Chichvarkin Evgeny Alexandrovich is a well-known Russian businessman, former co-owner of Euroset. In 2011, Forbes magazine included him in the rating of the most unusual entrepreneurs - eccentrics, eccentrics and extravagances.
Childhood and studies
Evgeny Chichvarkin, whose biography is described in this article, was born in Moscow in 1974. The boy's father worked first in civil, and then in passenger aviation (total experience - 40 years). Mom worked in the Ministry of Commerce as an economist-engineer.
In 1991-1996, the young man traded in clothing markets. In parallel, he was educated at the Academy of Management, specializing in motor transport. In 1996, Evgeny graduated from the university and entered graduate school, having studied there for another two years. Chichvarkin did not defend his dissertation. In one of his interviews, he said that he did not even come up with a topic.
Euroset
In 1997, Evgeny Chichvarkin, together with his friend Timur Artemyev, opened the Euroset company. The idea of opening a mobile phone salon belonged to Timur. Eugene himself simply liked to sell, and the variety of goods did not matter to him. Later, the media wrote about Artemiev and Chichvarkin as co-owners of Euroset. But nowhere was information about the size of the share of each of them disclosed.
Extension
From the very beginning, Euroset focused on retail sales. Every year the company gradually expanded. In 1999, large-scale advertising began. But the real rapid growth of the company occurred after the introduction of a new development strategy. The basis was a decrease in cell phone prices. By 2002, the number of outlets increased to 11. Yevgeny Chichvarkin opened more than 100 stores. Every year their number has been constantly growing. So in 2003, 117 stores were opened, in 2004 there were already more than 800.
From 2001 to 2004, Euroset entered into contracts with vendors and officially became a partner of such brands as Pantec, Sagem, Philips, Sony Ericsson, Siemens, Samsung, Motorola and "Elji". Working directly with manufacturers and obtaining the most favorable terms during negotiations, the company continues to promote a strategy of low prices.
In 2003, Evgeny Chichvarkin took up the development of the regions in earnest. This resulted in improved economic performance and business growth in Russian cities. The national retailer in the regional market ensured not only the growth of the base of mobile operators and interest in cellular communication, but also contributed to the emergence of real competition, increasing the professionalism of other retail chains and creating jobs.
New round of activity
At the beginning of 2004, Euroset launched DECT phones, MP3 players and cameras. In October, it was issued in the amount of 1 billion rubles. In the same year, the company's branches appeared in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The 1000th anniversary salon of the company was opened in Grozny on December 7, 2004.
The main activities of Euroset were: retail trade in cellular and personal audio, digital cameras and accessories. The company also connected to telecom operators and provided information services. The number of employees of the company reached 30 thousand. About 45 million people visited Euroset salons every month. In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin received the Person of the Year award in the Retail Business Director category. Since 2005, Euroset began to cooperate with Nokia.
Scandal
Also in 2005, the company acquired the Voronezh "Salon Network" and "Techmarket". This allowed Euroset to become the largest company retail in your segment. At the same time, there was a scandal related to a batch of contraband phones detained at customs. Law enforcement agencies became interested in Euroset. Yevgeny Chichvarkin told the media that in this way they are trying to “crush” his company, and all accusations of smuggling are pure lies. In August 2006, law enforcement agencies closed the case for lack of corpus delicti.
New plans
In 2006, the number of stores reached 3150. And a year later, this figure increased to 5156. Communication stores were represented in 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine. Naturally, the company's immediate plans included an IPO. Chichvarkin also planned to open a hypermarket.
In 2007, many media spoke about the intention of Euroset to acquire its own bank and enter the relevant market. In order to stand out from the competition, Chichvarkin even came up with the name "Ebank". Most journalists noted the originality of Eugene.
Searches
In March 2007, the name of Chichvarkin was often mentioned in the press in connection with the arrest of Dmitry Sidorov, who headed the Iled M company. He was suspected of tax evasion, and on a large scale. In 2004-2005, Iled M supplied mobile devices and accessories to Euroset. Just at that time, Chichvarkin was a co-founder of the company, and then unexpectedly left it.
In August of the same year, employees of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the apartments of Euroset employees. Meanwhile, the information in the media was ambiguous. Some wrote that the searches were related to the 2005 smuggling case. Others claimed that Chichvarkin was involved in Iled M. Also, the version of a marketing move was not ruled out, when, after searches, the company announced the suspension of the supply of cellular phones to its stores, thereby stimulating demand for products.
Nevertheless, most experts adhered to the version that the searches were the answer of the security forces to Yevgeny's actions. After all, Chichvarkin was in a confrontation with the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They came to this conclusion after analyzing information from the Kommersant newspaper, which published an article about searches in Euroset. Also, back in March 2006, the "K" department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs confiscated a batch of Motorola phones from the company. Euroset filed a lawsuit for illegal seizure and won. Part of the party was returned, and the other was destroyed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs "under the guise of harmful goods."
Company sale
In 2008, Vedomosti published information about the negotiations between MTS and Euroset regarding the sale of the latter. At the same time, the publication provided information on the distribution of shares in the company. Artemiev and Chichvarkin owned 50% of the shares. Vedomosti also asked the co-owners of Euroset to comment on the information about the likely sale. Both stated that this was not true.
In December 2008, Chichvarkin sold Euroset to Vimpelcom (Beeline) and Alexander Mamut in the ratio of 49.9 and 50.1%, respectively. Including debt ($850 million), the cost of the deal was $1.25 billion, and without it - about $400 million.
Criminal case
After the sale of the company, Evgeny Chichvarkin and his wife Antonina left Russia for London. And already in January 2009, a case was opened against a businessman, he was arrested in absentia. In March, Eugene was put on the international wanted list. Thanks to the competent work of his lawyers, Chichvarkin managed to achieve the termination of criminal prosecution. In 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation closed his case and stopped the international search. Yevgeny Chichvarkin and his wife still live in London and are not going to return.
Personal life
Many media consider his image rather unusual for a serious businessman. In an interview, Eugene said that people often take him for an idiot. On the one hand, the entrepreneur was offended, but there were situations when it was even convenient. In 2007, a publication was published, in the writing of which Evgeny Chichvarkin took part. The book was called "If you are sent 99 times out of 100." The genre of the publication is "success story". In it, the businessman described in detail his biography and the history of the formation of Euroset. Critics said that the figure of Eugene in the book "turned out not very pretty, so the degree of reliability of the statement is quite high."
Despite his large fortune ($3 billion), the businessman does not consider himself rich. Money for him is just an opportunity. The entrepreneur is married and very happy in marriage. The wife of Evgeny Chichvarkin is a housewife. Together with her husband, she is raising two children: daughter Martha and son Yaroslav.
Former Euroset co-owner Yevgeny Chichvarkin has been put on the international wanted list, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday. official representative Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation Marina Gridneva.
Evgeny Alexandrovich Chichvarkin was born on September 10, 1974 in Moscow. His father was a pilot and his mother was an economic engineer at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations.
In 1991-1996, Evgeny Chichvarkin studied at the State Academy of Management with a degree in Economics of Motor Transport Management. In parallel with his studies, he was engaged in trade in Moscow clothing markets, in particular, he managed several outlets in the market in Luzhniki.
In 1996, Evgeny Chichvarkin entered graduate school at the academy, where he studied until 1998.
In 1997, together with a childhood friend Timur Artemyev, Chichvarkin created the Euroset company. In the future, Chichvarkin and Artemyev were written about as co-owners of the Euroset company, while information about exactly what share of the company belonged to each of them was not disclosed.
In 2001, Chichvarkin appeared in the central press as the manager of the Euroset trading house, and in 2002, as the director of the Euroset trading network.
The rapid growth of the network of Euroset communication salons began after a change in the development strategy, the main direction of which was a sharp decline in prices for mobile phones.
By 2002, the Euroset company was already among the top three leaders in the Moscow market in terms of retail sales of mobile phones, accessories and mobile operator contracts.
From January to December 2002, Euroset opened more than 100 communication stores, in 2003 another 117 stores were added to them.
In 2004, the company opened more than 800 new communication stores.
From 2001 to 2004 Euroset became an official partner of such companies as LG, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, Sony-Ericsson, Sagem, Philips, Pantech. In February 2004, the Euroset company launches digital cameras, MP3 players and DECT phones.
Since 2004, Yevgeny Chichvarkin has been mentioned in the press as the chairman of the board of directors of Euroset.
In 2005, Euroset began to open not salons, but chain stores, they were opened in 1934. According to the magazine "Money", the company's turnover in 2005 amounted to 2.6 billion dollars.
In 2005, Euroset acquired the Techmarket chain of mobile communication salons and the Voronezh company Networks of Communications Salons of Russia, which allowed it to become one of the largest Russian retail companies.
In 2005, due to a scandal involving smuggled mobile phones seized by customs, Euroset became the object of attention from law enforcement agencies. In August 2006, the smuggling case against Euroset was closed for lack of corpus delicti.
In June 2005 Euroset was awarded the Superbrand 2005 award, in October it received the Brand of the Year/EFFIE 2005 award, and in December the Company of the Year in the Business Reputation nomination. The activity of the company was marked by the Diploma of the Russian Consumer Rights Protection Fund.
According to 2006 data, Euroset included 3,150 stores, and in 2007 their number in 12 countries - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan - was already 5156.
In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin was awarded the "Person of the Year" award in the "Head of the Retail Business" nomination. Winner of the national stage of the competition "Entrepreneur of the Year" (2005), held by Ernst & Young, in the Trade nomination.
In mid-January 2009, Chichvarkin was charged with extortion and participation in organizing a kidnapping. According to investigators, in early 2003 Boris Levin, Euroset's vice-president for security, Andrei Yermilov, his deputy, and Sergei Katorgin, a security officer, together with other defendants in the case, kidnapped Andrey Vlaskin, the company's freight forwarder, who was suspected of stealing a large batch of cell phones. Chichvarkin was charged in this criminal case, since, as law enforcement agencies believe, the kidnapping of the freight forwarder and extortion were committed with the knowledge and consent of the then co-owner of Euroset.
Evgeny Chichvarkin is a talented entrepreneur and just interesting person. In the mid-2000s, the authoritative Forbes magazine included him among the richest businessmen in Russia, and in 2008 he also named him one of the most eccentric and extravagant millionaires on the planet.But why is this smiling “half-Leningrader-half-Muscovite” so remarkable? Today we will try to understand the intricacies of the life path of the founder of the Euroset chain of stores.
Early years, childhood and the Chichvarkin family
According to Yevgeny Chichvarkin himself, he happened to be “physically born” in Leningrad, however, in most sources, to this day, Moscow is often indicated as the place of birth.The reason for this confusion is that the parents of our today's hero moved him to Moscow immediately after birth. In this city, he was registered with the competent authorities; here he lived, in fact, most of his life. The parents of the future entrepreneur were from the two largest cities in Russia, and therefore Evgeny Chichvarkin often called himself "half-Leningrader-half-Muscovite."
Developing the theme of the family, we note that the parents of the future businessman were in no way connected with business and commerce. The father of our today's hero was a pilot civil aviation, and my mother worked as an engineer-economist at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (formerly the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR). Speaking about his origin, once Eugene also noted that his distant ancestors belonged to the Mokshan people.
After graduation high school, the future entrepreneur entered the State Academy of Management. In this university, he began to study the "Economics of Motor Transport Management". However, a miserly student scholarship was constantly not enough, and therefore very soon Eugene began to earn extra money as a seller in the clothing market. Here he was able to look inside the world of retail, understand the laws of the "street economy", as well as gain the necessary experience.
In 1996, our today's hero entered the graduate school of the State Academy, and in parallel with his studies, he began to hatch plans to create his own business.
In April 1997, our today's hero, together with his friend Timur Artemiev, created a company called Euroset, which subsequently began to grow rapidly and develop rapidly.
The growth of personal fortune and the subsequent scandal of the owner of Euroset
The first mobile retailer store appeared in Moscow on Leninsky Prospekt. Over the next few years, the network of salons began to grow rapidly. The first points of sale appeared outside of Moscow. Some time later, representative offices of the company began to appear even outside of Russia. In this regard, 2006 was a record year, when 1976 (!) new salons were formed in just twelve months.In the late nineties - early 2000s, Evgeny Chichvarkin developed the concept of advertising promotion for his company, which was based on the use of outrageous, extraordinary and deliberately provocative marketing moves. A striking example of this is the company's advertising slogan - "Euroset - the prices are just ... gone!". In addition, the scandalous PR campaigns “Undress for the phone”, “Miss Breasts” and some others also deserve mention. Such an approach drew great attention to the Euroset company and laid the necessary basis for all subsequent successes.
The network of mobile phone stores was growing rapidly, but it was at this moment that Serious scandals began to flare up around Yevgeny Chichvarkin's business. It all started with accusations of lowering customs duties when importing phones into Russia. In addition, the Euroset company was at the center of proceedings related to the disappearance of its former freight forwarder Andrey Vlaskin, who had previously been convicted of stealing mobile phones. In 2009, Chichvarkin was charged under the article "Kidnapping".
Going back a little, we note that back in 2008, Evgeny Chichvarkin actively supported all the political campaigns of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, but a couple of years later he radically changed his political views. The reason for this was pressure from the official authorities, who insisted on the sale of Euroset and allegedly extorted money from the entrepreneur.
One way or another, in September 2008, the profitable mobile phone business was sold. Chichvarkin agreed to the proposed terms and transferred the full package of shares to the ANN investment group and entrepreneur Alexander Mamut. A month later, our today's hero left the post of head of the Euroset company, and already in December of the same year he flew to London.
During this period, Yevgeny Chichvarkin was still in the status of the head of the branch of the Just Cause party, but subsequently he actually interrupted his political activity in Russia due to leaving the country.
Chichvarkin: "Instead of new Russia- a throwback to the Middle Ages"
While in London, Chichvarkin made accusations against the Russian government, noting that after his arrest, his longtime ally Boris Levin was diagnosed with hepatitis C. In addition, Evgeny questioned the accidental death of his mother, who was found dead in her Moscow apartment in April 2010.
Personal life of Evgeny Chichvarkin
Evgeny Chichvarkin was married to his longtime girlfriend, Antonina. The family lived in London and raised two children - son Yaroslav and daughter Martha. In early 2016, the marriage broke up.Evgeny Chichvarkin uncensored
Currently, the entrepreneur owns a profitable business selling wines in Europe. According to Yevgeny Chichvarkin, his return to Russia is possible only with a change in the current regime.
Former Euroset co-owner Yevgeny Chichvarkin has been put on the international wanted list, Marina Gridneva, official representative of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.
Evgeny Alexandrovich Chichvarkin was born on September 10, 1974 in Moscow. His father was a pilot and his mother was an economic engineer at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations.
In 1991-1996, Evgeny Chichvarkin studied at the State Academy of Management with a degree in Economics of Motor Transport Management. In parallel with his studies, he was engaged in trade in Moscow clothing markets, in particular, he managed several outlets in the market in Luzhniki.
In 1996, Evgeny Chichvarkin entered graduate school at the academy, where he studied until 1998.
In 1997, together with a childhood friend Timur Artemyev, Chichvarkin created the Euroset company. In the future, Chichvarkin and Artemyev were written about as co-owners of the Euroset company, while information about exactly what share of the company belonged to each of them was not disclosed.
In 2001, Chichvarkin appeared in the central press as the manager of the Euroset trading house, and in 2002, as the director of the Euroset trading network.
The rapid growth of the network of Euroset communication salons began after a change in the development strategy, the main direction of which was a sharp decline in prices for mobile phones.
By 2002, the Euroset company was already among the top three leaders in the Moscow market in terms of retail sales of mobile phones, accessories and mobile operator contracts.
From January to December 2002, Euroset opened more than 100 communication stores, in 2003 another 117 stores were added to them.
In 2004, the company opened more than 800 new communication stores.
From 2001 to 2004 Euroset became an official partner of such companies as LG, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, Sony-Ericsson, Sagem, Philips, Pantech. In February 2004, the Euroset company launches digital cameras, MP3 players and DECT phones.
Since 2004, Yevgeny Chichvarkin has been mentioned in the press as the chairman of the board of directors of Euroset.
In 2005, Euroset began to open not salons, but chain stores, they were opened in 1934. According to the magazine "Money", the company's turnover in 2005 amounted to 2.6 billion dollars.
In 2005, Euroset acquired the Techmarket chain of mobile communication salons and the Voronezh company Networks of Communications Salons of Russia, which allowed it to become one of the largest Russian retail companies.
In 2005, due to a scandal involving smuggled mobile phones seized by customs, Euroset became the object of attention from law enforcement agencies. In August 2006, the smuggling case against Euroset was closed for lack of corpus delicti.
In June 2005 Euroset was awarded the Superbrand 2005 award, in October it received the Brand of the Year/EFFIE 2005 award, and in December the Company of the Year in the Business Reputation nomination. The activity of the company was marked by the Diploma of the Russian Consumer Rights Protection Fund.
According to 2006 data, Euroset included 3,150 stores, and in 2007 their number in 12 countries - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan - was already 5156.
In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin was awarded the "Person of the Year" award in the "Head of the Retail Business" nomination. Winner of the national stage of the competition "Entrepreneur of the Year" (2005), held by Ernst & Young, in the Trade nomination.
In mid-January 2009, Chichvarkin was charged with extortion and participation in organizing a kidnapping. According to investigators, in early 2003 Boris Levin, Euroset's vice-president for security, Andrei Yermilov, his deputy, and Sergei Katorgin, a security officer, together with other defendants in the case, kidnapped Andrey Vlaskin, the company's freight forwarder, who was suspected of stealing a large batch of cell phones. Chichvarkin was charged in this criminal case, since, as law enforcement agencies believe, the kidnapping of the freight forwarder and extortion were committed with the knowledge and consent of the then co-owner of Euroset.
Yevgeny Chichvarkin became the third most important Russian businessman after Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky to find a temporary home in the West. Since 2008, London has become his home instead of Moscow. Like BAB and MBH, Evgeny Chichvarkin left Russia against his will. A criminal case was initiated against him in his homeland, potentially threatening him with a long prison term. In principle, a technique was used against him, tested several years earlier on Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Although Yevgeny Chichvarkin was a man of a different generation compared to Khodorkovsky.
He organized his profitable business from absolute zero, using only his own abilities, work and perseverance. Khodorkovsky, a Komsomol activist, successfully used the opportunities provided by perestroika and the time of “wild capitalism”. Under the winds of change, the Komsomol tried to use the initiative of its especially passionate members to its advantage.
Khodorkovsky worked his hand in the centers of scientific and technical creativity of youth ─ with a commercial application of the Komsomol, and used the acquired skills and developments to his advantage. Chichvarkin turned out differently. The son of a civil aviation pilot and an economist at the Ministry of Foreign Trade began to master the laws market economy while studying at the Moscow State Academy of Management. He worked as a trader in the clothing markets of the capital, absorbing the laws of the leather market trade.
Euroset Chichvarkin
Exactly one year after graduating from the academy, Evgeny Chichvarkin, together with his friend Timur Artemyev, decided to found the Euroset company. The date of her birth went down in history ─ April 2, 1997.
Friends did not exchange for clothes or alcohol, they turned out to be from attempts to penetrate the market of oil traders. In a short time, Euroset became the largest mobile retailer in Russia. Chichvarkin and Artemiev chose the right retail product. A boom in "mobile" communications was approaching Russia.
Things worked out from the first day. The whole country was covered with a network of mobile communication salons with catchy Euroset signs. The company had to successfully compete with other companies that had a more solid rear. Chichvarkin clearly borrowed business principles from the Western model.
Chichvarkin had novelty and originality in everything. At the central office, his employees were obliged to skip between offices during working hours, like soldiers following orders from commanders. Chichvarkin became the personification of a businessman of a new era.
Even in appearance, he was very different from the typical image of a business person. In Russia, they must be a bald, pot-bellied uncle, dressed in a classic suit with an obligatory tie. Yevgeny Chichvarkin preferred to wear bright T-shirts and youth jeans, which go well with shaggy hair on his head.
In addition to non-standard business dealing and appearance Chichvarkin always showed free-thinking. He did not succumb to the general trend to enter into " United Russia”and move towards a brighter future, building some kind of special national model, but defined his political position as a liberal reformer, again of a Western persuasion. Chichvarkin joined the Right Cause party, the leadership of which offered his services in creating a brand that is memorable for the masses of voters political organization. In this occupation, he was undeniably a professional. Yevgeny Chichvarkin did not fit in the accepted system of coordinates of Russian businessmen and politicians. He was a foreign element there. Conflict with the existing establishment was inevitable.
The operation to deprive Yevgeny Chichvarkin of property was played out like clockwork. As in the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, allegations of a serious criminal offense were launched. In 2003, Euroset's security service convicted Andrey Vlaskin, the forwarding agent of the company, of regularly stealing mobile phones. The mentality of Russian private security guards did not allow them to escape from the usual norms of behavior in such cases. The suspected employee of the company was detained and, for the sake of warning, was “pressed” a little. Frightened Vlaskin, whining, turned to law enforcement agencies for help. For the time being, his statement lay without movement. When it took strong of the world this", it got a move. This happened 5 years after the very fact of forcing Vlaskin to confess and return the stolen.
How the Euroset was destroyed
Events developed rapidly. On September 2, 2008, the police raided the central office of Euroset with a search. Exactly 20 days later, the sale of the company was announced. The buyer of the prosperous business was ANN, representing the interests of Alexander Mamut, a prominent member of the “family” of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Mamut was only a counterparty in terms of "squeezing" the business from Chichvarkin and Artemyev. Not much time passed, and Mamut sold a 50% stake in Euroset to another mobile operator, VimpelCom.
Thus, one of the main players in the cellular communication market was destroyed. Now the mobile communication giants could safely trade in mobile phones, smartphones and accessories. Unemployed Yevgeny Chichvarkin chose to disappear from Russia. In December of the same year, he and his family moved to London. Intuition did not fail him. A month after his departure, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against him. Yevgeny Chichvarkin was accused of kidnapping and extortion. Subsequently, he was arrested in absentia and put on the international wanted list.
Pressure on Chichvarkin
In the UK, Chichvarkin started talking. He said that within 20 days from the moment claims were made against him to the sale of the business, he was subjected to pressure, intimidation and extortion by employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The action was clearly planned at the very top of the Russian government. Most of all went to the former head of the Euroset security service, Boris Levin. He has been detained since 2008 despite being diagnosed with hepatitis. In April 2010, Evgeny Chichvarkin had a tragedy. His mother Lyudmila died unexpectedly at her home in Moscow. The official diagnosis was that she accidentally tripped and hit her temple on the edge of the table. Until now, Evgeny Chichvarkin does not recognize this conclusion. He believes that his mother was the victim of a conspiracy by the secret services against him.
It cannot be said that Great Britain favored the fugitive from Russia from the very beginning. The extradition request contained serious criminal offenses. Chichvarkin wanted to claim the title of "political refugee" or "prisoner of conscience", but the British Themis was in no hurry to draw conclusions. The Westminster Court issued a warrant for his arrest and forced him to appear at the hearing. Its outcome was not comforting for Chichvarkin. He was released on bail of £100,000. The court kept him in suspense for about a year. Yevgeny Chichvarkin did not want to return to Russia, rightly believing that he would have to repeat the fate of Khodorkovsky.
The British judges painstakingly studied the materials presented by the Russian side. The fateful court session was scheduled for March 2011. 3 months before him in January, the Investigative Committee suddenly changed its mind and dropped all charges against the fugitive businessman, leaving everyone to guess that there was some kind of behind-the-scenes agreement or that the investigators did not dare to further defend a weak position before an independent London court. Despite the withdrawal of all claims, Yevgeny Chichvarkin still does not risk visiting his homeland even for a short time, saying that such an act, taking into account the prevailing order in Russia and the attitude towards dissidents, is premature.
Evgeny Chichvarkin - latest news
In London, Chichvarkin and Artemyev did not sit idle for a long time. They proved that their business success in Russia was not accidental. In a foreign land with other rules of the game unknown to them, they were able to establish Hedonism Drinks Ltd, a company engaged in the sale of elite alcohol. A couple of businessmen from Russia not only did not go bankrupt, but also began to earn good money, pushing aside other companies that had long mastered a specific market and studied the tastes of the British.
