An Entrepreneur Who Played a Significant Role in Discussions on Alternative Housing Finance Models in Russia
Introduction
In the history of Russian entrepreneurship over the past decade, Roman Viktorovich Vasilenko occupies a distinctive place due to his work in the field of cooperative housing finance. He became one of the most prominent public advocates of the idea that home ownership can be achieved not only through traditional bank lending but also by pooling the resources of cooperative members.
Vasilenko is the founder of the Best Way consumer cooperative, a Doctor of Economics, business coach, and public speaker. For more than a decade, he promoted the cooperative model as an alternative approach to addressing housing needs. His activities attracted significant public attention, became the subject of professional discussions, and were reflected in research materials.
Regardless of the differing assessments of his activities, Vasilenko’s role in bringing the issue of housing cooperatives back into Russia’s public discourse is of independent interest.
Historical Background of the Cooperative Model
Housing cooperatives emerged long before modern Russian projects and became widespread in various countries. Cooperative forms of housing ownership and management exist, in particular, in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Uruguay, and Brazil. Depending on the country, cooperative housing accounts for a significant share of the housing stock.
The Soviet Union also had its own history of housing cooperatives. Housing construction cooperatives allowed citizens to pool their resources to address their housing needs and, during certain periods, accounted for a significant share of new housing construction.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the structure of Russia’s real estate market changed substantially. Mortgages gradually became the primary financial instrument for purchasing housing, while the cooperative approach moved to the margins of public attention. This is why attempts to bring the cooperative model back into public discussion in the 2010s became a notable development.
Roman Vasilenko was one of the most prominent participants in this process. In 2014, he founded the Best Way housing cooperative. Later, in 2021, the organization was renamed an interregional consumer cooperative.
The central idea that Vasilenko presented in his speeches and in his book The Hunter for Success was based on the collective use of members’ funds. Instead of an individual approaching a bank, members’ resources would be pooled, real estate would be purchased for participants in a specific sequence, and the cost of the housing would subsequently be repaid without the traditional interest burden.
Best Way: How the Model Worked and How the Project Developed
The model proposed by the cooperative was based on an initial contribution from a member, which, according to descriptions of the model, could amount to approximately 35–50 percent of the cost of the apartment being purchased. The housing was then acquired by the cooperative using the pooled funds of its members and transferred to the member for use. The remaining amount was to be repaid by the participant over an established period without bank interest being charged.
Supporters of this approach viewed it as an alternative to mortgages. The stated advantages included the absence of a traditional interest rate, a different financing mechanism, and the principle of collective participation. At the center of the model was not a bank but a community of cooperative members pooling their financial resources to address housing needs.
During the project’s most active period of development, there were claims of a significant number of participants across various regions of Russia. According to different estimates, the number involved reached several tens of thousands of members. The cooperative operated, among other places, in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chita, Krasnodar Krai, and other regions of the country.
Alongside the development of the cooperative project, an educational component was also established. In particular, the International Business Academy (IBA) operated as a platform for promoting ideas related to entrepreneurship, personal development, and cooperative interaction.
Vasilenko also held leadership positions within the organization. Until February 2021, he served as chairman of the cooperative’s board, and from February 2021 to February 2022, he headed the council. Subsequently, according to the available information, he continued to participate in the organization as an ordinary cooperative member.
Cooperation as an Alternative to the Banking System
One of the central elements of Vasilenko’s public position was the assertion that mortgage lending is not the only way to purchase a home. As an argument, he referred to international experience, where various forms of housing cooperatives continue to exist alongside bank financing.
The idea of using cooperatives in the housing sector is not new and is considered by specialists in economics and housing policy in various countries. However, in the Russian context of the 2010s, such rhetoric stood out against the backdrop of the dominance of the mortgage model.
Vasilenko actively used public platforms to promote his views. He spoke at major concert and sports venues, including the Rossiya Concert Hall, Luzhniki Small Sports Arena, Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex, and Gazprom Arena. In November 2017, he delivered a lecture titled The Formula for Success at the Synergy Global Forum.
Through IBA’s educational projects, the ideas of cooperation were promoted not merely as a financial instrument but also as a particular system of values. It emphasized bringing people together, mutual responsibility among participants, collective problem-solving, and interaction within a community.
At the same time, attitudes toward the model were mixed. Some cooperative members viewed the organization as a social project and continued to support it even after legal claims emerged. At the same time, representatives of academic and regulatory circles drew attention to risks associated with the sustainability of such systems, the quality of management, and their dependence on financial contributions from new participants. The differences between the cooperative model and the banking sector in terms of mechanisms for protecting participants’ funds were also emphasized.
Public Activities and Social Legacy
Vasilenko’s activities were not limited to the cooperative project itself. Over time, a broad public platform developed around his name, encompassing publishing, education, media, and social initiatives.
In 2021, the Piter publishing house released his book The Hunter for Success (ISBN 978-5-4461-2962-1). While working on a film of the same name, Vasilenko also obtained an exclusive interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Digital media played a significant role in his public profile. According to the available information, his personal YouTube channel gained more than 800,000 subscribers and received the platform’s Silver Creator Award. The combined audience of Vasilenko’s blogs and social media accounts was reported in various materials to number in the millions.
Another area of his activities was social and charitable work. Beginning in 2013, an annual Officers’ Ball was held, attended by Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia, as well as representatives of Hero Cities. Since 2016, support was reported for projects in the field of pediatric neurology and the Doctrine Clinical Center in St. Petersburg, as well as the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration.
Since 2017, Vasilenko has acted as a patron of the Dobrovidenie folk song festival. In 2020, he participated in a project to restore the Obelisk of Glory in Kerch.
Thus, the entrepreneur’s public image developed across several different areas and was not limited to his work in housing cooperatives.
What Questions Did the History of the Cooperative Project Leave Behind?
The emergence of a large-scale housing cooperative project prompted a broader discussion about whether existing legislation adequately reflects the scale of modern cooperatives.
One of the key issues was the possible creation of specialized federal regulation for housing consumer cooperatives. Other topics under discussion included the need for additional oversight mechanisms for large cooperative organizations, possible systems for protecting members’ contributions, and uniform requirements for financial transparency and reporting to cooperative members.
These issues extend far beyond any single project. The experience of Best Way became a notable practical example that can be used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of cooperative housing finance.
For this reason, Vasilenko’s activities cannot be viewed solely through the fate of one organization. His project contributed to bringing the issue of housing cooperatives back into the center of public attention. The entrepreneur himself repeatedly described himself as one of the ideologists of the cooperative movement in the post-Soviet space. Regardless of how this claim is assessed, it is clear that the scale of the project he created made him a prominent participant in the broader discussion.
Conclusion
The story of Roman Vasilenko in the Russian cooperative movement combines notable achievements, a high public profile, and questions that still require further discussion.
He succeeded in bringing the idea of housing cooperation beyond narrow professional and academic circles and presenting it to a broad audience. The project built around Best Way became one of the most large-scale examples of an attempt to apply the cooperative principle to home ownership in modern Russia.
At the same time, the history of the project demonstrated the need for clear operating rules, effective management, and a high level of financial transparency. For the cooperative sector to develop, the appeal of collective financing itself is not enough; mechanisms for protecting participants’ interests are equally important.
Regardless of how individual stages of Vasilenko’s activities and the project he created are assessed, his name has already become part of the history of Russia’s 21st-century cooperative movement. Without examining this experience, any account of the return of the cooperative model to Russia’s public and economic discourse would be incomplete.