Biography:
Valery Serdyukov was born on November 9, 1945 in Horoshevka village, Gomel region of Belarus. In 1975 he finished the Leningrad Higher Party School; in 1987 — the Leningrad Mining Institute by the name of G.V.Plehanov with a degree in economics and organization of the mining industry, Ph.D. in Economics.
He began his career in 1962 as a worker at the factory «Gomselmash»; since 1967 he worked in the mines of the Vorkutaugol at different positions; Since 1970, he was engaged in Komsomol and party work, he was elected the first secretary of the Vorkuta Party Committee, deputy of the Vorkuta City Council, State Council of the Komi Republic. In 1990 he was appointed deputy general manager of the Vorkutaugol. Since 1996 Valery Serdyukov served as vice-governor of the Leningrad region on Industry, Fuel and Energy, Forestry and Environment. Since December 1997 he was appointed the first vice-governor of the the Leningrad region. In 1998-1999 he was Acting Governor of the the Leningrad region. September 19, 1999 Valery Serdyukov was elected governor of the the Leningrad region. In September 2003, he was elected governor of the the Leningrad region for the second time . In July 2007, at the request of the President of Russia the the Leningrad region Legislative Assembly bestowed Valery Serdyukov the powers of the the the Leningrad region Governor once again.
1999-2001 - Member of the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of Russia.
Since 2001 - Member of the State Council of Russia, member of the Presidium of the State Council of Russia (2001-2002).
He is married and has two sons and three grandchildren.
http://www.serdyukov-vp.ru/governor
Dossier:
The first compromising publications about Valery Serdyukov appeared in 1999, and that was a story of 1994, when the name of Serdyukov figured in a major criminal case about corruption in the St. Petersburg mayor's office. This story was described in the newspaper "Your Privy Councilor in St. Petersburg.
Then the St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak and his deputy director of external relations at that time, Vladimir Putin tried to implement the program, the official result of which was provision of apartments to Vorkuta miners. Those were the miners, who moved from Leningrad and the Leningrad region to Vorkuta for earnings a long time ago.
In 1994 there were no earnings any more, people were sitting for months without wages, and therefore preferred coming back to their homes, in case they had housing there. The head of the coal quality and sales of production association "Vorkutaugol», Valery Serdyukov promised the miners new apartments in St. Petersburg as repayment of the unpaid wages. For that purpose an economic plan was necessary.
Cherepovets Metallurgical Combine owed the consolidation «Vorkutaugol» a large sum of money that could not be paid, but could be returned in a form of their own product - metal. In this regard, there was an agreement reached by the first persons of the St. Petersburg mayor's office and the association Vorkutaugol. The essence of the agreement: the St. Petersburg mayor's office bought the Cherepovets metal from Vorkuta, sold it abroad, and thus gained some money to purchase flats in new houses. Those apartments were supposed to come into the ownership of the association "Vorkutaugol, which was supposed to repay this apartments to the miners then.
In St. Petersburg, the project was supervised by official of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the City Mayor's Office, Dmitry Tuknov; he instructed to sell the metal to him. The official exporter of the goods appeared to be the firm «Promstroyrezerv» which was almost entirely owned by Tuknov "(at the same time Tuknov led the St. Petersburg representative office of the Association «Vorkutaugol» and was familiar with Serdyukov for a long time), and the buyer was a Finnish company "Keller". The miners' interests in this remarkable concession, as mentioned above, were represented by the director of coal quality and sales of Vorkutaugol, Valery Serdyukov.
In July 1994, Dmitry Tuknov was arrested on charges of taking bribes of $ 90 thousand dollars! Law enforcement officials accused Tuknov of suggesting the Finnish partners to "pay" him $ 10 per ton of metal in cash before sending the first batch of metal. There were more than 9 thousand tons in a party. Three years later, Dmitri Tuknov was acquitted as the instituted criminal case against him was discontinued due to the lack of evidence. However, some interesting facts revealed during the investigation.
In particular, during a search of the office "Promstroyrezerv" some documents were seized, which indicated that money realized through the metal sales had not been actually used for the of apartments purchase, but had been diverted to accounts located in Gibraltar offshore companies.
However, that search direction wasn't developed by our law enforcement agencies due to the efforts of a very high-ranking people, who did not want to be prosecuted, as journalists believed. Suffice it to say that under that criminal case Vladimir Putin was questioned, one of the firms established by Tuknovym was co-owneв by the son of General Klimakov, deputy chief of the St. Petersburg tax police.
As a result of the concession, the Vorkuta miners did not receive neither apartments, nor money - law enforcement officers lost track of the money somewhere between Vorkuta and St. Petersburg.
After coming out of "Crosses", Dmitry Tuknov continued acting as head of the St. Petersburg Mission of the Association «Vorkutaugol». It turns out that the chief of the Vorkutaugol Office of the coal quality and sales, Valery Serdyukov had no claims to his partner.
"Your Secret Advisor, September 1999
The next time the name of Valery Serdyukov appeared on the pages of media was an ugly story about forcible takeover of Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill (PPM). In the newspaper «Novaya Gazeta» Anna Politkovskaya presented Serdyukov as accomplice of the forcible takeover of PPM. When the company began to reduce and change the staff, the workers appealed to the Acting Governor of the the Leningrad region Serdyukov for help, but Serdyukov refused, openly playing into the hands of "Alzen», which subsequently took control of the combine.
"Novaya Gazeta" Anna Politkovskaya "From red to black prices", 02.11.2000
Then it became known that a well-known businessman Alexander Sabadash was behind the company "Alzen"; he supported the campaign for the governor Serdyukov in the the Leningrad region. In this regard, Serdyukov contributed to Sabadash takeover of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill. Subsequently, the company of Sabadash received significant tax concessions from the Government of the Leningrad region, in particular, from Serdyukov, and therefore the area was deprived of much of the revenue.
"The Battle of Stalingrad in the the Leningrad region", an internet resource http://www.promved.ru/aprel_2000_01.shtml
Name of Serdyukov was mentioned in media in connection with piquant details of the State Duma of the the Leningrad region candidate's personality, Irina Thomason, president of the Moscow Fund for the Protection of children and women. It was assumed that she was close to President Vladimir Putin (they said Thomason and Putin had intimate relationship). The situation seemed odd because despite the abundance of more experienced in politics candidates, the governor of the Leningrad region Valery Serdyukov maintained Irina Thomason. The campaign headquarters of the woman was located in the former headquarters office of Valery Serdyukov, who by that time had won the election.
http://www.compromat.ru/page_13921.htm, E. Skorokhodov "Surely the president has a mistress?" 10.11.2003
In 2003, Valery Serdyukov turned out to be in conflict center that occured between the Government of the the Leningrad region and private business entities "Neva technology" and "North-Telecom, behind which rector of the University of Humanities, Alexander Zapesotsky was. He was close to the ex-governor Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev. The essence of the conflict was that in June 2002, both business structure tried to change the management of the Leningrad Regional Television (LOT). In particular, the government of the Leningrad region intended to do so,as it owned 45% stake in LOT. But Serdyukov initiated a lawsuit in the Court of Arbitration, and in February 2003 the decision was rendered in favor of the government. They said it was the other dishonest action of the governor Serdyukov, who used the arbitration process as a lever to purchase the private owners shares at the lowest price.
"Kommersant" A. Pushkarskaya "Valery Serdyukov eliminates LOT 30.10.2003
In the same year, they spoke about the conflict between Alexander Sabadash and Valery Serdyukov. The publication of the newspaper «St. Petersburg version" reflected the author's view on how Serdyukov got to the post of governor of the Leningrad region. Ostensibly, Alexander Sabadash together with his colleague Alexander Beletsky (a long time held a senior post in the central office of the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia) and their temporary ally Alexander Shmargunenko planted Serdyukov in a chair of Governor of the Leningrad region in 1999. It cost Sabadash and his company four million dollars, for which Serdyukov allowed Sabadash to do anything they wanted, including the capture of the Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill. Subsequently, when the interests of Sabadash, Beletsky and Shmargunenko had parted, Serdyukov thought that he didn't owe anything to Sabadash any more. That situation led to Sabadash's discontent and conflict between them.
Newspaper "Version-SPb," Sabadash has been fleeced”, 29.09.2003
Correspondents of "MC in Peter» talked about the relationship of Valery Serdyukov and the leader of the Tambov gang, Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), known in certain circles by the nickname Kum, now awaiting for sentencing in a remand center in Moscow. The letter, which appeared in the newspaper, was addressed to Serdyukov by Alexander Nevzorov, a well-known television journalist. Nevzorov asked Valery Serdyukov to hire his assistant Barsukov (Nevzorov at the time was a deputy of the State Duma). Serdyukov fulfilled Nevzorov's request, despite the fairly criminal figure of Barsukov.
The newspaper "MK in St. Petersburg", "Kum will help" 22.06.2005
In April 2009, the name of Valery Serdyukov was mentioned in connection with a conflict in Pikalevo aluminum center, when workers had not been paid for several months. Management of "Basel" (a company owned by Oleg Deripaska) then promised Serdyukov to settle the conflict down within 10 days if the governor of the Leningrad region appealed to the President with a request for 1.5 billion rubles loan. In March, 12 he applied for a state credit for Deripaska to President Medvedev. However, Deripaska did not fulfill his promises, and Serdyukov threatened to withdraw his request.
"Novaya Gazeta", N. Petlyanova "Mired in the clay", 01.04.2009
Interest in the person Serdyukov Vasily was aroused when the income tax return for 2008 filled by him and his wife, was published on the website of the official representative of the the Leningrad region. Revenue Serdyukov was designated as 4 million 146 thousand 900 rubles, and that amount consisted of income from bank deposits. Governor's wife, Olga Serdyukov, a former chemical engineer was retired. Her revenues accounted for 2 million 186 thousand 500 rubles, more than 180 thousand rubles per month: that was too much for pension payments.
The data on the real estate owned by the governor also cast doubts about Serdyukov's family income had been lawfully obtained: the land of the six hundred square meters, flat area of 121 sq. m - registered in the name of his wife, and Valery Serdyukov registered apartment of 432.2 square meters, a plot for conducting farming of 34 thousand 650 square. m., the area of 293.4 square m. and farm buildings with total area of 313 sq. Journalist's doubts about veracity of the declaration was also caused by the fact that Serdyukov and his wife indicated that they had no personal vehicles.
Journalists accused Serdyukov that he was building a family business in violation of the RF legislation (Federal Law "On Combating Corruption» N 273-FZ of December 25, 2008, stating that the personal interest of the state or municipal employee shall not affect the performance of duty, which violate the legitimate interests of citizens and society). In particular, in 1996 and 1997 (when Serdyukov moved to St. Petersburg) two timber companies were recorded - OOO "Vaden" and ZAO "Intersolar", where Serdyukov sons were listed as directors - Dennis and Vadim (later the firms formed a large holding, headed by the sons of Serdyukov).
In 2002, Serdyukov ordered to add ZAO "Intersolar" to the list of major companies and organizations, administered by the Committee Industry, Government of the Leningrad region. Each successive order, signed by the governor of the Leningrad region starting from 2002 until recent time, served the best to the interests of the company "Intersolar" — firstly, his sons got a long-term lease for 49 years in six forest enterprises in the the Leningrad region (Volosovsky, Gatchina, Lomonosov, Priozersk, Roshinsky and Sosnovsky) with a total area of 155 thousand 838 hectare; then the company identified two areas of 16 900 and 11 500 hectares in Priozersk area for the same period allotted under the hunting grounds. In August 2008 the Government of the the Leningrad region issued an ordinance which authorized the "withdrawal" of 10 heads of elk and 14 heads of wild boar - hunting became a branch of the Serdyukov family business. In 2007 ZAO "Intersolar" was divided into forestry enterprise "Interles" and "Interles Pasha», and hunting company - Sosnovskoye and Yablonovskoe hunting farms. Vadim Serdyukov was directing both of them.
As for Denis Serdyukov, he owns the company "Veles-Volkhov" and also wasn't set aside by his father. In 2005 the Governor signed an executive order, which gave his son a 49-year land lease for hunting area of 19 thousand hectares in the Volkhov and 20 thousand hectares in Lodeynopolskom areas. Another company of Denis Serdyukov LLC "Veles" - got the right (absolutely official) for shooting a larger number of elk, than the law provided.
"Veleses" are only two companies out of a dozen of structures, led by Denis Serdyukov and united in LLC TPG Capital. Among the activities of the Ltd were was listed forestry, hunting, agriculture, livestock, oil and gas, hotel and restaurant business, real estate, sale of fuel, ferrous and nonferrous metals, metal construction for energy, including electricity pylon, portals, searchlight mast, antenna supports, steel structures for road construction, etc. As soon as journalists started talking aloud about the family business of the governor of the the Leningrad region, TPG Capital was rapidly re-registered in Cyprus, an offshore area and became Yievatris Investments Ltd.
"Novaya Gazeta", the article "Field of family business", 13.07.2009