Dmitry Mazepin

Born April 18, 1968 in Minsk , Belarusian [1] , in 1985 he graduated from the Minsk Suvorov Military School . Later he trained as a military translator . In 1986-1988 he served in Afghanistan as an interpreter. After graduating in 1992 from the Faculty of International Economic Relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia , he worked in the financial sector of Russia and Belarus , held senior positions in large Russian companies and government agencies.

Since 2007, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uralchem . [2]

In 2008, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Institute of Economics and Management with a degree in Organizational Management. In the same university in 2012 he defended his Ph.D. thesis on the topic "Formation of a methodological approach to managing the fund potential of an oil-producing enterprise." [3]

Divorced. Has four children[ source not specified 251 days ] . Son Nikita is a Formula 1 driver who made his debut in 2021 .

• 1992-1993 - Infistrakh insurance company, CEO.

• 1993-1995 - CB " Belarusbank " (Belarus), deputy director of the branch.

• 1995 - JSCB Falcon, First Deputy Chairman of the Board, Acting Chairman of the Board.

• 1996-1997 - VAO Raznoimport, Deputy General Director.

• 1997 - Vice President of the Tyumen Oil Company

• 1997-1998 - Executive Director of the oil-producing enterprise Nizhnevartovskneftegaz , which is part of TNK.

• 1998-1999 - Deputy Chairman of the Board of Flora-Moscow Bank.

• 1999-2001 - Advisor to the Chairman, Deputy Chairman of the RFBR .

• 2001 - General Director of the coal company Kuzbassugol.

• 2002 - First Deputy Chairman of the RFBR.

• 2002-2003 - President of AK Sibur .

• since 2007 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uralchem .

• since 2014 — Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC Uralkali

He was appointed head of Sibur a few months after the arrest of the previous head of the company, Yakov Goldovsky . The main task set before Mazepin by the leadership of Gazprom was the return of Sibur to the operational control of the parent company and its withdrawal from a deep crisis. After spending a little more than six months as head of the company, in February 2003 he was dismissed. For several months of work at Sibur, Mazepin managed to solve the most pressing issues: pay off months-long wage arrears, pay off debts to power engineers and launch idle enterprises of the holding. In the short time that Mazepin worked at Sibur, there was a significant increase in the processing of associated petroleum gas at several GPPs at once .[4]

After leaving Sibur, Mazepin decided to go into business in the chemical industry. In 2004, the Constructive Bureau company, controlled by Mazepin, acquired a controlling stake in OAO Kirovo-Chepetsky Chemical Plant at an open auction by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research . Initially, Mazepin claimed that he was acting in the interests of Gazprom, but in the end he became the owner of the plant himself. [3]

According to some media reports, the assets on which Mazepin's own business was built were withdrawn from Gazprom. [5]

In 2005, he headed the board of directors of the plant. Later, the Constructive Bureau acquired stakes in Perm JSC Halogen and Minudobreniya, Berezniki JSC Azot, Volgograd Khimprom ( transferred to Renova in 2006 ). In 2007, on the basis of the assets of the Constructive Bureau holding, the Open Joint Stock Company United Chemical Company Uralchem was created.

In June 2008, he acquired a 75.01% stake in OAO Voskresensk Mineral Fertilizers, in 2011—100% of the shares. [6] In the same year, the enterprises of the Kirovo-Chepetsk Combine and Halogen (Perm) were merged into JSC " Halopolymer ". In 2015, he left the board of directors of Halopolimer. [7]

In December 2013, Mazepin, together with Mikhail Prokhorov , bought a controlling stake in Uralkali OJSC from Suleiman Kerimov and became the owner of 19.99% of the shares [8] The management of the enterprise passed into the hands of Mazepin. [9] [10] In March 2014, he became Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. [11] .

Since 2009 - Member of the Board of Directors of the All-Russian Swimming Federation . In the same year, Uralchem became a permanent partner of the WFTU, as well as a sponsor of the Swimming Federations of the Kirov Region and the Perm Territory.

In April 2012, he became a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region.

Mazepin is the chairman of the Russian-Belarusian Business Council, established in 2012 by the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry . Among its goals is the expansion of business contacts between Belarus and Russia, the promotion of Russian business to the markets of Belarus. The council included representatives of a number of large Russian companies and banks: Rostec , Sberbank , VTB , Lukoil . [12]

In May 2014, Mazepin terminated his deputy powers in the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region due to high professional workload. [13] .

On May 27, 2015, Mazepin, as chairman of the board of directors, signed a social partnership agreement with the Government of the Kirov Region [14] .

In August 2020, against the background of mass protests following the results of the presidential elections in Belarus , on behalf of the Russian-Belarusian Business Council (of which he is the chairman), Mazepin addressed President Alexander Lukashenko and urged him to start negotiations with opponents. [15] [16]

In 2010, Forbes magazine included Mazepin in the list of 100 richest businessmen in Russia, estimating his fortune at $950 million [17] , which is equivalent to 70th place in the Russian rating and 833rd in the world list. In 2015, he rose to 63rd place in the Russian segment of the Forbes rating, which estimated his fortune at $ 1.3 billion. In 2017, according to Forbes magazine, the fortune increased to $7.7 billion. [18] .

In 2012, Mazepin donated $0.7 million of his personal funds to the purchase of cars for families with many children in the Kirov Region [19] .

In 2013, at the initiative of Mazepin, Uralchem presented school buses to 19 educational institutions for orphans and children left without parental care, in which more than 1,700 children are brought up [20] .

In 2013, the Russian Forbes included Mazepin in the TOP-7 rating of the leading Russian billionaire philanthropists [21] . Over the year, the financing of social and charitable projects of the URALCHEM company headed by him more than doubled - from more than 90 million rubles in 2011 to 232.3 million rubles in 2012 [22] .

The first serious conflict in which Dmitry Mazepin is mentioned was the struggle between the United Machine-Building Plants and the management of Krasnoye Sormovo JSC for the shipyard: in 2000, Mazepin headed the board of directors of the enterprise. [24]

In the mid-2000s, Mazepin was drawn into a conflict over the assets of Gazprom , which were sold at the end of 2002 by the director of Mezhregiongaz , Nikolai Gornovsky, bypassing the management of Gazprom. Some of these assets ended up in the ownership of Mazepin after some time. In 2006, Gazprom returned the assets through the court, in particular, 18% of the shares of AHC Azot [25] [26] [27] .

Since 2007, Mazepin has been regularly accused of attempting a raider takeover of Togliattiazot OJSC. ToAZ head Sergei Makhlai accused Mazepin of personal threats against him. According to Makhlai, Mazepin threatened him with criminal prosecution if he did not agree to Mazepin's conditions for the sale of the enterprise [28] [29] [30] [31] . However, Uralchem rejected these accusations as slander, discrediting the honor and dignity of the head of the company, Dmitry Mazepin, and discrediting the business reputation of Uralchem [32] .

In May 2014, Mazepin resigned as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region . Some media linked this to a political scandal: Mazepin was accused of being involved in the production of a fake political video directed against competitors, which was shown on REN TV . [33] [34] [35] According to other sources, this decision was influenced by the information that appeared in some media that Mazepin was doing business in Ukraine in the context of an acute political Russian-Ukrainian conflict [36] . In Uralchem, the reason for the early termination of deputy powers in the Kirov regional legislative assembly was the high degree of workload [37] .

At the end of 2015, an 18-second video appeared on the Internet, which depicted the governor of the Odessa region, Mikhail Saakashvili and Dmitry Mazepin. The text accompanying the video claimed that the talk between them was about the sale of the Odessa Port Plant . This episode caused a scandal between the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and Mikheil Saakashvili, which took place at a meeting of the National Council for Reforms in December 2015. However, both the Uralchem press service and Saakashvili's press secretary denied both the very fact of their meeting and their acquaintance in general [38] .

On June 7, 2021, Mazepin stated that he had nothing to do with financing the Belarusian opposition telegram channel Nexta . On June 3, the Belarusian ONT channel aired an interview with an opposition journalist, former Nexta editor-in-chief Roman Protasevich , who was detained after an emergency landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk. During the interview, Protasevich said that Nexta was sponsored by a company of a well-known Russian oligarch, which is "connected with the Urals and mining." He did not name either the company itself or the name of the oligarch, but there were suggestions in the media that it was about Mazepin. [39]