Vladimir Strzhalkovsky

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky biography

• Upon finishing the Institute, he worked at the Research Institute of Command Instruments as an engineer. He worked in this position until 1980.
• In 1980, got a job at the Department of the USSR KGB in the Leningrad region. Worked in the directorate until 1991.
• Holds the rank of lieutenant colonel of the KGB.
• From November 1991 through 1999, he worked as the general director of the travel agency CJSC “Firma Neva” in the city of St. Petersburg.
• In November 1999 he was appointed Russian deputy minister for physical culture, sport and tourism.
• In the same year he took the post of deputy chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Physical Culture and Tourism.
• In the summer of 2000 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
• In December 2000 he became Deputy Chairman of the Consumer Market Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation.
• Since October 2002 he has been a member of the Inter-Ministerial Commission for Entry and Stay of Stateless Persons and Foreign Citizens into the Russian Federation.
• From November 2004 to August 2008, he was the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism.
• In August 2008 he took the position of General Director and headed the Board of Directors of Nornickel.
• He was awarded the Order of Friendship for his work.
• He is an active state servant of the Russian Federation, 1st class.
  Graduated from the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute in 1977.

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky crimes

Strzhalkovsky said that, as a member of the state security bodies, he had connections in the international tourism sphere – he worked quite closely with Intourist, Sputnik, trade unions – and was knowledgeable in this field. According to some sources, he was in charge of the hotel business in St. Petersburg.

In December 1998 at the District Court of Kouvola (Finland) there was a court case #633, “On Procuration”. Two of the defendants in the case were Timraliev, Strzhalkovsky’s deputy, and Natalia Oksa of the tour operator Neva (Scan-Boss Ab, Helsinki) for “openly organizing prostitution by women who came to the motel from Russia. Despite the fact that the court confirmed the facts of Neva’s organization of trips of prostitutes to Finland, the defendants were not brought to court because Oksa “was limited to preparation of visas for tourists according to lists provided in advance” and Timraliev “is not criminally responsible for the act of another person” (according to other reports, Oksa was convicted for pimping for three months and Strzhalkovsky was denied entry into the country).

In 2002-2003, the press reported that in 1995-1999, the travel agency headed by Strizhalovsky “Neva” organized mass trips of prostitutes to Finland. The publication in Versia newspaper (#38 (211) “Under the Sign of a Brothel. Russian tourism is headed by a KGB pimp?”) was one of the testimonies that formed the basis of an audit of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade by the anti-corruption commission of the Russian State Duma in 2003. It was published that the same commission had evidence that Strzhalkovsky in 2000 used his official position for mercenary purposes by signing an order in May 2000 to transfer the Ministry’s property (residential premises) in Finland into the operational management of the Finnish citizen Oksa. By the same order, Oksa was appointed a freelance representative of the Russian Ministry of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism in Finland. In the same year, the Neva travel agency filed a lawsuit for protection of business reputation, demanding that the newspaper Versiya publish a refutation of the information distributed in the article. The suit was denied.

When Strzhalkovsky was chosen as the general director of Norilsk Nickel, some experts thought it meant the government wanted to increase its involvement in the metal industry. Others said Strzhalkovsky, who has no background in metal, was picked because of his long experience in law enforcement and state organizations. On August 8, 2008, Prime Minister Putin removed Strzhalkovsky from his position at Rosturism and the same day the Board of Directors of JSC “MMC Norilsk Nickel” decided to make him the general director of the company.

While Strzhalkovsky was Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus, the accounts of many rich Russians abroad were frozen.

Son Evgeny Strzhalkovsky.

After Vladimir Loginov lost his lawsuit over the sale of his share in the firm leasing land for a yacht club on Krestovsky Island, he believed that a Moscow entrepreneur Evgeny Strzhalkovsky was behind all his problems. He claimed that he lost 200,000,000 rubles. Evgeny Strzhalkovsky is the son of Vladimir Strzhalkovsky.

Natalia Strzhalkovskaya owns 30% of Russian Yachting Ltd. The other co-owners are Vladimir Loginov, vice president of the All-Russian Sailing Federation, and Dmitry Sokolov, founder of the XXX restaurant chain.

In the first half of 2014, the latter two complained about a raider seizure of their business. On April 29, 2014, the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court rejected their claim to invalidate the transaction involving the sale of their shares in Russian Yachting and to apply the consequences of the invalidity of the transaction. As a result, 50% of the shares in Baltexpress-Alfa, which were previously owned by Russian Yachting, were transferred to a company called Soryam Finance Corp. based in the British Virgin Islands.

The loss suffered by Vladimir Loginov and Dmitry Sokolov is significant: OOO Baltexpress-Alfa has an agreement to lease the land where the Krestovsky Yacht Club is located as well as a water use agreement. In a statement to the authorities, the businessmen added that the offshore company, Soryam Finance Corp., oddly became the owner of 45 pontoon piers that were previously owned by “Russian Yachting”.

Vladimir Loginov, in an interview with Fontanka, said that an unknown offshore company took away all the assets of Russian Yachting, leading to a loss of 200,000,000 rubles for him and Dmitry Loginov.

Vladimir Loginov said he found out about the raider seizure of his business by chance.