Shalva Chigirinsky is a Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 businessman operating in real estate and oil sectors. He is now divorced and has six children.

Shalva Chigirinsky was born in 1950 in Kutaisi

Kutaisi

Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...

 to a family of Georgian Jews

Georgian Jews

The Georgian Jews are from the nation of Georgia, in the Caucasus...

. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy

Moscow Medical Academy

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is the oldest and the largest national medical higher educational institution in the Russian Federation. For more than 250 years I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, previous name - I.M. Sechenov First Moscow Institute of...

. In 1987, he emigrated to Spain and later to Germany, where in 1989, he became a co-founder of the real estate development company STT Group. In 1990s in became a major shareholder of Sibir Energy

Sibir Energy

Sibir Energy is a London-based Russian public limited company, whose primary line of business is petroleum and natural gas exploration in Siberia. Its shares were traded on the Alternative Investment Market, part of the London Stock Exchange...

, a London-listed Russian oil company. In 2009, the company sued Shalva Chigirinsky for at least US$325 million for a failed bid to sell his real estate assets to the company. He faces several other lawsuits in different jurisdictions. His stake in the company was took over by Sberbank

Sberbank

Sberbank Rossii is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe. The company's headquarters are in Moscow and its history goes back to Cancrin's financial reform of 1841...

, pledged as loan collateral. There is an investigation concerning alleged tax evasion by Chigirinsky.