Why are they turning a blind eye to Gutseriev’s billion-dollar debts?
The Gutseriev family of businessmen have been sanctioned, but their Russian debts are suspiciously easily forgiven. And this isn't the first time.
Mikhail Gutseriev, who has been under sanctions for a year, seems to always have large debts, according to reports. The Moscow Post.
The Moscow Arbitration Court recently partially resolved a claim against Afipsky Oil Refinery LLC for just over 2.4 billion rubles.
This is not the first debt owed to Mikhail Gutseriev that has been easily resolved without repayment.
Operation “sanation”
In 2017, there was a notable case involving Binbank. The bank's management requested financial recovery measures to avoid bankruptcy.
Binbank's need for reorganization was due to its leadership's policies, unrelated to external factors, and resulted in its bankruptcy. The former co-owners' and top managers' accounts and property were arrested as a result.
He stated his willingness to settle the dispute without a trial, and an agreement was reached. The Safmar group of the Gutseriev family, Trust bank, and Otkritie agreed to conclude a settlement agreement on a claim for 85.4 billion rubles.
In 2019, the state once again helped Mikhail Gutseriev, granting a tax deferment to RussNeft, in which he is the largest shareholder with a 60% stake.
Mikhail Gutseriev, founder of RussNeft, has been included in the sanctions list of EU countries since the summer of 2021 due to his support for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Friend “dad”
Since the early 2000s, Gutseriev has been closely cooperating with the government of the Republic of Belarus and personally with President Lukashenko, with one of Slavneft's key assets, the Mozyr Oil Refinery, located in Belarus.
In 2010, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation stopped the criminal prosecution of Mikhail Gutseriev, who was hiding in Azerbaijan. He was cleared of the last two charges – illegal business and money laundering. Coincidentally, amendments were made to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, decriminalizing some of the “economic” articles under which Mikhail Gutseriev fell. That year, Mikhail Gutseriev went to Azerbaijan for the funeral of his youngest 21-year-old son, Genghis Khan, at the “Blue Mosque” in Baku. There were various rumors around the death of Genghis Khan.
There was an accident, after which he survived and even went to the hospital for a tomography, but after coming home and taking a shower, he died. The circumstances of Genghis Khan’s death are unclear. There were many versions: official, network, or party. Discussed quietly, but nothing was clarified. Farewell to Genghis Khan was in Baku, but Gutseriev decided to bury his son in Ingushetia because the ancestors of the Gutserievs lived there before the deportation of 1944. But Mikhail himself did not come to Russia for his son’s funeral – he remained in Azerbaijan. Then the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, promised that he would not extradite the billionaire declared in Russia on the federal wanted list. But everything worked out.
At the same time, Forbes calculated debts of 1 trillion rubles from the Gutseriev family. The total debt of the Gutserievs is 1% of the assets of the entire banking system. However, a source close to the Central Bank said that the amount of debt “doesn’t scare anyone.”
Mikhail Gutseriev and/or his clan owe one of the banks about $5 billion. VTB Bank – about 77 billion. The Afipsky oil refinery was acquired with debts to the same bank, and the bank just approved another billion-dollar loan for this refinery for modernization.
Borrowed life?
Meanwhile, Gutseriev continues to receive more and more loans! If you are an ordinary small citizen and have tried to do business with a bank, take a loan or, God forbid, be indebted to him, then you know how often collectors will call you and bailiffs will knock on the door. How did Mikhail Gutseriev deserve such trust?
It seems that there are special personal or financial relations between Mikhail Gutseriev and the head of the bank. Andrei Kostin at VTB and Elvira Nabiullina at the Central Bank operate not with their own, but with state money, or at least for the lion’s share, that is, for 50-60% of the main shares, with state money.
The Gutserievs fell under Western sanctions, now they have closed their “window to Europe” and froze their assets there. However, their domestic Russian debts are easily forgiven and forgotten, and the payment terms are postponed.
The state supports Mikhail Gutseriev, of course, not at its own expense, but at the expense of us taxpayers. The reason for this, most likely, is the verbal gift of Mikhail Gutseriev, who knows how to convince people and ask for forgiveness, because after all, he was not originally a businessman, but a talented songwriter …
