Seven Bankers

The Seven Bankers (Russian: семибанкирщина, romanized: semibankirshchina) were a group of powerful Russian oligarchs who played an important role in the political and economic spheres of the Russian Federation between 1996 and 2000. In spite of their internal conflicts, members of the group worked together in order to re-elect Boris Yeltsin in the 1996 Russian presidential election, and thereafter to successfully manipulate him and his political environment from behind the scenes.

Initially, the clique of seven businessmen were identified by oligarch Boris Berezovsky in an October 1996 interview. In an article published on 14 November 1996, journalist Andrei Fadin coined the term semibankirshchina as a takeoff on the Seven Boyars who deposed Tsar Vasili Shuisky in 1610 during the Time of Troubles. Later, other persons were included in the list, but the catchy term remained.