Goloshchapov Konstantin Veniaminovich: biography, activities, personal life and interesting facts. About travel, orienteering and everything Rat race

© "Version", 02/19/02

Massage as a stronghold of Russian power. It is possible that massage will soon become the most popular sport in Russia

Oleg Sutulov

The presidential elections are still more than two years away, but passions are already beginning to flare up around them. Last week, the Political News Agency reported that, according to its information, the head of Putin's 2004 election campaign had been appointed.

Konstantin Goloshchapov, Vladimir Putin's personal massage therapist, will soon become widely known to the public as the head of his campaign headquarters for the upcoming presidential elections in 2004, APN reports. The “general sponsor” will be LUKoil, and in addition to Goloshchapov, a certain Erast Galumov, the current head of the Izvestia publishing center, will coordinate the work.

The history of the massage therapist is very interesting. According to the agency's source, Putin and Goloshchapov have known each other since the early 90s; their paths crossed in the massage department of one of the elite St. Petersburg baths, where Putin received massage sessions. In 2000, the president remembered his old acquaintance, and Goloshchapov received an appointment to Moscow to manage the federal enterprise Roscentrproekt. It’s hard to say what this company has been doing for the last year, but, according to APN, Goloshchapov himself was mainly engaged in promoting his past St. Petersburg clients to serious positions in the executive branch... And not for free. According to the agency's source, one or another appointment cost from 10 to 50 thousand “convenient units.” To be honest, it’s not that expensive for, say, a key post in the staff of the embassy...

According to an APK source, Goloshchapov is the “spiritual father” of a number of influential representatives of the president’s “Leningrad team.” Goloshchapov is part of the inner circle of a number of influential figures of the Russian Orthodox Church, which allows him to arrange “pilgrimage” trips for “St. Petersburg residents of Putin’s call” to Greece, to the famous monastery on Mount Athos, where, according to rumors, “problems of rotation of leadership” are being resolved, I quote the agency personnel."

We tried to check our colleagues' message through our channels. And our source in one of the law enforcement agencies said that the published APN is only part of what the relevant structures have “on Goloshchapov.”

There is information that the massage therapist is today actively engaged in the creation of a certain Association of Massage Therapists of Russia (AMP), to which it is planned to transfer the functions of licensing some medical activities (in particular, therapeutic massage and chiropractic care).

To practice massage professionally today, you need to obtain the appropriate license from the Ministry of Health - this is when it comes to therapeutic massage. And you can massage your back in a bathhouse without any permits at all.

Now, if everything goes as the massage therapist intended, the massage license will be issued not by the Ministry of Health, but by the newly created AMP. It is possible that in this way not only bathhouse attendants and chiropractors, but also “masseuses” from the “red light street” will fall under the control of the association...

The source also said that within the framework of the association it is planned to create a special group of massage therapists to serve senior officials of the state.

It is no secret that many issues of domestic and foreign policy - as has historically happened - are discussed in our baths. And, according to the source, after some time, all massage therapists who have “access to the body” will undergo appropriate checks, and perhaps even wear shoulder straps from one of the relevant departments.

It is planned to assign categories to the remaining massage therapists, allowing them to massage either mere mortals or, in addition, special clients.

The discussion has already reached the point where the very fact of creating AMP and forceful control over massage therapists is not being discussed; another issue is on the agenda. How to limit the circle of “senior management”? It is proposed to focus on deputy ministers or narrow the circle even further - to deputy prime ministers.

Our source in the security department also claims that, while massaging the backs of the inhabitants of high offices (and Goloshchapov, despite his positions, continues to “work with his hands”), he is trying to agree on the creation of a special special salon for the top officials of the country’s leadership under the wing of the security forces. Goloshchapov himself will most likely select the personnel there.

We also had at our disposal a calendar on which, in the fashion of some regional politicians, Goloshchapov was depicted next to Putin before the elections. Behind your back... Not everyone in Russia would think of releasing something like this... Although, I think, the circle of those who have the opportunity to put all their might on the president’s back is also not wide. It seems that people who know how to work with their hands are coming to power in Russia.

Konstantin Goloshchapov is a name that is well known only to the initiated. Along with the Rotenberg brothers, he is part of the inner circle of St. Petersburg friends of Vladimir Putin's youth, but until now he has managed to avoid obvious publicity. Meanwhile, he is called “Putin’s personal massage therapist,” who made a career precisely thanks to his proximity to the president’s “body.”

Sports achievement

– Goloshchapov and Putin have known each other since childhood, they are both judoists, although they played for different clubs: Putin for Turbostroitel, Goloshchapov for SKA. But, of course, we crossed paths at competitions and sports training camps,” Valery Natalenko, a doctor at the Yavara-Neva club, whose honorary president is Vladimir Putin and whose general director is businessman Arkady Rotenberg, told Sobesednik.

In the official biography of Goloshchapov, the 90s are reflected vaguely - a certain construction SMU-7 appears, from which the former athlete immediately jumped to the chair of the general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Roscentrproekt" (center "New Russian Projects") of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow. And this happened in the same 1996, when Vladimir Putin moved to the capital to take the place of deputy head of President Yeltsin’s administration. So the rivals on the tatami became colleagues. And in the political community, for the first time, the definition of “massage therapist” was heard, which Goloshchapov either worked part-time in the troubled 90s, or simply helped a friend alleviate the consequences of sports injuries.

Friendship on religious grounds

Today in St. Petersburg, Konstantin Goloshchapov is better known as “Athos resident.” This is how everyone who belongs to the Russian Athos society is called in the Northern capital. The society is formally purely religious, but in fact its purpose is much broader - you just have to look at the personal composition. The founders are Advisor to the Governor Konstantin Goloshchapov and Vice-Governor Igor Divinsky. The head of the board of trustees of the company is the Governor of St. Petersburg himself, Georgy Poltavchenko. The society includes two former vice-governors of the Northern capital - Vasily Kichedzhi and Vladimir Lavlentsev, as well as the Kaluga governor Anatoly Artamonov, the head of the committee on informatization of the St. Petersburg mayor's office Ivan Gromov and not only...

– A sign of belonging to society – a wooden Athonite rosary on the wrist. In September, journalists photographed them closely on the hand of Vice-Governor Lavlentsev. The fact that the entire St. Petersburg power elite are members of one almost secret society is suggestive. We even have such a term - “Orthodox security service.” They all often travel to Greece to the holy Mount Athos, and there are rumors that not only issues of faith are resolved there in a secluded setting. There is talk about helicopter VIP tours,” Andrey Pivovarov, co-chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of RPR-Parnas, told Interlocutor. – Our governor also spent his last vacation in October of this year on Mount Athos.

Goloshchapov stood at the origins of the Russian Athos Society. It arose in 2005 - immediately after Vladimir Putin visited the Holy Mountain. With the assistance of the Russian Athos Society, the relics of various saints and the Belt of the Blessed Virgin Mary were brought to Russia. The society is actively involved in the restoration of temples on Mount Athos. In January 2014, the authorities had difficulty hushing up a scandal involving the “voluntary-forced” collection of donations for the needs of the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos from road and utility organizations in St. Petersburg.

– It happened this winter, which is traditionally a test for St. Petersburg. We collected 17 million rubles, which could be used for an equally charitable purpose - the improvement of the city,” Krasimir Vranski, coordinator of the “Beautiful Petersburg” movement, told Interlocutor.

The road workers and utility workers were subordinate to the “Athos resident”, the then vice-governor Lavlentsev. The director of the Center enterprise, who listed less than others, was even promptly fired for the “sin of greed” (although according to the official version, he left voluntarily).

When this publication was being prepared, the Russian Athonite Society removed the names of the participants from its website, adding even more mystery and secrecy to its image...

Not by God alone

Judoists of Putin's call stick closely to each other both in politics and in business. Konstantin Goloshchapov, together with Arkady Rotenberg, was a co-founder of the large Northern Sea Route (NSR) bank, but later transferred his share to Boris Rotenberg. However, the SKRIN analytical database lists Goloshchapov’s wife Iraya Gilmutdinova among the founders of SMP. As often happens, she is far more “successful” than her husband in business. For example, she has two common large companies with the son of the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexei Poltavchenko - Investbugri and Peterburgstroy, which, as Sobesednik calculated in the last issue, give their founders up to 20 million rubles in profit every month.

In addition, Gilmutdinova had a woodworking enterprise “BimsStroy”, the composition of the co-founders of which is also very interesting: the former head of Rosspirtprom Vadim Zolotarev, the current senator Sergei Lisovsky, the current head of the Alpine Ski Federation of the Moscow Region Roman Kamyansky. The company closed in 2008. But Gilmutdinova’s name appeared among the founders of the Topflor-Invest construction holding, which received 7 government orders for the construction of sports complexes, schools, and pipelines totaling 2.89 billion rubles. The company's revenue, 1/6 of which, according to the SKRIN database, belongs to Gilmutdinova, for 2013 was 2 billion 88 million rubles.

In addition, the family has interests in the Promtoring company, which is engaged in the wholesale of textile products. Another company, Business Sphere LLC, is owned in equal shares by Iraa Gilmutdinova and Natalya Skarlygina, the president of the Dynamo hockey club, whose name is listed in the purchase and sale agreement for Arkady Rotenberg’s St. Petersburg apartment (the deal took place this summer).

/ RIA News"

For myself and for that guy

Italian journalists know Konstantin Goloshchapov as a person who helps in communicating with “Putin’s oligarchs.” He helped mainly in the story of the acquisition of the Italian football club Bari. Fans of the small club turned to the Russian president with a request to buy the club during the Russian president’s visit to Bari - they greeted him with posters “Putin, buy Bari!” Later, the players reminded of themselves by giving Putin a personalized T-shirt with the logo of their club. The Rotenberg businessmen close to Putin became interested in the purchase, but negotiations were stopped by European sanctions: the Rotenbergs cannot now purchase anything in Europe due to the threat of seizure of property. Then Goloshchapov appeared on the scene - “a friend of Konstantin who helps communicate with Russian investors,” as the current owner of the Bari club, Gianluca Paparesta, described him.

Goloshchapov has many interests in Italy. According to the Italian press, he purchased an apartment in Bari, where the temple of the Russian Orthodox Church is located and the relics of the patron saint of Rus', Nicholas the Wonderworker, are kept. Goloshchapov transported some of these relics to Russia and donated them to a monastery near St. Petersburg. In Italy, Goloshchapov also owns a small four-star hotel in Cagliari.

“Officially, the Bari club can be transferred to the control of another person,” Paparesta blurted out, hinting at “Constantine’s friend.”

Under the conditions of sanctions, the Rotenbergs and businesses close to Putin really need “their reliable person” in Europe. For this reason, no government contracts are spared.

/By the way

Konstantin Goloshchapov received many awards and thanks from the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 2011, Dmitry Medvedev presented Konstantin Goloshchapov and his wife Iraa Gilmutdinova with the Order of Parental Glory in the Kremlin for raising 6 children.

Former Vice President of OJSC Bank "Northern Sea Route"

Goloshchapov Konstantin Veniaminovich

Biography

Born in 1954.

Education

In 1982 he graduated from the Leningrad Order of the Red Banner of Labor Engineering and Construction Institute with a degree in Industrial and Civil Construction.

Konstantin Goloshchapov is a name that is well known only to the initiated. According to media reports, along with the Rotenberg brothers, he is part of the inner circle of St. Petersburg friends from Vladimir Putin’s youth, but has so far managed to avoid obvious publicity. Meanwhile, he is called “Putin’s personal massage therapist,” who made a career precisely thanks to his proximity to the president’s “body.”

– Goloshchapov and Putin have known each other since childhood, they are both judoists, although they played for different clubs: Putin for Turbostroitel, Goloshchapov for SKA. But, of course, we crossed paths at competitions and sports training camps,” Valery Natalenko, a doctor at the Yavara-Neva club, whose honorary president is Vladimir Putin and whose general director is businessman Arkady Rotenberg, told Sobesednik.

In the official biography of Goloshchapov, the 90s are reflected vaguely - a certain construction SMU-7 appears, from which the former athlete immediately jumped to the chair of the general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Roscentrproekt" (center "New Russian Projects") of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation in Moscow.

And this happened in the same 1996, when Vladimir Putin moved to the capital to take the place of deputy head of President Yeltsin’s administration. So the rivals on the tatami became colleagues. And in the political community, for the first time, the definition of “massage therapist” was heard, which Goloshchapov either worked part-time in the troubled 90s, or simply helped a friend alleviate the consequences of sports injuries.

Compromising evidence

Today in St. Petersburg, Konstantin Goloshchapov is better known as “Athos resident.” This is how everyone who belongs to the Russian Athos society is called in the Northern capital. The society is formally purely religious, but in fact its purpose is much broader.

The fact that the entire St. Petersburg power elite are members of one almost secret society is suggestive. They all often travel to Greece to the holy Mount Athos, and there are rumors that not only issues of faith are resolved there in a secluded setting. There is talk about helicopter VIP tours,” Andrey Pivovarov, co-chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of RPR-Parnas, told Interlocutor.

When we began to study the personality of “Putin’s masseur” Konstantin Goloshchapov, we did not even imagine how large-scale it would turn out to be. Well, what is known about him? The story is that, supposedly, he massaged one place of Putin in his youth (his back) - in adulthood he received state preferences. In fact, Goloshchapov is a real hero of his time, the late 90s and “zeros”, a man of the era of early Putin. On the St. Petersburg-Moscow planes, from which Goloshchapov did not get out throughout his first presidential term, the personnel potential of the new regime was forged. The “masseur” took with him entire delegations of St. Petersburg residents to help with employment or business. Some of the passengers became newsmakers and still retain their seats and influence.

There are several versions of the fateful meeting between Goloshchapov and Putin. According to one of them, Putin, who was playing for the Turbostroitel club at that time, met Goloshchapov at a training camp, and since then, combat sports has grown into a strong male friendship. According to another version, Putin, who was already working in the investigative department of the Leningrad KGB, hit his back hard during physical training classes. Vladimir Sarvadiy, a self-taught person and the author of a unique method of treating the spine, took on the patient. He advised the security officer to massage his back every day and recommended the orderly Goloshchapov. LRC contacted Sarvadiy, who was repeatedly invited to the Kremlin, but he stated that he would not say anything about Vladimir Vladimirovich and Konstantin Veniaminovich.

In retellings, the story about the service provided to Putin acquired different interpretations, and as a result, the media nicknamed Goloshchapov “Putin’s massage therapist.” What is known for sure is that by the mid-80s Goloshchapov became friends with his future business partner Arkady Rotenberg, trained at his club RVS (“Guys from the Vyborg Side”), where he brought another friend of his, the future leader of the gangster St. Petersburg, Vladimir Kumarin.

In black jackets — Konstantin Goloshchapov and Arkady Rotenberg, in a black tracksuit — Vladimir Putin | Photo: ABOS.ru

In March 2000, almost simultaneously with Putin’s victory in the presidential elections, Goloshchapov took the position of general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Roscentrproekt under the Presidential Administration. “Roscentrproekt” is the brainchild of the then ex-presidential manager Pavel Borodin, established in 1998 to create a nationwide information system capable of quickly delivering documents, news and analytics to regional authorities and the media via satellite communications.
As a former employee of the organization told LRC, she rarely saw her new general director at work; he was constantly on the road: “We jokingly nicknamed Konstantin Veniaminovich Meteor. He brought entire delegations from St. Petersburg, and we simply did not have time to accommodate them in hotels, book tickets and provide special coupons for food. Then priests in robes and some funny monarchists with crosses on their jackets appeared. By order of management, icons and church calendars were hung everywhere, and young employees began to be scolded for wearing short skirts.”


Konstantin Goloshchapov (left) / Photo: Photo: Press service of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'

In 2002, the Political News Agency published a leak about “a new star on the political and administrative horizon of modern Russia” - Konstantin Goloshchapov, “the president’s personal massage therapist”, who can help take a high position, win elections, receive a government award and solve any problems.

Using the Sirena air travel database, sold on the capital's radio markets, LRC calculated that from 1998 to 2005, air passenger Konstantin Goloshchapov boarded a plane 338 times and traveled between Moscow and St. Petersburg. As it turned out, most of the general director’s fellow travelers soon took high positions in government agencies and became successful businessmen or influential decision-makers. Here are just a few examples:

May 25, 1998 (St. Petersburg - Moscow time). On this day, Vladimir Putin was appointed first deputy head of the presidential administration, responsible for working with the regions. At 13.10 Goloshchapov flew to the capital. Along with him on board were the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Valery Malyshev and Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Improvement and Road Facilities Vladimir Dedyukhin. The day before, the Chamber of Control and Accounts of St. Petersburg discovered that the loans issued with the help of these officials, instead of landscaping, were used by contractors to improve private tennis courts. A criminal case was opened. As can be seen from Malyshev’s further biography, after his trip to Moscow, he remained in the position of vice-governor for another three years, until he died of a stroke. The second passenger, Dedyukhin, was soon promoted and was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples. Later, the gentleman moved to Moscow to the office of the Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation, and then was an assistant to Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.

November 16, 1999. Putin has been prime minister for three months now. Goloshchapov's fellow traveler to Moscow is his fellow countryman Nikolai Pogolsha, who soon received a leadership position in Rosreestr for the Moscow region. Pogolsha is considered to be a man of Anatoly Turchak, who trained with Putin at Turbostroitel, and then was his deputy on the St. Petersburg regional council of the Our Home — Russia movement. Turchak’s son Andrey served as governor of the Pskov region for almost 8 years; since October 2017, he has been acting as secretary of the General Council of United Russia. Journalist Oleg Kashin believes that Turchak Jr. ordered the attempt on his life in 2010. In 2015, the investigation brought charges against three security guards at the plant, part of the Leninets holding company of Turchak Sr.

March 21, 2000. Another flight from Pulkovo. Goloshchapov is sitting in chair 27 “B”, and the police captain is located in the adjacent 27 “G” Dmitry Zabednov(Ministry of Internal Affairs certificate No. 17019). Within a couple of years, Zabednov will be called one of the main decision makers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; it is to him that billionaire colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko owes the rise of his career. Sometimes Zabednov confided in his friends and said that he personally knew Putin and allegedly carried out his delicate instructions. On October 9, 2012, on Butyrskaya Street near house 42, the body of Colonel GUEBiPK MIA Zabednov was found in his own Porsche Cayenne. According to the official conclusion, the policeman died of acute heart failure.

April 1, 2000. Putin won the presidential election six days ago. General Director of Roscentrproekt Goloshchapov is back on the plane. Sitting nearby is the former head of the St. Petersburg Judo Federation Igor Sidorkevich. Soon the judoka moved to the central office of the FSB, and in 2013 he was appointed head of the Main Directorate of Military Police of the Ministry of Defense. Another passenger — also a native of the Leningrad KGB Vladimir Strzhalkovsky— three months after the flight, he took the post of Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade. He played an important role in the war for Norilsk Nickel between Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska. And upon leaving the post of general director of Norilsk Nickel, he received the largest “golden parachute” in the history of Russian business, weighing $100 million.

October 6, 2000. In the cabin of the plane to Moscow - Goloshchapov and the former detective officer of the operational and technical service of the KGB Directorate for Leningrad and the Leningrad Region Alexey Sedov, who worked as deputy chief of the tax police of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko and replaced him in this post in 1999. A year after the flight with Goloshchapov, Sedov headed the Main Directorate of the Federal Tax Police Service for the Northwestern Federal District. Two years later, he moved to the office of the first deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Cherkesov, and in 2006 he was appointed head of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and Combating Terrorism of the FSB. In October 2009, in Moscow, Sedov’s official Mercedes with its flashing lights on drove into oncoming traffic and rammed a car. In total, six people were injured. As it turned out, the general and his family were rushing to an Elton John concert.

January 26, 2001. Goloshchapov’s neighbor is Anatoly Sobchak’s ex-chief of staff Victor Kruchinin. In 1997, as part of the “Sobchak case,” Kruchinin was arrested, but then released. After a flight to Moscow, he took the chair of director of the Department for Supporting the Activities of the President's Office.

November 7, 2001. Goloshchapov’s company is made up of the Rotenberg brothers. They are taking the vice-president of the National Union of Judo Veterans to Moscow Yuri Bukin. Two years later, Bukin joined the management of Boris Rotenberg’s company Baza-Torg LLC, which owned 25% of Gaztaged LLC - at that time the largest supplier of pipes to Gazprom with a turnover of $500 million.

December 14, 2001. Goloshchapov's travel companion is a native of St. Petersburg Elena Ilyukhina. A week later, she occupied the office of the deputy general director of the FSUE Rublevo-Uspensky LOK, managing the presidential affairs. Now Ms. Ilyukhina is Deputy General Director of Gazpromneft for legal and corporate issues.

May 31, 2002. Goloshchapov’s neighbor — founder of Champagne Wines LLC Igor Chuyan. After a visit to the capital, Chuyan joined the management of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosspirtprom (a few years later, Arkady Rotenberg became a state partner in all the best Rosspirtprom factories), and since 2009 he became the head of the Federal Service for Regulation of the Alcohol Market. In February 2015, two employees of the SEB FSB, Igor Korobitsyn and Maxim Tsukanov, tried to scam Chuyan out of $800 thousand. Apparently, the security officers were poorly prepared, did not collect information in advance about who they contacted, and soon found themselves behind bars. An interesting detail: businessman Boris Zingarevich, a business partner of the future Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was returning home on the same plane.

May 8, 2002. Three weeks before the flight with Chuyan, Goloshchapov brought the St. Petersburg “vodka king” to Moscow Alexandra Sabadasha, who next year became a senator from the Nenets district. For many years, Sabadash fought in the courts with banker Sergei Pugachev, who considered himself a close acquaintance of Putin, for the right to own a land plot with an area of ​​197.57 hectares, located next to the president’s residence in Novo-Ogarevo, but to no avail. In March 2015, the Gagarinsky Court of Moscow sentenced Sabadash to six years in prison for attempting to steal 1.87 billion rubles from the budget under the guise of a VAT refund.

July 1, 2002. The “masseur” is again on his way to the capital. In the next chair is the future top manager of Gazprom Invest Yug, businessman Andrey Goncharenko. According to The Daily Mail, in 2014 he bought the Hanover Lodge mansion in London for £120 million and is known as a lover of painting and a regular at VIP parties.

August 19, 2002. Arkady Rotenberg and Putin's former bodyguard are on board the plane to Moscow along with Goloshchapov. Roman Tsepov, who issued an air ticket for the Presidential Administration Certificate No. 1925 (in total, TsUR counted five certificates from various law enforcement agencies). In 1992, Tsepov founded the Baltic Escort security company in St. Petersburg and provided security for Anatoly Sobchak and members of the Putin family. In St. Petersburg he was called one of the most influential figures; he was credited with close ties with Igor Sechin and the then head of the presidential security Viktor Zolotov. In 2004, Tsepov died suddenly in the hospital named after. Sverdlov. General Zolotov attended his funeral. According to the official version, the cause was bone marrow damage, but some experts noticed symptoms of pronounced radiation sickness.

July 10, 2003. A State Duma deputy is flying with Goloshchapov Vladimir Yudin. A month earlier, based on his parliamentary request about the legality of the privatization of the Apatit mining and processing plant, the Prosecutor General's Office began criminal proceedings in the YUKOS case. Eight days before Goloshchapov’s flight with Yudin to the capital, the head of the MFO MENATEP and co-owner of YUKOS, Platon Lebedev, was arrested. Later, in a conversation with journalists, Yudin will say that there was no order and he acted in the name of justice.

In total, as the LRC calculated, Goloshchapov’s traveling companions were 487 people. Of these, 167 received appointments to the presidential administration, government, FSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs (State Traffic Safety Inspectorate), Federal Drug Control Service, Moscow City Hall, Gazprom, Rosrezerv, Goskomsport and Rosrybolovstvo. Another 46 passengers became successful businessmen.

In addition, the massage therapist accompanied to the capital two Italian journalists, three famous winemakers, two hairdressers, two plastic surgery specialists and a certain Orthodox thinker Vasily Bidolakh, who told the world that Vladimir Putin was chosen as sovereign by the Most Holy Theotokos herself. But there was no place for this eccentric in government agencies, and a week later he returned home to Gatchina.

How a former black marketeer, an orderly at the Mariinsky Hospital, a KGB informant, and a fixer from near Tambov became a link in the new commercial-Orthodox system, created a Russian Athos lodge and reached a high international level - read in