Gusinsky, Vladimir Alexandrovich

In 1969 (according to other sources - 1968 ^[5] ) he entered the Gubkin Institute of the Petrochemical and Gas Industry , but was expelled (according to various sources - in 1969 ^[5] , 1970 or in 1973 ^[6] ). He served in the army in 1973-1975 (according to some sources, in the chemical intelligence troops ^[6] , according to others - in the air defense forces ^[7] ).

In 1980, Vladimir Gusinsky graduated from the directing department of the GITIS named after A. Lunacharsky . He staged the diploma performance based on Moliere ’s play “Tartuffe” at the Regional Tula Theater.

According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta , in the early 1980s in Moscow he was in charge of the artistic production of the International Festival of Youth and Students in 1985, was the main director of the cultural program for foreign participants in the Goodwill Games , and worked as a private cab driver. ^[7]

In 1986, together with his friend Boris Hait, he created the Metal cooperative, which produced various items, from copper bracelets and women's jewelry to metal garages.

In 1988, Gusinsky founded the Infex cooperative, which was engaged in financial and legal advice, as well as political analysis commissioned by customers - mostly foreign.

In 1989, Infex and the American law firm Arnold and Porter formed the Most joint venture, registered May 24, 1989. In the JV Most, Infex owned half of the authorized capital. In October 1989, Most-Bank was established, and in 1992, the holding of Most Group, JSC, in the structure of which there were no foreign participants.

Since 1989 - General Director of JV Most, then President of Most Bank. In 1992, the MOST Group holding company was formed, which merged 42 enterprises controlled by Gusinsky. The bank of his holding (Most-Bank) sponsored the Ekho Moskvy radio station. ^{[8] [9] [10]} .

On October 19, 1996, the newspaper “ New Look ” in the newspaper Yevgeny Dodolev , the former head of the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation Alexander Korzhakov, published a statement from which it followed that Boris Berezovsky was persuading to kill Vladimir Gusinsky, as well as Yuri Luzhkov , Joseph Kobzon and Sergey Lisovsky ^{[11] [ 12] [13]} . Western media reacted to statements by the Russian newsmaker ^{[14] [15]} .

On January 27, 1997, he resigned as president of Most Bank and the general director of Most Group, and headed the holding of Media-Most CJSC (NTV, NTV-Plus , TNT , Segodnya newspaper, Itogi magazines , “ Seven days ”, “Caravan of stories”, radio “Echo of Moscow”) ^[16] .

In early 1993, the NTV television company was created. Money was invested in it by the banks “Stolichny” and “National Credit”. At the end of 1993, Most Bank offered a credit line to the popular Ekho Moskvy radio station in exchange for a 51% stake.

According to the decree of the Government of Russia in December 1993, Gusinsky was included in the commission on the development of the draft concept of the monetary system of Russia. In March 1994, Most Bank received confirmation of the status of an authorized bank of the Government of Moscow , and Gusinsky himself became chairman of the Council of Representatives of Authorized Banks (February 1994 - March 1997). Since April 1994 - Vice President of the Association of Russian Banks .

Since 1995 - Member of the Presidium of the Coordination Council of the All-Russian Association “Round Table of Russian Business”.

Dmitry Bykov, in the context of the scandal with the change of ownership of NTV, noted on the pages of the Moscow Komsomolka tabloid ^[17] :

All literate people in the country know that Gusinsky has two tactics. The first is to go under the strongest: it was tested in the fall of 1999, when NTVeshniki relied on the OVR block ... Gusinsky’s second tactic is self-immolation tactics.

Govorukhin , speaking at a plenary meeting of the State Duma, said, with reference to General Kulikov , that NTV, in fact, provided information support to the Chechen separatists ^[18] , in September 1999, Boris Berezovsky said during a press conference in Interfax that Gusinsky directly told him that NTV journalists supported the Chechen separatists and that the whole position of Gusinsky’s information company “in Chechnya was far from disinterested in the Chechen war” ^{[19] [20] [21]} . Alfred Koch recalled the following ^[22] :

I remember very well how, in the midst of the first Chechen war in 1995, NTV practically openly supported Chechen fighters, showing the atrocities of the federal authorities, but hiding the atrocities of the Mujahideen, which were at least no less, and they started much earlier, even before the open phase conflict.

As Alexander Korzhakov recalls, when in December 1994 Yeltsin did not like how the NTV showed the war in Chechnya, he ordered him to deal with Gusinsky ^{[23] [24]} . After that, employees of the Main Directorate of the Security of the Russian Federation from the special forces for protecting the President came to the office to Gusinsky (the former CMEA building opposite the White House) and Gusinsky had to leave for London for six months ^{[25] [26]} . The fact of pressure on the television company from the Yeltsin Kremlin is confirmed by Gusinsky himself ^[27] , as well as former NTV General Director Igor Malashenko ^[26] .

In January 1996, he was elected President of the Russian Jewish Congress (REC). Member of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress . ^[28]

On January 26, 1996, Vladimir Gusinsky was awarded the diploma of the Union of Journalists "For openness in relations with the press, for merits in the legal and social protection of journalists." Thus, his efforts to organize the NTV channel and the Today newspaper were noted.

In April 1996, together with Boris Berezovsky, he became the organizer and inspirer of the political statement of the “Group of Thirteen” .

Since October 1996 - Member of the Banking Council under the Government of the Russian Federation.

January 27, 2000 was elected Vice President of the World Jewish Congress from Eastern Europe and Russia.

On June 13, 2000, Gusinsky was arrested on charges of especially large-scale fraud and was placed in Butyrka prison , and on June 16 he was released on bail.

Gusinsky was suspected of committing a crime under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). The case was investigated directly by the General Prosecutor's Office . According to the official statement, “the investigation believes that as a result of a series of illegal actions Gusinsky, together with some heads of the Federal State Enterprise Russian State Company Russian Video, seized property worth at least ten million US dollars from state property.” The lawyers were G. Reznik and P. Astakhov ^[29] .

On November 13, 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that Vladimir Gusinsky was again assigned a preventive measure - “detention”.

In March 2009, the Vedomosti newspaper cited “an associate of the oligarch who wished to remain anonymous,” who was sure that “equal removal of the oligarchs” V.V. Putin began with Gusinsky because of Gusinsky’s reluctance to coordinate the NTV’s information policy with the Kremlin, as required then head of the presidential administration Alexander Voloshin : Gusinsky believed that the influence of his media conglomerate was so great that nothing could threaten him. ^[thirty]

On November 20, 2000, the Prosecutor General’s Office, desperate to find Gusinsky inside the country, stated that he had been put on the international wanted list. And on December 6, 2000, Russian Interpol asked for assistance in the capture of a businessman from the international bureau of this organization.

On December 12, 2000, Vladimir Gusinsky was detained by agents of the Spanish police in pursuance of an international arrest warrant. His case was referred to a court in Madrid , and Baltasar Garzon , who had been involved in the Pinochet case, was appointed judge. On December 22, 2000, the judge decided to release Gusinsky; Russian businessman’s lawyers paid a bail of five and a half million dollars.

In connection with the above events, Gusinsky appealed to the European Court of Human Rights . In 2004, a decision was made. ^[31] The court decided that, although the suspicion of a crime was justified, Gusinsky was unlawfully deprived of his liberty because:

In addition, based on Lesin’s signature on the contract, the Court held that the applicant’s freedom was not only restricted in order to appear before the competent authority, but also for other purposes.

On January 22, 2001, Spanish justice was given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a detailed statement of the position that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office intends to use to justify the need to extradite the head of the Media Most holding, Vladimir Gusinsky.

The case of Gusinsky’s extradition to the Russian law-enforcement bodies was submitted by the Council of Ministers of Spain on January 19, 2001 to the judge Baltasar Garzon.

The final decision of the Spanish court refused to extradite Gusinsky to Russia.

On November 14, 2011 , speaking in the Commercial Court of London as a witness at the trial in a lawsuit filed by Boris Berezovsky against Roman Abramovich , the former head of the Presidential Administration Alexander Voloshin denied the information that Gusinsky allegedly sold Gazprom his Media-MOST media holding under pressure, in exchange for the removal of criminal charges. Despite the fact that many circumstances indicate the opposite, Voloshin believes that this was a voluntary transaction ^[32] .

Mother - Lilia Yanovna, father - Alexander Savelyevich.

He met his current wife Elena Gusinsky at work. Elena worked in the legal department of the Most group and advised her future spouse on various issues of law. Sons - Stanislav, Vladimir and Daniil Gusinsky.

In total, Vladimir Gusinsky has four sons. The eldest son from his first marriage, Ilya Gusinsky, went to Stanford University to study economics and finance.

• Order of Friendship of Peoples (August 5, 1994) - for his great contribution to the implementation of the program for the construction of residential buildings, industrial and social facilities ^{[33] [34]}
• Cavalier of the Legion of Honor ( France )
• Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation (July 25, 1996) - for active participation in organizing and conducting the election campaign of the President of the Russian Federation in 1996 ^[35]
• Winner of the TEFI Prize (1999)
• The award weapon is the 5.45 mm PSM pistol, received in 1994 "for services to the Fatherland" from the government of the Russian Federation, which he voluntarily surrendered on July 12, 2000 ^[36]

• Vladimir Alexandrovich Gusinsky on Peoples.ru
• Vladimir Gusinsky sold RTVi to Russian media holding Zvezda
• "Media" by Vladimir Gusinsky. A chapter from the book of A. Chernyak “Oligarchs and Plutocrats”.