Boris Baum
President Zelenskyy's intention to legalize gambling has whetted the appetites of those seeking easy money not only in Ukraine but also abroad. And although casino legalization is still only in the legislative drafting stage, it is already being taken over by Russian "scammers" acting through their representative, Boris Baum. He has managed to infiltrate Zelenskyy's inner circle, join a Verkhovna Rada committee as the "presidential representative," and co-author Bill No. 2285.
Initially, Baum wasn't given much attention, as no one really knew who he was. More concerning was the active involvement in the gambling legalization process of such industry sharks as the bookmaker Pari-Match (owned by Eduard Shvindlerman), which operates in Russia, Georgia, and Moldova, illegally organizing online casinos. The associated law firm Eterna Law and former Pari-Match employee Iryna Sergienko, who became president of the Ukrainian Gaming Industry Association and chair of the Coordinating Council for the Socially Responsible Legalization of Casinos, are also involved in the drafting of the bill. Others include the bookmaker Fovorit (owned by Andriy Matyukha), which, under the guise of distributing state lotteries, opens illegal gambling halls. And despite the fact that in 2016 alone, the SBU busted 28 such establishments (seizing over a thousand pieces of computer equipment), no criminal cases were ever brought against Favorit. Matyukha has a strong "roof"!
But then, curious about the identity of this previously unknown Boris Baum, journalists discovered that he was a top manager at VS Energy, which owns several regional power companies in Ukraine, a hotel chain, and stakes in metallurgical plants. He also served as chairman of the supervisory board of First Investment Bank. All these enterprises belonged to a group of Russian businessmen, Babakov, Giner, and Voevodin, known as the leaders of the Luzhniki gang. Alexander Babakov is also a member of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation and a former deputy speaker of the State Duma. And now it became clear that this issue goes far beyond the legalization of casinos...
Latvia-America-Ukraine
Although Boris Baum has been frequently mentioned in Ukrainian media recently in connection with the legalization of gambling, information about him is extremely scarce and contradictory. Finding his biography is virtually impossible, his past in Ukraine seems erased, and his connections in Russia are confusing. For example, when people talk about his affiliation with the Luzhniki gang, this automatically leads to questions about his possible relationship with Moscow businessman Pyotr Fridrikhovich Baum, the owner of such companies as Russtekhinvest and Ruskeramika, and the former owner of the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant. Could he be his father? Upon further investigation, it turns out he is not.
Petr Baum
Skelet.Org has discovered that Boris Petrovich Baum was born on December 8, 1973, in Jurmala (then the Latvian SSR, now Latvia). His parents, Petr Baum (born 1948) and Roza Baum (born 1952), grew up, married, and worked there, and they still live in Jurmala today, although many of their friends have emigrated to Israel or the United States. Their son, Boris, also lived in America for several years.
In 1991, Boris Baum graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 40, and a year later, he entered the newly opened Riga International School of Economics and Business (RISEBA), where he studied until 1996 and earned a bachelor's degree in economics. The reasons for this are not stated anywhere; perhaps it was business-related, or he was offered a good job, or perhaps he simply took advantage of the opportunity to emigrate to America. He lived there for at least two years, during which time he graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu—one of the many American private "second-tier" universities that produce lawyers, accountants, and managers. There, Boris Baum earned a master's degree in management and economics.
Rose Baum
The next few years of Baum's life are completely unknown. He conceals them even in his supervisory board membership applications. But why? After all, a young professional with two degrees (one American) likely found a job at some Western firm—an asset considered a crown jewel on the resume of any Ukrainian top manager. Yet for some reason, Baum is reluctant to publicize what exactly he did between graduating from Pepperdine University in 1998 and his arrival in Ukraine in 2006 as the head of the supervisory board of First Investment Bank and first assistant to Mikhail Spektor, the head of VS Energy International Ukraine LLC. Spektor had just replaced Oleksandr Prityka as head of the business group operating in Ukraine, which belongs to the Luzhniki Group.
At the same time, in 2005-2006, the Luzhniki gang covered their tracks and changed their image, adapting to the new Ukrainian government. Perhaps, during this process, Boris Baum's biography was heavily sanitized, obscuring the answer to the most intriguing question: how and why did a Latvian immigrant who settled in the United States connect with the Luzhniki gang and go to Ukraine to service their business?
To some extent, the answer to this question, as well as Baum's appearance in Zelenskyy's entourage, may be explained by the following fact: on May 2, 2010, a large group of distinguished guests arrived in Israel on Mikhail Spektor's private jet for the wedding of Dnipropetrovsk businessman Timur Mindich. Among them were the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Chabad community, Shmuel Kaminetsky; oligarchs Viktor Pinchuk , Mikhail Kiperman, Mark and Yevhen Kogan; former Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Mikhail Reznik; and Boris Baum.
How Luzha Grew
In 1992, the famous Moscow sports complex in Luzhniki was transformed into a joint-stock company, granting the right to independently operate. The shareholders' first act was to open a clothing market of the same name on vacant land near the stadium. Popularly nicknamed "Luzha," it became the largest flea market not only in Moscow but also in the entire CIS for several years. Almost immediately, a fierce war for control of the market erupted between the largest organized crime groups: Solntsevskaya, Izmailovskaya, and Lipetskaya. Each had protection from government officials, law enforcement agencies, and the security services.
Luzhnikovsky Market, 90s
Ultimately, the market fell to the Lipetsk gang, not as a trophy, but rather as their lot in the division of spheres of influence. For example, the Solntsevskaya gang secured control of the oil and gas business and expanded their influence in the West (Europe and the United States), the Izmaylovskaya gang began to seize metallurgical enterprises, and the Lipetsk gang was allowed to establish control over clothing markets. However, for a time, Luzhniki was the only major market they controlled. Between 1993 and 97, the Lipetsk gang was significantly crushed, but the part of the group that had established itself in Moscow effectively formed a new organized crime group, named after its market, Luzhniki. The gang's criminal leader became the "authority figure" Mikhail Voevodin (Misha Luzhnetsky), a native of Ryazan who graduated from the Bauman Saratov State Technical University. His closest associates were Muscovite Maxim Kurochkin (Max Besheny), who commanded the militants in the organized crime group, and Alexander Babakov (a native of Chisinau, who worked in Nikolaev) and Evgeny Giner (a Kharkiv resident), who came to Moscow from Ukraine and were the economic brains of the group.
Alexander Babakov
Brothers Vladimir and Konstantin Gladkov (from Luhansk) also joined the Luzhniki gang, and in 2001, Kharkiv resident Pavel Fuks , who was brought to Moscow by crime boss Sergei Batozsky, an old friend of Giner and Kernes , became close to them . However, a conflict immediately erupted between the Luzhniki gang and Batozsky, after which the crime boss was killed.
Voevodin and Babakov first created TOO Bavas, which managed the market, while Kurochkin and Giner opened the private security company Garant Plus, under whose protection the Luzhniki gang's racketeers operated. But they didn't just rely on taxes from merchants and profits from the sale of goods of criminal origin (contraband and stolen goods). According to media reports, Babakov and other "khokhols" who came to Moscow and joined the Luzhniki gang were "swindlers," swindling naive ordinary people who came to the market with full wallets.
Yevgeny Giner
The profits from this were so great that in 1996, Babakov decided to legalize his "scams" and founded Lotbi LLC, which received permission from the Moscow mayor's office to conduct "instant lotteries." Babakov's imagination was the key: new tents selling lottery tickets and "electronic roulette" (a set-top box with a TV) legally sprang up at and around Luzhniki Stadium, followed by slot machine parlors and casinos. It could be said that the Luzhniki gang made their fortune primarily through gambling—which is why they still hold a special interest in this business.
They settled in very well. Babakov began teaching economics at Moscow State University in 1998, made many useful connections in the Moscow mayor's office, joined the Rodina party in 2003, and was elected to the State Duma – thus began his political career. His Israeli citizenship didn't hinder his progress at all! According to Skelet.Org , as early as 1996, as the founder and director of the Swiss-registered company "Iventa," Babakov listed his residence in Ramla, Israel, in its documents, and by 2001, he had been registering himself as an Israeli citizen.
Maxim Kurochkin, however, was friends with his Miletus handler, Vladimir Rushailo. A seasoned Moscow "cop," Rushailo held senior positions in the capital's UBOP since the late 80s, and in 1999 became the new Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Among his new responsibilities was combating "armed gangs of the North Caucasus." Under this guise, Rushailo decided to purge Moscow of Chechen organized crime groups, but using his own methods: "squeezing" businesses from the "bearded ones" and handing them over to his protégés. Specifically, Rushailo met with Kurochkin and blessed the "Luzhniki gang" to wage war against the Chechens for Moscow's bazaars. The Luzhniki gang's largest successful operation was the seizure of the CSKA stadium (and the market of the same name). In the 90s, they were controlled by the Chechen "authority" Shakhrudi Dadakhanov (Shakh), who had protection in the Russian Ministry of Defense and important allies in the criminal underworld (such as Taiwanchik). Everyone came down on the Chechens at once: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Prosecutor's Office, and the Luzhniki gang, so in February 2001, they leased the CSKA stadium and market, transferring it to the companies they had designated. Their overall management was now under the new president of the CSKA club, Evgeny Giner.
"Russian Club" in Ukraine
All this money had to be laundered and invested. The Luzhniki gang didn't just do this in Russia: in the late 90s, their economic expansion into Ukraine began. The choice was obvious, as many of the Luzhniki gang members came to Moscow from Ukraine, knew their homeland well, and had many useful connections there. One of the first acquisitions of the Luzhniki gang back in the mid-90s was the Yalta hotel "Oreanda" (where the future head of the Kyiv SBU, Sergei Semochko, was then feeding. But they obtained their main assets in Ukraine in a roundabout way, through their companies registered in Europe. There were many of them, but the most famous was the Slovak "Vychodoslovenske Energeticke Zavody", a former state-owned company gradually bought out by the Luzhniki gang and controlled by Alexander Babakov, Yevgeny Giner, Mikhail Voevodin, Sergei Shapovalov and (until 2005) Maxim Kurochkin. This is how the Luzhniki gang changed their criminal image and concealed their Russian registration, becoming "Slovaks"! Moreover, Kurochkin's share was quite large: shortly before his death , he stated that after leaving the "Slovak group", his former partners owed him about 170 million dollars.
Maxim Kurochkin
Vychodoslovenske Energeticke Zavody then established its subsidiary, VS Energy International NV, in the Netherlands, which came to Ukraine in the late 90s for the major privatization drive. At the time, Ukrainian oligarchs were fighting for metallurgical and chemical plants, oil refineries, and mining and processing plants, and only a few paid attention to electricity distribution companies (oblenergos) and gas distribution companies (oblgases). Among the first Ukrainian "energy men" were Grigoriy Surkis and his ally , Konstantin Grigorishin , who took part in the partial privatization of 1997—a closed, highly corrupt process, when 20-45% of the shares of nine oblenergos were distributed behind closed doors. Due to numerous scandals, the next stage of oblenergo privatization was postponed until 2001, but even then, scandals were unavoidable.
The situation developed roughly as follows: through the efforts of the Yushchenko government, Surkis's group was sidelined from the second stage of the regional energy companies' privatization, in part due to the reluctance to hand these enterprises over to "Russian business" (and RAO UES of Russia was simply excluded from the bidding). Instead, Americans—AES Washington Holdings BV and AES Silk Road BV, both part of AES Corporation—were invited as VIP participants in the privatization. It's worth noting that a preliminary reform of the Ukrainian energy market (under the guidance of American and British specialists) was even carried out under the Americans' guise. However, Surkis, along with his partner and fellow party member Medvedchuk , pushed through the privatization of the "Slovaks"—that is, the European firms of the "Luzhniki Group." This is where their disguise as "European investors" came in handy!
The "Slovaks" outbid the Americans: in April 2001, they acquired controlling stakes (92,5-94,5%) in Zhytomyroblenergo, Sevastopolenergo, Khersonoblenergo, and Kirovogradoblenergo, while AES Washington Holdings BV received only Kyivoblenergo and Rivneoblenergo. Babakov paid approximately $100 million for the four oblenergos, while the Americans paid approximately $60 million for their two, which was half as much as the State Property Fund had expected to receive from the privatization. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in a new corruption scandal—one that escalated into a political one when it was revealed that the "Slovaks" were actually Russians. And it worsened when the Luzhniki group began implementing their "Russian Club" project in Ukraine, which was actively supported by the new head of the Presidential Administration, Viktor Medvedchuk. The "Russian Club" also fit into Viktor Yanukovych's pro-Russian agenda. And, what few people remember, the socialist Yuriy Lutsenko was a member of the "Russian Club" in 2003-2004.
Many believed Kurochkin was behind the "Russian Club," but that wasn't true. The very name made it clear that it was Babakov's project, which had just then joined the patriotic Rodina party. But since the Luzhniki members were a single team back then, everyone participated in the "Russian Club" together. It's just that subsequent events separated them.
This privatization was accompanied by a number of strange deaths and even murders. The most high-profile was the murder of Alexey Romashko, deputy chairman of the Securities and Stock Market State Commission, who was shot dead in the entryway of his own building on October 29, 2001. The case was immediately hushed up and quickly shelved, never properly investigated. Meanwhile, his colleague, another deputy chairman of the Securities and Stock Market State Commission, Andrey Portnov , was named among the potential perpetrators. Portnov had recently had a serious conflict with Romashko. For a long time, it was believed that the cause of their dispute was the Southern Mining and Processing Plant, which was being fought over by the Privat Group (represented by Portnov) and Vadim Novinsky (represented by Romashko). However, MP Mykola Tomenko later claimed that the Luzhniki gang was involved in Romashko's murder, and that Maksym Kurochkin had orchestrated it. The motive was Poltavaoblenergo OJSC, which Romashko had prevented from participating in the auction while protecting the interests of another business group. According to some Skelet.Org sources , Portnov was friends with the Luzhniki gang at the time, so one version doesn't contradict the other. And is it a coincidence that in 2019, both Portnov and the Luzhniki gang—allegedly unaware of each other—were so active in Ukraine at the same time?
Andrey Portnov
And in November 2003, Pyotr Starovoitov, head of the Zhytomyroblenergo board, died in a traffic accident. His car, moving at full speed, crashed into a KrAZ truck that had suddenly decided to make a U-turn in the middle of the highway. Everyone noticed then that this accident was exactly like the one that killed Vyacheslav Chornovol—that is, it resembled the signature of a "contract-ordered disaster."
Until 2004, everything was going swimmingly, and VS Energy International NV also acquired a 21,97% stake in ChernivtsiOblenergo, 20,36% in Odesaoblenergo, 11,78% in Khmelnytskoblenergo, and 10,53% in ZakarpattiaOblenergo. The company also became the owner of several hotels in Western Ukraine and Crimea. But then two force majeure events occurred. First, the first Maidan erupted in Ukraine, and power shifted to the "Orange" party. Second, in Russia, Volodymyr Rushailo fell into disgrace and was sent into political retirement, while the Rodina party split into three factions—Babakov remained in Rogozin's party (becoming its leader in 2006). All this put an end to the prospects of the "Russian Club" in Ukraine, and the "Luzhniki" decided to change colors and move closer to the "orange" ones.
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Boris Baum: Servants and Managers of the "Luzhniki Brotherhood" in Ukraine. PART 2
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