She is 28, he is 55: how Yuri Luzhkov won the heart of Elena Baturina

Biography of Elena Baturina

Elena Nikolaevna Baturina is the richest woman in the Russian Federation, billionaire, ex-owner and co-founder of one of the largest metropolitan business empires, Inteco, chairman of the supervisory board of Inteco Management, widow of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who was dismissed in 2010.

Elena Nikolaevna Baturina

She is the creator of an international high-class hotel chain, including the Grand Tirolia complex with a golf course in the Austrian ski resort town of Kitzbühel, the New Peterhof hotel in the northern capital of Russia, a hotel as part of the new generation business center Moscow Park in Kazakhstan (Astana ), QuisisanaPalace in the Czech Republic (Karlovy Vary), Morrison Hotel in the capital of Ireland.

In 2020, the businesswoman once again, for the fourth time, topped the list of the country's wealthiest women according to Forbes. This publication estimated her finances at $1.1 billion. In 2008, according to the same magazine, she owned $4.2 billion.

Brief information

• birth name: Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov
• date of birth - September 21, 1936;
• place of birth: Moscow;
• date of death - December 10, 2020;
• place of death - Munich (Germany);
• cause of death: heart disease, heart attack;
• type of activity - politician, chemist, builder, entrepreneur;
• hobbies - football, tennis, alpine skiing, writing poems and songs, singing;
• personal life - was married 3 times (since 1991 to Elena Baturina);
• children - 2 daughters from Elena Baturina, 2 sons from her second marriage;
• religion - Orthodoxy;
• Place of last residence: London (England).

As of 2020, Luzhkov’s fortune is estimated at approximately $427,000,000, if it is separated from his wife’s enormous income. Despite the fact that in 2010 Yuri Mikhailovich resigned as mayor of Moscow, criticized the Russian authorities, and seemingly became English, in 2020 he still had claims to a place in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, the entrepreneurial spirit of the former politician never dozed off, and until the last days of his life he did not stop actively running the affairs of the Honey Meadows agricultural complex (production of honey, cheese, eggs) and the Weedern stables. It is also known that a faithful husband has always been a strong shoulder for Elena Baturina and throughout her life he helped manage business in the hotel business and investment funds. According to Russian analysts, in 2020 the mayor earned $112,000,000, which he also left as an inheritance to his daughters and sons.

Childhood and education

The first Russian female billionaire was born into a Moscow working-class family on March 8, 1963, seven years after the birth of her brother Victor.
Parents, Tamara Afanasyevna and Nikolai Egorovich, were simple Soviet workers, worked for and lived in a house on Sormovskaya Street, where they gave apartments to factory workers. Elena attended the same comprehensive school as her older brother. Neighbors described her as a businesslike and strong-willed girl who had no time for nonsense. She studied and helped her parents with housework. After graduating from school, Lena entered the evening department of the Institute of Management. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, where Viktor Baturin also previously studied.

Young Elena Baturina

In 1980–1982 the girl worked at the largest cutting tools enterprise, Frazer, and at the same time received a higher education at the Institute of Management. Sergo Ordzhonikidze. There was no other way - the family lived poorly.

Later she became an employee of the Institute of Economic Problems of the Development of the National Economy of the capital, head of the secretarial department of the Union of Cooperators, and a member of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee in the area of ​​cooperative activities. In 1986 she received her diploma.

Meet Yuri Luzhkov

When Elena Baturina met the future mayor of Moscow in 1987, her heart was occupied by another young man, a gymnast. At first, she had only a working relationship with Yuri Luzhkov. He was the second person in the executive committee of the Moscow City Council, where the 24-year-old graduate came to work, dealing with the problems of the cooperative movement.

Yuri Luzhkov and Elena Baturina

According to Elena, Yuri Mikhailovich made the first impression of a boss, but at the same time, she already decided then that she would become the wife of this man, who strictly distinguished between his personal and professional life. The boss appreciated Elena’s leadership qualities and became close to her, but exclusively in the friendly sense of the word. Luzhkov was married, but in October 1988 his wife Marina died of cancer. In 1991, Baturina moved to Luzhkov’s home, and three months later they got married.

Despite the difference in age, the spouses were similar in temperament and agreed in their views on life, so they lived in perfect harmony. In 1992, their eldest daughter Elena was born, and two years later Olga. As for Luzhkov’s sons from his first marriage, the elder Mikhail was hostile to his stepmother, who was younger than himself, while the younger Alexander quickly found a common language with her.

Elena Baturina married Yuri Luzhkov in 1991

Zhirinovsky interfered with the wedding

An interesting incident in the history of the couple: they wanted to get married 5 years after the wedding, but, oddly enough, Vladimir Zhirinovsky prevented the event. In 1996, the politician and leader of the LDPR party was ahead of Luzhkov on this issue. In the dashing nineties, a wedding was, in principle, a high-profile affair, and liberals, as mainstreamers, did not want to create additional PR. So this case dragged on for 20 years. As a result, the wedding was timed to coincide with the couple's silver wedding.

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Business

In the summer of 1991, Yuri Luzhkov headed the Moscow Government, and a year later he was appointed mayor of the capital to replace Gavrila Popov, who resigned due to problems with food supplies. It is not surprising that Baturina’s success in business is often associated with the high position of her husband. However, Elena began doing business even before the start of her relationship with Luzhkov.

Elena Baturina in her youth (1991)

Baturina's first business venture began operating in 1989. Like many enterprising Soviet citizens of the late 80s, she founded a cooperative in partnership with her brother Victor. There was a desperate lack of money, and the company did whatever it had to do: selling equipment, installing and developing software, and organizing jobs.

Elena Baturina and her brother Victor started a business together

In 1991, a sister and brother founded the company, whose area of ​​interest initially included the production of polymer products. The company quickly occupied this niche: according to experts, Inteko produced about a quarter of the total production in certain categories of plastic goods. Ten years later, the company’s area of ​​activity included commercial real estate, construction and investments in shares of the largest state-owned enterprises, including Gazprom, Oskolcement, Atakaycement, Sberbank.

Elena Baturina has repeatedly topped the ranking of the richest women in Russia

The company provided financial support for the implementation of projects in the fields of education, culture, art, sports, including international golf tournaments. Elena Baturina initiated the “Home for the Whole World” initiative (the program provided housing to urgently needy Russian families in different cities), and sponsored equestrian competitions (Elena was the president of the specialized domestic Equestrian Federation). In 2006, she received the position of deputy head of the interdepartmental group on the national program for the construction of affordable housing. Viktor Baturin held the position of vice president of Inteko until he was fired in December 2005, and Baturin learned about the dismissal from the newspapers. No official reasons were given. One of the possible causes of the conflict, the media cited Victor's claims due to insufficient compensation for his stake in Inteko (until May 2002, he owned 25% of the shares, and after that all reports indicated that 99% of the shares belonged to Elena Baturina). It was reported that in return, Baturina gave her brother a half share in the subsidiary, and thus he received the company at his full disposal. However, over the next few years, the cost, according to various estimates, has increased by 3-4 times. Victor Baturin about his sister Elena Baturina and Yuri Luzhkov Since 2007, Elena Baturina has been reviving the tradition of our artists performing abroad, created in 1907 by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev and called the “Russian Seasons”. Thus, in 2008, with her assistance, concert performances of domestic dance groups, classical musical works, and folk songs dedicated to Orthodox Christmas took place in Austria.

In 2009, Inteko completed the construction of the Moscow-Park multifunctional complex in Astana. The complex included shopping, entertainment and business centers, a panoramic elevator, restaurants, cafes, office space and a 4-star hotel.

In 2010, Elena Nikolaevna opened the New Peterhof hotel complex in the Northern capital; as part of assistance to victims of fires, it financed the construction of a preschool educational institution in the Tula region, and sold the Russian Land Bank to foreign investors. 99% of Inteko shares belonged to Elena Baturina until 2011. After the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov in 2010, the company's annual revenue decreased by almost 2 times. Inteko was acquired for $600 million by a subsidiary (Sberbank. Investments) in partnership with financier Mikail Shishkhanov. In 2011, information was made public about the billionaire’s donation of porcelain from the Imperial Factory from her personal collection to the Tsaritsyno Museum.

After the sale of Inteko, Elena Baturina went into the hotel business. In 2012 it became known about the opening of the Quisisana Palace hotel in Karlovy Vary, in 2013 - the Morrison hotel in the capital of Ireland.

Elena Baturina about her business in Europe Since 2010, Elena Baturina has also been involved in the development business. In addition to Russia, it sponsors projects in the USA, Cyprus and Kazakhstan. In 2020, it acquired a number of office buildings in the New York borough of Brooklyn, near the Barclays Center sports arena. In 2021, it is planned to complete the construction of an elite 23-apartment building in the capital of Cyprus; the cost of investments in the project exceeded 40 million euros. Among Baturina’s projects in Kazakhstan is the luxurious Moscow business center.

BC "Moscow" in Astana

How Luzhkov earned an inheritance for his children

Before answering the question of where Luzhkov lived abroad after being removed from office and how he earned an inheritance for his children, we will tell you about the main sources of income.

We have already reported that, according to reliable data, Luzhkov’s fortune at the end of his life is estimated at $427,000,000. This amount consisted of the following types of income:

1. Salary of the mayor of Moscow. It is known that in his post the mayor earned monthly from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 rubles.
2. Pension of the former mayor. According to the laws of the Russian Federation, after his removal from office, he received 2,100,000 rubles from the state for the rest of his life. By the way, this amount is inherited by the family. Elena, as a widow, will receive it for ten years.
3. A stable, on the basis of which there is also a horse riding facility, in the Kaliningrad region. The authorized capital of the enterprise in 2020 was 618,000,000 rubles.
4. Farming in the form of the agronomic complex “Honey Meadows”. In 2020 and 2020, the company's income almost doubled, thanks to expanded supplies and updated product ranges. The annual income of the company according to documents is 836,000,000 rubles.

While the mayor was involved in entrepreneurial activities with work in politics, he did little about his business, but since 2010 he was able to significantly increase the income of enterprises, even while living as a permanent resident in London.

Personal life of Elena Baturina

As noted above, Yuri Luzhkov and Elena Baturina got married in 1991. The husband, for whom their marriage became the second, was 27 years older than her. The married couple raised two daughters – Elena (1992) and Olga (1994).

Elena Baturina and her eldest daughter Elena

Before Luzhkov left the post of mayor, they were both students at Moscow State University (the eldest daughter studied at the Faculty of World Politics, the younger daughter at the Faculty of Economics). In 2011, the girls and their mother moved to the British capital, where they continued their education at University College London.

Elena Baturina with her daughters

Olga also earned a bachelor's degree from New York University and a master's degree in hospitality management. In 2020, a woman with her usual marketing savvy opened her own bar, Herbarium, in Kitzbühel, near Grand Tirolia. In the new establishment, Baturina tried out the long-standing idea that such an establishment could be a place where you can not only drink, but also enjoy herbal drinks in a comfortable environment.

Elena Baturina and her husband Yuri Luzhkov

Elena Baturina's eldest daughter does business in Slovakia, a country with a rapidly developing economy. She founded the company Alener in Bratislava, whose main activity is the development of cosmetics and perfumes.

Elena Baturina got married to Yuri Luzhkov

The ex-mayor of the capital always considered his wife a super talented person. In 2020, on their 25th anniversary of marriage, the couple got married in church.

Daughters of Elena Baturina and Yuri Luzhkov

Elena Baturina loves equestrian sports, enjoys tennis, golf, alpine skiing, collecting photographs, works of art (in particular, she owns a painting by the English artist Francis Bacon) and classic cars (her fleet includes about 50 vintage vehicles).

Businesswoman enjoys horse riding

Elena Baturina today

The entrepreneur is engaged in the hotel business, the acquisition and construction of real estate (in the USA, in the UK), together with her husband, she manages the Weedern horse breeding concern.
She finances a number of charitable organizations - “Noosphere” to provide selfless assistance in matters of education, tolerance for other faiths, lifestyles, customs, Be Open to promote the progressive ideas of young creative people in different parts of the world. On December 10, 2020, Yuri Luzhkov died in a Munich clinic due to complications that began after a successful heart operation. Elena Baturina, who accompanied her husband, was plunged into a state of shock. At the funeral of the former mayor, the woman, as press representatives present at the ceremony reported, was in a stupor with grief.

Elena Baturina at the funeral of Yuri Luzhkov
Yuri Luzhkov's inheritance consists of a 450-meter apartment in the center of Moscow, in a house built at the beginning of the 20th century on 3 Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. Realtors valued the property at $600 million. It is reported that it will be divided between the widow and children of Yuri Mikhailovich.

Comparison of Luzhkov's condition with other Moscow mayors

Yuri Mikhailovich's political experience is estimated at two decades. During this time, Luzhkov acquired a considerable fortune - almost half a billion in dollars. What about other leading Moscow politicians:

1. The first mayor of Moscow - Popov Gavriil Kharitonovich - current financial condition is estimated at 325,000,000 rubles.
2. The second mayor of Moscow, Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov, had a net worth of $427,000,000 at the time of his death.
3. The third mayor of Moscow is Sergei Semenovich Sobyanin. The estimated net worth of the current mayor of Moscow is estimated at 256,000,000 rubles.

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