Semibankirschina
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Semibankirschina | |
Russian | семибанкирщина |
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Romanization | Semibankirschina |
Literal meaning | rule of seven bankers |
Semibankirschina (Russian: семибанкирщина), or seven bankers, was a group of seven powerful Russian business oligarchs who played an important role in the political and economical life of Russia between 1996 and 2000. In spite of internal conflicts, the group worked together in order to re-elect President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and thereafter to successfully manipulate him and his political environment from behind the scenes.
The seven businessmen were identified by oligarch Boris Berezovsky in an October 1996 interview, and the term "semibankirschina" was then coined by a journalist in November 1996 as a takeoff on the Seven Boyars (semiboyarschina), who deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky in 1610 during Time of Troubles.
The seven bankers
Russian
The word "Semibankirschina" was subsequently coined by the Russian journalist Andrey Fadin of the Obschaya Gazeta newspaper, in a 14 November 1996 article titled "Semibankirschina as a New Russian Variation of Semiboyarschina".[8] He wrote that "they control the access to budget money and basically all investment opportunities inside the country. They own the gigantic information resource of the major TV channels. They form the President's opinion. Those who didn't want to walk along them were either strangled or left the circle." Slightly over a year later, Fadin was killed in a car accident.[9] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also used this word in his critical 1998 essay Russia under Avalanche to describe the current political regime and to warn people of what he considered an organized crime syndicate that controlled the President and 70% of all Russian money.[10]
The identities of seven bankers are:
- Sibneft, ORT
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky – Bank Menatep, Yukos
- Mikhail Fridman – Alfa Group
- Vladimir Vinogradov - Inkombank
- Vladimir Gusinsky – Most Group, NTV
- Vladimir Potanin – UNEXIM Bank
- Alexander Smolensky – Bank Stolichny
Other sources, including collective photo and video materials, suggested that Vitaly Malkin (Rossiysky Kredit) was part of this group too.[2][11][1] [12][13] From then on, various sources featured different combinations of those eight names to describe the phenomenon of Semibankirschina.
That's how Petr Aven, who was close to Berezovsky, describes appearance of the word "Semibankirschina" in his book The age of Berezovsky: "He (Berezovsky) didn’t use this word, but he gave an interview to the Financial Times in which he said that seven businessmen were de facto ruling the country. He named a fairly random list — whomever he could recall at the time. I was listed together with Fridman; there was one representative of each group there".[14]
History
It is generally considered that the group was created in March 1996 when the political consultant
After the plan failed, half of those oligarchs formed what became known as Semibankirschina — a group of seven business moguls ironically named after the 17th century seven boyars who owned the majority of Russian media resources and who decided to promote Boris Yeltsin every way possible. Since Yeltsin was highly unpopular by that time, with only 3—8% support, a complex technology of crowd manipulation was developed by the Gleb Pavlovsky's and Marat Gelman's think tank Foundation for Effective Politics,[17] with the involvement of American specialists (the latter fact was used as a basis for the comedy film Spinning Boris released in 2003).
Known as an extremely "dirty" election campaign both inside and outside of Russia,[18] it was discussed in detail in Gleb Pavlovsky's report President in 1996: Scenarios and Technologies of the Victory published shortly after. As Nezavisimaya Gazeta summarized it, "the formula of victory: attracting the expert resources + dominating in the information field + blocking the competitor's moves + dominating in mass media + dominating in elites."[17] The main analyst of the NTV TV channel Vsevolod Vilchek also admitted that they actively applied technologies of mass manipulation.[19] Both Dmitry Medvedev and Mikhail Gorbachev have since claimed that Yeltsin's victory was hoaxed.[20][21]
Following the election, the seven bankers became the main power behind Russian politics and economy.[1] Between 1996 and 2000 they gained control over the most valuable state enterprises in the natural resource and metal sectors and unofficially manipulated Yeltsin and his decisions.[22][16] According to Boris Berezovsky, they acted through Anatoly Chubais — an architect of privatization in Russia and Yeltsin's right-hand man who granted access to him at any time.[2]
All this resulted in further impoverishment of the population, criminalization of businesses and the
Yet the following years saw a quick demise of most of the seven bankers and the rise of the new generation of "manageable" Russian oligarchy. Khodorkovsky, Berezovsky and Gusinsky turned into
See also
- Russian oligarch
- Boris Yeltsin 1996 presidential campaign
- Loans for shares scheme
References
- ^ ISBN 9781317082064.
- ^ a b c "British Paper Names Banking Clique". The Moscow Times. 5 November 1996. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- ^ ISBN 9781135992057.
- ^ ISBN 9781134376858.
- ^ Chazan, Guy; Thornhill, John (5 March 2015). "Mikhail Fridman: The Alpha oligarch". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
- ^ Schmouker, Olivier (9 December 2009). "Qui est Mikhail Fridman?". Les Affaires (in French). Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ Semibankirschina as a New Russian Variation of Semiboyarschina fragment in the Kommersant newspaper, June 23, 2003 (in Russian)
- ^ Sergei Mitrofanov. Journalist Andrei Fadin died. Kommersant newspaper, November 22, 1997 (in Russian)
- ^ Russia under Avalanche, page 57 at the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's official website (in Russian)
- ISBN 978-1-4165-6071-5
- ^ Dmitry Butrin. The Results of 10 Years of Capitalism. Kommersant newspaper, March 5, 2002 (in Russian)
- ^ TV Tsentrofficial YouTube channel, October 6, 2015 (in Russian)
- ^ https://petr-aven-books.com/
- ISBN 9781107042148
- ^ a b Dmitri Butrin. The Undersigned in the Kommersant newspaper, April 24, 2006 (in Russian)
- ^ a b Sergei Kartofanov. An Approach to the President's Victory by Nezavisimaya Gazeta № 60, August 29, 1996 at the Foundation for Effective Politics website (in Russian)
- ^ Dimitri K. Simes. Russia and America: Destined for Conflict? at The National Interest, June 26, 2016
- ^ Viktor Martynuk. Medvedev Confessed: In 1996 Zyuganov Won the Presidential Election at KM.ru, February 22, 2012 (in Russian)
- ^ Simon Shuster. Rewriting Russian History: Did Boris Yeltsin Steal the 1996 Presidential Election? at Time, February 24, 2012
- EurActiv, February 4, 2016
- ISBN 978-0-446-56354-3
- ^ Owen Matthews. How Boris Berezovsky Made Vladimir Putin, and Putin Unmade Berezovsky at The Daily Beast, March 24, 2013
- ^ Luke Harding. Boris Berezovsky: a tale of revenge, betrayal and feuds with Putin at The Guardian, March 23, 2013
- ^ Boris Berezovsky found dead at his Berkshire home at The Guardian, March 23, 2013
External links
- Russia bows to the `rule of the seven bankers' at The Irish Times, August 29, 1998
- Thayer Watkins. The Russian Oligarchs of the 1990s at the San Jose State University website
- Seven oligarchs who decided the fate of Russia at the Snob Magazine, January 21, 2011 (in Russian)
Bibliography
- Chrystia Freeland (2000): Sale of the Century: Russia's Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism. Crown Business. ISBN 0-8129-3215-3.