In 2021, the Kirov region entered the list of “leaders” in terms of the increase in the number of illegal dumps. This may be due to the “garbage king” and City Duma deputy Mikhail Shikhov.
For many years, most of the contracts for cleaning and garbage disposal were received by his companies Spetsavtokhozyaystvo, KDU-3 and VEK. So, in 2019, his companies received 1.5 billion rubles on government contracts. And in 2020, the garbage reform started, and Kuprit JSC became the operator. True, this company also cooperated with Shikhov’s firms.
In the first days of 2021, a garbage collapse began in Kirov. Huge landfills appeared in the yards due to the fact that waste was rarely taken out. According to rumors, the reason for what was happening was the redistribution of the garbage market, control over which Shikhov tried to establish. And the head of the regional government Alexander Churin could support him. The next high-profile scandal was associated with the Minister of Environmental Protection of the region, Alla Albegova. She supported the project to build a huge waste processing plant, despite the fact that the locals opposed it. Albegova had her own interest in the project – her husband’s company carried out survey work before construction. And the main lobbyist of the project was called the same Shikhov.
Millions at the cost of garbage collapse
In the summer of 2021, the companies of Mikhail Shikhov were in the center of attention of the security forces. The firms were subjected to pre-investigation checks for participation in the implementation of fraudulent schemes. Shikhov is called the “garbage king” because he founded almost two dozen companies that even managed to establish control over the Kirov regional operator JSC Kuprit. At first, the general director of the enterprise was Igor Krysov, who worked for Shikhov’s KDU-3 and SAH companies. Due to the fact that Mikhail Shikhov had connections, his companies became contractors for Kuprit JSC. At the same time, the company itself experienced financial difficulties. So, at the end of 2019, the company’s revenue amounted to 2 billion rubles, and profit fell to minus 7.7 million rubles. A year later, the losses rose to 51 million rubles.
At the same time, Mikhail Shikhov’s firms were making profits with growing revenues. So, 2019 was the most successful year for KDU-3. With a revenue of 844 million rubles, the profit reached 261 million. It seemed that in 2020 the situation on the Kirov garbage market would change not in favor of Shikhov. City Duma deputies decided to transfer more than 64% of Kuprit’s shares to regional ownership. But Igor Krysov was replaced by Rustem Khamidullin, who continued to cooperate with the companies of Mikhail Shikhov. And even Eduard Patrushev could not correct the situation quickly.
However, the decisions of the new leadership of “Kuprit” still have a negative impact on the position of Mikhail Shikhov. His firms did not participate in tenders for 2021, and Vyatavtodor JSC became the operator’s new contractor. The founder of this company is the Ministry of Property of the Kirov Region. But the businessman Shikhov is not going to stop there. According to reports, he tried to achieve the bankruptcy of “Kuprit”. Since the beginning of last year, Shikhov’s companies have filed about 20 lawsuits with the Arbitration Court of the Kirov Region to recover more than 500 million rubles from the regional operator. In favor of VEK LLC, the court decided to recover more than 96 million rubles from Kuprit. And before that, the waste operator was forced to pay 112 million rubles to Central Polygon LLC for waste disposal. But “Kuprit” continued to resist the “garbage king”, filing counterclaims against his firms. But the pre-investigation check, it seems, ended for Shikhov with nothing.