The Rothschild family will try to help Oleg Deripaska withdraw his assets from under American sanctions. The Financial Times reported the same yesterday. The billionaire needs to sell a controlling stake in the holding company En + (unites energy assets and a stake in UC Rusal). The buyer will be searched by Rothschild & Co, the flagship of the Rothschild banking group. For such a large transaction, there is little time left. The US Treasury ordered contractors of UC Rusal to cancel contracts with the aluminum giant until October 23.

For the Rothschilds, Deripaska is far from the only client from Russia. The world-famous dynasty of European financiers has long been active in the countries of the former USSR. Forbes recalled the key projects in which the Rothschilds and billionaires, with whom they are associated, have participated.

Old friends

"We were hovered 25-year-old bathhouse attendant, a man who has perfected his whole life in the art of bathing. Then we jumped into the icy water. It was a great pleasure. The next day everyone woke up renewed and with the feeling of a beautiful day "- so Nathaniel Rothschild, heir to the British branch of the Rothschilds, recalled his trip to Siberia in late January 2005. Together with Rothschild, Oleg Deripaska, Commissioner of the European Commission Peter Mendelssohn, Canadian businessman Peter Munch and Rothschild's friend Sebastian Taylor were then hovering in the bathhouse. The story of this weekend seven years later became part of the testimony of Nathan Rothschild, which he gave in the High Court of London. The 14th Royal Court listened to the story of the peculiarities of the Russian bath as part of the consideration of Rothschild's lawsuit against the publishing house Associated Newspapers. The cause of the claim, which later, however, was rejected, was an article in the newspaper The Daily Mail (part of the ID). It affirmed the existence of a "secret connection" between Rothschild Jr. and Oleg Deripaska, which allowed the latter to conclude a deal to sell two plants to Alcoa.

It was after this material that it became widely known about the close relations of the Russian billionaire and the heir to the Rothschild banking house. The history of their relationship stretches from 2002, when 31-year-old Nathan Rothschild met with Deripaska and soon headed the supervisory board of En + Group. Rothschild & Co acted as a financial consultant for IPO UC Rusal in 2010, and Nathan Rothschild even spoke as one of the investors: through the NR Investments fund he bought 0.47% of the shares in the aluminum producer for $ 100 million. In 2010, Oleg Deripaska, who began a protracted corporate war with Vladimir Potanin, nominated Rothschild to the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel.

The Forbes interlocutor, familiar with the way last year's IPO En + in London, said that the Rothschild structures also acted as a consultant and one of the investors. In Rothschild & Co did not comment on Forbes this information.

Deripaska is not the first customer of the Rothschilds, buyers for the assets of which they are looking. In 2014, the president of Ukraine, Peter Poroshenko, entrusted the British bank Rothschild & Cie (owned by Rothschild & Co) the sale of its assets, which Atbes estimated at that time at $ 1.3 billion. But the unstable economic situation in the country did not allow to find buyers, and Poroshenko's share in corporation Roshen and remained under the control of an independent blind trust. "In fact, all interested parties informed us that they are not ready to take such a high risk, and politely refused the opportunity," the head of the Rothschild banking house in Russia and the CIS, Mario Salvetti, told in an interview with "Ukrayinska Pravda". "They all liked the company, but the context was too risky."

Friends of billionaires

"I returned the Rothschilds to Russia," Nathan Rothschild claimed in 2010 to Vedomosti, adding that his ancestors had left the Russian Empire after the 1917 revolution.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, European financiers really formed close relations with many Russian businessmen. Among them was Mikhail Khodorkovsky. When in 2002 Nathan Rothschild joined the En + advisory council, his father Jacob, the fourth Baron Rothschild, joined Khodorkovsky as one of the directors of the Open Russia Foundation, follows from the British registry of legal entities. Among the other directors of this company, designed to develop projects in the field of education, science and culture in Russia and Eastern Europe, were also the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the head of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky. A year later, in October 2003, Khodorkovsky was arrested at the Novosibirsk airport. Soon, the Sunday Times reported that Rothschild Sr. was the trustee of Khodorkovsky's stake in Yukos. Thus, the "emergency" YUKOS management scheme worked out in case of Khodorkovsky's death or incapacity. And Rothschild was only one of the possible "heirs" of the billionaire. Platon Lebedev was much more likely to receive Khodorkovsky's package, but he was sentenced to jail in July 2003.

Today, the Open Russia Foundation has been renamed the Future Russia Foundation. He finances projects of the Khodorkovsky family, for example the Institute of Modern Russia of his son Pavel (the General Prosecutor's Office recognized the organization as undesirable). Jacob Rothschild left the company only in May 2016.

Abramovich and Mechel

Business Rothschild & Co Financial Group has intensified in Russia after his appointment in 2002, the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, known for its good relations with Vladimir Putin, a member of the European Advisory Board of the Rothschild Group. Then the ex-head of the group David Rothschild said that the arrival of Schroeder is connected with the strengthening of the company's position in Central and Eastern Europe. "Exceptional knowledge of these countries, Mr Schroeder, as well as his international experience and reputation will be of immense value to us," - are reported words of David Rothschild.

Already at the end of the next 2007, Rothschild & Co was advising Highland Gold Mining on the sale of 25% of its shares to Millhouse Roman Abramovich. The amount of the transaction was estimated at $ 400 million.

Since then, Rothschild & Co has participated in a number of major transactions involving Russian companies, it follows from its annual reports. For example, in 2012, helped Sberbank to buy from Belgian Dexia Turkish Denizbank for $ 3.5 billion. In 2016, the company organized the sale of "Rosneft" 23.9% of the shares "Vankorneft" pool of Indian investors for $ 2 billion. In December of the same year head of Rothschild group in Russia Giovanni Salvetti told Reuters The, the company participated in the restructuring of the steel company "Mechel" of the debt, and was involved in the deal to buy the "Alfa group" Mikhail Fridman and his Ukrsotsbank at Unicredit group partners in exchange for a minority stake in parent company lfa bank.