Lugovskoy Nikolai Ivanovich worked at a winery. Lugovskoy Nikolay Petrovich

Sergey Kanev

The once influential businessman Nikolai Lugovskoy, who was part of the so-called inner circle from 1993 to 2000 Yeltsin, never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remains of his business were put up for auction and he found himself on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and how much for United Russia, what connects Sberbank and a gang kidnapping businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

Inner circle

I courted Nikolai Lugovsky for four long years, but he still did not agree to an interview. And then he called and asked to come to Saratov. To be honest, I didn’t recognize the once successful and cheerful businessman: he had lost weight, walked with a cane, and there was anxiety in his eyes.

Now I don’t care anymore - Nikolai drags his left leg. - I’ll tell you everything about my life, and you write it down. I was killed and robbed so many times, but I didn’t give up...

- How did you get into Yeltsin’s inner circle?

During the Soviet Union, I was the head of the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz supply base. I built workshops, roads, viaducts, and I was awarded the medal “For the Development of Siberia.” Once, can you imagine, I almost froze on the march. Later, through business, I met Viktor Khrolenko, and we supplied vodka to Russia. He was the one who handled these matters, with Tanya Yeltsina and with her husband Yumashev was a good friend and constantly communicated with Korzhakov. Through them, Khrolenko had access to Yeltsin, and so I entered the very top circle of friends. I myself knew Tanya’s second husband well - Leonida Dyachenko, - and he visited me more than once in Switzerland.

I often went on cruises on the Mediterranean Sea, where all our elite gathered together with their bosses. Leshchenko, Vinokur, Zhvanetsky, Dolina performed there, and the deceased organized it all Vladislav Listyev.

-What kind of officials were these?

I knew the characteristics of everyone, whether they were big bosses or bandits, but I avoided them. My task was business.

- And about your daughter Tatyana?

What can I tell you about Tanya? The fact that they gave her a Zhiguli and she took the gifts? To her Berezovsky gave her a Zhiguli, and she was happy. It happened before my eyes. He then sent hundreds of them abroad. Then everything was different. Although Yeltsin himself didn’t act out, he was such a drunken shirt.

- How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin’s entourage?

To the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets the first time Berezovsky was started by Vitya Khrolenko, and then they appeared Roman Abramovich and this whole company.

- Did you sponsor Yeltsin’s book “Notes of the President”?

Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the circulation in Finland, and we would print the other half in America. They took $100 thousand of my personal money.

- Did Yeltsin thank you?

Certainly. Vitya Khrolenko and I came to see him in the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked us for the book and poured it into our wine glass, about two hundred grams. He drank it himself, but Vitya and I just took a sip. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured out our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o’clock in the morning. Then, with a drunken hand, he wrote an autograph on the book and tore the page with a fountain pen.

Viktor Khrolenko was born in Abakan in 1953, in 1971 he entered the Moscow Higher Border School of the KGB of the USSR, but then transferred to Moscow State University. In the late 80s, he began publishing and distributing books abroad by Soviet writers Yuri Trifonov and Vladimir Soloukhin, as well as albums by the artist Ilya Glazunov. He sponsored the recording of Boris Grebenshchikov's first English-language album, Radio Silence, and at one time was the owner of the Manhattan Express nightclub in the Rossiya Hotel. In 1988, he took part in organizing a joint project of the magazines Ogonyok and Life and teleconferences between the USSR and the USA (the Posner-Donahue project). At the end of the 80s he met Boris Yeltsin, and after the collapse of the USSR he founded a company in the USA Belka Trading, engaged in the sale of cigarettes, vodka, oil and non-ferrous metals.

In 1998, the FBI became interested in the activities of Belka Trading and East Coast Petroleum, and a big scandal broke out. Khrolenko and the president's former son-in-law Leonid Dyachenko were featured on the pages of major American newspapers, and they had to testify before the Grand Jury in the United States.

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK" (iron ore mining in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

From left to right: Naina Yeltsin, Valery Okulov, Leonid Dyachenko, Katya Okulova, Elena Okulova, Boris Yeltsin, Boris Yeltsin Jr., Maria Okulova, Tatyana Dyachenko

Leonid Dyachenko's business interests were previously focused on oil production in the Komi Republic: he was a member of the management of Dinyu LLC, Komineftegeofizika OJSC, NK Dulisma CJSC and Petrosakh JSC, and in 2001, Land was stolen from the former son-in-law of the president Cruiser, and to the arriving operatives he introduced himself as the vice president of Ukhtaneft.

The Insider was unable to contact Dyachenko and Khrolenko.

Abroad

- Tell us how a criminal case was opened against you.

Then the oil workers gave oil to the city executive committees, but they did not know what to do with it. I collected a million tons of oil for export, Soskovets signed the papers, and then returned the difference. And there was half a billion dollars in net earnings. Soskovets received $400 thousand for this, I sent him money from the States.

Then I transported diesel fuel from Ryazan supposedly to Kaliningrad. But after Smolensk, they turned the trains into Lithuania, into seaports, and then they were caught all the way in Australia. In short, these trains traveled all over the world. And some of the trains were caught, as I said, in Smolensk; the documents were supposedly filled out incorrectly. They drew me an article about an attempt at smuggling, the case was led by investigator Markov.

Vidmanov said at first that he would return it, and then he said that everything was spent on the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

The mentioned Viktor Vidmanov was called in the media a “red oligarch” and the purse of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. For a long time he headed the Rosagropromstroy corporation, and his son Oleg was related to ASB Bank and its subsidiary in Cyprus.

Plan:

1 Biography
2 Participation in WWII
3 Awards
4 Memory

Introduction

Lugovskoy Nikolai Petrovich- participant of the Great Patriotic War, commander of the rifle battalion of the 1124th rifle regiment of the 334th rifle division of the 43rd army of the 1st Baltic Front, Hero of the Soviet Union, captain.

1. Biography

Born on December 1 (14), 1911 in the village of Revuche, now Tolochinsky district, Vitebsk region of Belarus, into a peasant family.

Nationality - Belarusian.

In 1932 he graduated from the Moscow Electrical Technical College. He worked at enterprises in the capital of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata (now Almaty).

In the Red Army since 1939.

2. Participation in the Second World War

Participant of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941.

In 1942 he graduated from the Gomel Infantry School.

Member of the CPSU(b) since 1942.

The rifle battalion of the 1124th Rifle Regiment (334th Rifle Division, 43rd Army, 1st Baltic Front) under the command of Captain Nikolai Lugovsky on June 23, 1944, breaking through enemy defenses, overthrew the enemy and liberated the villages of Gur and Ermaki, Shumilinsky District, Vitebsk regions of Belarus.

Then, in one day, the battalion repulsed nine enemy counterattacks and, skillfully maneuvering, went behind enemy lines and liberated two more villages in the Vitebsk region.

On June 24, 1944, the battalion entrusted to Captain Lugovsky N.P. approached the Western Dvina River and immediately crossed it. Having gained a foothold on the left bank, Soviet soldiers successfully repelled numerous counterattacks of the Nazis.

In these battles, Lugovsky's battalion destroyed twelve tanks, seventeen guns, forty vehicles with cargo and a large number of enemy soldiers and officers.

The battalion commander N.P. Lugovskoy showed exceptional courage, bravery and heroism.

He was buried in the village of Beshenkovichi, Beshenkovichi district, Vitebsk region of Belarus.

3. Awards

Hero of the Soviet Union, Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 22, 1944, posthumously.

4. Memory

An obelisk of the Hero was erected in the village of Beshenkovichi. One of the streets of this village and the Drutskaya 8-year-old school in the Tolochin district of the Vitebsk region bear his name.

Sources

Lugovskoy, Nikolai Petrovich on the website “Heroes of the Country”

Code of historical and cultural monuments of Belarus. - Minsk: BelSE im. Petrusya Brovki, 1985. - 496 p. - 8000 copies.(In Belarusian language)

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This abstract is based on an article from Russian Wikipedia. Synchronization completed 07/17/11 08:12:10
Similar abstracts: Lugovskoy Vladimir, Vladimir Lugovskoy, Lugovskoy Dmitry Ivanovich, Lugovskoy (Samara region), Lugovskoy Vladimir Aleksandrovich, Lugovskoy (Khanty-Mansiysk region), Lee Nikolay Petrovich, Suk Nikolay Petrovich,

I never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remains of his business were put up for auction and he found himself on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and how much for United Russia, what connects Sberbank and a gang kidnapping businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

Inner circle

Now I don’t care anymore - Nikolai drags his left leg. - I’ll tell you everything about my life, and you write it down. I was killed and robbed so many times, but I didn’t give up...

- How did you get into Yeltsin’s inner circle?

-What kind of officials were these?

I knew the characteristics of everyone, whether they were big bosses or bandits, but I avoided them. My task was business.

- And about your daughter Tatyana?

- How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin’s entourage?

To the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets the first time Berezovsky was started by Vitya Khrolenko, and then they appeared Roman Abramovich and this whole company.

- Did you sponsor Yeltsin’s book “Notes of the President”?

Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the circulation in Finland, and we would print the other half in America. They took $100 thousand of my personal money.

- Did Yeltsin thank you?

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK" (iron ore mining in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

The Insider was unable to contact Dyachenko and Khrolenko.

Abroad

- Tell us how a criminal case was opened against you.

They called Korzhakov and Khrolenko: “For now, go to America and sit there, and we will sort everything out here.” And two months turned into more than ten years.

At the beginning of 1994, I left for America, and Khrolenko lived there, he has a family, an American wife, Cinthy. Then he moved to Europe and lived in Switzerland and France. In the town of Frejus, not far from Cannes, I built a villa, and in Geneva I bought a house and began to live quietly. Thank God that he is not in prison, and that he is not empty, like a drum and did not sweep the streets.

- Who were your friends with in a foreign land?

I was on guard all the time and tried not to glow. I was on good terms with the rector of the Cannes Orthodox Cathedral, Bishop Barnabas. I remember how he called Yeltsin a drunken bear and did not let him and Luzhkov into the cathedral. I had this with me. There were some calls from Russia with an offer to meet, but I understood that the cops or bandits wanted to screw me.

- What about local authorities?

They tried to recruit me, they called me, and let’s ask about the Russian mafia. But I avoided direct answers. In short, I was very homesick. And then close friends came to Switzerland for my fiftieth birthday. We walked for three days, danced and sang until we were hoarse. Lyova Leshchenko and says: “Kolyun, let me introduce you to lawyer Heinrich Padva.” Padva came to me and stayed with me for a week. Then he took me by the hand and brought me to Russia. The criminal case was closed for lack of evidence of a crime. True, prosecutors never returned the $800 thousand seized from the safe deposit box. Apparently, one of them got rich...

According to the materials of criminal case No. 403, “Lugovskoy, with the help of subordinate employees of TO JV Sibneft and a number of citizens of Lithuania and Latvia, organized and carried out large-scale illegal re-export of petroleum products from Lithuania, and then attempted smuggling from the Russian Federation to Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan , Baltic countries, Western Europe and the USA. For these purposes, he fabricated fictitious contracts for the supply of petroleum products with companies that never existed...”

As for First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, mentioned in an interview, allegedly signing documents, on June 20, 1996, Boris Yeltsin removed his position and now he heads the Russian Union of Commodity Producers. The editors were unable to contact Soskovets, and the former head of Yeltsin’s personal security, Alexander Korzhakov, did not hide in a telephone conversation that he remembered Lugovsky, but stated: “He’s lying all the time, I didn’t ask anyone to hide abroad. They all got rich except me." (The audio recording is available in the editorial office.)

They hit me in the teeth with a flashlight

- Tell us about your kidnapping.

One plenipotentiary told me: “Kolya, where and why did you return? Then there were bandits, and now there are lawless men in uniform. It’s worse now than in the nineties.” In short, the West has completely lost its vigilance. I’m sitting in my house in Myakinino, and the gardener is digging in the garden. I heard the door slam, I turned around: there were two bulls, one hundred and fifty kilograms each. How they hit me and I lost consciousness. I woke up in some kind of bunker, and next to me the gardener was moaning. In short, there is a Krutyshki airport in Stupino, where we were kept in a bunker. We heard boxes being carried overhead and planes taking off. And for talking we were constantly hit in the teeth with a flashlight and beaten terribly. A young soldier brought us stew and canned food. One of them was the eldest, I called him the captain, he laughed disgustingly all the time, so, hehehehe. During telephone conversations with relatives, I heard the voice of some Chechen and a woman. They controlled my negotiations with my wife and put a microphone in the hole in the bunker. While they were holding me hostage, they also robbed my apartment.

- And what ransom did they demand?

In short, they were held hostage from August 12 to August 28, 2003. They took $3 million from me. I sent a ransom to Rietum Bank in Latvia, and then it went offshore. Here, look at these bills.

- How did they let you go?

On August 28, one of them comes in and says: “The elders decided not to kill you and let you go.” And they immediately injected me with a sleeping pill in my leg. Then they put me and the gardener in a car and threw me out at a gas station in Kashira. The gardener immediately ran away and I never saw him again. I feel like I’m going to pass out, I run up to the driver, you know, I haven’t washed or shaved for eighteen days. But the guy took pity on me and gave me a ride to Moscow. I passed out and slept the whole way, and in Moscow my mother-in-law picked me up.

-Where did you go then?

I complained to Putin and sent a paper. The cops called me, asked questions, then they played football and everything died down.

- You were familiar with Maxim Kan nicknamed Max the Korean?

This Korean man drove my car from France to Switzerland.

The mentioned Maxim Kan previously worked as deputy mayor of Khabarovsk. Then he moved to Moscow and got a job as a financial expert in the State Duma apparatus. At one time, he presented himself as an assistant to State Duma deputies from United Russia Margarita Barzhanova and Andrei Skoch and, according to some sources, was actively involved in trading parliamentary mandates and positions in government agencies.

Along the way, Kan was a gunner in the notorious gang of kidnappers, the leader of which was a former paratrooper and FSB informant Denis Shilin nicknamed Shilo (aka Shimin, Zhilin, Marchenko, Popov). According to operational data, the Shilo gang kidnapped about 20 businessmen in Russia and Ukraine, and three hostages were not released after paying the ransom.

In 2006, the Korean was exchanged for hostage student Maxim Parshin (ransom price of $7.2 million) and allowed to travel to Turkey. He then moved to Paraguay and there issued a false certificate of his death. In 2012, at the request of Interpol, the criminal was arrested in France and three years later extradited to Russia. In 2016, Kan made a deal with the investigation and, according to the verdict of the Solnechnogorsk court, received only 4 years. Shilo, who was arrested in 2013 with another hostage, made a similar deal with the investigation and was sentenced to 9.5 years. Thus, the investigation did not begin to find out the identities of those who ordered the abductions and they are still walking free.

Alexey Ikonnikov, indicated in the payment order, previously worked in the Russian Foreign Ministry, and then moved to permanent residence in Switzerland, where he was engaged in financial intermediation and investment management, including for Russian citizens. Now Ikonnikov heads the management company Sberbank Asset Management (until 2012 - Troika Dialog).

Another is Ikonnikov’s partner - Pierre-Noël Formigé, a Swiss citizen, who has been involved in financial intermediation for more than 20 years.

As for the offshore Blentix Investments Limited, where, judging by the payments, $3 million was transferred for Lugovsky’s release, it was registered in July 2003 in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by the notorious largest registrar of offshore companies, Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). As you know, CTL quite often appears in high-profile scandals involving criminal money laundering, including mention in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, when $230 million was stolen from the Russian budget.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the beneficiary of Blentix Investments Limited is a certain Ksenia Semionova from the law firm Cliff Legal Services, located at Kutuzovsky Prospekt, building 36, building 3. In addition to Blentix, this person is directly related to 1,136 offshore companies registered on BVI.

The Insider sent a request to the head of Cliff, Kirill Stupachenko: a week later, the head of the company's PR projects, Vitaly Kutin, said in a telephone conversation that Ksenia Semionova had never worked for them.

"The communists got two million from me"

- How did you want to become a State Duma deputy?

This was already immediately after my abduction. When I returned from Switzerland, I wanted to benefit the country. I studied the local laws and economics abroad and knew how to apply them here. In 2003, I was introduced to a St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded United Russia before Gryzlov. I brought him a large box of cigars and cognac, we drank a glass, and he said: “It costs $3 million for us to enter the Duma. But for the communists it’s cheaper. You go through the communists, and then I’ll give you whatever committee you want.” They take me to Zyuganov, and he took $2 million from me. They put me as the third passing number in the Saratov region. The first was First Secretary Rashkin, the second was Aparina, and I was third...

- Did they bring cash to the communists?

I transferred it to Cyprus, they had a bank and a furniture factory there, and I still have the payment slips. Also, my friend Zyuganov and I - Viktor Vidmanov flew to organize a meeting of communists in Abakan and Altai. They gave me a good deal on the plane; in addition to those two million, I gave another $500 thousand and $100 thousand.

And then Aparina found out that at that time I was working at the Kremlinsky trading house, also trading in oil, and she started screaming: “Why are you, Zyuganov, palming off Kremlin Cossacks to us?” Of course, she didn’t know that they had cheated me out of two million. In addition, there was negativity in the newspapers about me, Karaulov’s TV show was broadcast that a person with Belizean citizenship was being recruited into the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Next is Volodin himself<сегодня - спикер Госдумы - The Insider>wrote about me in the newspaper: “Lugovskoy picked up communist ideas while in the Caribbean.” He teased me like that...

- How did you get Belizean citizenship?

I paid $100 thousand for Belizean citizenship, $75 thousand for my wife and $50 thousand for children. Well, listen further. In his program, instead of my photo, Karaulov gave a photo of another person. Lawyer Padva and Karaulov are great friends, he calls him: “Andryusha, why are you talking crap on your TV?” And he’s like, well, let him come to my dacha, and I’ll fix everything.

Then Vidmanov called me and said: “Leave the Kremlin trading house immediately” - and I moved to LUKOIL. But it was already too late, and they told me that I submitted the documents to the Central Election Commission incorrectly and removed me from the elections.

- Did you get the money back?

Vidmanov said at first that he would return it, and then he said that everything was spent on the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

In 2003, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on the fact of misuse of budget funds by the Rosagropromstroy corporation. The case was dropped, but the corporation itself came under external management, and ASB Bank was declared bankrupt.

According to our source in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, now Mr. Vidmanov often appears in the State Duma and communicates with the top of the party.

The Insider sent three official requests to the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, asking him to comment on copies of payment slips to the Cyprus branch of ASB Bank. However, at the time of publication of the material, the answer had not yet arrived.

"Hints from prosecutors and bandits have begun - you need to pay"

- What happened next?

After these unsuccessful elections, I went to LUKOIL, hung around there, and transported gasoline for the An-2 to Turkmenistan. In our country, this gasoline was recognized as poisonous and production was closed in Kazan. I took it all the way through Scandinavia, the Turkmens first bought gasoline, and then banned it. I dropped everything and came here to the Saratov region and started everything from scratch. And in 2008 I received another blow: my money was kept in American bonds, and the mortgage crisis began there. And everything disappeared at once...

- How were you greeted in Saratov?

I sold all my real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. Local residents nicknamed me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm so that I could have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched fish, and organized fishing competitions. Immediately, hints from prosecutors and bandits began, like you need to pay. One prosecutor calls into the office and says<фамилия известна The Insider>: “Why don’t you congratulate me on Prosecutor’s Day?” I told him: “Congratulations.” He: “This is not the way to congratulate.” I tell him: “I worked together with your parents, asshole, and you extort money.”

- When did the troubles start?

As I remember now: on April 29, 2010, at 10 o’clock in the evening, the dam burst and a huge mass of water flowed along the river bed, sweeping away fences, vegetable gardens and flooding houses. In the morning I visited all the pensioners and veterans: for whom I installed a new fence, for whom I repaired the rubble, and for others I paid the cost of the seeds. You know, it became a tragedy for me how the old people cried then.

I immediately began looking for a construction contractor - the owner of Prof-Service LLC, Alexey Zuev, to whom I paid a total of 8 million rubles. I sued him, and he is suing me. In short, courts and criminal cases began and it felt like there was a corruption conspiracy against me. They've been ripped off, and you won't find justice anywhere. Almost all the property was described and put up for auction. I have already written to both Putin and Medvedev, but all the papers are returned back to Saratov (Lugovsky’s appeals to the prosecutor’s office can be read). Smart people immediately told me: I should have paid whoever needed it right away - and the problems would have passed.

- What if Yeltsin were alive?

Of course, I would turn to him for help, and it is unlikely that he would refuse. And I was disappointed in Putin. He left everything to chance and did not delve into economic issues.

Former Russian oligarch, and today just a resident of the Saratov region, Nikolai Lugovskoy spoke about his communication with Boris Yeltsin, how he wanted to buy a seat in the State Duma and how much the first Russian president could drink

Former Russian oligarch, and today just a resident of the Saratov region Nikolai Lugovskoy spoke about his communication with Boris Yeltsin, about how he wanted to buy a seat in the State Duma and how much the first Russian president could drink. The interview was published today on the website of The Insider.

Let us note that a person with a similar appearance and characteristics today heads the Golden Trout recreation center in the Novoburassky district.

In particular, Nikolai Lugovskoy said that he knew his husband well Tatiana Dyachenko- the daughter of Boris Yeltsin, who often visited the Kremlin with his comrades and even told one funny “alcohol incident.”

"We and Vitya Khrolenko came to him (Yeltsin, - ed.) to the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked us for the book (Lugovskoy helped him publish the book), and he poured us some wine into his own glass, about two hundred grams. He drank it himself, but Vitya and I just took a sip. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured out our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o’clock in the morning. Then, with a drunken hand, he wrote an autograph on the book and tore the page with a fountain pen,” he said.

In the 90s, a criminal case was opened against him for smuggling and re-export of petroleum products; the businessman was forced to go abroad, where he lived for 10 years. Returning home, Lugovskoy decided to become a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

“In 2003, I was introduced to a St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded until Gryzlova"United Russia". I brought him a large box of cigars and cognac, we drank a glass, and he said: “It costs $3 million for us to enter the Duma. But for the communists it’s cheaper. You go through the communists, and then I’ll give you whatever committee you want.”

The businessman goes on to tell how the Communist Party cheated him out of $2 million. “They put me third in the Saratov region. The first was the first secretary Rashkin, second - Aparina, and I was third…” said the ex-oligarch.

He allegedly paid this money, but never became a member of the State Department due to the dissatisfaction of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with the fact that he worked at the Kremlevsky trading house. When asked by the correspondent whether the money was returned to him, the Saratov resident replied that he was told that everything was spent on the elections. “And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown…” he said.

In 2008, Nikolai Lugovskoy “dropped everything” and came to the Saratov region. That same year, due to the US subprime crisis, he went bankrupt because he held funds in US bonds.

“I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. Local residents nicknamed me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm so that I could have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched fish, and organized fishing competitions. Immediately, hints from prosecutors and bandits began, like you need to pay,” he added.

However, his adventures did not end there. In the region, a certain prosecutor asked him to “congratulate” him on Prosecutor’s Day, probably about extorting a bribe, but the ex-oligarch besieged him.

Revelations of Yeltsin's friend Lugovsky, millionaire downshifter

The once influential businessman Nikolai Lugovskoy, who was part of Yeltsin’s so-called inner circle from 1993 to 2000, never gave candid interviews. But today, when the remains of his business were put up for auction and he found himself on the verge of bankruptcy, Lugovskoy decided to give an interview to The Insider. His words are confirmed by documents and other sources verified by the editors. From this interview you can find out how much a seat in the State Duma costs for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and how much for United Russia, what connects Sberbank and a gang kidnapping businessmen, and whether Yeltsin could really drink a bottle of cognac in one sitting.

Inner circle

“Now I don’t care anymore,” Nikolai drags his left leg. “I’ll tell you everything about my life, and you write it down.” I was killed and robbed so many times, but I didn’t give up...

Nikolai Lugovskoy in Saratov

— How did you get into Yeltsin’s inner circle?

— During the Soviet Union, I was the head of the Nizhnevartovskneftegaz supply base. I built workshops, roads, viaducts, and I was awarded the medal “For the Development of Siberia.” Once, can you imagine, I almost froze on the march. Later, through business, I met Viktor Khrolenko, and we supplied vodka to Russia. He was the handler in these matters, was good friends with Tanya Yeltsina and her husband Yumashev, and constantly communicated with Korzhakov. Through them, Khrolenko had access to Yeltsin, and so I entered the very top circle of friends. I myself knew Tanya’s second husband, Leonid Dyachenko, well, and he visited me in Switzerland more than once.

I often went on cruises on the Mediterranean Sea, where all our elite gathered together with their bosses. Leshchenko, Vinokur, Zhvanetsky, Dolina performed there, and the late Vladislav Listyev organized all this.

Leonid Dyachenko

-Who were these officials?

“I knew the characteristics of everyone, whether they were big bosses or bandits, but I avoided them. My task was business.

- And about your daughter Tatyana?

- What can I tell you about Tanya? The fact that they gave her a Zhiguli and she took the gifts? Berezovsky gave her a Zhiguli, and she was happy. It happened before my eyes. He then sent hundreds of them abroad. Then everything was different. Although Yeltsin himself didn’t act out, he was such a drunken shirt.

— How did Berezovsky appear in Yeltsin’s entourage?

— Vitya Khrolenko first brought Berezovsky to the then Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets, and then Roman Abramovich and this whole company appeared.

— Did you sponsor Yeltsin’s book “Notes of the President”?

— Khrolenko called me and said that Berezovsky would print half of the circulation in Finland, and the other half we would print in America. They took $100 thousand of my personal money.

— Did Yeltsin thank you?

- Certainly. Vitya Khrolenko and I came to see him in the Kremlin. He brought two bottles of cognac. So, he thanked us for the book and poured it into our wine glass, about two hundred grams. He drank it himself, but Vitya and I just took a sip. Then he opened the second bottle and drank. Then he poured out our unfinished cognac and drank it too. In short, before our eyes, Yeltsin knocked over two bottles of cognac, and it was 11 o’clock in the morning. Then, with a drunken hand, he wrote an autograph on the book and tore the page with a fountain pen.

Viktor Khrolenko was born in Abakan in 1953, in 1971 he entered the Moscow Higher Border School of the KGB of the USSR, but then transferred to Moscow State University. In the late 80s, he began publishing and distributing books abroad by Soviet writers Yuri Trifonov and Vladimir Soloukhin, as well as albums by the artist Ilya Glazunov. He sponsored the recording of Boris Grebenshchikov's first English-language album, Radio Silence, and at one time was the owner of the Manhattan Express nightclub in the Rossiya Hotel. In 1988, he took part in organizing a joint project of the magazines Ogonyok and Life and teleconferences between the USSR and the USA (the Posner-Donahue project). In the late 80s, he met Boris Yeltsin, and after the collapse of the USSR, he founded the Belka Trading company in the USA, which sold cigarettes, vodka, oil and non-ferrous metals.

Now Khrolenko is one of the co-founders of CJSC CHEK-SU. VK" (iron ore mining in the Russian Federation) and several metropolitan commercial firms.

The editors were unable to contact Dyachenko and Khrolenko.

Abroad

— Tell us how a criminal case was opened against you.

“Then the oil workers gave oil to the city executive committees, but they did not know what to do with it. I collected a million tons of oil for export, Soskovets signed the papers, and then returned the difference. And there was half a billion dollars in net earnings. Soskovets received $400 thousand for this, I sent him money from the States.

Korzhakov and Khrolenko called: “For now, go to America and sit there, and we’ll sort everything out here.” And two months turned into more than ten years.

Victor Khrolenko

Villa Lugovsky in Cannes

—Who were your friends in a foreign land?

“I was on guard all the time and tried not to glow.” I was on good terms with the rector of the Cannes Orthodox Cathedral, Bishop Barnabas. I remember how he called Yeltsin drunk bear and did not let Luzhkov into the cathedral. I had this with me. There were some calls from Russia with an offer to meet, but I understood that the cops or bandits wanted to screw me.

— What about local authorities?

“They tried to recruit me, they called me, and let’s ask about the Russian mafia. But I avoided direct answers. In short, I was very homesick. And then close friends came to Switzerland for my fiftieth birthday. We walked for three days, danced and sang until we were hoarse. Lyova Leshchenko and says: “Kolyun, let me introduce you to lawyer Heinrich Padva.” Padva came to me and stayed with me for a week. Then he took me by the hand and brought me to Russia. The criminal case was closed for lack of evidence of a crime. True, prosecutors never returned the $800 thousand seized from the safe deposit box. Apparently one of them got rich...

Lev Leshchenko and Vladimir Vinokur visiting Nikolai Lugovsky (center)

They hit me in the teeth with a flashlight

— Tell us about your kidnapping.

— One plenipotentiary told me: “Kolya, where and why did you return? Then there were bandits, and now there are lawless men in uniform. It’s worse now than in the nineties.” In short, the West has completely lost its vigilance. I’m sitting in my house in Myakinino, and the gardener is digging in the garden. I heard the door slam, I turned around: there were two bulls, one hundred and fifty kilograms each. How they hit me and I lost consciousness. I woke up in some kind of bunker, and next to me the gardener was moaning. In short, there is a Krutyshki airport in Stupino, where we were kept in a bunker. We heard boxes being carried overhead and planes taking off. And for talking we were constantly hit in the teeth with a flashlight and beaten terribly. A young soldier brought us stew and canned food. One of them was the eldest, I called him the captain, he laughed disgustingly all the time, so, hehehehe. During telephone conversations with relatives, I heard the voice of some Chechen and a woman. They controlled my negotiations with my wife and put a microphone in the hole in the bunker. While they were holding me hostage, they also robbed my apartment.

- And what ransom did they demand?

— In short, they were held hostage from August 12 to August 28, 2003. They took $3 million from me. I sent a ransom to Rietum Bank in Latvia, and then it went offshore. Here, look at these bills:

Lugovsky's payment order to the Latvian bank Rietumu

- How did they let you go?

— On August 28, one of them comes in and says: “The elders decided not to kill you and let you go.” And they immediately injected me with a sleeping pill in my leg. Then they put me and the gardener in a car and threw me out at a gas station in Kashira. The gardener immediately ran away and I never saw him again. I feel like I’m going to pass out, I run up to the driver, you know, I haven’t washed or shaved for eighteen days. But the guy took pity on me and gave me a ride to Moscow. I passed out and slept the whole way, and in Moscow my mother-in-law picked me up.

—Where did you go then?

“I complained to Putin and sent a paper. The cops called me, asked questions, then they played football and everything died down.

-You were familiar with Maxim Kan nicknamed Max the Korean?

— This Korean man drove my car from France to Switzerland.

Along the way, Kan was a gunner in the notorious gang of kidnappers, the leader of which was former paratrooper and FSB informant Denis Shilin, nicknamed Shilo (aka Shimin, Zhilin, Marchenko, Popov). According to operational data, the Shilo gang kidnapped about 20 businessmen in Russia and Ukraine, and three hostages were not released after paying the ransom.

Another is Ikonnikov’s partner, Pierre-Noël Formigé, a Swiss citizen who has been involved in financial intermediation for more than 20 years.

"The communists got two million from me"

— How did you want to become a State Duma deputy?

“This was already right after my abduction. When I returned from Switzerland, I wanted to benefit the country. I studied the local laws and economics abroad and knew how to apply them here. In 2003, I was introduced to a St. Petersburg figure from the highest circle, who commanded United Russia before Gryzlov. I brought him a large box of cigars and cognac, we drank a glass, and he said: “It costs $3 million for us to enter the Duma. But for the communists it’s cheaper. You go through the communists, and then I’ll give you whatever committee you want.” They put me in touch with Zyuganov, and he got $2 million from me. They put me as number three in the Saratov region. The first was First Secretary Rashkin, the second was Aparina, and I was third...

— Did you bring cash to the communists?

— I transferred it to Cyprus, they had a bank and a furniture factory there, and I still have the payment slips. Zyuganov’s friend Viktor Vidmanov and I also flew to organize a meeting of communists in Abakan and Altai. They gave me a good deal on the plane; in addition to those two million, I gave another $500 thousand and $100 thousand.

Payment for a deputy mandate. full size image

And then Aparina found out that at that time I was working at the Kremlinsky trading house, also trading in oil, and she started screaming: “Why are you, Zyuganov, palming off Kremlin Cossacks to us?” Of course, she didn’t know that they had cheated me out of two million. In addition, there was negativity about me in the newspapers, there was a TV show Karaulova that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation accepts a person with Belizean citizenship. Then Volodin himself [today the speaker of the State Duma] wrote about me in the newspaper: “Lugovskoy picked up communist ideas while in the Caribbean.” He teased me like that...

— How did you get Belizean citizenship?

— I paid $100 thousand for Belizean citizenship, $75 thousand for my wife and $50 thousand for children. Well, listen further. In his program, instead of my photo, Karaulov gave a photo of another person. Lawyer Padva and Karaulov are great friends, he calls him: “Andryusha, why are you talking crap on your TV?” And he’s like, well, let him come to my dacha, and I’ll fix everything.

Lugovoy's candidate certificate

— Did you get the money back?

— Vidmanov said at first that he would return it, and then he said that everything was spent on the elections. And then there were thirty-two people like me. They were all thrown...

In 2003, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case into misuse of budget funds by the Rosagropromstroy corporation. The case was dropped, but the corporation itself came under external management, and ASB Bank was declared bankrupt.

According to our source in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, now Mr. Vidmanov often appears in the State Duma and communicates with the top of the party.

"Hints from prosecutors and bandits have begun - you need to pay"

— After these unsuccessful elections, I went to LUKOIL, hung around there, and transported gasoline to Turkmenistan for the An-2. In our country, this gasoline was recognized as poisonous and production was closed in Kazan. I took it all the way through Scandinavia, the Turkmens first bought gasoline, and then banned it. I dropped everything and came here to the Saratov region and started everything from scratch. And in 2008 I received another blow: my money was kept in American bonds, and the mortgage crisis began there. And everything disappeared at once...

— How were you greeted in Saratov?

— I sold all the real estate in Moscow and invested in the construction of an eco-farm. Local residents nicknamed me the Moscow oligarch. I built a farm so that I could have everything: eggs, meat, fish. Here there was impassable mud, people were drinking and sitting without work, and I cleaned the ponds, launched fish, and organized fishing competitions. Immediately, hints from prosecutors and bandits began, like you need to pay. One prosecutor calls into the office and says<фамилия известна The Insider>: “Why don’t you congratulate me on Prosecutor’s Day?” I told him: “Congratulations.” He: “This is not the way to congratulate.” I tell him: “I worked together with your parents, asshole, and you extort money.”

Nikolai Lugovsky with his son Ivan

— When did the troubles start?

— As I remember now: on April 29, 2010, at 10 o’clock in the evening, the dam burst and a huge mass of water flowed along the river bed, sweeping away fences, vegetable gardens and flooding houses. In the morning I visited all the pensioners and veterans: for whom I installed a new fence, for whom I repaired the rubble, and for others I paid the cost of the seeds. You know, it became a tragedy for me how the old people cried then.

— What if Yeltsin were alive?

- Of course, I would turn to him for help, and it’s unlikely that he would refuse. And I was disappointed in Putin. He left everything to chance and did not delve into economic issues.