Yuriy Kovalchuk

Yury Valentinovich Kovalchuk (Russian: Юрий Валентинович Ковальчук, born July 251951, Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a Russian businessman and financier "reputed to be Putin's personal banker". [cite web|url=http://rfe.rferl.org/newsline/2008/03/1-RUS/rus-070308.asp|title=Russians make leap forward on global billionaires' list|publisher=Radio Liberty|date=March 7, 2008|accessdate=2008-05-10] The May 2008 issue of Russian Forbes listed him for the first time in its "Golden Hundred" of Russia's richest and introduced him and another new entrant to the "List", Gennady Timchenko, as "good acqaintances of Vladimir Putin." [ [http://www.reuters.com/article/sphereNews/idUSL234792120080423?sp=true&view=sphere Kremlin-linked tycoon eyes Russia media firm-report] reuters.com Apr 23, 2008.] The magazine placed him at number 53 (Russians only list) with estimated fortune of $1.900 million.

From 1987 to 1991 he was the First Deputy Director of Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute .

Since 2004 he is the Head of the Board of Directors of the Russia bank. He is also its largest shareholder. [ [http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2005/03/01/88331 Anna Shcherbakova. Interview with Mikhail Klishin, Director general of the Russia Bank.] Vedomosti #35(1316), pMarch 12005. (in Russian)] [ [http://www.anticompromat.ru/oligarhi/ppo.html The Origin of Putin's Oligarchy] by Vladimir Pribylovsky. Ms., October 112005. (in Russian)] [ [http://www.stockmap.spb.ru/company/3022/0/ The Russia Bank] , Stockmap.spb.ru]

Since the early 1990s, Kovalchuk owns a dacha in Solovyovka, Priozersky District of the Leningrad region, which is located on the eastern shore of the Komsomolskoye lake on the Karelian Isthmus near St. Petersburg. His neighbours there are Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Yakunin, Andrei Fursenko, Sergey Fursenko, Viktor Myachin, Vladimir Smirnov and Nikolay Shamalov. On November 10, 1996, together they instituted the co-operative society Ozero (the Lake) which united their properties (See Ozero). [http://anticompromat.ru/oligarhi/ppo.html] [http://www.lib.ru/HISTORY/FELSHTINSKY/naslednik.txt]

His elder brother, Mikhail Kovalchuk, is the Scientific Secretary of the Council for Science and High Technologies attached to the President of the Russian Federation. Despite pressure from Putin, the Russian Academy of Sciences rejected Mikhail Kovalchuk's application for full membership of the Academy in May 2008. This was seen as the first major blow to Putin's authority since coming to power in 2000 as Putin had wanted to appoint him President of the RAS. [cite news |first=Adrian |last=Blomfield |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Russian scientists reject Vladimir Putin ally |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2050057/Russian-scientists-reject-Vladimir-Putin-ally.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |publisher= |date=2008-05-30 |accessdate=2008-06-01 ]

References and notes

External links

* [http://www.anticompromat.ru/kovalch1/kovalch1bio.html Biography] (in Russian)
* [http://www.csr-nw.ru/content/news/default.asp?shmode=2&ids=2&ida=983 The country of opportunities. Interview with Yuriy Kovalchuk] , Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, July 92005 (in Russian).
* [http://www.vedomosty.spb.ru/2001/arts/spbved-2523-art-15.html Gaining unity. Interview with Yuriy Kovalchuk] , Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti #133 (2523), July 252001 (in Russian).
* [http://www.kommersant.ru/photo-gallery.html?id=731400&isid=10990&pics_id=98715&keepgallery=571 a picture of Kovalchuk]