Happy classmates of Dmitry Medvedev. Secret funds of Medvedev's classmates

The First Anti-Corruption Mass Media continues to publish business portraits of persons involved in the investigation of the facts of the alienation of federal property, in which the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation is involved. In this publication, PASMI presents an open biography, as well as contacts of the Deputy Chairman of Gazprombank and the unspoken head of the Fund for Regional Non-Commercial Projects "DAR" Ilya Eliseev.

It is assumed that it was thanks to Ilya Eliseev that the DAR fund received interest-free loans from Gazprombank, which went according to the described scheme to pay for construction, and subsequently the redemption of federal lands.

Ilya Vladimirovich Eliseev was born in December 1965 in Leningrad. In 1987 he graduated with honors from the famous law faculty of the Leningrad State University. Zhdanov.

His classmates were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chairman of the Supreme Arbitration Court Anton Ivanov, Presidential Aide Konstantin Chuichenko (pictured) (some media credit him with the rapid career growth of the ex-head of the GUEBiPK Denis Sugrobov), Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Nikolai Vinnichenko, director of the FSSP Artur Parfenchikov, Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs Valery Kozhokar (according to RBC, he contributed to the appointment of Sugrobov to the post of head of the GUEBiPK) and others.

Eliseev, Medvedev and Ivanov (pictured) after graduation remained in graduate school and all three taught at the department of civil law at the law faculty of St. Petersburg State University.

Eliseev, Medvedev and Ivanov are also co-authors of one of the most famous Russian textbooks on civil law.

"Trinity" jointly engaged in business. So their law firm "Balfort" existed for several years.

Then in 2005, when Dmitry Medvedev headed the presidential administration, and Anton Ivanov became chairman of the EAC, they called Ilya Eliseev to Moscow and he was appointed deputy chairman of the board of Gazprombank, where he works to this day and is a member of the board of directors.

OAO Gazprombank is one of the largest universal financial institutions in Russia. The bank is one of the three largest banks in Russia and ranks third in the list of banks in Central and Eastern Europe.

Gazprombank serves key sectors of the Russian economy - gas, oil, nuclear, chemical and petrochemical, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, electric power, engineering, transport, communications, agro-industrial complex, trade and other industries.

Gazprombank participates in the capital of three foreign banks - Belgazprombank (Belarus), Areximbank (Armenia) and Gazprombank (Switzerland).

Ilya Eliseev owns 0.02% of the bank's shares.

Judging by the quarterly report of Gazprombank on securities for the 1st quarter of 2014, Ilya Eliseev has been the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the DAR Regional Non-Commercial Projects Fund since 2006. The founder of the fund is Levit LLC, which belongs to Leonid Mikhelson.

Reference.
Leonid Mikhelson (pictured) is the founder of the Russian gas company OAO Novatek, is its largest shareholder, Gazprom and Gennady Timchenko also own large blocks of securities. Mikhelson is also a member of the coordinating council of the business school in Skolkovo.

From 2006 to 2008 The general director of the DAR Foundation was a graduate of the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University - a student of Eliseev - Philip Polyansky. Polyansky, through Certum-Invest LLC, owns Blagoveshchensky Valve Plant OJSC, where Eliseev worked from 2008 to 2013. was a member of the supervisory board.

Olga Travina is the other director of the fund, as well as its subsidiaries - LLC "Dar Fund Management Company", North-Western Branch of the "Dar" Fund. Meanwhile, Travina is a co-founder of the Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives, whose president is the wife of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Svetlana Medvedeva.

In 2009, the "Dar" Foundation was involved in a scandal with environmentalists who opposed the felling of pistachio-juniper forests produced for the construction of a "sports and recreation complex" of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. Some media called this complex "Medvedev's dacha".

In 2011, information appeared in the press that in the Milovka estate (Ivanovo region, Privolzhsky district, the city of Ples) - the object belongs to the "Dar" fund - the construction of the "Medvedev's residence" is underway, which is why the tuberculosis sanatorium in Ples was redesigned.

“The sanatorium is not liked by the local owners of the city, who took advantage of the construction of the President’s residence in Plyos and, accordingly, put pressure on your department, which became their ally,” wrote then in his open letter, who tried to fight against the closure of the anti-tuberculosis sanatorium, phthisiatrician Radovitsky A.L. .

According to some reports, the DAR Fund Management Company established the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum Foundation, which in 2011 held an event of the same name in the Mikhailovsky Castle (St. Petersburg), where Dmitry Medvedev (at that time, President) spoke.

The Dar Foundation also participated in dubious transactions for the alienation of federal property in the Moscow region and the Krasnodar Territory in favor of third parties, the possible damage to the state from these transactions is 1.7 billion rubles.

Denis Balashov

Post-graduate students of the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University Dmitry Medvedev, Ilya Eliseev and Anton Ivanov not only wrote comments on the Civil Code of Russia together, but also tried to create a joint business, though unsuccessfully. Their friend told Vedomosti about this. The graduate scholarship was not even enough for books, and all three started early part-time jobs, giving private consultations. And in the 1990s. decided to unite and established the Balfort law firm, of which Eliseev became the director. They contributed 10,000 rubles for three. In total, Balfort employed six people (in addition to the three founders, a secretary, an accountant and an administrative director). Balfort's office was located on Bolshoy Smolensky Prospekt. It was a 3m x 4m room with a tiny reception area. There were only two tables in the room, and therefore only one person received clients, while the rest consulted on the road. The first clients of Balfort were Komsomol organizations (youth commercial centers), then joint ventures. For some time, Balfort was even an authorized attorney of the Association of Joint Ventures of St. Petersburg, headed by Vladimir Kozhin (now he is the president's manager). But cooperation with the association did not work out: she herself did not want to pay Balfort, believing that the money should be given directly by its members, and the latter believed that associations were already paying so much. The business had to close because of the bandits. Balfort made good money and honestly showed all the proceeds in the tax return. The next day, two men came into the firm and offered a "roof". One of the visitors even took out a gun to be convincing. Eliseev was the only one in the office that day, and he managed to convince the guests that the firm would start dividing from the next quarter. After the visitors left, Eliseev rushed to call former classmates who worked in the prosecutor's office. But none of them could help, and everyone sincerely advised to close the company as soon as possible and not to shine in this area for some time. Some, however, supported morally: "If you guys are filled up, we will get these bastards out of the ground." A week later, the founders of Balfort refused to rent the premises. It was not possible to get comments from Ivanov, Medvedev and Eliseev about this story. Balfort ceased to operate in 1992, because its members had other projects. There has never been any situation related to bandits,” says Anna Kovaleva, head of the public relations department of the Supreme Arbitration Court (where Ivanov is now chairman). Presidential press secretary Natalia Timakova was unable to either refute or confirm this information. Earlier, a senior Kremlin official told Vedomosti that Balfort did have such problems, but he is not sure that they were the main reason for the company's closure.

Kremlin or Barbados?

Many of Medvedev's classmates stayed to work in St. Petersburg and other cities, mostly as lawyers. “Of course, we sometimes joke with each other, what should we ask the president for,” laughs one of his classmates, St. Petersburg lawyer Yevgeny Kotov. “Perhaps appoint an ambassador to Barbados?” He and his classmate Vasily Govorov have also held onto each other for a long time, just like Medvedev and Chuichenko. Only not in the Kremlin, but in St. Petersburg legal advice No. 46.

Now, when alumni meetings are held, it is not clear who is more: former students or employees of the Federal Security Service, participants of the annual gatherings say. Star issue - high-ranking functionaries at different levels of power as many as 20 people

For meetings, graduates chose the St. Petersburg club restaurant Royal Beach on Krestovsky Island with its own beach on Malaya Nevka. As visitors write in the reviews on the restaurant's website, "the most delicious mojito, the most delicious strawberry soup, the best place on Krestovsky Island."

The place is quiet and peaceful: next to it is another restaurant with a pond where visitors fish for their meals, and Seaside Park with old trees. Actually, the restaurant itself burned down in 2010 right on the eve of the next meeting, that year we had to urgently change the place of the party - they left for the K2 state residence on Kamenny Island. But this year they returned back - they did not violate the tradition. The place is comfortable, isolated, easy to guard. Before the arrival of the main classmate, Dmitry Medvedev, the restaurant is cordoned off around the perimeter, security is everywhere - both on the road and in the park, and special boats ply along the bay. True, the guards are not allowed into the hall where the holiday takes place.

It is necessary to protect not only the president, but many others: bankers, employees of Gazprom, heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prosecutors and bailiffs, chairmen of courts, and so on.

“Let them say whatever they want, but the release is stellar. Our team is the best. Is there even one course like this? asks Medvedev's classmate, St. Petersburg lawyer Yevgeny Kotov. He says that at least he is not in power, but he worries about his own: “It's like in football. I don't play it, but I root for " Zenith". When you shake hands with fellow student Medvedev, as if you are greeting the whole world, Kotov shares.

Landing of the first echelon

The first was Konstantin Chuichenko. Now he is an assistant to the president, and in the mid-80s he was a close friend of Medvedev. Classmates unanimously say that at that time Chuichenko seemed to be the leader in their pair, he also advanced along the Komsomol line. Chuichenko was the first from the course, back in the early 90s, to leave for Moscow, he is the only one who entered the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), although many wanted to. He had valuable qualities for intelligence: very good organizational skills and reliability, recalls one of the former members of the SVR. “We then knew that Kostya would fly high, somehow it was immediately clear,” says his classmate.

In 2000, the young first deputy of the presidential administration and inexperienced chairman of the board of directors of OAO Gazprom, Medvedev, needed support. On whom to rely, if not on a friend?

It was Chuichenko who became the harbinger of the change of power in Gazprom, he headed the legal department of the monopoly in April 2001, when it was led by the seemingly omnipotent Rem Vyakhirev. He, according to the stories of former Gazprom managers, was against the appointment of Chuichenko. But he had to give in, and Chuichenko got access to all legal documentation, including contracts. The first major deal that the new chief lawyer of Gazprom had to deal with was the establishment of control over the media assets of Vladimir Gusinsky. Then Chuichenko oversaw the return of the assets of Sibur, Itera, the failed merger of Gazprom and Rosneft, the purchase of Sibneft, YUKOS gas assets, and was a co-director of Rosukrenergo. He coordinated all his steps with Medvedev, Chuichenko could often be found in his Gazprom reception room.

Already in 2002, when Alexey Miller headed Gazprom, it became easier to bring in people. Chuichenko invited Valery Adamova, nee Ovchinnikova, to work as his deputy, who, after working for four years, moved to the chair of the first deputy chairman of the Moscow Arbitration Court, and in 2009 Medvedev approved his classmate as chairman of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District.

It has already become a tradition that a lawyer at Gazprom is a full-time graduate of the Leningrad Faculty of Law in 1987. Chuichenko and Adamova are no longer there, now Adamova's university friend Vladimir Alisov is working in this field.

For six years, another confidant of Medvedev, Ilya Eliseev, has been working at Gazprombank. He heads the supervisory board of the non-profit Dar Foundation, which is building a famous residence in Plyos.

“A kind, smart, but very lazy person,” classmates characterize Eliseev. They say that he rarely attends alumni reunions - too often, knowing his gentle nature, he was pestered with requests. It is inconvenient to ask Chuichenko and Medvedev, but Eliseev will listen and will not refuse. He did invite one of them to Moscow: he recently hired Alexei Chetvertkov, a merry fellow and joker of the course. Now he is engaged in development projects in one of Eliseev's companies.

The centralized supplier of Gazprom's subsidiary, Gazprom Komplektatsiya, is also led by Medvedev's classmate, Igor Fedorov. He has been working in this company since 2003, and headed it in 2006. Fedorov is the only one of his classmates who is now a member of the board of the gas monopoly. Fedorov also needs his own man in his company, he called a classmate Viktor Ivanov to work. And he helped out, came to Moscow.

Kryshtanovskaya calls Gazprom and related structures Medvedev's nest.

Landing of the second echelon

The entire so-called reserve of Medvedev was selected back in 2006. By that time, 10 of his friends and classmates had already taken key positions, says a person from the president's entourage. After 2006, the second echelon was pulled: this is when the first pulled the next. Sometimes Medvedev was not even aware of the appointments, says the source of Vedomosti, and sometimes he was completely against it. For example, Alisov was brought to Gazprom by Chuichenko and Medvedev was surprised by this choice, he recalls: although Medvedev was friends with Alisov, he did not believe that he could cope with the difficult work in the Gazprom system.

It is quite possible that the idea of ​​reforming the police came to Medvedev not without the help of fellow students, three of them think. There was a so-called police group on the course - these are those who acted in the direction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of them, Valeriy Kozhokar, was recently appointed by Medvedev as Deputy Interior Minister and Head of the Interior Ministry's Investigation Department. In his youth, Cojocari was engaged in wrestling and was a purposeful guy, classmates recall.

Another female general from Medvedev's course, Elena Leonenko, nee Klimenko, works as deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia. “Klimenko was the brightest girl on the course - all the boys looked after her,” recalls one classmate. “This is a moot point,” the other boys disagree. But everyone remembers that everyone called her Klima and thanks to her mother, who worked in trade, it was always possible to get jeans or other shortages.

Lieutenant General Dmitry Sergeev has been heading the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Yamalo-Nenets District for two years now. Classmates gossip that he is now the main contender for high positions in Moscow, he has more than once secluded himself with Medvedev for conversations at alumni meetings. “Actually, Dimka is simply an honest cop, they may not be taken,” they doubt. On the course, Sergeev was friends with Nikolai Vinnichenko, he, most likely, recommended him, classmates believe.

I did not forget Vinnichenko and another friend of his - Oleksandr Gutsan. He worked for a while as Vinnichenko's deputy when he was a bailiff, and now he works as a deputy prosecutor general of Russia. Gutsan enjoyed great respect at the course, acquaintances say, he was older than others, was the Komsomol organizer of the course and “generally very correct”, was a member of the university headquarters of the “Operational Komsomol squad squad”.

The head of the financial police of Kazakhstan, Kairat Kozhamzharov, comes to the meeting of the course with his FSE officers. “He was always very tough and principled, the fight against corruption is his forte,” friends recall. At meetings, Medvedev and Kozhamzharov will always find time to talk in private, they say, they have common themes: both are worried about corruption.

“I learned that Kozhamzharov studied with Medvedev only after he was appointed head of the financial police,” recalls disgraced Kazakh businessman Mukhtar Ablyazov. - Many people told me that he often mentioned his studies with the Russian president. But most likely, Kozhamzharov made his career on his own.”

Another classmate of Medvedev, on the contrary, claims that Kozhamzharov never advertised his stellar student connections. The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, allegedly found out about them only when Kozhamzharov came three years ago to ask for time off for another meeting of classmates. “I need to meet with the president,” the official explained. "With which?" - Nazarbayev was dumbfounded.

no ties

Meetings of graduates of the entire course have become annual only since 2007. Before that, they met either in groups or on round dates - 10th anniversary, 15th anniversary. Previously, they collected money themselves, looked for a hotel or a restaurant, troublesome, classmates say. “For 20 years of graduation, in 2007, it was very sincere,” they recall. “We decided that we would meet more often and informally, without ties.”

It is the artists that classmates blame for the fact that a video with a dancing president was posted on YouTube: “None of ours would have done this.” On it, Medvedev in a blue suit danced to Alena Apina's song "American Fight", the president was filmed from the side and from behind. The video was very popular. At first, Medvedev was very upset and was about to cancel the meetings, says a person from the president's entourage, but then changed his mind so as not to be convicted of weakness. Instead, an entry appeared on Medvedev's blog: "A video appeared on the network, as I lit a year ago at a meeting with the course." But this year, the guards were told to keep a closer eye on the filming.

Chuichenko is considered the main manager of the meetings. He always arrives before Medvedev and personally checks everything. St. Petersburg lawyer Tatyana Lomova is responsible for gathering classmates and interacts with Chuichenko on all issues. At meetings of classmates, Chuichenko himself always sits at the same table with Medvedev and makes sure that the president is not pestered with strong requests.

Classmates have not collected money for a long time. “They wouldn’t have collected for such holidays,” they say. Nobody knows exactly who is paying. “They finance ours, Moscow,” they wave their hands. According to one of the classmates, the holiday costs $30,000-50,000: “Celebrities, when they find out where they are invited, agree to symbolic money.”

During the period of the first premier term and during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, many of his fellow students, who graduated from the law faculty of Leningrad State University in 1987, made a career in power structures and state-owned companies. After Vladimir Putin became president again in 2012, not everyone was able to keep their seats.

Anton Ivanov

Left the post

Ivanov headed the Supreme Arbitration Court before the court was disbanded in the summer of 2014. Now he is the scientific director of the Faculty of Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Valery Kozhokari

Left the post

Until 2012, Cojocari served as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then he was appointed Assistant Minister of the Interior.

Tatyana Gerasimova

Left the position

Gerasimova served as the first deputy head of the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. In 2012 (when Cojocar was removed from the post of head of the department), she was fired. The media did not report on her new place of work.

Artur Parfenchikov

Remained in office

Parfenchikov has been the head of the Federal Bailiff Service since 2008.

Konstantin Chuichenko

Remained in office

Chuichenko has been the head of the control department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation from 2008 to the present.

Nikolay Vinnichenko

Transferred to another department

Vinnichenko was the plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Urals Federal District. In 2013, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation. It is worth noting that another classmate of Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Gutsan, has been the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation from 2007 to the present.

Ilya Eliseev

Remained in office

Eliseev still holds the post of deputy chairman of the board of Gazprombank.

Valeria Adamova

Left the position

Adamova was appointed as a judge in 2006. First, she became the first deputy chairman of the Moscow Arbitration Court, and in 2009 Anton Ivanov recommended her for the post of chairman of the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District. In April 2015, Adamova's term of office expired. She became the only participant in the competition for a vacant vacancy, but on May 19 she unexpectedly withdrew her candidacy from the competition.

Dmitry Medvedev managed to enter the Faculty of Law of Leningrad University only in the evening department, but the very next year, as an excellent student, he transferred to the daytime department and ended up in the third group. “It was the strongest group on the course,” recalls her teacher, and now the dean of the faculty, Nikolai Kropachev. - I remember where Medvedev was sitting, where Chuichenko was, how I jumped from one to another, because they tormented me with questions and did not allow me to sit and stand quietly. That was hard. But it was also a pleasure. They made me think and argue.”

Konstantin Chuichenko immediately became friends with the newcomer. “They are very close as individuals,” explains Medvedev's classmate Marina Lavrikova. - Very similar. Chuichenko, perhaps, in his student years was more “playboy” - more open in his manifestations, courting girls.

It was difficult not to be friends with Chuichenko. He was the main ringleader in companies, and in his apartment in Vsevolozhsk he often gathered student mega parties. “There was not only their group there,” says Eduard Makarov from the second group. - Once they arrived - about forty people were in his apartment. Fellow student Dmitry Alexandrov recalls Chuichenko as a sympathetic guy: “He knew how to make friends, and, it seems to me, the guys were drawn to him. He was always ready to help. He even turned to his father (who worked as a transport prosecutor. -) when it was difficult for us, non-Leningraders, to buy train tickets. After the institute, Chuichenko worked for two years in the prosecutor's office, then served as an officer in the KGB and studied at the Andropov Red Banner Institute for two years, but refused to go further up the FSB career ladder. In 1992, he became the executive director of CJSC InterYuraudit de Faria and Tikhonov. After working there for two years, he went into private law practice. In the international bar association "Saint Petersburg" about him were the most flattering reviews, says Alexandrov. He advised Chuichenko until 2001. And as soon as Medvedev became chairman of the board of directors of Gazprom, he moved to Moscow - immediately head of the legal department of Gazprom. Now Chuychenko is already a board member of the monopoly and owns a small stake in its shares, worth somewhere around $2.2 million. In addition, he has become a key figure in gas negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Since July 2004, Chuichenko has been one of the three managing directors of the RosUkrEnergo company registered in the Swiss canton of Zug.

THREE EXCELLENT STUDENTS

"Medvedev had his own company - capable people who came easily to everything," says Yevgeny Kotov, who also studied in the third group, but did not enter Medvedev's circle and still works in a law office.

Such "capable" were Ilya Eliseev and Anton Ivanov. In the academic ranking they are close: Chuichenko - the third, Ivanov - the second, Eliseev - the first. Ivanov, according to classmates, was more "majorist", he liked to dress fashionably and expensively. And he didn’t go into his pocket for a word. “He was never afraid to argue with our most respected professors and academics, who were very strict. I was not afraid to defend my point of view, even if it was absolutely paradoxical,” says Lavrikova.

If Medvedev was more of a practitioner, then Ivanov is a walking encyclopedia. “He always knows where, why, in which book it is written,” says his former colleague Natalia Shatikhina. - You can say in passing in a conversation: they say, my mother went to Luxembourg, they don’t have such and such legislation there. He will immediately ask again: “How is it not? What about the antitrust law of 1972?” And so it is with everything."

Demanding of himself, Ivanov does not tolerate fools. “He is sarcastic. It cannot be said that he is very friendly, ”Lavrikova carefully formulates. Colleagues admit that Ivanov can hardly be called restrained.

Ilya Eliseev is the exact opposite of Ivanov. “He is an absolute Oblomov. Medvedev is Stolz for him. Moreover, Eliseev knows how to work, he can sit and read something at night, but in order to “kick him out” from the sofa, he needs to be very interested in something, - Shatikhina describes him. - The smartest, perfectly speaking English Oblomov of rare charm, goodwill and gentleness.

Together with Ivanov and Eliseev, Medvedev mastered the first business lessons. The three of them founded in 1990 a small enterprise "Uranus", and in 1994, also three of them, a consulting firm "Balfort".

Ivanov moved to Moscow in 2004 - he was also sheltered by Gazprom, where he became deputy general director of Gazprom-Media, just as Chuichenko left the post of chairman of the board of directors of this company. Six months later, Ivanov also found a more worthy place in the vertical of power - he headed the Supreme Arbitration Court. Eliseev is also waiting in the wings at Gazprom, where he got only in 2005 as deputy chairman of the board of Gazprombank.

SUPPORT GROUP

However, Medvedev's personnel reserve is not exhausted by three close friends. There were 180 people on the course, and it was this graduation, and not Putin's, that gave the greatest harvest of applicants for leading positions in the country. The post of head of the Federal Bailiff Service is occupied by Nikolai Vinnichenko, and Artur Parfenchikov is his deputy. Like his boss, Parfenchikov studied at the Medvedev course. Now he has become even more public person than Vinnichenko. “We lived with him in the same room in a hostel on Dobrolyubova Street, until in his fifth year Arthur married Natasha Gulyaeva from his junior year,” recalls neighbor Alexandrov. - The wedding was celebrated first in the restaurant, and then until the morning in the hostel. The ringleaders were Medvedev and Chuichenko. It was fun…"

Evgeny Kotov predicts a great future for Parfenchikov: "He knows how to work in different areas and is clearly manifested everywhere." Parfenchikov made his career in his homeland - in Petrozavodsk, where he worked for 12 years, and for the last six years - the city prosecutor. Under him, one of the most brutal criminal groups operating on the territory of Karelia, the so-called Karlovskaya organized criminal group, was taken out of the game. In Karelia, they say that it was Parfenchikov who, in December 2000, initiated a criminal case on the purchase of Mercedes buses, which eventually led to the resignation of the then mayor of Petrozavodsk, Andrey Demin.

Oleksandr Gutsan also has great chances to be promoted. In the Medvedev group, he was the headman. I got to the institute after the army from the preparatory faculty. Those who came from the workers' faculty were older than the rest of the students, as a rule, they were members of the party and were usually appointed elders and Komsomol organizers. The party Gutsan became the Komsomol organizer of the course, and at the training camp he was the commander of a platoon of artillery lawyers. “Gutsan enjoyed great prestige,” recalls his classmate Vasily Govorov. - He was not just a boss. First, taller than everyone. Secondly, he never raised his voice, and everyone obeyed him. Lavrikova remembers Gutsan as a real leader - always reasonable, reliable and very decent: “There are such right people in life, Sasha Gutsan is the right person. You know, like from the movie "Communist".

In St. Petersburg, Gutsan became famous in connection with the scandalous case of retired captain 1st rank Alexander Nikitin, who was accused of treason and disclosure of state secrets, but was acquitted in 1999. At that process, which was not the most successful for the prosecutor's office, Gutsan acted as a state prosecutor. But this did not prevent him from becoming an assistant to the Deputy Prosecutor General for the Northwestern Federal District. He resigned from this position in 2005 and moved to Vynnichenko as a deputy, and in April last year he returned to the prosecutor's office in the place of his former boss.

Fellow students of the second echelon either went up or have every chance of being called up by the new president. Nikolai Yegorov, who headed the prosecutor's office in the small town of Kirishi, last year became a deputy prosecutor in the Leningrad region. Documents are being prepared for his appointment as first deputy. "I don't think that anyone associates promotion with Medvedev's personality," Egorov said. Alexei Terpigorev also has potential: after his studies, he quickly rose to the position of the first deputy prosecutor of St. Petersburg.

LOSS OF A FIGHTER

But the main star of Medvedev's course, Mikhail Syroezhin, is apparently lost forever to the next president. It's about Syroezhina classmates and teachers recall when the question arises of who was the brightest on the course. An excellent orator, a dude, a favorite of women and teachers, who shared first place in academic performance with Eliseev, he appreciated a beautiful life as a student. “We get together after the holidays, everyone tells who was where: one was in the construction team, the other also worked somewhere, and Syroezhin worked with his dad abroad, in Paris or somewhere else,” says Evgeny Kotov, who was in the first and second years of study as head of the course. Mikhail's father, Ivan Syroezhin, a scientist-economist, a specialist in the field of economic cybernetics, gave everything to his son, especially since he brought home only “five”. “He was one of the first to receive permission to visit freely,” says his classmate Eduard Makarov.

But too fast a career played with Syroezhin bad joke. After law school, he entered the Academy of Foreign Trade, while working in the KGB. Then he worked in companies, including those related to the export of weapons. And in 1993, the 28-year-old lawyer took the post of deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg-5th Channel State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. $5 million was allocated from the TV company's budget, $2 million of which disappeared without a trace - according to the prosecutor's office, with the active participation of Syroezhin. But they did not have time to detain him, and some time later the defendant showed up in United States under the name of Mike Hess. There he became close to the well-known authority Yaponchik, and when he was arrested, he became a financier with another criminal figure - Alexander Bor, nicknamed Timokha. Later it turned out that all this time Medvedev's classmate worked for the FBI. As the media reported at the time, he managed to hand over to the US authorities several of the largest gangsters from the former USSR and even the leaders of a number of American mafia families, and testified against Timokha himself when he was tried in Munich several years ago. But in Russia Syroezhina waiting for an old television case.