Andrey Volkov
"Russia is a wonderful country with a huge market. The operating principles here are not much different from those we use in Ukraine. No matter how hard Ukrainian politicians try to divide us, we are still a single economic and cultural space." With these words, Investohills-Vest CEO Andrey Volkov wanted to announce his financial company's entry into the Russian market. Instead, he received a major scandal, which made Volkov famous throughout Ukraine!
Andrei Volkov's interview with KM.ru was published on January 28, 2012, at 15:10 PM Moscow time, and bore all the hallmarks of a paid PR stunt. Just three hours later, at 18:03 PM, it was hastily edited: a large section of the paragraph in which Volkov referred to Russia's annexation of Crimea as "reunification" was shortened and corrected.
However, it was already too late, because, firstly, the material had already been reprinted by several publications (for example, Sevastopol "123ru"), and secondly, a copy of the originalThe original is cached by Google., where I found her Skelet.Org:
But then Volkov apparently realized he'd screwed up more than just the "reunification of Crimea." Even in the revised version, the interview remained politically scandalous (screenshots of it can be seen here). And not so much because of the praise of the “aggressor country,” but because of Volkov’s further words about the “young president” (Zelensky), which seeks to "stitch" Ukraine and Russia together, a move actively resisted by the "national Ukrainian elites" (the right-wing opposition). Such words would hardly have pleased Bankova, as Volkov effectively undermined Zelensky, whose relationship with the national patriots was already strained. It seems this frightened the head of Investohills-West far more than his careless remarks about Crimea! So frightened that, instead of simply removing this final paragraph of the interview (see screenshot), Volkov panicked and deleted the entire article.
But even this seemed insufficient to him: after all, you can't hide an awl on the internet; information began to spread anyway, and the scandal began to gain resonance, until someone began to say, "Where are the SBU and the National Corps?" And then, on February 1, Volkov rushed to make an official statement, in which he called the publication "KM.RU" a cesspool and the interview it published fake. "This is another media attack, orchestrated by debtor oligarchs out of an unwillingness to pay their bills," he angrily asserted. He also linked it to another scandal involving his Investohills-Vesta: raider takeover office building in Kyiv (Kyrylivska St. 69), owned by Slovak investors from Vi Group Ua.
Well, this desperate attempt to turn the scandal into a fake only demonstrated that Andrey Volkov is only wise in hindsight, and not very wise at that! If only because no one would have edited a fake interview published with the intent to discredit it three hours after it was posted to remove the scandalous lines. And why would they have removed it from publication in the first place? And Volkov's attacks on "thieving oligarchs" seem downright hypocritical! Although he was previously virtually unknown to ordinary Ukrainians, Volkov has long been a fixture in the narrow circles of Ukrainian business. the dark reputation of the "Russian raider" and "debt racketeer".
Volkov acquired this image because he previously worked for nine years at Alfa-Bank Ukraine (including three years as its CEO), a subsidiary of Mikhail Fridman's Russian corporation, Alfa Group. Volkov was subsequently repeatedly accused of working for the Alfa Group, which still controls many key enterprises in the Ukrainian economy (such as Kyivstar). However, as was discovered, Skelet.OrgAndrey Volkov's connections extend far beyond Alfa Group and Russia...
Another "Soros child"?
Andrey Viktorovich Volkov was born on February 27, 1976, in Odessa. In 1993, after graduating from School No. 24 (now the Naval Lyceum), he entered the Odessa State University of Economics. That year, the university was renamed from the Institute of National Economy, which had previously trained accountants for Soviet factories and collective farms, and a department of international economics was established within it, which Volkov enrolled in. He graduated in 1998, but a year earlier, he began an internship at the representative office of the international company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he then worked until the end of 1999. He was always proud of this part of his biography and flaunted it, trying to appear "a top-class international specialist." Little did he know, however, that by doing so, he was exposing his hand.
The fact is that the audit and consulting firm PwC is widely known as an integral part of the "Soros empire." In Ukraine, in particular, PwC worked in tandem with another Soros firm. Dragon capital, owned by a scandalous businessman Tomas Fiala, one of the old man Soros's favorite students. Despite its international image, PwC, like many other Soros-linked entities, often surfaces in various schemes and scandals: for example, in the Russian Yukos case or in underestimated collateral of the Ukrainian PrivatBank. The notorious schemer began his career at PwC Sergey Verlanov, former executive director of Naftogaz, now acting Minister of Energy Yuri Vitrenko and his boss Andrey Kobolev (That's how the pair got together). Such "valuable talent" was spotted and then nurtured at economics universities sponsored by Soros's foundations, after which they were recruited into the commercial structures he controlled. Thus, Andrei Volkov himself admits that he started out as one of the "Sorosites"!
But is he still that way? After all, he's now often called "the Russian raider in Ukraine," playing into the interests of Russian companies and banks. And in Russia, as we know, Soros has long been a political pariah—so is it possible to be a "Russian Soros boy" now? Such a question arises only from ignorance of the economic and political details of both Russia and Ukraine. In reality, everything is much more complex; many more influential figures are involved, many of whom are unknown. So reducing everything to old Soros would be naive and misleading. And below you'll find out why.
In 2000, Volkov took a job as a senior consultant at ING IGA. It positioned itself as a representative office of the Dutch bank ING, but, unlike its direct Kyiv branch, ING Bank Ukraine, it was officially engaged in "reforming the Ukrainian banking sector." But unofficially? Firstly, ING Bank itself had repeatedly been implicated as a piece in Soros's "chess scams" (high-profile bankruptcies and takeovers). Secondly, ING IGA's mission was to "provide assistance in asset management." This meant training the still semi-wild and semi-criminal Ukrainian oligarchy in the mechanisms of securities, shares, and assets. That is, by "squeezing" enterprises for artificially created debts, inflating or deflating their valuations, using collateral, and much more—which was the essence of the notorious "banking sector reform." At ING IGA, Volkov specialized in consulting clients on risk management and distressed assets—specifically, acquisitions, privatizations, and corporate raids. It was there that he gained invaluable experience, which he would later use in his future endeavors.
Secrets of Alfa-Bank
In 1989, Lviv native Mikhail Fridman, who had become a Moscow "cooperator," expanded his business into the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco, which exported petroleum products and non-ferrous metals. His wealth grew even larger, so much so that in 1991, he and his partners founded Alfa-Bank, which soon became one of the largest banks in the CIS. However, Fridman "earned" his money not only through oil and metal export schemes but also through outright criminal activity, as evidenced by The media has written about this repeatedly. For example, in the first half of the 90s, Alfa-Eco imported opiates from China in sacks of sugar. When this was discovered, riot police raided the company's Moscow office. However, they left after a call from Lubyanka, which had been protecting Fridman's business since Soviet times. Besides the FSB, Fridman actively worked with the Baumanskaya and Moskvoretskaya organized crime groups, as well as ethnic Caucasian mafias (Ossetian and Dagestani).
Mikhail Fridman, 90s
But the most interesting thing happened a few months later: David Mulford, vice president of the financial group CS First Boston (CSFB), a former US Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Economic Affairs (under Bush Sr.), arrived in Moscow. He was looking for new business partners in Russia – and chose Alfa Group, well aware of all its scandalous dealings. After all, CSFB also regularly found itself at the center of all sorts of scandalous scams.
So, the media reportedIt's believed that the Weld banking family, directly linked to the CSFB through its White Weld & Co. (which Mulford ran from 1970 to 74), previously profited from international drug trafficking. However, the Welds are one of the most influential families in the United States, with a lineage stretching back to the time of the first Pilgrims. The Welds have left so many traces throughout American and international history that their antique bog oak cabinets simply don't hold all the skeletons. Interestingly, Bill Weld, the former governor of his native Massachusetts, was Trump's rival in the 2020 election (he also ran as a Republican).
David Mulford
And in the spring of 2001, there was a Vladimir Bondar was arrested, who previously served as Viktor Yushchenko's deputy at the National Bank of Ukraine. He was accused of placing $75 million of Ukraine's foreign exchange reserves in a specially created Cyprus branch of the CSFB, which caused Ukraine $5 million in losses. Moreover, to cover up this scam, the IMF commissioned an audit of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which was conducted by PwC, which, surprisingly, found no violations. Incidentally, Andrey Volkov was working at PwC at the time, and it's possible he was also involved in this commissioned "fake" audit. The case of the foreign exchange reserves fraud was, of course, later hushed up, but it was not forgotten.
Andrey Volkov: the beginning of his career
Alfa Group's fortunes, however, immediately after it began working with David Mulford, soared again. Journalists believe Alfa Group was used by Mulford and the Welds to acquire valuable Russian assets and siphon capital out of Russia. In the second half of the 90s, Mikhail Fridman and his partner, Petr Aven, became members of the so-called "Semibankirshchina," which contributed to Yeltsin's reelection—who paid for it with the "Great Privatization." In particular, Alfa Group made a significant profit in the so-called "loans-for-shares" auctions, acquiring SIDANKO (the future TNK) for just $130 million. It's worth noting that of the former "Semibankirshchina" members, only Vladimir Potanin and Fridman and Aven, Alfa's former partners, retained their businesses. The media has repeatedly mentioned that Putin himself used their shadowy schemes to funnel his billions out of Russia...
Beginning in 2000, Alfa Group began its expansion in Ukraine. In the spring of that year, Alfa Bank acquired 75% of Kyivinvestbank (founded in 1993), which in October was renamed Alfa Bank Ukraine and merged with Alfa Capital Ukraine CJSC. However, to avoid direct Russian ownership of the bank and to more conveniently "save on taxes," Fridman and his associates formalized control of Alfa Bank Ukraine through their Cypriot holding company, ABH Ukraine Limited.
Just a few months later, Andrey Volkov joined Alfa-Bank Ukraine, where he quickly rose through the ranks. He moved because there was a direct connection between ING IGA and Alfa-Bank, via CSFB, which had long worked closely with ING Bank. Here we see how Soros's structures are closely intertwined with other Western financial empires, even though their owners sponsor different political forces. In short, let us reiterate, the world doesn't revolve around Soros alone, although he (and his protégés) shouldn't be underestimated.
And so, in July 2001, Volkov became head of the risk management department. In February 2003, he became a member of the management board, in October 2003, deputy chairman, and, since 2006, chairman of the management board of Alfa-Bank Ukraine. A career too impressive, even for someone so adept at "risk assessment"! But Volkov never revealed the true secret of his success, merely hinting habitually at his incredible professionalism. As for Alfa Group, during this period, it was aggressively acquiring everything it could lay its hands on in Ukraine.
A very illustrative example here is The story of the gradual takeover of KyivstarWhen Altimo (Alfa's telecommunications division) entered the business in 2002, part of Kyivstar belonged to the Swedish company Telenor, which was Alfa's partner in Russia in VimpelCom (Altimo owned 44%, Telenor 29,9%). So the Swedes, without any concerns, allowed VimpelCom to buy 50,1% of Kyivstar from its previous owners. And then Alfa started a war against Telenor for a controlling stake, which lasted until the fall of 2019 and crowned with Friedman's victoryBut why not, considering that Friedman has put down very deep roots in Ukraine, including political ones! For example, his close friend is Andrey Sadovoy, whom Friedman actively helped to remain the permanent mayor of Lviv from 2006 to the present. And not only by funding the annual music festivals "Alfa Jazz Fest".
Mikhail Fridman and Andriy Sadovyi at the annual Alfa Jazz Fest in Lviv
In 2019, George Soros, along with his Ukrainian assistants Victor Pinchuk and Tomas Fial launched a new political project, "Voice." Designed primarily for the western Ukrainian electorate, "Voice" effectively stole voters from Sadovyi's Samopomich. Financial support for the Lviv mayor and his party from Soros structures also ceased. Sadovyi's only remaining supporter in big international business and behind-the-scenes politics was his old friend, Mikhail Fridman. Incidentally, the roots of this rift stretched all the way back to the United States and were connected to the highly hostile relationship between Trump and Soros. Since Trump is a Republican, as is the Weld family, for whom Fridman works, it's not surprising that some "misunderstandings" arose between the sponsors of Ukrainian politics, leading to the collapse of Samopomich. And then Fridman began sponsoring Sadovyi. Ukrainian Galician Party, which is known for its "soft" regional separatism. Friedman, Russia, the FSB, Western Ukrainian separatism—all this adds up to a very disturbing picture…
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Andrey Volkov: Russia's "Alpha Raider" in Ukraine. Part 2
FILE: Sergey Tupalsky: Alpha Group Customs Schemes Under NABU Protection. Part 1
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