Everything comes easy to Kirill Shamalov - a legal education, high positions in prestigious companies and even a life partner. What can we say about transactions with Sibur shares, the sale of which brought him billions of dollars in financial wealth.
Young Kirill Shamalov became a dollar billionaire quite recently. Successful transactions and the development of the right business projects gave him 75th place in the Forbes ranking and 1.4 billion “green” for personal well-being.
- FULL NAME: Shamalov Kirill Nikolaevich.
- Date of Birth: 22.03.1982.
- Education: Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg State University.
- Date of start of business/age: 2002, 20 years.
- Type of activity at start: position of chief legal adviser at Gazprom.
- Current activity: Russian entrepreneur, member of the Board of Directors of the Sibur oil holding, head of KDS-invest, co-owner and head of Ladoga Management.
- Current state:$1.4 billion.
This businessman recently turned only 36 years old, and his fortune is already equal to $1.4 billion. The success story of Kirill Shamalov includes successful family ties, a profitable marriage and even a relationship with the first person of the country. However, some are born businessmen: none of this would have happened without real business acumen, which is inherent only in people with special talent.
How it all began
The date of birth of Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov is March 22, 1982, the place is the maternity hospital of the then city of Leningrad. The “nationality” column in his passport is not entirely clear: it is officially written that he is Russian, but sources close to the hero claim Jewish roots. Kirill became the second child; his parents also raised his older brother Yuri.
In terms of education, the hero’s biography is quite brief: after school, Kirill chose a legal career, without difficulty entering the State University of St. Petersburg. Already in his third year (which is approximately twenty years old), he began working as chief legal adviser at Gazprom. And having received his diploma, Kirill became a leading specialist in this department.
One of Kirill Nikolaevich’s successful projects here was related to lobbying for the produced gas-based motor fuel. It was thanks to Shamalov that a program was launched that switches all public transport in Nizhny Novgorod to just such “food”.
But soon our hero became disillusioned with legal practice and went to work in the Department of Economics and Finance of the Government of the Russian Federation, taking control of state property issues. Kirill also worked on issues of military-technical cooperation between Western European countries at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport.
Already in June 2008, Kirill went to work at the Sibur petrochemical holding, where the hero’s elder brother Yuri also worked as a deputy to one of the board members on the Board of Directors (by the way, a good friend of Alexander Miller’s family).
Photo 1. Sibur is a large petrochemical concern in the Russian Federation.
Source: s0.rbk.ru
Shamalov Jr. quickly rose to the position of vice president of Sibur. This happened at the age of 26 years of the hero.
A short digression about my father
Young specialist Kirill would not have been able to “rise” so high without the help of his father, once an excellent dentist, and later a businessman-trader of medical equipment, co-founder of Masterdentservice. A little later, Shamalov Sr. buys out 12.6% of the shares of Rossiya Bank.
But this was not the main thing: Nikolai Shamalov is an acquaintance of Vladimir Putin himself, with whom he founded the dacha cooperative partnership “Ozero” back in 1996. Vast areas of hunting grounds and even Lake Komsomolskoe, which was once public, suddenly became private.
This cooperative included very difficult people (when Vladimir Putin came to power, most of them became prominent government figures). So the family had the necessary connections since our hero’s childhood.
And one more interesting fact: it was Nikolai Shamalov who was once entrusted by the current president to deal with financial issues related to the construction of that same scandalous Crimean dacha, which was popularly nicknamed “Putin’s Palace.”
On the wave of Sibur's success
Since 2008, Shamalov has become vice president of Sibur. His tasks included administrative support for the business.
Already in 2010, Kirill Nikolaevich owned at least 3% of Sibur shares. Another 95% was owned by no one other than his brother Yuri. The brothers came up with a plan - to sell this stake to Gennady Timchenko and Leonid Mikhelson (millionaires, part-time friends of their father and Vladimir Putin). And so it happened, but Kirill turned out to be “naked like a falcon” in what had become almost a familiar company. But, as life has shown, not for long.
Photo 2. Kirill Shamalov proves himself to be a successful businessman.
Source: img4.dp.ru
In 2013, Timchenko... cedes his share to Kirill Nikolaevich. The reason is simple - our hero becomes a relative of the president, taking Putin's daughter Katerina Tikhonova as his wife. The shares were precisely a wedding gift to the newlyweds. The public learns about this from Kirill himself, but he refrains from any comments.
Photo 3. The name Timchenko appears in many of Shamalov’s transactions.
Source: img4.dp.ru
2012 brought his career into a new orbit - now as deputy chairman on the board of SIBUR LLC. He devoted three years to work in this position, rising to the status of a member of the Board of Directors of RCC LLC, and then of SIBUR Holding.
The most productive year was 2014, when Shamalov became a founder of the KDS-invest enterprise (its assets include IT Service). The main focus of work here was developments in the IT field.
Activities of "Yauza-12"
Already in August of the same 2014, Shamalov opened a new financial company, Yauza-12, engaged in intermediary operations. First of all, this organization bought a 17% stake in Sibur from Timchenko (and this is an amount of at least $1.5 billion). Fortunately, the same older brother (who is also the deputy chairman of Gazprombank) helped with the loan. It was worth it: thanks to the deal, today our hero owns 21.3% of the shares (which is at least $2.85 billion in cash equivalent).
And once again about Sibur
In 2014, another news leaked to the media - the Sibur subsidiary NIPIgazpererabotka won the tender for the general contractor of Gazprom. More specific information: the company was appointed responsible for the construction of an important facility - the Amur Gas Processing Plant.
It is known that the transaction price was 800 billion rubles. However, the subsidiary saved about 100 billion of them, optimizing construction costs.
In 2015, a 10% stake in Sibur was acquired by the state-owned company Sinopec from China. After evaluating the deal, our hero was recognized as a dollar billionaire for the first time. Shamalov was also included in the prestigious Forbes rating.
It would be strange not to be included in the Forbes list when the billionaire replenished his personal treasury by $1.3 billion.
In fact, in the spring of 2015, the businessman completely left the management of Sibur. But here’s nonsense: at the same time, Kirill Nikolaevich still remains on the directorate of this petrochemical holding.
New creation "Ladoga"
Until the spring of 2017, Shamalov owned a 21.2% stake in Sibur, and after this period he simply sells them to Mikhelson. They say that he could have earned at least $100 million from this deal, but it did not work out that way. And our hero had other plans - in January 2018 he created the Ladoga company.
Photo 4. Since 2017, Shamalov has refocused on Ladoga.
Source: img.artlebedev.ru
It is interesting that even after the loss of a large shareholding, Shamalov’s income was at least $800 million.
The Ladoga Management enterprise was created for asset management, but not only. The organization also makes money by looking for promising areas for investment (for example, polymer processing, engineering services, production of import-substitution products). With all this, Ladoga does not compete with Sibura at all.
Was Shamalov Putin's son-in-law?
This topic is repeatedly discussed in both Russian and Western media. The version about the close relationship between Shamalov’s wife and the current president of the Russian Federation is confirmed by many foreign agencies (including Bloomberg). How else to explain the luxurious wedding played at the prestigious Igora resort, and suspicious access to all the best tenders and projects in the country?
By the way, it was strictly forbidden to tell both the resort staff and guests about the wedding. But some information “leaked”: for example, how the newlyweds drove into Igora on a sleigh pulled by three white horses.
The presidential administration (namely, press secretary Dmitry Peskov), of course, does not confirm the relationship between the first person of the country and Katerina Tikhonova. Here is his quote on this matter: “I can’t assess whether this is true or not - I don’t know who she is. “Many girls have already been passed off as the daughters of our president.”
Photo 5. Katerina Tikhonova practiced acrobatic rock and roll.
Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov was born in 1982 in the valiant city of Leningrad. His family was not poor, his father is the best friend of the current President of the Russian Federation, and is a co-owner of a bank "Russia". Kirill had no obvious talents at school, was an ordinary, calm student and graduated well from school. The young man entered St. Petersburg State University with a degree in Legal Affairs and graduated with honors in 2004. Had work experience in Gazprombank, Rosoboronexport, Gazprom, and also had a position in the government apparatus.
At Gazprom, the man was promoting natural gas motor fuel. It was thanks to him that the program of converting public transport in Nizhny Novgorod to natural gas fuel was launched for the first time. And already in 2008 he received the position of vice president of the company " Sibur", where he was involved in administrative support for business. In 2012, Kirill Nikolaevich received a new position and became the first deputy chairman of the board of SIBUR LLC. He held this post for three years, until 2015, and during this time he became a member of the Board of Directors of SIBUR Holding and RCC LLC.
And already 2014 turned out to be very fruitful for Kirill, he made one of the largest transactions in his life, this entrepreneurial agreement became the biggest imprint in his business life. Shamalov bought a 17% stake in Sibur from oligarch Gennady Timchenko. He also became an entrepreneur of the company “KDS-invest”, which has “IT Service”, which is engaged in IT development. It owns the company “Yauzu 12”.
Analysts have found out that the NIPIgazpererabotka company, which is a subsidiary of Sibur, was chosen by Gazprom as the general contractor for the construction of the Amur gas processing plant. The owner of this company managed to save about 100 billion rubles by optimizing construction costs. And the transaction amount itself is 800 billion rubles.
The youngest billionaire is the son-in-law of the Russian President Kirill Shamalov
A year later, the owner of Sibur, Kirill Nikolaevich, sold 10% of the company’s shares to a Chinese state company. After the agreement, the capitalist was assessed as an excellent partner in work and was recognized as a dollar billionaire. The businessman decorated the lists of a world-famous magazine with his name Forbes.
In parallel with these career achievements, Kirill Shamalov created his own company "Ladoga Management", although all this was a secret, since he is trying in every possible way to hide his life. This company has an assembly of all of Shamalov’s assets and makes money by looking for opportunities to invest in various industries, for example: in the production of import-substituting products, in polymer processing and in engineering services. The fact that he does not conflict with the owners of other companies and does not compete with Sibura has a very good effect on his business. Probably because he was the second owner of Sibur and his shares amounted to 21.2%.
And already in the spring of 2017, Kirill Shamalov resold his shares. Vedomosti journalists found out that Kirill Nikolaevich, thanks to this deal, earned about $100 billion, which was how he was able to raise his position in the Forbes lists. However, such an important step in the life of the oligarch became a mistake. And the deal fell through.
Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov
By the beginning of 2018, analysts and journalists had identified two versions of the situation. One version insisted that the treaty was simply unsuccessful. The second version was more interesting to others. So, as it says, the man received a block of shares for a successful agreement from the family of the current president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. But this version has not been confirmed.
After a divorce from the daughter of the country's leader, the oligarch decided to get rid of the most important business documents. And even having lost his stake, he still has a tidy sum in his income, namely $800 million.
Nationality
There is absolutely no information about the roots of Kirill Nikolaevich. There are many rumors around his nationality, but he does not comment on them. We only know that according to his passport he has citizenship of the Russian Federation and he is Russian. However, many are sure that he has Jewish roots. People have this opinion based only on the appearance of a government official. While these are only speculations of the people, they do not comment or react in any way to these echoes.
Shamalov Kirill
Shamalov - Putin's son-in-law?
Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov and Ekaterina Tikhonova got married in 2013. The wedding took place at the Igora resort in the Leningrad region. The future spouses arrived there in a carriage with three white horses. Their wedding was not advertised; it was only for relatives and friends of the guests, who were asked not to talk about this event and to come without mobile phones. Also, all guests were subject to security checks at the entrance, but everything went smoothly.
Nothing is known about the details of his personal life; even Vladimir Vladimirovich himself tries in every possible way to protect his family from the media. In personal interviews, he does not answer questions about his family. This was the case even before he came to the presidency, and for a very long time the names of his now adult daughters were hidden from the press.
On January 26, 2018, the news about the billionaire’s divorce from Katerina spread all over the world, and it was no longer possible to hide it. However, the government official was not upset for long over the break in relations, and after a short time, photos of him with his new lover, Zhanna Vilkova, appeared on the Internet. It is with her that he is preparing for a family and commented that “the wedding is just around the corner.”
Business and positions of Kirill Shamalov
In April 2016, the oligarch was named the youngest billionaire in the Russian Federation.
The owner of the Yauza 12 company sold shares of his companies to quite influential oligarchs. He had the opportunity to earn about 2.21 billion dollars by selling most of the assets of his companies to foreign or Russian capitalists.
Since 2004 he has worked at "Rosoboronexport" then he had a position in Gazprombank, where he was hired through acquaintances of his influential father, and also held senior positions in the government apparatus. He arrived at the profitable company Sibur in 2008, where he became vice president of the company. At that time he was only 26 years old, and he changed many leadership positions.
Member of the Board of Directors of PJSC SIBUR Holding Kirill Shamalov
Already in 2011, he participated in the management program and had a 4.3% stake. Three years later, he acquired 17% from millionaire Timchenko, Vladimir Putin’s best friend. "Sibura". Shamalov had been planning this acquisition for a long time, since 2013, after his wedding with the president’s daughter. Analysts estimated the deal at $10 billion, for which the capitalist took out a loan from Gazprombank. As a result, the 32-year-old man owned a block of shares, which opened the way for him to international big business.
Personal life
The world was shocked by the news of the breakup of the oligarch's relationship with Katerina Tikhonova (Putin's daughter), but a wealthy man immediately found a replacement for her in the role of Zhanna Volkova. This is indicated by several dozen common photographs of a rich man with a young girl. According to journalists from popular magazines, they identified a girl with her sister Diana Dementyeva in St. Moritz, but the Russian government official was not among them. Katerina did not stay on vacation for long; sources say that the man proposed to her and they are preparing for the wedding.
Zhanna Volkova herself was married to an influential young man, and they have a son together. But he started having serious problems at work and the family moved to Monaco. It was difficult for the child to be in an unusual climate and the woman and her son had to leave, and their marriage broke up. After some time, Zhanna met Kirill.
Shamalov now
At the moment, Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov has a 3.9% stake in Sibur. By the end of 2017, in December, he was elected as a permanent member of the company's board. Then the board of directors of the company changed its decision and made him a member of the board for a term from the moment of election until February 5, 2019. The millionaire himself refused to be the owner of the Sibur company when he became its second shareholder. But still, he remained on the board of directors. No one from the company is commenting on why he resigned from the board, and he also cannot give reasons for his departure.
State
Putin's former son-in-law and owner of the Sibur holding and many shares is a dollar billionaire. That's what they called him during his first successful deal. According to analysts and specialists, the capitalist's fortune exceeds one billion dollars. This is true, he entered the Forbes list with a capital of 1.2 billion dollars. Neither the oligarch himself nor his representatives comment on such a large fortune.
But everyone understands that with the existing profitable points, it is possible to have such money. After all, the man had been working since university, with little help from his influential father and no less influential father-in-law, the president.
Kirill Shamalov, member of the board of Sibur
Kirill Nikolaevich Shamalov is a money tycoon who has worked for his own benefit since his student years. He did not really accept financial help from his influential capitalist father. He purposefully pursued his dream - to become a dollar tycoon, and he achieved this goal. His life is always surrounded by rumors and gossip, to which he does not react. He was married to an enviable Russian bride, the president's daughter - Ekaterina Tikhonova(mother's maiden name), but unfortunately their marriage was dissolved. During his married life, thanks to his father-in-law, he acquired a decent business, which brings him prosperity.
In 2004, he graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a degree in jurisprudence.
And he turned from a big businessman back into a hired manager.A former major shareholder of the petrochemical company Sibur, Kirill Shamalov, divorced Vladimir Putin’s youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova, Bloomberg has found out. During the marriage, the son of Putin's friend and co-owner of Rossiya Bank Nikolai Shamalov managed to become the youngest billionaire in Russia.
- The agency's sources do not say when exactly the divorce was filed. And this is important: in August, Donald Trump signed a law expanding sanctions against Russia. It also contained a demand to form a blacklist of businessmen and members of their families close to the Kremlin.
- The list is due to be published next week. After the law was signed, it became known about several wealthy Russians at once - for example, Roman Abramovich.
- Shamalov and Tikhonova got married in February 2013, and the wedding was celebrated at the Igora ski resort, owned by another family friend, Yuri Kovalchuk, Reuters wrote.
- Shortly before this, Shamalov, who worked at Sibur as vice president for business development, received 4.3% of the shares of the petrochemical company as part of the option program.
- In 2014, having taken out a loan from Gazprombank, Shamalov bought from another friend of Vladimir Putin, Gennady Timchenko, a 17.3% stake in Sibur for $1.7 billion. The terms of this loan have always been a secret. RBC wrote about some details of this transaction (and about other businesses of the Shamalov family). As a result, in 2016, 34-year-old Shamalov became the youngest member of the Russian Forbes list with a fortune of $1.3 billion.
- But already in April 2017, Shamalov sold 17% of Sibur to its largest shareholder Leonid Mikhelson. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed; Vedomosti then calculated that Shamalov could earn $100 million (including dividends) from the purchase and sale of shares in the company. The deal looked very strange and unexpected, because shortly before the sale, Shamalov said that he decided to “focus on the petrochemical industry” and was ready to increase his stake in the future.
- Three Bloomberg sources claim that Shamalov did not earn anything at all from Sibur shares - the asset belonged to him only as the holder of “a kind of trust” while he was a member of the Putin family. These agreements were canceled as soon as Shamalov and Tikhonova divorced, the agency claims.
- Parting with the Putin family was not the loss of everything for Shamalov. His fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, is estimated at approximately $800 million, and his main asset remains a 3.9% stake in Sibur worth about $500 million.
Kirill Shamalov left Vladimir Putin’s family, returned his dowry and went to the socialite Zhanna Volkova.
The personal life of the children of the country's first person is hidden from prying eyes, but not from Western media holdings. It is from their messages that we can judge that their family life is far from idyllic. Yesterday, Bloomberg, citing its sources, reported that Vladimir Putin’s daughter, head of the Innopraktika fund Katerina Tikhonova, broke up with Kirill Shamalov, a member of the board of the petrochemical company Sibur. When exactly this happened and whether the divorce took place officially, the agency’s interlocutors did not specify. Back in April 2017, Shamalov sold a 20 percent stake in Sibur, and the buyer was Leonid Mikhelson, chairman of the company’s board of directors. Katerina Tikhonova also lost one of her assets: the alleged divorce coincided with the liquidation of the Interdisciplinary Initiatives in the Field of Natural Sciences and Humanities foundation, which she owned. As Ruspres previously reported, the foreign agency Reuters also reported for the first time about Tikhonova’s relationship with Putin.
Kirill Shamalov was born in 1982. In 2015, while still a student, Shamalov got a job at Gazprom as chief legal adviser for legal support of the company’s foreign economic activities. He later graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University and in 2005 became the leading legal adviser in the legal department of Gazprombank. Disillusioned with jurisprudence, Shamalov got a job in the Russian government apparatus in the department of economics and finance - in the department dealing with state property.
In 2008, Shamalov became vice president of the petrochemical company Sibur for administrative business support. He was 26 years old. Since then, Shamalov’s entire career has been connected with Sibur.
Like his entire family, Shamalov is originally from St. Petersburg. His father Nikolai is an old acquaintance of Vladimir Putin, with whom he founded the Ozero dacha cooperative in the early 1990s. Nikolai Shamalov owns almost 10% of the shares of Rossiya Bank, which is under American sanctions due to the fact that it belongs to Putin’s entourage.
The career of Nikolai Shamalov’s other son, Yuri, is connected with the same companies in which his younger brother Kirill worked. Since the early 2000s, Yuri has been a member of the board of directors of Sibur and held senior positions in Gazprom and Gazprombank. He was the chairman of the Gazfond fund, which in 2008 was listed as the owner of Sibur. In 2010, Sibur was transferred to billionaires Gennady Timchenko and Leonid Mikhelson, and a loan for the purchase was provided to them by Gazprombank, which also owned a stake in the petrochemical company. Timchenko has been a close friend of Putin since the early 1990s, who fell under international sanctions due to his closeness to the Russian president; Mikhelson is one of the richest entrepreneurs in Russia; he has been collaborating with Timchenko for a long time.
As the top manager of Sibur, Kirill Shamalov received a total of 4.3% of the company's shares. In an interview with Kommersant in 2015, Shamalov said that the company’s managers were offered shares or cash bonuses as incentives, and he opted for securities.
Shamalov bought another large stake in Sibur in September 2014 (shortly before he resigned as vice president) from Gennady Timchenko - thus his share increased to 21.3%. Shamalov borrowed money for the deal from Gazprombank, where his brother Yuri worked as a top manager.
According to Reuters, negotiations on the sale of Gennady Timchenko’s share to Kirill Shamalov began shortly after Shamalov married the head of the Innopraktika fund, Katerina Tikhonova, in February 2013. Many media outlets, including Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as Oleg Kashin, called her the youngest daughter of Vladimir Putin; Neither Tikhonov nor the Kremlin officially confirms this information.
In April 2017, Shamalov sold shares of Sibur to the main owner of the company, Leonid Mikhelson. Why this was done is officially unknown. As Vedomosti wrote then, Shamalov could earn about $100 million from the deal. After the sale, he was left with 3.9% of Sibur shares, that is, approximately the share that he received as a top manager of the company over the years of work.
On January 25, 2018, Bloomberg found an explanation for the unexpected sale of shares. According to the publication’s sources, Shamalov received a large block of shares in Sibur at one time as a guarantee of trust from Vladimir Putin’s entourage. After breaking up with Katerina Tikhonova, he got rid of the shares and, according to the publication’s sources, did not earn anything from it. Another anonymous source close to Shamalov refutes this version: according to his information, the purchase of shares from Gennady Timchenko was simply a bad investment from which it was not possible to earn anything.
Shamalov’s fortune, even after the loss of a large stake in Sibur, is $800 million. In 2016, Kirill Shamalov was included in the ranking of the richest people in Russia according to Forbes. The publication estimated his fortune at $1.3 billion and placed him in 74th place in the ranking of the richest Russians, Meduza recalls.
According to the Ruspres agency, the wedding of Shamalov and Tikhonova was celebrated in February 2013 at the Igora ski resort, co-owned by the family of Yuri Kovalchuk. In total, according to the agency, one hundred people attended the ceremony. The entire ceremony took place in an atmosphere of secrecy: the resort staff were forbidden to mention it, and mobile phones were taken from the guests of the event.
What do we know about Kirill Shamalov’s new girlfriend
And we know a lot, because she is our constant heroine
Today Bloomberg published news that Katerina Tikhonova, who is called the daughter of Vladimir Putin, broke up with businessman Kirill Shamalov. And this may explain the fact that in April, Kirill also parted with his seventeen percent of Sibur shares (the main owner of the company, Leonid Mikhelson, became the new owner of the shares). At the same time, information appeared in the Open Media telegram channel that Kirill was now dating Zhanna Volkova. Finding evidence of this fact is not so difficult - Zhanna has several photos together on her open Facebook page.
According to Tatler, during the Christmas holidays, Zhanna and her twin sister Diana Dementieva were seen in St. Moritz, at the Badrutts’ Palace hotel in the company of friends. Kirill was not among them. But other sources close to the couple claim that he has already persuaded Zhanna to return to Moscow from London and the wedding is just around the corner.
Ten years ago, at the dawn of Tatler, in Russia, regular gossip column twins Zhanna and Diana actively appeared on our pages. For fun, they often practiced double dressing and said that there was a truly karmic connection between them: once, while in different places, they fainted at the same time.
Zhanna was married to a two-meter handsome man, tennis player, fashionista in a Burberry trench coat, Sergei Volkov, who, under the wise Vladimir Resin, oversaw financial policy in the capital's Construction Complex. The couple got married in 2004, the wedding took place in the Noble Nest restaurant. The bride shone in a Vivienne Westwood dress, the groom wore a suit from his friend, former Givenchy designer Oswald Boateng. After the celebration, the couple placed their wedding dresses in glass display cases. Zhanna once had the imprudence to demonstrate their contents on the pages of Vogue magazine, which caused some dissatisfaction with Sergei’s boss.
When Volkov began having more serious problems in his service, he and his wife and son hastily left for Monaco. But the local climate turned out to be disastrous for this union. A few years later the couple broke up. Sergei returned to Moscow, and Zhanna and her sister went to Foggy Albion. Where, apparently, a far from vague future awaited her.
Kirill Shamalov 
Zhanna Volkova
Zhanna Volkova with her sister Diana Dementieva
Photo from Facebook of Zhanna Volkova
Changes in Putin's family provide a glimpse inside Russia Inc
(Bloomberg) -- During his marriage and preparation for it, Kirill Shamalov became one of the richest people in the Russian Federation, not without the help of his father-in-law’s closest associates: President Vladimir Putin.
But according to four sources familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity, Shamalov's union with Putin's youngest daughter Katerina Tikhonova has already collapsed. The son of Putin’s longtime friend returned to one of the high positions in the same Sibur Holding PJSC, where he owned a stake worth several billion dollars, which coincided with his status as a member of Putin’s family.
The change in Shamalov's position gives an idea of the complex web of family, friendship and financial ties in the president's inner circle. How and on what basis benefits are distributed under Putin is the subject of close study by the United States, which is looking for new candidates to be included in sanctions lists for alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
Shamalov's path to owning a large stake in a petrochemical company began in 2012, around the time he was preparing to get married. Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko, the main owners of Sibur, promoted the vice president for administrative business support to deputy chairman of the board, and subsequently gave him 4.3 percent of the company's shares as remuneration. In 2014, with the help of a loan from Gazprombank JSC, Shamalov, who was then 32 years old, bought another 17 percent of the shares from Timchenko for about $2.2 billion.
In April last year, Sibur announced the sale by Shamalov of shares acquired from Timchenko to Mikhelson. The details and motives of the transaction were not disclosed, but a source familiar with its terms said that Shamalov did not gain anything from the sale, since he held the papers in a kind of trust as a member of the Putin family. That privilege ended when the relationship ended, three of the sources said.
It is precisely this kind of connection that is being increasingly studied by the Department of the Treasury and other US departments, where by January 29 a list of “oligarchs” must be submitted against whom sanctions measures may be introduced in the future. Representatives of the Russian elite are increasingly worried about the prospect of the US blacklist extending to their children, which will complicate their lives for many years.
A source close to Shamalov denied the connection between Sibur’s transactions and his marital status. The initial 4.3 percent stake was received by Shamalov as part of a stock incentive program for the company's top managers, and the purchase of the stake from Timchenko was a joint investment by Shamalov's son and father, the source said on condition of anonymity. The Shamalovs barely returned their investment because the deal did not live up to their expectations, the source said.
Shamalov declined to comment through his representative. Tikhonova's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, Gazprombank and Mikhelson. The press service of Sibur reported that Shamalov gradually moved up the career ladder in the company and received shares as part of an option program, the decision on which was made by shareholders taking into account the area of responsibility of managers. Timchenko's representative said that the stake was sold to Shamalov at the market price. It was not possible to contact Shamalov's father.
The separation from the Putin family was not a total loss for Shamalov, whose net worth is estimated at about $800 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index, and whose main asset is his remaining 3.9 percent stake in Sibur, valued at about $504 million.
The estimate does not take into account interest that Shamalov may have paid on the Gazprombank loan or changes in marital status. According to Russian laws, former spouses are entitled to half of all property acquired during the marriage, if a marriage contract was not signed.
The Kremlin so diligently protects the Putin family’s right to privacy that none of the officials with whom the authors of the article contacted even informally agreed to say whether Tikhonova’s divorce was official or the date of her wedding.
The media in the Russian Federation practically do not write about his daughters, 31-year-old Katerina and 32-year-old Maria, so their lives are mostly shrouded in mystery. Even their maiden names were different.
Oliver Stone
Putin, who has ruled Russia for 18 years and is preparing to run for office again in March, rarely speaks publicly about his family, citing security reasons. He informed a television journalist about his own divorce in 2013 after a ballet in the Kremlin Palace, which he attended with his ex-wife Lyudmila.
In 2015, Putin spoke more about his daughters than ever, albeit in general terms. Both of them studied at Russian universities and speak several languages, the president said. He also noted that they achieve good success at work, do not get involved in business or politics, and “do not interfere anywhere.” That same year, Tikhonova and Shamalov were at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the RBC newspaper reported.
There is a 2013 video of Tikhonova performing the dance, viewed more than 1.3 million times, on YouTube. It is also known that she helps manage an organization operating on the basis of Moscow State University, whose trustees include representatives of Gazprombank, Sibur and several companies directly controlled by the state.
Less is known about Maria, who, according to media reports, is engaged in endocrinology research in Moscow and is married to a Dutchman. For example, the Russian public was not aware of the couple's birth until Putin told Hollywood director Oliver Stone in a series of interviews last year that he had become a grandfather.
Presidential account
As for Shamalov, even if he is not directly connected to the Kremlin, he may still be at risk of sanctions from the United States.
His father, Nikolai Shamalov, was subject to sanctions by the European Union related to the conflict in Ukraine, which classified him as a member of an “influential group” in Putin’s entourage. Shamalov Sr. is a shareholder of AB Russia JSC, which was the first Russian company to fall under US restrictions. Timchenko, who was under sanctions when he sold a stake in Sibur to Kirill Shamalov, is also a co-owner of the St. Petersburg bank.
However, any sanctions from the United States that may threaten Shamalov Jr., a graduate of the same law school at St. Petersburg University as Putin, will most likely only strengthen his position in Russia. After Bank Rossiya was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department as the “personal bank” of high-ranking government officials, Putin ordered an account to be opened in his name and the presidential salary transferred to it.
Kirill Shamalov, the youngest billionaire in Russia, whose biography and nationality is of interest to the public. Now he is heard throughout the country. More information about Kirill Shamalov can be found in this article.
Biography
Shamalov Kirill Nikolaevich was born in 1982 in Leningrad. His father is a good friend of Vladimir Putin and co-owner of Rossiya Bank.
He studied at St. Petersburg State University to become a lawyer. He graduated from it in 2004. Managed to work at Gazprombank, Rosoboronexport, the government apparatus and Gazprom.
At his last place of work, Kirill Nikolaevich was involved in the promotion of gas motor fuel. In addition, thanks to him, they launched a program to convert public transport in Nizhny Novgorod to gas engine fuel.
In 2008, he received the position of vice president of Sibur. There he was involved in administrative support of the business.
In 2012, Kirill Nikolaevich became deputy chairman of the board of SIBUR LLC. He remained in this position until 2015. During this period, he became a member of the Board of Directors of RCC LLC, as well as SIBUR Holding.
For Shamalov, 2014 turned out to be quite fruitful. He made one of the largest business transactions, namely: he bought a 17% stake in Sibur from Gennady Timchenko. He was also the founder of the KDS-invest enterprise, which owns IT Service. Its main focus is IT development. In addition to all this, he is the full owner of Yauza 12.
Later, the media learned that Sibur's subsidiary NIPIgazpererabotka was selected by Gazprom as the general contractor. She was responsible for the construction of the Amur gas processing plant.
The actual price of the transaction was approximately 800 billion rubles. The subsidiary managed to save about 100 billion by optimizing construction costs.
The following year, a Chinese state-owned company acquired a 10% stake in Sibur. After evaluating the completed transaction, Shamalov was recognized as a dollar billionaire. He was also included in the Forbes magazine rating.
During the same period, Kirill Shamalov, most of whose biography is shrouded in secrets, created his own company called Ladoga Management to manage his assets. This company also makes money by looking for areas in which to invest (polymer processing, production of import-substituting products, engineering services). Despite all this, it does not compete with Sibura.
It is known that he was the second owner of the Sibur company after Leonid Mikhelson. Its shares accounted for 21.2%.
In the spring of 2017, he sold his shares to Mikhelson. According to Vedomosti, Shamalov could earn $100 million from this deal. But unfortunately, this step turned out to be wrong.
In January 2018, two versions appeared, explaining what happened in their own way. One of them said that the deal simply turned out to be unsuccessful. But the second one turned out to be much more interesting.
Shamalov created his own company called “Ladoga”
Unverified sources say that in fact the man received an impressive block of shares as a guarantee of trust from the family.
And after breaking up with the president’s daughter, he decided to get rid of them. What of this is true and what is rumor is still unknown. In any case, even after losing a large block of shares, his income is about 800 million dollars.
Roots
Almost nowhere is there reliable information about the nationality of Kirill Shamalov. Because of this, there are many rumors surrounding him. Of course, according to his passport he is Russian. But some residents of Russia are absolutely sure that he has Jewish roots.
Perhaps their opinion was based on the billionaire's appearance. But this is just an opinion and has nothing to do with the truth yet.
Personal life
Shamalov and got married in 2013. The wedding took place in the Leningrad region at the Igora resort. The future husband and wife arrived there on a sleigh. The staff and guests invited to the celebration were prohibited from talking about the event. They even demanded that we come without phones.
Nothing is known about any details of family life, since Vladimir Putin tries with all his might and capabilities to protect his family from communicating with the press. It has always been this way; for a long time no one even knew the names of the president’s children.
But on January 26, 2018, information appeared in the media that could not be hidden. The billionaire divorced Katerina.
But, apparently, Kirill Shamalov, whose nationality is of interest to the whole country, did not survive the divorce for long, since joint photos of him with his new lover appeared on the Internet, her name is Zhanna Vilkova. According to unofficial data, they are planning to get married in the near future.