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The children of President Putin’s friends are confidently taking economic and political power in the country. PHOTO: Reuters
Those close to Putin form dynasties at the head of large state companies and the administration.
The trend is not entirely new, but it is intensifying: powerful in Russia, friends of President Vladimir Putin, who head large state-owned companies or important positions in the administration, appoint their successors to leadership positions in the country.
The appointments of sons and daughters, between 30 and 40 years old, are not a secret. It is enough to delve into the administrative documents, although they are not transparent at first reading, writes the correspondent of the French newspaper Le Monde in Moscow Benoit Vitkin.
In mid-November, Novaya Gazeta published a lengthy article on the latest “breakthrough” of elite children to the top, the newspaper added.
Are on this list
the heirs of
Mikhail Fradkov
– former prime minister,
former head of foreign intelligence and director of the arms company Almaz-Antey. Pyotr, 42, was appointed chairman of the board of Promsvyazbank, a leading state bank in the arms business. And Pavel, 39, has joined the presidential administration.
Viktor Khmarin, 42, the son of Putin’s childhood friend who later became consul in the Seychelles, took over Rushydro, the giant state-owned hydroelectric company.
Sergei Matvienko, son of the president of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, and a former governor of St. Petersburg, entered the business after working for a long time as vice president of the state bank VTB. The utility company he created is completely dependent on public procurement.
The members of the first round are followed by about 10 more names. The official duties your sons perform have one thing in common: Positions presuppose power and responsibility and are always highly paid, Vitkin says.
“This is a feudal legacy,” said political scientist Fyodor Krasheninnikov, a good connoisseur of the Russian elite. – Those who are surrounded by the leader get the right to divide the country. Most of them don’t aspire to official positions, but politics and business are so intertwined that they are the most influential people in the country we go to solve problems. These powers can now be inherited, as do the Saudi princes or the “red princes” of the Chinese regime. “
Most of the heirs join large state or semi-state corporations. Igor Sechin, a former Putin aide who nabbed Rosneft, appointed his son Ivan vice president of the oil company. A
his daughter
marry the son of
the attorney general
Yuri Kovalchuk, the president’s longtime partner and head of the Bank of Russia, helped his son Boris run Inter RAO, the country’s largest electricity and heat holding company.
Not all those close to the elite follow the path of business or politics, but almost all of its adult members have descendants in the strategic sector, summed up in 2019 the authors of the report of the Polish Institute for International Affairs on “Children of the Kremlin”.
Often after graduating from schools or universities in the West, the heirs find their place in the Russian clan system and are ready to replace their parents. For the latter, it can be very useful to distribute capital among family members to evade European and American sanctions.
In the former Soviet Union, the children of the leaders were also privileged, but the difference is colossal, Krasheninnikov said. “Le Monde” recalls that a former gymnast, often featured for
owner of
Putin gets it
9 million euros
annually for his work in the media holding company.
The rise of such dynasties strengthens the integrity of the system and the loyalty of its members. According to Krasheninnikov, the prospect of a possible change of power in the Kremlin in 2024 explains the redoubled greed of the Russian elite.
“They realize that their property, with the exception of foreign accounts, is fictitious and can be taken away from them for a moment,” said the political scientist. “Even if one of this government group replaces the current president, this will not mean any guarantee of security,” he said.
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