Semibankirschina

Semibankirschina (), or seven bankers, was a group of seven powerful Russian business oligarchs who played an important role in the political and economical life of Russia between 1996 and 2000. In spite of internal conflicts, the group worked together in order to re-elect President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and thereafter to successfully manipulate him and his political environment from behind the scenes.

The seven businessmen were identified by oligarch Boris Berezovsky in an October 1996 interview, and the term "semibankirschina" was then coined by a journalist in November 1996 as a takeoff on the Seven Boyars (semiboyarschina), who deposed Tsar Vasily Shuisky in 1610 during Time of Troubles.

The seven bankers

Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, in a 29 October 1996 interview in the ''Financial Times'', named seven Russian bankers and businessmen that he claimed controlled most of the economy and media in Russia and had helped bankroll Boris Yeltsin’s re-election campaign in 1996.

The word "Semibankirschina" was subsequently coined by the Russian journalist Andrey Fadin of the ''Obschaya Gazeta'' newspaper, in a 14 November 1996 article titled "Semibankirschina as a New Russian Variation of Semiboyarschina". He wrote that "they control the access to budget money and basically all investment opportunities inside the country. They own the gigantic information resource of the major TV channels. They form the President's opinion. Those who didn't want to walk along them were either strangled or left the circle." Slightly over a year later, Fadin was killed in a car accident. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn also used this word in his critical 1998 essay ''Russia under Avalanche'' to describe the current political regime and to warn people of what he considered an organized crime syndicate that controlled the President and 70% of all Russian money.

The identities of seven bankers are:

# Boris Berezovsky – United Bank, Sibneft, ORT,
# Mikhail Khodorkovsky – Bank Menatep, Yukos,
#Mikhail Fridman – Alfa Group,
#Vladimir Vinogradov - Inkombank,
#Vladimir Gusinsky – Most Group, NTV,
# Vladimir Potanin – UNEXIM Bank
# Alexander Smolensky – Bank Stolichny

Other sources, including collective photo and video materials, suggested that Vitaly Malkin (Rossiysky Kredit) was part of this group too.