The name of the next President having been known for long, the contributions to his pre-election account have no rational sense: it’s rather a mystery allowing the participants to feel their relation to high places. They could just as well burn the money and burn incense on this fire for the Medvedev’s victory’s sake. The result would be the same. So it’s only interesting to watch the ceremony to see who exactly was allowed to the altar.

The procession is dominated with United Russia members saturated with gas. Following them are contractors of the state companies and the sympathizers. The file is closed with a public organization related to a regional head, with a deputy and with a head of a state corporation. Even now the continuity of the course can be established as similar financing scheme was characteristic of Vladimir Putin’s campaign.   

Transsibstroi Company is the absolute leader of donations to the special pre-election account of Medvedev at the moment. It has invested 25 million rubles in this candidate. There are several bodies with such a name in Russia. Transsibstroi from New Urengoi is most noticeable among them. This company was a minority shareholder of Gazinvestbank (7.56%). The bank is servicing Gazprom “daughters”. It participated, for example, in the mortgage program of moving Gazprom workers from the Extreme North to near-Moscow region and other regions.    

Alexander Zabarsky used to own half of Transsibstroi. The man is the member of the Yamalo-Nenetsky coordinating council of United Russia’s supporters and he is the General Director of the building company Mostostroi-12 whose main contractors are Gazprom’s enterprises. We failed to get in touch with representatives of Transsibstroi.   

United Russia support Fund only scraped up 15 million rubles for the party’s candidate. So at first sight, Medvedev is dearer to Gazprom whose chair of board he is known to be. 

All that is not so simple, though. 5 million rubles was transferred to the special account by Finrate firm. Its head Maxim Astrakhantsev is affiliated with a Kaluga plant, or Kalugaputmash, producing track machines and hydraulic drives. It contributed 4 million rubles to Medvedev’s campaign. Mr. Astrakhantsev is the board member in Kalugaputmash whose main customer is the Russian Railroads State Corporation.  

General Director of the enterprise Pyotr Golubev explained to a Novaya Gazeta correspondent that the current policy in the railroad and machine building sphere suits him. He supports the today’s course and does not want any change. Golubev noted he did not receive any orders from above to do so, even being the member of United Russia. He said it’s the Kalugaputmash shareholders who took the decision of allotting the money in support of Medvedev.  

Promfinance Company is next in the list in terms of the size of contribution made on the altar. It donated 2 million rubles. The name is not original; there are over 20 companies in Russia with this name. However, striking is the company close to AvtoVazBank. It belonged for 74% to the former vice-president of AVTOVAZ Vladimir Kuchai and for 26% to the chair of board of the bank Vera Prokopenko. We failed to contact the representatives of Promfinance so that to confirm if it is really them to have supported Dmitry Medvedev financially.   

“Laboratory Hemotest” transferred 1,600,000 rubles to the campaigning account. Financial Director of the Company, Marina Gridneva, communicated that it was driven with their civil attitude and not with any wish to get preferences.    

We found out that the founder of Laboratory Hemotest Rudem Gaziev was also co-founder of the firm Gorod Sladostei (fittingly, City of Sweets). Another co-founder there was Anastasia Shershakova, the daughter of a former employee at the ministry of economic development Alexander Shershakov. Marina Gridneva stressed that Rudem Gaziev has stopped being a legal constitutor of Gorod Sladostei and the Laboratory Hemotest never had and does not have any high ranking patrons.  

The auditing firm “Dinas-Audit” has participated in the Medvedev’s campaign giving 610 thousand rubles. Former deputy director of the firm, Tatiana Alekseeva, had headed the department of the inner audit and accounting of Gazprom-Media by 2004 and was a member of audit commissions in NTV-Plus and Izvestia.   

Expert Cargo Trans Company contributed 450 thousand rubles. Igor Kashcheev and Vladimir Karbashev are registered as co-founders of the company. They had relation to transport shipping companies working with the largest exhibition organizer, Expocenter.     

All-Russian public organization of veterans “Boevoe bratstvo” (fittingly, Combat Fraternity) transferred 100 thousand rubles to Medvedev’s campaigning account. The money came back with the indication that the organization was registered less than one year before the election. However, Boevoe Bratstvo has been working for more than one year. It’s chaired by the governor of Moscow region Boris Gromov whose first deputy is the United Russia member and an MP Dmitry Sablin, having worked since 2000. The accounting department of the organization explained that the donation came back due to the clerk’s error who put the wrong date on the banking transfer. Now the error has been corrected and the money has been sent again.  

Among people who decided to personally support Medvedev one may distinguish Alexei Fyodorov, the president of the United Aviation Corporation, or UAC. He paid 100,000 rubles but the money was returned with the wording “transferred with the violation of the established order”. The piquancy of the situation is that the chair of board of UAC, first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov has also been considered the candidate for being the successor until recently. And while he was an aspirant, it was unlikely that someone in that corporation would dare to promote the other candidate.      

Maxim Sysoev, spokesperson for UAC, told to Novaya Gazeta that the minor technical error was corrected and the donation was successfully transferred. “Alexei Fyodorov is the member of the head political council of United Russia and so it is logical that he decided to support the candidate from the party” explained Sysoev. He also noted all that has no relation to UAC as Fyodorov gave his own money under his own initiative.

A former adviser to Russian government shared with us an anonymous opinion that it is best to donate in cash and directly, to the election campaign. 

“I think the official donation within the frames of our old traditions is useless” reflects the expert. “The real sense is in direct handing the cash for campaigning purposes. Such an investment is capable of return, while anything else is just good for a small self-advertising”.  

Novaya Gazeta information

Election campaign of Vladimir Putin in 2004 had similar filling but was featured with some extravagancy. The largest contributions (6 million rubles) then were made by Yuventastroi and Yavastroi companies that were founded by the daughter of Valery Yazev, deputy from United Russia. Yazev is also the President of the Russian Gas Society. He is considered to be the main lobbyist of Gazprom in the State Duma. Coincidently, in 2006 a jewelry booth belonging to Yuveline firm managed to appear right in the hall of the Russian Parliament. The Yuveline firm was founded by the Yazev’s daughter. Support Funds of United Russia (3,700,000 rubles), Gazprom structures and different gas-dealing companies (2,000,000 rubles) were other large and traditional sponsors of Putin’s campaign. Interestingly, two banks whose donations came back – Sodbiznesbank and Credittrust – were closed down same year.