how blogger Natalya Davydova conquered the Internet and secular Moscow, HELLO! Russia

Ivan Streshinsky was born in Ukraine, but connected his life and business with Russia. He collaborates with Alisher Usmanov and participates in the development of the Internet in our country. Unlike many entrepreneurs, he managed to realize himself in his personal life, creating a strong large family.

Childhood and parents of Ivan Streshinsky

Ivan Streshinsky is a native of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. He was born on October 2, 1969. Information about his childhood is rather scarce. It is not even known who his father and mother were. There are no children's photos either.

It is noteworthy that the billionaire’s real name is Vladimir, which is exactly how he is written on his passport. Nevertheless, for some reason he prefers to be called Ivan Yakovlevich.

Career and business of Ivan Streshinsky

Streshinsky began his entrepreneurial biography immediately after receiving higher education. In the early 1990s, his business took off sharply, and a year later he managed to join the board of directors of the Perm Motors enterprise. He spent exactly a year in this company. After that, he began working with other companies, already at an international level.

In 2006, Streshinsky became a partner. At the same time, he was the general director of the Metalloinvest enterprise. Two years later, in March 2008, he moved to the position of CEO of Coalco Group.” In the fall of 2008, news appeared that the billionaire became a director.

The success of Streshinsky’s business is largely due to his acquaintance with oligarch Alisher Usmanov, who is his closest contact. Ivan has been working in the businessman’s structures since 2004, but, according to him, it was only in 2010 that he entered Usmanov’s “inner circle.”

Back in 1994, Streshinsky began preparing legal transactions for a major businessman Vasily Anisimov, involved in the sale of aluminum. Thus, Ivan secured the acquisition of a 13.6% stake in the British-Dutch company Corus. In just one year, this purchase made Usmanov $600 million richer.

Ivan Streshinsky's net worth

Thanks to Forbes magazine, we know how much Ivan Streshinsky earns. In 2020, he even managed to enter the list of the 200 richest entrepreneurs in Russia, although only in 198th place. Then his personal fortune was $500 million. In the latest editions of the list it is no longer there.

In the early 2010s, he was regularly on the list of the most expensive domestic top managers. Thus, in 2012–2013, it occupied eighth position on this list. His annual compensation was estimated at $10 million. In 2014, he climbed to number seven as his compensation increased to $15 million.

Flair and trust

SYA would like to start by talking about your partner, Alisher Usmanov. This is a man with some fantastic instinct for business. He earned his fortune from the fact that he could sense new trends and trends earlier than others. In particular, in the 2000s, on the eve of the commodity boom, he collected iron ore assets. There were other things that were not obvious, for example, a deal to restructure the Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus. As far as I know, even you didn’t really believe in the success of this business, but Usmanov insisted on his own and made very good money on it. How does he do this?

I was a financial manager at the time, and little depended on my faith: I helped finalize the deal. But yeah, I didn't believe in her. That's what everyone says: intuition. But Usmanov is a deeply educated person, he graduated from one of the best universities at that time, MGIMO. He has a unique gift - he has a phenomenal memory; remembers all phone numbers, even those he called 20 years ago. He doesn't have a notebook.

The SU of all the billionaires I know has some unique quality. Friedman, for example, can multiply three-digit numbers in his head.

Usmanov quotes books and films from memory, and has known the compositions of national football teams since the 1950s. He learns something new every day and reads a huge amount of materials. He has a whole staff of people who select publications from the world press on topics of interest to him, and he has a staff of translators. He reads all these materials. Of course, he has intuition, but, in addition to intuition, he also has enormous knowledge. Therefore, he has a good sense of certain trends.

Is it true that Vasily Anisimov (then partner of Alisher Usmanov in Metalloinvest - Ed.) was against investing in Facebook, since it was unreasonable to invest a huge amount of money in some site when the 2008 crisis was in full swing?

Not only Anisimov - in truth, this was the consensus among Usmanov’s partners. There was general agreement that this was a rather risky undertaking.

Did you think so too?

I didn't think so. I was just working on this deal. Of course, investing millions of dollars at the peak of the crisis in a company that produces nothing, that exists somewhere in an electronic cloud - this was completely incomprehensible to many. But this did not stop Usmanov from carrying out the deal and then sharing the profits with those partners who remained with him. It was his personal risk.

Was the “DST-type deals” technology invented by Usmanov?

Not certainly in that way. The very expression DST-type deals (“deals in the style of the DST company.” - Ed.) was invented by American investors who were shocked by what was happening. They failed to invest in promising companies, but DST succeeded. Then the term was picked up by journalists.

As for the essence of this method, it is simple. The traditional way of doing business with Internet entrepreneurs is to entangle them with a board of directors, control every step and wait for them to bring you good results. Unlike generally accepted practice, DST-type deals place the founder of the company at the forefront. It is very important that every Internet company has a founder who is motivated and drives the business forward. He may not be a financial genius or know how to give a presentation, but that doesn't mean he can't grow a business. The key point of DST-type deals is great trust in the founders. When shares were purchased, they were transferred to them for voting; we did not put forward any demands for the introduction of our representatives to the board of directors. It was effectively an IPO without an IPO—meaning the founders got paid without any onerous, hand-tying consequences.

This scheme crystallized from long conversations between Usmanov and Milner. Usmanov gave Milner a lot of advice based on his life experience. It was a mix between how business is done in Russia and how it is done in the West. After all, in Russia a lot is done on trust. It seems to me that such a system exists in Russia, because no one really counts on the laws or the court. Basic agreements between people at all levels - from government to business - occur according to a conceptual scheme.

This is due to the history of our country; it is quite difficult for us. At the same time, I cannot say that in the West there is no factor of trust, a factor of personal affection. It's everywhere. If Milner had not met with Zuckerberg and convinced him that this was the right thing to do, if he had not shown him all the advantages of being an investor, if he had not explained that we are normal people with whom one can do business, nothing would have happened.

SA how did he convince Zuckerberg?

Milner is a unique person. He and Zuckerberg developed an excellent personal relationship. These are all fairy tales when they say: “A good team of lawyers came and did everything.” Lawyers are people who draw up transactions, they make investments safer, but the main agreements are still established between people who feel a sense of affection and trust for each other. If you don't like a person, doing business with him is very difficult.

I heard that Alisher Usmanov has a bust of his mother on his boat. This is true?

Yes this is true. He respects his parents very much: he even named the boat after his mother and the plane after his father. For him, parents are sacred.

SON is actually a rather private and non-public person; little is known about him to the general public. What is he like in personal communication?

Yes, few people know, for example, that he bought the Rostropovich collection and gave it to the Konstantinovsky Palace. He likes expensive things, but it's not tacky, he doesn't have clusters of gold everywhere. And he is also an amazing storyteller. He collects memories. By the way, he recalled how he came to visit your father in Paris.

Photo: Dmitry Smirnov

Private life

Ivan Streshinsky met his future wife Natalya Davydova during a party with mutual friends. His life partner was born in Smolensk and was the daughter of an engineer. She was two years younger than her chosen one. The girl was educated as a literature and Russian language teacher, but collaborated with representatives of the modeling business.

According to the entrepreneur, Natalya immediately won his heart. He asked her for her phone number, but dared to call back only a week later. Subsequently, they developed an affair, and the billionaire married Davydova. Soon the husband and wife even got married in church.

Biography of Natalia Davydova (Aunt Motya)

Natalya was born in 1983 in Smolensk. She was educated as a teacher of Russian language and literature. According to Natalya herself, she grew up in a simple working-class family and did not go to fashionable stores. Therefore, she is close to the vast majority of Russian women, finds different points of contact, and completely at ease.

The girl always loved to dress fashionably and even pregnancy was not an obstacle to this. It’s enough to take a first glance at a photo on a social network and it becomes clear that femininity is in Natalia’s blood. The girl looks stylish, young and well-groomed. It's hard to say how old she is. There is a photo on Natalya Aunt Motya’s Instagram, where the girl stands up in the form of an elegant woman, there are images in which she looks like a young girl. The hair is always well-groomed, and there is a barely noticeable layer of makeup on the face. It is this ability and freedom to raise the younger generation that attracts a huge number of young mothers online. The daughter, despite her age, is very sweet and has some artistic talent. Many predict an interesting acting future for her, but, of course, her parents will decide.

Another attractive feature of Natasha’s profile is the opportunity to follow her examples in the process of choosing a wardrobe for yourself and your children. The outfits are chosen in such a way that the children look very stylish and childishly attractive.

Describing the features of the girl’s activities, it can be noted that at the moment she is an experienced blogger who has her own official website. According to popular opinions, this type of activity will become a real profession in the modern labor code.

Ivan Streshinsky today

Currently, the billionaire lives and works in Moscow. Now he continues to participate in the projects of Alisher Usmanov and his other partners, his name is often mentioned in the latest news.

In May 2020, Streshinsky became involved in a loud scandal in the Kommersant newspaper. Journalists from the politics department wrote an article about Valentina Matvienko’s possible resignation from her post. Streshinsky thought this work was ordered, and the editor-in-chief of the publication decided to fire the authors, ending their work biography at Kommersant. Together with them, the entire political department left out of a sense of solidarity. The newspaper's editors stated that the incident was a clear example of censorship and an attack on freedom of speech.

Stories Star real estate

Marienthal is neat and clean for his advanced age (he is about 160 years old).

. The castle differs from the buildings of that time - gloomy colors and overgrown with moss. It is built of red brick with contrasting seams. “We thoroughly cleaned the facade, and painted the joints between the bricks white: it’s more elegant,” Tatler quotes decorator Olga Burikova Davydova.

But in the end the castle appeared truly original and fantasy

. It is full of fine stone carvings - mice, squirrels, dragons everywhere. There is also a grotto here, an architectural whim of the first owners, connecting the house with the un-French “free” park. This is a real underground passage with stalactites, lakes and slippery steps.

When choosing the interior, Natalya settled on the historical style

– with antiques, marble and palace parquet.
The couple's bedroom is a triumph of classicism. The fireplace in the dining room, considered the most beautiful in France, is covered in angels and muses. To delight the ears, a Steinway & Sons piano is placed in the lush living room, and the furniture is made in an ancient manner from modern materials - an explosive mixture of the times. But the biggest impression is made by the office that Natalya designed herself. The combination of “hot” red in the decoration is incredible
– red leather furniture, burgundy velvet walls and red tables. The bathroom was decorated to match the office; the main color scheme was painted in cold tones, but with a shifted emphasis on the warm colors of the faucet and shower, made in gold. The most famous owner of Marienthal is a hereditary rich man and art collector. He is known, however, not for spectacular transactions, but for his impressive ex-wife Jocelyn - “Catwoman”. Feeling that her husband was looking to the left, for some reason this woman underwent more than 30 plastic surgeries to become like a cat. There really were reasons to worry: Alek fell selflessly in love with the fashion model Lyuba Stupakova (“She was so beautiful, you know, very Russian beauty”): being already quite middle-aged, he chased her all over the world, sat with photographers at shows, filled up hotel tickets numbers with white roses. And Lyuba gave up: here, in Marienthal, Alec, who fell on his knee, heard the cherished yes. Jocelyn, who received two and a half billion dollars in compensation from her ex-husband and another 100 million annually for 13 years, is happy with Canadian designer Lloyd Klein. Lyuba Stupakova lives in Russia and is a sculptor. And only Alec is no more: he died in 2008.