Grigory Berezkin

Grigory Berezkin was born on 9 August 1966 in Moscow.^[3]

In 1988, he graduated from Moscow University with a degree in Petrochemistry.^[3] In 1991, he completed his postgraduate studies there,^[4] and in 1993, he defended his dissertation.

From 1991 to 1994, he worked at Moscow State University as a junior research fellow.^[5]

In 1992, together with Alexander Mamut and Vladimir Gruzdev, he founded the company Slavyanka, which became the basis of the future supermarket chain Sedmoi Kontinent.^[6]

In 1993, after he began trading oil, he met Roman Abramovich, who was engaged in the supply of oil products from the Komi Republic.^[3] Under Abramovich's patronage,^[3] in 1994 he became deputy general director of Komineft and simultaneously its general representative in Moscow.^[3][4] At the same time, he managed the Mesko company,^[3][4] a joint venture of Komineft and RAO International Economic Cooperation, which was also one of the key shareholders of Komineft. In the same year, the KomiTEK holding was created on the basis of Komineft, the Ukhta Oil Refinery and Kominefteprodukt.

In 1995, he ran as an independent candidate for deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.^[4]

In 1997, he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of KomiTEK.^[3]

In 1997-1999, he worked as Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZAO AKB Ukhtabank.^[4]

He bought a 65% stake in a Russian media group in 2017.^[7]

Berezkin was sanctioned by European Union in April 2022. However, the EU did not renew sanctions against him after they expired in September 2023, and Berezkin was removed from the sanctions list. The grounds of sanctions did not stand in the European court of justice. They were based on an article written by AI bot Carmen.^[8][9][10]