Why is Abramovich rich? Abramovich Roman Arkadievich

The businessman showed business acumen during his military service.

It is believed that Abramovich’s biography is strikingly different from the biographies of most of his neighbors in Russian Forbes.

Mostly major modern politicians and businessmen are the children of Soviet party and economic functionaries. And Roman Abramovich seems to fall out of this circle - he was born in 1966 in Saratov (his father’s parents were deported there from Lithuania), and was orphaned early. His mother died when the boy was one and a half years old, and three years later his father died at a construction site.

However, a closer look reveals that Abramovich's wealth is rooted in total Soviet corruption.

Uncle's "son"

In Jewish and Caucasian clans, it is not customary to send children to orphanages - this is a disgrace for the entire clan (the titular nation has a lot to learn here). Therefore, the boy was taken to the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, where his uncle lived Leiba. Uncle held the grain position of head of the labor supply department of Pechorles in Ukhta, but later on family council relatives decided that it was better for the child to be raised in the capital, and ten-year-old Roma was taken in by his Moscow uncle Abram. So a native of provincial Saratov graduated from a very good school No. 232 in the center of Moscow.

Despite his good connections, Abramovich served two years in the army, although not in the actual difficult place. The quiet, polite soldier is still remembered by his colleagues in the auto platoon of the artillery regiment in Kirzhach Vladimir region, where he served in 1984-86. How can you not remember this!

One day his unit was ordered to cut down a section of forest in short time. Abramovich, skilled in forestry, came up with the idea of dividing this land into squares and... sold it local residents for firewood, warning that they must chop quickly, otherwise the deal could be cancelled.

In addition, Roman tried to get a higher education, but did not seem to succeed. There are traces of him in the archives of the Ukhta Industrial Institute (back to Uncle Leiba!) - but after the army he did not return there. Later he was spotted in the “kerosene stove” - the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas. THEM. Gubkin (now - Russian State University of Oil and Gas - ed.), but did not reach the diploma here either. Interesting times were coming, and very unexpected prospects opened up for the young student.

Big game

Where can I spend my time studying? And for a “normal” job too. Abramovich worked briefly as a mechanic at SU No. 122 of the Mosspetsmontazh trust - in the absence of vocational education, his army specialty helped - but after that he was not noticed in any activity “for mere mortals”.

People who knew Abramovich in those years have become surprisingly silent today, but the refrain of their few statements is: “He was interested in everything that could make money.” And, apparently, this “everything” did not always remain within the framework of the Criminal Code.

Roman Arkadyevich himself, however, does not admit any sins to himself, and connects his initial capital with the Uyut cooperative, which produced bright plastic toys for children in the late 1980s. Later, Uyut employees became the backbone of Sibneft managers during the Abramovich era. The toys, according to our hero, sold so well in Moscow clothing markets that he even paid taxes.

“Uyut” was followed by “AVK”, “Company “Supertechnology-Shishmarev”, JSC “Elita”, JSC “Petroltrans”, JSC “GID”, the company “NPR” - all these offices resold petroleum products from the north of Russia, because their uncle’s connections in Komi they worked properly.

True, a small misfire occurred in June 1992, when 25-year-old Roma was arrested - someone stole 55 cars of diesel fuel from the almost native Ukhta oil refinery, intended for Russian army. But soon the young man was released, and the situation with the carriages remains mysterious to this day. They stole on such a scale back then that there was neither time nor desire to investigate such trifles.

Soon, Abramovich continued his research in the field of oil resale - for example, from 1993 to 1996, he was the head of the Moscow branch of the Swiss company RUNICOM S.A., created specifically to obtain hydrocarbons on the cheap.

Fourth father

Around the same 1993, somewhere on vacation from the labors of the righteous and stone dungeons, Roman met Boris Berezovsky– already an experienced entrepreneur 20 years older. For some time, of course, Berezovsky was his “fourth father” (after Arkady, Leiba and Abram Abramovich). Since 1994 they have become partners.

Berezovsky's political weight was already quite high - and friendship with him actually gave Abramovich a first-class ticket to the Russian business elite.

In 1995-96, friends, using loans-for-shares auctions, acquired the powerful Sibneft for a ridiculous $100 million (in 2011, Abramovich said in court that this happened with violations of the law, as if someone had illusions about this) - and Abramovich became the person we know today.

A quarter of a century after this, Abramovich and Berezovsky in a London court will publicly discuss the meaning of the term krysha - which is what Boris was for Roman.

REFERENCE. It should be emphasized that Roman Abramovich is in no way an oligarch, that is, not a person who, thanks to money, gained power or influence on government (typical examples are Donald Trump, Boris Berezovsky). Unlike most other billionaires, Abramovich was never interested in power at all: he only used his connections for personal commercial purposes. This also includes his Chukotka governorship: it became a kind of social burden for Roman Arkadyevich, but in no case a step towards a political career. He was only interested in money.

Let's summarize. The launching pad for Roman Abramovich was the reliable connections of the Jewish clan to which he belongs, the maximum possible disregard for laws under those conditions and, of course, his own ingenuity. He cannot be called self-made - he always relied on someone, used someone, deceived someone. Otherwise, however, in the early 1990s it was impossible to rise.

In the army there is such a thing as a “demobilization chord.” This is when a soldier leaving the army must do something useful for his unit. And until he completes this work, he cannot leave. The idea is clear, a person dreams of getting home, he strives with all his might to do everything faster. Roman, with a group of similar comrades finishing their service, was tasked with cutting a clearing in the forest for the future road. Work - for several months. And they want to go home. Question for everyone, what would you do?

I’ll tell you what Roma came up with.

He divided the forest that they had to cut down into equal squares, and went to the nearest village. And there, as usual, there are stoves in the houses, everyone has problems with firewood. He said that he was selling the right to cut down forest on the site entrusted to him. And each of the squares was sold. The whole village rushed to cut down the forest. Two days later the entire clearing was cut down. And on the third day, Roman Abramovich went home, saying goodbye to his unit forever. He divided the money into three parts. He gave one to the remaining officers. The second, to friends who still had to serve. And the third pile was divided among themselves by the participants of the demobilization chord. There was a lot of money.

Here's the story. Like from Roman Abramovich to Soviet times the businessman pecked out.

but these are all “buns”,

IN early years Abramovich had plans ripening in his head on how to quickly get rich. While serving as an ordinary soldier, he showed miracles of enterprise. Roman exchanged gasoline from military drivers for cakes and candies, and then sold the “saved” fuel to the officers of his unit.

His army friend Nikolai Panteleimonov spoke about this episode from the biography of the billionaire.

We somehow immediately became friends with Roma,” says Nikolai. - We served in the Vladimir region, in the town of Kirzhach, in a missile unit.

According to Nikolai, the entrepreneurial spirit of the future oligarch was evident in literally everything.

At the age of 20, Roma came up with things that other soldiers had never even dreamed of. This is truly an unusually cunning man. Even then he could get money out of thin air. At that time, a soldier's salary was 7 rubles a month. It is clear that you also want to eat not only soldier’s porridge, and go to the cinema while on leave. So Roma came up with a cunning scheme. So that the soldiers would drain the fuel a little at night from each vehicle and hide the canisters in a designated place. He himself did not participate in this: he was covered, so to speak, from all sides.
Cunning
Colleagues of the future oligarch “supplied” him with barrels of gasoline

As soon as it got dark, a group of soldiers headed with canisters to the garage with military equipment. They carefully drained 5-7 liters of fuel from each car so that the next morning there would be no noticeable lack of gasoline. Then they left the containers in the designated area of the forest belt and left.

At that time, a liter of gasoline cost 40 kopecks, recalls Abramovich’s former colleague. - Roma sold fuel to the officers of our unit for 20 kopecks. Moreover, they guessed where this gasoline came from, but remained silent. After all, everyone benefits from this: people fill up their Lada cars at half the price, and the soldiers receive a little money for personal needs. Abramovich kept it for himself most arrived, and he rewarded his assistants with ice cream or cake for their work. Everyone was happy.

Roma became the management's confidant on all issues. Even then it was clear that he would not be lost in life. But his colleagues could not even imagine that he would be one of the richest people in the world...

Roman Abramovich born October 24, 1966 in Saratov. Roman's parents lived in Syktyvkar (Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). Father - Arkady (Aron) Nakhimovich Abramovich worked in the Syktyvkar Economic Council, died as a result of an accident at a construction site when Roman was 4 years old. Mother - Irina Vasilievna (nee Mikhailenko) died when Roman was 1.5 years old.

Before the war, Abramovich’s father’s parents, Nakhim (Nakhman) and Toibe, lived in Lithuania, in the city of Taurage. In June 1941, the Abramovich family and their children were deported to Siberia. The couple ended up in different carriages and lost each other. Nakhim Abramovich died at hard labor. Toibe was able to raise three sons - Roman's father and his two uncles. In 2006, the municipality of Taurage invited Roman Abramovich to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the city. Roman Abramovich's maternal grandmother Faina Borisovna Grutman (1906-1991) evacuated to Saratov with her three-year-old daughter Irina from Ukraine in the first days of the Great Patriotic War.

Taken into the family of his father's brother, Leib Abramovich, Roman spent a significant part of his youth in the city of Ukhta (Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), where he worked as the head of the Pechorles labor supply department at KomilesURS.

In 1974 Roman moved to Moscow, to his second uncle - Abram Abramovich. In 1983 he graduated from school. Military service in 1984-1986 he served in the auto platoon of an artillery regiment (Kirzhach, Vladimir region).

Data about higher education contradictory - they are called the Ukhta Industrial Institute and the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas. Gubkin - however, he apparently did not finish any of them. In the current official biography Abramovich graduated from the Moscow State Law Academy in 2001.

Roman Abramovich: first steps in business

Roman Abramovich began his career in 1987 as a mechanic in the construction department No. 122 of the Mosspetsmontazh trust. Abramovich himself tells how, while studying at the institute, he simultaneously organized the Uyut cooperative: “We made toys from polymers. Those guys with whom we worked in the cooperative later formed the management team of Sibneft, then for some time I was a broker on the stock exchange.” They sold products in Moscow markets (including Luzhniki), which allowed them to make a profit in cash and pay taxes at that time.

In 1992-1995 he created 5 companies: Individual private enterprise “Firm “Supertechnology-Shishmarev”, JSC “Elite”, JSC “Petroltrans”, JSC “GID”, company “NPR”, engaged in the production of consumer goods and intermediary activities. During his business activities, Abramovich repeatedly attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies. Thus, on June 19, 1992, Roman Abramovich was taken into custody on suspicion of stealing 55 cars with diesel fuel from the Ukhtinsky oil refinery in the amount of about 4 million rubles. There is no information about the results of the investigation.

In 1993, Roman Abramovich continued his commercial activities, in particular the sale of oil from the city of Noyabrsk. From 1993 to 1996, he was the head of the Moscow branch of the Swiss company RUNICOM S.A.

Roman Abramovich and Sibneft

Roman Abramovich's entry into the big oil business is connected with Boris Berezovsky and the latter’s struggle for possession OJSC Sibneft. In May 1995, Berezovsky and Abramovich created P.K.-Trust CJSC.

The years 1995-1996 were fruitful for Abramovich in creating new companies. He establishes 10 more companies: Mekong CJSC, Centurion-M CJSC, Agrofert LLC, Multitrans CJSC, Oilimpex CJSC, Sibreal CJSC, Forneft CJSC, Servet CJSC, Branko CJSC, LLC Vector-A", which together with Berezovsky used to acquire shares of Sibneft OJSC. In June 1996, Roman Abramovich joined the board of directors of JSC Noyabrskneftegaz (one of the companies included in Sibneft), and also became the head of the Moscow representative office of Sibneft.

Having set themselves the goal of taking over the Sibneft company, Roman Abramovich and his companions used the proven method of a “shares-for-shares auction.” It should be noted that the law did not at all provide for such a method of privatization as the alienation of state property taken as collateral. On September 20, 1996, an investment competition was held for the sale of a state-owned stake of 19% of Sibneft shares. The winner is ZAO Firma Sins. On October 24, 1996, an investment competition was held for the sale of another 15% of Sibneft shares, which were in state ownership. The winner is CJSC Refine-Oil. On May 12, 1997, a commercial tender was held for the sale of a state-owned stake in 51% of Sibneft shares. And Abramovich's firms won again. All these companies arose shortly before the competitions. In 1996-1997 Roman Abramovich was the director of the Moscow branch of OJSC Sibneft. Since September 1996 - member of the Board of Directors of Sibneft.

In the late 1980s - early 1990s, he was engaged in small business (production, then intermediary and trading operations), subsequently switching to oil trading activities. Later became close to Boris Berezovsky and family Russian President Boris Yeltsin. It is believed that it was thanks to these connections that Abramovich later managed to obtain ownership of the Sibneft oil company. (see below for more details).

Roman Abramovich and Chukotka

In 1999 became a State Duma deputy for the Chukotka District. It was in Chukotka that companies affiliated with Sibneft were registered, through which its oil and petroleum products were sold.

In the Duma he did not join any of the factions. Since February 2000 - member of the State Duma Committee on Problems of the North and Far East.

In December 2000 he left the Duma due to his election to post of governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. According to media reports, he invested considerable own funds in the development of the region and improving the living standards of the local population.

In 2003, he suddenly became interested in football, lost interest in Chukotka, and bought himself English for £140 million. football club Chelsea and actually moved to live in the UK. In October 2005, he sold his stake (75.7%) in the Sibneft company to Gazprom for $13.1 billion and tried several times to resign from the governor’s post, but each time after a meeting with President Putin he was forced to abandon his intention.

On October 16, 2005, Vladimir Putin nominated Abramovich for reappointment to the governor's post; On October 21, 2005, the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug approved him in office.

Was married twice. The first wife is Olga Yuryevna Lysova, a native of the city of Astrakhan. The second wife is Irina (nee Malandina), a former flight attendant. Abramovich has five children from his second marriage. In March 2007, he was divorced by the Chukotka District Court, at his place of registration. According to the press secretary of the governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the former spouses agreed on the division of property and who their five children would stay with.

On July 3, 2008, Russian President D. A. Medvedev prematurely terminated the powers of the governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug with the wording of his own free will.

On July 13, 2008, deputies of the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug asked Roman Abramovich to become a deputy and head the district Duma.

On October 12, 2008, in the by-elections he became a deputy of the Chukotka Duma, gaining 96.99% of the votes.

On October 22, 2008, he was elected to the post of Chairman of the Duma of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Deputies supported Roman Abramovich's candidacy unanimously.

What does he own?

Roman Abramovich together with his partners through a holding company registered in the UKMillhouse Capitaluntil 2002 controlled more than 80% " Sibneft", the fifth largest Russian oil company, 50% of the aluminum company " Russian Aluminum"(RusAl) and 26% of the company" Aeroflot" Through intermediary firms, according to some sources, Abramovich’s “holding” includes power plants, factories for the production of cars and trucks, buses, paper mills, banks and Insurance companies V different regions Russia. This “holding” accounts for 3 to 4% of Russia’s GDP.

Recently, Roman Abramovich has become the owner of a controlling stake in a London football clubChelsea.

Forbes magazine based on the results of 2001 named Abramovich the second richest man in Russia, with a fortune estimated at about $3 billion, in 2002. second place again remained with him, but the size of his fortune increased to $5.7 billion. According to the British magazine EuroBusiness , the condition of Roman Abramovich based on the results of 2002. reached a value of 3.3 billion euros.

During 2003-2005, Abramovich sold his stakes in Aeroflot, Russian Aluminum, Irkutskenergo and Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station, RusPromAvto - and, finally, Sibneft.

Interesting Facts

In January - May 1998, the first unsuccessful attempt to create a united company, Yuksi, based on the merger of Sibneft and YUKOS, took place, the completion of which was prevented by the ambitions of the owners.

According to some information, the divergence of business and political interests of Abramovich and Berezovsky, which subsequently ended in a breakdown in relations, dates back to the same time.

In November 1998, the first mention of Abramovich appeared in the media (at the same time for a long time even his photographs were missing) - the dismissed head of the Presidential Security Service, Alexander Korzhakov, called him the treasurer of President Yeltsin’s inner circle (the so-called “family”). Information has become public that Abramovich pays the expenses of the president’s daughter Tatyana Dyachenko and her future husband Valentin Yumashev, was involved in financing Yeltsin’s election campaign in 1996, and is lobbying for government appointments.

In December 1999, Abramovich became a State Duma deputy from the Chukotka constituency No. 223. A year later he won the gubernatorial elections in Chukotka, having received over 90% of the votes, and resigns from his parliamentary powers. Abramovich brings his managers from Sibneft with him to Chukotka and invests significant funds of his own in improving the living conditions of local residents.

In 2000, Abramovich, together with Oleg Deripaska, created the Russian Aluminum company, and also became co-owners of Irkutskenergo, the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station and the RusPromAvto automotive holding (production of passenger cars and trucks, buses and road construction equipment).

At the end of 2000, Abramovich bought a stake in ORT (42.5%) from Boris Berezovsky and resold it to Sberbank six months later. In the spring of 2001, Sibneft shareholders bought a blocking stake in Aeroflot (26%).

In May 2001, the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia initiated several criminal cases against the management of Sibneft at the request of State Duma deputies on the basis of an act of the Accounts Chamber on violations during the privatization of Sibneft, but already in August 2001 the investigation was terminated due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

In the summer of 2001, Abramovich was included for the first time in the list of the richest people according to Forbes magazine with a fortune of $14 billion.

In October 2001, it became officially known that the shareholders of Sibneft created the company Millhouse Capital, registered in London and which received management of all their assets. The chairman of the board of directors of Millhouse becomes the president of Sibneft, Shvidler.

In December 2002, Sibneft, together with TNK, purchased at auction 74.95% of the shares of the Russian-Belarusian company Slavneft (previously, Sibneft bought another 10% of the shares from Belarus) and subsequently divided its assets among themselves.

In the summer of 2003, Abramovich bought the struggling English football club Chelsea, paid off its debts and filled the team with expensive players, which was widely reported in the media in Britain and in Russia, where he was accused of investing Russian money in foreign sports .

Starting from the second half of 2003, the Sibneft company was subject to inspections by the Prosecutor General's Office regarding the legality of the acquisition in December 1995 of a stake in a number of companies - Noyabrskneftegazgeofiziki, Noyabrskneftegaz, Omsk Oil Refinery and Omsknefteprodukt, and in March 2004 by the Ministry of Taxes and collections brought tax claims against Sibneft for 2000-2001 in the amount of about one billion dollars. Later it became known that the amount of tax debt was reduced tax authorities more than tripled, and the debt itself has already been returned to the budget.

In 2003, there was another attempt to merge Sibneft and the YUKOS company, which failed at the initiative of Abramovich after the arrest of Khodorkovsky and the presentation of multibillion-dollar tax claims to YUKOS.

How did Roman Abramovich become rich? It's all about the mindset

Roman Abramovich. There is a lot to learn from him.

I have always wondered how Roman Abramovich became so famous and rich. Here I met very interesting text on the topic in the live journal of user t-yumasheva. And this is what she writes:

When I was at the Transit club, where we talked about the nineties, at some point there was a discussion about why some people become rich and others don’t. One young man, I think his name was Pavel, remembered interesting detail, as he and his company played something like Monopoly, the point of the game is that along the way someone becomes rich, and someone goes broke. And it turned out that no matter how they sat down, no matter how they changed the rules of the game, the same ones always won, while others lost.

In this regard, I remembered a similar story. A long time ago, when I just started being friends with Roman Abramovich, he told me one funny story from his army background. After two years of service, he should have left for civilian life. But in the army there is such a thing as a “demobilization chord”. This is when a soldier leaving the army must do something useful for his unit. And until he completes this work, he cannot leave. The idea is clear, a person dreams of getting home, he strives with all his might to do everything faster. I asked my husband, he also served, did he have anything similar? And although he served ten years earlier and thousands of kilometers from the place where Roman served, he also had his own demobilization chord. Before leaving for civilian life, he had to launch new communications equipment (he served as a signalman). But for Roma, the demobilization chord turned out to be quite difficult. He, with a group of similar comrades finishing their service, was tasked with cutting a clearing in the forest for the future road. Work - for several months. And they want to go home. Question for everyone, what would you do?

I’ll tell you what Roma came up with. He divided the forest they had to cut down into equal squares and went to the nearest village. And there, as usual, there are stoves in the houses, everyone has problems with firewood. He said that he was selling the right to cut down forest on the site entrusted to him. And each of the squares was sold. The whole village rushed to cut down the forest. Two days later the entire clearing was cut down. And on the third day, Roman Abramovich went home, saying goodbye to his unit forever. I asked what you did with the money. He said he divided it into three parts. He gave one to the remaining officers. The second, to friends who still had to serve. And the third pile was divided among themselves by the participants of the demobilization chord. There was a lot of money.

Here's the story. How a businessman was pecked out of Roman Abramovich in Soviet times.

To be honest, I am very impressed by Abramovich’s brilliant management and have already begun to apply his method in practice. What would I have done if I had not known about this story if I were Roma? Most likely, I would have taken a larger ax and gone to hack the forest with triple strength. I'm a maniac. But the whole problem is that no matter how crazy I am, I still have 168 hours a week, of which I need to sleep for some time. You understand? In 100 hours, even very hard work, you can’t do much on your own.

He saw the need of the people, he saw his problem - the forest. He found a great solution. I earned some money and solved two big problems at once. Firewood for the people, clearing for the management.

In general, after stories like this, you begin to look at billionaires differently. With much more respect. And not at all because large quantity money. Especially those who achieved their own successes, and did not saw off Soviet state-owned enterprises.

A few years later he becomes a deputy in the Chukotka district. Exactly one year later in 2000, he was elected to the post of governor.

A little more time passes, and Roman Abramovich buys himself the Chelsea football club and begins to earn quite a bit of money from it. In 2005, he decided to sell shares of Sibneft for $13 billion, while at the same time contemplating leaving the post of governor. In 2008, Roman Abramovich left the post of governor with the permission of Medvedev.

First steps to success

At first, Abramovich worked in the construction department as a mechanic. Then he was a stockbroker for some time. And he succeeded, and even then he received good money. Abramovich was spinning around as best he could and did not sit in one place. In the 90s, Roman created several companies engaged in consumer goods and intermediary activities.

Big business

While engaged in the sale of oil, Abramovich contacted Boris Berezovsky and together they created the Closed Joint Stock Company “P.K.-Trust”. Then Roman created a dozen more oil companies and eventually became the director of Sibneft. He and his companions developed a whole strategy for this. This was Roman Abramovich’s plan to get rich.

Roman Abramovich was the governor of Kamchatka. IN given time Roman has up to 20 billion dollars, not counting what he has. This is real estate, factories, a football club, several planes, helicopters, expensive cars, yachts, and even an island in the Caribbean. In general, Abramovich is great. This is a person who achieved his goals and went through many difficulties that not everyone can cope with.