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Thursday, 31.03.2011
Voloshin: Now directorship, 2012 even more?
Norilsk. He has always been a bit of a gray eminence around the Kremlin; Alexander Voloshin has always been able to balance interest and made sure never to forget his own. For now he is collecting chairmanships.
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It seems that there will be even more opportunities for him in the future, as several senior officials, of state owned companies, such as Igor Sechin, have to vacate the post of chairman as per a directive issued by Medvedev.
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One might even want to speculate that Alexander Voloshin could be a possible candidate for Prime Minister should President Medvedev still be President in 2012 and Putin no longer wants to rule.
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Old business partner Berezovsky's
Interestingly it has not hampered Voloshin's rise, having started his career alongside Boris Berezovsky, who has lived in exile in London for the last years and has been fighting against extrodition for fraud which the Russian prosecutor is asking for.
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His ex-partner, Alexander Voloshin, however, became chairman of the fertilizer group Uralkali last September - and on the 1st April, he will be elected chairman of the non-ferrous metals giant Norilsk Nickel.
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Before this, Voloshin had been Chairman to the supervisory board of the state monopoly RAO UES that he took over from Anatoly Chubais, until the group was dissolved in 2008.
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The success in his business career he can mainly attribute to his political positions and experiences. In 1997, thanks to Boris Berezovksy, he got into the center of power in the Kremlin, under Yeltsin. Only one year after Vladimir Putin had started there.
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At a Moscow railway yard and the Komsomol he learned to set the course
In 1998, Voloshin was already vice-chief of the Kremlin administration and already its director from 1999 to 2003, reporting to Vladimir Putin and also direct superior to Dmitri Medvedev ( who was then vice-chief of the Kremlin's office).
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Alexander Staljevich (Voloshin's unusual Russian father's name) had studied quite modestly at the Technical University of transport in Moscow where he started to set the course that continued in the Komsomol where he made first friendships (i.e with Mikhail Khodorkovsky), before he took his timely strategic decision, just at the beginning of Perestroika, to study for a second degree in foreign trade.
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In 1986, Voloshin started to work in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, quickly became head of department and therefore became the ideal partner for Boris Berezovsky with his diverse intricate export-import transactions, including Lada cars.
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Financial transactions of all kinds alongside Berezovsky
Voloshin was president or vice-president for some of Beresovski's investment companies within the Logovaz and AVVA companies, as well as vize-president of the Tchara bank (one of the first financial pyramids that collapsed in Russia). As president of the Federal Fund Corporation (FFK), Voloshin became general agent of the Russian state privatisation agency and allegedly assisted Berezovksy and Roman Ambramovich in the privatisation of the oil company Sibneft, offering extreme favourable conditions.
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In November 1997, at the hight of the political influence of Boris Berezovsky's on Boris Yeltsin, Voloshin, now an experienced financial adviser, moved into the Kremlin as adviser to Valentin Yumashev, head of the Kremlin chamber and husband to Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Jumasheva. He distinguished himself as an opponent to Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and in 1999 Boris Yeltsinsuddenly promoted him to head of administration.
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Voloshin gets rid of Premier Primakov
In this position of power Voloshin prepared for Primakov's fall but got into conflict with his successors Sergej Stepashin and Vladimir Putin. Voloshin would have prefered the director Nikita Mikhalkov to the FSB man Putin to become heir to Yeltsin.
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Nevertheless, Voloshin remained administration chief under Putin until he was finally dismissed by Putin after the arrest of Khodorkovsky in October 2003.
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Alexander Voloshin then disappeared completely from the political public stage, but remained active behind the scenes, such as chairman of the supervisory board of RAO UES, until 2008.
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Already at the end of 2008, he was suggested and elected as chariman of the worlld's largest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, by its shareholder Vladimir Potanin (Interros). He left this position in June 2010, but is certain to return to take it back on again.
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Lobbyist of the Yeltsin clan?
It is said that Voloshin is still to this day representing the interests of the "old family" for example the Yeltsin clan, especially the aluminium oligarch and Norlsk Nickel shareholder Oleg Deripaska, who is married to the daughter of Valentin Yumashev, Voloshin's former boss and husband to Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana.
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Actually, Yeltsin's "family" had virtually dissolved without its head and center, while Voloshin served the well understood state interests, under three presidents and did not forget to look after his own interests. It should be clear to Voloshin, not to get too strongly attached to Deripaska, who in the course of some risky investment projects and takeover attempts had gotten into serious debts.
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He has the President's trust
Stalevich certainly enjoys the trust of his former deputy Dmitri Medvedev. As soon as he had given up his position with Norilsk Nickel in 2010, he was appointed by Medvedev to head up a working group responsible for developing Moscow into an international finance center.
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It could well be that Voloshin wil benefit from Medvedev's recent announcement that top officials, such as Vice Premier Igor Sechin and other heavyweights within Putin's court, have to leave their leading positions within state companies. Some Moscow observers interpret Medvedev's announcement (again) as the go-ahead for the presidential election campaign.
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Alexander Voloshin is certainly not one of the best presenters but he is one of the most experienced and shrude top managers in Russia.
The ideal man to be Chairman of the Supervisory Board for state corporations.
Original German text can be found here >>>
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