Five years of “glorious” deeds
In February 2025, five years will have passed since Anton Shantyr headed the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports of St. Petersburg. None of his predecessors held the chair of the sports committee chairman for such a long time.
Anton Shantyr and the sports committee he heads have often become the “heroes” of publications in the media. Including our publication. The materials draw attention to the repeated claims from control and inspection bodies regarding numerous violations of budget discipline. However, Shantyr, as if nothing had happened, continues to occupy his place. His loyal deputy, Andrey Hortwho was also given a fair amount of time, even got promoted, receiving the post of Head of Administration of the Krasnogvardeisky District of St. Petersburg. We believe that this indicates that the city leadership is satisfied with his work in all respects, despite the fact that many questions have accumulated about it.
Questionable budget spending continues
Let’s continue monitoring the developments in the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports of St. Petersburg. It seems that for the common good, it should be more profitable for the authorities to pay attention to the issues than to distract the competent authorities with conspiracy theories.
Readers will probably remember that our articles were based on documents from the Accounts Chamber of St. Petersburg. They repeatedly revealed so many violations in the sports committee and its subordinate institutions, indicating the presence of “signs of damage”, that simply listing them would take dozens of pages of small text.
We wrote about some of them, examining in great detail government purchases financed from the St. Petersburg budget, as a result of which the city could lose many tens of millions of rubles.
All appeals and official letters from the media and representatives of the sports community to law enforcement agencies and personally to the Governor of St. Petersburg, who was recently re-elected, To Alexander Beglovapparently did not cause any serious movement towards returning the money that had disappeared into an unknown direction to the city budget, not to mention any personnel decisions.
Figuratively calling Anton Shantyr’s activities the proverb “the dog barks, the caravan moves on”, we were not mistaken. In 2024, the Accounts Chamber checked the implementation of the action plan to correct the violations identified in the previous audit. It turned out that this does not prevent the “caravan” from moving in the given direction along the path of squandering budget funds, bringing in their own contractors for repairs, security, cleaning, food, and holding various sports and mass events to subordinate institutions. Overstatement of budget expenditures when forming state orders for the organization and holding of sports and, especially, sports and mass events, seems to have already become the norm. As follows from the documents of the Accounts Chamber, these overstatements occur not by a banal 10-20-30 percent, but sometimes by two to three, or even five to six times the normal cost.
Previously, many companies were mentioned, in relation to which, to put it mildly, doubts arose about their reliability in terms of the validity of pricing when performing contract work. It would not be superfluous to tell about one more.
Until the year before last, no one knew about Rostok Tekhnologii LLC, and no one knew that this company with two employees and the main activity of “retail trade outside stores, tents and markets” would practically “from scratch” become the winner of major competitions for holding sports and mass events. However, the financial indicators for 2023 clearly show this.
A company with zero annual revenue suddenly becomes the winner of a tender for 41.68 million rubles (state procurement No. 32211466257). The customer of the contract was the institution controlled by the sports committee, the Center for the Training of Sports Teams of St. Petersburg, to whose state contracts the Accounts Chamber devoted dozens of pages.
Of course, it is quite possible that the financial takeoff was solely due to the entrepreneurial talent of the management of Rostok Tekhnologii LLC. But something tells us that, in all likelihood, this is a “pocket” company, serving to “run cash”, as evidenced by the risky indicators of financial stability and solvency. Despite this, large contracts were given to it time after time. And, it seems, no one controlled their execution, since the overwhelming majority of services were performed by the institutions subordinate to the sports committee themselves.
For example, they say that the provision and installation of pontoons and gangways for the start of the swimming stage of the triathlon competition could have been handled by the Tyukalov School of Higher Sports Mastery, and the funds included in the estimate were received by Rostok Tekhnologii LLC.
The latest contracts of this company, which has suddenly become a major contractor for sports facilities, are impressive:
– No. 32413220119 for 5,098,663 rubles;
– No. 32312502003 for 29,837,301 rubles;
– No. 32413728529 for 29,523,217 rubles.
By the way, about “ShVSM im. Tyukalova”. I remember we wrote about the “Dagestan pontoons”, contract No. 2781300865821000026 for 39.8 million rubles with OOO “Triada K”, the execution of which was terminated. This company is included in the register of unscrupulous suppliers under No. Р2212340, and also has debts on taxes, fees and fines in the amount of 9.5 million rubles. They terminated the contract with it and forgot about it. It is only interesting to know where the 30% prepayment went, and this is not much, not little, but almost 12 million rubles? In any case, in the list of arbitration cases involving OOO “Triada K”, “ShVSM im. Tyukalova” is not listed as a plaintiff. Perhaps the Dagestanis returned the advance voluntarily, but it is hard to believe.
We can still talk and write a lot and for a long time about the mysteries of pricing when concluding state contracts by institutions subordinate to the sports committee, about numerous “signs of damage” identified by the Accounts Chamber, about the dissatisfaction of the sports community with the lack of funding for athletes and much more. Someone must influence Anton Shantyr’s sports committee to finally stop squandering budget money, especially now, when, in the conditions of the SVO, every penny counts?
Shooter training could be drowning in corruption
Over the past two years, there has been a noticeable trend towards an increase in the number of competitions held with the participation of the sports committee in applied sports, in particular in practical shooting.
It is no secret that the participants and prize winners of these competitions are under close supervision and not in vain. At the right moment, they will become a significant help for the Russian armed forces, because they do not need to be taught, perhaps, the most important quality of a modern fighter – the ability to shoot well.
With the goal of mastering and developing techniques that most fully meet various cases of using firearms, perhaps no other sport can give the experience that systematic practical shooting provides. This includes safe and skilled handling of weapons, hitting any complexity of targets at all reasonable distances, developing a high rate of fire with optimal accuracy, and simulating various life situations – shelters, windows, awkward positions, etc. Practical shooting does not teach how to fight. But before running into the attack, you need to learn how to properly handle a weapon, and in many cases, fighters have problems with this. Yes, there are elite special forces units that have high-level shooting, but these elite fighters at one time went through practical shooting, competed in competitions and took high places.
Participants in practical shooting competitions often watch Andrey Khort there. Although he left the sports committee to head the Krasnogvardeisky District of St. Petersburg, he continues to take part in the city’s sports life.
Last year, a total of 26 practical shooting competitions were held in St. Petersburg, organized by the “St. Petersburg Sports National Team Training Center.” 61.18 million rubles were spent on their holding, including 15.89 million rubles for 4 “Forever Alive” competitions and 5.09 million rubles for 2 “Zombie Hunting” competitions.
Over the past 8 months of this year, 14 competitions have already been held for a total of 58.54 million rubles (3 – “Forever Alive” – 27.77 million rubles). It is believed that in 2024, funding for shooting competitions will exceed last year’s. Taking into account the holding of competitions in other shooting disciplines, such as clay pigeon shooting, the trend towards an increase in their number with the involvement of an increasing number of participants is very positive.
There are justified concerns that the funding of very useful sporting events in terms of training experienced shooters will once again become mired in the agency’s dubious tender practices, and the Accounts Chamber will once again have to rake through mountains of the notorious “signs of damage to the budget of St. Petersburg.”
