About VTB’s annual shareholders’ meeting held on Friday: Overall, it differed little from last year’s meeting. Literally not a single speech was made in support of the bank’s management—or even a neutral one. At the previous meeting, the VTB people pushed through amendments to the rules and did not allow shareholders to speak during discussion of the agenda items; all speeches were moved to the end. And people did speak out: there was even talk of hanging someone from a lamppost. One striking feature was the overt political context of many of the speeches. There were calls of “Putin’s government must resign,” “United Russia is full of thieves,” and so on. Every time politics came up, it was met with applause. That was unexpected. And the people driving these slogans were clearly not political activists who had come to the meeting, but ordinary elderly women and middle-aged ladies. As last time, there was a lot of talk about the “drilling rigs case.” Kostin commented on the issue separately in what was effectively his closing remarks—and immediately after his tirade, the meeting was adjourned. Here, I recorded it on my phone:
The “I’m not afraid of Navalny” part is especially priceless. The first two seconds didn’t get recorded. He begins like this: Now, about the drilling rigs: I used the full arsenal of means available to me It’s quite a remarkable speech—almost a confession, really. The president of VTB admits: 1***. the deal was problematic; 2. he fired those who handled the deal; 3. “I personally didn’t take any money”; 4. “the new team and I are solving these problems”; Unfortunately, Andrei Kostin could not resist being deceptive: “I appealed to law enforcement many times; they found no evidence of a crime.” In fact, all appeals to law enforcement on this issue came from us, and the reason no “evidence of a crime” is being found is that VTB refuses to acknowledge the losses. If VTB itself had reported the crime, there would have been a criminal case and arrests. Still, even this is something, and these revelations are a major breakthrough. Acknowledging the problem is part of solving it. At last, we can move on to the logically following questions: ***If he fired them, then for what exactly? Isn’t “fired” too mild a punishment for stealing $160 million? 3***. If “I didn’t take any money,” then someone else did. Who? 4. Do Kostin’s remarks mean that the people he fired are the ones who “took the money”: Zavyalov, Osmolovsky, Borisevich. 5. ***Who is protecting the above-named gentlemen, if VTB is so actively resisting efforts to hold them accountable? For example, after this “dismissal,” Borisevich wen******t to work as an aide to Finance Minister (and then chairman of VTB’s supervisory board) Alexei Kudrin; d******oes that matter? Zavyalov is ******a close associate of the head of Rostekhnologii (Russian Technologies) and a prominent figure in the “People’s Front”) ***Sergei Chemezov; does that matter? well, and so on VTB’s management has said “A”; we will insist that they also say “B.”