Vyacheslav Volodin, left, secretary of United Russia's General Council's Presidium, and Andrey Vorobiev, right, head of United Russia's Central Executive Committee
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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The United Russian Sea
It has emerged that Andrey Vorobiev, chief of the Central Executive Committee of United Russia Party and State Duma’s lawmaker, is the founder of Russkoe More (Russian Sea) Group, one of the biggest vendors of fish and seafood in the country. By 2009, the group intends to sell a stake either to “some multinational fish corporation” or via one of foreign stock exchanges during IPO.
When it comes to Russkoe More, the matter at stake is rather the Vorobiev family. Andrey Vorobiev said the group is currently controlled by his younger brother, Maxim Vorobiev. The father of brothers, Yury Vorobiev, had been the first deputy emergency minister for the last 13 years, and he left the office for the Federation Council in May.
The 2006 turnover of Russkoe More was estimated at between $100 million and $120 million.
The fact that the party members are also businessmen doesn’t anger United Russia, according Leonid Goryainov, who is in charge of the ideological division of the political department of United Russia’s Central Executive Committee. But that business should be “fair from legal and moral point of view,” i.e. the gambling undertaking will be hardly welcomed.
Indeed, quite a number of United Russia members are owners of well-known consumer companies. Nikolay Bortsov, for instance, controls Russia’s biggest juice maker Lebedyansky, Vladimir Gruzdev is the founder of Sedmoi Continent chain of food stores, Alexander Rozenbaum promotes Tolstyi Fraer (The Fat Guy) chain of beer restaurants, while Valery Komissarov is linked to Moya Semia (My Family) media holding.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 15, 2007
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