owners of Alfa Group tried their best to please the Americans, apparently fearing for their property and assets abroad.

From black marketeers to bankers

However, if you take a closer look at their biographies, it would be a sin for both to complain about their fate in Russia. Both were born in the USSR into quite prosperous families. Friedman's father is an engineer, laureate of the USSR State Prize (as part of a team of authors) for the development of identification systems for military aviation. Mikhail graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS). However, he was not too interested in steel and alloys. According to Profile magazine, in his third year, Friedman organized an informal youth club, Strawberry Field, where discos were held, artists and bards performed. Friedman personally gave the musicians decent fees of 20-30 rubles for those times. As the liberal Wikipedia testifies, at that time he was a “farmer.”

After graduating from the institute in 1986-1988, he worked as a design engineer at the Elektrostal plant, but when the USSR began to collapse, he went into business. He organized the “Courier” cooperative, which specialized in window cleaning. Then he created and headed the Alfa-Photo company, which was engaged in the sales of photographic materials, computers and copy equipment, and then founded the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco, which was engaged in the export of oil and metallurgical products, on the basis of which Alfa Group was subsequently created. In 1991, he headed the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank. In January 1996, he was one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress, becoming its vice president and head of the cultural committee.

Forbes magazine in 2015 estimated Friedman's fortune at $14.6 billion (68th place in the world). In the same year, in the list of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia, compiled by the Russian version of Forbes magazine, Friedman took 2nd place.

The family of Peter Aven, who has been the chairman of the board of directors of the Alfa Bank banking group since June 2011, also prospered in the USSR. His father is a professor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a specialist in the field of computer technology, half Latvian, half Russian. And the banker’s grandfather was a Latvian rifleman. Peter graduated from Moscow Physics and Mathematics School No. 2. And in 1977 he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, then received a candidate’s degree economic sciences. Worked at the Institute of System Research of the State Committee for Science and Technology and the USSR Academy of Sciences research fellow, sat in the same room with Yegor Gaidar. As a result, he soon began to be promoted along the lines of foreign relations. He worked in Austria as a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, while at the same time being an adviser to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After which he began a successful political career: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, then Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations of the RSFSR - First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations in the Yeltsin-Gaidar government and representative of the Russian President for relations with industrialized countries.

He outlined his attitude towards Russia in 2008 by writing for the Russian Pioneer magazine a negative review of the novel Sankya by writer Zakhar Prilepin, which caused a heated public debate. In his review, he literally trashed the novel, saying that the problem with Russia is not that the authorities are bad, but that the Russian people are lazy. Aven called Prilepin and his heroes losers, “losers” who cannot do anything, are not able to “get things done” and therefore go into politics and the barricades.

According to Forbes magazine, his personal fortune was estimated at $3.6 billion.

And today these two largest businessmen, having built their well-being and become fabulously rich in Russia and in the United States, which are waging an economic war against us, essentially found themselves on the other side of the barricades in this war.

Perhaps, speaking in a closed club, they hoped that their attacks on Russia would not become public knowledge?

How do they get out

In this regard, it is curious how Russian liberals reacted to the Washington revelations of the oligarchs. Some even began to call Fridman and Aven “secret emissaries of the Kremlin,” who were allegedly sent to Washington, begging for the sanctions to be lifted. But the background of the strange visit is revealed much more precisely by Echo of Moscow staff columnist Yulia Latynina, who broke out in a long article on this matter. “I must admit,” she writes, “when I heard about Friedman and Aven’s performance, I wanted to go to it, but received a polite spanking from the organizers: they told me that only Americans were invited to this speech, - there is also such a format, closed performances.” .

“Russian business,” Latynina comments on Friedman and Aven’s escapade, “has found itself hostage to the Kremlin, and the United States may now give them a pat on the back for lobbying their interests: naturally, experts are curious to see how Friedman and Aven will get out of this situation. Are the owners of Alfa Group afraid of falling under a new round of sanctions, which is just around the corner? Certainly".

But then she adds ironically, referring to a certain American interlocutor who told how the Americans deal with such petitioners: “We do this: we bring 100 people into a room and shoot three of them. After that we ask the other 97: well, do you want to talk?

“Friedman and Aven wanted to talk,” Latynina mocks. - At the same time, they were not any emissaries of the Kremlin - except in the broadest sense of the word. They didn't say anything particularly fantastic. If I understand correctly, they tried to convince their interlocutors that sanctions were finally turning Russia into North Korea and were therefore counterproductive.”

Of course, it is understandable why the home-grown oligarchs, who enriched themselves in the disastrous 90s, began to fuss. Before this, they managed to sit quite comfortably on two chairs at once: receiving fabulous dividends in Russia and, at the same time, settling comfortably in the West, pumping capital there and buying up real estate.

But then the West launched a frontal attack on Russia, and they panicked in horror.

They rushed to Washington, where, hoping to save themselves, they began to throw mud at Russia and its leadership. And these people are the backbone of Russian business?

Identified: Mikhail Fridman, Peter Aven, Vladislav Surkov, Oleg Govorun, Mikhail Semenov, Maxim Polyakov, Alexey Chesnakov, Konstantin Kostin, Alexander Ferbert, Alexander Voloshin, Evgeniy Primakov. In relation to these persons, there is information about involvement in US intelligence services.

Peter Aven

Petr Aven (USSR, YSSP "77) worked with the IIASA ETI Project for more than ten years. From 1991 to 1992 he was Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Russian Federation. He is currently the president of the Russian Alfa-Bank.
"I participated in the first YSSP pilot program in 1975. I was also there for the second time in 1977... all Russians (there were four of us two years later), this time at IIASA was extremely interesting and useful. Especially for Russians then it was not only IIASA but also "West"....YSSP gave me a lot of information about the proper structure scientific work. And it also gave me a serious incentive to come back, which I did after 15 years."

Poltoranin - Aven Gaidar Chubais Koch

see Legacy of Tsar Boris

salye - aven

from 8 minutes

______________________________
In 1984-87 (Chubais) was the informal leader of a semi-underground circle of young economists, which was created by a group of LIEI graduates, and then he was joined by graduates of other universities, incl. Moscow. Among the people who subsequently became famous, this circle at various times included, in addition to Chubais himself, Yuri Yarmagaev, Grigory Glazkov, Sergei Vasiliev (in 1992-93 - head of the Working Center for Economic Reforms of the Government of the Russian Federation, then - Deputy Minister of Economy), Pyotr Aven (minister external economic relations of Russia in 1991-92, since 1994 - President of Alfa Bank), Sergei Glazyev (deputy of P. Aven in the Gaidar government in 1991-92, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of Russia in 1992-93), Konstantin Kagalovsky ( representative of Russia and the International Monetary Fund in 1992, from 1995 - first deputy chairman of the board of Menatep), Alexey Ulyukaev (in 1992-94 - adviser on economic issues, head of the group of advisers to the chairman of the government on economic issues, in 1995-97 - head Moscow organization of the Far Eastern Republic). Chubais’s acquaintance with Yegor Gaidar dates back to this time. In 1986-87, Chubais was also associated with the discussion club of social sciences at the Leningrad Youth Palace, which in 1987 received the name “Synthesis” (S. Vasiliev, Nikolai Preobrazhensky, Boris Lvin, etc.).

see Closed sector: Aven - paragraph 2, part 9

Shatalin - Kantorovich

Leonid Vitalievich Kantorovich

Since 1976, he worked at the USSR Academy of Sciences, now the Institute of System Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Shokhin - Shatalin - - Gaidar

According to the newspaper “Top Secret” dated August 8, 2000: “In 1992, Peter Aven<…>, being the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of Russia, by his order transferred the functions of the KVES representative for St. Petersburg to Vladimir Putin.”

"2. In the early 90s the company " Alfa-Eco" (Mikhail Fridman) supplied sugar, tea and carpets from India. Tea was also purchased at the expense of government debts. The company had large contracts of this kind. Did you provide support to Mikhail Fridman when you were Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations?

3. In the 90s" Alfa Bank"joined operations with Russia's foreign debts. In those days, debts were bought for 25-30 percent of their value. The bank supported Mikhail Kasyanov(was the main negotiator on Russian debts in the West). He compiled lists of priority Russian debts, which included debts " Alfa Bank"A criminal case was opened regarding transactions with debts, which was also closed. At that time you were the Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, were you aware of this practice, were you questioned as part of that criminal case?

4. In 1992, there was trouble with a report from an international detective company." Kroll"on the so-called - party gold - withdrawal of financial and other resources from the USSR. To the agreement with" Kroll" and the presented report were related to the chairman of the Russian government Yegor Gaidar and Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Peter Aven. The report was paid for 1 million 500 thousand dollars from the budget. The document disappeared without a trace. At that time you were deputy Petra Avena. Did you have information about this report and can you clarify the fate of the document?

5. When you were a deputy Avena, the ministry oversaw the privatization of large foreign economic enterprises of the USSR (Soyuznefteexport - up to 70 percent of oil export transactions, Techmashimport, Novoexport, Prodintorg, Tyazhpromexport, Techno-promimport, Technopromexport). The foreign ownership of Soyuznefteexport (now the Nafta oil company) amounted to $1 billion. It was privatized for less than 2 thousand. The shares were distributed by closed subscription among the former management of the enterprise and the ministry, after which Nafta was immediately exempted from paying oil export duties. Did you have anything to do with the privatization of these enterprises, what were your actions as deputy minister?

6. When the ministry is led Petra Avena issued permits for foreign trade, the leadership of the ministry delegated this right to the administration of St. Petersburg. The foreign economic component was in charge there Vladimir Putin, and he received the right to issue licenses. After this, special advantages in St. Petersburg arose for individual companies (for example, the well-known "SPAG" - foreign economic activity, "Interkommerts-Formula-7", "Nevsky House", "Fivekor - export of petroleum products, "Svyatoslav" - export of cotton, "Jikop" - export of rare metals, JV "Interwood" - export of lumber"). And those who led or established them (for example, Vladimir Smirnov), over time they became strangers to the President of the Russian Federation, received positions in his administration or held a good place On the market. What was your role in the transfer of such powers to the St. Petersburg administration and Vladimir Putin?

9. In 1997, you were Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. Then the company "Alfa-Eco" (Mikhail Fridman) offered $810 million for 40 percent of the shares of the Tyumen Oil Company. The Accounts Chamber came to the conclusion: “The cost of recoverable oil and gas reserves on the balance sheet of OJSC TNK has not been taken into account.”<...>The sale price of the specified block of shares was underestimated by at least $920 million." Based on the results of the inspection, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case, which was soon closed. Did you have anything to do with this criminal case?

10. In March 1993, you joined the interdepartmental commission to stimulate industrial exports. By next year" Alfa-Eco"Exported up to 10 million tons of oil per year. In December 1993, you were a member of the Russian Food Commission." Alfa-Eco"received a government contract for the annual supply of 1.5 million tons of Russian oil in exchange for 500 thousand tons of Cuban sugar.

In June 1994, you were a member of the commission for the protection of state interests, the rights of consumers and domestic producers in the production and sale of alcoholic beverages. " Alfa-Eco"became the leader in sales of Moldovan wines in Russia.

In 1997 the company Alfa-Eco"Thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Economic Communications, she became Zapsib's commission agent for foreign economic activities. In the fall of 1996, she exported only 26 percent of Zapsib's oil (it is not clear which "Zapsib" we are talking about; in general, this is the name of the West Siberian Metallurgical Plant in the Kemerovo Region. From 1996-98" Alfa Group" was management company at the bankrupt ZSMK. This metallurgical plant had and has nothing to do with oil exports. - Approx. Ed.) and in the spring of 1997 (during the period when you were appointed head of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade) - already 80 percent.

Are all the listed coincidences random, in your opinion?”

There’s a problem with the sound, I don’t even know why) but you can listen if you want

Berezovsky's testimony: “Aven introduced me to Putin”

1: 16 min. Aven introduced Bereza to Yumashev:

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, in 1980 Aven defended his PhD thesis under the guidance of academician Stanislav Shatalin. Then he sat in the same office at the All-Union Research Institute for Systems Research with Yegor Gaidar. The text of his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Functional scaling” was published in 1988 under the editorship of his future close associate Boris Berezovsky.

Like many in the generation of “young reformers,” Aven was a research fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, located in Laxenburg, Austria. At the same time, he was listed as an adviser to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He's probably a good guy (Petya Aven would not bring anything bad). Well, Putin became president

He (Korzhakov) was outplayed Voloshin and Abramovich, who insisted on Putin. In the depths of their souls, all of them (and some not in the depths) consider the Russian people to be cattle, which can only be controlled by a rigid system. The standard of a tough system in the current liberal market conditions is precisely the FSB, headed, for example, by Putin.

Statists like Chubais and Voloshin are happy with him, since under him the state has become stronger. The oligarchs are happy because there are more of them and they have become richer. The family may be dissatisfied, but Putin honestly did not touch the family, as he promised. We pump oil. We produce gas, in London it’s like home. We pay state employees. What else is needed? Elections? Those who need elections, let them demand them. But they don't need elections. I hope I have answered your question succinctly.

How the reform team and its program came together,1 or about the unofficial economic discourse in the reform movement of the 1980s

O.I. ANANYIN

This community arose in the early 80s and reached the peak of its activity during the years of perestroika. To a large extent, it was a discourse community of young researchers from Moscow scientific institutes and teachers from economic departments of Leningrad universities. Later they were joined by several economists and sociologists from Novosibirsk and others scientific centers. The leading role in this community belonged to Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, its members were the future key figures of Gaidar’s reform government (Sergei Glazyev, Sergei Vasiliev, Petr Aven), future major Russian officials at the level of the head of the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance, prominent consultants and analysts .

Gorbachev's perestroika created conditions for the rapid expansion of international contacts among economists: an important additional channel for such contacts for future reformers was the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna (IIASA), of which Petr Aven became a member around the same time. According to his testimony, together with S.S. Shatalin (then already a member of the Presidential Council), they managed to find funds for organizing conferences and seminars with the participation of leading mainstream economists 8, such as R. Dornbusch, V. Nordhaus, L. Layard and others [Aven 2006].

It seems that this is exactly how the idea of ​​market reforms and the idea of ​​a standard stabilization program, or the famous Washington Consensus of John Williamson, proclaimed at the same time, in 1989, came together. As a result of their combination, the package of stabilization measures was rethought as a tool for launching systemic reforms: the aspirations of the reformers were supported by the reputation of leading mainstream economists!

Carefully developed projects of gradual reforms were discarded along with the idea of ​​​​relying on public consent as their social prerequisite:

in 1990, a group of future reformers visited Chile, and many of them returned as admirers of Pinochet. In the same year, the newly created Association of Social and Economic Sciences, headed by Anatoly Chubais, released an analytical report with the aim of “research possible consequences accelerated transition of the USSR to market economy(the “Great Leap Forward” concept)” [Hard course. 1990, p. 15]. The report asserted that “the basic ideas of the Great Leap Forward seem rational and timely,” while its immediate social consequences included “a general decline in living standards; the growth of differentiation of prices and incomes of the population and the emergence of mass unemployment.”

“Under these conditions,” the document continued, “it is very important for the government to take the right tone towards society: on the one hand, readiness for dialogue, on the other hand, no apologies or hesitations... Direct suppression measures are absolutely necessary to attitude towards representatives who really do not enjoy the support of the population (as the elections showed)... Reform, or at least preparation of public opinion for it, should begin as quickly as possible - before the formation of a powerful opposition press, that is, while control over the main part of the mass media remains in the hands of the government (it is possible that with for this purpose it will be necessary to delay the adoption of laws on the press and on political parties)...; in the very near future, reform ideologists from the country’s political leadership need to put all central funds under their control mass media» [Hard course. 1990, p. 16,18].

And a little later, in 1990, another incentive appeared to intensify efforts aimed at accelerating reforms - the awareness of the emerging chance to gain power [cm. Zmeinka, evidence from the State Duma. Glazkova, P.O. Avena and others].

You can count on one hand the cases when even a very rich person would have managed to preserve even a very memorial house. And even then always with losses. A rare case is the house of Peter Aven in Barvikha, where the writer Alexei Tolstoy lived. A state dacha, given for residence to the main proletarian writer of that time personally by Comrade Stalin.

We climb the stairs, which were built anew - Tolstoy never climbed them. The massive steps creak barely audibly under Aven’s feet, and the banker says:
- For some reason, Tolstoy wanted to get married in his old age. And he married Lyudmila Krestinskaya-Barshcheva. Only she didn't seem to love him at all. While he was in power, he kept organizing holidays for his wife, but nothing made her happy. When Tolstoy became decrepit, his wife took him to a party sanatorium nearby. He wrote everything from there, asked to go home, but she did not accept. There he died.

We go up to the mezzanine, where there are a couple of cribs, children's things are neatly laid out and slippers that previously belonged to the nanny are hanging under the chair. But neither children's voices nor the nanny's cozy shuffling can be heard. And in general - no one. Echoing silence.

Aven's family lives in England. The current owner doesn't seem to be very happy in this house either. Only rare photographs remind of past happiness: Aven in an embrace with Gusinsky, a laughing Aven with a laughing Berezovsky, Aven arm in arm with Yeltsin - life was going uphill, time that cannot be returned. For a person is happy not when he lives on a four-billion-dollar mountain of money, but when he goes up the mountain, albeit not so dizzying.

According to Aven’s stories, when he came to look at this house, which was still part of the Kremlin household, there was neither a Tolstoy memorial office, nor antique furniture, nor even a working water supply.
In all the rooms, says Aven, there were beds, because there was a brothel here. I bought the house for very decent money at that time. And the workers endured all this rubbish and dirt for a long time. Apart from the walls, there was nothing to save.

And here I am standing in this empty house. On the walls are Vrubel, Serebryakova, and Kustodiev - paintings, which Aven understands most subtly. I stand and think: here is a house with enough paintings hung on the walls for a decent European museum.

Petr Olegovich Aven (4.5 billion fortune, Forbes list, bank, oil company, three TV channels, literary prize, and only for charity, by the way, no less than five million a year) says:
- Let's drink some champagne, Valery.
And he leads me through his house, which was the home of the writer Alexei Tolstoy. I think it’s in the wine cellar, but he’s in the utility room. A special room where gifts are piled on sofas, tables and chairs - bottles of expensive booze, art albums, books...
“There must be champagne here somewhere,” says Aven.
He rummages through the gifts and actually finds a bottle of champagne among the boxes and parcels. We take a bottle and walk past Avenov’s collection of paintings and sculptures, past Vrubel, Korovin, Serebryakova, Kustodiev - to the armchairs. We don't even put the wine on ice. We just open it and drink right away, with our feet up in the chairs. I ask, he answers.
- No, in fifteen years in this house I have never learned to be friends with my neighbors. However, it’s the same in England. My family lives mainly in England. There's about the same house there. Life there is also very isolated. We don't know the neighbors.
Second glass of champagne. The champagne is warm, but Aven doesn’t seem to care.
- Yes, come to the office. I will show you the agreement that London lawyers drew up for Misha and me (meaning Aven’s partner at Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman. - V.P.). Everything is spelled out there. How can we finally get rid of each other and leave the Game?
- What about the state? - I ask. - Do you have an agreement on how to get rid of each other?
- With the state? I don’t have such an agreement with the state - he (the former minister) smiles at this circumstance more than at the jokes of stand-up comedians on TV.
I don't ask stupid questions.

Of course, it has every conceivable degree of protection. Of course, he has a special phone that a trusted person from the Kremlin can call and say: “Run!” or “It’s late!” - or offer terms of surrender. They only say that at Alfa Group they also have a special alarm mode. When the whole team receives a pre-arranged signal on the phone. At this signal, everyone must get into their cars and start moving. Just not to stay in place. And no calls on illuminated phones. Meanwhile, several planes are preparing to take off at several airports. Only a special dispatcher knows which plane is safer to fly on, coordinates the movements of the team members, leads them to the planes and covers them until they fly away.
I ask is this true? Is it true that there is such an alarm mode at Alfa Group?
Aven smiles:
- If anything happens, I think... I’ll have time to escape.
I look around at painting, sculpture, books... Vrubel, Korovin, Kustodiev, Serebryakov... I say:
- You might have time to escape. But how will you remove your collection? Do you have a plan?
- No. I don't have a plan.
- Like this? Why? You've been collecting for many years. This may be the best private collection.
-Yes.
- And have you ever thought about how you will save her if things go badly and you have to emigrate? Where do you get such confidence in the future?
- I have no confidence. The family is already in England. To myself, I just hope. If anything, I can save myself. And I’m not going to save the collection. Because nothing can be saved.

On Tuesday evening, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia (USA) refused to satisfy the claims of the head of the board of directors of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, and the president of Alfa Bank, Petr Aven, against the famous American public organization Center for Public Integrity (CPI). Russian businessmen demanded that the article published by CPI (in which they were accused of “money laundering for the drug mafia” and “drug transit”) be recognized as defaming them business reputation. However, the court rejected them, citing the First Amendment to the US Constitution, according to which articles on “public figures” cannot be considered as compromising their honor and dignity.

The Federal District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington rejected the claim of Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven against the public organization Center for Public Integrity (CPI). Messrs. Friedman and Aven have been suing CPI since September 2000. The subject of the proceedings was an article published by journalists Knute Royce and Nathaniel Heller on the CPI website in August 2000.

The public organization CPI was founded in 1989 by the famous American television journalist Charles Lewis. CPI journalists conducted more than 280 investigations (their results were published on the organization’s website) and published 14 books. CPI's publications have received awards from PEN USA and the Society of Professional Journalists, among others.

In the article by Royce and Heller, which mainly talks about how the interests of the largest American company Halliburton were lobbied by its former head and now US Vice President Richard Cheney, businessmen from Russia are also mentioned. Thus, according to American journalists, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven were allegedly “engaged in laundering drug money from the Russian and Colombian mafia and transporting drugs from the Far East to Europe in the early 90s.” After the publication, Messrs. Friedman and Aven hired lawyers from the Washington company Akin Gump Strauss & Hauer, who first demanded that CPI remove the material from the organization’s website, but having received a refusal, they filed a lawsuit to protect the honor and dignity of their clients. In the lawsuit, Messrs. Fridman and Aven demanded that the information published in the article be declared false and defamatory of their business reputation. They did not demand financial compensation from CPI. In turn, journalists Royce and Heller told the court that they “received information for publication from open sources in Russia and the USA.” It is noteworthy that Richard Cheney, despite the accusations against him, did not sue the CPI.

Over the course of five years of litigation, the parties filed more than 150 different motions. For example, in August 2004, a letter from Peter Aven was attached to the case, in which he recalled a similar case that he won in 2000 against the German magazine OSTinWest. In particular, OSTinWest published material alleging that the management of Alfa Group allegedly “transported drugs from Southeast Asia through Russia to Western Europe, laundered money from the Colombian mafia and gave bribes to influence justice in Russia." The Frankfurt regional court, Petr Aven reminded in a letter to the American court, "obliged the defendants to stop the spread of charges." However, Mr. Aven's victory in Frankfurt did not impress the court in Washington produced. The fact is that, according to the First Amendment to the US Constitution, publications about famous politicians, financiers and other “public figures” are not considered as compromising their honor and dignity. Accordingly, lawyers for Russian businessmen from Akin Gump Strauss & Hauer tried for five years to prove to the court that Mikhail Fridman and Peter Aven are not characters known to the public.

Yesterday, District Judge John Bates refused to grant the Russian businessmen's claim. The judge said that the increased interest of American reporters in the activities of the Alfa Group management can be considered “fully justified”, since Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven are “public figures.” Thus, the CPI journalists were acquitted. “There was no malice or criminal intent in their actions,” Judge Bates explained. True, he still scolded Messrs. Royce and Heller, saying that their article contained “unverified data.” “But this is just an example of bad journalistic work,” the judge concluded. Experts believe that the basis for Judge Bates’ decision was the constant publications in the press dedicated to Messrs. Friedman and Aven. “Moreover, the court takes into account publications not only in the United States, but also in Russia,” famous lawyer David Rivkin from Baker & Holl told Kommersant. “Donald Trump, for example, is also a public person, and it is quite difficult for him to fight with journalists in the United States.”

It was impossible to contact CPI representatives yesterday - their phones were turned off. Alfa Bank did not specify whether they would continue to sue American journalists. “The judge spoke quite sharply about the quality of the article that is the subject of the lawsuit,” Mikhail Grishin, head of the legal department of Alfa Bank, told Kommersant. “The plaintiffs will consult with their American lawyers to determine further steps.”

ALEXANDER Kommersant-Voronov, DMITRY Kommersant-SIDOROV, Washington