OJSC Svyazinvest (Russian: ОАО Связьинвест) was Russia's largest telecommunicationsholding company. Based in Moscow, it was founded according to Order №1297 of the Russian government on November 25, 1994, and was registered on September 18, 1995. It was an entirely state-owned company until some shares were privatized in the late 1990s. Its operation including brand and subsidiaries were fully incorporated to Rostelecom, the former long-distance telephonymonopoly. In late September 2013, Rostelecom completed the final stage of its reorganization, under which the state-run telecom holding Svyazinvest and 20 other firms were integrated into Rostelecom. The government's combined common stake in the merged company amounted to 51.12% after the reorganization.[1]
American financier George Soros invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the company. He later called it "the worst investment he's ever made".[2]
History
The company was founded in accordance with Presidential Decree №1989 "On Specific Features of State Management of the Public Switched Network in the Russian Federation" dated October 10, 1994, and Government Resolution №1297 dated November 25, 1994, and Government Resolution №742 dated July 24, 1995. Svyazinvest's charter capital was formed by consolidating state-owned stakes in 85 joint stock telecommunications companies. Svyazinvest passed official state registration on September 18, 1995.[3]
In accordance with Resolution №618 issued by the Russian government on May 23, 1997, the Russian Federal Property Fund and the State Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management put up for sale an interest equaling 25% + 1 share in Svyazinvest at a cash auction without any investment terms.[4]
In November 1999 Svyazinvest's board of directors amended the company charter and turned it into a management company.[5] As part of the measures to assign the status of a management company to Svyazinvest work got under way to improve procedures to manage associates, specifically by consolidating companies located in one region.
On February 10, 2009, Malofeev, who allegedly was countering the influences of Alisher Usmanov by acting as the money man supporting the interests of Igor Shchyogolev through Malofeev's Marshall Capital, became a member of the Board of Directors of Svyazinvest OJSC while it was closely associated with Igor Shchyogolev and which led to the union of Svyazinvest with Rostelecom.[7][8][9]
In April 2011, Svyazinvest subsidiaries were transferred to Rostelecom.[10]
In May 2011 with Igor Shchyogolev's support, Alexander Trubetskoy became chairman of the board and Vadim Semyonov, who is a citizen of both Canada and Russia, became CEO of Svyazinvest on 3 November 2010 replacing Evgeny Yurchenko because Yurchenko refused to support Konstantin Malofeev's decisions calling Malofeev "Russia's great raider" (Russian: «великим рейдером России»).[10][11][12][a][b]
On October 1, 2013 Svyazinvest joined OJSC Rostelecom.[16][17]
^Vadim Viktorovich Semyonov (Russian: Вадим Викторович Семёнов), a citizen of both Canada and Russia, was CEO of Svyazinvest from October 2011 until 2013. He attended school with both Dmitry Medvedev and Yevgeny Trubin (Russian: Евгений Трубин) who had been general director of Lenizdat.[10][11][15]
^"СМИ: акции «Ростелекома», управляемые Marshall Capital, могут принадлежать экс-министру Щеголеву" [Media: Rostelecom shares managed by Marshall Capital may belong to ex-minister Shchegolev]. Росбалт (www.rosbalt.ru) (in Russian). 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2025. Alternate archive as Малофеев штурмует телеграф — за ним Кремль: акции "Ростелекома", управляемые Marshall Capital, могут принадлежать экс-министру Щеголеву (Malofeev storms the telegraph - the Kremlin is behind him: Rostelecom shares managed by Marshall Capital may belong to ex-minister Shchegolev)
^ abcСеверцев, Николай (Severtsev, Nikolay) (18 October 2011). "Count "Schegolev-Trubetskoy"" [Граф "Щеголев-Трубецкой"]. The Moscow Post (in Russian). Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
