Ogoniok (Moscow) - September 8, 2008.

Entertainment

The main celebrity event of the week was a gala dinner organized by RBC to celebrate its 15th anniversary and the beginning of the new financial year. The venue took place in Manezh, and the guests enjoyed themselves while listening to performances by Oleg Gazmanov and Dima Bilan.

For several consecutive years, the RBC holding has been celebrating the New Year before anyone else – in September. Last year, the company even went so far as to put up a tree and give out New Year’s presents. This year’s festivities were also marked by an abundance of gifts to the guests.

The holding’s General Director Yury Rovensky greeted everyone this evening. His many years of experience allowed him to shake hands with hundreds of people and even engage in small talk with each and every invited guest, just like American presidential hopefuls do during their election campaigns. Next to Rovensky, producer Alexander Shulgin led a very nice conversation, full of pleasantries, with the new official spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Culture Yulia Muzykantskaya. One could see an impressive change in Muzykantskaya, as she had gone from being a socialite to a serious public official: she cut her long blond hair and chose a business suit over a cocktail dress. In general, celebrities find it quite easy to undergo significant changes due to their new social statuses. It is certainly not difficult to distinguish a girl who is still searching for something from the one that has already found everything.

Meanwhile, the celebration gathered momentum. The guests took their places at the dinner tables, and the top government officials took their turns on the stage to congratulate the company and read the greeting addresses from Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials. Rovensky was obviously happy, beaming from the stage. Despite his status and money, he is still able to smile and be genuinely happy at such venues, as if this were his first-ever New Year’s party. Meanwhile, the conversations at the tables were becoming more serious. The guests expressed concern over the sinking stock exchange rates, worried that instead of celebrating the beginning of the new financial year they would be mourning its death. In stark contrast to such pessimistic opinions, Troika Dialog’s CEO Pavel Teplukhin assured everyone that the market would inevitably regain its position. According to his data, TNK-BP shareholders would reconcile, and Kamaz would successfully merge with western investors, thus prompting the market to recover.

Meanwhile, Dima Bilan took the stage and performed several of his hit songs, with his hair swaying all the while in the artificial wind, for more effect. He then gave the stage to Oleg Gazmanov, who observed that he did not need any special effects and hailed the media holding in his song to the tune of his famous ‘Moryachka.’ Oleg Gazmanov is notorious for his ability to sing at any moment and do a flip without a warm-up. Several times in my practice, he took the microphone and sang an impromptu song at his friends’ birthday parties and other celebrations. We don’t know for sure if Gazmanov did this at Vladimir Vishnevsky’s anniversary, but the famous poet continued to accept greetings with his recent 55th anniversary and the publication of a new book even at RBC’s venue.

The only person who was not in good spirits at this celebration was Yury Kobaladze, X5 Retail Group’s Managing Director of Corporate Relations. He said that he was simply too tired of answering the same questions about Russia’s relations with Georgia. On the contrary, his boss and a figure from the Forbes list – Lev Khasis, Chief Executive Officer of X5 Retail Group, seemed cheerful and happy. He was pleased to take pictures with his ex-wife Natalia Barshchevskaya, Deputy Chairman of the Board of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation, and discussed this season’s trendy business card holders.

The most activity could be seen at the table of the Deputy Chairman of the International Commercial Bank Dmitry Shevelev. The friends sitting at the table enjoyed several drinks, and after some time Managing Director of Creditoria Rafail Tugushev was ready to extend loans at an annual interest rate of 1 percent, while Andrei Zokin from Gazprombank passionately declared his love and friendship to everyone. A completely different atmosphere dominated the next table. Chairman of the Board of Directors of MIEL Holding Grigory Kulikov was trying to explain to his colleague from Modus Group, Maria Shagurina, that he did not care for loud parties. “I am a father of three children,” he said, and heard Maria Shagurina’s response that the key to being a socialite was having the desire to have a good time, and the possibility would inevitably present itself.

After saying their warm good-byes to each other, the guests left the party, hoping that the new financial year had something good in store for them.