Pugachev talked about his communication with Putin, about his entourage, in particular about Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, about Patrushev’s presidential ambitions, about Shoigu’s passion for shamans, about Federation Council Chairman Valentina Matvienko and why she was considered Putin’s successor, about the “maniac of the idea of the Russian world”, aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, about the “petty crook” Vladislav Surkov, who was previously Putin’s assistant, about Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the prospects for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, the Russian army, about why the Russians support the war against Ukraine and how it could end, as well as Putin’s health.
Pugachev was born in 1963 in Kostroma in the family of a military man. He spent his childhood in Moscow, in 1974 the family moved to Leningrad. According to Pugachev, he graduated from several universities, including the University of Knowledge Methodology in Moscow. An economist by education.
Since the 1980s, he has been engaged in entrepreneurial activity. In 1992, he founded Mezhprombank, which later became one of the largest banks in Russia (in 2010, the license was revoked from the institution due to violations of the law and inability to satisfy the requirements of creditors).
In the 1990s, Pugachev was a close associate of the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, and was one of the leaders of his campaign headquarters in 1996.
In the early 1990s, he met Putin in Leningrad, but, according to Pugachev, they became friends already in Moscow in 1996. In the media, Pugachev was called “the Kremlin’s banker” and “Putin’s banker.”
In 2001-2011, Pugachev was a senator of the Russian Federation from Tuva.
According to “Kommersant”, Pugachev owned shipbuilding enterprises, luxury real estate in Russia and Europe, including the Chateau de Garo in Nice, the media in France. In 2008 Forbes estimated Pugachev’s fortune at $2 billion. After Mezhprombank was declared bankrupt, the businessman began to lose his assets.
In the early 1990s, Pugachev lived in the United States, then moved to France, and later returned to Russia. In 2011, he left the Russian Federation, now lives in France, where he received citizenship.
In Russia, a criminal case has been initiated against Pugachev for embezzlement of funds from Mezhprombank. At home, he was arrested in absentia.
In 2015 Pugachev sued Russia for $10 billion to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. He accuses the Russian authorities of expropriating four of his assets. Later, the businessman increased the claims to $15 billion.
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