The press service of the Russian government made a special statement regarding possible family ties between the wife of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Svetlana Medvedeva (nee Linnik) and the leaders of the Miratorg holding, brothers Viktor and Alexander Linnik: " Due to incorrect publications and questions received, we officially inform you that there are no family ties between the wife of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and the management of Miratorg Agricultural Holding. Victor and Alexander Linnik are neither close nor distant relatives of Svetlana Medvedeva".

Was it worth making such a clarification? It will not be possible to convince omniscient experts and arrogant political insiders. For seven years, political commentators have been talking about “Medvedev’s Miratorg” as an indisputable fact. Although there was and is no evidence that the president and chairman of the board of directors of pork empire No. 1 are “cousins” of Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva.

Twin brothers Linnik:

The Medvedev couple:

The Miratorg company was founded in 1995. At first, Victor and Alexander Linnik supplied milk powder from the Netherlands and imported pork, beef and poultry from European countries. After some time there was a dizzying takeoff. The Miratorg agro-industrial holding has built (using multibillion-dollar, surprisingly “greenhouse” loans from Vnesheconombank and VTB) a bunch of pig farms, poultry farms, cattle farms, grain companies, feed mills, factories for the production of semi-finished meat products, a veterinary and sanitary recycling plant, a retail chain Miratorg stores, Burger & Fries restaurant chain. It is a supplier of semi-finished meat products for the McDonald's and Burger King restaurant chains. At the moment, it is the main producer and supplier of meat on the Russian market, the largest recipient of government assistance in the agricultural sector.

On March 20, 2019, the National Meat Association (in which Miratorg LLC plays a leading role) sent a letter to the office of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Gordeev. Meat producers suggested that Gordeev introduce a ban on the import by private individuals from abroad of meat and dairy products for personal use (according to current rules, Russians can import up to 5 kg of animal products for personal use), strengthen control over baggage and hand luggage at the border, increase responsibility for the illegal import of products of animal origin. The initiative was explained by the risk of the arrival from abroad - along with the personal food supplies of tourists - of pathogens of dangerous animal diseases.

Different opinions were expressed. The proposal was supported by the companies Cherkizovo, Remit, Velcom, and Dymov. " I supported this decision only because I want the African swine fever virus (ASF) not to get into Russia.", emphasized one of the sausage kings, Vadim Dymov. " Border control is important, but it is far from a priority. There are many internal problems in Russia: fragmentation of veterinary services, poor material resources and financial support for a significant part of veterinary services. This cannot but affect the effectiveness of the fight against dangerous animal diseases. It is on increasing work efficiency and solving the identified problems that the main efforts must be concentrated", Artyom Belov, executive director of Soyuzmolok, noted in an interview with Vedomosti. First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee of the Russian Federation on Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship Vladimir Gutenev believes that Russian manufacturers do not want to fight for buyers and are trying to get benefits." due to the displacement of certain competitors".

Liberal heralds made full use of the convenient opportunity. A new campaign “In defense of jamon and parmesan” has been launched. Of course, not without emphasis on the “family ties” of the Medvedevs.

Later, the Russian government stated that there was no question of introducing a ban on the import of meat and dairy products into Russia by private individuals from abroad for their own needs. TASS quoted an unnamed source as saying: " No one is going to introduce any new restrictions for citizens. This issue is not considered".

But on April 30, the president of the Miratorg agricultural holding, Viktor Linnik, decided to cut from the shoulder: “ Ham should be eaten in Spain, bresaola in Italy, Parmesan in France... The public needs to think about the development of its own country, and not about jamon and Parmesan, which is what we do all the time. They threw a tantrum out of nothing, balabols", he said in an interview with Forbes.

And away we go. Prominent oppositionists united with political strategists close to influential players in their hatred of Miratorg. A boycott of the agricultural holding's products was initiated. He was joined by ex-mayor of Yekaterinburg Evgeny Roizman, employees of Echo of Moscow like Alexander Plyushchev, Tatyana Felgenhauer, ex-deputy Gennady Gudkov, Vasily Utkin, Andrei Desnitsky, Anna Narinskaya and, at the same time, the president of the communications holding Minchenko Consulting "Evgeny Minchenko (" I will probably introduce a moratorium on Miratorg and Dymov products. I don't like rudeness"), former head of the department for preparing public speeches by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation in the Cabinet Office, Abbas Gallyamov (" I agree. The initial initiative did not outrage me, we have not seen anything like this in recent years, but today’s explanations are truly rude. There weren’t enough boors to support them with their own rubles") and other figures who are difficult to classify as members of the protest camp. The boycott has begun to go beyond social networks; individual restaurants are joining the company.

Internet resources are full of incriminating evidence on Miratorg. " In the meantime, Viktor Vyacheslavovich is thinking about the development of Russia, let’s talk about the development of Miratorg. Rospotrebnadzor and Roskontrol will help us with this. In 2018 alone, enterprises belonging to the agricultural holding received dozens of fines from Rospotrebnadzor: for staphylococcus bacteria in products, for the use of regulated food (animals are fed with prohibited products, and then this meat ends up on your table). And also unsanitary conditions and storage of waste next to finished products. And last year, Roskontrol found antibiotics, dangerous bacteria and traces of salt injections in the thighs of Miratorg chickens. The latter is injected to increase the weight of products", writes the Baza Telegram channel. " It was thoughts about the development of his own country that forced Linnik to register "Miratorg" to the Cyprus offshore", users note.

Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Linnik:

And today the government press service (read - Dmitry Anatolyevich himself) issued an unexpected official denial. Like, not relatives.

Not the best attempt to stop the inflated scandal. More precisely, a wild mistake that spurred further development of the situation in a negative way for the Medvedevs.

Telegram channel "Master of the Pen": " It is necessary to demand a genetic examination of the Linnik brothers from Miratorg and the prime minister's wife Svetlana Medvedeva. If it has come to official statements and denials from the government that successful businessmen are not relatives of the prime minister, it means that the problem has reached the highest level and is becoming a serious obstacle for Dmitry Anatolyevich". Telegram channel "Nezygar": " The failure of the prime minister's press service with the refusal of the Linnik family only confirmed their relationship and the involvement of the Medvedev family in the Miratorg business. We are still waiting for Medvedev to refuse to work at Ilim Pulp and for the Prime Minister’s family to own a stake in the forestry business".

Giants of thought

Several thematic platforms operated as part of the forum. But the center of attraction was the plenary session. It was hosted by the project manager of the Business FM radio station, Valeria Mozganova, and this fact alone meant half the success of the event. The remaining component of the triumph is the presence of the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz. Experts noticed that on this day the first person of the region was as frank as possible: he did without pompous phrases, did not dazzle with projects, and openly entered into an argument. And all this happened in front of hundreds of forum participants who came from different cities of Russia and countries near and far abroad.

Initially, it was assumed that the plenary discussion would be devoted to the implementation of major national projects. But already during the meeting it became clear that, in addition to discussing national projects, Alexander Bogomaz would teach “lessons of survival and development” in modern economic conditions, accompanying this with vivid examples from the life of his native region. Those gathered also talked about the difficulties the regions face and how friendly countries cope with similar problems.

By the way, Bogomaz voiced examples that could serve as a good “cheat sheet” for governors of other regions in conquering all kinds of sociological and political ratings. MK Chernozemye quotes some of them.

About rural enterprises. Alexander Bogomaz surprised many forum participants by saying that wages at agricultural enterprises can be higher than in the city, by 1.5-2 times. “We have many examples where Bryansk residents go to work in the village. They work there, occupy positions, receive high salaries,” he noted.

About demographics. Here the Bryansk governor remembered the West: “Today, when we argue that one of the reasons is the low financial condition of the family, there is some truth in this, but not all. In Europe it is higher, and the birth rate is even lower. The whole basis of demography and fertility is spirituality. If we do not restore spirituality, when every resident of our Russia is proud of their country, their people, their ancestors, we will not solve anything. We can then restore demographics when we actually study our history in schools and teach children about it.”

About spiritual values ​​and businessmen. And at this moment, Alexander Bogomaz did not hide his indignation: “Why is our country, which was the most powerful country in the world, we had a sixth of the land, a seventh of the population of the whole world, today our population is about the 50th part of the world. We had the highest growth rates, workers' wages were higher than in Europe and America, but nevertheless we lost the country and received the problems that our people experienced. Hardship, cold, hunger. We lost so much population in the Civil War! The reason was very simple. So today I am addressing our business. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the entire Russian elite was amazed by the Western way of life. That is, our entire elite earned money here in Russia, but took their children, their wives, mistresses there, and dreamed that Russia would have values, as they believed, like in Europe. But we have our own country, our own people, our own history, our own roots and our own upbringing. Based on the fact that the elite was “infected” by Europe, we got the February, and subsequently the October, revolution. And today we must analyze this, tell our children that we were a great country, we became killed and downtrodden, but then through the hardest efforts, the loss of our population, the hardest work, we managed to win and restored the economy.

Today, I believe, our spirituality is affected by the social well-being of the population. In the 90s we lost everything. Not only his country, not only industry and agriculture, the economy, but the most important thing that has always distinguished the Russian person is spirituality. We have lost our spirituality, we have lost our conscience. Our doctors and teachers began to take bribes. The same is true in higher education. And today we still experience the pressure of the 90s. And if we don’t overcome this, if again our business, which earns crazy money in Russia, dreams that its children should live in Europe, nothing good will happen to us. Here they are great people, there in Europe they are nothing. They are just “wallets” who brought money from Russia.

On our forum we must explain to schoolchildren that wealth is not forever. We really need to analyze the history of Russia. Wealth is not inherited... Those who lived poorly, who strived, studied and reached the top, they become the owners of factories and factories, collective farms and state farms. If we explain that any person has the opportunity to become great, everything will be fine in the country. We have people present about whom there are legends about how they became rich. But there is another side to their prosperity and greatness. We also need to remember this."

On the verge of sensation

Twice Alexander Bogomaz teetered on the brink of sensational statements. The first, when I remembered Miratorg, and the second, when I started talking about children. No, not our own, although they were also mentioned at this plenary session, but those whose parents consider themselves to be among the local “elites”.

Not everyone is probably familiar with the biography of the owners of the Miratorg company. It would be nice for the current governor of the Kursk region, for example, to study it, who dealt with the holding in a rather harsh manner. And how this will come back to the Kursk region remains to be seen. In Bryansk everything is different. And now it’s clear why.

“Two twins who graduated from school, served in the army, and entered college by correspondence. One worked at the factory, the second also worked,” the head of the Bryansk region revealed the biographical details of the Linnik brothers. - Once, friends offered to be security guards on Red Square. People had an entrepreneurial spirit. They realized that if they learned English, they could earn money. As they explained to me, “with such difficulty, overcoming ourselves, we learned English in order to communicate.” They hung a large banner on the territory of the Mausoleum that the best guide excursions are located here. And they earned the first 30 thousand dollars in 1990, which allowed them to buy apartments, cars and live normally. But while we were working there, we met a famous businessman from India. He suggested that they invest money in machines for the production of stewed meat. They took a risk and gave the money away. The car has arrived. In 1995, the brothers were already among the five largest importers of meat in Russia. Then they thought, what are we importing? We began to build a pig breeding complex. Then the Miratorg company built a poultry farm. Today someone envy them, but we need to learn from them. The company was created by ordinary Russian citizens. They had no connections, but had goals, objectives and aspirations to get things done. Today they have everything and, in fact, they no longer need anything except one thing - to become the first in the world, the first company that will increase money not on oil or gas, not on kickbacks, ebbs and flows, but on agriculture. This is a good example for young people, so that young people understand what you can achieve if you strive, study and do business, and not drink beer and waste your life.”

And Alexander Bogomaz has a special relationship with young people. “When I was in the lyceum, where the director had been removed, I looked at the children, who, as a rule, make up the rich elite of the city of Bryansk, I became afraid for them. At this age, when they are 10-15 years old, they are already corrupted. Corrupted by being "cool". They have done nothing in life, they are zero. They can spend the money that the father earned through back-breaking work within two to three years. These children today are the basis of the future of our country, future development, the basis of educating the younger generation. We must raise them correctly.

If we don’t do this, we say that every year we live better and better, and then we say that everything is worse. The numbers say one thing. In the Bryansk region, personal income tax has doubled over the course of five years. I understand that some did not pay official salaries. And that was it. But with the help of the security forces, everyone began to pay. When they say - difficult years. Why are they difficult? Is it that a person who owns a Lada Kalina cannot buy a Mercedes? Well, yes. Then you need to change jobs. Change your scope. So that everyone understands that this should not fall from the sky, everything is earned. And our children must be ready for this.”

Forum result: 17 billion

By the way, on the sidelines of the VIII Slavic International Economic Forum, 15 agreements were signed for a total amount of more than 17 billion rubles; the projects provide for the creation of about 1,000 jobs. The governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, took part in the signing ceremony of the agreements.

Representatives of the Republic of Belarus, whose delegation is traditionally one of the largest, highly appreciated the investment climate in the Bryansk region.

Cooperation with Belarus in the region is well established and is actively developing. According to available information, the Bryansk vehicle fleet will soon be replenished with Belarusian MAZs - 65 buses have been purchased for passenger transportation. Externally-

trade turnover of the Bryansk region with the Republic of Belarus for 6 months of 2019 amounted to 289.7 million US dollars (including exports - 103.1 million US dollars). Trade turnover with our region is several times greater than the volume that Belarus has with 40 countries of the world.

“The Bryansk region is an outpost of Belarusian exports in the Eurasian economic space. We like your investment climate; we cannot help but note the work that has been done in recent years. We came to you to learn and invite your investors to us in Belarus, where we are also trying to create good conditions for business,” said Cheslav Shulga, head of the branch of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in the Russian Federation in Smolensk.

The moment of signing the agreements.

MK help:

During the forum, Governor Alexander Bogomaz signed several serious agreements totaling more than 17 billion rubles. Among them:

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and the Minsk Regional Executive Committee on cooperation in trade, economic, scientific, technical, socio-cultural and humanitarian fields;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and the Druzhba-2 enterprise on the investment project “Construction of a dairy livestock complex for 3,600 dairy herds in the Brasovsky district of the Bryansk Region”, investment amount - 3.56 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and RusAgro LLC on the investment project “Construction of two pig farms of a complete production cycle for 2240 sows each in the Navlinsky and Dyatkovsky districts of the Bryansk Region”, the amount of investment is 2.6 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and Agricultural Holding Miratorg on the investment project “Construction on the territory of the Bryansk Region of 2 pig-breeding complexes for 6,400 sows in the Sevsky and Suzemsky districts”, the amount of investment is 2.44 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and Druzhba LLC on the investment project “Construction of a pig-breeding complex for 3,000 productive sows in the Zhukovsky district of the Bryansk Region”, the amount of investment is 2.1 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and JSC "Proletary" on the investment project "Third stage of modernization of the cardboard machine", the amount of investment is 1.3 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and Brasovskie Cheese LLC on the investment project “Construction of a new workshop for the production of hard cheeses with a capacity of 1200 tons per month”, the amount of investment is 1.3 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and the peasant farm Agroholding "Krolkovo" on the investment project "Construction of a rabbit breeding farm with 18 fattening and brood buildings", the amount of investment is 1.2 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and JSC Management Company Bryansk Machine-Building Plant on the investment project “Increasing the production of shunting diesel locomotives”, the amount of investment is 1 billion rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and JSC Management Company Bryansk Machine-Building Plant on the creation of the BEZHITSA Industrial Park industrial park on the territory of the Bryansk Region;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and RusTechno LLC on the investment project “Production of collagen-containing hydrolyzed protein concentrate to balance the diets of all types of farm animals and birds”, investment amount - 850 million rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and Klintsovskaya CHPP LLC on the investment project “Construction of an energy center of the second stage with an electrical capacity of 13.2 MW”, the amount of investment is 420 million rubles;

Agreement between the Government of the Bryansk Region and JSC "Metaklay" on the investment project "Organization of serial production of fiberglass tape unidirectionally reinforced "ATP TAPE" to protect the insulating coating of steel pipes of main gas and oil pipelines" project for the production of protective fiberglass coating "Kolchuga", investment amount - 301 million rubles; as part of the implementation of this project, Metaclay JSC is the first enterprise in the region to receive an interest-free loan from the Single-Industry Towns Development Fund under the preferential lending program;

Agreement on cooperation between the Government of the Bryansk region and PJSC MegaFon for the purpose of developing communication services and information and telecommunication technologies in the Bryansk region;

Agreement on cooperation between the Government of the Bryansk Region and the public joint-stock company "Vympel-Communications".

vertically integrated agro-industrial holding, the largest pork producer. Shareholders: Victor and Alexander Linnik (50% each). Financial indicators (IFRS, 2012): Revenue – 48.1 billion rubles, Net profit – 11.2 billion rubles.

Two large investment projects of Miratorg - poultry farming and cattle breeding - are not part of the group’s business: formally they belong to the owners of Miratorg, brothers Viktor and Alexander Linnik. “These projects are structured as a parallel business for shareholders, which is not directly related to the financial flows, assets and liabilities of the Miratorg Agricultural Holding Group,” the bank’s presentation says “ Zenith"(he, together with Gazprombank and Sberbank, is the organizer of the issue of three series of exchange-traded bonds of the company for a total amount of 13 billion rubles). Miratorg Vice President for Finance Vadim Kotenko confirmed this information. These projects, he explained, are not consolidated into the company's perimeter covered by IFRS, so as not to burden the group responsible for obligations to investors with additional debt. At Miratorg itself, according to Kotenko, there are no significant guarantees or collateral for cattle and poultry breeding projects. These projects are in the investment stage and do not yet generate revenue, but at the same time they have a debt burden secured by the collateral of the projects themselves, Kotenko explained.

Miratorg is one of the largest vertically integrated agricultural holdings in the country. It combines the production of grain, feed, pork, its own processing, production of semi-finished products, storage facilities and distribution. Miratorg is Russia's largest pork producer: the company has 23 pig farms with a total design capacity of 340,000 tons of live weight per year. According to the company's own estimates, it accounts for about 30% of industrial pork production.

Until now, it was believed that Miratorg was also going to produce beef and poultry meat. It was not known that these businesses were not part of the group. The beef production project is the largest in the country: it is expected that the mother herd alone will number 112,000 heads, and 33 farms will be built in the Bryansk region. As Viktor Linnik, president and co-owner of Miratorg, said in an interview with Vedomosti last year, investments in this project should amount to 24 billion rubles. and these are mainly bank loans (VEB and Gazprombank). Investments in the poultry project (it is also planned in Bryansk) should amount to 22 billion rubles, according to the Zenit report.

The debt load of Miratorg itself, excluding two projects under construction, at the end of 2012 amounted to 58.5 billion rubles. The group's revenue for the past year amounted to 48.1 billion rubles, EBITDA - 15.2 billion rubles. (i.e. debt was 1.2 times the company's revenue and 3.7 times EBITDA). Almost 60% of Miratorg’s debt, according to Kotenko, are long-term and subsidized loans.

When these projects reach their designed capacity and begin producing beef and poultry, they can be included in the group, Kotenko says. According to Miratorg’s plans, the poultry project should reach its design capacity in 2015, and beef production in 2017.

Miratorg's debt-to-EBITDA ratio is high, but enterprises in the agricultural sector can afford a higher debt burden than producers from other sectors by subsidizing interest rates on investment loans, says VTB Capital analyst Mikhail Galkin. The producer receives subsidies from the moment the loan is issued: beef producers receive 100% of the refinancing rate from the federal budget, and poultry producers receive 80% of the rate (they can receive another 20% from regional budgets). Projects of Miratorg shareholders receive subsidies, says Alexander Nikitin, general director of Miratorg.

1. Gutserievs, $5.65 billion

• Mikhail Gutseriev , Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Safmar Group, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NK Russneft. Source of wealth: oil, coal, real estate, retail trade. Age: 61 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow
• Said Gutseriev (son), member of the board of directors of the Safmar group, general director of NK Forteinvest. Source of wealth: oil, finance, retail. Age: 31 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
• Sait-Salam Gutseriev (brother), General Director of A.N.D. Corporation. Source of wealth: real estate, oil, retail. Age: 60 years old. Marital status, children: married, five children. City of residence: Moscow
• Bilan Uzhakhov (nephew), General Director of M.Video. Source of wealth: retail. Age: 32 years. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow

GUTSERIEV CLAN retained first place in the ranking of the richest families, but reduced his total wealth by $320 million. The changes affected not only the size of the family capital, but also its structure. The fortune of Mikhail Gutseriev’s son Said has doubled: in January 2019, his father transferred to him his share in the Cypriot Landbury Trading, which owns 30.4% of the shares of the Safmar Financial Investments holding, which unites the family’s financial assets. In the spring, Safmar bought a controlling stake in the Afipsky Oil Refinery, which Said will modernize. The group's oil and coal assets and a share in Safmar Retail, which were previously owned by his uncle Sait-Salam, were transferred to him. Mikhail Gutseriev’s brother lost not only his shares in these assets, but also his place on the board of directors of Russneft: in May, when a new board was elected, he recused himself. Mikhail Gutseriev’s nephew Bilan Uzhakhov owns 10% of M.Video shares and holds the position of general director in this company. The Safmar group is still led by Mikhail Gutseriev himself. In May, Cypriot companies controlled by father and son increased their stake in the Kuzbass Fuel Company (KTK), one of Russia's largest producers and exporters of thermal coal, from 2.12% to 18.9%.

2. Rotenberg, $5.18 billion

• Arkady Rotenberg , Chairman of the Board of the Russian Hockey Federation, General Director of the SKD Yavara-Neva Foundation. Source of wealth: industrial construction, finance. Age: 67 years old. Marital status, children: divorced, five children. City of residence: Moscow
• Boris Rotenberg (brother), member of the board of directors of SMP Bank. Source of wealth: finance, oil services. Age: 62 years. Marital status, children: married, five children. City of residence: Moscow
• Igor Rotenberg (son), main owner of the Gazprom Burenie company. Source of wealth: oil services, real estate. Age: 46 years old. Marital status, children: married, three children. City of residence: Moscow
• Lilia Rotenberg (daughter), co-owner of TPS Real Estate. Source of wealth: real estate. Age: 41 years old. Family status: Married. City of residence: Moscow

ROTENBERG remain in second place in the ranking of families since 2015. They earned their billions thanks to contracts from Gazprom and other government orders, in particular for the construction of the Kerch Bridge, which cost the budget 228 billion rubles. The largest government orders continue to compensate Putin's friends for damage from international sanctions. Now Arkady Rotenberg’s Stroygazmontazh has a new project in Crimea - designing a yacht marina, for the construction of which 7.2 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget. In July 2019, his company Mostotrest won the competition for the construction of the North-Eastern Expressway in Moscow for 52 billion rubles. Arkady has been on the sanctions lists of the US Treasury and the European Union since 2014. His younger brother Boris, a citizen of Finland, and his son Igor (since 2018) were also subject to American sanctions. Arkady's daughter Liliya was not affected by the sanctions. It was to her that in 2018, brother Igor managed to transfer the family share in TPS Real Estate. Lilia used to live in Berlin, her company Vitalis-medical was organizing treatment in Germany. The media call her husband businessman Evgeniy Romaskevich, former deputy general director of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, president of the Rotex company, which organizes exhibitions in Europe and the CIS.

5. Yevtushenkovs, $1.94 billion

• Vladimir Evtushenkov,Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFK Sistema. Source of wealth: telecommunications, real estate, agribusiness, medicine, children's products. Age: 70 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow
• Felix Evtushenkov (son), member of the board of directors of AFK Sistema, chairman of the board of directors of MTS PJSC. Source of wealth: telecommunications, real estate, agribusiness, medicine, children's products. Age: 40 years old. Marital status, children: married, four children. City of residence: Moscow

CHILDREN OF THE FOUNDER AFK "Sistema" Vladimir Evtushenkov Tatyana and Felix initially built their careers in their father's companies. Tatyana worked for a long time at MTS, where she was responsible for strategy and development as vice president, then for about six years at Sberbank, as an adviser to the chairman of the board. As an investment professional, she is a partner in her father's fund, Redline Capital. Felix worked his way up from a specialist in the legal department to first vice president at Sistema JSFC. “I had little experience, so where I was sent, I went there,” he said in an interview with Forbes about his appointment to the legal department. In June 2018, Vladimir Yevtushenkov transferred 2.5% of Sistema shares to his son, and in November - the same amount, increasing his share to 5.18%. The share of the former president, member of the board of directors of AFK Sistema Mikhail Shamolin is much smaller - 0.3% of the holding's shares, while the current president Andrei Dubovskov has 0.024% of the shares. In June 2019, Felix became chairman of the board of directors of MTS. His wife Vera is also involved in business. She, together with Teimuraz Shengelia, the former top manager of Detsky Mir, owns Vesta Development. The company is developing a site in the center of Moscow that previously belonged to Sistema.

6. Rakhimkulovs, $1.89 billion

• Megdet Rakhimkulov , Member of the Board of Management Company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 73 years old. Marital status, children: married, three children. City of residence: Moscow
• Timur Rakhimkulov (son), member of the board of management company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 42 years. Marital status, children: n/a. City of residence: Budapest, Hungary
• Ruslan Rakhimkulov(son), member of the board of management company Kafijat. Source of wealth: investments. Age: 40 years old. Marital status, children: n/a. City of residence: Budapest, Hungary

RAKHIKULOV FAMILY acquired a billion-dollar fortune thanks to the long-standing connections of the head of the family, Megdet Rakhimkulov, with Gazprom. He began working at the USSR Ministry of Gas Industry back in 1971. In 1989–1992, he was the general director of Gazexport, a subsidiary of Gazprom. In 1994, his company Interprokom became a co-founder of the Hungarian trader Panrusgas, which supplied Gazprom products to Hungary. With the money received from gas trading, Rakhimkulov bought shares of Hungarian companies. The main family asset today is a large stake in the Hungarian OTP Bank (7.22%). The investments of Megdet and his sons are managed by the Budapest-registered company Kafijat, in which the father owns 71.4% of the shares, and sons Timur and Ruslan each have 14.3%. Rakhimkulov’s eldest son from his first marriage, Rinat, together with his half-brothers, is on the board of Kafijat, but has no share in its assets. In July 2019, the Hungarian press reported the family's purchase of several hotels in Siófok on the shores of Lake Balaton and their plans to build a large luxury hotel. The Rakhimkulovs also own Symbol Budapest, a famous restaurant and nightclub in Óbuda.

10. Mikhailovs, $1.16 billion

• Lidiya Mikhailova, With owner of the Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 61 years old. Marital status, children: divorced, two children. City of residence: n/a
• Sergey Mikhailov (son), General Director of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 41 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
• Evgeniy Mikhailov (son), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 37 years old. Marital status, children: married, son. City of residence: Moscow
• Lyudmila Mikhailova(niece), financial director of Cherkizovo Group. Source of wealth: agribusiness. Age: 43 years old. Marital status, children: married, two children. City of residence: Moscow

LARGEST IN RUSSIA meat producer Cherkizovo Group is a classic example of a family business. Its founder, Igor Babaev, entrusted the management of the company to his eldest son, Sergei Mikhailov, in 2006; his youngest son, Evgeniy, then became its director for business development. In 2016, he headed the board of directors of Cherkizovo instead of his father. Also in 2016, Babaev completely withdrew from the group’s capital, transferring his shares to his family. Today, Sergei and Evgeniy each own 26.3% of the shares of Cherkizovo, Babaev’s ex-wife Lidia Mikhailova - 29.5% of the shares, including 15.1% transferred to the trust. She lives in Europe and is not involved in the company's affairs. Lyudmila Mikhailova, the group’s financial director and Babaev’s niece, has a small share (0.3945% of shares). Her husband Richard Sobel is on the board of directors of Cherkizovo. Another family member, CEO Sergei Mikhailov’s wife Anastasia, heads the PR department. Babaev lives abroad with his new wife and two children, and comes to rest in Altai, to his dacha. He still helps the company, using his authority and connections. In December 2018, when the Cherkizovo group bought Altai Broiler, Babaev met with the governor of the region, Viktor Tomenko.

The current political and economic situation in the country has turned out to be unfavorable for some business sectors, but the situation of other players in the food market proves the opposite. A striking example of this is Miratorg, the name of which evokes mixed emotions, but the main question lies in who owns Miratorg?

History of the creation and development of the company

The history of its creation begins in the early 90s of the last century. Two brothers Alexander and Victor, engineers by training, decided to improve their finances and went into tourism business.

One of the tourists recommended that the brothers bring a car with powdered milk from the Netherlands and sell it in Russia. He also financed Victor and Alexander in the form of a loan. As a result, the Linnik brothers made good money from this and continued to import imported products, including meat, into the country. The business turned out to be profitable and in 1995 they founded the Miratorg company.

It was much easier at that time to obtain loans for goods from Western producers, because the huge country was a large-scale untapped market. However, three years later there was a crisis, after which many importers simply could not repay loans to their Western colleagues, explaining the current situation as force majeure.

Nevertheless, the brothers got out of this situation and from that moment on, the West developed a reputation for them as reliable and worthy partners. Having an analytical mind and well-coordinated work in tandem, the Linniks come to the conclusion that it is more promising to import into the territory not chicken legs, but other types of meat.

The risk was that, unlike others, they imported meat not from the West or the USA, but from Brazil. A little later, they entered into an agreement on very favorable terms with one of the largest beef producers, Sadia, and a little later they began to cooperate with another large Brazilian concern.

This cooperation allowed Linniky to be one of the first to import good quality meat into the country at an affordable price. A little later, together with its Latin American partners, with the financial support of Vnesheconombank, the Concordia plant was opened. A quarter of the production went to meet the needs for meat products of the McDonald's chain. A little later, Miratorg became the owner of 60 percent of the enterprise.

Development of activities and production base

The risk of importing Brazilian meat into the country was justified, and the introduction in 2003 of quotas for the import of meat products from abroad was another bonus. The standard of permitted products was regulated for each country separately. It was not considered possible to bring chicken meat beyond the limited norm, but beef and pork could be imported, but at high customs tariffs.

Miratorg initially supplied pork and beef in excess of the norm in order to bring the same volume the next time, but within the quotas. The founders' priority was uninterrupted large volumes, ensuring further long-term cooperation with their foreign partners. Unlike their competitors, who sold a batch within a week, they sold the goods in just a few days.

Rosselkhoznadzor granted the company the authority to supply meat to processing enterprises. Despite the import activity, Linniki understood that the further development of their company depended on the production of their own meat products.

Importing allowed them to become owners of their own pig farms. They thought through a global business development strategy:

• A transport and logistics structure was created (a transport company, including transport and storage warehouses);
• Production of pork and animal feed;
• Creation of an agro-industrial holding that controls all stages from the supply of raw materials, their production and to the sale of finished products.

In 2005, the country's leadership decided to develop its own agricultural production.

Financial support was provided in the form of subsidies for loans taken for the development of agricultural production. In the same year, Miratorg acquired 40 percent of two pig farms located in the Belgorod region, most of which belonged to a French company. Two years later, the brothers became the sole owners of the enterprise.

In 2006, together with the company of the deputy governor of the region at that time, a facility for slaughter and primary meat processing “Korocha” was erected. However, the partnership did not last long and, with the onset of another crisis (2008), Korocha was bought out from the partners.

Production was almost ready, but there was not enough investment to complete it. In 2009, after a visit by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, the issue of financing from Vnesheconombank was resolved. VEB gave the brothers a loan.

• The state supported the holding due to its ability to provide the country with decent products;
• Strict control of all departments of the production and sales scheme;
• Increasing our own production base;
• Reduced imports of meat products;
• Retail network development.

All this brought the agricultural holding to the first position in its segment.

Direction of the holding's activities

Having chosen a full cycle development strategy, from cultivation to product sales, the owner is obliged to carry out his activities in several directions at once.

1. The company grows crops for their further use. It buys land from owners and develops the sector. The approximate volume of investments is 165 billion rubles.
2. Production of our own high-quality feed. The main enterprises are located in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
3. Pig farms are fully automated and equipped with modern technologies. This allows you to breed and maintain a huge tribe of sows.
4. Beef production ensures the presence of its own farms and slaughter plants, respectively equipped with advanced equipment.
5. Own poultry farms, which produce about 75 thousand tons of chicken.
6. The construction of a plant for the production of semi-finished products makes it possible to produce about two hundred types of a wide variety of products.
7. The plant produces approximately the same amount of frozen fruits, berries and vegetables. Thanks to the shock freezing method, they all retain their properties.
8. Own logistics, the cargo turnover of which is about three million tons. We have a fleet of specialized vehicles for transporting goods.
9. Retail network. Initially there were about 50 stores located in seven regions of the country, but due to unprofitability, some stores had to be closed. The same points that remain specialize in the sale of the holding’s goods, which include about three hundred types of products.

Competitive advantages

Miratorg production has high productivity, which is ensured by the following criteria:

• Product quality control at all stages of production is achieved through a full cycle;
• All production facilities of the holding are automated thanks to the installation of only modern equipment;
• The holding's staff consists only of qualified specialists. Managers hire personnel who have undergone education and training. Miratorg cooperates with 30 agricultural and technical higher educational institutions;
• Product quality is determined by strict compliance with environmental standards;
• Good value for money, plus a wide range.

Assets and revenue indicators

The assets of the agricultural holding are impressive. This is the data listed on Wikipedia:

1. There are two grain growing and processing companies occupying a total area of ​​about 400 thousand hectares.
2. The four feed mills produce approximately 1.5 million feeds on average per year.
3. 33 cattle farms.
4. 27 pig farms.
5. 19 poultry farms.
6. 14 fully automated warehouses for storing products.

Assets can include elevators, slaughter and primary meat processing plants, production facilities, a logistics and distribution company, and a chain of retail stores.

Since last year, a network selling burgers of its own production was launched. According to the Forbes magazine rating, in 2016 the holding took 70th place in terms of revenue, which amounted to 108 billion rubles.

Miratorg and Dmitry Medvedev: connection

And yet, most officials are concerned about the question of who is the real owner of Miratorg. And this is reasonable, given the global assistance to the holding from the Government of the Russian Federation. While collecting dirt on the company and its founders, experts discovered an interesting feature. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev's wife was Linnik as a maiden, but the general director of the holding denies this relationship and considers it only a coincidence.

On May 3, 2019, the press service of the Government of the Russian Federation issued an official denial of the family ties between the Linnik brothers and Svetlana Medvedeva.

Founders and owners

And yet, Miratorg, whose company is it? Both brothers are listed as the owners of the agricultural holding. The post of president of the company is held by Viktor Linnik, and his brother Alexander is the Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Many do not believe the unprecedented success of ordinary engineers due to the fact that Miratorg received loans from state banks VTB and Vnesheconombank.

On the other hand, Russia has been under sanctions for a long time and has introduced counter-sanctions on the supply of European products. Thus, a course was set for import substitution and the development of domestic production for the purpose of food security, and such lending is understandable.

Now the holding is developing a new direction, breeding a special breed of beef cows, whose meat is known as marbled. The price for each head of cattle is quite high, and at the initial stage the managers hired real cowboys from the United States.