Aven Peter Olegovich: biography, achievements and interesting facts. “Only after he got rich, he began to attract women to himself” Peter Aven is building a house in Britain next to Berezovsky

Peter Aven was born into a family that belonged to the scientific nomenklatura elite. Thus, his father was a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a teacher at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, and his mother was also a university teacher. Aven also had Latvian roots. His grandfather was a Latvian rifleman during the revolution, and in the 1930s he fell victim to repression.

Petr Aven studied at one of the strongest mathematical secondary educational institutions of the Union - school No. 2. Some compared the graduates of this “thieves” school to the “Tsarskoye Selo Brotherhood”, and others to the Masonic lodge. This educational institution had close ties with the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. When Peter Aven became an applicant, he chose the first university.

True, unlike his classmates, Petr Aven did not enter the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, but the Faculty of Economics. The young man was helped to make this decision by his father, who during these years not only taught at Moscow State University, but also headed a department at the Institute of Management Problems, where he worked on industrial electronics and computer technology. He was sure that this direction was the future, which is why he advised his son to take up mathematical methods economic analysis.

Peter Aven and dating

IN student years Peter Aven ran a music club where he made acquaintances with creative part Soviet youth, including future stars Stas Namin and Alexander Gradsky. This environment was very specific and free-thinking. Moreover, it was in it that consumer market drugs. Therefore, during these years, Peter Aven came into the spotlight not only law enforcement, but also criminal elements. At the same time, he met his future business partner, who in those years headed another informal youth club called “ Strawberry glade" Friedman’s activities could also be called very dubious; it was rumored that it was associated with “farming” and speculation.

Peter Aven also had other acquaintances, which later turned out to be fateful. The student communicated with the future head of the Presidential Administration and the son-in-law of the first President Russian Federation Valentin Yumashev, who studied at a parallel course at the Faculty of Journalism. After graduating from university, Pyotr Olegovich Aven studied in graduate school together with the future “young reformer” Yegor Gaidar.

Petr Aven defended his dissertation at the department of academician Stanislav Shatalin. Then, together with the same Gaidar, he worked at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute systems research Academy of Sciences of the USSR. With him he also participated in the famous economic seminar in Leningrad region, which took place in a place with the telling name Snake Hill. Here he had the honor of meeting other future arbiters of the country's destiny.

In the late 1980s, Pyotr Olegovich Aven, having become a research fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, worked in Austria, where at that time many economists from the Snake Hill were undergoing internships under the US State Department program. Petr Aven communicated closely with colleagues, in particular he established close relationship with Sergei Glazyev.

Career of Peter Aven

In 1991, after the collapse of the USSR, his friends, led by Yegor Gaidar, took important positions in the government, and Pyotr Olegovich Aven was offered the post of chairman of the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations, which he did not refuse. Soon the Committee was transformed into the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations (MFER).

Peter Aven worked in this position for about a year. For so much short term he managed to stand out only through successful negotiations with the Paris Club of creditors, achieving easing of conditions for paying off debts. Versions about the reasons for his departure vary. He himself claims that he did not accept Gaidar’s resignation, and was categorically against working under the leadership of Viktor Chernomyrdin.

However, it was rumored that Petr Aven, heading KVES and using insider information, carried out a number of transactions that enriched him. It was also alleged that while in the ministerial chair, Pyotr Olegovich Aven took “commissions” and even “expensive gifts” for assistance in foreign trade transactions, in particular for organizing the supply of meat, sugar and other food products to Russia. At the same time, he allegedly, through Russian emigrant Sergei Mazharov, who lived in France, organized an entire business, the profits from which went to accounts in the Cayman Islands. After Peter Aven left the Government, Mazharov was killed in Paris. Another entrepreneur who was assisted by Pyotr Olegovich was Mikhail Fridman, who, thanks to his acquaintance with the minister, purchased goods in India at the expense of government debts.

It was also alleged that Russian intelligence services became interested in Peter Aven in connection with thefts in the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, his connections with Israeli intelligence, as well as the organization of drug transit from South-East Asia to Europe. In addition, there was information that he, together with another minister Alexander Shokhin, was being developed by the American intelligence services for fraud with the Tanzanian debt to the USSR. Allegedly, all this information was reported to the then President Boris Yeltsin, who dismissed Pyotr Olegovich Aven. True, the ex-minister himself successfully challenged this information in court.

Finances of Peter Aven

One of Peter Aven’s largest clients in those years became. Boris Abramovich once worked together with Aven Sr. at one of the institutes of the Academy of Sciences, but now Pyotr Olegovich Aven not only advised the oligarch, but became his personal adviser. His tasks included lobbying the interests of Berezovsky’s enterprise “” in the Government. Thanks to his efforts, customs duties on imported cars were increased, which was beneficial to the “distributors” of the VAZ concern.

The company’s business was so successful that it even had enough money to take part in financing Gaidar’s election bloc “Choice of Russia.” On December 12, 1993, Peter Aven himself was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on the list of the Gaidar bloc. However, before the start of the Duma’s work, he refused the mandate, not wanting to leave his post general director FinPA.

Peter Aven and Mikhail Fridman

In the end, the enterprising Mikhail Fridman decided to get a “valuable personnel” with a powerful administrative resource at his complete disposal. In order to attract Peter Aven to Alfa-Bank, Fridman even created the position of president, which he offered to his business partner. Pyotr Olegovich Aven agreed, and both entrepreneurs exchanged their assets. Petr Aven transferred 50% of FinPA to Fridman, and he, in turn, gave him 10% of Alfa-Bank.

Since then, Petr Aven has also joined the board of directors of Aviakor OJSC and headed the board of directors of the television holding company Alfa-TV CJSC. Mikhail Maratovich was right with the shot - soon his companion received insider information about the impending collapse of the ruble, which allowed Alfa to make good money on Black Tuesday.

In the second half of the 1990s, Petr Aven, together with Fridman, began to develop the oil market. Having set his sights on the state-owned stake in the Yukos oil company put up for auction, Pyotr Olegovich Aven, as usual, relied on his useful contacts, but was faced with more powerful lobbying activities conducted by Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Menatep company. Menatep, in particular, became the authorized bank of the State Property Committee of the Russian Federation to conduct an investment competition. Alfa-Bank, in turn, expressed its fears that the results of the competition were already predetermined, and in order to somehow resist Menatep, it formed a consortium with Inkombank and Russian Credit. But Menatep simply rejected the consortium's application. Menatep won the fight for Yukos assets, after which Pyotr Aven developed very strained relations with Khodorkovsky.

Peter Aven and oil

From YUKOS, business partners switched to the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK). They began buying shares of the company in 1997 through the New Holding company, which represented the interests of the Alfa Bank CIB. Petr Aven contacted the chairman of the State Property Committee, Alfred Koch, who helped New Holding win the competition, and the price of the shares was significantly underestimated - a 40% stake was sold for only $25 million, which was significantly lower than market prices. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of TNK and the General Director of the largest producing enterprise of TNK Nizhnevartovskneftegaz, Viktor Paliy, signaled this to the President. At the same time, he argued that with the arrival of new owners, multi-billion dollar profits from oil production would go abroad.

Koch again came to the aid of Alpha with another old acquaintance, then First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais, who helped ensure that the board of directors did not vote for the appointment of Paliya to the post of general director of TNK. Otherwise, government officials threatened to bankrupt the company.

Despite everything, Tyumen oil workers began to send new signals to the government that after the arrival of new owners, Nizhnevartovskneftegaz suffered damage in the amount of $1.4 million and more than 56 billion rubles in just one month. The letter was accompanied by documents confirming the information, and even a letter from the Prosecutor General. The Prime Minister did not react to this information in any way.

But Aven managed, through another first deputy prime minister, Boris Nemtsov, to influence the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, which actually transferred Nizhnevartovskneftegaz to Alpha. After this, a decision was made at the general meetings of TNK on the early termination of the duties of all members of the board of directors of Nizhnevartovskneftegaz. Tyumen oil workers sued this decision and even won it, but the management of Alfa Group presented a fictitious decision of the Khanty-Mansiysk court Autonomous Okrug, overturning the first decision.

Peter Aven and Tolstoy's dacha

Around the same time, Koch also provided a personal service to Pyotr Olegovich Aven, helping him with the purchase of the famous dacha of the writer Alexei Tolstoy in Barvikha. For this purchase, the businessman paid a little more than 200 thousand dollars, while the land alone in the presidential Barvikha area cost at least 15 thousand dollars per 100 square meters. m. Thus, the Presidential Administration earned 200 thousand dollars per year just by renting out mansions in Barvikha.

True, Peter Aven himself claimed that he paid 800 thousand dollars. But when I started checking this information tax service, it turned out that the transaction was formalized as an investment contribution, and all payments were carried out through Alfa-Bank. In a word, it was about transferring money from one pocket to another.

It should be noted that the publication “Top Secret” wrote about Alexei Tolstoy’s dacha. In those years, the newspaper often criticized Peter Aven. After one of these articles, the businessman won almost a million dollars in a lawsuit against the publication, but took pity and cooperated with Borovik’s widow (the editor himself had already died by this time), after which Sovershenno Sekretno began to publish only laudatory articles about Pyotr Olegovich Aven .

Peter Aven and change of Government

With the advent of the 2000s, political reality began to change in Russia. Initially, Petr Aven believed that his lobbying capabilities would not weaken, since Vladimir Putin, whom he knew, with whom he interacted when he was Minister of Foreign Economic Relations, became President. In addition, he strengthened his position in the Kremlin former representative"Alfa Group" Vladislav Surkov. The politicians of the nineties were in no hurry to leave their homes, although many had to significantly give up their positions. However, not only new influential players appeared in business and in power, but also different rules of the game. In this regard, Pyotr Olegovich Aven could no longer kick open the doors to government offices, but was forced to knock on them, and not always successfully.

But this kind of change did not mean at all that Alfa Group began to have problems with business. The holding continued to have serious patrons and expanded its business, and, as stated, it did so at the expense of. In particular, Alfa Group allegedly absorbed through bankruptcy such enterprises as the West Siberian Metallurgical Plant, the Smirnov Trading House, the Volga and Kama pulp and paper mills, the SUN Interbrew beer company and even the operator mobile communications"Megaphone".

In 2006, the IPOC Foundation filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against the structures of Alfa Group, including Peter Aven. Representatives of the fund stated that they acquired 100% of the shares of the Bahamian company Transcontinental Mobile Investment, which, through CT-Mobile, owned 25.1% of Megafon, but despite this, control over the assets was established by the structures of Friedman and Aven. There was also information that Alfa Group had seized the Achinsk Alumina Refinery, which was facilitated by then-Senator Gleb Fetisov.

The affairs of Pyotr Olegovich Aven himself also moved forward. He was elected chairman of the board of directors of the Golden Telecom holding, 43.6% of whose shares were acquired by Alfa Group. He was also co-chairman of the board of directors of STS Media.

In 2004, Institutional Investor magazine named Aven the best manager in the financial services sector in Russia, and in 2006 he joined the board Russian Union industrialists and entrepreneurs. In addition, in 2009, being half Latvian, he joined the board of directors of Latvijas Balzams. At the same time, Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Alfa Bank, Alexander Gafin, announced Peter Aven’s readiness to head the government of Latvia, which the businessman himself called an unfortunate joke.

In general, Pyotr Olegovich Aven appeared less and less in the press. A rare case when the media circulated his name at the end of the 2000s was associated with Alfa Bank’s refusal to grant Oleg Deripaska’s company a deferred payment and an attempt to recover $800 million through the court. It was Peter Aven who then publicly declared his intention to seize the assets and accounts of Rusal and facilitate the bankruptcy procedure.

Another reason for mentioning the banker affected the wider public. Petr Aven unexpectedly decided to publish a devastating article on the novel “Sanka” by writer Zakhar Prilepin, which caused a heated public debate. But if in his review Petr Aven accused Prilepin of calling the people to revolution, then already in 2013 he, together with Alfred Koch, published a collection of interviews with politicians Russia about the “Gaidar revolution”.

In the 2010s, Petr Aven also preferred to “keep a low profile.” His name was mentioned in connection with the fact that the American Internet publication BuzzFeed published articles alleging that Alfa Bank bankers were part of a Russian scheme related to influencing presidential elections in the USA 2016. Peter Aven and his colleagues even denied this information in an American court. In addition, the banker was mentioned in connection with the fact that he was trying to purchase shares football club"Spartak Moscow" at Leonid Fedun. But the owner of the red and white refused to share powers to manage the club, after which Pyotr Olegovich Aven lost interest in the club’s assets.

Petr Aven in his youth fell into the circle of young economists who, after the collapse Soviet Union led Russian reforms. Despite the fact that Peter Aven was on the powerful Olympus for a relatively short time, his ability to influence the country’s economic policy and obtain insider information remained for many years. At the same time, he knew how to wisely manage these opportunities. That is why the owner of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, made him one of his closest associates. A couple of business partners broke the law more than once in order to increase their business empire. Today, Petr Aven tries to keep a low profile, occasionally reminding him that he and his friends are the “founding fathers” of the modern Russian economy.

Petr Aven is a representative of the galaxy of modern Russian entrepreneurs, co-owner of Alfa Group and shareholder of the LetterOne Holdings holding, which owns part of VimpelCom and Euroset. Now, perhaps, few people will remember him as statesman, but as a collector and philanthropist Aven is known quite widely.

Childhood and youth

The biography of the businessman began in March 1955 in Moscow. Peter's mother is Jewish by nationality; Russian and Latvian blood is mixed in his father's veins. Aven Sr. taught at Moscow State University and headed the laboratory of automated control systems at the USSR Academy of Sciences. The son graduated from physics and mathematics school No. 2, the teaching staff of which was called genius. Later the educational institution was closed because most of teachers and graduates left the country.

In 1993, Aven created his own financial structure - the consulting company "Finance of Peter Aven" (FinPA), which provided consulting services, had no assets and did not buy anything. Among the clients was Alfa Bank, founded by Friedman. Soon Peter Olegovich became its co-owner.

Since then, the entrepreneur’s assets have only grown: car dealers, companies cellular communication and insurance, cinema and supermarket chains, TV channels, IT companies and oil and gas production enterprises. In 2019, Forbes published data on Aven’s condition. The Alfa Bank group he heads received $1.32 billion in 2018 net profit. Peter himself, with $5.1 billion, took 21st place in the list of the richest people in Russia.

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Petr Aven at the presentation of his book "The Time of Berezovsky"

Aven has collected the largest collection of paintings by artists of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, sculptures, majolica, porcelain worth (and then approximately) $ 500 million. At the same time, the paintings and graphics are cataloged, and the owner does not keep the masterpieces locked up, on the contrary, with He enjoys donating to exhibitions and dreams of opening a private museum. He never turned to the help of so-called curators, but acquired things personally. The businessman has not parted with a single item - the collection is only growing.

In 2008, Peter and his wife Elena opened the “Generation” charity foundation, which supports children’s healthcare, cultural exchange between Russia and Latvia. Together with Roman Abramovich, he finances the Jewish Museum. In his care are the Russian School of Economics, whose graduates easily enter the best universities in the world, the Olympians Support Fund, the Named Museum and a dozen other institutions.

Personal life

Peter Aven is a widower. The cause of his wife’s death in August 2015 was a blood clot. By profession, Elena was a historian. The couple lived together for 30 happy years and raised two twin children.

The heirs were born in Austria, live in America, graduated from the English Catholic school St George's Weybridge and Yale University. Son Denis has a double degree with honors in mathematics and economics. Daughter Daria promotes the MAC brand at Estée Lauder.

In 2017, Aven began going out with his new companion Ekaterina Kozina. The banker did not divulge the details of his personal life to the press - practically nothing is known about the woman who gave him his son Philip.

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Peter Aven

Peter lives in Barvikha, in a house that belonged to the writer Alexei Tolstoy. There is an estate in England. He is interested in hunting, keeps himself in good shape (weight 80 kg, height 180 cm) with the help of alpine skiing, tennis and football.

The entrepreneur is a fan of Spartak, a member of the club’s board of directors, and has not missed a single Moscow match. In 2014, Aven and two partners were thinking about acquiring the Red-White, but abandoned the idea when one of the co-investors came under economic sanctions. Then Peter himself ended up on the blacklist of the American Ministry of Finance.

The banker is fluent in English, reads and explains himself in Spanish. IN in social networks Aven, according to rumors, does not see much benefit, although Instagram users publish photographs with comments on his books, thereby attracting the interest of potential readers.

In the family of the 60-year-old chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank, Peter Aven great sorrow. His wife Elena Aven died on Tuesday, August 25.

According to media reports, the cause of death of Elena Aven is a detached blood clot.

The death of the oligarch's wife became known yesterday from a message in facebook friend of the deceased - lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky.

“A bright, wonderful, intelligent and kind woman, Lena Aven, has died. My friend, neighbor, wife of a close friend. My sincere condolences to Peter Aven and their children Dasha and Denis,” Dobrovinsky wrote.

A representative of Alfa-Bank confirmed this information to the media.

“The Board of Directors of the Alfa-Bank banking group, the board and the team of Alfa-Bank Russia express their deepest and sincere condolences in connection with the untimely death of Elena Vladimirovna Aven,” said a representative of the bank.

Farewell fast Family friend Alfred Koch also wrote - without mentioning her name: “I knew her well. She was happy. The children loved her. And she loved them deeply, passionately.

She loved her husband. And he loved her. Treasured her terribly. Shore, took care of her. Proud... A rare family. Rare happiness. May the kingdom of heaven rest with her. May she rest in peace."

In addition, Koch reports the cause of death of Elena Aven - a blood clot broke off in the woman.

Elena Aven was a co-founder charitable foundation“Generation”, founded by the couple in 2008 in Latvia, where Peter Aven’s ancestors are from. The foundation supported pediatric medicine, as well as scholarships and grants in the field of science.

Elena Aven is a historian by profession.

Peter and Elena Aven have been married for more than 25 years. During this time, we managed to raise twins Denis and Dasha (born in 1993), who are now studying at Yale University.

In 2011, in exclusive interview to the MixNews portal, Mrs. Aven told how easy it was for her to be the wife of such a famous person.

"I didn't start living with just some guy famous person, and with a junior researcher. And we lived normally ordinary life. We need to love each other, respect each other. And we also need to learn not to offend each other,” Elena Aven said then.

Farewell to Elena Aven will take place in the Ritual Hall of the Troekurovsky cemetery in the capital on Friday, August 28, at 10 a.m., the funeral will begin at 12 noon Moscow time.

How Russia was betrayed. P.Aven
Dedicated to the generation that survived the nineties

We will need to tell our children and grandchildren about those people who destroyed and betrayed our huge country, so that they know them and, like us, are able to preserve it. It is necessary that they know each of them personally - how they lived, how they were brought up, what they believed in, what they hated. Why are they like this? We need to tell about these people so that our children and grandchildren can recognize them. So we will talk about them in the series “How Russia was Betrayed”... Still in the cycle “How Russia was Betrayed”

Peter Aven

Aven’s confession contains the main answer to the question of why the reforms of the 90s in Russia were so criminal, immoral and failed.
Part 1

The young reformers of the 90s were always eager for publicity and even theatrical. The grandson of two great writers, Gaidar, at the end of the USSR, worked with the publications Pravda and Kommunist, and at the zenith of his career, without finishing the endings in some kind of caricatured negligence, he broadcast his marginal philosophy with visible pleasure, especially during the days of the 1993 putsch, calling the people to their defense. Koch hosted the show “Greed” on NTV, and now actively blogs and collaborates with his gentle friend Aven at Forbes. There they find out whether everything was done so badly in the 90s and why they live like this, although richly, but cautiously in Rus'.

Peter Aven himself is not without the habits of a Russian cultural educator. Then he will bring Elton John to the Throne Hall of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. Then, coyly - they say, I’m not a writer - he will scribble a review of the book “Sankya” by Nizhny Novgorod resident Zakhar Prilepin for the magazine “Russian Pioneer”.

“...We - I, in any case - did not steal anything from anyone,” he writes there. - And, sorry for the cliche, we are creating thousands of jobs. And we pay scholarships - including to future engineers. And we have nothing to justify ourselves for. If I do feel some guilt for my better life- this is only done in front of the old and sick. Those who can't. And those who don’t want to, in my opinion, must justify themselves to me.”

Here we see one of the many amazingly impudent thoughts of the current Aven - that the country, robbed and humiliated by his government, must justify to him why it was robbed and humiliated.

The power of the bespectacled

Today they would be called hipsters. In the 60s and 70s, these were simply refined, smart boys, whom their parents assigned to Moscow physics and mathematics school No. 2. Peter Aven now calls this event the main thing in his life, and in this he is probably right. In the quiet of Moscow offices, in the narrow circles of the capital learned people, who did not smell the country, a new generation of narcissistic misanthropes, provided with all the benefits, grew up in their warm dining rooms.

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, in 1980 Aven defended his candidate's thesis under the leadership of academician Stanislav Shatalin. Then he sat in the same office at the All-Union Research Institute for Systems Research with Yegor Gaidar. The text of his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Functional scaling” was published in 1988 under the editorship of his future close associate Boris Berezovsky.

Like many in the generation of “young reformers,” Aven was a research fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, located in Laxenburg, Austria. At the same time, he was listed as an adviser to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This ability to combine different positions and take advantage of them will play a decisive role in his career.

Of course, it was not only the cabinet proximity with Gaidar that ensured Aven’s entry into the government of reformers. He really wanted this.

– All economists, especially those who graduated with honors from higher education educational establishments, dream of ruling the country,” Aven told Forbes magazine. - This is, in fact, what they are taught for, this is why they read books. And, having entered the government, we received such an opportunity. We understood that, indeed, the reforms were difficult, it would be unpopular for some time, but, in principle, we still saw ourselves as part of history, among the elite of economists. Therefore, there was certainly no doubt that reforms needed to be done.

This recognition contains the main answer to the question of why the reforms of the 90s in Russia were so criminal, immoral and failed. The government of vain smart boys did not know how to carry out reforms, they understood that they were extremely difficult, but the desire to go down in history quickly outweighed all fears.

Friend of Berezovsky and Putin

Peter Aven during the years of reforms and after them demonstrated amazing ability adapt and survive. Today it is believed that the president of Alfa Bank is a friend of Vladimir Putin and a skilled lobbyist for business interests in the corridors of power. In the 90s, on the contrary, one of the main ideologists of “Gaidarwinism,” Aven, was in partnership and friendly relations with Boris Berezovsky and many other current London prisoners. But he doesn't sit.

However, Aven’s activities during the reforms were much more ambiguous and subtle than the clumsy work of the same Alfred Koch. If Koch sold enterprises - “iron”, then the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation traded information. After leaving his ministerial post in 1992, after the resignation of Yegor Gaidar, Aven began working in the same specialty, only privately. He created his own company, Finance Peter Aven (FinPA), which began consulting on Russian foreign debts. Naturally, due to the nature of his ministerial service, he knew this matter better than anyone else, and had an excellent set of necessary connections in government. Trading in government information today would be called insider trading, but at that time there was no such concept in Russia, just as there were no players in the market favored by Aven.

Part 2

All reformers, without exception, made disparaging statements about massive losses among the people.
The connection between the state and business became Aven’s main source of income. Alfa Bank, for example, bought Russian government debts for 25–30% of their value, and then received the full price for them from the country. What kind of obligations should you buy, according to “ Novaya Gazeta“, Mikhail Kasyanov, the chief negotiator on Russian debts in the West, told him. More precisely, he ordered to first pay off those debts that were purchased by Alfa. A criminal case was even opened regarding such simple cooperation, but then it was closed under a vague pretext.

Nevertheless, despite the craving for the elegant and all the intelligence of his career, Pyotr Olegovich could not avoid the primitive privatization “cutting” of enterprises, which was busy in those years throughout the country. Even when he headed the ministry, it oversaw the privatization of significant foreign economic enterprises of the USSR. There were such facilities as, for example, Soyuznefteexport (now Nafta), which carried out up to 70% of the Union’s oil export transactions. The foreign property of this company was estimated to be worth $1 billion, but was privatized for $2,000. The shares were distributed by private subscription among the former management of Soyuznefteexport and the ministry.

In 1995, Alfa Bank Avena got involved in the fight for the oil company Sidanko (now Tyumenskaya oil company", TNK), which was put up for a loans-for-shares auction. Alpha structures bought 40% of TNK for $810 million. According to the Accounts Chamber, State Property Committee and Russian Foundation federal property, they deliberately underestimated the value of the stake in TNK put up for sale by more than 1.5 orders of magnitude. The treasury lost about $1.4 billion on this. For several years after this auction, the management of TNK, led by the chairman of the company’s board of directors, the general director of Nizhnevartovskneftegaz, Viktor Paliy, tried to fight the takeover of the company, since they had their own designs on it. Paliy then stated that this privatization was state robbery with the tacit consent of officials. It turned out that the agreement was not tacit at all. Chubais and Kokh immediately dashed off a letter to the management of Sidanco demanding that Paliy be excluded from the re-election due to “bad economic situation enterprises." The smart boys were, as they now say, naive when it came to the interests of the majority of the population. But, as we see, naivety extended only to the interests of others, and when it came to one’s loved ones, brutal pragmatism immediately came into play.

Thanks for the illiterate old people

Pragmatism is one of Aven’s main properties. IN present time he is still present in power, promoting the interests of his business and providing “cover” for himself personally. Alfa Bank and its president have delegated a lot of people to both the Kremlin and the State Duma who allow him to feel calm. Suffice it to say that the “gray eminence” and current Deputy Prime Minister of the government Vladislav Surkov was once deputy chairman of the board of Alfa Bank.

Forbes estimates Aven's fortune at $4.5 billion. The president of Alfa Bank owns Russia's largest collection of Russian paintings from the Silver Age - it is believed that this is a very good investment. “Portrait of the poet Velimir Khlebnikov” by Mikhail Larionov, which belongs to him, is estimated, for example, at 20–25 million dollars. In 1997, with a scandal, he bought Alexei Tolstoy’s dacha in Zhukovka near Moscow at the price of an annual rent. Aven believes that he earned it all himself, unlike many residents of the country who do not want to do this.

“The grandfather in the novel “Sankya”, who climbed down from the stove in a remote village and talked about the coming world cataclysms (I, who worked in rural economics for many years, never met such literate grandfathers on any of my expeditions), is a direct relative of the Russian elders - hermits. Which, at least thanks to her for this, the Soviet government put an end to. Otherwise, thousands of illiterate old people doing nothing, living in the dirt, fooled the people for centuries (and took up a lot of their time - after all, they still had to get to them). By the beginning of the twentieth century, the institution of such suffering hermits was preserved in Christendom, it seems, only among the Orthodox,” Aven is amazed. Note: all reformers, without exception, made statements about certain massive losses among the people. Chubais and Gaidar say “it’s okay, others will appear.” Aven says “thank you, Soviet power is over.”

There is a version that Aven has one good reason not to particularly fear for his present in this country. It is connected with the fact that once the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation, under his leadership, issued permits for foreign trade, delegated this right to the administration of St. Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin served in foreign economic affairs. Count - shared bread. Aven always knew with whom to share. These are not illiterate old men.

Dmitry Inozemtsev
“Russian Planet”, October 29-30, 2012

Aven Petr Olegovich is a shareholder and president of OJSC JSCB Alfa-Bank, a member of the supervisory board of Alfa Group, and he is also on the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In 2004, a well-known financial magazine named the businessman and banker the best manager in the field of economic services in the Russian Federation.

Peter Aven: biography

Pyotr Olegovich was born in the capital of Russia - Moscow - in March 1955. His father (Oleg Ivanovich) held a post at the institute at the USSR Academy of Sciences, then he went to work at the main Moscow university - Moscow State University. His grandfather was a shooter who was shot during the repressions of the thirties.

Young Peter had many friends, among them was Valentin Yumashev, who mature age took the post of head of the administration of the head of state of the Russian Federation.

School and student years

Pyotr Olegovich studied at school No. 2 in Moscow. Already at a young age, Peter Aven showed interest in art. At school he was the president of the music club, and already at this time Peter had many friends in the musical field. He graduated from school in 1972 at the age of 17. After completing secondary education, the young man enters Moscow State University, the Faculty of Economics. Peter’s interest in art does not disappear, and he becomes president of the Moscow State University music club. It was here that he met his future business partner, M. Friedman. Five years later, to defend his diploma, he will choose the famous economist S. Shatalin as his scientific supervisor. After receiving a diploma of higher education, Petr Aven enters graduate school and defends his dissertation. After this he is assigned academic degree. He becomes a candidate of economic sciences (specializing in econometrics).

Carier start

After graduating from Aven University, Peter gets a job at a research institute of the USSR, where he first works as a junior research fellow, and soon the eldest. In 1989, Pyotr Olegovich went to Austria, the city of Laxenburg, where he worked under a contract as a research assistant international institute. At the same time, Petr Aven holds the position of adviser in the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Two years later, the future banker decides to join the government of reforms headed by Gaidar, whom he met at Moscow State University while studying in graduate school. Occupying high positions, Aven was able to carry out some transactions and increase his fortune. At the age of 37 years (1992), Petr Olegovich heads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs economic ties. At the same time, he becomes the representative of the head of state for relations with developed countries. While occupying this post, Aven Petr Olegovich was able to achieve considerable success. For example, as a result of a successful meeting with the Paris Club of Creditors (headed by Jean-Claude Trichet), the minister managed to improve Russia’s position and obtain a deferment in debt payments.

But at the end of 1992, the businessman resigned, arguing his step by his reluctance to work under the leadership of Viktor Chernomyrdin. However, Aven quickly finds a new place, becoming an adviser to the president of LogoVAZ JSC. Pyotr Olegovich met the president of the concern, Boris Berezovsky, back at Moscow State University, when he was a student’s supervisor. The press reported that new position Aven contributed to an increase in customs duties on imported foreign cars.

The following year, 1993, he created his own company, which was named “Peter Aven Finance” (abbreviated as “FinPA”). The organization was engaged in consulting on the conclusion of transactions with securities. The decision to seek advice from Aven was made by companies wishing to legalize and take their place. The director of the company himself did not hide the fact that he feels comfortable in the role of a financial consultant, because he knows how the government of the country makes decisions.

OJSC JSCB "Alfa-Bank"

In 1993, Aven ran for the State Duma and became its deputy. But he has to resign from the position due to his reluctance to lose the opportunity to work at FinPA. At the same time, the leaders of Alfa Bank became interested in him. Initially, they turned to FinPA for advice, but then their interest changed. In 1994, shares were exchanged. The businessman gives up fifty percent of his shares in exchange for ten percent of the bank's shares. Soon a new shareholder is appointed to the position of president.

The new head of the bank has repeatedly confirmed that he took his post for good reason, and with him the bank was able to strengthen its position in the market. In the spring of 1998, Aven became a member of the board of directors of the Aviakor company. In the summer, he was elected to the position of chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-TV CJSC, and a little later of STS CJSC. In the following years, the banker held the posts of chairman of the board of directors of Alfa Group and STS Media. By the beginning of 2011, the successful businessman increased the number of his shares in the CTC Media company to two tenths of a percent. By 2006, Aven increased the number of shares in the bank to 14 percent and became fourth on the list of significant people in the Alfa Group company. In the same year, the banker became a member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, taking a place on its board.

Merits and awards

During the formation of a career successful businessman and the banker Aven was able to earn the Order of Honor, which was awarded by decree of President V.V. Putin (2005). In 2004, the economic magazine named him the best manager in the field of economic services in the Russian Federation. In 2015, Aven was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Prize, which he received for his significant contribution to the development of relations between Russia and the United States of America. The award presentation took place in Washington.

Forbes

According to the famous Forbes magazine, Pyotr Olegovich Aven, whose biography and career growth developed very rapidly, took 178th place in the list of the wealthiest people as of 2008. His financial position was estimated at five and a half billion dollars.

Other interests of the banker

Petr Olegovich is engaged in writing. Yes, he is the author large quantity articles and books on economics. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Russian School of Economics and holds the position of professor at the university where he teaches.

Businessman's hobby

The banker is known for his interest in art, which manifested itself in his youth. He is a great connoisseur and patron of the arts. Interested in theater, Aven became one of the trustees of the Bolshoi Theater. The businessman is a passionate art collector, preferring paintings by famous artists of the Silver Age. The collection of his paintings is the largest collection of paintings of the early twentieth century in Russia. And many pieces from his collection cost a fortune. Interest in painting was not limited to collecting; Pyotr Olegovich is on the Board of Trustees of the museum fine arts A. S. Pushkin.

IN free time businessman is studying languages. He speaks English perfectly, and reads and speaks Spanish fluently. The banker is known for his love of skiing, as well as tennis. He loves to hunt in good company and is also a member of the Moscow English Club. Aven is a big football fan and does not miss the games of the Spartak team.

Peter Aven: wife, children

The famous businessman is married. Peter Aven's wife, Elena, has higher education. She graduated from the Moscow Institute, Faculty of History. Married to Pyotr Olegovich, she gave birth to twins in 1993 - a boy and a girl. In August 2015, Elena Vladimirovna Aven died. The children of Peter Aven, Daria and Denis, who are currently 23 years old, study in England, at Yale University. The family was friends with Yegor Gaidar, whom the future banker met as a student.

• Being a passionate football fan, Pyotr Olegovich made an offer to L. Fedun (owner of Spartak) in 2012 to purchase shares of the football club. However, the deal was not concluded due to the refusal of the club head to share power.
• Aven is the owner of real estate in England, in particular, he owns a mansion in an elite area in Surrey.
• In 2011, the businessman entered the list of the 200 richest people in the Russian Federation and took 28th place in it.
• In 2015, in New York, Aven and his partners organized an exhibition of paintings, where paintings from the businessman’s personal collection were presented. This event was held with the aim of strengthening relations with the country and raising the image of the Russian Federation.
• In 1998, a businessman purchased the dacha of the famous Russian writer Alexei Tolstoy.