Gaydamak, Arkady Alexandrovich

Born in Moscow. He spent his school years at Butyrsky Khutor . In 1972, he repatriated to Israel , where in 1998 he took the name Arie Bar-Lev ( Hebrew אריה בר לב ) ^{[8] [9] [10]} .

For some time he lived in a kibbutz .

In 1973 he moved to France , where in 1976 he created a translation bureau that served mainly Soviet missions. In 1982, he also established a branch in Canada .

In the 1980s, he established relations with the Angolan government, which sold weapons to fight the rebels, despite the international embargo . After the collapse of the USSR, it invested in various projects in the post-Soviet territory.

In 2000, France was accused of illegally selling arms to Angola ^[11] ( Angolagate ), in connection with which Gaydamak fled to Israel, where he bought a house in Caesarea . Israel refused to extradite Gaydamak to France.

In Israel, he acquired a number of enterprises and sports teams, such as the Beitar Jerusalem football club , and the Jerusalem Hapoel basketball team sponsored it.

In 2005, his name appeared in reports of Israeli police investigating money laundering through Apoalim Bank ^[12] .

He was a co-owner of the Russian Investment Company Antanta Capital, which existed in 2003-2008.

In 2006, he bought the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper, the publication of which was suspended on January 1, 2008, and the newspaper’s employees were fired, which was explained by the unprofitability of the publication ^[13] .

In March 2007, he was, among other persons, including former high-ranking French officials, officially accused by the French Prosecutor General of "illegal arms transfers to Angola and corruption" ^[14] .

Between 2007 and April 2009, he owned the United Media media holding, which included Kino FM radio stations (Moscow), Business FM radio stations (Moscow, St. Petersburg), and the Business and Financial Markets newspaper (closed in the first half of 2008) and the Internet portal “BFM.RU” ^[15] .

He took part in the domestic politics of Israel, creating the movement "Social Justice" (צדק חברתי). The first congress of the movement was held in Jerusalem in July 2007 , where Gaydamak announced that he would seek the resignation of the government of Ehud Olmert and support the leader of the Likud party , Benjamin Netanyahu . However, according to the Israeli press in March 2008, he became close to Netanyahu's antipode, Amir Peretz , a representative of the left wing of the Avoda party.

In April 2008, he rejected, as politically motivated, the allegations of fraud against his business partners; the claims related to a deal between the governments of Angola and Russia in 1996–2000 , in which, through the mediation of Gaydamak, Angola’s public debt to the USSR was restructured and reduced by more than 3 times: from 5 to 1.5 billion dollars ^[16] . Soon he made public accusations of “some police officers” who “commit arbitrariness and thereby violate the law” ^[17] .

According to press reports ^[18] , it is providing financial assistance to the process of transferring the building of the Sergius Compound in the center of Jerusalem to the Imperial Palestinian Orthodox Society .

July 30, 2008 officially nominated ^[19] his candidacy for mayor of Jerusalem, but lost with a very low result ^[20] .

On December 19, 2008, according to press reports ^[21] , Arkady Gaydamak left the state of Israel, having paid a security deposit to various enterprises in Israel.

On February 11, 2009, the French prosecutor's office demanded as part of a lawsuit in the case of arms deliveries to Angola, bypassing the six-year embargo for businessmen Arkady Gaydamak and Pierre Falcon, and a year in prison for the son of ex-President of France Francois Mitterrand Jean-Christophe; in addition, the prosecution insisted on a fine of 5 million euros for Gaydamak ^{[22] [23]} .

On February 26, 2009, it was reported that Gaydamak filed an official application for Russian citizenship ^{[24] [25]} .

On October 27, 2009, he was recognized in absentia by the Correctional Court of Paris, together with French businessman Pierre-Joseph Falcon, guilty of organizing illegal arms transfers to Angola from 1993 to 1998 and sentenced to six years in prison ^{[26] [27] [28]} . Also convicted under the Angolagate , former Minister of the Interior Charles Pasqua after the trial stated, in particular, that Arkady Gaydamak was an agent of the French counterintelligence DST ( Direction de la surveillance du territoire ) ^[29] .

In November 2009, in an interview with the Russian newspaper Vedomosti , in particular, he stated that the prosecution in France was “pure politics”, that he “had never worked for the KGB ,” he had “long been acquainted” with the former Israeli intelligence chief Mossad Dani Yatomom , “helped Leviev establish the diamond trade from Angola”, that in 2000 “he had to go to Russia” (not Israel), that he “had no fortune”, “had no business in Russia” (“everything had to be sold” ) that he “has great respect for Russia, but did not apply for citizenship”, and also: “I spirit of a Parisian , not necessarily have to be French to be Parisian. I’d even return to France now. This is my country, I have lived in it all my conscious life. If it was up to me, I would certainly return there today ” ^[30] .

• Son - Israeli-French businessman Alexander Gaydamak, born in 1976.
• Daughter - Katya born in 1983.
• Daughter - Sonya born in 1985.

• Order of Merit ( France ) ^[31]
• Cavalier of the Order of Agricultural Merit (France) ^[31] .
• Prize of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (2003)

• Eldar Guskov . The empire and the prison of Gaydamak Radio Liberty , 01.24.2016