On the edges of Arcadi Gaydamak's tent city last summer, far from the war refugees fleeing the Hezbollah rockets, the stacks of mattresses and the metal trays of vegetables and chicken, a VIP zone was created, where conditions were rather different. The sands of Nitzanim beach were covered with a carpet of real grass and wooden flooring, on which were installed - in the shade created by snow-white sheets of canvas - padded swings and ultra-comfortable white sofas. Against a backdrop of calming music, waitresses served frozen tropical fruits and alcoholic drinks of every imaginable kind to the privileged guests. On the fringes of this zone, fully equipped offices were built along with air-conditioned cabins including showers or baths.
The man in charge of the VIP zone was Yossi Milstein, Gaydamak's personal assistant. It was he who decided who would sit on plastic chairs with the masses, with a can of Coke for refreshment, and who would be invited to sink into the huge pastel-colored cushions and sip watermelon-flavored Bacardi Breezers with the likes of politicians and businessmen such as Avigdor Lieberman and Yigal Amedi. Milstein plucked out the important media crews that had come from all over the world to cover the philanthropic project - notably the Russians and also the French - whom he escorted personally to ensure that they were pampered to the hilt.
The tent city was not just the success story of Arcadi Gaydamak, the billionaire from Russia who has received the mass adoration for which he thirsted: It was also a coup for Milstein, the driving force behind the project, and it ensured his status as Gaydamak's most confidential confidant.
For the past two years, Yossi Milstein, 29, has been a pivotal player in the Gaydamak "festival" that has been running nonstop in Israel. For two years he has been whispering into the oligarch's ear, filtering out applicants who want to see him, managing his entire media alignment, drawing up the guest lists for Gaydamak's closed events and mediating the picture of Israeli reality to the famed new-old immigrant. When Gaydamak steps out of his Hummer, Milstein is always there at his side, carving a path out for him and scrupulously examining every person who penetrates the space. On the way to his boss' police interrogations Milstein is there to repulse the photographers. During festive events he opens the door for him; at Teddy Stadium, home of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team which Gaydamak owns, he makes sure the billionaire gets his cup of tea at the preferred temperature.
In Gaydamak's business dealings in Israel, Milstein plays a mediation and logistics role. Thus, for example, he took an active part in Gaydamak's purchase of the controlling interest in the non-kosher Tiv Taam food chain for some $100 million last week, together with his good friend Roni Mana.
Gaydamak and Milstein usually say that their lives became intertwined two years ago, when Milstein was working as a researcher for the Channel 10 news department. He took leave without pay and joined Gaydamak on a private flight to Angola. The declared aim was to make a film about the Jewish community in Russia, one episode of which was to focus on Gaydamak's various activities. By the time Milstein landed back in Israel, he had become the spokesman and personal assistant of his generous host.
Milstein lives well these days. His home is a 10-room villa with four porches in the area of Yehuda Hamaccabi Street in Tel Aviv. He has a chauffeur, wears a Franck Muller watch, buys his elegant suits in Gaydamak's favorite shops in Moscow, and smokes between four and five packs of Marlboro Reds a day.
Arcadi Gaydamak is considered one of the most enigmatic figures on the Israeli public scene, and is also known as a tough, uncompromising employer. Within less than two years he went through a series of media advisers and lawyers - not to mention six coaches of the Beitar Jerusalem team. Milstein survived and even tightened his embrace.
Just like the big boss, Milstein's past, too, is shrouded in mystery. When he met Gaydamak he had little experience. Along the way he scattered among his friends and colleagues diverse and contradictory details about his pre-Gaydamak life. Milstein, some of them say, related that he was the official representative of the Kremlin in Israel and had close ties to billionaire Mikhail Chernoy, as well as to KGB operatives. On different occasions he said he had been a naval commando, a combat pilot and even a member of the Shin Bet security service.
"Yossi created an aura of secrecy and connections around himself," says a journalist who worked with him, adding, "He is a person who blurs his life story, and maybe that is why he is so suitable for Gaydamak."
Yossi Milstein was born in the former Soviet Union as Peter Karpatian, the sole child of a non-Jewish father of Armenian origin and a Jewish mother. At the age of 12 he moved to Israel with his mother; his father remained in Russia and all contact with him was lost. He spent his adolescence in Ma'aleh Adumim, the West Bank town to the east of Jerusalem, on the way to the Dead Sea. During this period he changed his name. The adjustment of Milstein and his mother to life in Israel was facilitated by the Chabad community in Ma'aleh Adumim, which was then as now headed by Rabbi Avraham Shamla.
"Yossi had his bar mitzvah at Chabad House," Shamla relates. "Because the family had economic troubles and there was no father, I adopted him into my family. Most of the time Yossi ate, slept and spent his time in my home, like one of my children."
He attended the Ma'aleh Adumim regional high school, apart from a brief period when he was at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, where his instrument was the piano. To make ends meet, Milstein cleaned houses and worked as a waiter in the Knesset cafeteria. "It was at this time that he developed big dreams," Rabbi Shamla recalls. "He was always going on about how he dreamed of becoming rich and powerful, and serving the country. He said he absolutely had to achieve that."
A Knesset employee from that period recalls that when he wasn't serving drinks, Milstein behaved as though he were a minister's bodyguard. Whenever he got the chance he would put on a bodyguard's jacket, hold something that resembled an earphone next to his ear, put on sunglasses and walk around among the guards as though he were one of them, until they shooed him away.
After his military service, in an antiaircraft unit, he married a woman named Keren, who worked at the checkout counter of a Jerusalem supermarket, and became a father at the age of 22. Milstein worked at whatever job came his way: as manager of a clothing store of the "everything for NIS 29.99" type in the center of Jerusalem; as a salesman for Golden Lines, a communications company; and for Partner, the cellular phone carrier. His dreams of wealth and power were far from being realized.
Attorney Oded Hacohen recalls that Milstein came to his office one evening in an effort to persuade him to switch to Partner. "I told him I couldn't switch phone companies because I had close to 700 numbers stored in the memory. He said that was no problem and the next morning I found out that he had sat up the whole night copying the numbers from the old phone into the new one for me and for the dozens of employees of the firm. I had a broken leg at the time, so I stood on one leg and saluted him. The man tried to make a living with all his might."
Milstein's efforts weren't always so successful. For example, he set up a theatrical agency called Mabat Ra'anan and then contacted the Bolshoi Theater in Russia and offered to represent them in Israel, together with attorney Hacohen. At the time, two Israeli theatrical agents, Aryeh Vikhansky and Motti Strokovsky, were independently planning to bring Bolshoi artists to Israel and had reserved the country's largest halls for the performances. The forthcoming arrival of the famed dancers was widely covered in the press. Then, one morning, after having paid for all the permits the Bolshoi had requested, the two agents received a phone call from Milstein, who introduced himself as "the owner of the exclusive rights to bring the Bolshoi to Israel" and told them that the contract they had was invalid. In return for the performances, Milstein and Hacohen demanded - with the Bolshoi's authorization - another $100,000.
"We realized that we had been set up," Strokowsky says, "but we had no choice other than to agree to the demand, because the performances were one week away. I transferred NIS 141,000 to them as an advance payment, without getting a receipt, and only then Milstein gave the Bolshoi the go-ahead to release the artists for the performances in Israel, which were already a lost cause, because the sale of tickets had been halted in the middle. Milstein issued statements to the media that our performances were fake and he made similar allegations to the ticketing agencies."
According to official documents of the Bolshoi Theater, Milstein did not transfer the money he had received for the theater, but instead kept it for himself. Strokowsky and Vikhansky waited until the end of the performances in Israel and then filed a lawsuit against Milstein, Hacohen and the Bolshoi Theater. According to the suit, the whole story was "a conspiracy the defendants concocted among themselves to extract money that was not due them, while committing acts bordering on extortion."
In their defense statement, Milstein and Hacohen (who acted as Milstein's lawyer) stated that the two impresarios had brought to Israel "artists who used the name 'Bolshoi' without permission." Because Milstein and his lawyer had been empowered by the Bolshoi to prevent the unauthorized use of its name, they stated, they had launched legal proceedings against Strokovsky and Vikhansky. To avoid the need for court hearings, they explained, they reached an arrangement under which the impresarios would admit to their mistake, write a letter of apology and agree to pay compensation, part of which had already been paid. The lawsuit filed by the impresarios, Milstein and Hacohen stated, was an attempt to evade payment of the rest of the amount they owed.
In addition, Milstein and his lawyer filed a countersuit in order to collect the rest of the money that they said had been promised them.
In the absence of a defense statement by the Bolshoi, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ordered the theater to compensate Strokowsky and Vikhansky in the amount of NIS 441,000. Vikhansky says that as part of a compromise struck between the sides, "the Bolshoi paid us more than $60,000 and offered to put on a performance in Israel free of charge. They said that Milstein had to pay."
Says Hacohen in response: "The money was transferred to Yossi Milstein and I never received a communication from the Bolshoi stating that the money had not been received. I acted on my client's behalf, and after the incident the Bolshoi hosted us cordially in Moscow. The suit against me was thrown out."
Milstein's agency was involved in four additional lawsuits. Its account was restricted by the Bank of Israel for a year and its activity was eventually stopped, with 14 claims against Milstein and his company being transferred to the bailiff's office, as well as court orders barring him from leaving the country. In addition to his financial woes, Milstein was diagnosed with cancer at this time. He underwent treatment, and when his condition permitted it, he was employed briefly as a stockman by the Israel Antiquities Authority, where his mother worked. In the meantime, he had divorced and remarried a woman named Marina, 23.
Milstein reached the conclusion that his illness derived from his army service near installations that emitted radiation. In an interview to the mass-circulation newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, he asserted that he was going to sue the Defense Ministry.
"For long months we were exposed to powerful radiation," he told the reporter. "I and other soldiers in the unit alerted the responsible elements, including commanders, and we often expressed concern that our health was being damaged due to exposure to such large doses of radar radiation. But nothing was done on the ground to protect me and my buddies."
This week, four years after that interview, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry stated: "Mr. Milstein submitted a claim to the Defense Ministry for his rights to be recognized under the Disabled Persons Law in 2003, and his file was sent to a medical expert for examination. Mr. Milstein was sent an invitation to appear for a medical examination, but the invitation was returned to the rehabilitation department by the post office. After his address was updated, three invitations for medical examinations were sent to him, but he did not appear for them and did not respond to invitations that were sent by registered mail. Accordingly, about a year and a half ago, the rehabilitation department informed Mr. Milstein that because he did not respond to the invitations, it was decided to stop the handling of his suit and close the file."
The ministry added: "Measurements for electromagnetic radiation were carried out in the unit in which the soldier served in 1997, 1998 and 2000. No deviations from the accepted standards were found in the system's regular modes of operation. It is important to note that there is no proven information in the medical literature linking electromagnetic radiation to fatal diseases of any kind. According to the World Health Organization, this form of radiation does not cause fatal changes."
Milstein received an illness allowance for a few years from the National Insurance Institute. In the meantime, he found a new direction for his life at Koteret, a journalism school. He enrolled in the track for students without an academic degree, but attended classes infrequently. On one occasion, he approached one of the teachers and asked to speak to him in private about helping him get a position at Army Radio.
"He told me a heartrending story," the teacher recalls, "that he was ill with cancer and had been in the Naval Commandos, that he was actually the last commando to fall ill from training in the Kishon [a contaminated river where naval personnel trained, many of whom afterward contracted cancer]. He said it wasn't clear how many weeks he had left to live, and he described me as his last chance for his media career, which he was going to fight for with his last breath. I almost broke into tears, and that doesn't happen to me often.
"I called Avi Benayahu, the commander of Army Radio, and recommended that he check out the illness story ... In any event, he would have had to get security clearance at the station. I also remember asking Milstein where his Russian accent was from, and he said something about his father having been a Mossad [espionage agency] man in Nativ" - referring to the formerly clandestine unit that dealt with Eastern European Jewry.
Zvika Goldberg, the chief of Army Radio's news department at the time, also received a phone call from a young man he didn't know. The young man, Milstein, presented himself as the last of the cancer victims of the Naval Commandos and added that he had also been seconded to an air force base. The bottom line of the conversation was that no physician had given him more than a year to live, and that because he assumed that the physicians were right, he had to try to realize his dreams. His dream, he said, was to work in the media, with the emphasis on the radio, more specifically Army Radio.
Milstein did not want credit and did not want money; his only wish was to be at the station and do whatever he was told. Goldberg was touched by the story and invited Milstein for a meeting. At the time, Army Radio was looking for someone to assist the veteran broadcaster and actor Alex Ansky with his early-morning program, but Goldberg did not promise Milstein anything, saying he would get back to him after checking a few details.
The first check was carried out with Ansky, who expressed an interest in having a volunteer join his program, Goldberg then set in motion a check via a security agency to ensure that Milstein was telling the truth. While waiting for a reply to his official request, Ansky got a call from Avi Benayahu, the station's chief. Benayahu related that MK Danny Yatom (Labor) had called him to say he head heard that an official check of Milstein was underway. Yatom explained to Benayahu that this was unnecessary: Yatom said he knew Milstein and asked that Benayahu consider accepting him. That was the end of the matter and Milstein joined the station.
Goldberg confirmed this week: "I turned to the defense establishment to get confirmation that the man was telling a true story. I stopped the check after Benayahu informed me that Danny Yatom had told him the story was true."
Coincidence or not, Yatom, a former Mossad chief who at the end of the 1990s was Gaydamak's partner in a defense company, is the person who got Milstein into Army Radio. As the head of the Knesset lobby for soldiers, Yatom became acquainted with Milstein's story, this time in connection with the unit in which he actually served.
"After the media reports, I raised the subject in the Knesset and it was referred to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee," Yatom said this week. "According to the information we received, Milstein's allegation was incorrect as far as the Israel Defense Forces was concerned, and according to a statistical examination there was no higher incidence of illness in those units. Milstein afterward approached me through one of my assistants. We met. I always respond when people seek me out. He told me he had served in an antiaircraft unit and was very sick. When I asked him how I could help, he said he was being treated well, that he was in contact with the Defense Ministry concerning a suit, and that he had only one request: to become part of Army Radio. That seemed reasonable ... Who knew how many years he had left to live? I approached the bureau of the defense minister and the Army Radio commander and, to my delight, later received a report that he had been found qualified."
Sources close to Milstein deny that he ever presented himself as a veteran of the Naval Commando unit, and say this story was cooked up by people trying to settle personal accounts with Milstein.
Milstein worked as a volunteer at Army Radio for a year in a production role. He arrived at the station at 4 or 5 A.M. almost every day. In the meantime, Ansky's staff had begun to ask questions about information Ansky had obtained concerning Russia and its oligarchs.
"We felt that he was with us in order to make contacts and get ahead," staff members say. "This is a place from which you can branch out: It allows you to be in contact with famous and important Israeli public figures."
Ansky himself was fond of Milstein and tried to help him realize another dream: working in television. He recommended Milstein to personnel from Channel 10. Finally, Shilo De-Beer, then the head of the Channel 10 news department and now editor-in-chief of Yedioth Ahronoth, hired him as a researcher after interviewing him and became his patron at the station. Milstein disappeared from Army Radio without saying good-bye.
Milstein flourished in his new job. He visited Moscow frequently. In the office, he walked around with an anti-bugging device conspicuously attached to his mobile phone. "He was dramatically close to Chernoy," says a member of the Channel 10 news department. "He said 'Misha is my man.'"
Milstein continues to admire Chernoy and not long ago was heard to say, "In terms of cash money, Chernoy is richer than Bill Gates, and all he has to do is ask and Roman Abramovich [the Russian tycoon] will get down on all fours and bark like a dog."
Concurrently, Milstein took a deep interest in investigations being conducted by the Police National Unit for Serious and International Crimes (NUSIC) and was involved in critical research about the head of the Police Investigations Department at the time, Moshe Mizrahi. His colleagues say that his aim was to hook up with as many oligarchs as possible and accumulate power in this sphere, which was then just beginning to develop in Israel.
"At some point I felt that his tremendous, disproportionate efforts went beyond journalism," laughs a reporter who worked with him. "I had the feeling that Milstein was looking for a job."
For his part, Milstein often showed that he had connections in the Russian world - in the Kremlin, among media personnel - and also with private investigators. His achievements were undeniable. He helped obtain an interview with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, which was a source of pride for Channel 10. Milstein also helped set up an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who gives few interviews.
Gilad Adin, the interviewer in both cases and now the CEO of the Channel 10 News Company, has high regard for Milstein: "I met a young, highly motivated young guy, who despite his serious illness came to work between treatments and gave his soul for a minimum wage. He came across as very achievement-oriented. I set him difficult tasks and in the end he got results."
Another of Milstein's achievements involved an expose of the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC). Milstein sent a photographer to document the company's operations with a hidden camera, and helped put together an impressive report. As part of the preparations for it, he met with attorney Amos Maimon, who represented a group that was interested in becoming involved in the company's activities. According to Maimon, even after the report was broadcast Milstein met with him again, and asked about the progress being made with regard to buying and selling the pipeline. The stated reason for the meeting was journalistic, but Maimon says that Milstein tried to find out details for oligarchic interests and claimed he could "arrange an investor from among the oligarchs for the deal. I told him at the same time that there was no need for that, and we put the subject aside. I can't contribute anything about the purchase."
Maimon did not go ahead with the EAPC deal, but he and Milstein forged good relations. According to Milstein confidants, Maimon sought his services as a PR man. It was just then that Milstein flew to Angola with Gaydamak. Apparently on this trip, it was decided that Milstein would help make the oligarch a sympathetic figure, who would get wide media coverage. Milstein then left Channel 10 and was given a room in Maimon's offices, from where he worked for Gaydamak as well. Maimon, whether as a friend or as a buyer of media services, helped Milstein cover his steep debts, which then totaled more than NIS 200,000. Afterward, Gaydamak hired Maimon to defend him in a suit filed against him for NIS 98 million by businessman Yosef Troim, who claimed that Gaydamak had purchased a factory from him Kazakhstan, but had not paid for it.
Gaydamak continued to avail himself of Maimon's services, and Maimon is now demanding that Milstein repay his debt, which according to Maimon totals $350,000, "including lawyer's fees."
Haaretz correspondent Yossi Melman relates that two years ago, after he published a magazine piece about Gaydamak, "when no one here knew how to pronounce his name, Yossi Milstein called me and asked enthusiastically how he could get to Gaydamak, because he wanted to prepare an investigative report about him for Channel 10. Gaydamak was very accessible at that time; all you needed was his phone number. I told him a little about the man and I recommended to Gaydamak that he talk to him. A few weeks later I already heard that Yossi Milstein was responding to the media in Gaydamak's name."
Yossi Milstein is now involved in all of Gaydamak's business affairs, even in soccer, which he once described, perhaps in the spirit of Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, as "22 retards chasing a ball." As part of the dealings with the Beitar team, Milstein is in almost daily touch with "la famiglia" - a small group of fans, who have frequently been involved in violent altercations and disruptions of order. In an effort to forge a dialogue with them and bring them under control, Milstein has agreed to underwrite transportation and other things at Gaydamak's expense. In return, they promise to behave at home games and also carry out Milstein's instructions: during television coverage of games, or when Gaydamak shows up, the group shouts slogans of the "Gaydamak is king" type.
It seems that one of Milstein's major accomplishments in his work, together with his organizational ability and the ongoing effort to polish his billionaire boss' image, is his sheer ability to survive in the job.
"Gaydamak's behavior does not appear to be based on a systematic strategic plan," says a person who worked with him for a short time. "There is a great deal of impulsiveness and emotionality, quick decisions, caprices. Very special personal abilities are needed to work in conditions like these. It is not easy to be close to Gaydamak - he is a lone wolf and doesn't engage in small talk. He is usually cold and correct. His mentality is 180 degrees different from the Israeli mentality. From this point of view, the fact that Milstein is originally from Russia and speaks the language certainly helps."
From master-servant relations, the ties between Milstein and Gaydamak have grown into a more complex stage, in which Gaydamak listens to Milstein's advice and tends to rely on him. Businessman Roni Mana, who has been the middleman in all of Gaydamak's recent business transactions, positively gushes about Milstein.
"He loves Arcadi, is loyal to him and will never do anything to hurt him," Mana says. "Yossi is very talented, smart, sharp, totally credible. He has an absolute command of the material and will not let Arcadi make mistakes. Arcadi, for his part, listens to him."
What was his part in the recent transactions?
Mana: "I made him offers and he presented the one he found acceptable to Gaydamak. Everything is done through him and with his endorsement. Yossi recognizes the potential."
How do you explain the symbiosis between them?
"I have never seen loyalty such as Yossi has toward Arcadi. You know what - I only wish for my friend Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu to have a person like Yossi Milstein at his side."
Yossi Milstein declined to be interviewed or to respond to this article. W
Uri Blau and Moshe Boker helped in the preparation of this article.
