Velikhov Evgeny Pavlovich

Bio:
Evgeny Velikhov was born on 2 February 1935  in Moscow. He has graduated from Moscow State University.

In 1961 he started his career at Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.

In 1971-1978 he was the director of the branch of Kurchatov Institute,  Magnetic Laboratory under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
In 1972 he founded  plasma energy department at the faculty of aerophysics and space research at  Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology stationed at an affiliate of Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. He has been the head of the department so far.
 In 1975 – 1976 he founded a new faculty  at  MIPT, the one of   Physics and Power Engineering Problems.

In 1976 – 1986 he was the dean of the Faculty of Physics and Power Engineering Problems.

Since 1986 he has been supervisor of  FPPEP.

Since 1992  he has been president of the Federal State Agency of Kurchatov Institute, the RF research centre.

Since 2010 he has been a member of the advisory board of Skolkovo  research foundation.

Awards:

Hero of  Socialist Labor (1985)

The USSR State Prize  (1977)
Lenin Prize (1984)  Millionshchikov Prize of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1986)

The RF State Prize in science and technology (2002)  
Global Energy award (2006)

Order for Merits to the Fatherland  4th Grade (2010)
Order for Merits to the Fatherland  3rd Grade (2011)

   Velikhov is an academician and a secretary of Nanotechnologies and Information Technology branch of the RF Academy of Sciences and the president of the Federal State Agency of Kurchatov Institute  research Center. He is a member of the Russian Pugwash Committee on the panel of  the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences  and the Russian Academy of Education and Culture, as well as the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement.

He is a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1989)

In 1978 – 1991 Velikhov was vice-president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in  1991 – 1996 – of  the Russian Academy of Sciences.
He is a member and a secretary of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.  

Valihkov took part in elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.

Source: Wikipedia

Dossier:
In 1988 the USSR, the United States, Japan and  Euratom signed an agreement on an international project for creating  ITER experimental fusion reactor. Academician Evgeny Velikhov was elected chairman of the project council. It was planned to start up  1.5 GW  reactor by 2010 and to construct  an  industrial thermonuclear power plant by the middle of the 21st century.

  In December 1990 preliminary design of the reactor was finished. In July 1992 scientists  started working on an engineering project. But although technical project was announced to be prepared as far back as December 1998, it never saw the light of day. It would have taken some time to round the reactor, but Velikhov suddenly took a great interest in other walks of life. He joined the board of eight public, nine commercial and  twenty-six  non-governmental organizations. He managed literally everything,  from oil production in the Arctic to teaching computer literacy.

Source: Novaya Gazeta, 25 May 2000


  In 1992 Rosshelf  company was founded and Velikhov was appointed its president. He had promised to develop Russian industry with many orders, to create 250 000 jobs and to establish  a new industry of offshore oil and gas production in Russia. Thus he encouraged the RF government  to  found the company. Velikhov was allowed to take complete control of Prirazlomnoye and Shtokmanovskoye fields in the Barents Sea until March 2018. But once it became clear that Velikhov was  good at handling money. So, for a start  he decided to handle 5 billion dollars by investing them in developing  offshore fields and to see what would come out of it. The government were impressed by the amount of money required but  did not dare to object. Despite the fact that it was equal to a quarter of the annual budget. BHP Petroleum company, Australia, was invited for ''financial support'' of Prirazlomnoye, while an  international bank consortium was established to develop Shtokmanovskoye. Presentation ceremony was held at a luxurious hotel in Moscow.

   However, soon Australians quit the project. Without any fuss, though, while the bank consortium made a big row. A cause of the scandal was reported to be the fact that  Velikhov had arranged a financial expertise of the project. At first Ernst & Young, best known accounting firm, was said to carry it out. Suddenly  Velikhov announced that he had invited  Swiss financier Bruce Rappaport and his expert group. A scandal broke out since Rappaport's business reputation was spotted when  two offshore banks he controlled were suspected of laundering drug mafia's money.  Ernst & Young blamed  Velikhov for dishonesty and breach of his own words, and broke off the relations with him. Foreign investors did the same.

Source: Novaya Gazeta, 27 March 2000 


In 2011 prosecutors   revealed significant violations made by the Fund  supporting children in difficult life situations. Interestingly, the fund was established by the Ministry of Health and Social Development, while the board of trustees included many high-ranking officials:  Minister of Health Tatyana Golikova, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko,  Secretary of the  Public Chamber Evgeny Velikhov, and others.

  According to the Prosecutor General's Office,  the fund  spent on its own needs twice as much as on the orphans. Project expenses of the fund  amounted to 82.5 million rubles, whereas 178 million rubles were spend on administrative needs, of which 130 million  were salary costs. Prosecutors claimed that managers of the organization had unreasonably increased a payroll by 3.64 million rubles. Besides, money donated to the fund were partially  spent on external projects.  Activity of the organization was non-transparent and there were some violations in the regulations of the fund.

Source: Pervy Khanal, 4 August 2011