Igor Alexandrovich Putin (Russian: Игорь Александрович Путин, IPA: [ˈiɡərʲ ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈputʲɪn]; born 30 March 1953) is a Russian businessman and politician, former vice president of Master Bank. He is a first cousin of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.[1][2] He is the Chairman of Igor Putin Fund, an investment company supporting and developing the industry in outlying regions of Russia.[3]
Igor Putin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Igor Alexandrovich Putin 30 March 1953 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) |
| Education | Ryazan Military Higher School |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman and politician |
| Known for | Former Vice President of Master Bank |
| Children | Roman Putin |
| Father | Alexander Putin |
| Relatives | Vladimir Putin (first cousin) |
Early life and education
editIgor Putin was born in Leningrad to the family of a Soviet military officer Alexander Putin, a younger brother of Vladimir Putin senior, father of the Russian President. Soon the family moved to Kovrov and then to Ryazan, where Alexander Putin served as an instructor in Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School.[1]
Igor Putin graduated from Ryazan Guards Higher Airborne Command School in 1974.
Career
editIn 1974–1998, Igor Putin served in the Soviet Army and then in Russian Army. In 1998, he retired from the military and moved to Ryazan. In 1998–2000, he worked in Ryazan Oblast Statistics Committee. In 2000–2005, he worked as the chairman of the Ryazan Licensing Chamber. In 2002, he became the chairman of Ryazan Coordination Committee of the United Russia party. During those years Igor Putin also obtained degrees from the Volgo-Vyatskaya Academy of State Service (2000) and from Moscow Institute of Economics, Management, and Law (2003)[1]
In 2005, Igor Putin moved to Samara to become the chairman of the Samara Reservoir Plant (part of VolgaBurMash holding). In October 2006, Igor Putin changed his political affiliations from the United Russia to A Just Russia political party, but his political uplifting was halted by his cousin who did not want to develop nepotism within the government.[4] In 2007, he became a director of AvtoVAZbank.[1]
In September 2010, Igor Putin became Vice President of Master Bank.[5] In the same month, the bank received a lucrative contract with Russian Nanotechnology Corporation. Still, Igor Putin held the vice president position only a few months and retired in December 2010.
In February 2012, he invested in the development of the Murmansk port. At that time, he also owned 51% of Energiya, 40% of Avangard 500, and 25% of Gorizont TV.[6] As of 2013, as Board Chairman of Pechenga International Sea Port, he was a member the Government Marine Board.[7]
Sanctions
editHe was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War.[8]
Money laundering
editHis retirement coincided with a criminal investigation in which over 30 million Russian roubles was allegedly stolen from the bank by its employees using IT technologies. The investigation accused a leading IT specialist of the bank, Mery Tevanyan of operating a large illegal business with the daily volume up to 500 million Russian roubles using bank's money. In March 2011, five days after conclusion of the investigations Igor Putin returned to the bank as a director. According to the bank he is not supposed to manage its daily operations. Igor Putin also keeps his position as a director of the AvtoVAZbank.[9]
In November 2013, the Central Bank of Russia revoked the banking licence of Master Bank following money-laundering scandals. Igor Putin was director of the Board of the bank at the time of the scandal, and had previously served as Vice-President.[10][11]
In 2014, a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) exposed a $20-billion money-laundering scheme between Russian banks and the Moldovan bank Moldindconbank, scheme where the Russian Land Bank wired $5 billion to the Moldovan bank. Igor Putin was a director of Land Bank, and declared to Forbes Russia that he quit this position when he grew uncomfortable about the suspicious activities of the bank.[12] Other banks associated with Igor Putin were involved in a massive money laundering scheme dubbed the Russian Laundromat.[13] The system moved money through Putin's and other banks using fake loans between offshore, paper companies, bribed Moldovan judges and Moldovan and Latvian banks to move money out of Russia and into Europe.[14] The UK company Lantana Trade LLP, owned by Igor Putin, was the company that triggered the attention of the whistleblower Howard Wilkinson who broke the story after he noticed Lantana Trade was filed dormant in the UK while millions of dollars were going in and out of the company's bank account in Estonia.[15] The OCCRP originally exposed The operation involved $230 billion transferred through Danske Bank.[16] The Russky Zemelny Bank, in which Igor Putin was an investor, shut down that same year for suspicious activities related to a 20-billion money-laundering affair.[17] Igor Putin resigned from the Board of Directors of the Russkiy Zemelny Bank, Promyshlenny Sberegatelny Bank and the construction company Yakut.[18]
In 2017, the banker Alexei Kulikov was arrested for illegally pumping $10 billion out of the country through Promersbank, a bank that held Igor Putin on its board at the time of this arrest.[17]
Family
editHis son is Roman Putin, a businessman who set up the Russian firm Putin Consulting in March 2014, and launched the Russian Railways corruption scandal the following month.[19] He has a niece, Vera Putina, sometimes erroneously referred to as the niece of President Putin.[20]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Игорь Александрович Путин. Биографическая справка" (in Russian). RIAN. 23 September 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ^ Lokshina, Yulia; Kisyelyeva, Yevgenia (18 March 2011). "Игорь Путин снова в Мастер-банке". Kommersant. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ^ "Руководство фонда | Фонд поддержки и развития промышленности регионов". www.fund-putin.ru. Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "DER SPIEGEL 1 2007 - PDF Free Download". epdf.pub. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ elEconomista.es (23 September 2010). "Un primo de Vladímir Putin asume la vicepresidencia de un banco ruso - EcoDiario.es". ecodiario.eleconomista.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ Media, IntraFish (8 February 2012). "Putin's cousin invests in Murmansk port". IntraFish | The leader in seafood news, prices and market analysis. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "Marine Board". archive.government.ru. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "Двоюродный брат Путина вернулся в Мастер-банк". www.grani.ru. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ^ "Russian cbank withdraws licence of mid-sized Master Bank". Reuters. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (20 November 2013). "Russia Revokes License of a Bank With Ties to Putin". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ Alpert, Bill. "Probes Show How Russian Money Travels the World". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "The Russian Laundromat". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "The Russian Banks and Putin's Cousin". Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "Green Trace – an interesting case". Hiding in plain sight - my search for money launderers. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "How the Danske Bank money-laundering scheme involving $230 billion unraveled". www.cbsnews.com. 19 May 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ a b Reznik, Irina; Pismennaya, Evgenia; White, Gregory (19 November 2017). "The Russian Banker Who Knew Too Much". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "Putin's cousin has left three offices | Governance | RusLetter". rusletter.com. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ Sukhov, Oleg (2 April 2014). "Putin Relative Accuses Russian Railways of Corruption". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
- ^ "Does Vladimir Putin Have a Niece?". The Russian Reader. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2019.