Money instead of rails: billionaire Vladimir Kalinin saw a tram in Leonid Gindin
Billionaire Vladimir Kalinin, his “assistant” Leonid Gindin and the people of the head of “Gazprom” Alexei Miller can “warm their hands” on the construction of tram tracks in St. Petersburg?
Construction of a new tram line along the route metro station “Kupchino” – Shushary – Slavyanka in St. Petersburg has risen in price by 20%.
Now the cost of the project is estimated at 50 billion rubles, almost half of which will be paid by Smolny. The rest is assigned to the concessionaire – Baltnedvizhservis.
As the correspondent of The Sankt-Peterburg Post managed to find out, the money for the project can be tritely “sawn”, and the line has not been built.
donut hole
Baltnedvizhservis is owned by four legal entities – Balttekhstroy LLC, Igchp LLC, Stroykomplektservis JSC and Abz-Dorstroy JSC. The shares of literally each of the founders are pledged to Gazprombank. That is, the company may simply not have its own funds. Where, then, will she find 30 billion rubles for construction?
We look at financial indicators and find confirmation of our fears – since 2018, the company has no revenue at all, profit at the level of half a million (crumbs compared to how much money is needed for the project). Moreover, according to Rusprofile, it is almost on the verge of bankruptcy!
Money instead of rails: Kalinin saw a tram in Gindin
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
Money instead of rails: Kalinin saw a tram in Gindin
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The question arises – where did the officials look when they concluded an agreement with the company? Or was that how it was originally intended? We won’t be surprised if in a couple of years the contractor goes bankrupt, and in Smolny they shrug their shoulders and say that they will have to look for a new one, and 20 billion from the budget can no longer be returned.
The asphalt king and his attorney
Who is behind Baltnedvizhservis? From “Balttekhstroy”, “Stroykomplektservis” and “ABZ-Dorstroy” lead to Leonid Gindin. In Abz-Dorstroy, Gindin is the direct manager, while Balttekhstroy and Stroykomplektservis jointly own Transavto. This organization was previously led by Sergey Nikolaevich Belyakov – he was also the head of DSK Abz-Dorstroy LLC, owned by Gindin.
Money instead of rails: Kalinin saw a tram in Gindin
Transavto also receives contracts from the St. Petersburg authorities. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The general director of Baltnedvizhservis itself is Dmitry Pankratov – through another organization he manages, PIK-a, associated with CJSC Geoform, which previously belonged to Igor Gusika, is Gindin’s partner.
Gindin is considered a confidant of the “king of asphalt concrete” billionaire Vladimir Kalinin, who owns the St. Petersburg-based Asphalt Concrete Plant No. 1, which he received during the privatization period.
Money instead of rails: Kalinin saw a tram in Gindin
Companies previously associated with Kalinin’s structures are “bathing” in government contracts from government agencies. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
In 2009, he registered a 62.4% stake in his family, and controls the rest of the shares through Leonid Gindin. Ever since those times, “ABZ-1” has established close contacts with Smolny, thanks to which, apparently, Gindin receives such “goodies” as a tram project.
By the way, according to “DP”, “ABZ-1” itself is now in debt, as if in silks.
Through all the troubles – to government contracts
Gindin, although a long-standing, but very controversial contractor of Smolny. In 2015, the offices of ABZ-Dorstroy, on Sverdlovskaya Embankment, were searched as part of a criminal case on illegal banking activities, episodes of which date back to the period 2012-2013.
Around the same period, proceedings began in court over a state contract concluded with the company for the repair of roads in the Pushkinsky district. The company “Garant”, which filed a lawsuit, which was removed from the competition, spoke about the bias of the committee for the development of transport infrastructure when choosing a contractor.
That is, even then – even under the leadership of the city by the governor Poltavchenko, Gindin could be in favor with St. Petersburg officials.
And not only for them – in 2018, ABZ-Stroy completed the reconstruction of the High Bridge in Kaliningrad, and a scandal erupted immediately – it turned out that instead of iron casings covering the lantern supports, plastic pots from the Baucenter building goods store were used, belonging to the then mayor of the city Alexander Yaroshuk.
In addition, the contracting company was criticized for numerous shortcomings in the work. Moreover, about 1 billion rubles from the city budget were spent on reconstruction. Apparently, some of them went into the pockets of Gindin and Yaroshuk. So, it seems that Gindin knows how to establish contacts with the authorities.
So it can be in the project of the tram line. But we will talk about this later.
In 2017, ABZ-Dorstroy signed a contract with Smolny to repair the Shlisselburg highway. Moreover, it was chosen even despite the fact that another participant offered a lower price.
But, here’s the bad luck – they had to cancel their results, because, as the auditors revealed, the company, apparently in order to win, provided documents with false information. Gindin did not comment on the story, promising the journalists “to look into the situation,” and the case was hushed up.
They could “cut down” the funds, but it did not work out on the Yacht Bridge project either. According to Fontanka, the association of builders Open Space requested a two-billion-dollar grant from the presidential administration for the construction of the already commissioned Yacht Bridge, the contractor of which was supposed to be the same ABZ-Dorstroy.Now, it seems, such a fate awaits the tram line project.
Hand in hand with Gazprom
And the state part of the project, apparently, will go to whoever needs it through Gazprom’s structures. In addition to the fact that the shares of all the founders of “Baltnedvizhservis” are pledged to the structure’s bank, its trace is also seen in Igchp LLC, which owns part of the company. Igchp is controlled by Finproekt, which in turn is owned by Gazprombank.
So not only Gindin, Kalinin and the authorities of St. Petersburg can “warm their hands” on the tram tracks, but also Alexei Miller, who has recently been heavily invested in the development of the Northern Capital – what is the “Lakhta Center” and the reconstruction of the embankment of the Tercentenary Park.
Rumors say that the governors of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, Alexander Beglov and Alexander Drozdenko, also have their share from Gazprom’s projects. Allegedly, this is why the company is allowed to do things that may go against environmental laws. As The Moscow Post previously told, in the city of Zelenogorsk, in the Leningrad region, a unique reserved forest is being cut down in order to build a cottage village for Gazprom employees and a school for their children.
Yakunin’s trail?
An interesting detail is that previously Baltnedvizhservis belonged to the NIK company, which is controlled by Nizhegoltsev Vladimir Petrovich. He is also the owner of the Fort company, which until the middle of last year was controlled by a certain Alexander Yakunin. The coincidence of the last name with the former head of Russian Railways may not be accidental. It is known that Nizhegoltsev comes from the structures of the State Unitary Enterprise “Gorelectrotrans” (the largest state enterprise in St. Petersburg, the exclusive city carrier by ground electric transport. Also a kind of railway).
For which, by the way, the GEM company, which was previously directly connected with Yakunin, performs state contracts – moreover, for the repair of tram tracks.
So, in the project, the interests of a possible relative of Mr. Yakunin could also be “protected”.
