After graduation, Belyaev was employed as a computer programmer at the Soviet shipbuilding ministry, following which he briefly worked as an IT-specialist for a private firm.

[5] In 2007-2008, Otkritie worked with the Russian electricity grid monopoly RAO UES, which was undergoing reorganization and restructuring under the oversight of Anatoly Chubais, who had won international renown for his handling of privatization in post-Soviet Russia.

According to The Financial Times, in 2008, state-controlled VTB bank provided Otkritie with a loan to set up a $2.4bn fund to trade shares of the smaller power utilities that split from RAO UES as a result of the reorganization.

[5] Through numerous acquisitions and organic growth, by the end of 2015, Otkritie had evolved into Russia's largest privately held bank, with total assets of 3.3 Trillion rubles (equal to US$49 billion at the time).

After the agreement was signed in December 2016, in the presence of the central bank's chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina and her deputy Sergey Shvetsov, Otkritie launched a due diligence of Rosgosstrakh.

[11] Dmitry Tulin, who was a deputy chairman at the central bank at the moment, admits that the intervention was basically triggered by the attempted takeover of Rosgosstrakh.

[14] The Central Bank's case does not assert any fraud or negligence by Belyaev; it simply seeks damages for “missed future gains” on the theory that its 2017 investment to shore-up Otkritie's balance sheet is tantamount to a 20-year interest-free loan and that if the Central Bank's funds were deployed instead to make interest-bearing loans, this would generate interest income equal to the claimed 290bn rubles through 2037.

(Kovalsky had been dismissed from Kommersant-Vlast in December 2011, following the publication of detailed accusations of large-scale electoral fraud with a photograph of a ballot scrawled with profanity directed against Vladimir Putin, the then-prime minister).

At the opening of the performance he encouraged the audience to join the protest rally against Russian President Vladimir Putin at Bolotnaya Square.

[1] Since 2011 Vadim Belyaev has been a major supporter of the first specialised paediatric palliative care centre in Moscow, established by the Vera charity foundation.

[19] According to the founder of the Vera charity foundation, Nyuta Federmesser, Vadim Belyaev was the first to donate money and he also helped raise more funds.

[20] Nyuta Federmesser praised Vadim Belyaev's efforts to persuade the municipal government of Moscow to allocate the land and building for the hospice.