Mikhail Leontyev, biography, news, photos. Leontiev Mikhail Vladimirovich Mikhail Leontiev got married

Igor Sechin thanked journalist Mikhail Leontyev by appointing him vice president of Rosneft

Original of this material
© Kommersant.Ru, 01/08/2014, Photo: via @egor_mq

However, Rosneft

Kirill Melnikov, Ivan Safronov, Natalya Korchenkova

Rosneft will have a new vice president for PR. A well-known journalist will oversee the company’s external relations Mikhail Leontyev. At the same time, Mr. Leontyev will retain his own projects: he will continue to host the “However” program on Channel One, as well as publish a magazine of the same name.

From January 13, journalist Mikhail Leontyev will become an adviser to the president of Rosneft with the rank of vice president for PR, sources close to the company, the government and the presidential administration told Kommersant. Rosneft itself declined to comment. Mr. Leontyev told Kommersant that “there is no official information yet, there is no point in commenting on anything.”

The post of Advisor and Vice President for PR at Rosneft is being created for Mr. Leontyev. He will oversee the activities of the information and advertising department. At the moment, it is headed by the former editor-in-chief of the REN TV channel Vladimir Tyulin, he is also the press secretary of Rosneft. Kommersant’s interlocutors do not know how their powers will be redistributed. Kommersant's sources say that between the president of the state-owned company Igor Sechin and Mikhail Leontyev have a long-standing “friendly relationship”. “Leontyev is a famous person, Igor Ivanovich likes to invite such people to work,” said one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. In particular, for example, the author of the cult book “Extraction”, Daniel Yergin, was part of the Rosneft integration committee, which was involved in the takeover of TNK-BP. “Leontiev is known as a journalist, now Igor Ivanovich was selecting PR people with a big name, there were other candidates. But it’s not at all clear what kind of PR man Mr. Leontyev will be,” noted one of Kommersant’s interlocutors.

Last year, one of the main targets of criticism in Mikhail Leontyev’s programs was Gazprom and the chairman of the company’s board Alexey Miller. In his question during Vladimir Putin’s “direct line” in April, Mr. Leontyev accused Mr. Miller is that the gas company ignores the “shale revolution”, while “losing markets and capitalization.”

Formally, appointments to positions of top managers of the country's largest company do not require approval from the presidential administration, but they are aware of Mikhail Leontyev's arrival at Rosneft. A Kommersant source close to the company said that “PR people of this level are always approved, this is standard practice.” “If Igor Ivanovich has confidence that Mikhail Leontyev will be able to benefit the company, then he, as the president of Rosneft, vouches for this decision,” said a senior official of the presidential administration.

At the same time, Mikhail Leontyev will continue to engage in journalism, Kommersant sources say: he will remain the host of the “However” program on Channel One, which is aired twice a week. The channel’s press service officially confirmed this information to Kommersant. “There is nothing unusual in such a combination, it happens often. It’s difficult to combine given the total operating style of Rosneft, but it’s quite possible,” one of Kommersant’s interlocutors said. According to Kommersant, the question of continuing Mr. Leontyev’s career on television was a matter of principle. “This was also discussed at a separate meeting between Igor Sechin and the general director of Channel One.” Konstantin Ernst, which took place before the New Year,” said one of Kommersant’s interlocutors. In addition, Mikhail Leontyev will continue to publish his own magazine “However”. He is also the author of a program on Mayak radio; nothing is known about its future yet.

Some of Kommersant’s interlocutors believe that Mr. Leontyev’s arrival at Rosneft may indicate the state company’s plans to create its own media holding. However, Kommersant sources close to her deny this. “The company doesn’t need this; it is engaged in oil and gas production,” said one of Kommersant’s interlocutors.

[AAV Sr., 01/08/2014, “Back in 2007...”: Back in 2007, Mikhail Leontyev, in a conversation with me, complained that Putin chose Medvedev, not Sechin, as his successor.
“If only there was a president!” he exclaimed.
Now he himself is Igor Ivanovich’s vice president.
Sechin doesn't forget neither good nor bad. - Insert K.ru]

[Kirill Shulika, 01/08/2014: Misha can only be hired for one job - as a drinking companion. Just if you are an adviser, then it is logical to call and have a glass in the boss’s office. If you're the vice president of PR, then that's completely crap, and crap at that. But Tyulin’s PR is no less of a bastard. Who forgot, he headed the criminal editorial office of NTV. On the other hand, Sechin does not need PR; he has slightly different functions and positions. Accordingly, you can just put good people on a budget. True, judging by the names of the vice-presidents, he doesn’t even need personnel in the company, because the person responsible for them in the position of Sechin’s deputy is the former head of the Federal Penitentiary Service Kalinin. - Insert K.ru]

What is Mikhail Leontiev famous for?

Private bussiness

Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontyev was born on October 12, 1958 in Moscow. In 1979 he graduated from the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of National Economy with a degree in labor economics.

He worked at the Moscow Institute of Economic Problems, where, in his own words, he tried to “get involved in the real Soviet economy.” In 1985 he graduated from vocational school with a degree in cabinetmaker. He worked as a laborer at the Literary Museum, guarded Boris Pasternak's dacha in Peredelkino, was a history tutor, and wrote analytical articles on sociology.

Since the end of 1989, he worked in the politics department of the Kommersant newspaper, at the same time collaborating with the Experimental Creative Center of Sergei Kurginyan and the Riga newspaper Atmoda. In 1990, he became a department editor at Nezavisimaya Gazeta, then was first deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly Business MN. In 1993, he took part in the creation of the Segodnya newspaper, where he subsequently worked as first deputy editor-in-chief. In December 1995, as an independent candidate, he unsuccessfully ran for the State Duma of the second convocation. Since April 1997, he has been the director and presenter of the “Actually” program on the TV Center channel. At the same time, he hosted the “Seventh Day” program and was the head of the television channel’s socio-political programs service. Since the beginning of 1999, he has been the author and presenter of the “However” program on Channel One (formerly ORT), and in 2009 he became the founder of the magazine of the same name. From 2007 to 2009 he was editor-in-chief of the Profile magazine.

Member of the United Russia party. Winner of the Golden Pen of Russia award.

In terms of booze, [Leontyev] was a real legend of the 1990s

Original of this material
© , 06/09/2010

Orgy of patriotism

[...]

Sokolova At this point I would like to change the topic a little and talk, so to speak, about the genesis, the formation of yours, so amazing for us glamorous girls, but coinciding with the people’s system of values. You, Mikhail, have not always been a pillar of the ideas of statehood. Quite the opposite! You started out with extremely liberal views. At the end of the Soviet Union, they guarded Pasternak’s dacha in the company of practically dissidents...

Leontyev The Pasternak Museum does not oblige you to anything ideological.

Sokolova This is true! But then you were friends with the main liberals of the 90s - Aven, Glazyev, Kagalovsky. You worked for Gusinsky in the Segodnya newspaper, and agreed with Khodorkovsky on the creation of the Delo newspaper.

Leontyev I was an economic liberal, because who else could a person who was undereducated by the Soviet economic school be? I have always considered myself a political conservative, but I was a radical economic liberal. I now believe that Samuelson's textbook works!

Sokolova Or maybe it’s not just about the venerable Samuelson? Legends were told about your income from Mr. Gusinsky in the Segodnya newspaper. According to your colleagues, you were entitled to 50 thousand dollars a month just for entertainment expenses - and this, mind you, was almost 20 years ago, at a time far from oil stability. Whereas the statists were by no means popular in the 90s. The ideology of “conservation” was not capitalized.

Leontyev All this is nonsense. I told you that my views have changed. Being an economic liberal, I saw, figuratively speaking, only this napkin, but then I saw, as it were, this entire table.

Sobchak But still it’s somehow... suspicious. I personally don’t trust communists who suddenly start going to church, or Marxists who suddenly become liberals.

Sokolova And I personally believe in Mikhail! Apparently, he is an ideological person and money is not the main thing for him. In the magical world of true statesmen, there are things more important than money. Tell me, Mikhail, is it true that for the last 30 years you have been drinking vodka every day?

Leontyev No. Not every.

Sokolova I think you are being modest. They told me that when it comes to booze, you were a real legend of the 90s! American correspondent Carey Goldberg still cannot forget how in 1992, it seems, you fell on the floor and fell asleep drunk in her room. And the apartment on Vernadsky Avenue, which you rented in partnership with Andrei Babitsky, the star of Radio Liberty, who took a scandalous interview with Basayev and is now an enemy of Russia?! According to your friends, it was a desperate, months-long alcohol trip. They say that at one of your drinking sessions, Babitsky got so drunk that he uprooted the toilet in the toilet and then for a long time you relieved yourself in the yard.

Leontyev I don't remember about the toilet. I was drunk - I forgot.

Sokolova They also say that you haven’t missed a single skirt. And the girls willingly gave it to you, because in the early 90s you were a fashionable guy, you were shown on TV and in your pocket there was a credit card with a monthly half toss for hospitality. They say that one girl even jumped out of a window because of you...

Leontyev Not a single girl jumped out of the window because of me - I officially declare. Although I really prefer girls who drink.

Sobchak Why?

Leontyev They don't remember the bad things.

Sokolova And if they accidentally remember, they throw themselves out of the windows. But, fortunately, alcoholic amnesia is a disease that often affects representatives of the imperial nation of both sexes.

Leontyev God or nature rewarded me with a unique organism. In general, relationships with alcohol are an individual thing. There are a lot of decent people, more moral and worthy than me, who have a difficult relationship with alcohol. What is binge drinking? This is pure biochemistry. The person is not to blame.

Sokolova That is, according to Dovlatov: “I drink every day, and I also have binges.”

Leontyev I don't have binges! I’m telling you, I have a unique organism. I have never been late for an important meeting in my life, nor have I missed a single broadcast. I worked in daily broadcasting for a very serious time and worked in a daily newspaper, where I wrote two or three texts per issue. I've never missed a deadline in my life.

Sokolova Bravo! Not many people manage to combine. Alcoholism is a full-time job.

Leontyev Because I work at a frantic pace, my mind is always on what I'm working on. In order to rest, you need to somehow unload your brains, you need to turn them off so that you can sleep and not come up with texts in your sleep. I found a way, nature allows me to relax in this way.

Sokolova But for a public person, drinking almost every day is simply dangerous. Serious reputational losses are possible.

Leontyev Agree. I remember once in Transnistria I came to see General Lebed. Well, in the evening I went to a tavern there, met a man, and had a drink. In the morning I came to the general not quite fresh. And he kicked me out. In the evening I had to go again.

Sokolova Is this when you went to persuade Lebed to become the Russian Pinochet?

Leontyev Nothing like this! About Pinochet - that's different. I made a film about the general.

Sokolova They say you told Putin the same story. That, they say, V.V. is the Russian Pinochet, the savior of the Fatherland. More stories were told.

Leontyev I do not know anything.

Sokolova And I also heard that the Chechens sentenced you to death because you, somewhere out of a hangover, snatched a machine gun from a soldier and fired a burst of fire in the room.

Leontyev The yellow newspapers wrote this nonsense.

Sokolova Come on, be modest! For example, it’s now clear to me why all the girls gave it to you in the 90s! After meeting you, the image of the statesman literally shone with new, unknown facets. But life is probably not easy for you with such views in the 2000s.

Leontyev Why?

Sokolova The trend has changed. You know, the cult of health, muscles, beauty fascism, fitness clubs. But most importantly, the image of a cute drunk has lost its relevance. I’m afraid that being an alcoholic statist is now even less prestigious than belonging to the Kasparov-Kasyanov camarilla. Moreover, according to rumors, your love for a glass cost you your personal friendly relationship with Putin. Vladimir Vladimirovich, as you know, cannot tolerate alcoholism.

Leontyev Vladimir Vladimirovich controls himself very well, so he appears to others exactly in the form in which he wants to appear.

Sokolova So you want to say that the prime minister is secretly working hard?

Sobchak Here I can say as an eyewitness! The great advantage of the St. Petersburg team is their negative attitude towards alcohol. In this, the “Petersburgers” are the absolute opposite of the crazy Yeltsin times.

Leontyev And I think that drinking is not shameful. Now, if Lesha Kudrin drank, he would be more useful!

Sobchak After talking with you, I became convinced that there is a direct relationship between the position of a statesman and vodka. People who theorize a lot about the state tend to drink bitter drinks.

Leontyev I am flesh of the flesh of my people - my people drink and therefore, like that drinking girl, they do not remember the bad, but remember that the state is good.

Sokolova Mikhail, you are a great theorist! And most importantly, a godsend for the interviewer. There is no need to pull anything out of you with pincers, you have formulated everything brilliantly yourself! Probably that glass we found you drinking helped you...

Leontyev A year ago, I put forward the concept of an anti-crisis policy, which our government is implementing in practice, although in fact it does not admit it.

Sokolova Should everyone drink “liquid for corns”?

Leontyev Not so radical. Let people go on a drinking binge during the crisis. This also provides a solution to the main problems! Firstly, social tension is completely destroyed. Secondly, complete import substitution is taking place, because a basic snack is the only thing our national economy is able to produce.

Sokolova Great plan! I have just one comment. Don't you think that you are speaking in the spirit of the “theorists of fascism”? Are you sending people on a drinking binge, even though you’ve never been there yourself?

Leontyev This is how my body is!

Sokolova What about suffering for the sake of the Fatherland?

Leontyev Why not? I think I deserve a drink.

Mikhail Leontyev was born on October 12, 1958 in Moscow. The future journalist’s mother, Mira Moiseevna, worked as a teacher at the Plekhanov Moscow Institute; his father, Vladimir Yakovlevich, was an aircraft designer.

Since childhood, Mikhail Leontyev had a passion for literature - the boy read “bingely”, he especially liked historical stories and novels. At the age of five, his parents wanted to sign him up for figure skating, but he refused. After school, the guy entered the economics department of the Plekhanov Institute and successfully defended his diploma in 1979. During his student years, he had to work part-time as a loader.

After university, Mikhail Leontyev got a job at a research institute and tried his best to study economics. His patience lasted for several years. In 1985, he retired from the research institute, from that moment his life became brighter. The young scientist mastered carpentry, was an ordinary worker at the Literary Institute and a watchman at Boris Pasternak's dacha.

In 1987, Leontiev became seriously interested in sociology - his first analytical articles were devoted to this topic. Two years later, Mikhail devoted himself entirely to journalism. He first worked as a political correspondent for the Kommersant publication, then headed the department at Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

In 1993, Mikhail Leontyev enthusiastically participated in the development of the concept of the Segodnya newspaper, and later became deputy editor-in-chief of this publication. But the editorial policy of the changes did not suit him, so he quit the newspaper.

In 1995, Leontyev ran for the Russian State Duma, but lost. During that period, fame came to him. Two years later, he founded the magazine “Delo”, the publication was sponsored by Mikhail Khodorkovsky: however, the pilot issue of the magazine never reached publication.

At the same time, Mikhail Leontyev came to work on television as the host of the daily program “Actually.” Then there was the analytical program “Actually” and cooperation with the print media. In 1998, the journalist received the Golden Pen Award.

At the beginning of 1999, Leontyev went to work for ORT. He became the permanent presenter of the “Odnako” program, and in 2009, the journalist, together with Channel 1, founded the “Odnako” magazine.

In 2000, during the presidential elections, Mikhail declared support for acting head of state Vladimir Putin. In 2001, he became a member of the political council of the socio-political movement “Eurasia” headed by Alexander Dugin. In 2002 he became a member of the United Russia party.

From November 2001 to December 2002, Channel One aired Leontyev’s analytical program “Another Time,” and from May 2003 to January 2004, the author’s program “Puppet Theater.” In 2005, Leontyev was the editor-in-chief of the Main Theme magazine, which was published at that time. From January 2006 to November 2007 he hosted the program “Master Class with Mikhail Leontyev” on the O2 TV channel.

In October 2007, Channel One aired his project “The Big Game” - a series of programs dedicated to the history of the confrontation between Russia and Great Britain for dominance in Central Asia in the 19th - 20th centuries. In November of the following year, Leontyev's book with the same title was published.

In May 2007, Mikhail was appointed editor-in-chief of the business analytical magazine Profile. He left Profile in March 2009. The magazine's publisher, Sergei Rodionov, argued that Leontyev's departure led to an increase in the publication's circulation. During the same period, Leontiev collaborated with the magazine Moulin Rouge.

Since June 2009, together with Channel One, Mikhail became the founder of the magazine “Odnako”, in which, in addition to Leontyev, Evgeny Dodolev and Alexander Nevzorov and other journalists and columnists who previously worked in “Profile” are published. In 2009, he starred in a small role in Stas Mareev’s film “True Love”.

Mikhail Leontyev is a member of the journalistic “Serafimov Club”. He taught at the non-state Higher School of Management, where the “commissars” of the “Nashi” movement studied.

In January 2014, Mikhail Leontyev was invited to work at Rosneft, where he was offered to head the information and advertising department.

In May 2016, Rosneft allocated 170 million rubles for the publication of the magazine “Odnako” with the wording “Providing a sponsorship contribution for the publication of the magazine and the provision of information and advertising services.” It was reported that only one issue of the magazine was published in 2016.

In January 2017, Leontiev used obscene language against journalists from Dozhd and the BBC Russian Service. Leontyev was irritated by their question about the legality of the use by the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, of a car with a special signal. The press noted that the cheeky style of communication with the media of the Rosneft press secretary had many times become the subject of criticism.

The Great Game: The British Empire versus Russia and the USSR. - M.: AST, 2008. - 319 p.

Ideology of sovereignty. From imitation to authenticity. - M.: Izborsk Club, Book World, 2014. - 320 pp.

Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontyev. Born on October 12, 1958 in Moscow. Russian journalist and publicist, TV presenter.

Father - Vladimir Yakovlevich Leontyev, aircraft design engineer.

Mother - Mira Moiseevna Leontyeva (born 1926), teacher of statistics at the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, co-author of the textbook “Trade Statistics”.

Studied at the general economics department of the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, who graduated in 1979 with a degree in Labor Economics.

During his student years, he worked as a security guard at the Moscow planetarium, from where he was fired for a brawl caused by his friends. After receiving higher education, Leontyev worked at the Moscow Institute of Economic Problems, where, in his own words, he tried to “get involved in the real Soviet economy.”

In addition to working at the research institute, Leontiev worked part-time as a history tutor and became interested in applied arts.

In 1985, he graduated from SPTU No. 86 with a degree in cabinetmaker, but did not find a permanent job in his specialty. During this period, Leontyev worked as a laborer at the Literary Museum, guarded the dacha-museum of Boris Pasternak in Peredelkino, and continued to tutor.

In 1987, Leontiev began writing analytical articles on sociological topics.

In 1989, at the invitation of a friend, he came to the Experimental Creative Center, headed by Sergei Kurginyan, which was engaged in political science. At the same time, he worked as a freelance correspondent for the Socialist Industry newspaper, but his notes were not published in the newspaper.

Leontyev's first journalistic publication appeared without his knowledge in the Riga newspaper Atmoda, after which Leontyev collaborated with it in 1989-1990.

In 1989, Leontyev was invited to the political department of the Kommersant newspaper, even before it began to be published on paper, where he went through, by his own admission, “a very useful school.”

In 1990, Leontyev moved to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, where he headed the economics department.

In 1993, he became first deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Business MN. In the same year, he co-founded the newspaper Segodnya, which was financed by Leonid Nevzlin, Vladimir Gusinsky and Alexander Smolensky. Leontyev was a member of the newspaper's editorial board, a political observer and first deputy editor-in-chief. He left Segodnya, disagreeing with the reform that began in the publication. L. Nevzlin claims that Leontyev was “kicked out” of the newspaper.

In December 1995, M.V. Leontyev, as an independent candidate, ran for the State Duma of the 2nd convocation from the 203rd Cheryomushkinsky electoral district of Moscow, but lost the election to Pavel Medvedev. During the first Chechen war, he was among those who supported the entry of troops into the territory of Chechnya, and stated that he was “a staunch supporter of a forceful solution to problems in Chechnya.” Later, during the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, he called for bombing Chechnya.

In 1997, Leontyev became the founder of the magazine “Delo”, which was financed, but was not published. In April of the same year, he began working on television, becoming the director and presenter of the daily program “Actually,” aired on the TV Center (TVC) channel.

In 1997-1998, he headed the Service for Socio-Political Programs of TVC and hosted the information and analytical program “The Seventh Day.” At the same time, he continued to work in the print press - in 1998 he became the author of the column “Fas!” in the business weekly magazine "Company".

In 1997, Leontiev was nominated for the TEFI Award, and the following year he won the Golden Pen Award.

In February 1999, he left TVC and, together with the team of the “Actually” program, moved to the staff of the ORT Service for Socio-Political Programs, where his program began airing in March of the same year "However". Leontiev explained his departure from TVC by saying that he did not share “the views of those people who own TV Center.”

Later, Leontyev hosted “However” together with Maxim Sokolov and Alexander Privalov.

In the summer of 1999, he became editor of the satirical “political hunting magazine” FAS. The project was closed in 2000 for financial reasons.

In 2000, during the presidential elections, he declared his support for the acting head of state. In 2001, he became a member of the political council of the socio-political movement “Eurasia” headed by Alexander Dugin. In 2002 he became a member of the United Russia party. From November 2001 to December 2002, Channel One aired Leontyev’s analytical program “Another Time,” and from May 2003 to January 2004, the author’s program “Puppet Theater.”

In 2005, M. Leontyev was the editor-in-chief of the Main Theme magazine, which was published at that time.

From January 2006 to November 2007 he hosted the program “Master Class with Mikhail Leontyev” on the O2TV channel.

In October 2007, his project was released on Channel One "Big game"- a series of programs dedicated to the history of the confrontation between Russia and Great Britain for dominance in Central Asia in the 19th-20th centuries. In November 2008, Leontiev's book with the same title was published.

In May 2007, M. Leontiev was appointed editor-in-chief of the business analytical magazine Profile. He left Profile in March 2009. The magazine's publisher, Sergei Rodionov, argued that Leontyev's departure led to an increase in the publication's circulation. During the same period, he collaborated with the Moulin Rouge magazine.

Since June 2009, together with Channel One, he became the founder of the magazine “Odnako”, in which, in addition to Leontyev, Evgeny Dodolev and Alexander Nevzorov and other journalists and columnists who previously worked in “Profile” are published.

In 2009 starred in a small role in Stas Mareev’s film “True Love”.

In the preface to E. Dodolev’s book “View”, published in 2011, the Beatles of Perestroika defined their attitude towards the profession: “I think journalism is a vile profession, chosen by flawed people. Journalists are professional amateurs. This is not literature, not art, not science, but a little bit of everything.”.

He is a member of the journalistic “Seraphim Club”, taught at the non-state Higher School of Management, where the “commissars” of the “Nashi” movement studied.

On January 8, 2014, the Kommersant newspaper reported that from January 13, Mikhail Leontyev, who will have to oversee the activities of the information and advertising department, will become an adviser to Rosneft President Igor Sechin with the rank of vice president for PR. The publication’s sources indicated that there are long-standing “friendly relations” between Sechin and Leontyev. At the same time, Mikhail Leontyev will remain the host of the “However” program on Channel One. On January 14, Rosneft issued a press release according to which Mikhail Leontyev works in the company as a press secretary - director of the information and advertising department with the rank of vice president.

Mikhail Leontyev and Ukraine

In 2002, for statements addressed to the wife of ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko, Ekaterina Yushchenko (previously she bore the surname Chumachenko, changing it to Yushchenko only in 2005), the Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kiev ordered Leontyev to compensate 2,500 hryvnia in favor of Ekaterina Yushchenko within 30 days to refute the false information that he voiced in his “However” program on April 10, 2001.

In his program, Leontyev called the prime minister an “adventurer” and a “henpecked” man, and his wife “an analyst for the State Department and the US National Security Council.” Leontyev rudely announced his refusal to comply with the court decision.

After the journalist became “persona non grata” in Latvia, he was prohibited from entering (July 14, 2006) into Ukraine.

The ban was later lifted, and in September 2007, Mikhail, together with his colleague Evgeny Dodolev (who acted as publisher), launched the Russian-language version of the German weekly Der Spiegel (“Der Spiegel-Profile”) in Ukraine, which became a notable event in the media market of this country .

The magazine was launched under the presumption that “the quality of content in Ukraine lags significantly behind Russian requirements,” and it was stated that in concept it was more of a political weekly, closer to Newsweek than to the “Profile” that Russian readers were accustomed to.

The Russian-language magazine was published weekly with a circulation of 30 thousand copies in Kyiv, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, with the editorial office based in Moscow and a correspondent network being formed in Ukraine. The project was suspended in May 2008; there is an online version of the publication.

In August 2014, it was included in the sanctions list by Ukraine.

In his own words, he was a “dissident.” Calls himself a right-wing conservative.

At the beginning of his publicistic and journalistic career, he adhered to radically liberal views, primarily in the field of economics, which predetermined his opposition to the communists in the 1996 elections and the government headed by E. M. Primakov in the late 1990s.

Criticized leftist ideology: “The pathetic attempts to build communism from a sandbox are disgusting. And their economic consequences are global. Nobody believes in anything anymore. In general, no one and nothing at all. It is obvious that market reforms in Russia have failed. The market is not suitable for Russia. Russia is a wretched, terrible country, separate from the entire population of homo sapiens, which can only exist in some kind of senile, isolationist - necessarily in a zoo - conditions. All these senseless and insane compromises, all these handouts to socialism and populism, which is extremely expensive for a sick economy - all this must be discarded. The way out is in normal liberal development".

In February 1998, Leontyev became the laureate of the Adam Smith Prize, established by Gaidar's Institute for Economic Problems in Transition "for criticism of liberal policies from the perspective of liberalism." Leontyev himself called Gaidar's reform shock therapy under anesthesia.

In earlier works, Leontyev also called for abandoning the “imperial burden”: “And God forbid we try to restore the empire, to which we are inclined not only by our domestic crazy, but also by those selfishly interested in all sorts of (like the previous) government unions of newly formed states, which, despite all their loudly declared independence, can live without the usual Russian freebies not a joy. If, contrary to common sense, such a reunification can still be carried out without bloodshed (which, of course, is unlikely), then Russia will inevitably perish and cease to exist as an independent cultural and geopolitical organism. And not just for a long time - forever".

Leontyev also repeatedly spoke out in support of Augusto Pinochet: “He did what Lavr Georgievich Kornilov failed to do in his time. And he did it, in general, very cruelly, I would say, but with the minimum possible losses, with the minimum possible".

Leontiev believes that Pinochet carried out an exemplary economic reform in Chile: “The main thing is that the general created an effectively working social system, truly built on a liberal principle. The government did not redistribute anything to anyone; by providing citizens with equal opportunities, it encouraged them to independently solve their problems. The population must work for the country - this is the essence of the Chilean model".

In connection with the global economic crisis, he stated that “The only way out of the current crisis is a global war. Who and how will unleash it is a purely technical question. I am not going to guess what the reason for this war will be - the complication of relations between Russia and Ukraine/Georgia, the Iranian issue or Pakistan.".

In 2006, presenting Stanislav Zhiznin’s book “Russian Energy Diplomacy: Economics, Politics, Practice,” Mikhail Leontiev noted: “Russia is trying to enter the global world using energy as our main argument. That is, to use it both in the global economy and in global politics.”.

He outlined his political credo in 2007 in his article for the almanac “Moulin Rouge”: “Politics is inseparable from cultural roots. Our culture is based on Christianity with its core idea of ​​compassion. There is not a single other world religion where the one omnipotent God would give himself up to suffer for the sake of people. In its ideal form, Christianity is embodied precisely in Christian culture. It would have to be embodied in Christian politics. But it is embodied precisely in culture. Politics is pragmatic. But culture is not. In this sense, the highest form of Christian spiritual culture is the Middle Ages.

What does modern postmodernism, the so-called avant-garde, do? By destroying the idea of ​​compassion. It’s good when this is expressed in the form of the grotesque, such a “cabbage”, as Tarantino does, for example. Banter about the removal of barriers implies their existence. The banter over breaking Christian cultural taboos is, to some extent, human. And it means recognizing the existence of these same taboos. It’s worse when no one sees these taboos. When they are no longer in the consciousness of those who create. And there are no living people in their consciousness who don’t think about anything at all. Then this is the end of culture. And the end of humanity as a population.

Real politics, like culture, can only exist within the framework of taboos. That is why in all famous novels about politics the eternal theme is “How power destroys a person.”.

Mikhail Leontyev's height: 162 centimeters.

Personal life of Mikhail Leontyev:

Was married twice. First wife - Natalia Azarova, philologist by training, poetess, headed the Center for the Study of World Poetry. In this marriage, the couple raised two children - daughter Elena and son Dmitry. After the divorce, Natalya married a foreigner and emigrated to the United States. His children also lived and studied there. After living abroad for several years, they returned to Russia.

Second wife - Maria Kozlovskaya, child psychologist.

In 1999, the couple had a daughter, Daria.

The eldest daughter Elena also became interested in psychology, although she is a lawyer by first education. After receiving a diploma in psychology, the girl got a job at Kashchenko.

Son Dmitry works on the O2TV channel.

Bibliography of Mikhail Leontyev:

2005 - However, hello!
2005 - However, goodbye!
2005 - Fortress Russia: farewell to liberalism
2005 - Is Russia threatened by the “Orange Revolution”?
2005 - The internal enemy: The defeatist “elite” is ruining Russia
2008 - “Independent” Georgia: Bandit in Tiger Skin (in collaboration with D.A. Zhukov)
2008 - The Great Game: The British Empire against Russia and the USSR
2014 - Ideology of sovereignty. From imitation to authenticity

Filmography of Mikhail Leontyev:

2009 - True Love

Mikhail Vladimirovich Leontyev is one of the most politically correct journalists, who for several years has remained the permanent presenter of the “However” program on Channel One, as well as the editor of the magazine of the same name. Mikhail Leontyev strives to convey to people genuine information about the most current events taking place in the political world, and he does this openly and impartially.

Childhood and youth of Mikhail Leontyev

Mikhail Leontyev was born on October 12, 1958. His father Vladimir Yakovlevich Leontyev worked as an aircraft design engineer, and his mother Mira Moiseevna Leontyeva taught statistics at the Moscow Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov, and was also a co-author of the textbook “Trade Statistics”.

Since Mikhail’s family was very intelligent and educated, the boy loved to read from childhood and literally “swallowed” any books that came to him. He was especially interested in historical works that described significant events of different eras and countries.

The future journalist showed a penchant for dissidence already in childhood. So, at the age of five, he flatly refused to attend the figure skating section, despite all the admonitions and threats from his parents. When Mikhail grew up a little, he staged serious battles, arguing until he was hoarse with his grandmother, an old-school communist. The grandson tried to explain to the stern woman that the political system of the Soviet Union was far from ideal and had many shortcomings. While studying in high school, Leontyev first read the magazine Posev, which was banned at that time.

After graduating from school, Mikhail, quite expectedly, entered the Plekhanov Institute, where his mother taught, in the general economics department. In 1979, he successfully received a higher education diploma with a degree in Labor Economics. The young man also distinguished himself during his student years, when, together with his friends, he caused a brawl at the Moscow Planetarium, where he worked as a laborer.

Career of Mikhail Leontyev

After college, Mikhail got a job at a research institute, where, as he admitted, he honestly tried to engage in real economics. In 1985, he quit his boring job, and the most vibrant and varied period in his career began. Leontyev graduated from a vocational school, where he received the profession of a cabinetmaker, worked part-time as a worker at the Literary Museum and even guarded Boris Pasternak's dacha, located in Peredelkino. Mikhail really enjoyed teaching history lessons privately.

In 1987, Mikhail Leontyev became seriously interested in sociology. He began writing competent and detailed analytical articles and soon devoted himself entirely to this science, which requires an analytical mind and flexible thinking.

Mikhail Leontyev about Ukraine

Two years later, Leontyev came to journalism. He became a correspondent for the political section of the Kommersant newspaper, where he gained invaluable knowledge and amazing experience, which was very useful to the journalist in the future. Also in 1989, an acquaintance invited him to the Experimental Creative Center, which specialized in political science. A year later, Mikhail became head of the economics department at Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

In 1993, he took an active part in the creation of the Segodnya newspaper, and later became the first deputy editor-in-chief of this publication. Later, Leontyev left his job at this newspaper, as he categorically disagreed with the reforms carried out in it. According to some of the journalist’s associates, he was simply “survived” from the newspaper.

Leontyev gained popularity and fame in political circles when he ran in December 1995 as an independent deputy for the State Duma of the second convocation, but lost to Pavel Medvedev. Many people had an ambiguous opinion about Mikhail Leontyev when, during the first Chechen war, he ardently supported the entry of troops into the territory of the Chechen Republic and spoke out for the bombing of Chechnya.

In 1997, Leontiev founded the magazine Delo, which was sponsored by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but never went into print. In the same year, the journalist came to television, where he became the presenter and director of the “Actually” program, which aired daily on the TVC channel. Over the next year, he hosted the analytical program “The Seventh Day,” while simultaneously working in print media. Thus, Mikhail Leontyev wrote the column “FAS!” in the business magazine "Company". In 1997, he became a nominee for the TEFI award, and a year later became a laureate of the Golden Pen award.

Mikhail Leontyev today

In February 1999, the journalist left the TVC channel because he did not agree with the management’s views on the political events taking place in the world, and got a job at the ORT channel, where he hosted and continues to host the “However” program to this day. Mikhail Leontyev has been appointed vice president at Rosneft

On January 13, 2014, Leontyev took the place of press secretary - director of the information and advertising department with the rank of vice president at Rosneft.

Personal life of Mikhail Leontyev

The journalist is married for the second time. In his first marriage to poetess Natalia Azarova, Mikhail had two children - son Dmitry and daughter Elena. From his second marriage to psychologist Maria Kozlovskaya, he has a daughter, Daria, born in 1999.

Leontyev is also a co-owner of two technology companies. One of them is a resident of Skolkovo, the presumed main owner of the second is a former official of Rosrybolovstvo, accused of fraud amounting to several hundred million rubles; The business of both is closely related to government orders. Meduza special correspondents Ivan Golunov and Ilya Zhegulev figured out what kind of companies they were and what Leontyev was doing there.

Leontiev and wing aerodynamics

In the spring of 2013, publicist Mikhail Leontiev made a sharp statement. He defended Skolkovo from attacks from the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Accounts Chamber, which accused the innovation center of inefficiency. In the TV show “However” on Channel One and an article in the magazine of the same name, of which he is the editor-in-chief, Leontyev explained that Skolkovo is the only venture fund in the world that does not “take the project away from the developer.”

Leontyev is well acquainted with the operating principles of Skolkovo. He is a co-owner of one of the fund's residents, the Optimenga-777 company, which is engaged in the aerodynamic design of wings for aircraft.

It was founded in 2012 by Sergei Peigin, a graduate of the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Tomsk State University, and his Israeli partner Boris Epstein. A year after this, Mikhail Leontyev began to own 10% of the enterprise, and Optimenga-777 received about 80 million rubles from Skolkovo as part of a grant for the creation of a software product that can greatly reduce the cost and time of designing an aircraft wing. The company stated that the project was “revolutionary in nature”: their algorithm solved the test problem of optimizing a wing in 27 hours, and the Boeing program in 50 days.

Sergey Peigin

In 2014, Optimenga won a one and a half million tender from the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) to carry out work to optimize the aerodynamic surfaces of aircraft. Peigin said that their algorithms were tested on the wings of many aircraft - however, they are all produced by companies that are part of the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC): Sukhoi Superjet, Be-200 (only 10 aircraft were produced) and MC-21 (exists only as a prototype). “These are all real completed projects for which we received money,” Peigin explained. It was also claimed that the Chinese company Comac is using Optimeng's developments.

UAC Meduza confirmed that Optimenga carried out a number of works on mathematical modeling of structures, but noted that similar work is ordered from several companies at once.

“I have known these guys [from Optimeng] since childhood, they are very talented, I tried to help them, but, unfortunately, there is no business there,” Mikhail Leontyev told Meduza. - Nobody ever likes innovators. These are all tears and moans; no word “business” is applicable to this story. Many people tried to help somehow, but you can’t act against the system. The system can only produce a Superjet."

Leontiev and the fishing fleet

Airplanes are not the only area of ​​interest for Mikhail Leontyev. He also has businesses related to water transport. In April 2013, the journalist co-founded the Agro-Marin-LNG company, which designs ships powered by liquefied natural gas. (The fact that Leontyev has shares in Optimeng and Agro-Marina-LNG was also reported by the Dozhd TV channel.)

The main owner of Agro-Marina is the British company Valser Oil, which, according to the UK commercial register, belongs to two offshore companies registered in the Marshall Islands: Pintox Systems Limited and Syten Group Limited. Information about the directors and owners of these companies is not disclosed. There are 25 companies set up by Pintox and Syten registered with the New Zealand Ministry of Justice alone; some of them were involved in scandals related to money laundering through Moldovan banks.

In April 2017, Valser Oil published a notice adding Valery Suraev, an Austrian citizen born in Russia in 1960, to the list of persons influencing the company’s activities. This is a person well-known in the shipbuilding market: in the 2000s, Suraev headed the department of the fishing fleet, ports and ship repairs at Rosrybolovstvo. During an audit of the department in 2010, the Accounts Chamber revealed fraud around a billion rubles, which were received in 2005 for the construction of research ships in the Far East. One of the contracts was won by the company “Research and Production Center for Industrial Fisheries, Exploration and Monitoring of Marine Bioresources” (NPC), registered in Yaroslavl.

“According to the documents, the scientific ship was built, Suraev signed the acceptance certificate, after which more than 283 million rubles were transferred to the accounts of the NPC,” sources in the Ministry of Internal Affairs told Izvestia. “Then this money disappeared into the accounts of shell companies.” During the audit of the Accounts Chamber, it turned out that the skeleton of the ship remained standing on the slipway of the plant in Khabarovsk among garbage and scrap metal. Three more unfinished vessels within the framework of the same project never left the slipways of the plant in the Kirov region.

Law enforcement authorities suspected that the real owner of the NPC was Valery Suraev. After the start of the inspection of Rosrybolovstvo, he resigned from the civil service and headed this Yaroslavl company. In 2011, as Rosbalt reported, Suraev received a residence permit in Estonia; a year later, a criminal case was opened against him on suspicion of fraud, and the former official was given a written undertaking not to leave. The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to Meduza’s request about the progress of the investigation.

In 2013, NPC was declared bankrupt - this happened at the request of the Marine-Invest company, whose owner was Valser Oil, which subsequently established Agro-Marin-LNG. Agro-Marin bought most of the SPC property for a million rubles; In addition, the company fully owns the Khabarovsk Shipyard.

Mikhail Leontyev knew Valery Suraev long before these events. In the early 2000s, he devoted an entire episode of his author’s program on Channel One to the problems of the fishing fleet - and published several of Suraev’s columns about these problems in the magazine “However”.

“He came to me [as a journalist] with [fishing] problems and impressed me. “I had ten programs on this topic,” recalls Leontyev. “Suraev and I did a very serious thing together - if we now have some kind of fishing left in Russia and some prospects for creating Russian ships, then the country owes this to Valerka Suraev, whom I helped a little.”

Another old acquaintance of Leontyev is the general director of Agro-Marin-LNG - this is Vladimir Koloskov, the former first deputy general director of the Rodionov Publishing House, who published the magazines Krestyanka and FHM, which were closed in 2015. Leontyev also worked in the same publishing house - in the late 2000s, he headed the Profile magazine for two years.

For the first three years after its creation, Agro-Marin-LNG did not show itself in any way. At the end of 2016, the company won two tenders from the Krylov State Research Center for the development and modernization of fishing vessels powered by liquefied natural gas. Both contracts were concluded under the “Purchase from a Single Supplier” procedure - since their conclusion, according to the documentation, was necessary to prevent accidents and other “force majeure” emergencies.

It took Agro-Marin-LNG only a week to develop projects for two ships - having concluded a government contract on November 25, the company handed over the finished project to the customer on December 2. Kommersant explained that such a rush had a simple explanation: the work was financed under the federal target program “Development of Civil Marine Equipment for 2009–2016” and officials could not reschedule the acceptance of completed work until next year. As it turned out a little later, the ships under the Agro-Marina project will be built on the basis of the hulls of those ships that were once not completed by Valery Suraev’s company.

According to a source familiar with the company’s activities, Agro-Marin-LNG planned to take part in the construction of ice-class gas tankers - they are necessary to export liquefied gas along the Northern Sea Route, which the Novatek company produces in Yamal with funds received from the National Welfare Fund.

About one and a half dozen gas carriers are needed. The first of them (it was named “Christophe de Margerie” in honor of the head of Total, who died in a plane crash in Vnukovo) arrived in Yamal at the end of March 2017 from South Korea - however, it is planned that further gas carriers will be built in Russia, at the Far Eastern shipyard Zvezda " This shipyard belongs to Gazprombank and the Rosneft company, whose press secretary is Mikhail Leontyev. Leontyev himself told Meduza that “there was a project with gas carriers, but I’m not in the subject.”

Leontyev claims that he “never in my life received even one kopeck from these [companies].” “If someone signed me up as a founder for some purpose, God will be their judge. “I remember roughly what they are talking about, but I don’t even remember the names of these companies,” he said. - How many people have I tried to help? I tried to help a friend make a film. Every person in life tries to help someone, unless he is a complete bastard.”

[RBC news agency, 05/10/2017, “Mikhail Leontyev turned out to be the owner of a stake in technology companies”: In a conversation with RBC, the press secretary of Rosneft called Meduza’s publication “about nothing.” “There is nothing there, there was nothing and, unfortunately, nothing came of it. Zero rubles, zero kopecks, zero results. Zero everything. And this is a great pity. I wish there was something there,” he said.
According to Leontyev, “all the stupid hints” about his financial interests in the companies mentioned in the article have no basis. “Yes, everything that I received from this, I would personally convey to Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky. Because that’s a lot of hemorrhoids,” he said.
He noted that the activities of the Optimenga-777 company continue. “People are working, doing something. Seryozha Peigin (owns 27.5% of the company - RBC) - he is an applied mathematician of a very high world level. He did this in different countries, he really wanted to do it here. They really do it really well,” he said.
“As for fish, you can see how much I wrote about keel quotas. Some time was spent. Now, by the way, we can say that there is a result, because keel quotas exist. How does this relate to a specific business? None,” Leontyev added. - Insert K.ru] Original of this material
© SDG, 01/22/2017, Photo: East News, Illustrations: SDG

Mikhail Leontiev owes 233.5 million rubles to Investbank depositors

Sponsorship of 170 million rubles by Rosneft did not correct the situation with the debt of the magazine Odnako

Anastasia Gorshkova

As the Investigation Management Center (IMC) learned, the publishing group Press Code, which published the magazine “However” by Mikhail Leontyev, owes the depositors of the bankrupt Investment Bank 233.5 million rubles. There is no sign that this money has been returned: the bailiffs cannot find the publishing house even to collect tax debts. Earlier, the LRC learned that in May 2015, Rosneft allocated 170 million rubles to support the struggling publication of its vice president, after which the magazine closed.

The investor of Leontyev's media startup was Converse Group father and son Antonov. Expenses for the first year of the project, according to Leontyev, should have been up to $4 million. “We want to turn this project into a commercially successful publication, and we have the opportunity to wait out difficult times,” Leontyev said at a press conference dedicated to the launch of the weekly “ However” in the crisis year of 2009. He also emphasized that the investor “insisted on financing the project,” even despite Leontyev’s warnings regarding difficulties with advertising and return on investment.

The money was allocated through credit lines from Antonov Jr.’s Investment Bank from October 2009 to November 2010. Since December, funding for the magazine stopped, and at the beginning of 2011 Vladimir Antonov sold his shares in the bank to its top managers. Apparently, the new shareholders were confused by the media asset, but they managed to reach an agreement: the bank received 15% of the publishing house (the share of Channel One), and the loans were guaranteed by Snoras-Nedvizhimost LLC, 50% of which at that time belonged to Antonov’s business partner - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Academkhimbank Viktor Yampolsky. By 2013, the magazine was published once every two months.

According to SPARK, the shareholders of Press Code Publishing Group LLC are Mikhail Leontiev (15%), Ekaterina Sedova (15%), Investbank (15%) and Dukelevel Holdings Limited (55%) registered in Cyprus. In 2009, Leontyev told Kommersant that the majority shareholder is the main investor in the project.

And then, as usual, the Central Bank appeared in history. On December 3, 2013, he revoked Investmentbank’s license due to unsatisfactory asset quality. At that time, the bank occupied 80th place among the largest banks in Russia with an estimated assets of 75.6 billion rubles. It soon became clear that the bank did not have enough 44 billion rubles to pay creditors. This was a record size of the hole at that time, comparable only to the bankrupt Mezhprombank of Sergei Pugachev. The investment bank was declared bankrupt on March 4, 2014. The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) began searching for assets and collecting receivables. As of the summer of 2016, the DIA managed to return only 4.1 billion rubles out of 40 to depositors; in total, the bank’s debt to creditors amounts to 60.2 billion rubles.

Decision to declare Investbank bankrupt

By February 2015, the DIA finally got to Odnako and demanded to recover 416 million rubles from the magazine publisher and the guarantor company. From the text of the court decision it follows that in 2009–2010 the Press Code group received loans in the amount of 176 million rubles for a period until August 28, 2016. The DIA demanded that the debt be repaid ahead of schedule because in five years only 4 million rubles of the allocated money were returned to the bank. The agency also calculated 164 million rubles in interest and 89 million rubles in commission for servicing the loan. However, the DIA was unable to find the original documents of the bankrupt bank confirming the 22 percent rate and the existence of the commission, as well as the guarantee. As a result, in August 2015, the court recovered only the principal amount of the debt and reduced interest - a total of 233.5 million rubles. The higher authorities agreed with this decision.

And this is where the fun begins. The decision came into force on December 30, 2015, but there are no signs that the money was returned to Investment Bank. An important detail is that Press Code representatives were not present at the court hearings. According to SPARK, the publishing house did not report to the tax authorities for more than a year. And according to the bailiff database, enforcement proceedings to collect tax debts from Press Code, which began in August and November 2016, were soon terminated: it is impossible to establish the location of the debtor, his property or obtain information about the money in the accounts (Article 46 Part. 1 clause 3 of the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”).