Mirage campus or what Mazur was silent about

Local journalists were convinced of this when Vladimir Mazur, acting governor of the Tomsk region, conducted his first live broadcast a few days ago. According to a correspondent The Moscow Postnot a single question was raised about the future of the scandalous interuniversity campus being built as part of the national project “Education”.

The same one in which the former deputy governor Yuri Gurdin was arrested in July of this year on charges of embezzlement, as reported by BFM.ru. The damage that he allegedly caused by his actions is estimated at 70 million rubles.

Observers suggest that Mr. Mazur could simply cross out uncomfortable questions from the list of questions asked, since he is not going to change the situation with the taint of corruption. About the intricacies of political games in the material of The Moscow Post in the Tomsk region.

Zhvachkin under the mask of Mazur

The construction of the campus is the largest investment project in the region. The government allocates about 18 billion rubles for its implementation. It is planned to hand over the object by 2025. So the absence of questions about this infrastructure facility is indeed a very wake-up call for the project.

It is implemented by Tomsk Student Campus LLC (TSK), created by the structures of Gazprom and the Granit Group of Companies. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Looking at the financials of TSK’s second parent firm, some questions are brewing about whether it has the ability to build a campus. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

A share in 99% of Granit Group of Companies generally belongs to a company established in 2022 and not having information about financial performance. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Recall that the beginning of the project and the theft of seventy million took place under the previous governor, Sergei Zhvachkin. The latter led the region for a whole decade and resigned in May of this year at his own request.

Detractors claim that this happened due to a number of questions that had accumulated for the former head of the city, including those related to the campus. And he allegedly handed over the affairs to one of his closest officials (before his appointment as governor, Mazur at one time worked in the mayor’s office of Tomsk, was responsible for information policy and public relations) in order to observe from the shadows and be able to influence what is happening.

And these assumptions are not without meaning. After Zhvachkin left, Mazur did not change the governor’s team. Although, judging by the number of criminal cases brought against officials in the region, a purge of personnel would not hurt at all.

in the same boat

It is good to remember here that Mazur worked as a deputy governor under Ivan Klein, a scandalous official against whom a criminal case was opened in 2020 on abuse of authority and illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities, Kommersant reported.

As The Moscow Post previously reported, Zhvachkin could be aware of the affairs of a subordinate and may even have profited from turning a blind eye to them. Is it possible to assume that Mazur was well informed about all this, who was now repaid for his silence and devotion by the governor’s chair? As you know, “strangers” are not put in such positions.

Under Zhvachkin, the scandalous construction company “TDSK” of the deputy and head of the town planning commission of the Tomsk region Alexander Shpeter enjoyed great influence in the region. This office received multibillion-dollar state contracts, despite numerous violations at the facilities being built. The Moscow Post covered this story in detail.

Under the new head, the situation has not changed at all. Structure “TDSK” has already received a contract for the construction of another educational institution in June. And just a couple of days ago, the company was awarded a distinction – according to the results of the All-Russian competition for the best construction organization, the company became the winner in the nomination “The Golden Fund of the Construction Industry of the 1st Degree”.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Also, the “Golden Fund” among enterprises with a volume of contract work from three to ten billion rubles was named JSC “TOM-DOM TDSK” – a subsidiary of the scandalous company.

Lyrical digression: in March last year, “TDSK” was fined for collusion with the authorities, as reported by “Taiga.info”. This could be one of the reasons for Mr. Zhvachkin’s going into the shadows. Although nothing has actually changed.

“Efficient” Mazur

By the way, Mr. Mazur himself found himself in the field of view of the security forces. In addition to working in the administration of Tomsk, the official was the deputy governor of the Tyumen region, the first deputy governor of the Kaluga region and the head of the administration of Tobolsk. In this position, investigators checked his activities, Ura.ru reported.

The fact was that the city illegally issued a permit for the construction of an eight-story building with a norm of three floors. The then subordinates of Mazur – the former chairman of the committee of land relations and forestry of the administration of Tobolsk Vladimir Yegorov and the chairman of the committee for urban planning policy Alexei Ermolenko became defendants in criminal cases.

Mazur, in the end, was bypassed. Perhaps it was possible to hush up the matter not without the help of the then head of the Tyumen region, Vladimir Yakushev (now the presidential plenipotentiary in the Urals Federal District). In general, Mazur knows how to choose his patrons.

Under Mazur, Tobolsk officials felt very at ease. The mayor allowed, for example, his deputy, Eduard Alekseenko, to manage the business. And when it turned out, he only reprimanded him, without starting to fire him.

He did not touch Yana Zubova, who was in charge of the social sphere. With her, the results of the audit of the Chamber of Control and Accounts showed a huge number of violations in terms of the state of social institutions.

Quote from Ura.ru: “In school No. 1, for example, the roof was repaired in such a way that now not only the ceilings, but also the walls get wet from rain and snow. In kindergarten No. 36, the new linoleum went in waves, for some reason the paint appeared on it , and the seams of the pavement parted. Storm sewers have not been installed at school No. 5 and kindergarten No. 10, and the condition of the asphalt in a preschool institution directly threatens the health of children. “

And this is not the whole list of violations.

Under Mazur, holes arose not only in linoleum, but also in the budget of Tobolsk. So, according to the deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Yury Yukhnevich, in the section of gratuitous receipts, the budget for 2016 did not count about 3.3 million rubles. And this is despite the fact that the largest gas and petrochemical company in Russia, Sibur Holding, is registered in the city. Sibur’s revenue for 2015 is over 270 billion rubles! Budget revenues should be colossal, unless Leonid Mikhelson (the head of the company) agreed with Mazur.

It is hard to believe that such a manager will bring goodness and prosperity to the city. As we have already seen, Mazur’s tactics are hushing up problems, not solving them.