Source: www.rucriminal.info

Recent events in Abkhazia have shown that there are still “gunpowder in the flasks” from retired KGB officers who staged more than one revolution during Soviet times. True, now they are working not for the country, but for big business. As in the cases of the former employee of the KGB of the USSR, and now the head of the ethics committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Otari Arshba. Which is still a junior partner of Evraz. Rucriminal.info continues to publish its investigation.

 More details about him in our investigation. Arshba has been associated with Evraz Holding for a long time, he was the senior vice president of the corporation and chaired the Evraz S.A. social council. It was believed that in Evraz Arshba, on the one hand, was along the line of forces from special services. And on the other, along the line of Tuleyev. Arshba has been familiar with Tuleyev since at least the mid-90s. Since 1999, he has been his consultant. In 2000, Arshba was engaged in PR-support of the election campaign of Aman Tuleyev as a candidate for president of Russia. In 2002, Arshba was in fact the head of the election campaign of Tuleyev as governor.

Back in 2001, Arshba in an interview with the newspaper Today described his relationship with Tuleyev and Evraz as follows: “I’m an old friend of Tuleyev, I even defended a dissertation on political science with one professor. But gentlemen Abramov and his team appeared in the Kemerovo Region even before that how I began to work at EvrazHolding.

In another interview, Arshba said the following phrase: “My old mentor Aman Tuleyev said in the 90s that in a 40 degree frost, when pipes burst, you do not need to find out from the plumber which party he belongs to. First you need to repair the pipes. "

And here, as an impression from Arshba, the journalist of the Expert described: “Apparently, because I flew by myself, and not, like the others, by Evraz’s special board, I was under the scrutiny of everyone, including Otari Arshba, the then“ servant of two gentlemen ” - Alexander Abramov and actually Tuleyev. All of his KGB merits are now known, and then, sitting next to him at the banquet table, I listened to a touching story about his family, who, he said, was at the epicenter of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict simply because of its ethnicity. And about the topic of the dissertation chosen by him, in connection with this, about the nature of ethnic conflicts. In general, like all special services, he persistently demonstrated an unclear charm, which, in my careful opinion, combined an excess of sweetness with obvious alertness. ”

Arshba gave his interview about the mentor-Tuleyev in 2013. In the same year, Evraz issued a press release announcing the sale of Lehram Capital Investments Ltd. to 10 thousand rubles. Gramoteinsky mine, which was part of Yuzhkuzbassugol. Later, as you know, Alexander Schukin “squeezed” this mine. Schukin is one of the founders of the Sibuglemet holding, in 2015 he received the assets of Sibuglemet in the management of Evraz.

It is known that, working at the same time for Tuleyev and Evraz, including their PR, Arshba actively acquired the media:: “Provincial Gazette” (100%), LLC “Kuzbas Information” and “Province Plus” (100%), as well as the TV bridge TV channel (50%).

Otar Arshba was born in 1955 in the city of Sukhumi. Father - Arshba Iona Chantovich, an Abkhaz from an influential family in Adjara, belonging to the Abzhu ethnographic group, he worked in the KGB of the USSR. Mother - Taliko, Georgian. Brother - Arshba Alexander Ionovich, Moscow businessman. Cousin Ruslan Arshba - honorary miner, Hero of Socialist Labor, deputy of the three convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Otar Arshba spent his childhood in Batumi, where he graduated from high school. Every summer, he went to rest on vacation in the village of Bedia, Ochamchira district. He was 8 years old when he was taken to the Dynamo children's team. In 1973, Otar entered the higher school of the KGB of the USSR named after Dzerzhinsky (now the FSB Academy). Then he became an employee of the 5th branch of the KGB. In 1986, during the World Festival of Youth and Students, for the disclosure of the enemy network in Moscow, Arshba received the first high state award ─ Order of the Badge of Honor.

During the collapse of the USSR, Arshba was sent to the republics, where rallies for secession were taking place, etc. He collected information. He visited Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, the Baltic republics and Abkhazia. In Armenia, at a public rally in the city of Abovyan, he almost lost his life, falling into the eyes of Telman Gdlyan. The raging crowd nearly killed that secret agent that day.

In 1989-1991, he assisted the People's Deputy of the USSR Vladislav Ardzinba through the KGB, and was his curator. Soon Ardzinba became the leader of the struggle for the independence of the autonomous republic from Georgia, and then the first president of the republic.

After such work, Arshba was transferred to the analytical department of the KGB. And about the same time, a bunch formed - Arshba, the previously mentioned David Dvali and Ashot Yeghiazaryan, who at that time held the position of Director General of the Social and Economic Development Fund of the Moscow Region under the Moscow Regional Executive Committee. It was believed that in this three Arshba represents the interests of the Chekists. In fact, they were the first “solvers”, but of the highest level. They talked directly with the prosecutor general, ministers, etc., and sometimes decided the fate of enterprises that cost billions of dollars.

In 1994, Arshba officially resigned from the KGB and for some reason immediately went to London for a while. However, in 1995 he returned and launched a stormy activity. In particular, he headed the National Information Corporation (NIKO), which was funded by Oleg Boyko. In fact, at that time this structure (by the way, it created the Integrum base) positioned itself as the same analytical department of the KGB. The KGB in those days, as you know, was almost collapsed and was going through a period of decline. NIKO analyzed the meetings, the public situation, prepared analytical notes, both for government agencies and for oligarchs. It was considered a very influential structure.

At the same time, Arshba became one of the founders of the Stable Russia (SR) movement, which positioned itself as a structure supporting President Yeltsin and the head of the Chernomyrdin government.

Then Arshba together with Yeghiazaryan became consultants to the Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov.

During these times, Arshba worked closely with Leonid Lebedev, who, together with Alexander Zhukov (father Daria Zhukova, wife of Roman Abramovich, co-owner of Evraz) and a number of other people, were actively engaged in arms smuggling from the countries of the former USSR. Later, Arshba together with Lebedev created the company VAO R. Prim firm, which owned gas station chains.

It is difficult to find a significant person of those times with whom Arshba did not intersect on certain topics.

From 1997-1998, his fate was closely connected with Evraz. In 2003, he became a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

 

To be continued

Timofey Grishin

Source: www.rucriminal.info