Shpigel Boris Isaakovich - Russian politician and businessman of Jewish origin. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes him as an oligarch who is "closely associated with the Kremlin."
Childhood
Where did Boris Isaakovich Shpigel begin his life? His biography began quite normally, like that of millions of other Soviet citizens of the post-war generation. He was born in Ukraine, in the city of Khmelnitsky, in 1953. Boris’s mother was an accountant, and his father was a salesman. The family lived very modestly, if not poorly. Up to the departure of Boris at the age of 18, parents, Borya and his elder sister and their maternal uncle huddled five in a one-room apartment.
Strange, but despite such difficult living conditions, Boris Isaakovich Spiegel retains the brightest memories of his childhood, about his parents, especially his mother, recalls her with some special warmth. In general, such a deep understanding between the generations of the same family, based on an innate sense of respect for the ancestors, traditions, moral standards, originating in Judaism, is characteristic of many Jewish families.
The origins of personality formation
The family in which Shpigel Boris Isaakovich grew up was not religious. However, in the town of Staro-Konstantinov, where Boris’s grandfather and grandmother lived, the spirit of the pre-revolutionary Jewish town was preserved. Pensioners there kept the Sabbath, gathered for collective prayers, although there was no synagogue in the town. Boris’s grandfather read and wrote in Hebrew. It was there, according to Spiegel himself, that he felt like a Jew.
Years of study and military service
After school, Boris graduated from college in Khmelnitsky. Then there were two years of military service in the army, in the internal troops. He served in Lviv, and he left very good memories from the army. At the age of 19, the young soldier Boris Spiegel was accepted into the party.
After the service, he entered the Kamyanets-Podilsky Pedagogical Institute. V.P. Zatonsky, at the Faculty of History. According to him, this university had a very high level of teaching both history and political economy, which Boris was very interested in.
Spiegel recalls that during his studies he had to live in an old student dormitory, which was located in a former monastery of the 15th century, and the rooms were former monastic cells, in which 20 people were accommodated.
Beginning of social and labor activities
Already in his student years, Boris began to actively engage in public work. He was a member of the Khmelnitsky city committee of the Komsomol, and at 22 he even became his secretary. Boris has repeatedly led student construction teams, created student VIA Rodina, and was generally an organizer by nature.
After graduating from the institute and becoming a certified economist, Boris Spiegel made his regular career in service for ten years, rising to the post of deputy director for economics at the All-Union Research Institute of Applied Molecular Biology and Genetics in 1990. While in this position, Spiegel had complete information about biotechnology-related enterprises, including pharmaceutical plants. This greatly helped him in choosing a business direction.
Beginning and reversal of a business career
When the country was allowed to create private enterprises, our hero established the Biotek company, which appeared on the Russian market as one of the distributors of drugs. In fact, at first, in the first half of the 90s, it was not a major supplier to the Russian market. In addition to her, there were other, more powerful companies, for example, Protek.
But Boris Isaakovich chose the right and promising line of business, namely, participation in government procurement of medicines for various state and departmental medical institutions. From year to year, he established and strengthened numerous acquaintances with senior officials (for example, State Duma Deputy Speaker Gennady Seleznev), which allowed Biotek to confidently win the majority of drug supply tenders. And when in 2005 it was decided to increase the government’s purchase of drugs by six times, the lion's share of this government order went to Spiegel, which immediately entered the top three market leaders.
Creation of FIG
Having made a fortune on the drug trade, Spiegel turned his attention to the relevant Russian enterprises. The Biotek company buys a controlling stake in the Penza plant Biosynthesis for $ 30 million and the Marbiopharm Yoshkar-Ola vitamin plant for $ 20 million. The first enterprise is generally strategic for the Spiegel company. After all, she has been purchasing its products since its inception.
Not without reason, from 2003 to 2013, Boris Isaakovich, at the suggestion of the governor, represented the Penza region in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation. Here he actively fought against tightening state control over the certification of drugs. And he succeeded.
In March 2013, Boris Spiegel resigned from the Federation Council. Today, he officially holds the post of chairman of the board of directors of Biotech.
Social activity
He has been deputy chairman of the Russian Revival Party since 2002. In 2010, he founded The World Without Nazism, an organization that has close ties with the Russian government and was formed to approve the Russian version of history, in particular with regard to the inclusion of the Baltic states in the USSR and the famine. This was followed by the creation of the Commission of the Russian Federation to counter attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia's interests in 2012.
The organization A World Without Nazism is mentioned in the annual Estonian Security Police Survey as a propaganda organization aimed at promoting a "Soviet approach to World War II." She works closely with the Finnish anti-fascist committee.
Spiegel is also chairman of the World Congress of Russian-Speaking Jewry (WKRE), an organization that, in accordance with The Jewish Chronicle, works on behalf of the Kremlin, despite its nominal independence. In 2008, during the war in South Ossetia, he accused Georgia of committing genocide by acting as president of the WRCU, which attracted criticism from Israeli members of Congress.
Political credo of public figure Boris Spiegel
Jewish media write that he is a firm follower of Putin's policies. In the course of hostilities in the Caucasus in 2008, he joined the Kremlin’s propaganda campaign, calling for the creation of a tribunal that will investigate Georgia’s war crimes and genocide.
Spiegel accused the countries that were formerly part of the communist bloc (with the exception of Russia and Belarus) of "quick nazification." He also criticizes "Western European democracies" for their alleged role in unleashing World War II. Spiegel proposes to make a general history textbook for the whole of Europe on the basis of "serious scientific research", as well as decisions of international judicial and political authorities, on the basis of which the post-war world order was built.
He is one of the few Russian politicians who openly proclaim himself as a follower of Judaism. On his initiative, monuments in honor of the Red Army soldiers were erected in the Israeli city of Netanya.
Scandals around the name of Boris Spiegel
What attracts high-profile scandalous stories to such a person as Shpigel Boris Isaakovich. The photo below shows that he openly emphasizes his commitment to the canons of Judaism. This causes irritation and even hatred in many. On the Web repeatedly disseminated defamatory materials. So, it was reported that Shpigel Boris Isaakovich, whose criminal record allegedly dates back to the early 80s, was accused of sexual harassment of minors. The network even appeared a copy of the sentence with a sentence of three years in prison. This fake was quickly exposed, but the sediment, as they say, remained, which, most likely, the organizers of this action sought.
In January 2011, Spiegel was the subject of media attention when he was robbed of $ 280, 000 in cash in his hotel room.
Another scandal also made a big noise, in which Boris Isaakovich Spiegel was also mentioned. His daughter, soon after the birth of his son, married to singer Nikolai Baskov, divorced him, and the latter was simply expelled from Spiegel’s house, and he was simply forbidden to see his son.
