Akimov was born inLeningrad in 1953, but, when he was three months old, his family moved to Moscow.[5] His father was a military engineer that developed weapons for the USSR Ministry of Defense, and his mother was a mathematics teacher.[5] He graduated from a secondary school in Moscow that specialized in English.[5] At theMoscow Financial Institute, he became friends with both Valery Lyakin[a] andVladimir Dmitriev and earned his degree in 1975, studying international economics, finance and banking.[5][8]
From 1974 to 1987, Andrey Akimov was employed in at theForeign Trade Bank of the USSR (Vneshtorgbank) at senior positions heading the financial operations department, which was involved with securities, of VTB USSR until 1985.[3][9][10][11] In September 1975, he participated with the Soviet Foreign Trade Ministry (Russian:советский Минвнешторг) during the negotiations with Japan culminating in an agreement with the 1974 established Japanese companySakhalin Sekiyu Kaihatsu Kyoreku Kabushiki Kaisha (Sodeco) (Japanese:サハリン石油開発協力) for the development of theSakhalin-1 field onSakhalin Island,[b] and, in 1977 for his first trip outside of the Soviet Union, he travelled to Japan as a government expert and an employee of Vneshtorgbank to negotiate trade in consumer goods and large-diameter pipes with Japanese officials.[5] In 1978, he had a six-month internship at theEast-West United Bank in Luxembourg, and, in 1981, he went to Sweden and negotiated a $100 million loan with the export agency.[5] He travelled to many places after his 1981 success in Sweden including many trips to Switzerland to the famous Zurich based Sovzagranbank "Voskhod Handelsbank" (Russian:совзагранбанке «Восход Хандельсбанк») (Wozсhod Handelsbank), which was headed byYuri Karnaukh,[13] in support of gold trades apparently transporting gold under aircraft passenger seats, according toNikolai Krotov, until the collapse of the Swiss bank in 1984.[5] From 1985 to 1987, he held a post, which is usually given to an undercover KGB agent, as Deputy Director General of the Soviet Vneshtorgbank branch inZurich (Switzerland).[2][4][11] From 1987 to November 1990, he held a post, which is usually given to an undercover KGB agent, as the Director General of the Soviet-controlledDonau Bank inVienna (Austria) at the same timeAlexander Medvedev worked at Donau Bank.[2][4][8][11][14] During this time, Donau Bank allegedly serviced very large debts of Bulgaria and, which the AustrianDie Presse wrote at the time, was "adherence to an overly expansive business strategy".[3] In the spring of 1990, Bulgaria declared a moratorium on servicing its external debt.[3]
From January 1991 to 20 November 2002, he was a managing director of the Swiss financial company IMAG GmbH in Vienna (Austria), which specialized in financing the oil and natural gas industry, and was regular advisor to the chairman of the management board of the newly createdRussian Vneshtorgbank.[3][8][11][14][c] During the 1990s, he worked closely with the administration of the Governor of St. PetersburgAnatoly Sobchak and especiallyVladimir Putin to provide more than $1 billion in foreign finance for the reconstruction of theKirishi oil refinery (Russian:Киришинефтеоргсинтез), which is the only oil refinery in northwest Russia and is the largest oil refinery in Russia based upon the amount of fuel produced.[9][15][16][17] In 1992, his IMAG GmbH organized the financing from foreign banks for the Andrey Katkov (Russian:Андрей Катков), Yevgeny Malov (Russian:Евгений Малов), Adolf Smirnov (Russian:Адольф Смирнов) andGennady Timchenko associated oil traderKinex which, in 1993, the St. Petersburg mayor's office transferred oil export quotas which were coming from the Kirishi oil refinery to Kinex and, later, this allowed Timchenko to establish the oil traderGunvor.[9][10][18][19][d] Upon the establishment ofRosUkrEnergo (Russian:РосУкрЭнерго), many top managers at the Moscow office of the Swiss firm IMAG GmbH moved to Gazprombank.[16]
At IMAG, Akimov had a mandate from the Supreme Economic Council under the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation "in order to attract loans and investments in the Russian economy" (Russian:«в целях привлечения кредитов и инвестиций в российскую экономику»).[3] Through IMAG, Akimov participated in the Russian privatization project including attracting investment fromBear Stearns forAvtoVAZ instead of the traditional Soviet Union supporterFiat, investment fromKohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) forKamAZ, and Bear Sterns forTomskneft.[3][e]
In November 2002, Akimov has taken up a post of the chairman of the management board of theGPB (OJSC).[8][11] In January 2005, Sergei Ivanov (Russian:Сергей Иванов), who is the son ofSergei Ivanov and was Akimov's assistant to the chairman of the board at Gazprombank, became the vice president of Gazprombank.[25] Through Gazprombank, Akimov, Michael Hason, who is president of Liechtenstein-registered CAP Holding, a deputy chairman the Liechtenstein Sygma Bank and involved with a Martin Schlaff associated Latvian oil company,Martin Schlaff, who is associated with the Vienna based bankBAWAG also transliterated as BAVAG (Russian:банк «БАВАГ») and Robert Novikovsky also transliterated as Nowikovsky or Novikov (Russian:Роберт Новиковский), who was the chairman of the board of Baltic Holding (Russian:«Балтик Холдинг»), formed Yurimex also transliterated as Jurimex (Russian:«Юримекс») which is co-located with the Martin Schlaff associated firm Getex. Yurimex (Jurimex) later becameCentrex (Russian:«Центрекс»).[26][27][28]
Following the bankruptcy ofKrasny Oktyabr in 2009 in which theAndrei Borodin ledBank of Moscow was a large creditor, Akimov, as the interim manager of the plant, appointed theUkrainianDmitro Gerasimenko, who is the owner of Dieg-Impex LLC (Russian:ООО «Диег-Импэкс»), to be executive director of Krasny Oktyabr[f] and who in November 2018 "sold" the plant to Pavel Krotov.[29][30][g]
Since December 2006, Akimov is a member of theNovatek Board of Directors.[11] Since June 2011, he is a member of theGazprom Board of Directors.[8] He is a member of the supervisory board of theCSKA ice hockey club.
In Russian media, his romantic partner has previously been identified as painter Marianna Chaykina (Russian:Марианна Чайкина).[38][39][40][41]
ThePandora Papers leaks revealed that Akimov owned at least eight shell companies over the period 2007–2018 which were registered in theBritish Virgin Islands (BVI) and some of the companies were co-owned by Marianna Chaykina.[38]
As of December 2021, Akimov has been married since September 2021 to an unknown woman identified as an ex-aviation worker.[42]
^Valery Vitalievich Lyakin (Russian:Валерий Витальевич Лякин; born 7 September 1953) became a member of the management board ofDonau Bank from December 1989 to December 1991 in one source[6] heading it from November 1990 until November 1992 in another source[7] and later became chairman of the board of VTB Bank (Deutschland) AG inFrankfurt am Main which was formerly known asOst-West Handelsbank.
^The Japanese financing of the development ofSakhalin-1 led to the discovery of the oil and gas fields at Odoptu, Chayvo and Arkutun-Dagi on its northeast portion of the Sakhalin shelf.[5][12]
^Alexander Medvedev, who is not related to Dmitry Medvedev, was Akimov's junior partner at IMAG GmbH.[4][9]
^All settlements for the Kirishi oil traders was handled byBank Rossiya.[20]
^From 1994 to 1998, Austrian andUniversity of Vienna graduate Wolfgang Skribot worked under Akimov at IMAG, then worked in the European division ofEnron, and later worked withBoris Fyodorov, Charles Ryan andIlya Sherbovich as the director at the United Financial Group (UFG) (Russian:«Объединенной финансовой группы» (ОФГ)) until one month afterGazprombank (GPB) acquired its stake inMosenergo (Russian:«Мосэнерго») in 2003 after which Skribot began working at GPB. As of 2022, Skribot is a director at the London-based SEFE Marketing and Trading Ltd., which formerly was a unit ofGazprom PJSC.[3][21][22][23][24]
^Dmitro Gerasimenko, who began his career withDneprospetsstal (Russian:«Днепроспецстал»), placed numerous persons from Dneprospetsstal at positions at Krasny Oktyabr including his mother Svetlana Gerasimenko, who became financial director, Eduard Shifrin, who worked with Svetlana Gerasimenko at Dneprospetsstal, Vadim Leibenzon, who Gerasimenko calls his "right hand" and in the early 1990s led the steel shop at Dneprospetsstal and became general director of Dneprospetsstal in 1998-2001 and 2003-2004, and Konstantin Ryabov, who became the president of Red October International and was very close toViktor Pinchuk who had been a co-owner of Dneprospetsstal until 2008.[29]
^"Лякин, Валерий Витальевич" [Lyakin, Valery Vitalievich].fa100.ru (in Russian). 13 September 2023. Archived fromthe original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved13 September 2023.
^abcde"Andrei Akimov".Russian Capitalist Wiki. 8 November 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved11 November 2013.
^"I．サハリン大陸棚開発の歴史" [I. History of the Development of the Sakhalin Continental Shelf](PDF).Russian NIS Trade Association (in Japanese). 2004. Retrieved28 August 2023.
^"Карнаух Юрий Юрьевич" [Karnaukh Yuriy Yurievich].leptosis.org (in Russian). 1 December 2017. Archived fromthe original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved28 August 2023.
^abЛукьянов, Владимир (29 March 2005).""РосУкрЭнерго" и Eural Trans Gas KFT" [RosUkrEnergo and Eural Trans Gas KFT].Компромат.Ru (in Russian). Retrieved13 September 2023.
^Березанская, Елена (3 March 2005)."Сергей Иванов, банкир" [Sergey Ivanov, banker].Forbes (in Russian). Archived fromthe original on 30 December 2018. Retrieved16 October 2023.
^"Сборная по распилу. Как на "Первом канале" "потеряли" 500 млн рублей, выделенных на чемпионат мира по футболу" [Cutting team. How Channel One "lost" 500 million rubles allocated for the World Cup].Baza (baza.io) (in Russian). 14 December 2022. Archived fromthe original on 13 September 2023. Retrieved13 September 2023.Alternate archive as Сборная "Первого канала" по распилу: Как зам Эрнста Александр Файфман и продюсер Стародубцева вывели 500 млн руб. из бюджета церемоний на ЧМ-2018 (The team of the "First Channel" on the cut: How Ernst's deputy Alexander Faifman and producer Starodubtseva withdrew 500 million rubles from the ceremonies budget at the 2018 World Cup)
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