Born on August 28, 1957 in Chelyabinsk. Father Boris Nikolaevich was repressed, spent 10 years in the camps - from 18 to 28 years of age (his mother and brother also visited there). After his release, he graduated from the Civil Engineering Institute, worked as a chief engineer at various enterprises, was the secretary of the party bureau of the department (last position - associate professor of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute). Paternal grandfather, Nikolai Grigoryevich Khristenko, worked as an engineer at the Chinese Eastern Railway and was shot in 1937. Maternal grandfather held the post of head of the procurement office, was repressed for "wrecking". Mother, Lyudmila Nikitichna, was married to B.N. Khristenko for the second marriage, from her first marriage she has two children: Yuri and Nadezhda.
In 1979 he graduated from the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute (ChPI) with a degree in economics and organization of construction, in 1982-1983. studied at the postgraduate course of the Moscow Institute of Management, then graduated from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation. Doctor of Economic Sciences (2002).
At CPI, he studied at the same department with Alexander Pochinok.
From 1979 to 1990, he worked as a computer engineer at the Department of Economics of Mechanical Engineering, Head of the Laboratory of Business Games, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of Mechanical Engineering at the Chelyabinsk State Technical University (Chelyabinsk State Technical University, former Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute).
He was not a member of the CPSU. In 1979 he tried to join the CPSU, but was not accepted. According to Khristenko himself, there were two candidates for the position, and his rival had "a father in the district committee" (MK, 06/23/99, p.2.)
In 1990-1991 was a deputy of the Chelyabinsk City Council; was chairman of the standing committee of the city council on the concept of city development, adviser to the presidium of the city council.
In 1991 - Deputy Chairman of the City Executive Committee, Chairman of the Property Management Commission.
From 1991 to 1994, he served as Deputy Head of the Administration of the Chelyabinsk Region, Chairman of the Economics Committee of the Regional Administration. From 1994 to 1996 - First Deputy Head of the Administration of the Chelyabinsk Region.
Since 1994 - Member of the Council for Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship under the Government of the Russian Federation.
On May 12, 1995, he was elected a member of the All-Russian Council of the VPD "Our Home is Russia" (NDR).
From 1996 until the transfer in the summer of 1997 to Moscow, he was the chairman of the Council of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the public institution "People's House".
In June-July 1996, he was B. Yeltsin's confidant in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation, the head of the regional headquarters of the election campaign for the election of Yeltsin to the President of the Russian Federation.
In September 1996, he was appointed chairman of the Commission of the Chelyabinsk region on television and radio broadcasting.
In December 1996, he was a confidant and leader of the election campaign of Vadim Solovyov in the election of the head of the Administration of the Chelyabinsk Region (Soloviev lost the election). After the election, he worked as a consultant for three months.
On March 19, 1997, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Chelyabinsk Region.
April 19, 1997 at the IV Congress of the VPD NDR was approved as a member of the Political Council of the NDR.
In June 1997, he was relieved of his duties as the representative of the President in the Chelyabinsk region "in connection with the transfer to another job."
On July 1, 1997, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. He supervised the issues of saving and control of federal funds, interbudgetary relations of the Ministry of Finance and the regions, the activities of "Financial newspaper".
From August 1997 to May 1998 and from May 1999 to May 2002 - Member of the Board of Directors (state representative) of OAO Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK).
In September 1997, he took part in negotiations on the transit of early Caspian oil through the territory of Chechnya. September 9, 1997 signed an agreement between the Russian government and the leadership of Chechnya.
On September 26, 1997, he was elected Vice President of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of the Chelyabinsk Region.
By Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 17, 1997, he was introduced to the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the preparation of agreements on the delimitation of jurisdiction and powers between federal state authorities and state bodies. authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Since February 1998 - member of the Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation for ensuring the delivery of goods to the regions of the Far North and equivalent areas.
In March 1998, he was recommended to the Board of Directors of KamAZ OJSC.
On April 28, 1998, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in the reorganized Government of the Russian Federation.
Since April 1998 - Member of the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation.
Since May 1998, he was responsible for carrying out economic reforms, preparing and implementing programs for the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, the development of the financial, monetary, and banking sectors; led in the Government of the Russian Federation strategic issues of state property management, privatization, the securities market, financial recovery and insolvency of enterprises. He ensured the interaction of financial, customs, tax authorities, currency and export control authorities in terms of ensuring the completeness of budget revenues. He was responsible for issues of industrial policy, trade, economic security, concessional lending to the agro-industrial complex, external and internal debt, foreign loans.
He was also entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring interaction with international financial organizations (IMF, World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, etc.).
He also oversaw the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of federal and national relations, support for the socio-economic development of regions, the development of local self-government and interbudgetary relations.
On May 15, 1998, he headed the Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation on ensuring federal budget revenues, the Government Commission on financial and monetary policy, the Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation on control over the provision of tax and customs benefits, the Interdepartmental Council on the formation and use of funds from a special fund for lending organizations of the agro-industrial complex on preferential terms.
On May 19, 1998, he was appointed Russian governor at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency instead of A. Chubais.
On May 25, 1998, he headed a special commission under the Security Council of the Russian Federation to resolve the situation in the North Caucasus.
May 26, 1998 was approved by the Deputy Head of the Provisional Extraordinary Commission (VChK).
May 25, 1998 was included in the Council for Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation.
On June 24, 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the RF Government Commission on Operational Issues.
Since July 10, 1998 - Member of the RF Government Commission on Economic Reform.
Since August 1998 - Chairman of the Working Group for the preparation of draft regulations in the field of financial and budgetary relations of public authorities and local governments.
On August 23, 1998, by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the government of Sergei Kiriyenko was dismissed. By decree of August 25, 1998, acting Deputy Prime Minister until the formation of a new Cabinet of Ministers.
September 28, 1998 was dismissed.
On October 28, 1998, by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was appointed First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation. Responsible for drafting the federal budget.
On November 30, 1998, by a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was appointed acting. Secretary of State - First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
On December 24, 1998, he was introduced to the Interdepartmental Commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation for the protection of public health.
On December 30, 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Economic Issues of Regional Policy of the Russian Federation.
On May 10, 1999, by order of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was introduced to the board of state representatives in the OSAO "Russian State Insurance Company".
On May 10, 1999, he was approved as a member of the Board of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation.
On May 11, 1999, by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was approved as a member of the government commission on scientific and innovation policy.
On May 21, 1999, at the meeting of shareholders, he was re-elected to the Board of Directors of MMK.
On May 28, 1999, Interfax news agency, citing sources in the RF Ministry of Finance, reported that V. Khristenko had been appointed Acting Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.
On May 31, 1999, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Supervised issues of macroeconomic policy. On the same day he was introduced to the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation.
June 7, 1999 became the first deputy head of the Economic Council under the Government of the Russian Federation.
On June 14, 1999, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
July 6, 1999 Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation approved by the Chairman of the Commission for the organization of training of managerial personnel for the organization of the national economy of the Russian Federation.
After the resignation of the Government, S.Stepashinas on August 9, 1999 was acting. First Deputy Prime Minister On August 19, 1999, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was again appointed First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in V. Putin's office.
On September 14, 1999, he was appointed manager from the Russian Federation at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency instead of Y. Maslyukov.
On September 21, 1999, he was appointed manager from Russia at the IMF.
On September 23, 1999, on the basis of the recommendation of the Government of the Russian Federation by the Board of Directors of ARCO Group of Companies, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of ARCO.
On October 6, 1999, by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was included in the Commission for Control over the Return to the Federal Budget of Budgetary Investment Appropriations and Interest for Their Use.
Since January 2000, in the Chelyabinsk region, he headed the headquarters of Vladimir Putin in preparation for the presidential elections.
January 4, 2000 was approved by the Deputy Chairman of the Russian part of the Joint Russian-Ukrainian Commission for Cooperation.
On May 18, 2000, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in the office of Mikhail Kasyanov. Supervises the financial and economic block (Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State Property, State Tax Service) and regional policy.
Since June 2000, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of OAO Gazprom.
In July 2000, he was appointed chairman of the commission on the stabilization of the socio-political situation in Karachay-Cherkessia (instead of Nikolai Aksenenko).
On September 14, 2000, he was appointed Chairman of the Government Commission on CIS Issues.
In October 2000, he was appointed chairman of the RF Government Commission for Cooperation with the European Union.
On May 29, 2001, The Financial Times reported that Viktor Khristenko was being considered by officials in the Kremlin and a number of OAO Gazprom managers as the lead candidate to replace Rem Vyakhirev as chairman of the Gazprom Board.
On June 29, 2001, he was elected to the Board of Directors of OAO AK Transneft.
In July 2001, he was included in the Integration Committee of the Eurasian Economic Community.
In December 2001, by order of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, he was appointed chairman of the government commission for reforming the electric power industry.
Since January 2002 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC "Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System" ("FGC UES").
In February 2002, after the removal of Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and the redistribution of duties between members of the Cabinet of Ministers, Khristenko was instructed to oversee the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Communications.
In June 2002, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO AK Transneft.
On November 10, 2002, he defended his thesis at the Academy of National Economy (ANE) under the Government of the Russian Federation for the degree of Doctor of Economics. Topic - "Theory and methodology of building the mechanisms of budgetary federalism in the Russian Federation."
Since November 2002 - Member of the Board of Founders of the Ukrainian-Russian Gas Pipeline Consortium.
In July 2003, he was relieved of his duties as chairman:
- Government Commission for Road Safety;
- Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the Federal Target Program for the Economic and Social Development of the Far East and Transbaikalia for 1996-2005;
- Government commission on housing policy;
- Government commission on transport policy;
- The Council of Heads of Local Self-Government Bodies on Problems of Socio-Economic Reform under the Government of the Russian Federation.
On October 9, 2003, he became a member of the Board of Directors of RAO Russian Railways. On October 16, 2003, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of OAO Russian Railways (RZD). (RIA Novosti, October 16, 2003).
On February 24, 2004, after the resignation of the Kasyanov Government, he was appointed acting. Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation for a period until the formation of a new Government.

He expressed sympathy for the political activities of P. Stolypin, L. Erhard, M. Thatcher.
Hobbies - tennis, video and photography.
Speaks English.
In January 2004, the Delo publishing house published the book "Rails. Pipes. Wires: Experience in managing infrastructure complexes: From the workbooks of Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation V.B. Khristenko". The author of the book is A.P. Zinchenko.

He met his first wife at the institute, got married in 1979. My wife worked in a representative office of one of the companies. Daughters Julia and Angelina, son Vladimir.
In 2003, he married Tatyana Golikova, First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Khristenko, Viktor

Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission

Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission. Previously - Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (from May 2008 to February 2012), Minister of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation (2004-2008). Since 1997, he has worked in the Government of the Russian Federation, holding the positions of Deputy and First Deputy Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, and acting Prime Minister. Doctor of Economic Sciences.

Viktor Borisovich Khristenko was born on August 28, 1957 in Chelyabinsk,,. His paternal grandfather Nikolai Grigoryevich Khristenko worked as an engineer on the Chinese Eastern Railway and was shot in 1937. Father Boris Nikolaevich Khristenko, together with his mother and brother, was repressed and spent 10 years in camps, after his release he graduated from school and the civil engineering institute, worked as a chief engineer at various enterprises, became a candidate of economic sciences and secretary of the party bureau of the department of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute (ChPI) , fought against mediocre, in his opinion, teachers - he recorded their lectures on a tape recorder and gave them to listen to colleagues,,. Maternal grandfather Khristenko, a communist and head of a procurement office, was repressed for "wrecking" - a tick attacked the grown crop. His 14-year-old daughter Lyudmila Nikitichna (Khristenko's future mother), together with friends, planned to blow up the NKVD building in the regional center where her father was being held: explosives were found, but one of the accomplices let his mother know about it. Lyudmila was saved from arrest by her uncle, an NKVD officer from a neighboring district,. She married Boris Khristenko, having two children from her first marriage (Yuri and Nadezhda),. Khristenko's mother kept daily records of family expenses in notebooks for more than forty years, which were used as teaching aids for students and economists of the ChPI.

In Chelyabinsk, the Khristenko family first rented a room in the Leninsky district of the city. In early 1958, my father, as a builder, received an apartment, and they moved closer to the center, to the so-called town of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where until 1963 there was a permit system. The Khristenko family, his mother's parents and the maternal aunt Khristenko's family lived in a three-room apartment.

Simultaneously with his studies at secondary school, Khristenko in 1972, at the age of 15, worked with his father in a construction team at the Uralneftegazstroy trust on the construction of an oil pipeline in the Orenburg region - he prepared bitumen for rollers,. After school, Khristenko entered the CPI at the Faculty of Civil Engineering with a degree in economics and organization of construction (Alexander Pochinok studied there, in 1990-2000 he headed the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, and in 2000-2004 - the Ministry of Labor and Social Development ) , , . At the institute, Khristenko was not an excellent student, but he studied well. By the end of his studies, his surname was second on the list for further distribution, two personal applications came to him - from the planning department of the construction trust and from the department of political economy. Khristenko decided to engage in science, although for this it was first necessary to become a member of the CPSU,,. He wrote an application and came from undergraduate practice to the party meeting, where, however, he was not accepted into the party. According to some reports, the reason for the refusal could be that at the Khristenko Institute, supposedly the first of the construction team commanders, refused to pay the actually legalized requisitions to the Komsomol-construction team staff officers who were sitting in the city - they demanded money for a certificate that the workers of the construction team were really students. According to other sources, in addition to Khristenko, there was another applicant for the same place in the party, whose father worked in the district committee.

In 1979, after graduating from the institute, Khristenko married Nadezhda, who studied with him at the same faculty, but in different specialties, and stood in line for an apartment. The newlyweds began to live in the apartment of Khristenko's parents,,.

In the same year, Khristenko began working as a computer engineer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering Economics, from 1980 to 1982 he was the head of the CPI Business Games Laboratory,. From 1982 to 1983 he studied at the graduate school of the Moscow Institute of Management,. Khristenko completed his postgraduate studies, but did not defend his dissertation. He returned to CPI and became first a senior lecturer and then an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering economics. Khristenko continued to engage in non-traditional teaching methods - active learning methods and business games,,. His laboratory became well known in the scientific community, he regularly received awards, various laureate titles and medals,. In addition, Khristenko was a freelance correspondent for Chelyabinsk television and a host of programs that popularized economic knowledge. According to some sources, he may have made good money doing business games, according to others, he took part in the creation of the Komsomol system of centers for scientific and technical creativity of youth (NTTM) in Chelyabinsk.

In March 1990, Khristenko won the elections to the city council of people's deputies of Chelyabinsk,,,, after which he began to combine deputy work with the leadership of the laboratory at the CPI. When preparing the first session of the council, Khristenko proposed to take a fresh look at the city and form commissions with non-traditional names: instead of planning, budgeting, economic and health care, create a permanent commission on the concept of city development. The idea was accepted, and Khristenko became the chairman of this commission and a member of the presidium of the City Council, which was headed by Vadim Solovyov,.

In the summer of 1990, Khristenko accepted Solovyov's offer to work in the City Council on a permanent basis, despite his father's objections. Khristenko served as first deputy chairman of the city committee on economics and deputy chairman of the city executive committee. Even before the adoption of the law on privatization, Khristenko created and headed the municipal committee for the management of city property,. According to him, the committee's first privatization steps were at odds with how the law prescribed privatization.

In October 1991, Khristenko again accepted the proposal of Solovyov, appointed head of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region, and became his deputy for economics,. According to some reports, at that time Khristenko was not a public figure, but he actively worked with the business elite and successfully resolved controversial issues, in particular with power engineers. In 1993, he was one of the founders of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (SPP) of the Chelyabinsk Region, which became not only a business, but also a political association,. In 1994 Khristenko became a member of the Chelyabinsk SPP.

In early 1994, Vladimir Golovlev, a former ally of Solovyov - the chairman of the regional committee for state property management (KUGI) and a member of the political council of the Choice of Russia movement, who was elected a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the first convocation in December 1993 - initiated a letter from all five single-mandate deputies of the State Duma from the Chelyabinsk region to the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin with a request to remove Solovyov from his post,. According to some reports, the conflict was provoked by a discussion of the new head of the KUGI: Golovlev insisted on the candidacy of Galina Zheltikova, Solovyov - on the candidacy of Khristenko, who at that time was the chairman of the regional economic committee. This confrontation led to a conflict between Governor Solovyov and the chairman of the State Committee for State Property Management of the Russian Federation Anatoly Chubais,. As a result, Zheltikova became the chairman of the KUGI, and Solovyov retained the position of head of the Chelyabinsk region. In this conflict, Khristenko remained practically the only figure unconditionally loyal to Solovyov, for which in March 1994 he was appointed first deputy head of the administration of the Chelyabinsk region,,,.

In 1995, Khristenko was elected a member of the All-Russian Council of the VPD "Our Home is Russia" (NDR) and headed the Chelyabinsk branch of the movement, however, the regional "party of power" lost the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the second convocation in all five single-mandate constituencies. In the same year, he graduated from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation,,.

In the summer of 1996, Khristenko became a confidant of Boris Yeltsin in the Chelyabinsk region and the head of his regional campaign headquarters,. Khristenko worked with the director of the New Image PR agency Evgeny Minchenko,. According to experts, they managed to achieve a preponderance in the media in favor of the candidacy of the incumbent president: district and partially city newspapers were placed under tight control, regional network radio, commercial television studios and almost all radio stations were loyal to Yeltsin. As a result, Yeltsin won a larger percentage of votes in the region than in the country as a whole, and Khristenko received personal thanks from the President of the Russian Federation,,.

In September 1996, Khristenko was appointed chairman of the regional commission on television and radio broadcasting. In the summer of 1996, he was appointed chairman of the regional KUGI after Zheltikova was removed from this position. However, the court decided that the dismissal of the former chairman of the KUGI was illegal. On November 27, 1996, the State Property Committee issued an order to reinstate Zheltikova in office and relieve Khristenko from this post,.

On November 25, 1996, Khristenko went on unpaid leave to manage the election campaign of Governor Solovyov. According to experts, Solovyov's team was going to use the mechanism already established during the presidential elections. But the incumbent governor's chances of being re-elected were very low due to the persistently high anti-rating. To save the team, Solovyov was offered in July 1996 to resign and appoint Khristenko, who did not have a negative reputation, as acting governor; and in September or October 1996, elections would have to be held, for which the opposition did not have time to prepare. Solovyov rejected this plan and put forward his candidacy,. In December 1996, in the first round, Solovyov received 16 percent of the vote and lost to Pyotr Sumin, supported by the Communist Party, who received more than 50 percent of the vote,. According to some reports, simultaneously with the gubernatorial campaign, Khristenko was involved in elections to the regional legislative assembly and helped several representatives of the local business elite get into parliament.

In 1996, Khristenko became one of the authors of the brochure "In Search of the Missing Deposits", published in Chelyabinsk with a circulation of 10,000 copies. This is a kind of allowance for investors who lost their money during the active construction of financial pyramids, in fact, it was a collection of government orders and regulations. According to a number of media reports, the Chelyabinsk Private Investment Protection Fund, of which Khristenko was one of the founders, spent 50 million rubles from the regional budget to publish this brochure, although, according to some reports, the real costs were significantly lower. At the same time, 20 million rubles received from the sale of this allowance were never credited to the fund's account. During the audit of the Private Investment Protection Fund, it turned out that more than half of the amount was missing from the 670 million rubles allocated by the state as compensation for deceived investors. Later, for this, the staff of the White House apparatus, as journalists claimed, gave Khristenko the nickname Alkhen (a character from the book "The Twelve Chairs" by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov).

At the end of 1996, Khristenko resigned, remained unemployed for some time, was going to end his career as an official and go into business. However, in March 1997, Khristenko was appointed Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Chelyabinsk Region, and in April of the same year became a member of the political council of the NDR.

In July 1997, Khristenko was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Mikhail Zadornov in the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin,. According to some reports, Khristenko owed his appointment to Chubais, who noticed him during the presidential campaign,. In the Ministry of Finance, Khristenko began to oversee issues of saving and controlling federal funds, interbudgetary relations between his ministry and the regions, as well as the activities of Finansovaya Gazeta. In August 1997, he took part in negotiations on the transit of early Caspian oil through the territory of Chechnya, in September 1997 he signed an agreement between the Russian government and the leadership of Chechnya,. From August 1997 to May 1998, Khristenko, as a representative of the state, was introduced to the board of directors of OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK), and in September 1997 he was elected vice president of the SPP of the Chelyabinsk region.

In April 1998, Khristenko was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Kiriyenko and a member of the government presidium responsible for financial policy,,,,. Khristenko was responsible for the implementation of economic reforms, preparation and implementation of programs for the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, the development of the financial, monetary and banking sectors, dealt with strategic issues of state property management, privatization, the securities market, financial recovery and insolvency of enterprises. In addition, he ensured the interaction of financial, customs, tax authorities, currency and export control authorities in terms of ensuring the completeness of budget revenues, was responsible for cooperation with international financial organizations (IMF, World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) .

In August 1998, Khristenko went on vacation: he always preferred to relax on his birthday, thereby freeing his colleagues and employees from the need for congratulations. Soon there was a default, and the Kiriyenko government resigned. Until September 1998, Khristenko served as Deputy Prime Minister,,.

In October 1998, Khristenko was appointed First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation in the government of Yevgeny Primakov, and in November of the same year - Acting Secretary of State and First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation,,,. At the Ministry of Finance, he was responsible for drafting the federal budget. In December 1998, Khristenko first became a member of the interdepartmental commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation for the protection of public health, then he was appointed deputy chairman of the coordinating council for economic issues of regional policy of the Russian Federation. In May 1999, he joined the board of state representatives in the OSAO Russian State Insurance Company, was approved as a member of the board of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation and a member of the government commission on scientific and innovation policy, again became a member of the board of directors of MMK and held this position until May 2002, .

At the end of May 1999, Khristenko was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Sergei Stepashin and a member of the government presidium,,,,. Khristenko oversaw macroeconomic policy issues, was appointed First Deputy Head of the Government's Economic Council and a member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. According to experts, despite his long tenure in key positions in various governments, he never became a public figure.

In August 1999, Khristenko was first relieved of his post due to the resignation of the Stepashin government, then he was again appointed First Deputy to the new Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, and in January 2000 - simply Deputy Prime Minister,. Khristenko continued to strengthen his administrative position, taking up new positions in various organizations: he was appointed governor from the Russian Federation in the IMF, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, was elected chairman of the board of directors of ARCO Group, became a member of the control commission for the return to the federal budget of budgetary investment allocations and interest for their use and deputy chairman of the Russian part of the mixed Russian-Ukrainian commission for cooperation, headed Putin's headquarters in the Chelyabinsk region in preparation for the presidential elections in 2000.

In May 2000, after Putin's victory in the elections, Khristenko was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Mikhail Kasyanov,. In the new cabinet of ministers, Khristenko oversaw the financial and economic block (Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State Property, State Tax Service) and regional policy. He lost a number of powers - the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation German Gref took up the solution of strategic economic issues, but turned out to be closer to the real management of the fuel and energy complex, oversaw the reform of natural monopolies, subsoil and nature management, cooperation with the CIS and the European Union,,.

In July 2000, Khristenko headed a commission on the stabilization of the socio-political situation in Karachay-Cherkessia, replacing Nikolai Aksenenko in this post. In the autumn of 2000, Khristenko headed two government commissions - on CIS issues and on cooperation with the European Union. In the summer of 2001, he became a member of the integration committee of the Eurasian Economic Community, and at the end of that year, he became the chairman of the government commission for reforming the electric power industry.

According to some reports, in 2002 Khristenko was the first candidate for dismissal during the planned reorganization of the government. But in February of the same year, Ilya Klebanov lost his post as Deputy Prime Minister, and Khristenko began to oversee the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Communications

In November 2002, Khristenko defended his thesis "Theory and Methodology for Building the Mechanisms of Budgetary Federalism in the Russian Federation" at the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation and received a doctorate in economics.

In July 2003, Khristenko lost a number of powers: he was relieved of the post of chairmen of a number of government commissions - on ensuring road safety, on implementing the Federal Target Program for the Economic and Social Development of the Far East and Transbaikalia for 1996-2005, on housing policy, on transport politics - and from the post of chairman of the council of heads of local self-government bodies on problems of socio-economic reform under the government of the Russian Federation.

From February 24 to March 5, 2004, Khristenko served as acting chairman of the government of the Russian Federation after the resignation of Kasyanov,,. Then experts, talking about Khristenko as a potential prime minister, called him a technocrat and lobbyist, versed in economic issues, but devoid of political ambitions and not directly connected with any of the Kremlin groups,,,.

In March 2004, Khristenko was appointed Minister of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation in the government of Mikhail Fradkov,,.

As a representative of the government of the Russian Federation, Khristenko consistently held key positions in the management of Russian natural monopolies: in 2000 he became a member of the board of directors of OAO Gazprom, in 2001 - a member of the board of directors of OAO AK Transneft (since 2002 - chairman of the board of directors) , in 2002 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC "Federal Grid Company of the Unified Energy System", from 2003 to 2004 - Chairman of the Board of Directors, then a member of the Board of Directors of JSC "Russian Railways", in 2005 - Member of the Board of Directors of JSC "RAO" UES of Russia" (in 2006 he became deputy chairman of the board of directors),,,. At the same time, in the spring of 2003, Khristenko left the post of vice president of the Chelyabinsk SPP, abandoning the role of "wedding general".

Khristenko, according to media reports, like many other high-ranking officials in the government and the presidential administration, sought to emphatically distance himself from the case of the head of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the chairman of the board of directors of the MENATEP group, which manages Yukos shares, Platon Lebedev, who were arrested respectively in October and July 2003, and in May 2005 sentenced to nine years in prison each for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement of funds from the state (in September of the same year, the terms of Lebedev and Khodorkovsky were reduced to eight years). , , , . So, after the arrest of Lebedev, Khristenko declared: "Lebedev is not my friend, but the truth is dearer. I would like to wish both the defense and the prosecution more arguments so that this situation would be cleared up quickly",. On the eve of the announcement of the verdict, at a meeting with Putin, Khristenko reported on the project to build an oil pipeline along the Taishet-Nakhodka route, naming Yukos among the companies that were supposed to fill the pipe with oil. According to some observers, this report has become a kind of bureaucratic mockery, since the leadership of Yukos had previously opposed this project.

In November 2005, 12 minority shareholders of Yukos - owners of the company's American depository receipts - filed a class action lawsuit with the Washington District Court against the Russian Federation, a number of Russian energy companies and ministers, including Khristenko and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. According to the plaintiffs, the defendants violated US securities laws by persuading the public that the state did not intend to nationalize Yukos, when, in fact, that was what they claimed was done. The applicants estimated their losses at three million dollars. On November 25, lawyers for the plaintiffs told the media that a subpoena had been served on Khristenko. On the same day, the assistant to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy denied this information. In turn, the lawyer of the minority shareholders insisted that "he himself saw how these documents were handed over to Mr. Khristenko personally, while their contents were explained to him",,. On May 15, 2006, lawyers for Khristenko, Kudrin and other defendants submitted to the court a consolidated response to the lawsuit, which argued that the US judicial authorities did not have jurisdiction for such proceedings, since they "involved relations between Russia and the United States in the process." At the same time, the defendants referred to the American law on sovereign immunity (Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act).

In March 2007, Khristenko, Greek Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas and Bulgarian Minister of Development and Public Works Asen Gagauzov, in the presence of the heads of these countries, signed an agreement on the joint construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which will connect the Bulgarian Black Sea coast with the Greek coast of the Aegean Sea. According to media reports, the construction will cost approximately 1 billion euros. Exactly the same amount, according to preliminary calculations, will be the annual economic effect resulting from the difference in cost between the transportation of oil through this pipeline and its transportation by sea through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. It was planned to build the oil pipeline by the beginning of 2009 .

Also in April 2007, Gazprom acquired from the Anglo-Dutch corporation Shell and the Japanese firms Mitsui and Mitsubishi a controlling stake in the operator of Sakhalin Energy, the largest oil and gas project on the Russian shelf Sakhalin-2. The cost of the purchased package, according to experts, amounted to 7.45 billion dollars. After the conclusion of the contract, Khristenko approved the Sakhalin-2 budget until 2014 in the amount of $ 19.4 billion,. The deal was preceded by an environmental audit of the activities of foreign companies, following which the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor Oleg Mitvol announced the discovery of facts of environmental pollution.

In early June 2007, Khristenko officially announced that the Arctic and Far Eastern shelves of Russia would be developed by two state-owned companies - Gazprom and Rosneft. However, this, according to the minister, will not close access to offshore projects for foreign investors.

On September 12, 2007, the Fradkov government resigned, and Khristenko continued to perform ministerial duties on an interim basis,. On September 14, Viktor Zubkov was approved as prime minister, and on September 24, Putin announced personnel and structural changes in the government,. Khristenko retained his former portfolio, and his wife Tatyana Golikova replaced Mikhail Zurabov as Minister of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation,,.

In March 2008, First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev won the presidential election, (his candidacy was nominated in December 2007 by a number of political parties in the country, including United Russia, and supported by President Putin),,. On May 7, 2008, Medvedev took office as President of Russia. In accordance with the country's constitution, on the same day the government resigned, after which the new president of the country signed a decree "On the resignation of powers by the government of the Russian Federation", instructing members of the cabinet, including Khristenko, to continue to act until the formation of a new government of Russia. At the same time, Medvedev proposed to the State Duma that Putin be approved as chairman of the government of the Russian Federation. On May 8, 2008, at a meeting of the State Duma, Putin was approved as prime minister.

On May 12, 2008, Putin made appointments to the Russian government. In the new cabinet, Khristenko headed the Ministry of Industry and Trade, separated from the Ministry of Industry and Energy, which also received part of the powers of the former Ministry of Economic Development and Trade,,,. The head of the new Ministry of Energy, Sergei Shmatko, took Khristenko's place on the board of directors of Transneft (in July of that year) and Gazprom (in February 2009)),. Also in July 2008, Khristenko left the post of chairman of the board of directors of FGC-UES.

During the financial crisis in May 2009, Khristenko made predictions about the expected decline in the industry, which in 2009 "may range from 4.5 to just over 6 percent." However, a week later, the minister not only retracted these estimates, calling them "optimistic", but he also declared all forecasts for a drop in production for 2009 meaningless. According to Khristenko, he "conducted a provocative experiment ... to see the reaction." Meanwhile, experts linked the minister's words with a desire to demonstrate loyalty to President Medvedev, who shortly before that, at a meeting with entrepreneurs, demanded that members of the cabinet refrain from unfounded forecasts and "moderate languages",,.

In accordance with the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation, according to which all government officials had to declare their income and the income of their family members, Khristenko in the spring of 2009 also submitted information about his income and his real estate. According to data published in April, the income of the minister - the owner of a personal apartment (218.6 square meters) - for 2008 amounted to 4.4 million rubles,. In 2009, the minister's income amounted to almost 5.4 million rubles.

In July 2009, the Vedomosti newspaper published an article in which, citing Khristenko's report, it was stated that the closure of the Cherkizovsky market owned by Telman Ismailov in June of that year was the first stage in the program to combat shuttle trade. The purpose of this program was to restore the domestic light industry.

On June 24, 2011, President Medvedev signed a decree appointing Khristenko as his special representative on the issue of amending the agreement on the commission of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The proposed reforms of the union were connected with the need to synchronize a number of decisions on duties and the intentions of the authorities of the three countries to turn the commission of the Customs Union into its main governing body.

On November 18, 2011, the heads of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration, which assumed that from January 1, 2012, a new supranational body, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), should lead the integration processes on the territory of the emerging economic community. The leaders of the three countries elected Khristenko as the Chairman of the EEC Board for four years. On February 1, 2012, in connection with the transfer to work at the EEC, Khristenko was relieved of his post as Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation,.

According to observers, Khristenko is exceptionally effective as an apparatchik. He not only headed a record number of interdepartmental commissions, but also managed to organize their work. In addition, with such an amount of authority, he did not have obvious failures and serious mistakes, and his name was not associated with any too high-profile scandal,. At least since 2001, experts consider Khristenko one of the main contenders for the post of prime minister. But he does not strive for independence, rather being an "ideal official" - professional, disciplined, executive, emphatically apolitical and aimed at a team game,,. All these qualities allowed Khristenko to become one of the "long-livers" in the Russian government.

Khristenko was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2006), the Order of Honor (2012), the Stolypin medal (2012), he has a gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation and a certificate of honor from the Government of the Russian Federation,,,. He has three children from his first marriage: Julia, Vladimir and Angelina,,. In 2003, he divorced his first wife and married Tatyana Golikova,,.

Used materials

Putin awarded Khristenko with the Stolypin medal. - RIA News, 02.02.2012

Dmitry Medvedev transferred Viktor Khristenko to the Eurasian Economic Commission. - Interfax, 01.02.2012

Viktor Khristenko was dismissed from the post of Minister of Industry and Trade. - Website of the President of Russia, 01.02.2012

Elizaveta Surnacheva. "There are already all the unions around us!" - Newspaper.Ru, 18.11.2011

Childhood of Viktor Khristenko

After graduating from school, Victor became a student at the Polytechnic Institute. After graduating, he received the specialty engineer-economist. As a fifth-year student, Victor wanted to join the party, but he was not accepted.

The beginning of the career of Viktor Khristenko

From 1990 to 1991, Khristenko was a member of the City Council. He became the head of a permanent commission that dealt with the development of the city, was an adviser to the Presidium of the City Council, in addition - the first deputy. chairman of the city committee on economics.

Work in the regional administration of the Chelyabinsk region

Since 1994, Viktor Borisovich was deputy head of the regional administration for two years, and two years later he also headed the regional property management committee.

In 1996, Khristenko became the head of the campaign headquarters during the presidential elections, was the representative of B. Yeltsin in his region. His position was - against the communists. As Viktor Borisovich stated, he did not want the return of the old order. In his area, sixty-two percent were given for Yeltsin. He won a landslide victory.

Work of Viktor Khristenko in the Government

Viktor Khristenko answers an uncomfortable question at SUSU (Chelyabinsk) 4.4.2013

Soon, on the recommendation of Anatoly Chubais, Viktor Borisovich was appointed the plenipotentiary of the President in his native region. In this position, he worked for only four months.

At this time, he was elected a member of the Political Council of the PDR. And again, there was a recommendation from Chubais, thanks to which Viktor Borisovich was appointed one of his deputies. So Khristenko began to work in the Ministry of Finance of Russia. During his work, he managed to show himself as a skillful regulator of cash flows from the center to the regions and back.

Khristenko in the spring of 1998, at the invitation of Sergei Kiriyenko, entered his office, taking the post of Deputy Prime Minister. In the same 1998, he ended up in the Presidium of the Government of Russia.

Together with A. Chubais and E. Gaidar, Viktor Borisovich took part in the development of an anti-crisis program, but it did not bring the results that were expected from it. After Kiriyenko's cabinet resigned, Khristenko no longer entered the new cabinet.

Khristenko on Eurasian integration

In the fall of 1998, as First Deputy Minister of Finance, he led the development of a draft federal budget. In May 1999, Viktor Borisovich took over as First Deputy Prime Minister. His duties included supervising macroeconomic blocks and financial blocks. When V. Stepashin's cabinet resigned, he remained in his post, entering V. Putin's cabinet.

During the preparations for the presidential elections, Khristenko became the head of Vladimir Putin's headquarters in his native region. In the summer of 2000, he was introduced to the directors of OAO Gazprom. In Kasyanov's office, he became Deputy Prime Minister. In 2004, this cabinet resigned, following the order of the President.

When Mikhail Fradkov's cabinet was being formed, he entered it as the Minister of Industry and Energy. Since May 2008, Khristenko has been the Minister of Industry and Trade. Starting from December 2011, he heads the EEC and will remain in this position for four years. Khristenko has been in the Government for more than fifteen years, he can be considered a long-liver.

Personal life of Viktor Khristenko

The housing problem was very acute for almost eleven years of their life together. They lived in a three-room apartment with Viktor Borisovich's parents. Three of their children were born there. They have two girls and a boy. When the mayor of Chelyabinsk offered Khristenko to take the position of deputy chairman of the city executive committee, he agreed only on the condition that the family would be helped to solve the housing problem. Two months later, his family moved into a two-room apartment with five of them.

In 2003, Viktor Borisovich remarried. Tatyana Golikova became his chosen one. The main hobby of Khristenko, which he carried through his whole life, is photography. He started doing it when he was a schoolboy.

The son of Viktor Borisovich, Vladimir, is engaged in the pharmaceutical business. He was married to Eva Lanskaya, with whom there was a divorce. The trial and proceedings were widely discussed in the media.

Most of Lyudmila Nikitichna's claims are connected with the name of Nadezhda Khristenko, the ex-wife of the minister. She, according to the assurances of mother Viktor Borisovich, spoiled a lot of blood for both the faithful and his parents. Lyudmila Nikitichna says that in the outwardly prosperous family of an official, serious scandals often occurred, and Nadezhda was always the instigator. In the end, Viktor Khristenko left the family and got a new life partner. But the minister’s parents still remember the “former” with horror ...

Victor and Nadezhda studied at the same institute, they began to twist the novel “on potatoes”.

Many liked the pretty Nadyusha, but the student Khristenko quickly dealt with his rivals, although he even had to fight with one. And then it's time to introduce the girl to her parents.

Nadia did not make a special impression on us. Such impolite, - recalls Lyudmila Khristenko. - My husband, Boris Nikolayevich, and I strictly punished our son so that there would be no wedding before graduation! But he soon said himself that he did not want to see her. By that time, she had taken the documents from the university and hung around idle. The parents were happy for a short time. Victor and Nadezhda were reconciled by a friend, and soon after graduation, the son announced that he was getting married.

Evil Nadia

When submitting documents to the registry office, it turned out that the bride was three years older than the groom. Lyudmila Nikitichna was upset, but her son did not want to listen to the "outdated" arguments of his ancestors - I love and age is not a hindrance! Mother had to reconcile.

I suddenly felt sorry for Nadezhda, - Lyudmila Nikitichna sighs. - Relatives blamed me, they say, Vitka could have found a younger one. And I answered: “Yes, let them get married!” She decided to close her eyes even to her rudeness. Nevertheless, the family idyll did not work out. The young wife quarreled with her husband's parents, calling them rednecks, and regularly played them evil. - Once we returned from the dacha, - Lyudmila Nikitichna complains. - We see that all the crystal has disappeared from the sideboard! We thought - thieves climbed in to us, but it turned out - Nadezhda's handiwork! She hid the dishes under the bed to torment us!

The father-in-law was then so angry that he promised to throw his daughter-in-law out of the house. But everything turned out differently.

lucky appointment

Children - a daughter, born almost immediately after the wedding, and a son - did not add to the well-being in Khristenko's house. The three-room apartment became crowded, and Nadezhda hinted more than once that the "old people" should live separately. The enterprising daughter-in-law was able to achieve her goal by announcing her third pregnancy. Sighing, Lyudmila Nikitichna and Boris Nikolaevich moved into a "raw" new building.

The apartment was allocated to the son as a deputy of the City Duma. But the housing was completely uncomfortable, without water, heating. And interruptions in the light just tortured. How much we have experienced then! - complains Lyudmila Nikitichna. - I will never forgive my son for these torments, let him not be offended!

Victor hid from family problems at work. And - there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped! - the zeal of the official was noticed, and in the late 90s Viktor Borisovich was sent to Moscow for promotion. Seeing off her son's family, Lyudmila Nikitichna warned her daughter-in-law: “Women in the capital are not a blunder. Be kinder to Vitya, otherwise you will miss him! And how she looked into the water.

Once Nadezhda called me, - says Lyudmila Khristenko. - I'm sitting, talking, crying ... I suspect that Victor has got another one. Suspicions were confirmed, and Khristenko received a divorce. A new life, while in a civil marriage, the official began with the most enviable bride of the "White House" - Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova.

Dear Tanya

The new passion of Viktor Borisovich looked to his parents. Eight years younger than her son, respectful. Mom Khristenko calls her nothing more than a sweet and kind woman.

Tanya's ex-husband was a very sick man, - the pensioner sympathetically told. They didn't even have kids! When Tanechka came to my birthday, she asked her: “Maybe you will give birth to Vitya's baby?” And she replied that it was already too late. The financial situation of the new darling of her son Lyudmila Nikitichna also likes: - Tatiana receives more than Vitya. She bought me a sheepskin coat, hat, boots. Khristenko's older children, Yulia and Vladimir, treat their new paternal life partner well, often communicate with her. The ex-wife does not work anywhere. Despite the fact that the ex-husband fully provides for her, Nadezhda still cannot forgive betrayal and, they say, does not miss the opportunity to let go of a caustic word to the homeowner. But be that as it may, Chelyabinsk rumor assures that Viktor Khristenko and Tatyana Golikova will get married very soon.

Dossier

* Father of three children, divorced.

* Hobbies - photo and video shooting.

Small pleasures

* Viktor Khristenko's daughter Yulia is married to the son of the president of a large oil company. The wedding was played magnificently - the entire metropolitan elite walked. Before the wedding, Julia met with a certain Artem from Chelyabinsk, but the guy received a "calculation" due to his financial insolvency.

* His son Vladimir Khristenko works for MeTriS Integrated Supply Chain CJSC, which sells pipes, rolled metal and metal products from leading domestic manufacturers. Not married, but has a permanent girlfriend. Volodya's relatives do not accept the girl. It is believed that she meets with Khristenko Jr. for mercantile reasons.

The couple, Viktor Khristenko, former minister of industry, and Tatyana Golikova, current chairman of the Accounts Chamber, have always been considered not poor in the government. At least, judging by their official declarations. For example, in 2016, Golikova and Khristenko earned 61 million rubles for two. This is more than 5 million rubles a month.

It is hard to imagine what the average Russian family with such an income could not afford. An apartment, a dacha, a car, another dacha for parents, another apartment for children? All this can be easily bought with the officially declared income of Golikova and Khristenko. Therefore, you will never imagine what kind of property we discovered in the former Minister of Industry, for which he, even with his wife, could hardly have accumulated even in a hundred years.

…Golf clubs. Just a few months ago, in December 2017, Viktor Khristenko became a co-owner of luxury golf clubs in the Moscow region and Peterhof. They occupy territories of hundreds of hectares of land, and their cost, according to our calculations, can exceed tens of billions of rubles.

Joint investigation by Novaya Gazeta and Dozhd TV channel.

The main thing in five minutes. Video: Gleb Limansky, Roman Anin / "New"

Viktor Khristenko, after leaving the government, chose golf, an unusual hobby for Russia. Originating as a game of commoners - shepherds in Scotland, who used their staffs instead of clubs, and rabbit holes instead of holes - this sport eventually became considered an elite sport.

Today, all over the world, golf is not just a game, but also an indicator of status. They are fond of politicians (for example, Donald Trump), big businessmen.

“I had a little more free time a few years ago,” Khristenko said in an interview with the RBC-Sport TV channel. – And in search of a sporting activity – adequate for age, time, including place of residence – I tried golf… And then for four years I answer myself the question: why golf? Because it is the most versatile sport. Most democratic. The most environmentally friendly. Golf is a chic story for children and old people, for men and women, for tall and short, for fat and thin. All this, although, of course, affects some results, but is not decisive in order to walk your 12-13 kilometers a day, breathe fresh air.

Khristenko admits that he "has gone a little crazy about golf." And therefore, since 2015, he has also been the head of the Golf Association and is trying to develop this sport in Russia.

Neighbors from the Ministry

Viktor Khristenko, explaining to RBC-Sport the reason for choosing golf, mentioned his place of residence. He gave this interview at the Pestovo golf club. And indeed, literally outside the gates of this club, near the village of Rumyantsevo, on the banks of the Canal. There are three large, beautiful houses in Moscow. Khristenko lives in the middle (only the cadastral value of the land on which the house stands is 57 million rubles: this is almost the annual income of a married couple). His neighbor on the right (when looking at the river) is Andrey Reus, a former deputy in the Ministry of Industry, and on the left is another former deputy minister, Andrey Dementyev.

Three former colleagues in the ministry have recently owned the Sport Projects company: Khristenko, as a former minister, has 34%, and his former deputies have 33% each. And just a few months ago, in December 2017, this company acquired from a company from the British Virgin Islands (Raveborg Capital) 100% in another Russian company, Skortex.

Club for their

Satellite imagery shows that behind the houses of Khristenko, Reus and Dementiev, there are endless expanses of a golf course, with an artificial and skillful landscape of lakes, sand traps, winding paths and a flat, trimmed lawn. Judging by the map, the area of ​​this field alone is almost 80 hectares. Its cadastral value is 2.2 billion rubles.

And all this belongs to the same company "Scortex" of former colleagues from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, headed by Viktor Khristenko.

This is the golf course of the Pestovo club. Although it would be more correct to call this territory the “Pestovo space”, because not only a golf course is located here, but also a yacht club, an equestrian center, and numerous residential cottages. The websites of real estate agencies say that the total area of ​​this territory is 180 hectares.

This space is closed to outsiders. “This is a private indoor golf club. And that's probably good. I can say for sure that our club is almost a family club. You know everyone, and all people are comfortable for you. Here you rest in peace, and it is pleasant for you to look around ... We have created a kind of social cell in which everyone follows certain rules: everyone is polite, everyone knows that one must be pleasant to others and not go out of their way ...

I don't want a bunch of strangers wandering around in Pestovo. Because it's a club space. It is closed - for members only," Andrey Reus, a former deputy minister and then president of Pestov, told Golf Digest magazine.

The former director of Pestov, Oleg Kustikov, in an interview with Forbes in 2017, estimated the golf club at $120 million. This is almost 7 billion rubles.

But this is not the only club owned by Viktor Khristenko and his comrades.

Palace Golf

In the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region in 2013 there was a "golf resort" "Forest Hills" - a branch of "Pestov". “This is also our golf club. Here it is just “open”, so that there is a flow of people, so that everyone plays, joins ... ”- said Andrey Reus. The club was designed by Procyon. Its website says that Forest Hills is one of the largest golf projects in Russia with a total area of ​​450 hectares!

The land on which Forest Hills is located is divided between two companies, Medana and Terus. Both are 51% owned by Resortsinvest. One of its ultimate co-owners is Viktor Khristenko.

What is 450 hectares of land? This is more than the whole Moscow district of Zamoskvorechye, in which almost 60 thousand people live.

And if Pestovo was estimated at 7 billion rubles, then Forest Hills, whose territory is almost three times larger, can be assumed to be at least not cheaper.

But this is not the last golf asset of former Minister Viktor Khristenko.

Last year, the Peterhof golf club was opened. It is located right next to the large Peterhof Palace and the park ensemble. The company that was involved in the architectural design of this club defined its area as 130 hectares.

Peterhof is owned by the St. Petersburg-based Mikhailovka Golf Club, which is owned by the Moscow-based Nika firm, which in turn is owned by Lifeinvest, whose director is Alexander Kotelenets, who worked as an assistant to Khristenko in the Ministry of Industry and Trade. And at the end of this long chain, reminiscent of a nesting doll, is again Viktor Khristenko, the former Minister of Industry. He owns 100% of Lifeinvest.

All these endless golf courses and the infrastructure associated with them, according to Novaya Gazeta, according to minimal estimates, could cost more than 10 billion rubles. There are no such incomes in the declarations of Khristenko and his wife. If our estimates are correct, then in order to acquire all these assets at market value, they would have to spend not a penny of their earnings (on food or anything else) and save for more than 300 years.

friendly deal

All the companies that own these assets—golf courses, land, yacht clubs, buildings—were previously run by the same person. His name is Oleg Kustikov. Today, together with Viktor Khristenko, he is a member of the executive committee of the Russian Golf Association, and in addition, he is a member of the board of directors of the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant (ChTPZ).

Viktor Khristenko has a long-standing relationship with the ChelPipe Group. Firstly, the board of directors of the enterprise included the son of Khristenko, Vladimir, which then raised questions from many media outlets, because ChTPZ depended on the decisions of the Minister of Industry.

And secondly, the main owner of ChTPZ Andrey Komarov is a fellow countryman of Viktor Khristenko (both from Chelyabinsk) and an old acquaintance.

“Viktor Borisovich is my senior comrade, we are from the same city, we have been friends for many years, we have all kinds of ties - family, friendly, whatever,” Komarov said in an interview with Forbes.

Could these friendly and other "all sorts of connections" affect the price of transactions for the purchase of "golf assets"?

Ethical Issues

In addition to the main question (where does Khristenko get the funds for such assets?), there are several ethical ones in this story.

Viktor Khristenko's companies received shares in all "golf assets" almost on the same day in December 2017. The seller in all cases was a British Virgin Islands firm, Raveborg Capital. Another British Virgin Islands firm, Aviaflow Limited, is now Khristenko's partner in the Russian company Resortsinvest.

Her husband's business with companies from the Virgin Islands does not prevent Tatyana Golikova from sharply criticizing the offshore activities of others: “In a crisis, Western countries will use all means to strengthen their economic and political position. Here I note that the work on combating corruption is closely related to the work on deoffshorization of the economy,” said the Chairman of the Accounts Chamber in 2014 at the Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum “Modern Standards and Technologies for Combating Corruption”.

Recently, Tatyana Golikova has become one of the main newsmakers on poverty in Russia.

For example, a few days ago, at the collegium of the Ministry of Finance, the chairman of the Accounts Chamber from the subsistence level, which does not take into account the real costs of Russians. “The targeted system of social protection should be based not on the subsistence minimum, but on the minimum consumer budget. This is a difficult transition, but it seems to us that this is the key to victory over poverty in our country,” Golikova said.

We hope that these measures will work and that many new golfers will appear in the country.

reaction

Answers of Viktor Khristenko to the request of "New"

1. Today you are the head of the Russian Golf Association. Could you tell us how long you have been fond of this sport, what attracts you to it and what, in your opinion, distinguishes it from other sports?

Golf is the most democratic, family and environmentally friendly sport. Golf can be practiced at any age, it can bring together people of different skill levels, ages and social status on the same field in the game.

2. For the average person, golf in Russia is an exotic sport. Could you tell us how long ago this sport came to our country, how it develops and what, in your opinion, it has prospects?

Of course, golf in Russia has potential. The Russian Olympic Committee actively supports the development of golf in our country. Our compatriot Maria Verchenova was included in the 60 participants in the Olympic tournament, set an Olympic score record in the round, and according to the results of the Olympic tournament, she took 16th place. I am sure that there will be new stars from Russia on the Olympic pedestals, the Russian Golf Association is actively working on this.

Among the initiatives, I would like to mention the project "Development of golf in the system of school education", aimed at the development of sports in the school environment. It currently covers 19 regions of Russia, from Leningrad Oblast to Primorsky Krai, and has an ambitious goal of reaching more than 1,000 schools across Russia by 2020.

3. According to the state register of legal entities, you are also a co-owner of a number of companies that own golf clubs in Pestov and Peterhof. Could you clarify how successful the golf development business is in Russia?

I don't know of any golf club in the country that is profitable. The named golf clubs are also still in the operating minus.

4. According to our calculations, only the book value of the assets of those companies, of which you have recently become a co-owner, exceeds 5 billion rubles. According to the income declarations of your spouse, Tatyana Golikova, the total income of your family for the last three years (2014-2016) amounted to 105.8 million rubles. In this regard, could you please explain with what funds you acquired shares in Sport Project (and its subsidiary Skortex), as well as Lifeinvest (and its subsidiaries and affiliates, Nika and "Resortsinvest")?

All the stakes I have acquired in Russian companies, the data of which, as well as my income with my wife, are publicly available information, were acquired at a nominal value, which is significantly less than my personal income in recent times. The net assets of these companies, taking into account debts, encumbrances and operating losses, are negative, so their value is incomparably lower than the figure mentioned in the question. I do not receive dividends from participating in golf projects.

5. According to the state register of legal entities, you acquired shares in companies that own golf clubs and land plots of hundreds of hectares almost at the same time (in December 2017) from a company from the British Virgin Islands, Raveborg Capital. Could you explain who was behind this offshore company, and also what was the amount of transactions for the acquisition of shares in the above companies - owners of golf clubs and land?

The historical composition of the owners of the mentioned golf clubs was formed before me. After my entry into the project, Raveborg Capital was liquidated and now the companies participating in the project have Russian jurisdiction.

6. Could you clarify whether the amount of the above transactions was affected by the fact that the previous owners of golf clubs, as well as land plots, were the structures of members of the boards of directors of the ChTPZ group, Andrey Komarov and Oleg Kustikov? Did the fact that your son Vladimir Khristenko have been on the board of directors of ChelPipe for a long time contributed to the reduction in the price of the above transactions?

At the time of my acquisition of shares in golf projects, there were no mentioned persons among their owners. The shares were purchased at face value, since they did not represent commercial value either in terms of the structure of the balance sheet or in terms of the commercial content of the projects.

7. The ChTPZ Group, like any other large industrial enterprise in Russia, certainly depended on the decisions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which you headed. Could you explain whether your past activities as a minister somehow influenced the price of the above transactions?