Where does Peter Aven live with now? Aven Peter Olegovich: biography, achievements and interesting facts. The Russian billionaire's wife has died. "She was a smart and kind woman"

20.06.2020

"Biography"

According to media reports, the cause of death of Elena Aven is a detached blood clot.

The death of the oligarch's wife became known yesterday from a message in Facebook friend of the deceased - lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky.

“The bright, wonderful, smart and kind woman Lena Aven has died. My friend, neighbor, wife of a close friend. My sincere condolences to Peter Aven and their children Dasha and Denis,” wrote Dobrovinsky.

"Themes"

"News"

Billionaire Pyotr Aven was first published with a new lover

Incomplete two years have passed since the bereavement of businessman, collector and president of Alfa-Bank Pyotr Aven. In 2015, the businessman's wife Elena died. Only now Aven decided to go out with a new lover, according to Privātā Dzīve.

The entrepreneur himself does not comment on the relationship with his companion, but mutual glances and gestures make others understand the seriousness of the relationship between them.

Billionaire Pyotr Aven's wife died

Tatler lawyer and columnist Alexander Dobrovinsky shared the sad news on his Facebook page: the wife of the chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank, and once the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation, Pyotr Aven, whose fortune is estimated at more than five billion dollars, has died - a beauty and a smart girl Elena. The couple lived in perfect harmony for a quarter of a century and during this time managed to raise the twins Denis and Dasha (both study at Yale University) and collect the largest collection of Russian art in Russia from the beginning of the last century. In 2008, the Avens founded the Generation Charitable Foundation in Latvia (where Peter's ancestors came from on his father's side).

Tatler expresses condolences to Elena's family and friends.

The wife of the chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank, Elena Aven, died in Moscow, Alfa-Bank reported.

Elena Aven, wife of the chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank, Pyotr Aven, died on Tuesday, August 25. This became known yesterday from a Facebook post by a friend of the deceased - lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky.

WIFE OF RUSSIAN-LATVIAN BILLIONAIRE PETER AVEN DIED

A well-known philanthropist, curator of charitable projects in Latvia, wife of Russian-Latvian billionaire Petr Aven and co-founder of the Generation Foundation Elena Aven, died on August 25, spokesman for the foundation Inese Dabola told BNS.

Together with her husband, businessman Petr Aven, Elena Aven initiated and supported various cultural, educational and healthcare projects in Latvia for almost 10 years.

Elena Aven died: the date and time of the funeral ceremony became known

The wife of the notorious Russian businessman and member of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank entrepreneurship Peter Aven Lena passed away two days earlier, on Tuesday. Such information was provided by her friend and comrade Alexander Dobrovinsky on his Facebook. Also, this information was later confirmed by representatives of a banking institution. Alfa-Bank has already managed to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the deceased Elena Aven. On the eve of condolences on behalf of the board and staff of the organization expressed the official representative of the bank.

It is also worth noting that the date and time of the farewell ceremony and funeral of Elena Vladimirovna have recently become known. It is reported that it will be possible to say goodbye to Lena Aven at the Troekurovsky cemetery, in the Ritual building. The farewell ceremony is scheduled to begin on Friday at 10:00 am. Two hours later, the funeral ceremony for Elena Vladimirovna will take place.

The Russian billionaire's wife has died. "She was a smart and kind woman"

The billionaire, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank Pyotr Aven, his wife Elena died. Lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky announced the sad news on his Facebook page.

Died the wife of Peter Aven Elena

“The Board of Directors of the Alfa-Bank Banking Group, the board and staff of Alfa-Bank Russia express their deepest and most sincere condolences in connection with the untimely death of Elena Vladimirovna Aven,” said a representative of the bank.

Farewell to Elena Aven will take place in the Ritual Hall of the Troekurovsky cemetery of the capital on Friday, August 28, at 10 am, the funeral will begin at 12 noon Moscow time.

Elena Aven was a co-founder of the Generation Charitable Foundation, founded by the couple in 2008 in Latvia, where Petr Aven's ancestors come from.

Famous philanthropist, curator of charitable projects in Latvia Elena Aven dies

A well-known philanthropist, curator of charitable projects in Latvia, co-founder of the Generation Foundation Elena Aven died on August 25, Inese Dabola, a representative of the foundation, told BNS.

Together with her husband, businessman Petr Aven, Elena Aven initiated and supported various cultural, educational and healthcare projects in Latvia for almost 10 years, with a particular focus on children's healthcare.

“For seven years, the Generation Foundation has implemented unique projects in Latvia, promoted cultural exchange between Latvia and Russia by supporting the organization of exhibitions, theatrical performances, films and other art projects, purchased equipment for Latvian hospitals, focusing on the health of expectant mothers, provided scholarships to the best students, expanding its funding and activities every year,” said Dabola.

Died philanthropist Elena Aven

On August 25, 2015, the philanthropist, founder of the Generation Charitable Foundation, Elena Aven, passed away.

Elena Aven together with her husband Petr Aven initiated and supported various projects in the field of culture, education and healthcare in Latvia for almost ten years. Elena Aven paid special attention to projects in the field of children's healthcare. In an effort to make such work systematic and by her example to attract other patrons to cooperation, Elena Aven, together with her husband, established the Generation Charitable Foundation in 2008.

For seven years, the foundation has been implementing projects in Latvia: promoting cultural exchange between Latvia and Russia by supporting exhibitions, theatrical performances, films and other art projects, acquiring equipment for Latvian hospitals, paying special attention to the health of children and expectant mothers, providing scholarships to the best students , annually expanding the funding and activities of the fund.

The Generation Foundation expresses its deepest condolences to the family of Peter Aven in connection with the death of his wife and mother. Elena Aven will be remembered as a woman who inspired and implemented numerous initiatives, setting an example not in words, but in deeds.

Pyotr Aven is building a house for himself in Britain next to Berezovsky

According to the Times, 52-year-old Aven and his wife Elena bought the land plot of the Ingliston House mansion with an area of about 3.5 hectares back in 2004 for 8.55 million pounds (about $17 million). The building is located just a few hundred meters from the house of Boris Berezovsky, and other neighbors of Aven are football player Andrey Shevchenko and TV presenter Bruce Forsyth.

Aven is the owner of the world's largest private collection of Russian art

Aven, 52, and his wife Elena, a historian by trade, bought the land for Ingliston House in 2004 for £8.55m. Construction at this stage is 15 million pounds.

The Pyotr Aven Generation Charitable Foundation was founded in May 2008. Its founders were the famous Russian businessman and banker Pyotr Aven and his wife Elena Aven. The Board of the Fund also includes Alexander Gafin, a member of the board of Rietumu Bank, known for its activities in the field of charity and patronage.

Charitable Foundation of Peter Aven "Generation"

In subsequent years, Aven turned into the most successful botanist of the former USSR and the most aesthetically advanced oligarch in Russia. In the accuracy of the artistic choice of glasses, ties, watches and paintings accompanying him, Petr Aven holds the world record. He and his wife Elena are a brilliant socialite couple who never miss a single really worthwhile event in Moscow. I can only wish peta what I don't understand anything: success in the work of the alpha bank.

Petr Aven, grandson of the shooter

In addition, the Generation Charitable Foundation, led by his wife Elena, gives money for cultural events and children's health in Latvia: they purchased equipment for the hospital, a piano for Pauls, reconstructed the church in Jaunpiebalga (where Peter's grandfather comes from), organized concerts by Raikin, Lopatkina, Netrebko , Spivakova, Russian edition of Latvian poetry.

The life of the wife of a billionaire: how Elena Aven lives

The wife of Petr Aven, holder of the Order of the Three Stars, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank, Elena recently visited Latvia. Her charitable foundation "Generation" donated a mobile ultrasonograph to the Children's Clinical Hospital, and an agreement was signed on financial assistance to the hospital. But in life, Elena Aven, as she says, is a "home woman."

"Helping others, we grow ourselves"

The fund was established in May 2008 by the Petr Aven family, says Alexander Dmitrievich Gafin. – Peter and his wife Elena are personally involved in the foundation's projects and form the main directions of its activities. Elena often visits Riga, tries to be present at all major events. The reason for the foundation is very simple: the paternal grandfather of Peter Olegovich was a Latvian red commander who took an active part in the Civil War in Russia.

The turbulent history of the 20th century destroyed many national and family ties in our land. It has led to the fact that now not all of us even know the names of their grandparents. The Aven family wants to keep their Latvian roots and treat Latvia as their second home. Therefore, the idea to create a fund arose. Due to the fact that I work at Rietumu Banka and spend a lot of time in Riga, I was entrusted with supervising the work of the fund.

Cream knocked down and relaxed

The style of the evening was announced as "smart casual" - "intelligently ordinary" (as it was written on the invitations). The guests did not dare to disobey and appeared without ties, in jeans and blazers. And only Sergei Stepashin violated the will of the birthday boy - a forbidden accessory was treacherously wrapped around his neck. Lawyer Dobrovinsky, who even sleeps in a bow tie, did not betray himself this time either. But in order not to destroy the "relaxed" concept of the birthday man, he put on the smallest of his insects. A two-centimeter microbutterfly was worn in the buttonhole. The wife of the birthday man, Elena Aven, was in something brilliant that could not be called casual, but quite smart, and Mr. Aven himself looked relaxed - in slacks, a jacket and a knitted shirt.

Tell me where is your home...

Aven, 52, head of Alfa-Bank, Russia's largest private bank, lives with his wife Elena. He bought the property in 2004. The renovation cost him an additional £15m.

Petr Aven awarded the Latvian Order of the Three Stars

The reason for awarding Aven with the highest state award of Latvia was the activity of the Generation Charitable Foundation established in 2008 by the spouses Peter and Elena Aven. The main goals of the foundation are to support children's health, cultural exchange projects between Russia and Latvia, and provide scholarships and grants in the scientific field. With the support of the Foundation, the Children's Clinical University Hospital has acquired diagnostic equipment, the Lutheran Church of St. Thomas in Jaunpiebalga is being restored, and the Latvian Radio Recording Studio has received a new Steinway&Sons concert grand piano, donated by the Foundation to composer Raimonds Pauls.

The wife of billionaire Peter Aven gave Raymond Pauls a piano

The Generation Charitable Foundation was established by Russian financier and philanthropist Petr Aven in Latvia three years ago. The fact is that Mr. Aven is closely connected with our country - his paternal relatives lived here. Alas, the philanthropist himself was not present at the presentation ceremony - the cases were delayed. But his wife promised that he would try to make it to the charity concert at the Opera tonight. She also talked about how the gift idea came about.

- The sister of my husband's grandfather, Janis Avens, studied music, - said Elena Aven. - And one day they sent us a photograph in Moscow, which depicted my husband's father, very small at the piano. The picture was taken when he was visiting relatives in Latvia. This is probably where it all started...

The Children's Hospital received support from the Petr Aven Charitable Foundation

“Helping children is caring for the future of the country and nation. This year, in cooperation with the Russian Embassy in Latvia, we launched a program to improve the professional qualifications of doctors - the doctors of the Children's Hospital replenish their knowledge at the Children's Hospital of St. Petersburg, at the Institute named after V.M. Bekhterev, the Moscow Botkin Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry,” emphasizes Elena Aven, co-founder of the foundation.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alfa-Bank Banking Group Petr Olegovich Aven was born on March 16, 1955 in Moscow.

His grandfather was a Latvian shooter, his father - Oleg Ivanovich - a computer specialist, a teacher at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University (MGU) named after. M.V. Lomonosov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Petr Aven graduated from the Physics and Mathematics Special School No. 2 in Moscow in 1972, the Faculty of Economics of the Moscow State University (MGU) named after M.V. M.V. Lomonosov in 1977, postgraduate study at Moscow State University in 1980.

In 1980 he received the degree of candidate of economic sciences.

In 1981-1988, Aven worked as a junior, then senior researcher at the All-Union Research Institute for System Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences (VNIISI of the USSR Academy of Sciences).

From 1989 to 1991 he was an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR; at the same time - an employee of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria).

In the fall of 1991, Pyotr Aven joined the "government of reforms" as chairman of the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations (KVEC) - First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR.

In January-December 1992, Aven headed the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation, at the same time being the representative of the President of the Russian Federation for relations with industrialized countries ("the seven").

In July-December 1992 - Deputy Chairman of the Monetary and Economic Commission of the Government of the Russian Federation.

From May to December 1992, he was chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

From December 1992 to February 1993 - Advisor to the President of LogoVAZ JSC.

In the spring of 1993, Petr Aven created and headed the financial consulting company "FinPA" ("Peter Aven's Finances"), which specializes in consulting on working with various types of securities. In the spring of 1993, Aven first began to advise and then cooperate with representatives of the Joint Stock Commercial Bank (AKB) Alfa-Bank.

On December 12, 1993, Aven was elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the list of the electoral association "Choice of Russia". On January 4, 1994, he resigned his deputy mandate, motivating his decision by his unwillingness to leave the post of general director of the FinPA company.

From 1994 to June 2011 Petr Aven served as President of Alfa-Bank. He was responsible for the overall development strategy of the Bank and for maintaining relations with business and government circles in Russia and abroad.

Since June 2011 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank Banking Group.

Petr Aven - Chairman of the Board of Directors of AlfaStrakhovanie OJSC, co-chairman of the Board of Directors of STS Media.

He is a member of the board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a member of the Presidium of the Russian International Affairs Council (RSDM), a member of the board of the National Organization for Financial Reporting Standards.

He is a trustee of the New Economic School and the Center for Economic Policy (CEPR, UK); member of the Board of Trustees of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

In 2007 he was elected head of the Russian-Latvian Business Council.

Professor of the National Research University "Higher School of Economics".

The Russian version of Forbes magazine (Forbes) estimated the personal fortune of Peter Aven in 2011 at $4.5 billion. According to this indicator, he took 28th place in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia and 235th place in the world ranking.

In April 2005, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was awarded the Order of Honor for his labor achievements and many years of conscientious work.

Speaks English and Spanish.

Petr Aven is married, he has two twin children - son Denis and daughter Daria (born in 1993). His wife Elena is a historian by profession.

In 2008, the Petr Aven Charitable Foundation "Generation" was opened in Latvia, the priority areas of which were the support of children's health care, projects in the field of "cultural exchange" between Russia and Latvia, scholarships and grants in the field of science. Its founders were Peter and Elena Aven.

Petr Aven actively supports art and theater in Russia, is the largest collector of Russian art of the early 20th century.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

Banker Pyotr Aven spoke about his friendship with Boris Berezovsky (photo)

I started the conversation exactly as I was told by a friend and neighbor of Peter Aven in Staroarbatsky lanes, lawyer Dobrovinsky. I went into the apartment in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky, from the threshold with a trained eye snatched out the “Our Lady” hanging on the wall and politely admired. He added that there is no such beauty of Petrov-Vodkin even in the Tretyakov Gallery with its “Red Horse”. And in general there is nowhere, except for this quiet, intelligent apartment. One of the main collectors of the country, the owner of a fortune of five billion dollars, looked at me attentively through the lenses of his Monty Python glasses, understood everything and laughed.

That's what you had to learn, here are the real masterpieces: "The Victorious Battle" by Aristarkh Lentulov and "Troika" by Konstantin Korovin. Once belonged to Chaliapin.

"Troika" was good, but, fortunately or unfortunately, we had to discuss not art, but Aven's book about Boris Berezovsky. Once they were friends. Then they quarreled. The last years of his life, the rebellious Boris Abramovich did not shake hands with the author, accusing him of aiding the bloody regime. And this, no doubt, adds intrigue and drama to the story. So far, the book is half finished, but twelve excerpts - interviews about BAB with people who know him well - have been published on the Snob website, and two hundred thousand people have already read them.

Actually, this is not the first book of the financier, who gravitated toward journalism from his youth. A collection of interviews about Yegor Gaidar, which he took together with Alfred Koch, was reprinted three times in Russia, appeared in England, and now also in Poland - much to the surprise of the co-authors, who flirtatiously call "Gaidar's Revolution" sometimes unsystematic and poorly structured. However, all historical Western literature about the nineties is full of references to the tome, but is there a more revealing criterion in science? I ask if Aven was excited by the prospect of scatter into quotes?

Undoubtedly, like any person, I have a craving for immortality, he replies. - I wanted to continue. I began to think about what to write next. And at that moment Boris died. Among my already departed friends there were two whom I always wanted to think about - because of their unusualness: Yegor Gaidar and Boris Berezovsky. So I decided to make a book about Boris. And then Friedman made me think: we need to make not a book, but a multimedia project, no one reads books anymore.

Journalist Andrei Loshak is responsible for the video component of the new format. Once he made a touching film for the birthday of the chairman of the board of directors of the Alfa-Bank banking group, then a documentary about the famous “second” Mekhmat school on Fotieva Street, which he successfully graduated in 1972. And this movie, last August, shown at midnight on "Culture", also unexpectedly exploded all the ratings. A close creative union arose: Aven interviews, Loshak shoots. But it won't be Lilianna Lungina's Interlinear, but rather two parallel products.

Valentin Yumashev, Yuri Shefler, Anatoly Chubais, Alexander Voloshin have already been interrogated with prejudice. The second wife of Berezovsky, Galina, willingly spoke - they officially divorced in 2011, but in recent years in London, the disgraced businessman lived in a house registered in her name. Priceless evidence was provided by a childhood friend, one of Berezovsky's partners in LogoVAZ, Leonid Boguslavsky. Mikhail Fridman recalled how Berezovsky was first assassinated: he was lying in bandages, and two of his women at the hospital bed noisily found out who this bleeding patient belonged to. Model Daria K., Berezovsky's last love, told a wonderful story about how Borya, out of anger, threw the huge Graff diamond he had presented into the ocean and how then everyone who witnessed this scene dived after the “count” with scuba gear.

Aven does not really want to talk to someone himself - for example, with Berezovsky's common-law wife Lena, who lives in London, or with Vladimir Gusinsky who settled in Israel.

Vladimir Alexandrovich has been living a different life for a long time, a major aberration of vision has occurred. However, maybe one day we'll talk.

Someone has not yet agreed: Konstantin Ernst and Berezovsky's longtime colleague Samat Zhaboev are being cautious. Roman Arkadyevich seems to have promised, but he cannot coordinate his busy schedule with the equally busy schedule of Petr Olegovich. Although without the man who, together with Berezovsky, explained to the London court the peculiarities of national privatization, the book would have been tragically incomplete.

I'm wondering if the first line was written - after all, some authors write from the middle, while others need to start from a bright, polished phrase. Yes, it's written. Aven will start with temptation. Since the nineties, when "the temptation to live in a new way spilled into the air, oozed from all the cracks, repainted and resounded the world around us." When everything previously unattainable suddenly turned out to be possible - just reach out your hand. With an irresistible temptation to quickly become rich and strong. At any price. Berezovsky became a symbol of this irresistible attraction.

It sometimes seemed to me that he deliberately makes me believe that “everything is allowed”, there are no rules, and following the usual ideas about what is right and possible is stupid and inefficient. And there is no such word - "it is impossible".

They were introduced in 1975 by Leonid Boguslavsky, a graduate student of Aven's father, professor and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a specialist in computer technology. Boguslavsky's mother was the writer Zoya Boguslavskaya, his stepfather was Andrey Voznesensky, the first poet whom Aven became seriously interested in - at sixteen. Golden boys, glamorous Moscow intelligentsia. Vysotsky sang at the Voznesensky-Boguslavskaya house, in a Stalinist skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya embankment, Maya Plisetskaya and Rodion Shchedrin celebrated the New Year there ... The bright and charismatic Berezovsky, an enterprising graduate of Lestekh, was five years older than Leonid and had a great influence on him. He was a mentor in terms of career and life in general, they even had one car for two.

Boris first wanted to meet me because I was the son of my father, - Aven admits. Boris intended to advance along the scientific line and eagerly sought the location of Aven Sr. Pyotr Olegovich's mother recalled how once, when Berezovsky was not given the Lenin Komsomol Prize, he came to his friend (Aven was nine years younger) and immediately retired to the kitchen with his father, discussing how to do so in order to receive the prize.

Then they were friends already together, without dad. With tales from the category of those who then, under deafening laughter, retold at birthday parties. Together we went to Togliatti for cars. Berezovsky already had connections at AvtoVAZ, and friends were promised a chic 93rd model in the color “champagne splashes”. They plucked up the courage to personally drive the cars home - bandits raged on the road from Tolyatti to Moscow, there was such a time. But when they arrived at the plant, it turned out that instead of splashing champagne, they were destined for the color of a children's pot. Scolded, repainted. Then Aven went to Austria in this car, to Laxenburg - to work at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. The next car - Fiat Tipo - he also bought from Berezovsky at LogoVAZ.

Pyotr Olegovich recalls how he got married and moved with Lena to a separate apartment. And these square meters ended up on the way between the house where Boris lived with his first wife Nina Korotkova, and his mother's apartment, where he secretly met with his future wife Galya. Berezovsky, then not yet such a desperate heartthrob as he became years later, lost his head. He was torn to pieces. Every day he went from his wife supposedly to his mother - in fact, Galya was waiting for him. And halfway I stopped at a friend of Aven. Galya and Lena were the same age, quickly became friends, the four of them began to communicate closely, and Aven felt terribly uncomfortable - because he constantly had to visit Boris and Nina at home.

You know, Dovlatov said that women love rich men not for their money, but for the qualities that made them rich. So the fact that Berezovsky would become rich was not immediately clear. And only when he got rich, he began to attract women to him, - says Aven.

Although Galina Besharova recalls in an interview that when she first saw Berezovsky, she immediately felt a “boom”: “I have not yet heard his voice, I did not know anything about him, but I said to myself: “What smart eyes this man has. He will go far". Later, when Berezovsky had money, he still lived in Galina's tiny three-room apartment, in a twelve-meter room - with his son Tema and his wife's parents behind the wall. “He liked to live in a family, and that the child, and that there are grandparents. It didn't bother him. For him, it didn’t matter at all what walls, what floors, ”Galina recalled ...

It was Berezovsky who contributed to the fact that in 1989 Aven left for Austria - they did not want to let Peter go. Although he himself considered the departure of a friend a mistake. Russia smelled of money. Everyone around was making money on pseudo-scientific things. Aven wrote dissertations for money. Boris wrote too, but with the hands of his students.

Then some self-supporting topics began, completely legal, without any fartsovka, - Aven recalls. - That with one you will agree, then with another. Boris was the first to have the idea to get everyone together, make a normal company, divide the shares and work.

In the summer of 1989, in the Atrium cafe on Leninsky Prospekt - which, by the way, is still alive - Berezovsky gathered friends and urged them to chip in as much as they could. He was then asked: “What is the purpose? What do we want? He, without batting an eyelid, said that the goal is very simple - to earn a billion dollars for everyone.

You don't understand what it looked like back then. I had a broken "penny" before the "champagne splash". I could only save for the next car. A billion dollars was not even funny. But he was completely serious.

Aven nevertheless left for Austria. But Berezovsky tempted. Once flew to a friend in a private jet. It was good in Austria, but at that moment Aven told his wife: “Something is happening there. It will probably have to come back." Lena did not want to return. Boris rented a VIP-room for negotiations, it was beautiful and he spent a lot.

It felt like he had a completely different life there. He tempted everyone and in different ways. But the main thing is that everything is possible. That there is no morality. Only "forward, and nothing to be afraid of." Someone told me the other day that he was a cowardly Jewish man - well, he was absolutely desperate. Perhaps at night he cried into the pillow, more on that later. But in his day-to-day behavior he was frostbitten and fearless.

In 1991, Aven nevertheless returned. He headed the Committee for Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation, was First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations in the Gaidar government. In 1993 he went into business: first FinPA, then Alfa-Bank.

They were still friends with Berezovsky. It is believed that Boris Abramovich owes most of his acquaintances in the highest echelons of power to his younger comrade. It was Aven who introduced him to Valentin Yumashev, a guide to the world of the all-powerful presidential family. Not without the help of Aven, the Berezovsky-Abramovich tandem arose. And even with the modest vice-mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, BAB was introduced by his friend of his youth.

What happened next? Where is the point of no return, after which they stopped communicating?

There were several episodes that changed my attitude towards him, - says Aven. - Borya owed me money. We have a joint business project. The only time in my life. I came up with some kind of financial scheme for which I had no money. Having realized it with funds raised by Berezovsky, we had to share the profits. I was owed five million dollars - a huge amount in those days. I ran after him, he did not give. This was a very big shock for me, because in my system of values it is impossible not to give money away. Then there was a similar story with Alfa-Bank lending to LogoVAZ. In general, I became more mature, and the charm of Borey, his charisma, began to dissipate.

And yet they were friends, went to restaurants. They continued to meet when Boris Abramovich left for London. The story of the sale of Kommersant was the last straw. A group of businessmen, including Aven, came up with the idea to buy a newspaper for ten to fifteen people so that Kommersant would remain independent. And Berezovsky, by all means, wanted to buy the newspaper alone. He was convinced for a long time. As a result, he called Friedman and, in his usual manner, asked not to interfere, otherwise he would destroy Alpha.

Yuri Shefler, in a conversation with you, recalls that Berezovsky wanted to kill the then editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Igor Golembiovsky, because there was not a day that the newspaper came out without an article denouncing him.

There were several people in Boris's life whom he theoretically wanted to kill. But he didn't kill anyone, as far as I know. He was such an operetta killer because he couldn't organize anything properly. Stanislav Belkovsky said in a conversation with me that God took Berezovsky away, so he is not such a bad person. Then Alfa-Bank had a conflict with Kommersant. In court, Alpha sued the publication for eleven million dollars, astronomical for such litigations. Andrey Vasiliev, the then editor-in-chief of Kommersant, plucked up courage and invited Mikhail Fridman to Vladimir Solovyov for a “Duel” to show the world how bad Alfa-Bank is. Friedman said live on air that Berezovsky had threatened him. Boris Abramovich filed a lawsuit in England.

Pyotr Olegovich had to testify.

It was pure idiocy, because he really threatened us. But we lost the trial. For the reason that they did not understand how English justice works, they did not understand their arguments. For example, the lawyer says: "You say that Berezovsky threatened Fridman and you." - "Oh sure". - “And six months later you had dinner with him there and there.” "Yes, that's true too." Lawyer: "Mr. Judge, can you imagine a person who has been threatened walking with a potential murderer to dinner at a restaurant?" Boris Nemtsov testified in much the same way, and they didn’t believe him either, because “then he and Borya swam together in the sea somewhere.”

After the trial, Berezovsky did not shake hands with Aven for the first time. Then he wrote a book about how he won the court. A few months later, they met by chance in London, at the closed club Aspinall's. Aven entered. At this time, Berezovsky was giving interviews, sitting on the couch. Aven held out his hand, Boris Abramovich looked at this hand for a long time, but did not give his own. Aven's wife Lena followed. Berezovsky always had an ideal relationship with her, she was even listed in his laboratory before Peter's business trip to Austria: according to the law, one had to work somewhere. Lena rushed to kiss: "Borenka!" He performed exactly the same number. A year later, in the same place, in London, at the birthday party of Yuri Shefler, the birthday boy called Berezovsky to the table, where Aven was, but he said that he would not sit at the same table with an old friend.

For me it was absolute nonsense. To be honest, I did not see any reason for such behavior. But Borya told everyone that we were conformists, we were cooperating with the authorities: even then he was in full swing against Putin. Many friends later said that he was very sorry that he had quarreled with me. Although if I really regretted it, I would have taken it and called. Aven didn't call either. It happens often.

But now, perhaps secretly from himself, wanting to make up for the feeling of understatement, he is writing a book. And he learns unexpected things about a former colleague. For example, that he had had panic attacks and thoughts of suicide for a long time.

Stanislav Belkovsky, who was friends with Borey in recent years, was the first to tell me about this. He had suicidal intentions at the beginning of the 2000s, before all these disasters. And Galya told me the same thing recently for the first time. Neither I nor Lenya Boguslavsky, his best friend, knew this. It was not suspected that at times he was crushed and unsure of himself.

Was it really suicide?

I don't doubt it. He definitely committed suicide. This is clinically clear. You know, when you think about a person, you are always talking not to him, but to yourself. I always thought that I understood something about life. As for Berezovsky, I thought I knew everything. But when you listen to different people, you see completely different assessments of the same situation. You are a professional interviewer, you know how to step back - this is a skill. I have always had my own assessment of everything. Very definite. And conversations about Berezovsky taught me to avoid harsh judgments. Here Yuri Shefler tells how Berezovsky calls him: “You must help me. I must kill Golembiovsky, ”and how much effort he put into reconciling them. And two hours later, Yuliy Dubov, Berezovsky's comrade-in-arms at LogoVaz, is crying into the recorder, telling me about Borya's phenomenal qualities.

Probably my main conclusion: if you judge, then be careful. And it's not for me to judge Boris. I do not compare myself with Chekhov or Shakespeare, but it seems to me that the main quality of a great playwright is that each play can be interpreted in different ways, staged in different ways. I would like the conclusions that readers will draw to be different. Belkovsky once reasonably said that there are good people, and there are kind people. Good and kind, bad and evil are completely different things. So, in his opinion, "Borya was bad, but kind." And in any case, he was a man of colossal charisma, a charm that worked flawlessly on both men and women, if he needed it.

And he was also a man of not even different moral values than Aven. He was completely out of morals.

But he spent millions of dollars not only on yachts, planes and girls, but on some of his valuables. This is unique: almost a billion dollars to organize a revolution. Somewhere. You can, of course, say that this is also about money, but this is not so. The material, by the way, always worried him much less than women - women were in his first place, he was insatiable in this sense. But all these revolutions are the realization of oneself. Plus, he always gave money for various cultural projects, and he simply handed it out to some homeless people.

Once in "Snob" Aven quoted Stanislav Rassadin's wonderful discussion about Konstantin Simonov. When Simonov died, a lot of people began to say that he was immoral, a Stalinist, a opportunist. Rassadin explained: Stalin offered Simonov a prize that he never offered to anyone - to become the first poet of the era. And this is in the country where Pushkin and Blok were. A fantastic challenge to which it is difficult not to respond.

He who has not been so tempted has no right to judge. I once wrote the same thing to Sergei Parkhomenko when he severely attacked Chubais. And Berezovsky... The prize he fought for was absolute power.

Power ... Probably, Aven knows her price, understands what is possible and what is not. And therefore avoids loud political statements. Probably, he believes that he has no right to risk the money of investors in order to defend his beliefs.

We are talking about different things. About the amazing Kandinsky, which hangs in Aven's house in England. That he will give several paintings and unique porcelain items to the exhibition "Russia 2017" at the Royal Academy of Arts. That someday, perhaps, he will create a private museum, but it’s not yet clear where, because “the collections in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum are much richer than mine, it makes no sense to create a museum in Moscow and St. I'm not interested, but I'll definitely think of something. We are talking about osteopaths and about the rumor that excited Spartak fans that Aven, a longtime fan of the red and white, is buying the club from Fedun: “Leonid and I signed an NDA - an agreement on perfect confidentiality.” About a house in England, where Aven used to live regularly, but now rarely comes. Because in August 2015, Lena, with whom they lived for thirty years, passed away, and life was forever divided into “before” and “after”. Forever to such an extent that it is impossible to talk about it. At least now.

But there are wonderful children - the twins Denis and Dasha. Studied at St George's Weybridge English Catholic School, graduating from Yale this year. About the son and daughter of Aven, they told me only good things from all sides. I ask an urgent parental question: “How to raise a worthy person?”

This is the merit of my wife, rather than mine, all my life I worked more than I was engaged in education. But we raised them hard. The only thing that can be done is to instill in children the right values. The main thing that the wife taught them, the son in the first place, is that you need to get pleasure from your achievements, and not from something else. Not from the fact that you are sitting on the beach with a girl, but from the fact that you have achieved, overcome yourself. I always explained to the children that the ordinary life of rich Moscow teenagers is not something to strive for. By the way, when the children were born - in Vienna, Boris and Galya, with their children, were the first to come to congratulate us. Their gift - a silver service - stands in a prominent place in the kitchen ... As if it were yesterday. But in fact - in another life.

Ten p.m. An osteopath is about to come to Aven. Already standing on the threshold, I ask the last question:

Berezovsky was a vain man? Would he like to have a book published about him?

Undoubtedly. This is one of the thoughts that made me happy when I thought about whether I have a moral right to talk about him. If I had asked him now, he would have replied: “Be sure to write. The main thing - do not forget!

Ksenia Solovieva

There is great grief in the family of the 60-year-old chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank, Pyotr Aven. His wife Elena Aven died on Tuesday, August 25.

According to media reports, the cause of Elena Aven's death is a detached blood clot.

The death of the oligarch's wife became known yesterday from a message in Facebook friend of the deceased - lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky.

"A bright, wonderful, intelligent and kind woman, Lena Aven, has died. My friend, neighbor, wife of a close friend. My sincere condolences to Peter Aven and their children Dasha and Denis," Dobrovinsky wrote.

A representative of Alfa-Bank confirmed this information to the media.

"The Board of Directors of the banking group Alfa-Bank, the board and staff of Alfa-Bank Russia express their deepest and most sincere condolences in connection with the untimely death of Elena Vladimirovna Aven," a bank representative said.

Farewell fast Alfred Koch, a family friend, also wrote - without naming, however, her name calmly: "I knew her well. She was happy. The children loved her. And she loved them very, passionately.

She loved her husband. And he loved her. Treasured her terribly. The beach took care of her. I was proud... Rare family. Rare happiness. Kingdom of Heaven to her. May the earth rest in peace for her."

In addition, Koch reports on the cause of Elena Aven's death - a blood clot broke off in a woman.

Elena Aven was a co-founder of the Generation Charitable Foundation, founded by the couple in 2008 in Latvia, where Petr Aven's ancestors come from. The Foundation was involved in supporting children's medicine, as well as scholarships and grants in the field of science.

Elena Aven is a historian by profession.

Peter and Elena Aven have been married for over 25 years. During this time, they managed to raise the twins Denis and Dasha (born in 1993), who are now studying at Yale University.

In 2011, in an exclusive interview with the MixNews portal, Ms. Aven told how easy it is for her to be the wife of such a famous person.

“I started living not with some famous person, but with a junior researcher. And we lived a normal ordinary life. You need to love each other, respect each other. And you also need to learn not to offend each other,” Elena Aven said then .

Farewell to Elena Aven will take place in the Ritual Hall of the Troekurovsky cemetery of the capital on Friday, August 28, at 10 am, the funeral will begin at 12 noon Moscow time.

How they betrayed Russia. P. Aven
Dedicated to the generation that survived the nineties

We will need to tell our children and grandchildren about those people who destroyed and betrayed our vast country, so that they know them and, like us, manage to save it. It is necessary that they know each of them personally - how they lived, how they were brought up, what they believed in, what they hated. Why are they like this. We need to tell about these people so that our children and grandchildren can recognize them. So we will tell about them in the cycle “How Russia was betrayed” ... Still in cycle "How they betrayed Russia"

Peter Aven

Aven's confession contains the main answer to the question of why the reforms of the 90s in Russia were so criminal, immoral and failed.
Part 1

The young reformers of the 90s were always eager for publicity and even theatrical. The grandson of two great writers, Gaidar, at the end of the USSR, worked with the Pravda and Kommunist publications, and at the zenith of his career, without finishing the endings in some kind of caricatured negligence, he broadcast his marginal philosophy with visible pleasure, especially during the 1993 coup, summoning the people to their defense. Koch hosted the show "Greed" on NTV, and now he actively writes on the blog and collaborates with his gentle friend Aven in Forbes. There they find out whether everything was done so badly in the 90s and why they live like this, albeit richly, but cautiously in Russia.

Pyotr Aven himself is not without the habits of a Russian cultural enlightener. Then he will bring to the Elton John show in the Throne Room of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. That, simpering - they say, I'm not a writer - will scribble a review of the book "Sankya" by Nizhny Novgorod Zakhar Prilepin in the journal "Russian Pioneer".

“... We - I, anyway - did not steal anything from anyone, - he writes there. - And, sorry for the cliché, we create thousands of jobs. And we pay scholarships - including future engineers. And we have nothing to justify. If I feel any guilt for my better life, then only before the old and sick. For those who can't. And those who do not want, in my opinion, should justify themselves to me.

Here we see one of the many thoughts of the current Aven, surprising in impudence - that the country robbed and humiliated by his government should justify to him why it was robbed and humiliated.

The power of "bespectacled"

Today they would be called hipsters. In the 1960s and 1970s, they were just refined smart boys, whom their parents sent to the Moscow Physics and Mathematics School No. 2. Peter Aven now calls this event the main one in his life, and in this he is probably right. In the silence of Moscow offices, in the narrow circles of metropolitan scientists who did not smell the country, in their warm canteens, a new generation of narcissistic misanthropes, provided with all the benefits, was growing up.

After graduating from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, in 1980 Aven defended his Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Academician Stanislav Shatalin. Then he sat in the same office of the All-Union Research Institute for System Research with Yegor Gaidar. The text of his doctoral dissertation on the topic "Functional scaling" was published in 1988 under the editorship of a future close colleague of Boris Berezovsky.

Like many in the generation of "young reformers", Aven was a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, located in Laxenburg, Austria. At the same time, he was listed as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. This ability to combine different positions and benefit from it will play a decisive role in his career.

Of course, not only armchair neighborhood with Gaidar provided Aven entry into the government of the reformers. He really wanted it.

“All economists, especially those who graduated with honors from higher educational institutions, dream of ruling the country,” Aven told Forbes magazine. - For this, in fact, they are taught, for this they read books. And, having entered the government, we got such an opportunity. We understood that, indeed, the reforms are difficult, for some time it will be unpopular, but, in principle, we still saw ourselves as entering history, into the elite of economists. Therefore, there was no doubt that it was necessary to make reforms, of course, there was no.

This confession contains the main answer to the question of why the reforms of the 1990s in Russia were so criminal, immoral and failed. The government of conceited smart boys did not know how to carry out reforms, they understood that they were extremely difficult, but the desire to go down in history quickly outweighed all fears.

Friend of Berezovsky and Putin

Petr Aven during the years of reforms and after them demonstrated an amazing ability to adapt and survive. Today it is believed that the president of Alfa-Bank is a friend of Vladimir Putin and a skilled lobbyist for business interests in the corridors of power. In the 90s, on the contrary, one of the main ideologists of "Gaidarwinism" Aven was in partnership and friendly relations with Boris Berezovsky and many other people from the current London inmates. But he doesn't sit.

However, the activities of Aven during the reforms were much more ambiguous and subtle than the clumsy work of the same Alfred Koch. If Kokh was selling off enterprises - "iron", then the Minister of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation was selling information. After leaving the ministerial post in 1992, after the resignation of Yegor Gaidar, Aven began working in the same specialty, only in private. He created his own company, Petr Aven Finance (FinPA), which took up consultations on Russian foreign debts. Naturally, by the nature of his ministerial service, he knew this matter better than anyone else, and had an excellent set of necessary connections in the government. Trading in government information today would be called an insider, but then there was no such thing in Russia, just as there were no players in the market chosen by Aven.

Part 2

All reformers, without exception, had disparaging remarks about mass losses among the people.
The connection between the state and business has become Aven's main source of income. Alfa-Bank, for example, bought state debts of Russia for 25-30% of their value, and then received the full price for them from the country. Which bonds to buy, according to Novaya Gazeta, was suggested to him by Mikhail Kasyanov, the chief negotiator for Russian debt in the West. Rather, he ordered, first of all, to pay off those debts that were bought by Alfa. A criminal case was even initiated regarding such simple cooperation, but then it was closed under an indistinct pretext.

Nevertheless, despite the craving for elegance and all the intelligence of his career, Pyotr Olegovich could not avoid the primitive privatization "cut" of enterprises that the whole country was occupied in those years. Even when he headed the ministry, it oversaw the privatization of significant foreign economic enterprises of the USSR. There were such facilities as, for example, Soyuznefteexport (now Nafta), which carried out up to 70% of the Union's oil export transactions. The foreign property of this company was worth an estimated $1 billion, but it was privatized for $2,000. The shares were distributed by closed subscription among the former management of Soyuznefteexport and the ministry.

In 1995, Alfa-Bank Aven got involved in the fight for the Sidanko oil company (now Tyumen Oil Company, TNK), which was put up for a loans-for-shares auction. Alpha structures bought 40% of TNK for $810 million. According to the Accounts Chamber, the State Property Committee and the Russian Federal Property Fund deliberately underestimated the value of the stake in TNK put up for sale by more than 1.5 orders of magnitude. The treasury lost about $1.4 billion on this. Several years after this auction, TNK management, headed by the chairman of the board of directors of the company, the general director of Nizhnevartovskneftegaz, Viktor Paly, tried to fight the seizure of the company, since they had their own views on it. Paliy then declared that this privatization was state robbery with the tacit consent of officials. It turned out that the agreement was not tacit at all. Chubais and Kokh immediately wrote a letter to the management of Sidanco demanding that Paliy be excluded from re-election because of the "poor economic situation of the enterprise." The smart boys were, as they now say, naive about the interests of the majority of the population. But, as we can see, naivety extended only to the interests of others, but when it came to oneself, one's loved ones, brutal pragmatism immediately came into play.

Thanks for the illiterate old people

Pragmatism is one of the main properties of Aven. At the present time, he is still present in power, promoting the interests of his business and providing a "cover" for himself personally. Alfa-Bank and its president have delegated to the Kremlin and the State Duma a lot of people who allow him to feel at ease. Suffice it to say that the "grey eminence" and the current Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov was once the deputy chairman of the board of Alfa-Bank.

Forbes estimates Aven's fortune at $4.5 billion. The president of Alfa-Bank owns the largest collection of Russian Silver Age paintings in Russia, which is considered to be a very good investment. Mikhail Larionov's Portrait of the Poet Velimir Khlebnikov, owned by him, is estimated, for example, at $20–25 million. In 1997, with a scandal at the price of an annual lease, he bought Alexei Tolstoy's dacha in Zhukovka near Moscow. Aven believes that he earned it all himself, unlike many residents of the country who do not want to do this.

“The grandfather in the novel “Sankya”, who climbed down from the stove in a remote village and talks about the coming world cataclysms (something I, who have been engaged in the economy of the village for many years, have never met such competent grandfathers in any of my expeditions), is a direct relative of Russian elders- hermits. With which, at least for this, thanks to her, the Soviet government ended. And then thousands of illiterate old people doing nothing, living in the mud, for centuries fooled the people (and took a lot of time from them - after all, they still had to be reached). By the beginning of the twentieth century, the institution of such hermit sufferers was preserved in the Christian world, it seems, only among the Orthodox, ”Aven is amazed. Note: all the reformers, without exception, had statements about some massive losses among the people. Chubais and Gaidar - "it's okay, others will be born." At Aven - "thank you, the Soviet regime ended."

There is a version that Aven has one good reason not to be particularly afraid for his present in this country. It is connected with the fact that once the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Federation, under his leadership, which issued permits for foreign trade, delegated this right to the administration of St. Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin served in the foreign economic part. Consider - shared bread. Aven always knew with whom to share. These are not illiterate old people.

Dmitry Inozemtsev
"Russian Planet", 29-30 October 2012