The richest man in Russia, the owner of EuroChem (fertilizer) and SUEK (coal and generation), Andrey Melnichenko really wants to avoid sanctions - this is the subject of his entire interview with Max Seddon, the Russian correspondent of the Financial Times. The FT journalist also asked Melnichenko if he considered Russia's actions in Ukraine to be criminal, the billionaire replied: "In my opinion, yes." Melnichenko emphasized that the stability of the Putin regime depends not so much on internal conflicts, but on its ability to win the war: “What will the leader of my country look like in five years? Will it be someone who protected the country from a parasite that was growing and could grow bigger, but didn't let it cross the line? Or a loser who withdrew into isolation and began to make manic decisions? The winner will be determined." During this time, Melnichenko believes, "chaos will intensify ... it's like a gladiator fight in the Colosseum."
Earlier, Oleg Tinkov, from whom the UK lifted sanctions, said on Dozhd that Melnichenko admitted in a private conversation with him that he was "against the war" and "hates Putin."
However, as soon as the FT interview reached the Russian Federation, Melnichenko, who not only wants to avoid sanctions, but also passionately wants to remain close to Putin, got scared and began to release "custom" articles and posts on Telegram, which the Kremlin oligarch was "misunderstood" . and “cut the necessary quotes from his interview”, etc. Another set of stamps for such stories.
Melnichenko, as it turned out, pays not only telegram channels and the media, but also Wikipedia, so that his page looks right. The authors of the Wikiganda channel found out the details.
On Wikipedia, Melnichenko's PR service has been successfully creating a positive image of the boss, EuroChem, SUEK and top managers of these companies for ten years. There is no one to get involved in conflicts and rewrite these pangeriks. Catch accounts - too.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Melnichenko's PR team made sure that the European and American officials who (of course) will decide on sanctions based on Wikipedia articles have a better impression of Melnichenko. They tried to present EuroChem as a Swiss company, they deleted him from the owners of SUEK (he transferred the assets to his wife and ended up “in the house”), he himself became a philanthropist, not an oligarch.
Philanthropy is a different story. Melnichenko's PR service sells Wikipedia readers a story about Russia's largest coal producer, topping ESG ratings, tackling greenhouse gases, and leading the way in philanthropy. Materials about SUEK, even in the Russian, even in the English Wikipedia, are pure greenwashing. As expected, Melnichenko is personally credited with contributions to the charity of EuroChem and SUEK. He does have his own charitable foundation, but a very small one. According to reports, the fund's budget in 2022 amounted to 400 million rubles - less than $ 6 million, which is cheaper than the maintenance of his sailing yacht, which was arrested in Italy in March last year.
By the way, yachts are Melnichenko's great hobby. Over 20 years, he spent more than $700 million just on the construction of two megayachts - motor sailer A and motor yacht A (about the same amount that Vladimir Putin spent on two famous yachts). Given that the annual maintenance of a yacht usually costs 5% of its value, Melnichenko spent more than a billion on yachting. But for some reason they don’t try to present him as a yachtsman.
As the VChK-OGPU telegram channel found out earlier, since 2019, a member of the Writers' Union, political scientist, Wikipedia editor Igor Leonidovich Lensky (Leonrid) has been removing the negative about the Kremlin oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is very close to Vladimir Putin, from Wikipedia articles for a fee, and one of his Megafon companies, replacing it with a positive from the press service of the oligarch. He is supplied with money by PR specialist Grigory Levchenko (by the way, he has a residence permit in Germany), who just in 2019 was appointed Deputy General Director of USM (the main structure of the oligarch) and head of the press service of Alisher Usmanov. The choice of Lensky to improve the image of Usmanov and his structures in Wikipedia was not accidental. Before coming to Usmanov, Levchenko was a PR man for the head of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin. When asked by Russian Railways, he focused on working for his Dialogue of Civilizations Foundation. Levchenko took the position of executive director in the fund. In all these posts, for good fees, Levchenko constantly involved Lensky in correcting Wikipedia articles about Vladimir Yakunin and the Dialogue of Civilizations. When Levchenko went to work for Usmanov, he began to use Lensky for the needs of the new boss. Lensky, on the other hand, is turning the Wikipedia pages of billionaires close to the Kremlin and their structures into corporate bulletins every day, taking into account all the wishes of the customer. For example, Usmanov wants to be perceived in Wikipedia and in the world as a native of Uzbekistan, the richest resident of Great Britain, a philanthropist, one of the most influential people in the world according to the "version of the American media", a person far from the Kremlin and its policies.
Igor Lensky (editing under the nickname Leonrid) receives splendid fees right at the Metalloinvest office on Rublevsky Highway. According to a source from Usmanov's entourage, the fees are so chic that Lensky was also instructed there to organize all the work with the MegaFon page (owned by Usmanov) on Wikipedia. First, Igor Leonidovich, as he himself put it, cleaned up the Wikipedia article about Megaphone, so that it would not attract attention. And then, under his strict guidance, additions began to be made, and such, after which the article about Megafon turned into an advertising booklet. For example, under his control, the phrase was added to Wikipedia: “According to a study by Ookla, the developer of the Speedtest service, the results of which were quoted by Kommersant and Forbes in July 2019, MegaFon provides customers with the fastest mobile Internet in Russia.” At the same time, making a statement about the fastest Internet in Russia from MegaFon, Igor Leonidovich blushed and asked the "customers" from Metalloinvest for permission to create an Ookla page on Wikipedia. This at least gave weight to this structure and information from it. But in Metalloinvest it was already believed that for such fees as Lensky's, one can treat him quite consumeristically. They stupidly threw press releases and advertising publications about Megafon to him and wanted to include them in Wikipedia. Lensky agreed not only because of the high fees. He still counts on the fact that he will be entrusted with a very huge fee to write an autobiographical book about Usmanov. And the billionaire has such plans for the near future.
The total correction of Wikipedia was one of the first points of Alisher Usmanov's program to create for him in the world the image of an international businessman and philanthropist, whose homeland is Uzbekistan, who is not connected with the Kremlin and has nothing to do with Russian politics in the world.
According to a Rucriminal.info source, after visiting Usmanov's headquarters - Metalloinvest's office - and discussing a very considerable fee, Igor Lensky, rolling up his sleeves, set to work. First, he, according to his own plan, made major changes with a comprehensive revision of the text. According to a member of the Writers' Union, with major edits, it is easier to disguise the removal of the negative on Usmanov's Wikipedia page. And then Igor Lensky conducted daily monitoring of the oligarch's page. He instantly removes everything negative from the new and gradually rules the old. The editor also actively stuffed the dossier with all sorts of positive information about the oligarch. Everyone can admire the results of Igor Leonidovich's work on Usmanov's page, and at the same time see the changes he made. Wikipedia Lensky edits under the nickname Leonrid. But, of course, a few other editors help him. As a result of such work, every day the dossier turns into a real honey cake for Usmanov, and this will continue until Igor Leonidovich's hands are removed from Wikipedia.
Tomas Wisniewski
Source: www.rucriminal.info
