Thanks to some colleagues of mine in Russia, I’m pleased to be the first to offer this exclusive translation of a very important Kommersant interview with Oleg Shvartsman of FPG Finansgrupp. The information shared by Mr. Shvartsman is entirely unprecedented, shedding light onto the shadowy financial management of siloviki businesses and assets, including the the identification of Igor Sechin as the most important man in Russia (more powerful than Putin). This interview confirms the state’s business methodology which I have been talking about for years in interviews and on this blog: Shvartsman says that they use various voluntary and coercive “instruments” to drive down the market value of the assets they wish to steal, thereby carrying out a “velvet re-privatization.” Anyone who boasts that Putin has “rescued” Russia from the thievery of the 1990s might want to reconsider after reading this rather shocking interview. “For us, the Party means the power block headed by Igor Ivanovich Sechin” // Head of Finansgrupp, Oleg Shvartsman, speaks about new voluntary-compulsory ways of consolidating assets in the hands of the state Kommersant, № 221(3797), November 30, 2007 OLEG SHVARTSMAN, Director of FPG Finansgrupp, tells us about the business he heads involving relatives of members of the power block of the Presidential Administration, about the possible creation of a state corporation called “Social Investments”, and about the “velvet re-privatization” it has been called upon to carry out. Our columnist MAXIM KVASHA reports from the conference in Palo Alto (USA).