Biography
Graduated from the Higher State Institute. N. Lysenko in 1995 (Ukraine, Lviv), with the qualification "Musical theater conductor, symphony orchestra conductor".
He received additional education in the field of marketing in educational institutions in Moscow, Brussels, Prague, Vienna and London.
From 1996 to 2001, he held positions at Coca-Cola Ukraine Ltd, Coca-Cola Bottlers Siberia in Russia and Ukraine in the field of marketing and general management.
In 2001-2005, he was the head of the marketing department at MTS Ukraine.
In October 2005, he was appointed Marketing Director.
Since 2010, Vasyl Latsanich has been acting as co-chairman of the TV Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
2011: CEO of MTS Ukraine
In March 2011, he received the position of General Director of MTS Ukraine.
In June 2012, in the position of Vice President for Marketing of MTS OJSC, he joined the Board of Directors of MGTS.
In June 2017, it became known that Vasil Latsanich, Vice President of the Mobile Telesystems (MTS) operator, was leaving the company and moving to work for the Veon group (former Vimpelcom), operating in Russia under the Beeline trademark. This was reported by the Interfax agency, citing its sources. It is alleged that Latsanich may head VimpelCom, the Russian subsidiary of Veon. Vasil Latsanich, Vice President for Strategy and Marketing of MTS, will head VimpelCom (Beeline brand) from January 1, 2018. According to TASS, citing sources familiar with the situation, the contract has already been signed. Prior to taking up this position, Latsanich will work as vice president of the VEON holding, which includes VimpelCom, and will develop the company's Italian division.
In November 2017, VimpelCom (Beeline trademark, part of the Veon group) announced the appointment of a new CEO. They became the Ukrainian Vasil Latsanich.
2018: CEO of Vimpelcom
On January 10, 2018, he assumed the duties of General Director of VimpelCom. The contract with him was concluded until December 31, 2020.
For April 23, 2018 Vasil Igorevich Latsanich works at a position of the CEO of VimpelCom.
2020: Departure from a post of the CEO of VimpelCom
On February 14, 2020 the VimpelCom company (Beeline brand) announced that at the end of June, 2020 Vasil Latsanich will leave a post of the CEO of the company. Read more. Appointed Interim CEO of the company
MTS Vice President for Marketing and Strategy Vasil Latsanich intends to leave the company. The top manager, who did not receive a promotion in February, when the contract of the incumbent MTS president Andrey Dubovskov was extended, may move to the Veon structures that control the Russian Vimpelcom. MTS is now determined with the successor of Vasil Latsanich, whose departure experts consider a loss for the operator.
Vasil Latsanich, MTS vice president for marketing and strategy, recently told a narrow circle of top managers that he intended to leave the company, a Kommersant source close to MTS said. MTS representative Elena Kokhanovskaya confirmed that the company is now deciding on a successor. “We know Vasil's plans. We understand his career aspirations. We wish him success in his new position,” she said. Mr. Latsanich himself declined to comment.
Vasil Latsanich is a veteran of MTS. In 2001-2011, he went from the head of the marketing department of MTS Ukraine to the CEO of this company. In 2011, he was appointed Vice President for Marketing of the MTS Group, and from July 2016 he became responsible for its strategy. The possible departure of a top manager is associated with career growth. “He was the second person, but he dreamed of being the first,” says the interlocutor of Kommersant. In February 2017, the contract of MTS President Andrey Dubovskov was extended for another three years, and Vasil Latsanich expected to take this post, a source close to MTS told Kommersant.
One of Kommersant's interlocutors claims that Mr. Latsanich can move to VimpelCom (Beeline brand), the Russian subsidiary of Veon. He recalled that over the past few years, two top managers have already left MTS: Mikhail Gerchuk, CEO of the Eurasia region of the Veon group, and Alexander Popovsky, executive vice president for corporate strategy and business development of Vimpelcom. One of the headhunters on the market also said that Vasyl Latsanich was invited to head VimpelCom in the spring. The top manager has global ambitions, he would like to work in a company outside the CIS - in companies such as Facebook, Google and Veon, a Kommersant source close to MTS believes.
In September 2016, CEO Mikhail Slobodin left Vimpelcom, and the company announced the temporary appointment of CEO Schell Johnsen to this post. According to Andrey Bykasov, PR director of VimpelCom, at a recent meeting with employees, Shell Johnsen said that he would continue to be the company's CEO for a long time. As one of the interlocutors close to the company explained to Kommersant, there is no talk of Vasil Latsanich heading the Russian office of the company. Another source does not rule out that Mr. Latsanich is negotiating with Veon.
For MTS, the departure of an experienced top manager is a noticeable loss, says Konstantin Ankilov, CEO of TMT Consulting. In particular, thanks to Vasil Latsanich, MTS managed to maintain its leadership in the capital market, successfully develop the direction of mobile data transmission and reduce the backlog from MegaFon in this direction, the analyst notes. At the same time, the transfer of Vasyl Latsanich to VimpelCom could be of interest to the company, which has not been able to finally decide on a CEO for a long time, the expert added.
From the point of view of marketing, MTS adequately responded to increased competition, a sharp deterioration in the economic situation, etc., Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at Finam Investment Company, believes. According to him, the aggressive development of mono-brand retail, which helped offset the pressure on the business after the change of shareholders of Svyaznoy and Euroset, as well as the development of convergent products with MGTS to maintain market share, were successful decisions. “At the same time, the wrong decision was the introduction of an unlimited tariff line, which carried the risks of excessive network overload,” Timur Nigmatullin believes. He assumes that the departure of Vasil Latsanich will not bring significant changes to the general and marketing strategy of MTS.
Vladislav Novy, Yulia Silence
11/28/2017, Tue, 12:17, Msk , Text: Igor Korolev
Vasil Latsanich, a Ukrainian, will become the new head of VimpelCom. Prior to that, he worked for many years in the structures of MTS.Vasyl Latsanich to head VimpelCom
VimpelCom (trademark Beeline, part of the Veon Group) has announced the appointment of a new CEO. He became a Ukrainian Vasil Latsanich.
Veteran of MTS
Latsanich worked for many years at VimpelCom's competitor, Mobile Telesystems (MTS). Since 2001, he has been in charge of marketing at the Ukrainian mobile operator UMC (the future subsidiary of MTS). In 2011, the head of MTS-Ukraine, a Russian Andrey Dubovskov headed the Russian MTS. After that, Latsanich became MTS Vice President for Marketing.
From MTS to Beeline via Italy
Last summer Latsanich. At the same time, information began to circulate on the market about his transition to the position of Vimpelcom General Director. However, Lananich could not immediately take this position due to restrictions on working with competitors.
In this regard, Latsanich first moved to the Veon headquarters in Amsterdam, where he oversaw the Italian subsidiary of Wind Tre.
VimpelCom has been looking for a new CEO for a year
VimpelCom has been looking for a CEO since the fall of 2016. Then the company Mikhail Slobodin, who was put on the wanted list due to allegations related to his former place of work - the energy company IES-Holding.
Vasil Latsanich, new CEO of Beeline
VimpelCom is headed by a Norwegian Shell Morten Johnsen(Kjell Johnsen), who shortly before that came to Veon as a curator of the Russian and Italian divisions. At the same time, it was stated that Johnsen would not work in this position for a long time, and they were looking for a new candidate for the post of head of VimpelCom.
Vasil Latsanich will become CEO of PJSC VimpelCom, the Russian business unit of the VEON holding, from January next year. In this position, he will report to the head of the largest markets VEON Ltd. Shell Morten Johnsen. Previously, Vasil Latsanich served as Vice President for Marketing at PJSC Mobile TeleSystems (MTS).
Vasil Latsanich will take over as CEO of VimpelCom on January 10, 2018. He will report to the head of the largest markets, VEON Ltd. (as part of the group - Russia and Italy) Shell Morten Johnsen. So far, Shell Morten Johnsen combines two positions in VEON. In addition to performing his main duties as head of the largest VEON markets, since September 2016 he has also held the position of CEO of VimpelCom.
In his new position, Vasil Latsanich will strengthen the company's position in the Russian market, develop digital products and services, implement strategic initiatives of the VEON group and improve customer experience. As VimpelCom's press service told a ComNews correspondent, Vasyl Latsanich's top priority will be to immerse himself in the company's operational issues as much as possible.
Shell Morten Johnsen positively characterizes the experience of Vasil Latsanich in the telecom industry. "His appointment will further strengthen and develop the strong position of VEON, especially at a time when we are implementing important strategic initiatives in a dynamically developing Russian market," he said. Vasil Latsanich himself said that he was looking forward to working with clients in order to provide them with "the best digital services and solutions at a time when the Russian telecommunications market is entering a new phase of development and digital transformation."
Prior to joining VEON, Vasil Latsanich worked at MTS since 2001, where he held senior positions in marketing. From September 2011 to June 2017, Vasil Latsanich was MTS Vice President for Marketing and Strategy. He was responsible for the company's commercial and strategic initiatives, as well as customer transformation and digital development. After his departure in June, this post was taken by Vyacheslav Nikolaev, who previously headed the mass market marketing direction at MTS. As a source of the Kommersant newspaper reported, Vasil Latsanich's departure was associated with career growth, since "he was the second person in MTS, but dreamed of being the first."
Financial analysts have mixed opinions about the new appointment at VEON. Raiffeisenbank analyst Sergei Libin considers the appointment of Vasil Latsanich to the post of head of VimpelCom as expected after his transfer to VEON. Sergei Libin believes that Vasil Latsanich does not immediately take up a new post due to the terms of the contract with MTS, which does not allow him to hold leadership positions in competing companies for a certain period of time. The analyst does not expect cardinal changes in VimpelCom's activities with the arrival of Vasyl Latsanich, even despite his rich managerial experience. He explained this by the fact that in the case of VEON, strategic decisions are made at the group level, and not at the level of regional units.
Analyst of Finam Group Leonid Delitsyn emphasized the experience of Vasyl Latsanich in the field of telecom in the Russian and Ukrainian markets. In his opinion, this sheds light on the development strategy of VEON. "The goal of the holding now is not to bring Italian or Pakistani experience to the Russian market, but to ensure that the CEO has a good idea of Russian competitors, their strategies, including the recently announced digital ones, their approaches to decision-making and marketing, and was also prepared to aggravate competition in the absence of big ideas," the analyst said. In his opinion, the appointment suggests that Russian operators will rely on marketing, and given the ambitions of the new director, competition will become tougher. "Despite the digital strategies, the price wars of the operators subsided for a while, and Sergey Svetlakov will not be bored," he joked.
Georgy Vashchenko, head of operations on the Russian stock market at Freedom Finance Investment Company, noted that VEON aims for maximum efficiency and EBITDA margin of 42%. According to him, until the end of the year the group will strive to maintain the dynamics of the main indicators. "It is especially important, in my opinion, to focus on the development of the 5G network, which MTS, MegaFon and Rostelecom have announced plans to deploy. Most likely, this, as well as instant messengers and services in the B2B segment, will become the main ones in the company's marketing strategy. I expect that by the end of the year, VimpelCom will receive revenue of $9,400 million and EBITDA of $3,960 million," the analyst predicts.
Let's remind that while the general director of VimpelCom is Shell Morten Johnsen. He replaced Mikhail Slobodin at this post, who worked as the CEO of VimpelCom from 2013 to September 2016. Mikhail Slobodin left the post because he became a defendant in a criminal case on the dacha by former and current executives of the T Plus company (until 2015 - Integrated Energy Systems CJSC, IES) multimillion-dollar bribes to the former leadership of the Republic of Komi (see ComNews dated September 6, 2016) for setting the most favorable tariffs for heat and electricity, as well as providing other benefits and creating comfortable conditions for commercial activities on the territory of the republic. Mikhail Slobodin at that time was on the board of directors of T Plus.
ComNews dossier
Vasil Latsanich was born in 1972. In 1995 he graduated from the Higher State Institute named after. N.V. Lysenko. From 1996 to 2001, he held a number of positions in marketing and general management at Coca-Cola Ukraine Ltd., Coca-Cola Bottlers Siberia. In 2001-2005 was the head of the marketing department of MTS Ukraine, in October 2005 he was appointed to the position of marketing director. Since March 2011, he headed MTS Ukraine. From September 2011 to June 2017, he was Vice President for Marketing of PJSC Mobile TeleSystems and was a member of the Management Board of MTS. From January 2018, he will become the General Director of PJSC VimpelCom.
The third-largest subscriber base operator in Russia, VimpelCom (Beeline brand), has been headed by a new leader since January 2018 - Vasil Latsanich. Previously, he held key positions in another telecom company - MTS. Whether the new leader will copy the management style of competitors, whether the issue of selling the operator's infrastructure will be resolved, what about the Euroset stores that the operator inherited and what is the role of the state in the telecom industry - these questions were answered by the new CEO of VimpelCom Vasyl Latsanich.
In recent years, only the lazy have not noted that extremely negative trends are occurring with the once second largest operator in Russia in terms of the subscriber base. Shareholder intrigues, a significant debt burden and the need for austerity, and therefore underinvestment and failures in the quality of the network, high staff turnover and partial reduction, lack of own retail and willingness to outsource everything - all this is the latest history of VimpelCom. The new leader will have a hard time, but our today's hero sees his goal in this. Moreover, he has extensive experience in telecom.
Vasil Latsanich has been heading PJSC VimpelCom since January 10, 2018. He has extensive experience in the field of telecommunications, IT technologies and digital services. He has been working in the telecom industry since 2001, mainly in senior positions in the MTS group of companies, where in recent years he has served as Vice President for Strategy and Marketing, working at the Moscow headquarters of MTS. In this position, Vasil Latsanich was responsible for the company's commercial and strategic initiatives, as well as customer experience transformation and digital development.
Previously, Vasyl Latsanich held a number of positions in marketing and sales development in the Ukrainian and Russian divisions of Coca-Cola, being responsible for the development of the company's global brands and products in regional markets.
Vasyl graduated from the Higher State Institute named after N. Lysenko in Lvov. He has an MBA from London Business School.
- You have worked for about 16 years at MTS. Did you think that someday you would become the head of Beeline?
Of course, never thought about it. And I never imagined it. Beeline has always been interesting for me, but it has always been far away.
You have been working at VimpelCom for three months. Are there any fundamental differences in the companies' approaches to business? How different is the corporate culture?
Naturally, there are differences, but they are smaller than I expected. They are, after all, very similar organizations with the same technology platform, the same market opportunities, and, interestingly, overlapping people, including executives. Of course, the corporate culture is different in some nuances. We see the different positions of the operators and their different behavior, as well as different goals.
I would like to note that Beeline is a young and lively organization. It shows up in behavior. By the way, the biggest difference between operators from each other is associated with banding. To some extent, we have already become branded companies. As a marketer, I understand this very well. And the team and corporate culture support and develop this brand. The Beeline brand, in my opinion, gives more opportunities, it is more flexible than the MTS brand. In this sense, both approaches to the market and the market presence of a particular brand are also determined by its history and its specifics.
- What are the key tasks for you at the moment?
We are doing something this year that is impossible, as I believe, by the definition of external people. We are doubling our retail. And let me remind you that we built the previous part of retail, that is, half of it, in more than 20 years. But now we open the same number of stores in 9 months. This is a super task. It will be, I really hope, the best not only among operators, but also among all networks selling portable equipment. After that, we will also actively reform it and bring it online. Our ultimate goal is to really become more Internet dependent precisely in terms of displaying the maximum number of our actions with the consumer: buying, selling, servicing - all this is online.
- And how do you plan to develop online sales?
A bright future is a future without shops practically. Even last year, the online store in Beeline retail, which was much smaller than what it is now both in terms of volume and turnover, occupied 1-3% of the point. Now it is already reaching 10%, and the retail itself has grown during this time. That is, we not only manage to grow retail, but also move another part of this growth towards the online store. And I must admit that Beeline woke up rather late in this direction, but it is gaining momentum very well. I believe that the percentage of online trading will continue to grow within this retail, and in the bright future we will reduce the number of stores. But I won't say when that will be right now. It will depend on the market and competition. And then we will move part of the trading operations towards the online store, and in our own stores we will develop a showroom model where you can come and learn something new. The trading experience will be more important than the trade itself.
- What do you mean by "showroom" model?
This is what you can see, for example, in Apple stores. I often give this example to my colleagues. Apple stores sell very few products, but there are always a lot of people who just, roughly speaking, poke a finger at these products. It is very similar to a car showroom, where you come to get acquainted with a car product. And, as a rule, you do not immediately leave the store on it.
I believe that we will follow the path that our colleagues have blazed. We just got into it later. This is a service supermarket. For example, the rapid development of the past two years is accessories. They are more in demand than phones. During the life of the phone, several covers change, several pairs of headphones, and all this must be taken somewhere. Both cases and headphones are tactile. They want to see, try, try on, and not just buy by clicking on the Internet. This is the showroom - come, see, try on. Either buy it there or order online. From the point of view of services - definitely: financial, insurance. Not only phone insurance, but in principle all types of insurance. This is a business that insurance cannot solve on its own, because insurance does not have such retail chains as we have. For the rest, for example, for a supermarket, they are not interesting, because there is a lot of fuss, and during this time huge flows must pass in the supermarket. And we, in my opinion, are perfectly tuned, and how retail can be more convenient for this than banking retail.
- Do I understand correctly that in your salons it is possible to have “coffee to go”, as it is at gas stations, for example?
The store itself is really not just a store that sells phones. It is very boring. Shops where you can change the tariff? It's all the more boring. The current store format is evolving, and the experiments that we have been doing lately are just our attempts to find other new formats. I have already said that our task is not to build another retail outlet, but to make it better. Our offices must be the best. What makes them better? Will we sell phones better? No. They are all the same. Will we have better sellers? I hope so, of course, but you can't count on it. Will we have the best locations? All locations are the same. So what can you do to get better? Due to the format. Due to the modernity of service and new methods of working with clients. This is what we will be doing first. And among this there are really other and new services, including those that competitors have. It can be coffee, it can be multimedia and much more. We will experiment and do not yet know the recipe, what will be the retail, what will be the shops. We will search.
And when will you start the offline retail optimization stage and will close part of the stores? Apparently, Beeline has nothing to do with such a large network, given what you just said.
The development phase will move into the reconstruction phase. It is obvious. Reducing the number of salons is inevitable. Some of them will move into the format of showrooms with a large and good range of goods, services and further interaction with customers through delivery to small points that will be scattered around the country. But it won't be those big stores with lots of stock, lots of staff attached to those stores. We hope that in this way the optimization will be more efficient. First we need to make a good offline network. By the end of the summer, I think we will complete the stage of division and landing of the salons of the Euroset part. After that, our steps of experimentation, development, and reformation will begin. It should probably take at least a year. We need to make sense of everything. And in the end, we will come to become an operator without retail, or at least without the retail that we are all used to.
Do you think that the retail market, after the latest deals, is following the path of operator retail? Is it possible in this case to expect the appearance of such products as in Europe and America, when a subscriber is sold a contract with a smartphone and subsidized devices?
In fact, it has already happened. There are no independent players in this market. As for your question about subsidies, it all depends on the solvency of the population. And it's not too high. In Europe and the US, subscribers pay much more. But in fact, they actually pay not for communication services, but for the installment plan of the device they bought. They pay for new models of iPhone, Samsung, etc. The share of expenses for communication is extremely insignificant.
And what do you intend to do with the main business of the company? Recently, Beeline has lost second place in terms of the number of subscribers to MegaFon, and Tele2 is actively gaining a subscriber base.
The issue with the subscriber base is an entertaining math, but for me it is not interesting. Ask your colleagues in the market whether they are worried about this or not? I am sure that they do not worry, and they do it very correctly. The number of subscribers at one time was the most important indicator of the operator's development at the stage of growth in penetration, the first sale of a SIM card, then the second sale of a SIM card into a second device, then before the sale of a second SIM card into a dual SIM device - all this was very important. This is what we fought each other for, and now the fight is over. There is no point in chasing sim cards. If someone's bases are moving, then this is not reflected in income - that's how it is with MTS. Colleagues had a great last year, and at the end of the year they showed a good financial result, moving down by 2% on the base. This 2% base is not important, because it could be SIM cards that few people used. Beeline also has such SIM cards, like every operator.
- What is going on in VimpelCom's tower business? Is the decision to sell the towers and masts still valid?
We do not exclude the sale of the tower business. It's all about price here. No one has offered us the price that we consider rational for ourselves. But we are open to negotiations.
- How do you feel about blocking Telegram? How does this affect the industry, the company and you personally?
I used Telegram, as well as other popular messengers on the market. Right now I won't be using it. I don't see it as a personal tragedy. Thank God there are other messengers.
- But what about the numerous Telegram channels?
I think that channels migrate to other messengers and applications, they will not be lost. The question is that it was conveniently implemented and became a habit. Now the habits have to change.
As for the impact on the company, this is a short-term loss of traffic within a few percent. For us, this is not super painful, because, as you well understand, most of the traffic within the packages is not assigned to specific applications and resources, they are one. In addition, Telegram traffic occupied a very small share of our subscribers. However, we will notice it. I suppose that people, like me, will switch to other messengers. After that, the traffic will be restored. Of course, this is the policy of the country, the policy of the legislator, we are fulfilling these requirements. This path has been chosen. As for the impact on the industry, what will happen to instant messengers in general? If Telegram cannot or does not want to meet the requirements of the regulator, how will other messengers behave, because similar requirements will most likely be presented to them sooner or later. If they also do not satisfy, then they may have the same path as Telegram. Then there will be new messengers. Among them there are those who will meet the requirements of the law.
- By the way, what will happen to the messenger that was launched as part of the Veon project?
Messenger is working. No requirement has yet been placed on him that would make his work impossible. This is a good opportunity for us. Until recently, we looked at messengers with skepticism, because we understood that it was extremely difficult to win a share in such a highly competitive market, but in the new conditions, our Veon may have a second wind. Now the platform continues to develop on two applications - on Veon and on My Beeline. We see both of these parallel developments as interesting and with high potential.
- Do you see how Telegram traffic was redistributed in the first days after the blocking began?
It is paradoxical, but we have seen that the traffic in Telegram has increased. It is possible that people simply said goodbye en masse. We have also seen a rather strange increase in Skype traffic lately. Moreover, we cannot understand whether it is video, audio or messenger. We did not see significant deviations in other popular messengers Viber and Whatsapp.
In one of your interviews, you said that you expect clear and understandable rules of the game from the state. What exactly do you mean by this?
We see a great need for active actions on the part of the state. But not only in the prohibitive sphere, but also in the regulatory and permissive part. For example, VimpelCom PJSC has acquired a large number of different frequencies, bought licenses, and regularly pays for their use throughout the country. At the same time, some of these licenses cannot be used, because there are some restrictions that apply to us. When we bought these frequencies, it was said that they would either be cleared and provided to us, or that the current consumers would be relocated. Nevertheless, it turns out that for many years there is a part of the affected frequencies that cannot be used by operators. These are the maximum power restrictions when the base station is operating, but not more than 2 W; full blocking when the BS is built, but cannot be turned on. There are parts that we cannot build at all. This applies to both us and other operators. This is the most egregious, in my opinion, violation of contractual obligations between business and the state and the failure of the state to fulfill its regulatory and licensing functions.
One more example. We are interested in developing services based on fifth generation networks. In this regard, we have applied for frequencies for testing 5G, because we do not yet understand what they will be. We want to experiment, we want to try all possible and even impossible ways of transferring data. But we are not given frequencies. And they do not give them for various reasons, mainly under the guise that they are contaminated, someone uses them. We are told that you can interfere with someone.
Well, there are also a number of issues, such as Big Data, work with information about consumers, which we have in large quantities. Some of our colleagues in Internet business are already using them, but we do not have such an opportunity. And the reason is very simple. If we do something, just like they do, then they will come to us and say that you are using licenses incorrectly. But no one comes to them, because no one gave them licenses, they just take and use the data as they see fit. You can't even close them, because no one allowed them to work. These are exactly the things where business cannot manage on its own without the state.
In continuation of the theme of the role of the state. From July 1, the norms of the "Yarovaya package" regarding the storage of subscriber traffic come into force. Tell me, will you have time to fulfill the accepted requirements by the deadline - October 1? This is real?
Technically, we will do everything possible. But on my own behalf, I want to note the paradoxical situation when the law was adopted a long time ago, there is no specification text for this law. This is an absurd situation. For me, it is as if a law was passed that the colonization of Mars should be undertaken from July 1, 2018, but there is no text of the specification for the launch vehicle for mid-April. To build the technological means to comply with this law in the form in which we can now read it, it actually means to build a multiple data storage system within the operator. And at the same time, we do not fully understand whether it will be only mobile traffic, mobile and fixed, and then TV. And it does not matter that all this is licensed and stored. We are a big operator of IPTV and TV goes on Internet channels. Should this also be recorded? If yes, then these are completely different calculations. It's good that we have large data centers in our company. Therefore, we will be able to gradually introduce the requirements of the legislation in terms of technology, geography and volume. But I dare to assume that none of the currently living operators will be able to fulfill by July 1 that letter of the law, in the form in which it is now. I hope that there will be a normal agreement between business and interested parties that there will be a phased implementation with control, with the normal development of the technological platform.
- And how much will the implementation of data storage cost?
I'm not ready to answer your question. We are evaluating our costs, preparing the terms of reference. But I am confident that all the big mobile and fixed market operators will be able to find funds and comply with the requirements of the law. But this will happen within a reasonable time frame. I have big doubts that small operators, including both mobile and fixed ones, will be able to do this. There are hundreds of them in the country, and they have to do everything that the big operators do. At the same time, most of their traffic comes from torrents, video, the same IPTV and other services. All this must be stored somewhere, processed, given access. Technically and economically, this is poorly solved. I would like to draw attention to this and hope that the law will be the same for everyone, and not only for those who can physically fulfill it.
- Do you have an understanding of what 5G is for from a practical point of view?
So far, 5G is an interesting dream that will migrate from one product to another over time. I remember when 5G was first introduced in Barcelona, everyone was showing self-driving cars. Much less is said about them now. From the latest cases - this is industrialization in factories, a much more efficient connection than the usual Wi-Fi. This coverage of hot spots of traffic consumption within agglomerations, cities and buildings, partially reducing the load on 4G networks. We want to try all these 5G implementation options, test them, give us the frequencies.
- At the end of our interview, I would like to ask how you came to telecom? Where did it all start?
It all started, to be honest, for me with a semi-creative job - with a radio station. At the radio station, after working for several years, I was imbued with this most interesting new business. And after that came the first serious work. This is Coca-Cola. I had a chance to work with marketing right away. I wanted to move on. I just wanted to not miss something very interesting. In my opinion, it was mobile communication that was so interesting that I didn’t want to miss it. And when the opportunity arose, I fell in love with her. Mobile communication is something that is constantly changing, constantly becoming different, constantly challenging itself and somehow trying to cope with this challenge. That's why I'm still here.
- What, in your opinion, is the role of a leader in a company like VimpelCom?
The leader or general director is a person who has great opportunities in the company and who distributes these opportunities to other people. This is my understanding of the CEO. The role of the leader is to figure out what exactly motivates each of your people, subordinates, colleagues and help them so that this motivation works in the direction that the business needs. And in this, in my opinion, these subtleties of leadership, and rough forms of leadership: sticks, carrots, motivation, punishment - this is old. I want to see "Beeline" loved. Beloved employees, beloved shop visitors, beloved subscribers and non-subscribers, too, Beeline. So that Beeline is for many people something they want to strive for, what they want to be in, what they want to associate themselves with and what they feel good about.
