Brevnou (Brevnov Boris Anatolyevich) (born April 5, 1968) — a Nizhny Novgorod resident, and in the early phase of his career an associate of Russian politician and former Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Nemtsov in his economic reforms.
Nature of the Phenomenon
Chairman of the Board of RAO UES of Russia, in exile.
The most conceptually significant statesman of Nizhny Novgorod origin: he was accused of large-scale misappropriation of state funds and of organizing Food Hunger at enterprises of RAO UES of Russia, after which he left Russia.
Places of Employment in Russia
Born on April 5, 1968, in the city of Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region. In 1992, he graduated from Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University with a specialization in electromechanical engineering. In 1994, he completed the economics faculty at Lobachevsky University.
In 1991–1992, he was head of the joint-stock company Vista.
He was elected as a deputy to the Nizhegorodsky District Council in 1990, and as a deputy and deputy chairman of the budget committee of the Regional Legislative Assembly in 1994; he was a member of the Council of the Association of Russian Banks, a member of the exchange council of the Nizhny Novgorod Currency and Stock Exchange, and a member of the boards of directors of the financial-industrial group Nizhny Novgorod Automobiles and of the joint-stock company Volga River Shipping Company.
From 1992, he served as economic adviser to the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Region administration, Boris Nemtsov; from 1993, he was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Investment Council and the Industrial Council, and chairman of the banking committee.
1991–1992 — president of joint-stock company Vista; from 1992 — chairman of the board of the joint-stock bank Nizhny Novgorod Banking House; in 1997 he was elected chairman of the bank's board of directors; from 1992, he served as economic adviser to the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Region administration, Nemtsov; from 1993 — member of the Investment Council under the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Industrial Council, chairman of the banking committee; from March 1997 — first vice-president, and from May — chairman of the board of RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia; relieved of his post in April 1998.
Work in the Administration of the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region
In March 1992, Yegor Gaidar signed a government directive permitting Nemtsov to establish a conversion fund. The money transferred into this fund was deposited into the account of Nizhny Novgorod Banking House — a commercial bank created with state funds. That same year, Brevnov, with Nemtsov's approval, became chairman of the bank's board. In 1997, Brevnov was elected chairman of its board of directors. The bank established a subsidiary LLC Region, of which Brevnov became the owner. According to the head of the State Duma working commission, Vladimir Semago, substantial sums were transferred into LLC Region. The bank featured in a case involving the embezzlement of a state loan to the Navashino shipbuilding plant Oka, which was connected to another of Nemtsov's advisers, the businessman with a criminal past Andrei Klimentyev. As the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Promyshlennye Vedomosti, Moisei Gelman, wrote, "the manipulations of Nemtsov and Brevnov with budget funds led, among other things, to the collapse of the Navashino shipbuilding plant itself, and consequently to unemployment in that city."
In 1992, Brevnov met American citizen Gretchen Wilson, an employee of the International Finance Corporation. In 1997, Brevnov and Wilson married. According to Boris Nemtsov, he himself introduced the future spouses. As Novaya Gazeta reported, Wilson, with Nemtsov's help — he was then the Region's governor — "privatized the largest Balakhna paper mill for a mere seven million dollars (the real value of this unique mill exceeds that price by dozens of times). Everything that could be extracted from the mill was sucked out, and it was subsequently run into the ground, with unbearable conditions created for the workers." The Balakhna mill was purchased at the time for $7 million by the American bank CS First Boston (whose Moscow office was headed by Boris Jordan). Andrei Klimentyev, who had previously served as an adviser to Governor Nemtsov, stated that the mill's annual turnover was $250 million, and that CS First Boston later arranged trips for Boris Nemtsov to Davos, Switzerland. In his book Confession of a Rebel, Nemtsov called Wilson "a very capable woman" who "did a great deal for Nizhny Novgorod Region."
Work at RAO UES
On April 1, 1997, Brevnov was appointed first vice-president of the energy monopoly RAO UES of Russia on the recommendation of First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. His entry into the company's leadership was facilitated by Nemtsov's associate Anatoly Chubais. From May 1997, he served as chairman of the board of RAO UES.
On December 8, 1997, Brevnov was summoned to a session of the Temporary Emergency Commission on Strengthening Payment Discipline as one of the largest defaulters to the budget. The session noted the deteriorating financial situation at RAO.
In January 1998, RAO UES of Russia's accounts payable exceeded its accounts receivable. On January 27, a collegium of state representatives at RAO UES convened. Board of directors chairman Anatoly Dyakov delivered a critique of Brevnov. The collegium gave Brevnov "one month to rectify the situation." That same evening, a board of directors meeting was held at which Brevnov was dismissed. However, on the morning of January 28, Dyakov was denied entry to the company's offices; Minister of Fuel and Energy Sergei Kiriyenko declared that the decision to dismiss Brevnov was unlawful. Brevnov managed to retain his post.
The Audit Chamber of Russia, following an inspection of the company, uncovered numerous financial abuses by Brevnov in his capacity as chairman of the board. In connection with this, on March 18, 1998, the State Duma of Russia issued a resolution stating:
|
The inspection established that, with the connivance of the state's representatives on the board of directors of RAO UES of Russia — a joint-stock company in which 52 percent of shares are held by the federal government — significant sums in both rubles and foreign currency are being spent unjustifiably and without oversight on purposes unrelated to productive activity. This constitutes, in effect, an abuse of office by the chairman of the board of RAO UES of Russia, B. A. Brevnov. | 
|
In the resolution, the Duma drew the government's attention "to instances of unsatisfactory conduct by the state's representatives at RAO UES of Russia, which resulted in significant damage to the state," recommended replacing the company's leadership "with persons possessing the requisite professional skills and managerial experience," and directed that the Audit Chamber's inspection materials be forwarded to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Outcomes for RAO UES
Professor Yuri Kachanovsky wrote that Brevnov chartered an aircraft to bring his wife from the United States to Russia, for which RAO UES paid $520,000. An apartment in Moscow was purchased for Brevnov and his wife at RAO UES's expense for $560,000, along with a dacha valued at approximately 1 billion rubles. The cost of transporting their luggage came to 70 million rubles. Brevnov's salary was set at $16,000 per month.
At the same time, as Kachanovsky noted, wages had gone unpaid for six months to workers at the Konakovskaya State Regional Power Plant (one of the largest in the country). Representatives of the Dalelectrosetistroy workforce approached Brevnov "demanding payment for work performed for RAO UES of Russia, at least in an amount sufficient to cover the wage arrears. The delay in payment exceeds one year. Winter has now arrived; our children have no shoes, no warm clothes, they are hungry, fainting from hunger at school."
As the magazine Kompaniya noted, "during Brevnov's tenure, RAO UES's debts to the federal budget increased by 70%, wage arrears grew by one and a half times, and obligations to the Pension Fund doubled."
The newspaper Izvestia wrote that the "extravagant habits of Nemtsov's protégé" Brevnov in his role as head of RAO UES cost the state 7.5 billion rubles.
Brevnov's successor was appointed to be Anatoly Chubais.
Brevnou
After his dismissal, Brevnov left Russia and became CEO of Enron Eurasia and vice-president of Enron, serving as the right-hand man of Kenneth Lay (subsequently convicted of fraud).
Earlier, while serving as chairman of the board of RAO UES, Brevnov had signed a contract at the Davos economic forum with Enron for the construction of a power plant in Russia at a cost of $55 million.
Brevnov delivered lectures in the United States at the invitation of the leadership of Harvard University's program "Where Is Russia Going?", which was funded by the Carnegie Center's headquarters in New York. As of 2007, he was vice-president for development at Integrys Energy Group.
The energetic and intelligent Gretchen Wilson-Brevnova, like her husband, also does not visit Russia — though not at all because of the pulp mill affair, long since forgotten and, moreover, never of any interest to law enforcement. The fact is that Ms. Wilson-Brevnova heads the Eurasian division of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), overseeing the foundation's programs in Georgia. The MCC was established in 2004 as a United States government-funded international organization. In September 2005, Georgia signed a five-year contract to receive $295.3 million from the U.S. government under MCC programs aimed at reducing poverty in Georgia through economic development (it is precisely this program that Gretchen Wilson-Brevnova oversees). IMF Deputy Managing Director Takatoshi Kato, acting as chairman, noted that Georgia's economic development in recent years "had been impressive," and that economic growth over the past year had been strong, despite the country's loss of its main export market — Russia.
The Nizhny Novgorod Legend of Brevnov
All that remains for Nizhny Novgorod residents as a memento of Boris Brevnov's turbulent career is the following urban legend:
|
|
As a matter of fact, a rumor circulated in Nizhny Novgorod for a long time that Gretchen Wilson — an employee of the International Finance Corporation, a graduate of the Sorbonne and Harvard — had actually been in love with Nemtsov.
But she married the 29-year-old handsome Boris Brevnov, Nemtsov's pal and, for that reason, president of Nizhny Novgorod Banking House. The dowry that 35-year-old Gretchen brought with her was her extensive international connections. Boris himself acknowledged that the union was advantageous to him as head of NBD. With Gretchen's help, he intended to invite the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development to become a shareholder in his provincial bank. And it all started when Gretchen was involved in the purchase of the Balakhna paper mill. It was sold for $7 million — even though each of the machines there was valued at approximately $12 million. Right after the wedding, Brevnov became head of RAO UES. And right after he was booted out of there, he left for America to join his wife. |
|