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Vladimir Pavlovich Peftiev (Belarusian: Уладзiмiр Паўлавiч Пефцiеў; Russian: Владимир Павлович Пефтиев, born 1 July 1957) is a Belarusian businessman, investor and philanthropist.
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Biography
Vladimir Pavlovich Peftiev was born on 1 July 1957 in the city of Berdyansk, Ukraine. He was educated in the Ukraine at the Institute of Railway Transport Engineers (currently Dnipropetrovsk National University of Rail Transport), graduating in 1979 with a diploma in electromechanical engineering. From 1979 till 1988 he worked with Belarusian Railway and then with Minsk Metro as chief engineer, following which in 1988 he began a career in private business.
Overview
Peftiev’s business interests since leaving Minsk Metro have included technological development, special equipment and military exports, telecommunications, medical technology, IT- technology, and sports
During the past few years, Peftiev has disposed of some of his business assets, including his shareholding in BelTechExport and Delovaya Set, and restructured his remaining business interests. He now owns 31% of Sport Pari, with the remainder held by a company belonging to the family of well-known tennis player and 2012 Olympic Champion Maxim Mirnyi.
Controversies
On 20 June 2011, during a period of speculation and allegations by media about possible political influences of prominent Belarusian businessmen, the Council of the European Union listed Peftiev and his three companies BelTechExport, Sport Pari and BT Telecommunications as sanctioned entities. Peftiev protested this decision in the General Court of the European Union. At the end of October 2014, before the case had been decided, the sanctions were dropped by the EU Council. On 9 December 2014, the General Court of European Union decided in Peftiev’s and his companies’ favour, annulling the sanctions and ruling that the Council of the European Union and European Commission had made serious mistakes while evaluating Peftiev's business activities. The Council did not appeal the Court's decision.
The European General Court’s judgment of 9 December 2014 concerning Peftiev reads, in part (clause 149):
the Court held that [the sanctions involving Belarus] should be annulled in so far as they concern Mr Peftiev. By virtue of that annulling judgment, the annulled acts, in so far as they concern Mr Peftiev, are deleted retroactively from the legal order and deemed never to have existed … and consequently Mr Peftiev is deemed never to have been listed.
Science and technology
During his career to date, Peftiev has contributed research and development to a number of new technologies in mechanical engineering and medicine, of which fourteen have been awarded patents under his name. In his research and development work, Peftiev has cooperated with such Belarusian scientists as Vladimir Alexandrovich Katko and Sergey Vladimirovich Pletnev.
Philanthropy
Peftiev supports a variety of social, cultural and religious-heritage projects.
Sport
In 1995, Peftiev founded a youth tennis club in Minsk which he financed and continued to support until 2011. The club helped to recruit highly qualified trainers for talented up-and-coming players, and provided financial assistance and a sports centre to promote national youth tennis. Peftiev was the main sponsor of Victoria Azarenka, Olympic tennis champion and former world No. 1, at the beginning of her career.
From 2009 to 2012, Peftiev also headed the Belarus Tennis Federation [Белорусская теннисная федерация].
Religious heritage
Peftiev’s contributions to the preservation of Orthodox Christian heritage have been recognised with numerous awards from leaders in the Orthodox Church (see below). Since 1998, he has been a member of the Tutorial Board for construction of the Orthodox Church of All Saints and Innocent Victims in Minsk (under the aegis of the Belarusian Orthodox Church). He assisted in the construction of the House of Mercy in Minsk and is a leading sponsor of the Nikolsky Orthodox Church in Tonezh (completed 2015), built to commemorate the site of a Nazi atrocity.
During 2012-2015, Peftiev sponsored the mural paintings in St John the Baptist’s Church of the Monastery of the Holy Ascension in Barkalabovo (Belarus) carried out by students and professors of the Monumental Art Department of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts in a team headed by Belarusian artist Vladimir Zinkevich.
Vladimir Peftiev is a Chevalier of Orders of the Russian Orthodox Church, a Chevalier of the Order of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, and has also been decorated by the Orthodox Metropolitan of Switzerland.
History and the arts
Peftiev has sponsored and in some cases co-authored a number of art and historical publications, chiefly in the historical series В поисках утраченного [‘In search of the lost’] by Belarusian historian Vladimir. A. Lihodedov, volumes of which include:
Peftiev has also co-authored:
Peftiev’s contributions are helping to preserve the memory of Belarusian soldiers and fighters who fell in the Polish and Lithuanian uprisings of the nineteenth century, the Russian-French War of 1812 (the Patriotic War of 1812), and the First and Second World Wars. Thousands of unique artifacts, photographs, documents and letters have been collected so far, and in 2012 an exhibition at the Belarusian State Museum made many visible to the public.
Other publications supported by Peftiev in recent years have included books and albums of the work of Belarusian artists Vladimir Zinkevich, Alexander Slucky, Viktor Alshevsky, and celebrated ballet choreographer Valentin Elizarev.
In 1999, Peftiev’s companies partnered with Elizarev and the French Embassy in Belarus to produce the ballet La Esmeralda (inspired by Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris) at The National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus.
For several years, Peftiev’s companies also sponsored the Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival in Minsk and the Belarusian vocal quintet Clear Voice.