Potapenko Dmitry Valeryevich

Biography

Late 2000s: The beginning of an "expert" career

In the expert arena, Dmitry Potapenko has been leading author programs on Echo of Moscow, Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda and Silver Rain since the late 2000s, and participates in various television talk shows.

He speaks at economic forums, publishes books and actively conducts seminars and master classes in which he teaches entrepreneurs how to effectively manage business. And everywhere he invariably criticizes the economic policies of the authorities.

Most of the data about the entrepreneur can be obtained exclusively from his words. So, Kommersant (01.09.12) reported on the allegedly received MBA diploma of the University of California, "Karate World" (21.12.06) reported that he was allegedly a two-time world karate champion, while stipulating that "it is not known according to which versions D. Potapenko became the world champion." We can only assume that Potapenko managed to work in many places, but did not stay anywhere for a long time.

Judging by his biography, which is distributed on the Internet, he was a nurse, bodyguard and even a casino director, from where he was probably taken immediately to the position of vice president of sales and marketing of Grundig GmbH in the Baltic countries. But it is extremely difficult to check this entire set of information, as, for example, it is difficult to understand whether Potapenko was really a serious manager of Pyaterochka or was just responsible for laying out goods on the shelves of the store.

2015: Speech at the MEF

Potapenko's greatest fame was brought by a shocking speech at the Moscow Economic Forum (MEF) in December 2015, where he harshly criticized the food embargo and the Plato system.

Just a couple of months later, a whole "crisis tour" was already announced in almost a dozen cities in Russia. As the publication Ruposters.ru wrote, VIP tickets, which gave those who wanted the opportunity to talk with the "great economic expert" at dinner and drink coffee, were sold at 25 thousand rubles. Participation in the seminar with an ordinary coffee break cost fans of the entrepreneur 10 thousand rubles. Since then, announcements of events organized by Potapenko have appeared regularly. On the Internet, you can find invitations to Potapenko's master class last September in Tomsk.

In subsequent years, Potapenko became a regular at the MEF for a couple with ex-Communist Party presidential candidate Pavel Grudinin.

Potapenko tried to organize more mass events with his participation. You can find, for example, that the "strategic management fund" Management Development Group Inc. announces forums in the regions of Russia for entrepreneurs and representatives of the non-profit sector.

Interestingly, at a time when Dmitry Potapenko, as a business coach, is actively training young entrepreneurs, as an expert on the Business Quarter (02.10.17) publication, he, for example, argued that attracting training specialists is "a waste of money or time, as well as an attempt to learn business at a university." Nevertheless, he himself increasingly prefers to teach others and on the website of the Penza center for scientific and practical support "Maximum" (his wife Elena is named general director) is listed among the coaches.

The contradiction of Dmitry Potapenko's statements can be called his "trademark."

"For the word" startup, "I would have executed for a long time - and preferably in public," Potapenko's quote is quoted on his website. But at the same time, he says that he regularly and not for the first year "sits on more than one jury" in selecting, apparently useless, startups.

"Three times? You will somehow decide to take only one skin from this sheep, "the expert at the MEF was indignant, convincing that nowhere in the world, except Russia, take three taxes from transport companies at the same time. "Honestly, it's surprising that an entrepreneur who has been doing business in Europe for nine years does not know how things are with taxes and fees there," commented users of social networks who have business abroad. Germany The same Czech Republic was cited as an example, where three taxes are also valid, which are higher than in Russia.

2016: Third in the federal list of "Growth Parties" in the elections to the State Duma

Usually in a tone that does not tolerate objections, Potapenko obstructs any economic steps of the state. The expert's self-thinking when communicating with the audience seems overwhelming, and Potapenko behaves in a way that gives the impression that he is speaking not to smart people, but to a herd of rams. Potapenko on his website is also called the "public ombudsman for microbusiness and self-employed," but what specifically he helps entrepreneurs, except for talk that officials are to blame for everything, is unknown. But, having created itself reputation of the economist oppositionist, the expert speaks straight from the shoulder and from a political tribune now: in 2016 he stood for the State Duma from Party of a rostaboris of Titov - was the third in the federal list.

According to the website of the CEC of the Russian Federation, published in 2016, Potapenko indicated only 650 thousand rubles received from one of the federal media, and about 3 million rubles. deposits spread out in nine banks. The declaration also included shares, including MDG and Practicer Retail GMBH, as well as two completely ordinary apartments, two cars and a motorcycle.

2018

Media suspicions of Potapenko's lack of notable business

In 2018, several media outlets at once suspected that Dmitry Potapenko, who seemed to be a successful retailer and expert on economic realities, did not have the results of his own business as ideal as the public could suggest. In addition, journalists raise the question of possible violations of tax and currency laws.

Potapenko criticizes the work of state bodies, individual ministers, the prime minister and the president, openly questioning their competence. But in these speeches there is much more hype than economic justification. For example, in 2018, he accused the government of negotiating with oil corporations, instead of a strong-willed decision to suspend rising gas prices. Such reasoning by a person who appears to be an expert in economics may seem either pure populism or a demonstration of absolute incompetence in this matter. But Potapenko does not seem to need economic justification. After all, the media audience best consumes aggressive and unsubstantiated criticism. The more it is, the more chances the expert has to create an image of a "specialist," which means to encourage entrepreneurs to pay for participating in business trainings of the new economic guru.

Potapenko claims to be doing business in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belgium and even in China. In particular, as Infox.ru (14.12.18) notes, he calls himself the founder and managing partner of Management Development Group Inc. (MDG), representing, as he reported to the Business Quarter (20.04.16), various trading brands, such as Gastronomchik, Prodeko, and Mark. However, according to Infox.ru, MDG was registered in 2008, and not in 2005, as Potapenko claimed.

"Oleg Tinkov Potapenko in 2012 told in an interview that... 7.5 thousand people work in this company... The extract from the official register of the Czech Republic indicates that the number of MDG employees is zero, so if people work in this company, then they apparently do this incognito. In 2014, they never decided to declassify: in the extract for this year... the number of employees in the company is again zero. " The publication also checked the fact cited by Dmitry Potapenko that in 2008 the net profit of his "international group" amounted to almost 400 million rubles. However, the Czech commercial register, according to the publication, gives other figures: "If you believe them, it turns out that MDG did not bring any profit in 2008. Moreover, its operating loss amounted to 90 thousand kroons, "writes Infox.ru.

Some details of Potapenko's "successful" business abroad also surfaced. Komsomolskaya Pravda (22.12.18), for example, writes that his company has a "registration at the address of the apartment" in Prague. If so, there is a common scheme for acquiring real estate in the Czech Republic, well known to all realtors. But this looks kind of petty amid high-profile statements that MDG is "a strategic management fund for large industrial, manufacturing enterprises and networks." So Potapenko's company is positioned on its website, which is one single page indicating phones in Moscow and for some reason in London and depicting various logos. Including the Pyaterochka network, Potapenko's work in which was apparently so "productive" that one of the founders of the retailer Andrei Rogozin, as Sales Business wrote, prefers not to talk about the former employee.

In Russia, a popular expert and business coach is also the founder of a number of commercial structures.

"Out of ten companies, of which Potapenko is the direct founder and head, only three operate in reality: the aforementioned MDG, Practicer Retail GmbH LLC and a farm engaged in the cultivation of annual crops. However, they, oddly enough, do not bring profit, "writes Infox.ru. - Practicer Retail GmbH (employees - 1 person) has tax arrears; the enterprise is unprofitable. Time LLC, a subsidiary of MDG, also has tax problems, problems due to non-fulfillment of obligations under supply contracts, and even several terminated or partially completed government contracts. LLC Ledovo, existing under the founding of Management Development Group LLC, was twice on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010-2013^[1].

For more than a year, expert books on how to do business in Russia have been sold. In retail chains, they can be bought at a price of more than 400 rubles.

Potapenko proposes to transfer money to an electronic wallet to support his projects.

Presenter at the Silver Rain radio station

Since 2018, he has been conducting the program "Potapenko wakes up!" On the radio station "Silver Rain."

2021: Withdrawal from elections to the Glsdum at the suit of the CEC

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in September 2021 withdrew businessman Dmitry Potapenko from the elections to the State Duma, his registration was canceled. The decision was made on the lawsuit of the Central Election Commission.

The reason for the appeal of the CEC of Russia to the court was the ownership by Dmitry Potapenko of securities of the following foreign companies: AT&T; Apple; Bank of America Corporation; CBOM Finance P.L.C.; Chevron Corporation; Citibank; FinEx Investment Management LLP; Ford Motor Company; Gaz Finance Plc.; General Electric Company; Pfizer; Tesla; The Procter & Gamble Company; Viatris Inc.; Polymetal International Plc.; Yandex; Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

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