ANATOLY CHUBAIS

'Anatoly Borisovich Chubais' (Russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Чуба́йс) (born June 16, 1955) is a Russian politician best known for his role in Russian privatization and the creation of Russian tycoons. Although the exact amount of his personal wealth (estimated according to rumors at one billion dollars) is not known, he is often considered to be a tycoon himself. The 2004 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Financial Times named him the world's 54th most respected business leader.

Contents

Early life

Personal life

Participation in privatization

Loans-for-shares program

Scandals and allegations of corruption

Involvement in political parties

Public opinion

Sources

Early life

Chubais was born on June 16, 1955 in the town of Borisov, Belarus. In 1977, he graduated from the Leningrad Economic Engineering Institute.
Chubais remained a member of the communist party till the early 1990s. He was an advisor to Anatoly Sobchak's Mayoral Administration in St Petersburg for about a year, from 1991-1992.

Personal life

Chubais is married to Maria, his second wife. She is also an economist. His wife's sister is Yulia Vishnevskaya, the wife of Vladislav Surkov. Chubais has two children from his first marriage, a son and a daughter.

Participation in privatization

Chubais allegedly gained his personal wealth mostly from non-salary sources through his participation at key executive positions in Yeltsin's government during the time of disorder that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Chubais is primarily known for his role under Yegor Gaidar as the vice-premier of the Russian Government. Gaidar and Chubais were the principal "young reformers" associated with shock therapy, privatization, and the rise of the Russian oligarchs. Both Gaidar and Chubais are former members of the communist party, and Gaidar was the editor of CPSU journal "Communist". In 1992 under the guidance of Chubais the State Property Committee designed a privatization program, according to which the state property was supposed to be fairly distributed between the citizens. In actuality, ordinary citizens gained pieces of paper ("vouchers") worth one months salary, whereas the people at key position in governing structures, their relatives and business associates obtained enormous amounts of wealth.

Loans-for-shares program

From November 1994 through January 1996 he was First Vice-Premier — in charge of economy and finance — in the Government of Viktor Chernomyrdin. During this time, the creation of Russian oligarchs was finalized. The Russian oligarchy was formed in late 1995 in the "loans-for-shares" program. In this scheme, a small group of individuals well-connected to government structures were handed valuable pieces of state property in return for cash "loans" (which in many cases were funded by the bank accounts of the state bank), cash which had previously been gained by the same people in the government-controlled privatization. One purpose of this operation was to help Boris Yeltsin's re-election.
In July 151996, – March 71997 Chubais was the Chief of the Russian presidential administration. It is during his term that this office became very influential.

Scandals and allegations of corruption

Although there are rumors that Chubais benefited enormously from the loans-for-shares scheme, the exact amount of his profit is unknown. In 1997, when Chubais served as First Vice-Premier and Minister of Finance for the Russian Federation, it became known that businessman Alexander Smolensky gave Chubais an "interest-free loan" of $3 million around the time that Chubais arranged an auction for Russia's second largest banking network, AgroPromBank, which then went to Alexander Smolensky. Chubais was then implicated in the scandal for a fake book publishing advance from a company tied to Vladimir Potanin's Oneximbank — shortly before Oneximbank won the auction for Svyazinvest. Chubais was removed from the government after that scandal and named chairman of the board of UES, Russia's power generating monopoly. Best known quote from Chubais is "We swindled them" ("Мы их кинули"). Chubais said this when he explained how he managed to squeeze $40 billion in funds from the IMF and other international lending organizations, all of which ended up in the pockets of Yeltsin's circle.

Involvement in political parties

Most recently, Chubais served as one of the co-leaders of the Union of Right Forces, which controlled 29 seats in the Russian Parliament from 1999 until 2003. On January 24, 2003 he resigned as co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces party. In the late 1990s, he also won a seat in the Russian Parliament as a candidate of the Russia's Choice party.

Public opinion

Chubais is one of the most controversial figures in Russian politics as a result of his close involvement in the rigged Russian privatization during the 1990s. The general population used to see him as a criminal who stole money using his government position, and he was widely disliked. (however, he was also adored by some as a professional in his sphere) He has also been blamed by some for rising utility prices because of his position at UES. Chubais seems to have survived the 2005 Moscow blackout generally blamed on Mosenergo and UES. He also survived an attempt on his life that took place on his way to work in March 2005. Retired Colonel Vladimir Kvachkov was later jailed in connection with the attack, though he continually denied the charges. Despite the widespread allegations, Chubais has never been charged for bribery or corruption.

Sources

★ Rusnet Encyclopedia

★ Russia Profile Who's Who

★ Russia's Regent by Paul Quinn-Judge, Time, December 91996.