Of course, the figure of Elena Baturina occupied, is and will continue to occupy one of the key positions on the Olympus of Russian entrepreneurship. The wife of the former mayor of the capital is considered the richest woman not only in our country, but also abroad. In 2010, Elena Nikolaevna had financial assets, the amount of which was estimated at $ 2.9 billion.
Of course, without certain business qualities, she would hardly have managed to “make together” such a huge fortune. And she has them: rigidity, assertiveness, determination, cold-bloodedness … Largely thanks to these qualities, she succeeded in business. However, not everyone agrees that success in entrepreneurial affairs would always have accompanied Baturina if she had not been married to an influential official.
Would Elena Nikolaevna really have achieved little if she had not been helped by her husband, who held a high post in the metropolitan government? Let's consider this question in more detail.
Curriculum Vitae
Baturina Elena Nikolaevna is a native of the city of Moscow. She was born on March 8, 1963 in a family of workers. From morning till night, father and mother worked at the factory to feed a large family. In addition to his brother Victor, Baturina has cousins and a cousin. Elena Nikolaevna once let slip in an interview that she was actively involving her relatives in joint business, because she completely trusted them.
As a child, the future wife of the capital's mayor was very ill: the lungs were weak. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the girl who grew up in the proletarian district of Vykhino from developing such an important quality for a businessman as determination.
Start of work
Having received a certificate of maturity, Baturina becomes a working factory "Fraser", because she did not enter the university.
After some time, Elena Nikolaevna becomes a student in the evening department of the Ordzhonikidze Institute of Management. In parallel, she works at the Institute of Economic Problems of the Complex Development of the National Economy of the City of Moscow.
Fateful meeting
Baturina Elena Nikolaevna in her youth joined the working group of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee on individual labor and cooperative activities. In a new capacity, she began to study the problems of the catering system. Then she got her first experience in cooperating. At this time, a fateful meeting takes place with Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov, who headed the commission in the executive committee. After some time, Yuri Mikhailovich becomes a widower, and Elena Nikolaevna marries him. It was not an office romance: relations arose at a time when they no longer worked together.
Start of business
Elena Nikolaevna, whose biography contains a lot of interesting and noteworthy, in the early 90's takes her first steps in the entrepreneurial field.
Together with her brother Victor, she creates the cooperative Inteko. As a profile of activity, the manufacture of polymer products was chosen. The political career of her husband Baturina developed rapidly, and he soon became mayor of Moscow. Naturally, Yuri Mikhailovich in every possible way helped the business of his wife to develop, providing Inteko with profitable municipal orders. Over time, the company of Elena Nikolaevna turned into a major supplier of plastic and organized a powerful production area on the basis of the capital's oil refinery. A polypropylene manufacturing plant was built, and very soon Inteko conquered a third of the entire plastic market.
Business is booming
In the late 90s, the geography of entrepreneurial activity of the wife of the mayor of the capital significantly expanded. For example, Inteko became the main developer of the City Chess project (City Chess) in Kalmykia. It was Baturin with his brainchild that became a defendant in the investigation of the misuse of budget funds in the construction of the above object. Nevertheless, Elena Nikolaevna, whose photo was printed on the front pages by the regional media in connection with the incident, decided to participate in the parliamentary elections in Kalmykia, but did not win them.
Baturin focuses on business. Very soon, Inteko turns into a large investment and construction holding, which has occupied almost 25% of the panel housing market. The company will establish a unit of monolithic construction.
In 2002, Elena Nikolaevna (position - president of Inteko) buys several large cement plants. After some time, the owner of the construction holding announced the issue of a bond loan. Most of the shares of Inteko belonged to Baturina (99%) and only 1% of the securities were owned by her brother Victor. Later, Luzhkov’s wife announces the creation of her own real estate structure called “Magistrate”.
Illicit scandals
At the beginning of the 2000s, the construction holding Baturina is at the center of scandals. In particular, the pen sharks in 2003 informed the public about the illegal activities of Elena Nikolaevna’s subsidiary (Inteko-agro), which bought agricultural land in the Belgorod Region using gray schemes.
Then the “daughter” of Inteko invaded the sphere of commercial interests of Viktor Chernomyrdin’s son, hindering the development of the Yakovlevsky mine. Events such as the attack on the executive director and the murder of an Inteko lawyer caused widespread publicity.
The Russians were even more agitated by the news of the thefts in the Bank of Moscow. Journalists could not but leave this fact without attention. According to the print media, Elena Nikolaevna (Yekaterinburg, the newspaper Vechernye Vedomosti) was interrogated as a witness in a case of fraud in a banking institution. At the same time, Asnis's lawyer had written evidence of her non-involvement in the commission of the crime.
Change of business priorities
In 2005, Baturin sells cement plants and temporarily leaves the panel construction market. But after some time Inteko again returns to its profile, having bought the Verkhnebakansky cement plant in the Kuban.
Then Elena Nikolaevna reported that her brother was “retiring” and was no longer the owner of the holding. Luzhkov’s wife decides to buy back his shares and become the sole owner of Inteko. However, Victor Baturin considered this situation unfair and wanted to regain some of the shares. As a result, a lawsuit ensued, which ultimately ended in a reconciliation of the parties.
After Yuri Luzhkov was removed from the post of mayor of Moscow, Elena Nikolaevna began to sell her business assets. In the fall of 2011, the Inteko commercial structure was put up for sale.
Hotel business
Since the end of Luzhkov’s political career, Baturin has been living abroad with his spouse. However, "in a foreign land" Elena Nikolaevna did not lose her entrepreneurial acumen and invested in the hotel business. In Kitzbühel, Austria, she acquired the Grand Tirolia Hotel for almost € 40 million. The awarding ceremony of the best journalists covering sports life is annually held here. Baturina also owns the Morrison Hotel in Ireland and the Quisisana Palace in the Czech Republic.
Elena Nikolaevna hotels are managed by Martinez Hotels & Resorts, which is located in Austria. The hotel owner plans to expand the geography of her business, which has already invested about three hundred million dollars.
