Vladimir Pekhtin

Vladimir Pekhtin
Владимир Пехтин
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma
In office
29 December 2003 – 24 December 2007
Preceded byOleg Morozov
Succeeded byDmitry Rogozin
Member of Parliament
In office
1999 – 20 February 2013
Personal details
Born
Vladimir Alekseyevich Pekhtin

(1950-12-09) 9 December 1950 (age 74)
Leningrad, Soviet Union
Political partyUnited Russia
EducationLeningrad Polytechnic Institute

Vladimir Alekseyevich Pekhtin (Russian: Влади́мир Алексе́евич Пе́хтин; born 9 December 1950) is a Russian politician. He was a deputy of the State Duma for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th convocations. He chaired the parliament's ethics committee and served as Deputy Chairman of the State Duma. He was the first deputy chairman of the United Russia party. Pekhtin formerly served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES and was the Director General of Kolymaenergo, a subsidiary of RusHydro.

Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma in February 2013, following revelations that he owned over $1.3 million in Florida real estate.

Early life and education

Vladimir Pekhtin was born on 9 December 1950 in Leningrad. He attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1974 with a degree in hydraulic engineering.[1] In 1997, Pekhtin received a Candidate of Sciences degree from the Saint Petersburg State Technical University.[2] He received his Doktor Nauk degree in 1999.

Career

Engineering career

From 1982 to 1989, Pekhtin worked at the Kolyma Hydroelectric Station, rising to the Deputy Director position. From 1992 to 1997, he was General Director of Kolymaenergo, a subsidiary of RusHydro.[1] He served on the board of electric holding company RAO UES from 1997 to 1998.

Political career

Pekhtin ran for the State Duma in 1993, but lost the election. In 1994, he became a deputy in the first convocation of the Magadan Regional Duma.

Pekhtin was elected to the 3rd convocation of the State Duma in 1999. He headed the United Russia party in the State Duma from April 2001 to December 2003. On 29 March 2003, Pekhtin was elected a member of the supreme council of the United Russia party. Pekhtin was reelected to the fourth convocation of the State Duma in December 2003. He became Deputy Chairman of the State Duma and the first Deputy Head of the United Russia party. In 2007, he was elected to the fifth convocation of the State Duma.

Pekhtin supervised the Kremlin's CIS election observation mission for the 2008 parliamentary election in Belarus. While state-controlled media labelled opposition leaders as traitors, several of whom were imprisoned by the Belarusian KGB, Pekhtin said that all of recent elections in former Soviet republics were democratic and fair. He contradicted the conclusions of the OSCE, saying "They just made it up, invented it, to try to show that there was some kind of rot."[3]

Pekhtin (left) in 2011

In 2012, Pekhtin became Chairman of the State Duma's ethics committee.[4]

Pekhtin supported the 2013 Dima Yakovlev Law, which barred US citizens from adopting Russian orphans.[5][6]

Corruption scandal

On 30 August 2012, Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov published a LiveJournal post entitled "Gold pretzels: United Russia".[7] The post mentioned Pekhtin as one of the individuals with discrepancies between their declared income and the value of their property.[8] On 31 August, Kommersant published an article about real estate transactions that, according to the opposition, were part of a well-disguised commercial project to sell the land to the state for the construction of highway at a profit of roughly 75 million rubles.[9] A comparison of Pekhtin's 2010 and 2011 declarations showed that in 2011 he purchased an at least three plots of land in St. Petersburg worth over 25 million rubles.[9]

In 2011, Pekhtin had declared an income of 2.15 million rubles. His declaration indicated that he and his wife owned nine plots of land, two apartments, two houses, two non-residential buildings, and five cars (a Porsche Cayenne, a Toyota Land Cruiser, and three Mercedes-Benz) as well as personal watercraft and snowmobiles.[10]

On 12 February 2013, Alexei Navalny, based on publicly available real estate data, reported on Pekhtin's link to real estate in Miami worth $2.5 million. According to the documents, Pekhtin owned an apartment in a Flamingo South Beach condominium and land in Florida. The apartment was purchased for $540,000 in 2007 and the land for $120,000. Published contracts indicated that half of the real estate was owned by his son, Alexei Pekhtin. The son also owned an apartment in a residential complex at 1500 Ocean Drive. Prior to December 2012, half of the $1.27 million apartment was owned by the elder Pekhtin.[11]

Pekhtin resigned from the State Duma on 20 February 2013, following revelations from Alexei Navalny[12] that he owned over $1.3 million of undeclared real estate in Florida.[13][11] Both Anatoly Lomakin and Vasily Tolstopyatov resigned shortly after Pekhtin.[14]

Later career

Pekhtin became a member of the Management Board of RusHydro in April 2013.[15] He became Director General of the RusHydro hydrotechnology institute Lenhydroproject in March 2014.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "PEKHTIN, Vladimir Alekseyevich". The International Who's Who 2004. Psychology Press. 2003. p. 1302. ISBN 9781857432176.
  2. ^ Владимир Алексеевич Пехтин (1 January 1997). "Совершенствование конструкций каменно-земляных плотин на основе опыта производства работ" (in Russian). Техносфера. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  3. ^ Levy, Clifford J. (16 December 2008). "Electoral Rot Nearby? The Russians Don't See It". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  4. ^ Андрей Перцев. Чужие здесь проходят Archived 2016-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Газета "Коммерсантъ" №132 от 25.07.2016, стр. 3
  5. ^ Kara-Murza, Vladimir (15 February 2013). "A Putin Flak and His Miami Villa". World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ^ Weiss, Michael (27 February 2013). "Tropical Hypocrisy: One Russian Lawmaker's Florida Real Estate Problem". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  7. ^ ""Золотые крендели "Единой России"-2. Veľký muž"". 30 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
  8. ^ "Крендель стал культовым изделием // Московский Комсомолец № 26029 от 31 августа 2012 г". Archived from the original on 2012-09-02. Retrieved 2012-10-08.
  9. ^ a b "Квадратно-гнездовые метры. У Владимира Пехтина обнаружились необычные земельные интересы в Петербурге // Газета «Коммерсантъ», № 162 (4947), 31.08.2012". 31 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-08-31. Retrieved 2017-02-18.
  10. ^ "Пехтин Владимир Алексеевич" (in Russian). Государственная дума Российской Федерации. Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2012-12-13.
  11. ^ a b Цыбульский, Владимир (20 February 2013). "Мандатом вперед". Лента (in Russian). Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  12. ^ Amos, Howard (20 February 2013). "United Russia MP resigns over Florida property allegations". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  13. ^ Barry, Ellen (20 February 2013). "Russian Lawmaker Quits After Property Disclosure". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  14. ^ Whitmore, Brian (27 February 2013). "Putin Presses The Reset Button". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Archived from the original on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  15. ^ "Владимир Пехтин стал членом совета директоров компании "РусГидро"" (in Russian). Российская газета. 11 April 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
  16. ^ Согласно ЕГРЮЛ
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