Chernoy - Putin Surronded by Mafia -Le Monde -27Nov02
Stefan Lemieszewski
http://www.satcor.ru/publications/2002/11/p_27_11_2002aen.html
Le Monde
27Nov02
VLADIMIR PUTIN SURROUNDED BY MAFIA
Many western intelligence services commented that in many
branches of the Russian economy several organisations known
as being ‘criminal’ have increased their influence. They have
concentrated on RUSAL. This aluminium giant was founded
as a result of an alliance of certain circles in Russian government
(ex-circle of Boris Yeltsin) and heads of criminal organisations
against who a criminal case was instigated by Djalol Khaidarov.
In his interview with Le Monde this businessman who worked
for 10 years beside Mikhail Chernoy (now suspected in heading
one of the most powerful criminal groups) comments on how
the influence of Mikhail Chernoy and his partners on the
Russian government has increased.
RUSSIAN MAFIA PROSPERS IN THE SHADOW OF KREMLIN
For the first time an old Mafia magnet of an organisation
known to be criminal according to foreign police unveils
the Mafia’s close connections with the Russian
government, i.e. Boris Yeltsin’s old circle and several
industrial empires.
After 1st of January 2002 when Boris Yeltsin retired and left
the presidency to Vladimir Putin, western secret services
specialised in organised crime in the ex-USSR were tracking
how the new Mafia groups were becoming more influential.
Tambovskaya, a criminal group from St.-Petersburg, was
most talked-about. The group was connected to several
members of the new President’s circle.
However, the secret services noticed something else - the
return from back stage of several persons mentioned a long
time ago by the FBI and Interpol: Chernoy brothers, Lev and
more importantly Mikhail, the ‘aluminium king’. In spring
2000 this man managed to successfully perform several
grand industrial operations. Today one of his old business
partners describes him as one of the heads of Russia’s
shadow economy and politics.
What happened to ‘the Family’? - the secret services asked
themselves. Would President Putin break up with the group
consisting of bankers, industrial bosses and people close to
Boris Yeltsin who built their fortunes in the shadow of Kremlin?
No. The head of Presidential Administration, Alexander
Voloshin, Prime Minister Mikhail Kassyanov, the head of
Public Prosecution Office, Vladimir Oustinov retained their
old positions, just like many other ministers who have been
publicly known to belong to the ‘Family’.
One man appeared and suddenly became very powerful
Roman Abramovich, an associate of Boris Berezovskiy, head
of the oil company Sibneft and Governor of Chukotka region.
All Moscow treats him as regent of the Family’s interests.
Now, almost three years later Roman Abramovich’s business
has grown more and the Family has retained its power. How
did this happen? By striking a deal with notorious Mikhail
Chernoy and his old friend Anton Malevskiy, head of one of
the most powerful criminal organisations Izmailovskaya
group, known to all police around the world.
These are in any case, the accusations of an exceptional
witness Djalol Khaidarov. Before him others hinted at this
alliance, but the testimonies had never come from the ‘inside’,
and they were not as revealing. From 1990s Djalol Khaidarov
worked in the very heart of Chernoy’s group. According to
him, he was responsible for the ‘legal affairs’ of the group
which used to dish out ‘from $35 to $40 million in bribes a
year’. He was also responsible for transfers of capital to the
western havens offshore.
In 1999 the Chernoy group started to hunt Djalol Khaidarov.
Being the director of Kachkanar Ore and Vanadium Plant in
the Urals with $300 million turnover per year, he refused to
agree to redistribution of shares and eviction of his foreign
partner. In Paris he met Mikhail Chernoy. ‘Are we still
together?’ he asked Khaidarov. Khaidarov said ‘Yes, we
are’. - ‘So then it’s fifty-fifty and those who do not agree to
this arrangement can go and buy themselves a helmet and
a bullet-proof jacket’ Chernoy told Khaidarov.
Iskander Makhmudov, Djalol Khaidarov’s friend from
childhood, became one of the barons of Russian metal
industry who now controls several plants in the Urals.
Nicknamed ‘the cast iron king’ he is a very dear ally of
Mikhail Chernoy (about who Chernoy said ‘He has never
disappointed me, I have been working with him since
1987’). He organised the removal of the traitor. After a
period of time spent in Boutirka, a sinister Moscow prison,
Khaidarov escaped. He knows that Malevskiy’s people
were following his every step. ‘There were two or three
contracts to kill me,’ he said.
Now this businessman is living abroad, feels safe enough
to speak openly. This summer his chauffeur in Siberia was
murdered and decapitated a sign from the Mafia groups.
In July 2001 Khaidarov passed on his testimony to the
Southern District Court of New York. His testimony
changed the course of another case running against the
Chernoy group which was initiated by another Russian
businessman, Mikhail Zhivilo (now in hiding in France).
At the end of 2000 Mikhail Zhivilo and his partners had
launched the accusations of ‘corruption, murder and
connections with organised crime’.
Four persons have been named in this case: Mikhail
Chernoy, his protégé Oleg Deripaska (Director of RUSAL,
second largest in the world aluminium producer with
estimated annual profit from sales $7 billion), Iskander
Makhmudov and Anton Malevskiy. Djalol Khaidarov told
the American court about confiscation of his ore plant,
about blackmailing the managers, ‘private’ police forces,
about how the rulings of the courts can be bought, and
about occupying the premises by the special police of
Eduard Rossel, the Governor of this powerful region in
Ural. Eduard Rossel is allegedly ‘bought’ by the Chernoy
group.
Khaidarov also explained why his foreign business partner,
an Israeli-American businessman Josef Traum had to
relinquish his shares. Policemen very conveniently
discovered one kilogram of heroin in the toilets of his
office. Israeli police had to intervene and request from
the Russian ministry to allow Traum leave the country.
This story has very much in common with what happened
to Mikhail Zhivilo. He was the one who lost one of the main
aluminium plants of Russia, Novokuznetsk Aluminium Plant.
This happened after Anatoliy Chubais (head of Russian
electricity) and the plant’s competitor Sibirskiy Aluminium
(controlled by Oleg Deripaska and Michail Chernoy)
organised its false bankruptcy. Mikhail Zhivilo was accused
of attempting to murder the Governor of the region, Aman
Tuleev, and had to escape to France. France has later
denied the demands of the Russian Courts to extradite
him.
After they secured control over Novokuznetsk, in spring
2000 Mikhail Chernoy and Oleg Deripaska made an alliance
with Roman Abramovich to found RUSAL, an industrial
monster producing almost 80% of all aluminium in Russia.
The Ministry of Monopoly did not object to this operation.
From that time RUSAL has grown even bigger through car
and aviation, having already swallowed mines and metal
plants.
One man, Anton Malevskiy, has disappeared (at least
officially) from the Chernoy group. Head of the criminal
group Izmailovskaya, he died in November 2001 when
parachuting in South Africa. Some doubt if this death
had in fact taken place.
Oleg Deripaska who is now 35 became a young manager
who gets higher and higher in Russia, who is received in
the Kremlin and who is being listened to just like Roman
Abramovich. Now it does not matter that his presence at
the World Economic Forum in Davos was considered
undesirable following the accusations against him. In
Russian daily newspaper Vedomosti Mikhail Chernoy
said that he has known Oleg Deripaska since 1994: ‘ I
liked him straight away’.
‘I am only a shareholder’ Mikhail Chernoy says to the
accusations against him and to the special services
whose reports include long lists of murders, crimes and
financial frauds of which he has been suspected for the
last ten years. He settled in Israel in 1994 but is now
finding himself in a difficult position as he is prohibited
to leave the country. He is under an investigation linked
to his attempt to illegally purchase 20% of shares of
Bezeq, the largest Israeli mobile communications
company. However his affairs in Russia are flourishing.
And Vladimir Putin has been unable to do anything
about it.
Vladimir Ivanidze and Sophie Shihab
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MISHA DENIES ALL
Contacted on Tuesday 26th November, Mikhail Chernoy
and his lawyers stated that ‘in the near future’ they would
not respond to any of Djalol Khaidarov’s accusations.
‘Misha’ Chernoy has persistently denied any connections
with criminal circles: ‘If this was the case, I would have
been behind the bars,’ he said repeatedly. His denials
and refutations are also abundantly present on his own
Internet site (Chernoy.com, ‘Friends of Mikhail Chernoy’)
which relates in detail his conflicts with Israeli justice and
his charitable creations. He founded a fund helping victims
of attempted suicides in Israel where, according to him,
he has already transferred $173,000. He is now living in
Tel-Aviv.
Born in Kiev, he grew up in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan
where he started in 1985 in imports and exports. Djalol
Khaidarov, 39, also grew up in Tashkent where he was
born. This young Uzbeki man from a good family of soviet
“nomenklatura” close to Uzbeki government was promised
a brilliant future in management. He started to work with
Mikhail Chernoy at the beginning of 1990.
Article published in the 28.11.2002 edition
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