The white nights of St. Petersburg are said to be sublime. Three weeks in June where the sun never completely sets, and where the imperial capital is in turmoil. Particularly during the few days of its Economic Forum, a Russian Davos where heads of state and big bosses jostle every year. “To do once in a lifetime, especially for the crazy parties organized by the oligarchs, capable of spending several million euros for a single evening”, says a former senior executive of Engie. But alongside the festivities, there were also the compulsory exercises. “Putin took the opportunity to bring together all the CEOs of energy, and for two hours put on a big show where he knocked us out with numbers, detailing the smallest projects in the country…”
We guess, of course, the jubilation for this son of workers to see the biggest bosses of the planet making manners in order to ensure his good graces. But the Putin show was above all intended to remind them that the big boss of the Russian economy was him. Because comrade Vladimir was not content to corset politics and consciences he has been in power for more than twenty years. He also embraced his country’s economy with all his passion. Of course, the man does not lead alone and has surrounded himself with a high-flying team, like Elvira Nabioullina, the governor of the Russian Central Bank who is struggling to keep the country afloat. in the face of Western sanctions. “But in the end, the only one who decides is him”, sums up a former great French aeronautical leader.
Gas and oil, his preserve
When it comes to oil and gas, things are even clearer: the real executive boss of Rosneft and Gazprom, the two largest companies in the country, is Putin himself. He would also have thought of merging them. “It was he who received the big foreign bosses, and it was he who led the discussions despite the presence of ministers and leaders in office,” says a former Total employee.
“If Alexei Miller, the boss of Gazprom, has been in his post since 2001, it is less for his skills than for his absolute submission”, adds a figure in the gas sector. The CEO of the Ukrainian company Naftogaz, Yuriy Vitrenko, recently told the Express how Putin was negotiating directly with him, while Miller was content to nod in agreement… “It was Putin who allowed BP, for example, to take 20% of Rosneft [NDLR : la “major” britannique s’est désengagée après l’invasion en Ukraine]and which brought people from Shell, ExxonMobil, EY onto the board of directors to make local businesses more efficient,” adds Philippe Pelé-Clamour, Russia specialist and professor at HEC.
And when he is not directly at the helm, the former KGB knows he can count on the docility of a ruling class that he brought to heel when he came to power in 1999. The fate of the all-powerful boss of the Yukos oil group, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, languishing for ten years in a Siberian prison that served as an example. On February 24, day of russian invasion in ukraine, he also brought together some forty oligarchs in the Kremlin, under the gilding of the former Senate palace. Less to warn them that Western sanctions would be heavy than to remind them of their moral and even more financial obligations towards the hand that feeds them. “Finally Russia is a big company: Putin is the CEO and the oligarchs of the bosses of subsidiaries, they can jump at any time”, image a connoisseur of the country.
Businessman Vladimir and his family
But behind the strategist Putin, there is the racketeer Vladimir, as a former executive of GDF Suez tells us. “At the end of the 2000s, we wanted to acquire gas production and exploration blocks in Russia. So we listed our choices, but very quickly our intermediaries told us: “such lot, such lot… Forget , no auction, they are reserved by Putin and his relatives. These were obviously the most promising…”, says our source. And he is not the only one to testify to the greed of the Russian president. In 2008, Carlos Ghosn, then president of the Renault group, decided to gain a foothold in Russia, he sent the Kremlin his request to acquire 25% of AvtoVAZ (Lada).
The green light is coming very quickly. “But when we signed, we realized that Putin and his relatives had in the meantime bought as many shares of AvtoVAZ as possible, which they obviously sold to us at a much higher price!” says a former manager of the diamond manufacturer. A 900 million euro operation on which Putin and his band would have shared, at least, several tens of millions of euros. Contacted, Renault recalls that all governance has since been replaced and that it is impossible to know what happened at the time…
A fortune that would be in the billions
Misappropriation sources of speculation around the fortune of the master of the Kremlin. We are talking about tens, even hundreds of billions of dollars. Putin, for his part, displays an almost modest lifestyle: a salary as head of state of 125,000 euros per year, a lackluster house in the vicinity of Moscow and three cars. An incorruptible image at the service of the people, skilfully crafted.
Between nominees, screen companies and tax havens, it is impossible to circumscribe his real fortune. It nevertheless seems certain that our man is the proud owner of the Graceful, a yacht over 80 meters long at 100 million dollars, with an indoor swimming pool that can be transformed into a dance floor. A huge villa by the Black Sea nicknamed “Putin’s Palace”, estimated at 1 billion dollars, is also said to belong to him, even if the oligarch Arkadi Rotenberg tried to clear it by claiming that it was his. There is also talk of assets in Switzerland in the name of ex-Olympic gold medalist gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who would have given him four children.
The only certainty is that the control of the native of Saint Petersburg on the Russian economy has not benefited his people. “Despite the continuous rise in the price of hydrocarbons, household income is now lower than it was in 2014”, points out Caroline Dufy, lecturer in Bordeaux. A Russian people who never ceases to pay the bill for the upheavals of History.