Predecessor	Andrey Ilyich Kazmin
1st Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation May 18, 2000 - September 24, 2007
Predecessor	position established
Successor	Elvira Sakhipzadovna Nabiullina
Religion	Roman Catholic Church
Birth	February 8(1964-02-08 ) (55 years) Panfilovo, Pavlodar region, Kazakh SSR, USSR
Spouse	1. Elena Velikanova 2. Yana Gref
Children	son Oleg (from his first marriage) 2 daughters(from second marriage)
The consignment	CPSU → FLNP
Education	Omsk State University (1990) St. Petersburg State University (1993)
Academic degree	Candidate of Economic Sciences (2011)
Profession	lawyer, financier
Autograph
Awards
Military service
Years of service	1982-1984
Affiliation	USSR USSR
Type of army	Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR
Rank	no data
German Oskarovich Gref at Wikimedia Commons

Biography

In 1982-1984, he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR, in special units of the internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, stationed in the city of Chapaevsk, Kuibyshev Region, military unit 3434.

1990 - graduated from the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University with a degree in jurisprudence and remained as a teacher at the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University. At the university he was a Komsomol course organizer and the head of a Komsomol operational detachment, and joined the CPSU.

February 2011 - defense of a dissertation at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation on the topic: “Development and prospects for structural institutional reforms in the Russian economy.”

December 2012 Member of the Board of the J.P. Holding Morgan International Council (USA)

Member of the board of trustees of the ANO ""

Work in St. Petersburg

While working in the administration of St. Petersburg, German Gref met Alexei Kudrin, Dmitry Kozak, Dmitry Medvedev.

Work in the Government of the Russian Federation (2000-2007)

• 1998 - member of the board of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation. First Deputy Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation.
• 1999 - member of the board of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market, head of the Center for Strategic Research.

Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidential elections held on March 26, 2000. On May 7, he took office and on May 17 appointed Mikhail Kasyanov as Prime Minister. When Kasyanov’s government was formed, Gref was invited to the post of Minister of Economic Development created specifically for him. On May 18, by Decree of President Vladimir Putin, the Ministry of Trade of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation were merged into the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation.

German Gref was the main lobbyist for Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. Also, at various times, he was a member of the board of directors of many state-owned companies (Gazprom, Svyazinvest, etc.) On February 24, 2004, Kasyanov’s government was dismissed. Gref also resigned from his post as minister.

At the beginning of March, the first Fradkov government was formed, in which German Oskarovich again headed the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation. On March 14, presidential elections took place, in which Vladimir Putin was re-elected. On May 7, having existed for only two months, this government resigned its powers to the newly elected President of the Russian Federation. Mikhail Fradkov retained the position of Prime Minister, and a second Fradkov government was created in May, with German Gref continuing to serve as Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

Sberbank

From October 2007 to the present, Gref is Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia. The former head of the bank, Andrei Kazmin, was transferred to work at Russian Post, which caused dissatisfaction among the bank's leading managers who voted against Gref. Gref's four-year contract as president and chairman of the board of Sberbank expired in November 2011.

Activities outside Russia

Since 2013, German Gref has been a member of the international board of the American bank J.P. Morgan Chase, replacing the general director of the Rusnano state corporation Anatoly Chubais.

Prospects of falling under sanctions

In January 2018, he was included in the “Kremlin list” of the US Treasury - a list of people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Personal views and public statements

In 2012, at the SPIEF 2012 forum dedicated to overcoming the crisis, in response to Tim Kelsey’s monologue, Gref said that the effectiveness of the power of the people raises his doubts, and the indirect receipt of information by people inspires fear. He also stated that the media are somehow dependent and participate in the preservation of layers of society. Gref later explained that his previous statements were only dark humor in order to stir up discussion.

On December 28, 2017, he sharply opposed the use of bank plastic cards, saying that “I already mostly pay using Apple Pay. I dream of the moment when I don’t have a card in my pocket at all, I consider it an atavism.”

On March 14, 2019, he stated that the main problem in Russia is the lack of an effective public administration system.

Ratings

In October 2011, German Gref was noted by Forbes magazine as one of the nine most unusual Russian businessmen - madcaps, eccentrics and eccentrics.

In October 2018, German Gref took second place in the ranking of influential Russians according to Forbes magazine. .

Income

In 2013, he entered the top 5 Forbes list (1st place) of the most expensive managers in Russia with an income of $15 million. The share of shares of Sberbank of Russia owned by G. O. Gref: 0.003096% (package price - $27.19 million) . In 2014, he again found himself in a similar Forbes ranking in 4th place with an income of $26 million. In 2015, in the list of the most expensive company executives of the same publication, he took 6th place with $13.5 million, at the end of 2016 - third place with an income of $11 million.

Family and personal life

German Gref is married for the second time. His wife Yana Golovina (Gref) is a designer. Their wedding took place in the throne room of the Great Peterhof Palace.

In 2006, Gref had a daughter, and in 2008, a second daughter.

Gref's mother-in-law Tatyana Golovina is engaged in the resort business. Since the end of 2008, he has been the head of the Rus sanatorium in Gelendzhik, owned by structures of the state company Transneft.

Gref's son from his first marriage, Oleg, graduated from Moscow State University in 2004, and is the head of the consulting group NEO Center.

German Gref's older sister Elena Peredriy graduated from the pedagogical institute, married Sergei Peredriy and moved to Nakhodka. Elder brother Evgeny Gref is a businessman in Omsk, co-owner of the Tekhnosofiya and Sibir-Keramika store chains, the Geomart and Letur shopping centers.

German Gref is bilingual, having equal command of Russian and German from an early age.

Awards

• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (February 8, 2019) - for significant contribution to the development and strengthening of the banking system, many years of conscientious work
• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (October 19, 2011) - for his great contribution to the development of the domestic banking system and many years of conscientious work
• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (August 6, 2007) - for active participation in the work to ensure the victory of the bid of the city of Sochi for the right to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Games in 2014
• Order of Alexander Nevsky (2014)
• Order of Honor (February 13, 2014) - for achieved labor successes, significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation, merits in the humanitarian sphere, strengthening the rule of law, protecting the rights and interests of citizens, many years of conscientious work
• Officer of the Legion of Honor (France, 2010) - for contribution to the development of relations between the two countries
• P. A. Stolypin Medal, II degree (2009) - for services in the development and implementation of the economic development strategy of the Russian Federation and many years of impeccable work
• Certificate of Honor from the President of the Russian Federation (February 11, 2009) - for many years of conscientious government activity
• Badge “For Merit to the Moscow Region”, 1st degree (2016)
• Personalized honorary badge “For Civil Merit”, 1st degree (Astrakhan, December 10, 2007) - for enormous support aimed at the comprehensive socio-economic development of the city of Astrakhan, expansion of production, improvement of the living standards of citizens, their social security, preservation of peace and friendship between peoples, further development of charity, philanthropy, and on the eve of the 450th anniversary of the city
• Honorary citizen of the city of Astrakhan (2007)
• Honorary Citizen of Peterhof (2007)
• Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, 1st degree (ROC, 2006)
• Laureate of the All-Russian Prize for Financiers “Reputation” 2013 in the nomination “For the formation of socially responsible financial business”
• Winner of the national business reputation award “Darin” of the Russian Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship in 2003.

Notes

1. Valery Gergiev Charitable Foundation. Our partners (undefined) .
2. German Gref will work for Yandex
3. Board of Trustees (undefined) . www.hse.ru. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
4. Foundation for Supporting the Deaf-Blind "Connection" (undefined) . so-edinenie.org. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
5. German Gref in the press club of the Rosbalt news agency: “We need to fit into globalization, but on our terms”
6. Gref German Oskarovich. - IEG Panorama
7. Vladimir Pribylovsky. Gref German Oskarovich. - Scylla (IEG Panorama), 06.06.2006
8. Topic of the day - Reference - Biography of German Gref: Manager at the European Bank (undefined) . www.temadnya.ru. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
9. Yavlinsky argued with the Komsomol organizer, Sadalsky wrote letters to Brezhnev, and Pugacheva’s membership card was valued at $3 thousand // Komsomolskaya Pravda: newspaper. - 2017. - October 29 (No. 124-p (26750-p)).
10. Rimma Akhmirova. Russia without Gref. - Interlocutor, 06/22/2005. - No. 23
11. Gref German Oskarovich / RBC Innovations (unavailable link)
12. The President signed a Decree appointing Mikhail Kasyanov as Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation (unavailable link)
13. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 18, 2000 No. 915 (undefined)
14. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated May 20, 2004 No. 645 (undefined) . Retrieved September 11, 2015.
15. Beginning of a working meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov (undefined) (September 12, 2007). Archived from the original on October 11, 2007.
16. About the meeting of the Supervisory Board of Sberbank of Russia (undefined) . Sberbank. Retrieved October 21, 2007.
17. Gref’s risky move, Gazeta.ru (October 16, 2007). Retrieved December 16, 2016.
18. German Gref will work for J.P. Morgan Chase, Izvestia (31 July 2013). Retrieved January 23, 2018.
19. "Kremlin list" of the US Treasury. Who got it? (Russian) , New newspaper - Novayagazeta.ru. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
20. Everyone was included in the US “Kremlin Report”: from Sechin to Gref, from Usmanov to Tinkov
21. German Gref, Andrey Shleifer, Elvira Nabiullina, Tim Kelsey. SPIEF-2012: Session of Sberbank of Russia in St. Petersburg[Cutting from a television program on “Russia 24”]. Russia: Sberbank. " The economic mode of production that Marx dreamed of has not yet been realized, and therefore you need to work, and it is not a fact that everyone will get this job, and it is not a fact that everyone will receive the desired wage, and it is not a fact that they will be satisfied with it. And at the same time, if every person can participate directly in management... what are we managing? ...And great thinkers, such as Lao Tzu, came up with their theories of Tao, encrypting them, afraid to convey them to the common people, because they understood: as soon as all people understand the basis of their Self, self-identify, it will be extremely difficult to manage, that is, to manipulate them . People don't want to be manipulated when they have knowledge. ...People understood what it meant to remove the veil from the eyes of millions of people and make them self-sufficient. How to manage them? Any mass control implies an element of manipulation. How to live, how to manage a society where everyone has equal access to information, everyone has the opportunity to judge directly, to receive directly undissected information through government-trained analysts, political scientists and huge machines that are lowered on their heads, the media, which are seemingly independent , but in fact we understand that all the media are still busy building and preserving strata? How to live in such a society?! And your reasoning makes me a little scared, to be honest. And it seems to me that you don't quite understand what you are saying.»

Gref German Oskarovich is known for his political activities not only in Russia, but also abroad. His conceptual ideas are very popular. In 2007, Gref became the head of Sberbank, which he remains to this day. According to Forbes magazine, the banker was included in the list of nine Russian businessmen who are considered eccentrics and eccentrics. Who is German Gref? His biography is very eventful, and in this article we will take a closer look at the life of the politician.

Place of birth and family

Gref German Oskarovich was born on February 8, 1964 in the Kazakh SSR, in the village of Panfilovo, Pavlograd region. His parents are ethnic Germans who were exiled from Donbass to Kazakhstan in 1941. Back then we had to live under the harsh conditions of the commandant regime. It was in this environment that German Gref grew up.

His family was simple: his father worked as an engineer, and his mother worked as an accountant. The future famous politician was the third child; he had a brother and a sister. German Gref, whose nationality predetermined that he would carry two cultures within himself from childhood, grew up calm and neat. Parents communicated with their children in two languages: German and Russian.

German Gref: biography

German married his former classmate early and went with her to Omsk to enter the university, but this attempt was unsuccessful. Soon he was drafted into the army, where he served for two years in the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After serving in the army, he made a second attempt to enter university. And this time his long-awaited dream comes true - he becomes an applicant to the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University.

By the way, upon completion of his studies he was awarded a diploma with honors, and besides, during his years of study at the university he established himself as an active participant in public life. German Gref, whose nationality to some extent hampered his development during Soviet times, achieved success against all odds.

Later he became a graduate student at Leningrad State University (1990-1993). True, after finishing his graduate studies, Herman was never able to defend his dissertation. In order to provide for his family, while still a student, he went to work in construction teams.

In 1990, Gref became a teacher at the Faculty of Law of OSU. In 2011, at RANEPA, after many years, he managed to again attempt to defend his dissertation, which he successfully succeeded in.

He is fluent in German and loves to read Goethe.

Moving to St. Petersburg

In 1991, the family moved to the Northern capital and got a job in the administration of the Petrodvortsovo district. German Gref, whose biography is presented to your attention, has since received high-ranking positions over and over again. Here he first worked for a year as a lawyer, and then headed KUGI for two years and was deputy head of the city of Petrodvorets.

During his work, he proved himself to be an intelligent pedant who has professional acumen. Thus, for three years he oversaw the property of the museum town in various positions, and later was engaged in the same activities, only at the St. Petersburg level.

In the early 90s, Mayor Sobchak was Gref’s scientific advisor at Leningrad State University, so from that time the latter had good connections with political figures, which could not but affect the development of his future career. In addition, he was familiar with Vladimir Putin. Sobchak and Putin are often even called “godfathers” of German Gref.

1994 was marked by a new round in the political career of German Gref - he became deputy chairman of the KUGI of the St. Petersburg City Hall. Later, namely in 1997-1998, he holds the post of chairman and vice-governor.

In 1997, German Oskarovich joined the board of directors of JSC Lenenergo and became vice-governor. And in 1998 he became a member of the board of the Ministry of State Property of the Russian Federation and first deputy minister. A year later, he becomes a member of the board of the Federal Commission for the Securities Market and, in addition, heads the Center for Strategic Research fund.

Moscow career

In 2000, after Gref moved to live in the capital, he was appointed Deputy Minister of State Property of the Russian Federation, and later - Minister of Economic Development and Trade.

From 2000 to 2007 He is the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation in the government of Mikhail Fradkov and Mikhail Kasyanov. At that time, he actively supported Russia's entry into the WTO (World Trade Organization). In July 2000, he was appointed manager for the Russian Federation at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and in the same year, a little later, he became deputy manager for the Russian Federation at the IBRD. From 2011 to the present, Genrikh Oskarovich is a Member of the RS Board of Trustees for International Affairs. And since 2007 - head of Sberbank.

Attitude to sports

German Gref has a positive attitude towards sports and has been interested in various types of sports since childhood, such as athletics, hockey and basketball. Later he showed interest in tennis.

He assures that he trains at least 4 times a week, but due to his busy schedule this is not always possible. In addition, the head of Sberbank insists that all of his top managers visit the gym at least 3 times a week.

German Gref: personal life

Gref got engaged for the first time very early, and soon after the wedding he and his wife Elena Velikanova had a son. German Gref's current wife is designer Yana Golovina, with whom he married in the throne room of the Peterhof nature reserve. In 2006, their daughter was born. And son Oleg, from his first marriage, has now graduated from Moscow State University and has become vice-president of the NEO Center company.

Banker

Since 2007, German Oskarovich has been president and chairman of the board of the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation.

As German Gref states, Sberbank requires that competitiveness become a key point in its activities. Therefore, from the moment he began his activities at the main bank of Russia, he set out to create a flexible and reliable structure, responsive to market signals, and friendly to depositors. Under his leadership, Sberbank was updated not only externally - the team of top managers was also updated.

Harsh but fair

German Gref’s statements about the people and what is happening in the country are sometimes somewhat harsh and carry the harsh truth about reality. In the recent past, a situation arose when German Gref in his speech called Russia a downshifter. Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Nikolai Levichev did not like this statement, who, in response to these words, suggested that the politician resign voluntarily.

German Gref once spoke about the people as follows: “As soon as all people understand the basis of their “I”, self-identify, it will be extremely difficult to manage, that is, to manipulate them,” meaning by this that it will be difficult and difficult to live in such a society manage it. Regarding the current position of our country in the world economy, he states the following: “Russia is losing the competition, and the oil age has come to an end. From now on, the country’s only chance is the development of the following three components - science, education and business.” It was then that a scandalous statement was made, which some did not like, that Russia is a downshifter country - that is, it is a loser.

To change the current situation, Gref proposed joining the technological revolution and changing the education model, which has remained since Soviet times. This is where, in his opinion, it is necessary to start in order for any changes for the better to occur.

Here are some more of his quotes:

• “We are creating an absolutely incredible number of universities training accountants; soon our whole country will become accountants!”
• “The media must be allowed into all the secret processes of civil servants.”
• “The most difficult choice - you can’t throw anyone out” (about the creation of special economic zones).

Scandals

Four criminal cases were associated with Gref’s name while he served as vice-governor and chairman of the KUGI of St. Petersburg. One of them has to do with the privatization of the palace of Prince Gorchakov. The politician decided to privatize it, but the status of a monument of federal significance contradicted these actions on his part.

The next time he was suspected of receiving a bribe. This happened due to the situation when German Gref transferred the Sennaya market without competitive bidding to the director of one commercial center. After this, one businessman who wanted to get the said object was informed that Gref was helped in making this decision by a bribe - but he was never questioned in the case.

The third case was associated with JSC Color Printing Plant. German Gref issued an order according to which the position of general director was to be filled by a person from the politician’s close circle. The prosecutor's office saw this as government interference in the organization's activities. This time the case also did not proceed.

And finally, the last criminal case was related to the redistribution of the real estate business in St. Petersburg. At that time, four large companies could not divide their spheres of influence, and Alexander Moshkalov, who at that time was trying to subordinate large real estate agencies to his influence, arranged a meeting with the president of the city Association of Realtors in Gref’s office.

Conclusion

German Oskarovich achieved great success in politics, but not only. For a long time he has been at the helm of the board of the largest bank in Russia. His personality is partly contradictory and certainly bright. German Gref, whose biography is outlined in the article, is known for his hard work, perseverance and big goals. He is an ambitious and versatile person.

Gref was born in 1964 in the village of Panfilovo in northern Kazakhstan to a Jewish mother and a German father, expelled from the Donbass in 1941 (so the label “German-Jewish fascist” that arose during his reformation is correct). When he was one and a half years old, his father died, the boy was raised by his Jewish mother and grandmother. He studied averagely, with C's and B's, but was persistent and managed to enter MGIMO, which was then the main humanitarian university of a huge country (this was possible in the USSR), but was expelled after the first year. According to his official biography, the 17-year-old boy became a legal adviser to the district agricultural administration.

He served in the special forces of the internal troops, whose functions included escorting dangerous prisoners, searching for fugitives, and suppressing riots. How someone who served in the army without exams got into the workers' faculty of Omsk University and entered the Faculty of Law, where he became a Komsomol organizer and head of a student operational detachment. After graduating from high school in 1990, Gref entered graduate school at Leningrad State University, but did not defend his dissertation: it was no longer needed for a career in modern times.

Gref's scientific advisor turned out to be Sobchak, and in 1991 the graduate student became a legal adviser to the Committee for Economic Development and Property of the Administration of the Petrodvortsovo District of St. Petersburg, and in 1992 headed the Committee for Property Management of this district. In 1994, he became deputy chairman of the City Property Management Committee (KUGI) of the “northern capital” and managed all the city’s real estate.

After Yakovlev’s victory over Sobchak, Gref took the initiative and, as one of the ideologists of the housing and communal services reform, climbed to a new step on the career ladder, becoming the first deputy chairman of KUGI, although the liberal reform led to the usual results (rents doubled without improving service). After the murder of the head of KUGI Manevich, Gref took over his post, becoming vice-governor.

Numerous accusations against Gref of crimes characteristic of liberal reforms had no consequences; Thus, the case of the illegal transfer of the Sennaya Market in the center of St. Petersburg for a bribe was closed after the murder of the only witness.

Five days before the 1998 default, on the recommendation of Chubais, he was appointed First Deputy Minister of State Property of Russia.

After Primakov’s resignation, Gref reached a new level: he became a member of the board of state representatives at Rosgosstrakh and Transneft, the board of the Federal Securities Market Commission, the boards of directors of Aeroflot and Gazprom, and chairman of the board of directors of Sheremetyevo airport.

In December 1999, he headed the Center for Strategic Research, which Putin instructed to develop a strategy for 10 years. Titled reformers seemed to shy away from this honor as troublesome and unrelated to material benefits, but Gref jumped at the chance to come to the fore.

And just as the “500 Days” program brought Yavlinsky into politics, the 2010 strategy brought Gref into the government: in May 2000, he headed the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade created for him.

Lord of reforms

The CSR gathered the vast majority of qualified Russian experts, but their work was wasted.

An example is work on banking reform. Almost all the country's specialists presented reasoned proposals, which were discarded, and the text was written “from scratch” by one person who did not even know what types of banking licenses there are in Russia. The absurdity of the result caused a categorical protest from the leadership of the Central Bank, and this section was excluded from the strategy.

It was an undeveloped, incoherent, unstructured set of unreasonable demands. The summary attributed by Kommersant to Prime Minister Kasyanov, “The mountain gave birth to a mouse. It’s good that it wasn’t a cockroach,” was perceived as a soft and balanced assessment.

The government never approved it.

However, a number of its provisions were pushed through by liberals in the form of separate reforms, which caused enormous damage to Russia.

The key mechanism of the strategy is to stop the outflow of capital from the country by improving the investment climate, although with a strong outflow of capital such an improvement is impossible with liberal prescriptions (it is reminiscent of taking pills to treat dizziness caused by blood loss due to a ruptured artery). The investment climate can only be improved through government regulation measures, primarily the modernization of infrastructure, which contradicts the interests of global business and is therefore rejected by liberals.

Helpless babble about reducing capital outflow for unknown reasons served as a simple cover for the main and only well-developed tool for ensuring economic growth: cutting government spending by a quarter, primarily through social spending in the regions.

The state's refusal of social obligations, “social default” as the core of the strategy gave it the character of social genocide and made a liberal dictatorship its necessary condition.

The strategy required the abandonment of non-tariff regulation of foreign economic activity, which soon led to the destruction of the standardization system and the destruction of the product quality control system. The demand to join the WTO, of which Gref was the main lobbyist, was fulfilled - on completely colonial terms - and sharply slowed down the economy, replacing confident investment growth with a recession.

The promise to “remove obstacles to the bankruptcy of ineffective enterprises” resulted, along with the “de-bureaucratization” of the economy, the engine of which was also Gref, in the creation of ideal conditions for unpunished raiding, the rampantness of which destroyed the very idea of ​​property rights.

The “legalization of the export of capital” resulted in the abolition of currency regulation, which made Russia defenseless against fluctuations in the global market. How can one not remember the oligarch Bendukidze, for whom the main human right and criterion of democracy was the right to freely export a million dollars!

The reform of natural monopolies outlined in Gref's strategy was realized in the disaster of the electric power industry and the lesser-known disruption of railway transportation.

The housing and communal services reform led to a terrifying increase in tariffs while disorganizing the industry.

Labor relations reform has deprived workers of real opportunities to protect their inalienable rights.

The cuts to social assistance were implemented in the form of cannibalistic monetization of benefits, pension reform, and the destruction of education and health care.

In the first versions of the draft strategy, Gref directly pointed out the need to overcome the tendency to form a “welfare state.” The attempt to abolish the Constitution, which enshrines the social character of the state, failed: direct self-exposing formulations were removed from the text, but the ideology was implemented.

Finally, the judicial reform, as far as one can judge, created administrative control over the courts and led to the disintegration of the latter, essentially depriving Russians of access to justice.

Gref was the driving force behind almost all liberal reforms, both in his position and due to his personal preferences.

When creating the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT), he tried to take on as many functions as possible in order to maximize his influence. As a result, it turned out to be a cumbersome monster, unmanageable due to the volume of its functions (only at the beginning there were 159 of them, and the number of departments exceeded 50).

The unmanageability of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was caused by the unification of heterogeneous, unrelated functions (for example, regulating foreign trade and ensuring northern supplies), as well as the unification of tasks, the implementation of which required different types of management organization. Their unification ensured organizational incompatibility of the corresponding control contours, permanent internal conflict and, as a consequence, loss of controllability. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was reminiscent of Kurchatov, who would have been tasked with making an atomic bomb in three years... provided he simultaneously worked as a traffic controller.

The inability to work was aggravated by the lack of professionalism, which became the hallmark of the “Grefdom”: the Minister of Economic Development himself was a lawyer, M. Dmitriev, who studied banks until 1997, was in charge of pension affairs, A. Sharonov, who was involved in social policy, was in charge of reforming natural monopolies, and A. Dvorkovich, who analyzed the budget.

This is probably no coincidence: the destructive nature of liberal reforms in Russia precludes their implementation by specialists.

The owner of the people's money

In 2007, Gref suddenly became head of Sberbank, leaving the government, following the example of Chubais, for a large state-owned company. He was probably bored with the apparatus struggle, and he wanted to become the absolute owner of a large structure that would provide him with legal wealth and not administrative, but socio-political influence.

Sberbank, which permeated the daily life of most Russians and had branches in all more or less significant settlements, corresponded to this goal no less than RAO UES of Russia.

The Sberbank reform caused numerous scandals; Thus, the rebranding, carried out in a crisis, not really justified and hardly noticed by anyone, cost 20 billion rubles.

Gref sharply increased the pay of Sberbank’s top management and in 2013 became the fifth most paid manager in Russia, according to Forbes.

With the most severe cuts in other costs, a significant part of the old employees were fired, and their place was taken by young people (probably agreeing to lower salaries), whose efforts, I remember, were not often supported by professional knowledge. The result, as far as one can judge, was a decline in the bank’s service and reputation, but also an increase in profits.

The employee who wrote on the social network “If you stick a Sberbank sign in an open field, she will immediately have a line of pensioners” was fired, but this joke seemed to clearly reflect the state of Sberbank during the reform.

The increase in fees for household payments, with the widespread introduction of payment at automatic machines and Internet banking and the closure of many branches, was intended to reduce costs. There was a feeling that Sberbank, earning most of its money from corporate clients and financial transactions, was striving, under the guise of talk about “customer focus,” to minimize face-to-face communication with the public, viewing it as nothing more than a source of costs to be cut.

During the 2008-2009 crisis, Sberbank loans became fatal for a number of businessmen. A classic example is MAIR, from which Sberbank structures, as far as one can understand, demanded early repayment of the loan; the case ended with the destruction of the business, the elimination of a mass of jobs and the criminal prosecution of the creator of MAIR, Makushin, who was forced to flee the country. The degree of absurdity of the accusations is evidenced by Cyprus’ refusal to extradite him to Russia - the second in the entire history of relations between our countries.

As a result, Sberbank's profitability increased, but the attitude towards it, as far as one can judge, worsened. The situation was aggravated by stories about frequent “technical failures” in Sberbank’s payment machines and even in its Internet banking, leading to financial losses for clients. This may be due to the large volume of transactions - but I have never heard anything like this about other banks.

The memorable liberal initiative to corral all of Russia into 28 huge megacities, which reached the government, was apparently caused by Sberbank’s desire to cut costs. After all, the smaller the settlement, the lower the profitability of the Sberbank branch located there (in small settlements they can be unprofitable). But it is impossible to deprive the population of Sberbank due to its unique position. This means that for maximum efficiency of Sberbank, the entire population must be gathered into huge megacities.

Consideration of this idea discredited the government apparatus, but it was probably not born of evil liberal intent, but only of Gref’s desire to minimize Sberbank’s costs, without regard to anyone’s interests and values.

A man of liberal ideas

Gref has a reputation as a strong market man, even compared to Kudrin, giving the impression of a man not burdened with economic knowledge, which, of course, strengthens his liberal beliefs.

For example, when he took up the task of stimulating investment, he was surprised by both the lack of ready-made large investment projects (in 2006 they simply had nowhere to come from), and the fact that they needed at least a year to prepare.

And in July 2013, when corruption, monopolism, the Medvedev government’s refusal to develop and the colonial WTO rules were breaking the back of the Russian economy, when industrial production was declining, and the slowdown in GDP growth promised to turn into recession, Gref said: “Russia has one of the best in the world among all countries of macroeconomic situations."

According to those who know him, without an economic education, Gref does not like and cannot conduct a reasoned debate. Blind faith in the absolute intrinsic value of private property, the need for the state to withdraw from the economy, redundancy of social assistance to the population and intolerance to objections very successfully replace knowledge for him.

Gref is hot-tempered; Thus, at a government meeting, he demanded that the people who burned his effigy, who were protesting against the criminal pushing of Russia into the WTO on obviously enslaving conditions, should be severely punished for extremism. During a visit to Brussels, in front of his subordinates, he gave a beating to the head of the Russian delegation to the European Commission, Fradkov, which “backfired” on him in the latter’s premiership. True, stories about Gref’s promises to “hang” his subordinates with a rope are accompanied by ritual assurances of his politeness.

When Putin met with the Pope with him in 2003, some media called Gref a Protestant, while others called him a Catholic.

At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in 2012, a completely innocent question suddenly provoked Gref into scandalous frankness, which revealed the categorical unacceptability of democracy not only for Russian reformers, but also for modern liberals in general.

“You are saying terrible things,” Gref replied. “You are proposing to transfer power into the hands of the population... As soon as people understand the basis of their “I” and self-identify, it will become extremely difficult to control them, it will become extremely difficult to manipulate. People do not want to be manipulated when they have knowledge. How to live, how to manage such a society, where everyone has equal access to information, everyone has the opportunity to judge directly, receive unprepared information through government-trained analysts, political scientists and huge media machines engaged in building and preserving (social) strata? “Your reasoning makes me a little scared; to be honest, it seems to me that you don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”

German Oskarovich has held the post of president and chairman of the board of Sberbank of Russia since the fall of 2007, former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and is one of the most famous and highly paid top managers in Russia.

Childhood and school years

Born on February 8, 1964 in the village of Panfilovo, Pavlodar region in Kazakhstan, where his family was deported during the war. His father, Oscar Fedorovich, worked as a simple engineer, and his mother, Emilia Filipovna, worked as an economist in the village council. There were three children in the family (Herman is the youngest son), so the parents worked tirelessly. At the age of one and a half years, the boy lost his father, then his grandmother came to the aid of his mother - it was she who instilled in her grandchildren such qualities as restraint and modesty.

He studied well and was distinguished by exemplary behavior. He didn’t particularly like exact sciences, but he enjoyed playing sports and was even captain of the school basketball team.

Education and army years

In 1982, he was drafted into the army, where he served for two years.

After demobilization, he entered the Faculty of Law at Omsk State University. Having received a diploma in jurisprudence in 1990, he entered graduate school at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University.

In 2011, already as the head of Sberbank, he defended his dissertation at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation.

Labor activity

In 1991-1998, he worked at the mayor's office of St. Petersburg, where he worked his way up from legal adviser of the economic development and property committee of the Petrodvorets administration to vice-governor, chairman of the city property management committee of the city administration.

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Later he met the future Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Center for Strategic Research (CSR), under his leadership, prepared Putin's economic program when he ran for his first presidential term in 2000.

While heading the Center for Social Development, in 1998-2000 he also served as Deputy Minister of State Property.

After Putin's victory in the first presidential elections, he was invited to head the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. In the first half of the 2000s, it was one of the most influential ministries in the government.

In the fall of 2007, he became president and chairman of the board of Sberbank, and Elvira Nabiullina, the current chairman of the Bank of Russia, was appointed to his post at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

Having headed Sberbank, he announced a radical reform aimed at making the bank a modern client-oriented credit organization. He outlined this goal as follows: “We must prove that elephants can dance!”

Hobbies

He enjoys running. Before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he took part in the final leg of the Olympic torch relay.

After joining Sberbank, he obliged top management to visit the corporate gym and swimming pool before meetings on Saturdays and resumed the company’s fading tradition of holding corporate sports competitions - Sberbankiads.

Family

Currently married for the second time, his wife, Yana, is the founder of the Khoroshevskaya gymnasium, which includes a kindergarten and an elementary school. She is a designer by training.

The couple was remembered for a very beautiful and magnificent wedding ceremony in April 2004, for which the Grand Palace was rented in Peterhof.

He has three children. The eldest son from his first marriage.

Biographies of family members

Yana Vladimirovna (wife)

Born August 5, 1975. Maiden name - Golovina, after her first husband - Glumova. According to Yana herself, she received an economics education and worked in her specialty for some time.

German Gref is an outstanding Russian figure, a person of state level. He is currently the head of Sberbank, and before that he was the Minister of Economy and Trade Development. He also currently holds the official position of Chairman of the main bank and is included on the boards of many reputable domestic companies.

To reach this level, Gref walked a thorny road, starting as an average legal consultant, and eventually reaching almost the very top. He is a successful entrepreneur and politician, and is also included in the list of the highest paid state managers.

It is not surprising that the majority of the population wants to know as much as possible about such important people for the state as Gref German Oskarovich. Any details from the lives of people of this level are of great interest to people. Including his height, weight, age. How old is German Gref - information is publicly available. The politician was born in one of the Kazakhstani villages, and today he is already 54 years old. The man is 180 centimeters tall and weighs 76 kilograms.

Let us note that Herman’s nationality is a little unusual for a Russian politician - he is an ethnic German. More than once there have been rumors that he is in fact a Jew, but this is not true. German is a handsome man, and looking through the photos of German Gref in his youth and now, you only find confirmation of this.

Biography of German Gref, head of Sberbank

The future official was born in Kazakhstan, in a village called Panfilovo. His father, Oscar Gref, worked as an electrical engineer, and his mother, Emilia Gref, worked as an economist. The man also has an older brother, Evgeniy, and a sister, Elena.

Little Gref was an exemplary student and a good son. After graduation, the guy joined the army, and then entered the Omsk Law University. He studied there so well that after completing his studies, he was offered a teaching position at the university.

The biography of German Gref, head of Sberbank, changed when in 1998 he received the post of deputy head of the Ministry of State Property. A promising employee annually moved up the career ladder, and at the same time received authority and recognition from colleagues. He was the head of officials at Gazprom and the Securities Council. And when Putin became president, Gref received a position in the government, taking a post in the Ministry of Economy and Trade Development.

Gref received his next promotion about ten years ago, heading Sberbank.

It is interesting that this man did not become arrogant. He is always open to communicate with ordinary people. Anyone has the opportunity to write a letter to German Gref Sberbank.

Personal life of German Gref

In his home village called Panfilovo, he fell in love for the first time. His chosen one was a classmate named Lena. Romance broke out between them almost immediately, and therefore, as soon as they graduated from school, they decided to get married. In this relationship, German had his first child - a son named Oleg. But, unfortunately, the couple was unable to keep the family together for long and divorced. Only at the beginning of the two thousandth, German Gref’s personal life finally began to improve. At that time, he had already become a famous politician when he finally decided to marry a second time. His next wife was Yana Golovina, a famous Moscow designer. She was able to give Herman two children.

Gref really likes classical literature and music. And he also instills a love for this in his kids.

Family of German Gref

It is interesting that German Gref’s family are Catholics. That’s why they raised their children in accordance with all Catholic canons. From childhood, Herman’s parents taught him and their older children not only Russian, but also German, because the latter is the language of their ancestors, which, in their opinion, children are also obliged to know. Although both Herman’s father and mother worked, the mother still managed to pay more attention to her offspring, because the father of the family was responsible for supplying the entire village with electricity.

The man died when Herman was still a one and a half year old baby; it seems that he did not really remember his father. Then my grandmother began to help with upbringing.

Children of German Gref

In total, the politician has three children from two women. In his first marriage to his classmate Elena, she gave him a son, who was named Oleg. The young parents simply adored their boy. But they did not live together for long, and soon they had to divorce.

The second and last wife at the moment gave birth to the man’s two children. It doesn’t matter after the divorce or not, but the children of German Gref were never left without their father’s love and care, despite the fact that he holds a high position and is very often busy with work. Gref closely monitors their studies, takes part in their education, and shares the joy of success. Wants to give the best, like any good father.

The ex-wife of German Gref - Elena Velikanova

It often happens that young people get married early and only later, having more sensibly assessed their feelings, realize that they made a mistake. It is rare for such families to live happily ever after. The same thing happened with the politician. The ex-wife of German Gref, Elena Velikanova, as already mentioned, studied with German in the same class.

The guy was in love with her throughout his school life and the couple got married almost immediately after graduating from school. But they did not take into account that they were not ready for life together and the problems that appear sooner or later. That's why their relationship didn't last long.

German Gref's wife - Yana Gref

The wife of German Gref, Yana Gref, became such in 2004. The difference between the spouses is almost ten years. The wedding ceremony was so magnificent and luxurious that it was discussed online for a whole year. The event took place in the Great Hall of Peterhof. And this small detail gave rise to many rumors and gossip, not of the most positive nature. Many were shocked and even outraged that such a valuable architectural monument was being rented out.

Yana has a degree in economics, but she hardly worked in her specialty, becoming interested in interior design. Today she is also the owner of a private school in the capital.

Is German Gref blue?

Due to the fact that German Gref is such a significant figure in the state, it is not surprising that his life was constantly accompanied by a variety of rumors. Once it even got to the point where one could find articles online on the topic of Herman’s non-traditional sexual orientation. One can only guess what prompted the author to write such an article. But at the same time, a person with Gref’s position always attracts attention.

Perhaps this was just an online “duck” in order to stir up interest in the political person. And they couldn’t come up with anything better than to declare that he was gay.

Instagram and Wikipedia German Gref

The head of Sberbank of Russia is an experienced analyst and a good strategist. He was able to optimize the activities of most departments and companies of which he was an employee. Despite his busy work schedule, he is an exemplary family man. This indisputable fact can be confirmed, among other things, by Instagram and Wikipedia of German Gref.

There you can find a lot of different information about this person. Gref also has profiles on social networks - Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter. But it is worth mentioning that it only describes the activities of Sberbank, and describes topics relating only to economics and politics.