The American political expert on the Channel One talk show turned out to be a Russian travel agent who robbed clients in New York and escaped with their money
The "US journalist Greg Weiner" who appears on Channel One and Five political talk shows is actually businessman Grigory Vinnikov. On April 25, American journalist Gennady Katsov announced this on his Facebook. Weiner-Vinnikov disappeared from New York five years ago, along with the money of many clients who believe him to be a fraud. Meduza tried to understand this story.
On April 18, Alexander Grant, host of the Contact program on the American Russian-language television channel RTN, turned on the TV in a Moscow hotel where he ended up during a business trip - he became interested in what his Russian colleagues were talking about. On Channel One, there was "First Studio" - a daily political talk show by Artem Sheinin. As always, it was loud in the studio - they discussed the aggravation of the situation around North Korea and its opposition to the US. A minute into the transmission, Grant heard a familiar voice. “I’ll tell you like a family, don’t tell anyone. Quiet! - captured the attention of the leading guest, who was introduced as journalist Greg Weiner. “There will be a trade quarantine against North Korea!”
Grant couldn't be wrong. He had known Greg Weiner for 20 years. And not only him: the "journalist" was generally well known to the New York Russian-speaking community - only under a different name. As another American TV presenter Gennady Katsov said, he knew Weiner as Grigory Vinnikov, who emigrated to the United States from the USSR back in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, Vinnikov opened the Eastern Tours Consolidated travel company in America, which sold air tickets to and from Russia and assisted in obtaining visas. The business was going well - until 2012, when Vinnikov accumulated debt for renting office space in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After that, the businessman disappeared and the offices were closed, says Katsov.
Gennady Katsov
The situation was complicated by the fact that shortly before bankruptcy, Vinnikov's company also began to provide a variety of legal services - for example, registration of Russian pensions. He took documents from some clients: for example, according to RuNYWeb, journalist Valentina Pechorina paid about $600 to renew her Russian passport, and the former owner of Novoe Russian word» Valery Weinberg - $650 for an urgent visa to Russia.
According to Katsov, in the fall of 2012, Vinnikov called him and several other Russian journalists in New York and said that he had fled to his homeland due to financial collapse - at one point he allegedly “even wanted to throw himself off the balcony.” He promised to pay off people when he received money for a penthouse in New Jersey put up for sale.
Another American journalist, Seva Kaplan, told Meduza that he was going to become the organizer of a collective civil lawsuit by the victims, but when it turned out that Vinnikov was in Russia, no one went to court, because American and Russian jurisdictions “intersect very difficultly.” Kaplan told Meduza that Vinnikov still owes him $10,000, which Kaplan paid the businessman to arrange visas for musicians two weeks before Vinnikov disappeared.
Meduza contacted Grigory Vinnikov himself. He claims that he returned documents to all clients, but he cannot pay off his debts, because a buyer has not yet been found for the penthouse. “If it ever sells, I will be happy to compensate debts to clients - if at least something remains after the payment of debts and loans,” Vinnikov said, separately stipulating that not a single lawsuit has been filed against him.
Photo: Grigory Vinnikov's personal Facebook page
Vinnikov claims that he left the business and left for Russia not only for financial reasons. “I was ill for two years, I went here, and here I was already diagnosed with rectal cancer,” says the former businessman, who, after a course of treatment, remained to live in St. Petersburg. Vinnikov considers it normal that he is called a journalist in television programs: that was precisely his specialty at the university, in addition, “from time to time” he spoke on radio and television.
Gennady Katsov confirms: back in the 1980s, before going into business, Vinnikov organized round tables where Russian-speaking politicians and media representatives discussed topical issues; sometimes he was called to airs in the 2000s - including Katsov himself in his program "Press Club", where he represented Vinnikov as a political commentator.
“He is quite articulate and well-informed, in this respect I have no complaints against him,” said Katsov. - He is not a writing journalist, he never had any articles. But he has a sufficiently developed analytical apparatus. According to the TV presenter, it was Vinnikov who came up with the Contact program in 2003 and offered it to the American RTN channel - but a month later he refused to host it, unable to withstand the daily schedule. He was replaced, in particular, by the same Alexander Grant, who many years later noticed the entrepreneur on the air of Channel One.
News on Channel One
“I didn’t run away or hide anywhere,” Vinnikov told Meduza. “I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that he won’t be noticed on federal channels.” How he got on Russian television, Vinnikov does not tell. At the same time, according to him, once the producers of one of the channels asked him to "Americanize" his first and last name - so he became Greg Weiner. On the question of whether he makes money on his appearances in political talk shows, Vinnikov-Weiner refused to answer.
The host of the Open Studio program, Inna Karpushina, on Channel Five, where expert Greg Weiner appeared, told Meduza that she does not participate in the selection of program experts invited by the producers. She declined to comment further. Channel One also declined to comment.
Ilya Zhegulev
For several years now, Russian television has been broadcasting programs with a political and entertainment bias. Their popularity is quite high. And last but not least thanks to the characters involved in them. Some have become practically family, although you can hardly expect anything from them except for tubs of mud poured on our country. But such is their role as "bad boys." Remove now from the TV screens such odious personalities as or, and immediately it will not be right. Nevertheless, the scriptwriters of these programs are trying to “pour fresh blood” into their projects so that the viewer is not tired of the same faces of experts and political scientists. Periodically, new artists are introduced into the frame. Among these still not very familiar faces is the one that belongs to the American journalist Greg Weiner. At the same time, the American speaks the purest Russian, which clearly betrays our former compatriot in him. Russian viewers have already dubbed him "new".
Who are you, Mr. Weiner?
They say that one of the American tourists, TV presenter Alexander Grant, wanting to find out how his Russian colleagues work, while watching Russian television, accidentally stumbled upon a certain talk show. Where I was surprised to see my old friend. For some reason, the acquaintance was introduced as Greg Weiner, although in the USA he is known under a different name and surname, and not at all as an international journalist ...
It turned out that the real name of the talkative expert and the new "asterisk" of programs like "Time Will Show" is Grigory Vinnikov. He is a Russian businessman. For some time he lived in the States and turned over in the tourism sector, or rather, he scammed in relation to Russian-speaking American citizens. According to the testimony of the one who identified him, Grisha launched commercial activities overseas on a grand scale. Back in the 90s, Vinnikov-Weiner opened the Eastern Tours Consolidated company, which deals with issuing visas and selling air tickets. The business prospered, but the unfortunate businessman went bankrupt renting commercial space in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In parallel, he founded a firm to provide legal assistance to everyone and borrowed considerable amounts for this business. When there were too many debts, Vinnikov declared bankruptcy, closed his shop and hit the road back to the Russian Federation. Here he was diagnosed with cancer, which became a formal reason to stay. By the way, the former businessman promises to pay off his existing debts to US clients by selling his American real estate. According to another version, he was going to make money in Russia and pay off creditors.
Now Grigory lives in St. Petersburg, but from now on he literally settled in Moscow in connection with a new turn in his fate. Now he's Greg Weiner, a US journalist who champions liberal ideas in Putin's Russia.
Weiner's biography is shrouded in darkness. What we managed to find in the depths of the Internet comes down to only one thing - that this is a scammer who escaped from the "kingdom of democracy" to "terrible Mordor". He is married, not married, who he worked before leaving abroad - nothing is known. It is certain that he first emigrated to Canada in the 70s. Then, two years later, he moved to the United States. He probably graduated from the Soviet journalism faculty before emigrating, which gives him the moral right to call himself a representative of the journalistic guild. Rumor has it that Greg in the States was offered to become the host of one of the TV shows, but he refused due to the tight work schedule.
Prone to depression and suicide. After failing in business, he nearly committed suicide by throwing himself off a balcony.
The producers of those programs where Gregory is called as an expert asked him to Americanize his name and surname.
According to those who know Vinnikov well, he really could become a great journalist, he has everything for this: a talent for analytics, the ability to clearly express thoughts, and a wealth of information on various issues.
Quotes by Greg Weiner
About myself: “I didn’t run away or hide anywhere. I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that he won’t be noticed on federal channels.”
On President Trump: "He reacts to everything emotionally, like a person, not like a political mummy, a product of the political system."
About the USA: "The whole world is chasing America, but America is still ahead."
About Americans: "A country without saliva, and its inhabitants are not sentimental."
Quote about Greg Weiner
Andrey Norkin: “It was here that Greg was a Jew, and when he moved to the USA, he immediately became Russian.”
"US journalist Greg Weiner", who is a regular guest on the political talk shows of the Russian federal "First" and "Fifth Channel", is in reality a businessman Grigory Vinnikov, who fled America with clients' money. About this April 25 informed on Facebook, American journalist and TV presenter Gennady Katsov.
The journalist said that on the Russian talk show "First Studio" with host Artem Sheinin, the guest, who was introduced as American journalist Greg Weiner, turned out to be a man he had known for 20 years under a different name.
Katsov noted that Weiner is known to him as Grigory Vinnikov. He emigrated to the United States from the USSR in the 1980s and in the early 1990s opened the Eastern Tours travel agency in America, which sold air tickets to and from Russia and assisted in obtaining visas. Until 2012, the business was going well, but then Vinnikov accumulated debt for renting office space in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After that, the businessman disappeared and his offices closed.
"His penthouse in New Jersey was put up for sale for $999,000, but instead of pleading bankrupt, Grigory collects a considerable amount from clients and, as they said in those days, escapes to St. Petersburg with a million dollars. Since then, the American prosecutor's office has had claims against him, but this has nothing to do with journalism," he stressed.
According to Katsov, Vinnikov telephoned him and several other Russian journalists in New York and said that he had fled to his homeland due to financial collapse. He promised to pay off his debts when he received the money for the New Jersey penthouse for sale.
American journalist Seva Kaplan told Meduza that he was going to become the organizer of a collective civil lawsuit by the victims, but when it turned out that Vinnikov was in Russia, the lawsuit was never filed, because American and Russian jurisdictions "intersect very difficultly." According to Kaplan, Vinnikov owes him $10,000, which he paid to the businessman for arranging visas for musicians two weeks before Vinnikov disappeared.
Meduza contacted Vinnikov, who said that he had returned the documents to all clients, but could not pay off his debts, because he had not yet found a buyer for his penthouse.
"If it ever sells, I'm happy to compensate the debts of clients - if at least something remains after the payment of debts and loans," he assured.
According to Vinnikov, he left his business in the United States and left for Russia not only for financial reasons, but also because of illness. He added that he considered it normal that he was called a journalist on TV programs, since that was his specialty at the university.
“I didn’t run away or hide anywhere. I don’t look like an idiot who thinks that they won’t notice him on federal channels,” he stressed.
Vinnikov added that once the producers of one of the Russian channels asked him to "Americanize" his first and last name, after which he became Greg Weiner. On the question of whether he makes money on his participation in political talk shows, Vinnikov-Weiner refused to answer.
