Where is Mikhail Slobodin now? Why the former CEO of Beeline Mikhail Slobodin will not return to Russia

Mysterious personality. Unsurpassed success in his youth, climbing the career ladder, high positions in business - Mikhail Slobodin achieved all this in his life. But not everything is so smooth, in the autumn of last year he came to the attention of law enforcement agencies, and is now on the wanted list. What kind of person is this? Let's get to know each other better.

Biography of Mikhail Slobodin. Family

Slobodin was born in 1972 on September 17 in Severouralsk. His father at that time was a volleyball team coach, and his mother was a mathematics teacher. The family was big and friendly. Mikhail was brought up with three brothers, as well as with a foster brother and two sisters. Later, my father received the position of shop manager at one of the enterprises. As Mikhail Slobodin himself recalls, then for him it seemed like a super position. For six years the boy was engaged in swimming, he studied at the art school for four years.

School years

Since childhood, the boy was distinguished by an extraordinary character and disobedience. From the 7th grade, Mikhail Slobodin himself earned money in the summer, worked as a laborer and could afford small trips around the country.

Looking through Mikhail's school diaries, you can see that a lot of comments about bad behavior are inscribed against the background of solid fives. Mikhail does not hide the fact that he often liked to argue with teachers. Even then, he showed himself as a leader and could easily persuade the class to disrupt the lesson. But it is worth noting that he received knowledge perfectly well, read a lot. In those years, of course, he was a member of the Komsomol. At school, Mikhail went to the gold medal, but due to a conflict with a literature teacher, he received a four for his graduation essay.

Student and work

After school, Mikhail Slobodin went to Yekaterinburg. There he entered the Ural State University at the Faculty of Economics, scored ten points out of ten possible in the exams. All the years of study he was an excellent student and always received an increased scholarship. He graduated in 1993 with a red diploma. Where Mikhail Slobodin studied, he entered graduate school there, defended his Ph.D. thesis.

At the beginning of his activity, he was set up for a scientific career, but due to the economic transformations in the country, he went into business. Already at the same time as his studies, Slobodin worked at Sevuralboxytrud OJSC. The company was engaged in the supply of raw materials for aluminum smelting. He started his career as an engineer in the department of external relations, was responsible for relations with customs. After that, he was recommended for the position of deputy head of the financial department. Already then, in 1993, he transferred the financial department to paperless financial accounting technologies. Slobodin introduced Windows-based automation and was very proud of his achievement.

Career

In 1996, Mikhail Slobodin became a representative of CJSC Renova, led a project in organizing the business of OJSC Polevskoy Cryolite Plant. Even then, the Renova business group created by Vekselberg owned and managed the assets of enterprises in various sectors of the economy, from industry to housing and communal services.

In 1996-1999, Slobodin became the head of the economic department of the Siberian-Ural Aluminum Company. He held the position of deputy in the financial and economic department.

In 2000-2001, he received the position of director of the department of the regional branch of Renova.

The image of a manager of the XXI century

Slobodin Mikhail in 2001 holds the post of Deputy General Director of Finance and Economics of OAO Irkutskenergo. In 2002, he became the director of the department of OAO TNK. After the merger of TNK and British Petroleum, he is Vice President of Energy at OAO TNK-BP Management.

From 2006 to 2010, Mikhail Slobodin is the president of IES-Holding. The holding is engaged in heat supply and electric power industry.

From 2011-2013, he served as Executive Vice Director for Energy Supply and Gas at TNK-BP.

In 2013, as Slobodin himself stated, he decided to change the field of activity, the desire to work in the industry was gone, the state dominates there. He wanted to try himself in a competitive and dynamic market. At this time, he receives an offer to head VimpelCom.

VimpelCom

Slobodin Mikhail Yuryevich in 2013 becomes the CEO of the telecommunications company VimpelCom (Beeline). As he himself stated, the area without the influence of the state, where competition is highly developed, is exactly what he was looking for, there is an opportunity to prove himself. The main task, having come to the company, Slobodin set the establishment of trusting relationships with the consumers of services themselves, the improvement of service. On his initiative, the Beeline team constantly conducted trainings and educational events. There was an active team building process. In two years of his activity, he changed 85% of the leaders. Its goal was to make VimpelCom one of the leaders in mobile operators.

Weekly in the office, “Battle Sheets” were issued, which told about everything that the company had achieved, what each of the team had done for growth, including the leader himself. Mikhail went into every detail of the business personally. He himself participated in promotions, led pages on social networks, listened to consumer complaints, and even worked as a mystery shopper himself.

Forced resignation

As the director of VimpelCom, Mikhail Slobodin was remembered by many as a bright, outrageous and extraordinary personality, he held the post for three years. But now he was forced to resign and became a defendant in a high-profile criminal case!

The reason for this was his previous place of work. In 2003-2010, Slobodin was the head of the IES holding, which is part of Vekselberg's Renova.

Law enforcement authorities detained the head of the TPplus company (former IES) Boris Vainzikher, co-owner of Renova Yevgeny Olkhovik. They were charged in a bribery case in Komi. Slobodin also became a defendant in this case.

Wanted ad

In 2016, on September 5, Mikhail Slobodin was put on the wanted list. He was detained in this high-profile case so far only in absentia, since he was no longer in Russia at that time. Charges were brought against officials of the Republic of Komi for giving bribes (on an especially large scale). As the investigation assures, in 2007-2014, the defendants gave bribes to Komi officials for creating those favorable conditions for the work of IES CJSC, which included overstating the tariffs for consumers for electricity and heat. Slobodin, being outside the country, immediately resigned, which was accepted by the leadership of VimpelCom. In addition, he immediately stopped any activity on social networks. As soon as he was put on the wanted list, he fled to Nice.

"Count only on yourself"

Mikhail Slobodin can no longer be expected in Russia. He handed over the ticket he bought to Moscow from Nice on September 8 and warned his ex-wife not to count on his help anymore.

Evening September 5, 2016. In one of Moscow's elite apartments, on Nametkina Street, a middle-aged brunette stared at the TV screen. The news broadcast a story, it was told about the searches in Renova. The representative of the authorities from the screen said that the former leaders of the company, including Slobodin, became defendants in the criminal case. At the same moment, the woman received an SMS from the hero of the program, which said: "Oksana, now rely only on yourself."

At that moment Slobodin was already in Nice. He escaped on the morning of September 5th. On the evening of September 4, he received a warning that the security forces were preparing arrests for the defendants in the “energy case”. He immediately bought Airplane ticket And already in the morning he was breathing "free air", while his "colleagues" were already giving evidence to the operatives.

At first, Slobodin was still deciding whether to return to Russia, and took a return ticket for the 8th, which he told the capital's journalists about. He planned to observe the "energy business" from the inside. But already on Wednesday, Slobodin found out that his person had been put on the federal wanted list by the Investigative Committee. After that, Mikhail sent a farewell letter to VimpelCom, in which he asked to be removed from his position so that he would solve his problems while outside the company.

On the same day, the media reported that ex-governor of Komi Vyacheslav Geyser, in exchange for mitigation of his punishment, cooperated with the investigation and testified against Slobodin, Olkhovik and Vainzikher.

There is no way back

This statement in the media was the last straw for Slobodin. He realized that returning to his homeland would lead to 100% arrest. In such a situation, he, of course, preferred abroad. Where Mikhail Slobodin is now is unknown; at that time he was in Nice. There were no empty seats on the Nice - Moscow flight on September 8, which means that the passenger returned the ticket.

The reciprocal move is for law enforcement officers of Russia. A federal manhunt may be followed by an international one if the suspect does not appear in person and explain the reasons for his absence. As for France, it must be said that our security forces have an agreement with this country, according to which the accused and suspected fugitives are willingly transferred to Russia. Most likely, Slobodin will go to London. Our billionaire criminals often sit there. Suffice it to recall Berezovsky or Borodin. The British are reluctant to interfere in the criminal affairs of Russia and very rarely extradite fugitives.

Personal life

The reason why Slobodin removed his ex-wife from allowance is quite understandable. Until then, he had never denied her anything. The couple officially divorced in 2012. The initiator of the divorce was Mikhail Slobodin himself. At this time, he was rapidly developing an affair with Anna Blayer, the owner of a consulting company. She gave birth to Slobodina child. The outrageous macho showed creativity when divorcing Oksana: in court, the divorce case was considered at his request on February 28. It was on this day that Blair celebrated her birthday. The divorce from Mikhail was a gift to his mistress.

Despite the separation, the ex-wife of Mikhail Slobodin became the owner of a good apartment in Moscow, constantly receiving money for maintenance. Slobodin fully paid for the education of their children in England. In marriage, they had a daughter, Maria, and a son, Ivan.

Former wife Oksana Slobodina is the same age as Mikhail. She is an artist by profession. They met in Severouralsk, she went all the way with him, starting from a simple engineer. They moved together to Moscow and lived until the time when Mikhail became the head of a telecommunications holding. Oksana herself experienced a divorce very hard, and she never managed to return her husband.

As for the newly created family. The new wife of Mikhail Yurievich Slobodin, as mentioned above, is the owner of a large company, 38-year-old Anna Bleyer. They lived in Barvikha in a large luxurious house. They raised a joint son, who was already five years old. At the moment, there is no information whether the new family is now with Mikhail Slobodin or still remains in Russia.

The ex-general director of VimpelCom is now 43 years old. After graduating with honors from the Faculty of Economics of the Ural University and postgraduate studies, he began his career as an engineer in his native Severouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, at the Sevuralboxitruda company. Later, she joined SUAL, and Mikhail began to make a successful career in this corporation.

In 2002-2010, Slobodin was in charge of the same "T Plus" - the investigators have a lot of questions about the work of the management of this company (including Slobodin). This structure of "Renova" is engaged in electric power industry in 16 regions - including Komi. In those years, the company was called "Integrated Energy Systems" (IES).

How much Mikhail Slobodin received in the Renova structures is not exactly known. But it is possible to calculate how much, according to the investigators, citizens and enterprises of the republic could lose from the conspiracy of the IES and the Komi authorities.

In total, the Republic of Komi pays for electricity about 11 billion rubles a year (revenue of the local energy retail company according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities). The report of the republic's prosecutor's office mentioned an unjustifiably high 18 percent energy loss in the region - the goodwill of the authorities allowed the energy companies not to modernize the networks. Typically, losses are about 8% (MOESK figures for the Moscow region). The “extra” 10% is about a billion rubles of inflated payments per year. According to the prosecutor's office, informal relations between power engineers and officials lasted eight years - from 2007 to 2014.

But Slobodin worked in the structures of Renova only until the beginning of 2011, that is, he could participate in the process for four years. We divide four billion by three suspects - the maximum will be a billion and a third for each. In terms of dollars at the pre-crisis rate - about $ 43 million for each.

After Mikhail Slobodin left the Renova structures, because of the work in which he had to urgently go to Nice, in 2011 he became the executive vice president of TNK-BP for gas and energy supply.

If we are guided by the disclosure of information about the income of the top management of Rosneft (according to media reports, they were almost twice as high as those accepted on the oil market), then in two years of work at TNK-BP, Mikhail Slobodin could earn about 300 million rubles, or about $10 million at the pre-crisis rate.

Mikhail Slobodin spent almost three years as the head of VimpelCom, from October 2013 to September 2016. According to Forbes magazine for 2014, the average income of the heads of mobile operators in Russia amounted to about $6 million per year. That is, Mikhail Slobodin managed to earn approximately $18 million in three years.

Thus, from the moment he started working in Komi and until today, Mikhail Slobodin could earn a total of about $ 70 million.

Photo: facebook.com/anna.bleyer

In the near future, the investigation may petition for the seizure of property from Mikhail Slobodin, who is considered a suspect in the "energy industry case." As it became known to Life, we are talking about a mansion with an area of 700 square meters with a plot of 3,000 square meters. m in an elite suburban area.

The approximate cost of land and houses is about 400 million rubles. The house of Slobodin and his second wife, Anna Bleyer, was built two years ago in the village of Rozhdestveno, Barvikhinsky settlement, near Moscow.

Now this territory has turned into a cottage village "Barvikha 21st century" and is under round-the-clock security.

It is known that Bleyer and Slobodin recently sold their other mansion in the Istra district of the Moscow region, where they lived before moving to Barvikha. In addition, at least 6 cars were found in the garage of the Slobodin family: Aston Martin, Porsche Cayenne, Land Rover, Range Rover, Honda Acura, Hyundai H1, BMW X5 - all of them designed for Slobodin himself and Anna Bleyer. In addition, officially the ex-head of VimpelCom owns half of the apartment in the south-west of Moscow on Nametkina Street - now the parents of the ex-wife live in a three-ruble note.

- Most likely, Slobodin has been withdrawing his assets abroad for the last 5 years, which is why the ex-head of VimpelCom has no real estate in Russia, except for one mansion and an apartment, the investigators are sure.

On September 5, having seen the first reports in the news about the involvement of the VimpelCom CEO in the corruption case, Oksana's ex-wife wrote him a message asking: "What happened?" In response, Slobodin sent an SMS: "Oksan, you can now rely only on yourself."

44-year-old Oksana Slobodina, an artist by profession, met Mikhail back in her native Severouralsk and went with him from a simple engineer to an influential businessman.

Mikhail Slobodin divorced his wife and mother of two in 2012 when his mistress Anna Bleyer became pregnant by him. A woman works as the CEO of an innovative energy company in Skolkovo.

It is known that Oksana was having a hard time parting. But Slobodin supported her financially to the last, and also nobly gave his wife his share of an apartment in Moscow on Nametkina Street. Their common children - 23-year-old Ivan and 19-year-old Maria - live and study in the UK.

- He helped financially after the divorce, and I did not ask any questions. We had such an unspoken agreement,” the ex-wife told law enforcement officers.

On September 5, at around 9 am, a passenger approached the check-in counter for business class flight SU 6639 Moscow - Nice at the capital's Vnukovo airport. The middle-aged man was noticeably worried: he constantly looked at his watch and nervously adjusted the bag on his shoulder. It was VimpelCom CEO Mikhail Slobodin. He checked in for the flight and went through border control without any problems.

The second time he had to be pretty nervous when the departure of the flight was slightly delayed.

Suddenly, they have already received a call, and now operatives will come on board and take me to the investigator, - apparently, Slobodin thought so at 9:40 in the morning, when the plane had already taxied to the runway, but did not take off. However, the delay was short: at 9:58 a.m., the Boeing 737 took off, and Slobodin was able to relax.

The trip to France was clearly unplanned for Slobodin. As it turned out, on the evening of September 4, he frantically sorted through the Internet for flights to different countries and cities.

At 23:20, he chose and paid for tickets in his name for an Aeroflot flight to Nice, a source in the special services told Life. - Apparently, someone warned him that he should be detained as part of the investigation of the “power industry case”.

Investigators believe that it was Slobodin who came up with the idea of paying kickbacks to officials of the Komi Republic for the company controlled by him to set inflated tariffs for housing and communal services.

When the operatives realized in the morning that neither VimpelCom's office nor Mikhail Slobodin's house was there anymore, they traced his escape route. Then it turned out that literally an hour before the start of searches in companies owned by Renova, Slobodin flew to French Nice.

The special services are already looking for an informant in their ranks: neither the FSB nor the Investigative Committee like "moles". I think an internal check will reveal where the leak came from, ”a Life source in law enforcement agencies believes.

When the plane was already in the air, large-scale searches were carried out in Moscow and arrests of all those involved in the "energy business." The Komi Investigative Committee, with the support of FSB operatives, searched the offices of the Renova group of companies and the T plus energy company controlled by it (the former IES-Holding).

Boris Vainzikher, general director of the T Plus company, and Yevgeny Olkhovik, managing director of the Renova group, were detained. The latter led T Plus in 2010-2012. It was Olkhovik who replaced Mikhail Slobodin at this post, who was a member of the board of directors from 2007 to 2010.

It is not yet known where and with whom Slobodin lives in Nice. Perhaps this is just a transit point on his way. The history of recent years shows that France willingly extradites suspects and defendants at the request of Russia. They feel more or less free only in Great Britain. It is possible that Slobodin has long prepared a shelter somewhere in Europe for such a case and is now moving there.

It is unlikely that Slobodin will be able to negotiate special conditions for himself, even if he cooperates with the investigation: a criminal case has been opened under a serious article - giving a bribe on an especially large scale as part of a group. This is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. The best option under such circumstances is to at least get house arrest.

As for Vainzikher and Olkhovik, after a sleepless night in Moscow, they were transferred to Syktyvkar, where the main investigation is underway. In the near future, investigators will ask the local court to choose a measure of restraint for them. Most likely it will be an arrest.

Investigators believe that it was Slobodin who, back in 2007, came up with and launched a scheme for a profitable partnership with high-ranking Komi officials. In short, the officials received kickbacks from Slobodin, Vainzikher and Olkhovik for ensuring that the IES-holding (T plus) controlled by them set the maximum tariffs for heat and electricity for consumers. On this scheme, businessmen got rich. According to operational data, in 2010 Slobodin donated to the then Governor of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer almost half of the shares of OJSC Komi Energy Retail Company owned by IES Holding. The investigation estimated this package at almost 100 million rubles.

The “energy business” started spinning in August 2016, after Sergey Gaplikov, acting governor of Komi, complained to President Vladimir Putin about the leadership of T Plus. He reported on the critical situation with the heat and power supply of Vorkuta. He connected all the problems with the emergency state of CHPP-2, which belongs to T Plus. Gaplikov complained that T Plus was not going to repair the thermal power plant and was trying to sell it. So they wanted to cover the "hole" of 5 billion rubles, formed due to the debts of the main consumer - Vorkuta Heating Networks.

The case of "kickbacks" was taken up by the Investigation Department of the RF Investigative Committee for the Republic of Komi and the FSB. They quickly uncovered a scheme of cooperation between republican officials and businessmen, after which a criminal case was initiated, the main defendants of which were the leaders of IES-Holding. Operatives suggest that from 2007 to 2015, businessmen transferred almost 900 million rubles to Governor Gaiser and his subordinates.

LLC "Vorkuta CHPP" is 100% owned by PJSC "T plus" and is under the operational management of its branch "Komi". T Plus, according to the SPARK-Interfax database, is controlled by the Renova group of companies, owned by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg. He ranks seventh in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes, the publication estimated his fortune at $ 10.5 billion.

The head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, was arrested on September 19, 2015 on charges of fraud and an organized criminal community. In total, 19 people became defendants in the case. In particular, Alexander Zarubin was also arrested in absentia. He was the chief adviser to the head of Komi Vladimir Torlopov until 2003, then he left to work for Renova and headed the company until 2009.

The ex-head of VimpelCom bought a ticket to Nice a few hours before the searches on the "case of power engineers" of Renova

Andrey Gridasov

On September 5, at around 9 am, a passenger approached the check-in counter for business class flight SU 6639 Moscow - Nice at the capital's Vnukovo airport. The middle-aged man was noticeably worried: he constantly looked at his watch and nervously adjusted the bag on his shoulder. It was the CEO VimpelCom Mikhail Slobodin. He checked in for the flight and went through border control without any problems.

The second time he had to be pretty nervous when the departure of the flight was slightly delayed. […]

However, the delay was short: at 9:58 a.m., the Boeing 737 took off, and Slobodin was able to relax.

The trip to France was clearly unplanned for Slobodin. As it turned out, on the evening of September 4, he frantically sorted through the Internet for flights to different countries and cities.

According to Life, investigators have now contacted representatives of Slobodin and are negotiating with them on the conditions for his return to Russia. The businessman does not seem to be averse to talking to investigators, but he wants to know in advance what procedural status and measure of restraint await him in the framework of a criminal case. This is what the bargaining is about. It is unlikely that Slobodin will be able to negotiate special conditions for himself, even if he cooperates with the investigation: a criminal case has been opened under a serious article - giving a bribe on an especially large scale as part of a group. This is punishable by up to 12 years in prison. The best option under such circumstances is to at least get house arrest. [...]

All media are full of headlines about the escape of the head of Vimpelcom Mikhail Slobodin to Nice and the corruption scandal:

Mikhail Slobodin was warned about the impending special operation of the FSB to arrest the defendants in the "energy case". He managed to buy a plane ticket and fly to Nice.

On September 5, at around 9 a.m., a passenger approached the check-in counter for business class flight SU 6639 Moscow-Nice at the capital's Vnukovo airport. The middle-aged man was noticeably worried: he constantly looked at his watch and nervously adjusted the bag on his shoulder. It was VimpelCom CEO Mikhail Slobodin. He checked in for the flight and went through border control without any problems.

The second time he had to be pretty nervous when the departure of the flight was slightly delayed.

“Suddenly, they have already received a call, and now operatives will come on board and take me to the investigator,” apparently, Slobodin thought so at 9:40 in the morning, when the plane had already taxied to the runway, but did not take off. However, the delay was short: at 9:58 a.m., the Boeing 737 took off, and Slobodin was able to relax.

The trip to France was clearly unplanned for Slobodin. As it turned out, on the evening of September 4, he frantically sorted through the Internet for flights to different countries and cities.

“At 11:20 p.m., he chose and paid for tickets in his name for an Aeroflot flight to Nice,” a source in the security services told Life. - Apparently, someone warned him that he should be detained as part of the investigation of the “power industry case”.

The case file states that Slobodin, while working at IES Holding, transferred almost half a billion rubles to Gaiser. Olkhovik was the CEO of the company from 2010 to 2012. According to investigators, more than 170 million rubles were spent on bribes by officials during this time. But from 2012 to 2014, when Boris Vainzikher was already in charge of the company, republican officials received about 90 million rubles. At the same time, IES-Holding was reorganized into T Plus.
The “energy business” started spinning in August 2016, after Sergey Gaplikov, acting governor of Komi, complained to President Vladimir Putin about the leadership of T Plus. He reported on the critical situation with the heat and power supply of Vorkuta. He connected all the problems with the emergency state of CHPP-2, which belongs to T Plus. Gaplikov complained that T Plus was not going to repair the thermal power plant and was trying to sell it. So they wanted to cover the "hole" of 5 billion rubles, formed due to the debts of the main consumer - Vorkuta Heating Networks.

But I met him when he gathered bloggers in Yekaterinburg in 2014:

And, I must say, I was genuinely impressed:

I have never met tops that work more closely with the network than he did. Not to mention a very prompt response to letters, etc.

And now, if he is found guilty, it will turn out that I supported the man who robbed the people of Komi for billions of rubles.

Do not create for yourself an idol, which I repeat once again to myself and to others.

It is quite difficult to strictly follow this rule, because if a simple person is standing in front of you, this is one thing, and if a dollar billionaire is completely different.

Difficult, but necessary.

P.S. During the conversation, then a very prophetic dialogue sounded: Communicating with serious people, I made it a habit to ask "Which book would you recommend to read?". After Mikhail called the Ayn Rand trilogy "Atlas Shrugged", he could not stand it and asked - "does the desire arise, like the characters of the work - entrepreneurs, to quit business and hide?" - "arises", sounded the answer.