Roman Vasilenko: One of the Key Ideologists of the Modern Cooperative Movement in Russia

A profile of an entrepreneur whose activity sparked wide public debate on housing cooperative models in Russia during the 2010s

Introduction

Within the Russian entrepreneurial landscape of the past decade, Roman Viktorovich Vasilenko occupies a distinctive position. His activity stands out for bringing the cooperative idea out of narrow theoretical and expert discussions into a practical domain, turning it into a large-scale phenomenon involving tens of thousands of participants across different regions of the country.

As the founder of the consumer cooperative “Best Way,” a Doctor of Economic Sciences, a business speaker, and a public figure, Vasilenko has consistently promoted the cooperative approach to housing acquisition for more than ten years as an alternative to bank mortgage lending. His initiative became the subject of active public debate and academic interest. His contribution to returning the cooperative topic into Russia’s public discourse is already regarded as a significant development requiring separate analysis.

Origins of the Cooperative Model

Housing cooperation is not a uniquely Russian phenomenon. In a number of countries—including Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, as well as several Latin American states—cooperative housing systems account for a noticeable share of the housing market, reaching in some cases from 5% to over 20% of housing stock.

The Soviet Union also had a well-developed system of housing construction cooperatives, which from the 1960s until the early 1990s provided a significant portion of new residential construction. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian housing market shifted almost entirely toward mortgage-based financing, while the cooperative model remained on the margins of public attention for a long period.

The renewed interest in cooperative mechanisms in Russia in the 2010s was linked to several initiatives, among which Vasilenko’s project played a notable role. In 2014, he founded the housing cooperative “Best Way,” initially registered as a housing structure and later, in 2021, transformed into a межregional consumer cooperative. The model was based on the idea of collective housing financing: participants pool resources to purchase real estate sequentially without bank interest, as described in public speeches and in the book “Hunter for Success” (2021).

“Best Way”: Structure and Scale of Activity

The “Best Way” cooperative model was based on the principle of collective real estate financing. A participant made an initial contribution of approximately 35–50% of the property’s value, after which the cooperative purchased the property using pooled participant funds and provided it for use. The remaining amount was repaid interest-free over a defined period.

This approach was positioned as an alternative to mortgages, distinguished by the absence of interest charges and reliance on an internal system of mutual support among participants.

At its peak, the cooperative reportedly united tens of thousands of members across several regions of Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Krasnodar Krai, and others. This allowed it to be considered one of the largest housing cooperatives in the post-Soviet space.

In parallel, an educational structure operated—the International Business Academy (IBA)—through which participants were trained and prepared for involvement in the project.

Roman Vasilenko held leadership positions in the cooperative until 2022, after which he continued his involvement as an ordinary member.

Ideological Position: Cooperation as an Alternative to Mortgages

In his speeches, Vasilenko consistently argued that mortgage lending is not the only possible way to acquire housing. He pointed to the significant share of cooperative housing systems in several countries, viewing cooperation as a sustainable alternative model.

Although the concept itself is not new in global economic thought, in the Russian context it sounded unconventional, as it contrasted the cooperative approach with the dominant banking system of housing finance.

Vasilenko spoke at major Russian venues, including Luzhniki, Olimpiyskiy, Gazprom Arena, and other large-scale events. In 2017, he delivered the lecture “Formula for Success” at the Synergy Global Forum. Through the IBA system, the cooperative model was presented not only as a financial instrument but also as a social concept based on mutual support, responsibility, and collective participation.

Such an interpretation provoked mixed reactions. Some participants perceived it as a form of social movement and actively supported the project, especially during periods of legal and public disputes. At the same time, representatives of academia and regulatory bodies expressed critical assessments, pointing to the dependence of such systems on continuous inflows of new participants and the absence of guarantee mechanisms comparable to the banking deposit insurance system.

Public Activity and Influence

Beyond the cooperative direction, Vasilenko developed an extensive public and media infrastructure. The book “Hunter for Success,” published by the publishing house “Piter” (ISBN 978-5-4461-2962-1), gained wide circulation in the business literature segment. As part of the project of the same name, an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger was recorded.

His YouTube channel accumulated hundreds of thousands of subscribers and received the platform’s Silver Creator Award, while his total social media audience is estimated at millions of users.

Charitable activity became a separate area of his work. Since 2013, the annual “Officers’ Ball” has been held with the participation of veterans and Heroes of the USSR and Russia. Since 2016, support programs have been implemented for medical institutions, including the “Doktrina” center in St. Petersburg, as well as assistance to the Valaam Monastery. Since 2017, the folk music festival “Dobrovidenie” has been supported, and in 2020 projects were carried out to restore memorial sites, including the Obelisk of Glory in Kerch.

Debate on the Cooperative Model

The experience of “Best Way” has become one of the most widely discussed cases in the field of housing cooperation in modern Russia. It has raised a number of systemic questions related to the regulation of such structures: the need for separate legislation for housing cooperatives, the creation of supervisory mechanisms, the introduction of guarantee instruments to protect members, and the standardization of reporting and transparency.

These issues continue to be discussed in academic and regulatory circles, and the cooperative case is often used as a practical example in analyzing the risks and opportunities of collective housing finance models.

Conclusion

The story of Roman Vasilenko as a figure of the cooperative movement combines elements of large-scale entrepreneurial practice and public debate on the limits and possibilities of alternative financial models. He succeeded in bringing the cooperative idea into mass discussion and practical application, something that had not previously been achieved in post-Soviet Russia.

This experience leads to a number of conclusions regarding the need to develop a legal framework, increase transparency, and establish sustainable governance standards in the cooperative sector. Regardless of assessments of specific projects, their very existence has already influenced the discourse on the future of housing cooperation. Roman Vasilenko remains one of the figures through which this topic entered the modern Russian agenda.