How the founder of the "Apostle" Vasily Brovko masters state budgets and why he married the scandalous TV presenter Tina Kandelaki
Natalya GolitsynaThe government has appointed Rostec Corporation as the sole executor of the project to create an IT infrastructure for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.
According to the publication, the decision was made at the level of the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov supervising the preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The state corporation will have to provide the championship with data transmission channels, video conferencing, fixed and mobile communications, satellite communications and cable TV. Vasily Brovko, who holds the position of director of communications and strategic research in the corporation, brought such a large booty to the native nest of Rostec. The tempting multi-billion dollar order appears to be the result of long and painstaking lobbying.
Indeed, some 14 years ago he was playing football in the yards of Zhukovsky. Brovko still cannot forget how he pushed in trains to Moscow. It would seem that all of his current turbulent activity is devoted to desperate attempts to belatedly snatch from life everything that is due to him, and even more. So who is Vasily Brovko, born in 1987? This is not the first time his name has come up in connection with the 2018 World Cup. Vasily Brovko headed the communication agency he created for five years "Apostle", from where he moved to work at Rostec at the end of 2013. However, he continued to maintain influence on his offspring. In the absence of Brovko, his close friend, the well-known TV presenter Tina Kandelaki, became the head of the Apostle, with whom they owned the shares of the PR agency equally. In 2015, it became known that Apostol would receive a contract for branding 11 cities where matches within the 2018 World Cup would be held. At that time, information was circulating in the media that the project was supported by the financial and economic bloc of the government, headed, as you know, by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Thus, the IT support of the championship by Rostec looks like a logical continuation of the lobbying activities of the former CEO of Apostol.
Proximity to the first persons of the state and direct access to high offices more than once helped him to successfully settle the affairs of structures affiliated with him. So, in April 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry in the government, expressed indignation at two tenders by the Kalashnikov concern to develop a website and a brand, the starting price for each of which was 20 million rubles. The contracts of the Kalashnikov, which is part of Rostec, were going to be given to the Apostle, but Rogozin promised to initiate an audit of the competition. The conflict was extinguished before it had flared up, and Apostol took up the branding of the legendary manufacturer of small arms anyway. So Vasily Brovko won his next hardware victory.
Friendship between Rostec and Brovko began in 2010. At the suggestion of the then Minister of Information and Communications of Tatarstan Nikolai Nikiforov"Apostol" received a contract for the full communication support of a "young but ambitious" Internet provider at that time. In August 2010, a Moscow PR agency organized for him a presentation of the first 4G network in Russia, and not just anywhere, but in Kazan. It is possible that Nikiforov simply sympathized with Brovko, since he himself was only 29 years old, and he knew firsthand how difficult it is for budding entrepreneurs to break through in life.
Since then, Nikiforov has grown to the position of federal minister, and yesterday's "Internet provider" - to the status of a full-fledged mobile operator. Very mature and Vasily Brovko. He began to drive "boy" sports cars. They say that yesterday's poor people are best versed in car brands - for Brovko this has become a lifelong passion. His first successes did not go unnoticed by the leadership of the state corporation Rostec. So Brovko met Sergei Chemezov. The fruits of this acquaintance were not long in coming. In 2012, the Apostol agency carried out a rebranding for the state corporation, as a result of which it ceased to be called Russian Technologies and became Rostec, and also acquired a new logo and corporate identity. The work, performed for a modest $1.5 million at the time, impressed Sergei Chemezov so much that he invited Brovko to deal with the communications of the entire state corporation directly on its staff. Vasily Brovko did not have to be persuaded for a long time, because he needed it.
Thus began the rise of the general director of Apostol. Rumors about his communication skills and well-spoken language spread through Chemezov through the ruling circles of Russia. As a result, a paradoxical situation has developed in Russian PR. As soon as large government agencies and departments need information promotion, they understand that they don’t have to go far and turn directly to Vasily Brovko. He, who is known for his eloquence and love for “fashionable” words like “extrapolate”, “synergy”, “growth driver”, “spectrum”, “segregation”, knows how to create fog, promise mountains of gold to the client and ultimately sell him air . Brovko is a “bridge” between the state apparatus and the “Apostle”, for his successful lobbying, he received the unspoken nickname “Evil Empire” in the media environment. So, in April 2015, the agency won a scandalous tender worth more than 60 million rubles for information and analytical support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. This competition was cunningly divided into two lots: one worth 40 million rubles, the other in the region of 20 million rubles. They are called differently, but the set of services contain plus or minus the same. Branding of pencils, folders and business cards, as well as daily monitoring of the media and writing positive blog posts about the ministry were valued at millions of budget rubles.
Strong ties with Nikiforov, as well as friendship with Rustam Minnikhanov, soon opened a new chapter in the relationship between "Apostol" and Tatarstan - this time much more expensive. In 2014, the agency received a contract to develop the territorial brand of the republic. In addition, Vasily Brovko managed to turn Tatarstan into an advertising platform for Rostec. In the vicinity of Kazan, the corporation built its own science city Innopolis, where Brovko now holds annual IT conferences with the participation of politicians loyal to Rostec and Apostol or their deputies, including Minnikhanov, Nikiforov and the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. Apparently, the purpose of such forums is to praise the state corporation and everything that Sergei Chemezov does for the country. Against the backdrop of fabulously expensive videos on huge screens, Brovko flaunts in a discreet designer suit and enjoys practicing public speaking.
Just as military factories churn out their products on a conveyor, so Vasily Brovko organized the uninterrupted supply of all new tenders for Apostol and learned how to use Rostec, and with it the federal budget, for his entourage. How many holdings are included in Rostec - so many rebranding orders were received by Tina Kandelaki in her bottomless piggy bank. KRET, Aviation Equipment, Shvabe, Kalashnikov - all these concerns paid off a lot of money to Apostol in exchange for incomprehensible services with "muddy" names: "positioning concept", "brand architecture development", "creation of a communication platforms." Brovko seems to be able to juggle these concepts even when woken up in the middle of the night.
Vasily Brovko, who is not yet 30 years old, tends to hide his enormous influence in every possible way. But sometimes in the information space there are still signals that testify to his exclusive relationship with the authorities. So, in 2013, he was criticized on the pages of Alexei Navalny's blogs because of the scandalous tender of the Apostle for the information service of Aeroflot. As you know, the popular oppositionist does not write about just anyone; in different years, such influential figures as the first deputy chairman of the government, Igor Shuvalov, or the former head of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin, were subjected to his attacks. Brovko more than once became the object of attacks from other opposition stars - Ksenia Sobchak mentioned him on her Twitter, however, mostly in a romantic sense, hinting at the closeness of Vasily and Tina Kandelaki. But the “blonde in chocolate” is often passed in the microblog on Sergey Chemezov and “Rostec cuts”. Brovko was also featured in a large post “Put your Kandelaikas” by a close associate of Navalny, activist Ruslan Leviev. It remains an open question why the Russian opposition takes the not-so-media Brovko seriously.
Behind the "Apostle" stretches a long trail of scandalous stories related to the information service of the ruling elite. With Kandelaki, Vasily Brovko developed a special relationship in every sense. The TV presenter not only for a long time served as his protege in the Apostle, from whose capital Brovko was forced to leave in connection with the transfer to work in a state corporation, but also recently she has ceased to hide that she is also united with a business partner by family ties. Gossip that Tina Kandelaki and Vasily Brovko got married became a hit in the yellow tabloids this summer.
But the government contracts that Brovko is seeking for Apostol and Rostec through skillful lobbying and talented manipulative practices can be regarded, among other things, as replenishment of the family budget. Thus, the cost of IT support alone for the 2018 FIFA World Cup is about 11 billion rubles.
The twenty-three-year-old CEO of Apostol Media Group, Vasily Brovko, has many successful projects on his account, two of which - the programs Unreal Politics and Infomania - stepped from the Internet to the television screen. Vasily spoke about the future of broadcasting, freedom of speech and Tina Kandelaki as his main project.
Question: Vasily, in what environment did you grow up?
V. B.: I was a street guy and professionally played football, grew up and formed in a male company. It determined all my aspirations. From a young age I realized that there is friendship, teamwork and responsibility, you need to be able to stand up for yourself and keep your word. I have always had leadership qualities. I liked to be either loved or hated.
Question: You entered the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University in 2005, when the people's interest in politics was rather sluggish. Why choose this path?
VB: My family is very politicized. For as long as I can remember, talking about politics has been an inevitable part of family discourse. Initially, I wanted to go to the Faculty of Economics, because after the crazy 1990s it was the shortest path to politics - through business. And after reading the book "American Hero", based on which the film "The Tail Wags the Dog" with De Niro was shot, I fell in love with the profession of a PR and political consultant.
Question: In your own company, Apostol Media, do you rely on experience or youth and enthusiasm?
V. B.: Only young specialists work for us, the average age is 23-24 years. People in leadership positions already have knowledge and experience. But no less valuable is the desire to work: to force yourself to get up every day, come to work by 10 in the morning, leave at 2 in the morning and be an example for everyone in this sense. I am ready to take people to me and teach them if I see a crazy desire to develop, to grow above myself.
Question: Why was it necessary to sell the Post.tv Internet channel and the Face.ru fashion network if their ratings were high?
VB: We had to concentrate on what we are good at. I am not a specialist in Internet projects, but a good PR person. I am not able to produce a whole TV channel, because this requires more experience, but I can make one good program - "Infomania". I am proud of Infomania, it is developing very well. This is again a matter of evolution, not revolution. Gradually, maybe I will come to become the general producer of a TV channel or a major Internet mogul, but for now, you need to do what you are good at. As soon as we gave up developmental dispersion, we began to have crazy economic growth rates. And nothing will stop us.
Question: No Country for Old Men on Post.tv was hosted by Zakhar Prilepin, Fantastic Breakfast was hosted by Dmitry Glukhovsky — why did you decide to make writers the hosts?
VB: I am constantly looking for new heroes. Our TV is really the most technologically advanced, the most developed, the most advanced in Europe in this sense, but there are very few worthy people on the screen. Writers, such as Glukhovsky and Prilepin, are most inclined to become heroes. They have their own audience, their own truth, they are worthy people in life. Prilepin is a smart, real, honest guy. He is an oppositionist, but I respect him for his reasoned position, in which he sincerely believes.
Question: What are the functions in "Apostle Media"performsTina Kandelaki?
VB: It in itself is the main project of our company. As a shareholder, we discuss all decisions together. Tina is a master of understanding human psychology, she explains many things to me. We have an absolutely organic duet with her. I will not reveal secrets yet, but somewhere in a month it will be clear what TV projects we will launch with her in the new season. Tina is already an absolutely self-sufficient, established hero, she is moving away from glamor and show business, is engaged in social and political activities and will continue to develop in this direction. Sociological surveys show that the audience from 18 to 24 years old trusts her the most. This is the Internet audience, which we are going to continue to bet on, so today for Tina, television projects are the cherry in the cocktail, she no longer needs “air for the sake of air”.
Question: Who are the pros in your field that you look up to?
V. B.: I admire Konstantin Ernst as a person who feels the environment very deeply and subtly. I am proud to work with Vyacheslav Murugov, who creates a completely new world on the STS channel, which is interesting to delve into and peer into. I admire Denis Sverdlov from Yota, because a person builds the future and thinks in such a non-Russian way that it's hard to imagine. I really like the head of DreamWorks Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who comes to work at 6 in the morning and leaves at 12 at night. There are a lot of political strategists I like, whose names will not tell anyone anything, but nevertheless these people come up with mega-cool election campaigns and implement new technologies in the field of working with public consciousness. And I'm not ashamed of the fact that I really like Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev with his logic. The main thing is that this oligarchic-retrograde swamp does not suck him in.
The 30-year-old Director for Special Assignments, who renamed the Russian Technologies Corporation to Rostec, is one of the most promising managers in Russia.
Vasily Yurievich Brovko was born in Zhukovsky near Moscow in 1987. The cities near Moscow were then not very comfortable, and often just a dangerous place, but in the "science cities" the audience nevertheless crept up a little more decently. There is no information about Brovko's parents in the public domain, but it is known that Vasily studied at a prestigious lyceum with a mathematical bias, then entered Moscow State University, and not at the economics, as planned for some time, but at the Faculty of Philosophy (department of political science). It was a very revealing choice - his entire short (at the moment), but unusually turbulent career will take place at the intersection of politics and economics. The ability to negotiate and the ability to count money was very useful to our hero.
Like many energetic young people from non-poor families, Vasily tried to stir up business from the first courses of the institute. At first it was another Sreda.org web magazine with good columnists - there Brovko met, for example, Nikita Belykh. In general, Vasily actively and consciously expanded the circle of promising acquaintances, and this constantly helped him in life. Just like that, from the street, at the age of 19, they don’t come to the position of a producer, albeit a supernumerary one, but the federal O2TV channel. Vasily worked with political programs, thanks to which, again, he met very useful people. This process continued as the director of the directorate of prime-time broadcasting of radio programs of the GRK Mayak (at the age of 20!). Somewhere at this time, Vasily also had a historic meeting with a popular TV presenter. Tinatin Kandelaki.
In January 2008, even before his 21st birthday, Brovko founded another company - Apostol Media. At first it was an unremarkable PR agency, but everything changed when Kandelaki got involved. She was both a client of the Apostle (the organization very successfully promoted the image of a TV presenter, which was one of the reasons for her reaching the next height, a top media manager), and his PR manager: Tinatin Givievna’s connections made it possible to get very high level clients for the agency. In particular, thanks to Kandelaki's friendship with the wife of the head of Russian Technologies Sergei Chemezov, the state corporation entrusted the formation of its image to the "Apostle". And there they got down to business, rolling up their sleeves: according to media reports, the renaming of Russian Technologies into Rostec alone, born in the depths of Apostol, cost the state 27.9 million rubles.
Another side of the activity of the "Apostle" is the creation of a network of Internet trolls - those who would later be called "Olginsky". The tasks of these elusive network agents are considered to be both the formation of the necessary opinion by maintaining thousands of blogs and pages on social networks (“white PR”), and constant attacks on opponents through offensive comments, complaints from the administration, petty provocations, and so on (such PR can be called “brown PR”). "). In addition, the "Apostle" took on a related task - the promotion of customers in social networks. They managed to multiply the number of subscribers many times over in the shortest possible time; another question is that not all of these citizens actually existed. Often the client actually paid for an army of bots.
Vasily led the "Apostle" in his unique style of mixing a gopnik with an intellectual. The young team coped well with network games, but when it came to more serious tasks, the lack of experience and professionalism affected. After all, it's one thing to flood your opponents in LiveJournal with mocking comments, and another thing is to make a real web project for a serious reader. Unfortunately, the agency did not reach this level. But it did a great job of promoting its leaders, and when both of them took the right positions, it became simply unnecessary. The pair springboard of Brovko and Kandelaki (their relationship was not a secret for employees back in 2011, long before the official announcement of marriage), "Apostle" was closed in 2016 through bankruptcy proceedings.
Vasily Brovko left in 2013 for his best client, Rostec. The state corporation, which united a huge number of assets under its wing, added a new trend to production technologies - political technologies. In four years of work, Brovko has grown to the outlandish post of director for special assignments.
"Director for Special Assignments" ... As it sounds - revolutionary, extremely, mercilessly! Does your company have such a director? Hardly. It is possible that Vasily Yuryevich in 2016 came up with the name of the position for himself. This, by the way, turned out to be contagious - in November 2017, a second "special officer" appeared in Rostec, Nikolai Andrianov, but at least he comes from the relevant authorities.
In this capacity, Brovko reports directly to the head of the company, Sergei Chemezov, but does not have his own “department for special assignments”. Free shooter. Dream job. Something very secret, not very legal, requiring decisiveness, brutality and reduced disgust. The perfect post for Brovko.
Probably, the idea of creating such a position arose a little earlier, when Vasily served as director of communications, analytics and strategic research at Rostec.
Rostec has now become a state within a state - like a holding once Gusinsky"Bridge" or corporation Khodorkovsky YUKOS. Only now the actions of "special agents" are consecrated by the epithet "state" in the definition of a corporation. So Vasily Brovko has "the widest fields" open to him, as the punk singer he loves put it. Egor Letov.
There is almost no doubt that a bright career awaits Vasily, that we are only seeing the beginning of acceleration. Work in a state corporation is always a crossroads between politics and business. It seems to us that Brovko's entrepreneurial talents are significantly inferior to his political abilities, so that, having made the right decision in time, he may be surrounded by Russia's top leaders in the next decade.
For "special assignments" are given there more and more often.
Lena Miro published the results of her investigation on a page in the popular social network LiveJournal. "Tina Kandelaki's husband (Vasily Brovko. - Approx. Ed.) Is a young guy, and 12 years younger than his wife. Smart Tina, she took revenge on everyone for everything, showing that the woman also loves fresher meat," for a start, she praised the sultry brunette Lena Miro.
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Next, the blogger made a small digression. She posted several photos of a certain dark-haired young woman. “Meet Nicole Sakhtaridi – you don’t know her for sure, because she is nobody. Well, like nobody?
Miro explained why she suddenly jumped from her husband Kandelaki to Sakhtaridi. “The thing is that young Vasya, Tina’s husband, is not only subscribed to Nicole on social networks, but also diligently likes her photos,” Miro announced.
Lena developed an idea. In her opinion, Tina Kandelaki should be worried. "12 years of difference is not in favor of Tina. Vasya - hoo and generally well done. That's just the trouble - he rummages through social networks n *** and, without hesitation, likes their young charms. Now we put ourselves in Tina's place, bunnies, and we understand that there is nothing good in this situation," Lena concluded.
According to Miro, Brovko's attentions towards the young star of "The Bachelor" are a humiliation for Kandelaki. "Where is Tina, and where is Nicole, can be seen with the naked eye. And Tina can be seen, and you, and even Vasya's husband, who likes a young body, and not an old wife-raskoryaku. And Vasya's likes are a humiliation, from which to betrayal is a step or even less," Lena Miro is convinced.
Despite her publicity, Tina Kandelaki diligently hides her personal life, and only some of the events taking place in her become public. When, after ten years of marriage, it became known that she was divorcing her husband, all sorts of versions of the reasons for the divorce immediately began to appear, and Tina herself said that their huge employment was to blame, because of which she and her husband saw each other very rarely.
The first husband of Tina Kandelaki, businessman Andrei Kondrakhin, also kept silent about this, but before they parted, he began to appear at various events with another girl.
Personal life of Tina Kandelaki
After the divorce, Tina admitted that she had hoped for a long time that her life with Andrei would get better, and everything would still be fine with them, but this did not happen. The couple made the decision to leave on a difficult day for Tina, when her father died of a serious illness. But this decision was only a logical conclusion to the fact that he and Andrei are completely unsuitable for each other, and their outlook on life is completely different.
In the photo - Tina Kandelaki with her first husband
The realization of this has matured in Tina over the past few years, during which she and her husband gradually moved away from each other, and Tina Kandelaki's personal life developed independently, in parallel with Andrei's life.
In a marriage with Kondrakhin, she gave birth to two children - daughter Melania and son Leonty, but even for their sake the couple could not save the family.
In the photo - Tina Kandelaki and Andrei Kondrakhin with children
Kandelaki's first husband
The first husband of Tina Kandelaki, when they met, was a successful businessman, co-owner of the ASCON multidisciplinary clinic, but he saw his main vocation in creating paintings. Tina said more than once that Andrey was engaged in business rather out of necessity, and his dream and vocation was to realize himself as an artist. Therefore, it was not a surprise for Kandelaki that after the divorce, Andrei gave his own clinic to the management of his companion, and he left Russia.
She says that her ex-husband always dreamed of living in unity with nature, traveling, and, becoming a free man, he decided to make his dream come true. First, Andrei Kondrakhin went to Jamaica, then moved to Cuba.
Even during the divorce, Tina said that she did not need alimony, and she would raise the children on her own, and this decision was made by her not out of pride, but because then the financial situation of Kondrakhin wished for the best, and she, who always earned more than her husband, decided that she does not need squabbles, disassembly and scandals. The only condition for Kandelaki was that the father continued to maintain relations with the children. True, due to the fact that Tina Kandelaki's ex-husband Andrei Kondrakhin left Russia, he mostly had to see Melania and Leonty only via Skype.
Wedding of Tina Kandelaki and Vasily Brovko
For a long time after the divorce, which took place in 2010, little was known about the personal life of the famous TV presenter, until rumors appeared that she was marrying Vasily Brovko, an employee of the Rostec state corporation. The new husband of Tina Kandelaki is ten years younger than her chosen one, but this does not affect their relationship in any way.
In the photo - Tina Kandelaki and Vasily Brovko
They kept their wedding a deep secret, and that Tina again became a married lady, her entourage learned only by the ring on the ring finger of her right hand.
Tina met Vasily at Pioneer Readings - Brovko at that time was promoting the Russian Pioneer magazine, and Tina Kandelaki was among those invited to the presentation. According to rumors, their wedding took place in 2015, and they signed in the spring of 2014.
Tina has many common interests with her new husband, including sports. Vasily Brovko is a candidate for the master of sports in football in the past, he is interested in many sports, and in this he is very similar to his wife. In the evenings, they often leaf through sports websites together to keep abreast of all sports news.
Biography of Vasily Brovko
Vasily Brovko was born on February 6, 1987 in Zhukovsky near Moscow. After graduating from a lyceum with a mathematical bias, he entered the political science department of the philosophical faculty of Moscow State University, although at first he planned to study as an economist.
Vasily created his first project already in his second year, and it was the youth online magazine Sreda.org. Brovko decided to develop his career in the field of telecommunications, and after graduation he became a producer of political and entertainment programs, later Vasily Brovko created the Apostol-Media Center for Strategic Communications, which promotes various projects not only in Russia, but also in foreign markets.
Taking into account the prospects of the Internet, Brovko launched the Post TV channel and several programs, among which were Unreal Politics with Tina Kandelaki, Real Sport with Victoria Lopyreva, Men's Games with Oleg Taktarov and many others.
He joined the directorate of the Rostec corporation at the end of 2013 and has since achieved considerable results in this position.
