Foreign trade company "Uralmashexport"
Trading house "Uralmash and partners"

The foreign trade company Uralmashexport was established in February 1987 at the production association Uralmash (Ural Heavy Machine Building Plant).

Until 1987, foreign trade in enterprises of the USSR was carried out mainly through state foreign trade organizations subordinate to the government of the USSR. One of the first enterprises in the country that received the right to directly enter the foreign market was PA Uralmash (one of the largest machine-building enterprises in the USSR). To establish business contacts between PA Uralmash and foreign organizations, VTF Uralmash-export was created.

Vladislav Ivanovich Grammatin became the director of the company, and Stanislav Georgievich Tolstov became the deputy director.

VTF "Uralmashexport" began work in conditions when the Ministry of Finance of the USSR and the State Planning Committee of the USSR had not yet agreed upon the normative documents governing the legal status and monetary and financial aspects of the activities of enterprises that received the right to independently go abroad. This was the usual order of things for the perestroika period in the USSR, when principally new economic relations were introduced under the conditions of insufficiently developed legal acts that were supposed to regulate these economic relations. As a result, abuses by the subjects of these economic relations (foreign trade firms, cooperatives, joint ventures) were often noted, which led to a worsening of the economic situation in the country. However, sometimes it was difficult to call it abuses, because there were no legal acts that would clearly define what could be done by new economic entities and what could not.

Initially, only positive reviews of the firm's activities were published in the press. For example, it was reported that in 1987, with the participation of Uralmashexport, Uralmashzavod received an additional 23 million rubles from the sale of equipment abroad. At the same time, it was noted that the management of Uralmashzavod does little to help the formation of the company. In 1991 it was reported that the annual turnover of Uralmashexport in 1990 reached 75 million rubles.

India and Japan were among the main foreign trade partners of Uralmashzavod outside the Soviet camp. If India bought Uralmashzavod's products, Japan preferred to buy technologies, refine them and manufacture their own products based on these technologies. VTF Uralmashexport received the right to spend 10% of the proceeds from the sale of Uralmashzavod products abroad on the purchase of consumer goods, which were in short supply in the USSR. In Japan, in particular, TVs, VCRs, microwave ovens, copying equipment were purchased, in India - clothes and shoes. The purchased consumer goods were distributed among the employees of Uralmashzavod or sold through specialized trade organizations.

In April 1991, the Uralsky Rabochiy newspaper published a critical article on the activities of the Uralmashexport VTF. A. Vladykin's article was called "The Secret of the Firm". It should be noted that the newspaper "Uralsky Rabochy" was the official print organ of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU and was the most influential print publication in the Sverdlovsk Region. However, in 1991 the regional committee of the CPSU no longer possessed the former power. The center of power was transferred to the executive committee of the regional Council of People's Deputies, which began publishing its own newspaper (For the Power of the Soviets), claiming to be the official mouthpiece of power in the Sverdlovsk Region. It also partially published critical information about the WTF Uralmashexport, set out in Uralsky Rabochiy.

The article stated that more than half of the electronic household appliances purchased in Germany and Japan were not transferred to the distribution commission, but disappeared in an unknown direction. Out of 400 Zhiguli cars purchased in the GDR, about 100 cars went “to the left”: to the Soviet-British joint venture “Ural”, to the cooperative of the fruit canning plant, to the small enterprise “Tor” at Uraldomnaremont. Among the employees of the cooperative of the fruit canning plant, to which the cars were distributed, the employees of Uralmashexport were found, in particular, the director of the company Vladislav Grammatin. And the head of the small enterprise "Tor" turned out to be a former employee of "Uralmashexport" Sevastyanov Andrey Petrovich, who quit Uralmashexport, allegedly because of the scandal with the purchase of a foreign car for personal needs during a business trip to Germany.

Presumably in 1993, VTF Uralmashexport was transformed into the strategic marketing department of Uralmashzavod, which was headed by the leaders of Uralmashexport Vladislav Grammatin and Stanislav Tolstov.

In 1992, the privatization of Uralmashzavod began. The main shareholder of the plant was the head of the Moscow company "Bioprocess" Kakha Avtandilovich Bendukidze.

In 1992, Uralmash and Partners Trading House was established by former employees of the Uralmashexport VTF. The aforementioned employee of the Uralmashxport VTF Andrey Sevastyanov (who later appeared as the chairman of the board of directors and president of TD Uralmash and Partners) became the commercial director of Uralmash and Partners, the former head of the Uralmashexport VTF department, the director for economics and finance. »Vladimir Yuryevich Solovarov, who in 2010 became Deputy Minister of International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region.

It was not possible to establish who established the Uralmash & Partners TD.

As of 1996, the main shareholders of CJSC TD Uralmash and Partners were:
- CJSC Klaas - 41.43% of shares;
- OJSC Uralmash (Uralmashzavod) - 18.57% of shares.

The Klaas company was founded in 1991.

As of 1992, the shareholders of Klaas CJSC were:
- Dmitry Borisovich Shirinkin (as of 1991, an employee by the name of Shirinkin worked at VTF Uralmashexport, possibly he became the founder of the Klaas company) - 50% of shares;
- Galina Vasilievna Antonova - 49% of shares;
- CJSCO Avia - 1% of shares.

The chairman of the board of directors of CJSC "Claas" was a former employee of the VTF "Uralmashexport" Sevastyanov Andrey Petrovich.

Subsequently, Andrey Sevastyanov and Evgeny Yuryevich Menshikov became the main shareholders of Klaas CJSC.

In the late 1990s - early 2000s, Klaas CJSC acted as the founder of Subaru Center Yekaterinburg CJSC, Toyota Center Yekaterinburg CJSC and Stendox Ural CJSC (later renamed into Claas 2000 CJSC ). Andrey Sevastianov was the chairman of the board of directors of these companies.

In 1998-2001 Menshikov Yevgeny Yurievich was named as the President of TD Uralmash & Partners, who, together with Sevastyanov, became the main shareholder of CJSC Klaas.

In 1998, CJSC Klaas acted as the main founder of CJSC Klaas-stroy. The second founder of the Klaas-Stroy company was the Consulting and Analytical Firm Consulting Center LLP. It is worth dwelling on this company in more detail, since the founders of this company were closely associated with the co-owner of Uralmash and Partners, Andrey Sevastyanov.

In 1992, when Uralmash and Partners TD was established, Andrey Sevastyanov was the general director of Vneshtorginvest CJSC, 50% of whose shares were owned by Consulting and Analytical Firm Consulting Center LLP. The founders of the Consulting Center were:
- Alexander Vladimirovich Zaramenskikh - one of the founders of the company "Microtest", which was engaged in the development of information systems and network infrastructure for the state authorities of the Sverdlovsk region and the Russian railways;
- Sergey Alekseevich Tokmashev - employee of Uralmashplant;
- Viktor Vladimirovich Yavich - an employee of Uralmashplant (as of 1995 - head of the legal department, in 2002 - deputy executive director).

In 2008, Klaas-Stroy was featured in a scandal in connection with the construction of the Demidov business center in Yekaterinburg. In 2008, Mars Mansurovich Sharafulin was already named the owner of Klaas-Stroy CJSC. Ultimately, the business center was completed by UMMC, which bought CJSC Klaas-stroy from Sharafulin.

In 2004, the company "Immolux Gmbh" was established in Germany, headed by Andrey Sevastyanov. The company was positioned as an international diversified company, but it was not possible to find out what it actually did.

In 2004, TD Uralmash & Partners was transformed into CJSC League of Three Systems, which in 2015 was transformed into LLC League of Three Systems. The company sells equipment for the installation of heating and water supply systems made in Germany. Andrey Sevastianov and Evgeny Menshikov remained the main owners of the company.

The transformation of Uralmash & Partners TD was probably due to the fact that Uralmashzavod began the process of changing the owner. In 2005, Gazprombank gained control over Uralmashzavod, after which, probably, the connection with Uralmashzavod was interrupted for a group of persons who controlled Uralmash and Partners.

In 2007, Katsunori Takahashi, a Japanese man, became the head of Klaas CJSC.

In 2008, the investment company Kumagai Accociates Co. Ltd. was established in Japan, which in 2009 became one of the shareholders of CJSC Claas Motors, controlled by Andrey Sevastyanov. The founder of Kumagai Accociates Co. Ltd. is believed to have been Yoshihiro Kumagai. According to the 2016 Internet Registry of Japanese Companies, Kumagai Accociates Co. Ltd. 1 person works, and the annual turnover does not exceed 60 thousand dollars.

In 2009, in the canton of Zug (Switzerland), the Euroeco AG company was created, which became a holding company for firms controlled by Andrey Sevastyanov and his Japanese partner Yoshihiro Kumagai. The company was registered at the address of the Swiss law firm Zwicky Windlin & Partner. Jost Windlin, a partner of this law firm, became the president of the company. Most likely, Jost Windlin was the nominal head of the company, and the real management of the company was carried out by Yoshihiro Kumagai, as well as Andrey Sevastyanov. Sevastyanov's official position at Euroeco AG was not published, but he was mentioned as a contact person for the company under the name Andre Seva.

At the moment the company "Euroeco AG" unites the activities of the following companies:
- Firm "Montebau" in Montenegro, which, judging by the site under development, offers materials for the decoration of premises;
- CJSC "League of Motors" - the official dealer of motor vehicles of the Japanese company Yamaha Motor CIS LLC in Yekaterinburg;
- the company "AQuly", which sells auto chemicals to the Japanese company Kyowa Shoko Co. Ltd.;
- LLC Endo Lighting Rus - a dealer in Yekaterinburg of the Japanese company Endo Lighting Corp., which produces lighting equipment;
- firm "iLux" - sale of lighting equipment;
- Moto Pride LLC - sale of motor vehicles to the Japanese company Suzuki in Yekaterinburg;
- LLC "League of Three Systems" - sale in Yekaterinburg of equipment for the installation of heating and water supply systems, produced in Germany - the legal successor of TD "Uralmash and Partners".

In addition to these firms controlled by Andrei Sevastyanov and Yoshihiro Kumagai, it is stated that Euroeco AG owns a stake in the Russian car manufacturer GAZ PJSC, the main owner of which is Oleg Deripaska's Russian Machines holding. The size of Euroeco AG's share in PJSC GAZ has not been disclosed.

Most likely, Andrey Sevastyanov's contacts with the Japanese were established when Sevastyanov began selling Japanese cars in Yekaterinburg at the turn of the 1990s-2000s. But it is possible that Sevastyanov's contacts with Japan were established earlier, and the car trade was the consequence, not the cause, of these contacts. Note that Japan was one of the main trade partners of Uralmashzavod, in whose foreign trade firm Andrei Sevastyanov worked in the late 1980s.

Date of information update: 2016.