Mikhail Gutseriev

Mikail (Mikhail) Safarbekovich Gutseriev (born 9 March 1958) is a Russian billionaire businessperson of Ingush descent.

Gutseriev earned his fortune after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He is the former owner of Russneft, one of Russia's largest oil companies.

Gutseriev was born on 9 March 1958 in a large Ingush family in Akmolinsk.

His family was repressed and exiled to Kazakhstan.

He finished high school No. 23 in Grozny, Checheno-Ingushskaya ASSR.

In 1981, Mikhail Gutseriev graduated from the Dzhambul Technological Institute of Light and Food Industry with a degree in "Leather and Fur Technology".

From 1982, Gutseriev worked as a process engineer, later on – as a senior process engineer of Grozny Production Association at the RSFSR Ministry of Local Industry, Grozny.

He became CEO of the Association.

In 1991, Gutseriev was elected Chairman of Businessmen Association of Checheno-Ingush ASSR.

In 1992, when Dzhokhar Dudayev took power, Gutseriev had to leave his business and moved to Moscow, where he founded industrial and financial company "BIN" (Bank of Investments and Innovations), uniting industrial, trading and financial enterprises.

In 1993 he founded and headed the Joint Stock Commercial Bank BIN.

1994 marked Gutseriev's development of the free economic zone for residents, the first one in the post Soviet countries, called the Zone of economic well-being Ingushetia (ZEWI).

On 19 June 1994 the Government of the Russian Federation issued Resolution No. 740 on establishing ZEWI and appointed Gutseriev as the Head of its Financial sector.

ZEWI received the legal right to return taxes paid to the federal budget back to the budget of the republic.

According to the Federal Tax Service of Ingushetia, for the period from 1994 to 1997 that sum amounted to 1 billion 388 million denominated rubles.

The financial corporation "BIN", being the official agent of the government of Ingushetia, was engaged in the registration of enterprises in the zone of economic favor.

All financial flows of the Ingushetia free economic zone were accumulated on the accounts of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ingushetia and were controlled by the federal and republican tax authorities.

In 1995 he graduated from Finance Academy under the Government of Russian Federation, majoring in "Finance and Credits", Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas, majoring in "Methods and Technology of Oil and Gas Engineering", St. Petersburg University of Law, majoring in "Civil Law" and Post graduate course at St. Petersburg University of Law, having received master's degree in "Criminal Procedural Law".

Eventually he pursued Doctoral studies at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, majoring in "Free Economic Zones".

In 1995 he was elected as deputy to the State Duma, where he took up the post of Deputy chairman.

Due to his position, he sold a 100% stake of AKB B&N (BIN) and thus exited from the equity of the bank.

In 1996 he defended his PhD thesis on "Criminality in major cities: State of affairs and prevention problems on the materials of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in Saint-Petersburg Law University, PhD in Law.

In 1996 Mikhail Gutseriev initiated, developed and proposed for consideration of the State Duma a regulation on establishing a "Center for International Business", a standard offshore zone for non-residents.

The State Duma approved the Federal Law on the "Center for International Business" (No. 16-FZ), with the major provisions compiling with general regulations of the laws on international businesses.

The president approved the Law on 30 January 1996.

The Law was effective for 1 year and international non-residents started their registration.

ZEWI existed until 3 July 1997.

However, in August 1997, in order to complete the construction of ZEWI facilities Gutseriev created the Center for Entrepreneurship Development (CED).

During the operation of the CED, large infrastructure facilities were put into operation, in particular, water supply networks for settlements in Ingushetia, external engineering networks for a gas turbine power plant, sections of gas pipelines and roads that were important for the economic infrastructure of Ingushetia.

In addition, thanks to the efforts of the CED, the construction of a number of residential buildings and the government complex in Magas were completed, and other social and industrial facilities were built.

The main investor of the CED was Mikhail Gutseriev.

The economic crisis of 1998, a strong decline in the Ruble exchange rate, and further default made the government suspend the effect of the law which has been in a "sleeping mode" so far.

In 1999 for the second time Gutseriev was elected a State Duma Deputy for the Third Convocation of the Federal Assembly.

However, on 14 January 2000, Gutseriev was elected as the President of Slavneft at the extraordinary meeting of shareholders of the company and had to turn down the Deputy's mandate.

Gutseriev is the author of a monograph and an array of research publications on free economic free economic zones and offshore business issues in Russia.

Since 2002, he has been the permanent participant of the Forbes annual ranking of 200 richest Russians, where, as of 2023, he has taken 34th place with $3.5 billion.

The school, completely destroyed during the First Chechen War, in 2005 was rebuilt with Gutseriev's financial support.

He fled Russia in 2007 after being charged with tax evasion.

In 2010, he came back to Russia after the charges were withdrawn.