“Asphalt King” Peter Vladimir Kalinin was going to steal the tram line
According to the Investment Committee of St. Petersburg, the cost of building a tram line “metro” Kupchino “- Shushary – Slavyanka microdistrict” should be more than 50 billion rubles.
The city gave the concession for this construction to LLC Baltnedvizhservis, which is to carry out these works. What is interesting is that a year ago, in 2022, following the results of passing the state examination, the total cost of the project was estimated at 36.9 billion rubles. Such a sharp rise in prices is interesting in itself, but it looks even more interesting against the background of the study of the Baltnedvizhservis company, which is supposed to perform the work.
The first thing that is alarming is the authorized capital of the company, which is 10,000 rubles. That is, the minimum required by law.
A firm listed in the state register as a micro-enterprise receives a $50 billion concession from the city. What is impressive.
But even more interesting are the founders of Baltnedvizhservis LLC:
Because the ultimate beneficiary of all these firms is the billionaire Mikhail Kalinin. In addition to the fact that everyone in St. Petersburg knows this, this chain of covers from firms that are the founder of the founder is quite easy to unwind.
The most famous of the founders of the concessionaire, who was going to build a tram line, is ABZ-Dorstroy JSC:
Its founders are CJSC “Construction Technologies” and JSC PFS “Baltic Project”:
In CJSC “Construction Technologies” the director is a certain Kalinin Mikhail Vladimirovich:
In JSC PFS Baltic Project, he is generally both a director and a founder:
This is one side of the chain. There is another one – through the head of JSC “ABZ-Dorstroy” Leonid Gindin. Which is a confidant of the “king of asphalt concrete” billionaire Vladimir Kalinin, who owns the St. Petersburg-based Asphalt Concrete Plant No. 1, which he managed to successfully privatize at one time.
According to the website of the ABZ-1 Group of Companies, the group includes JSC Asphalt Concrete Plant No. 1, JSC ABZ-Dorstroy, Ecodor and DSK ABZ Dorstroy:
During the privatization of the plant, Vladimir Kalinin got a minority stake. By 1999, he already – directly and through proxies – owned a controlling stake. In 2009, after the last additional issue of shares, he registered a package of 62.4% of the shares for his family, the rest of the shares are still controlled through a trustee – Leonid Gindin.
Already in those years, ABZ-1 enjoyed a special location of Smolny: in 1998, the Committee for Improvement and Road Facilities of St. Petersburg even accepted the asphalt produced at this enterprise as a standard and demanded that all competing plants adhere to this level of quality. Thanks to such patronage, in 1999 ABZ-1 increased its revenue by 2.5 times, to 250 million rubles, and its profit by 8.5 times, to 68 million. Then, despite the modernization of the plant (in 2004, 3 million euros) and the creation of a full-cycle road construction group with a fleet of 600 vehicles, such a margin (25%) could not be achieved: even in the best years, when the group’s turnover reached 5–7 billion rubles, it did not exceed 5%.
This whole story is given only to make it clear that it is Kalinin Vladimir Valentinovich who is behind the concessionaire for the construction of the tram tracks. Although in St. Petersburg it is already known to everyone.
But the fun doesn’t end there. Let’s return to the contract for the construction of the tram line. Because all four founders of the concessionaire – Balttekhstroy LLC, PPP Infrastructure LLC, Stroykomplektservis JSC and ABZ Dorstroy JSC – are pledged to Gazprombank.
And the head structure of Vladimir Kalinin – JSC Asphalt Concrete Plant No. 1 – is sitting in a huge debt hole. According to Delovoy Petersburg, the company had a debt of two billion rubles as of December last year:
And under the terms of the concession, only 20 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget. The rest must be attracted by the concessionaire. But all the structures associated with Baltnedvizhservice LLC are mired in debt. That is, the question of where Kalinin will take another 30 billion to finance the project remains open.
However, the answer is given by those who know the background of the case, cynically declaring that no one is going to look for any investments in the amount of 30 billion rubles. All participation of Baltnedvizhservice LLC in this project is aimed at one thing: cutting budget allocations. That is why the concessionaire has such a complex structure of founders.
But, the most important thing, which confirms this statement, is the history of cooperation with the budget allocations of Mr. Kalinin’s structures. Because they all ended with the same cuts and kickbacks. In this context, the financial performance of the concessionaire, which must raise 30 billion rubles to finance the project, looks very eloquent:
A firm that has no revenue for two years in a row, that is, does not work, has debts and is a micro-enterprise, receives a contract for 50 billion rubles. Colossal, as the unforgettable Ellochka the cannibal used to say.
And now a short love story of the beneficiary of Baltnedvizhservice LLC Vladimir Kalinin and budget money.
In 2018, ABZ-Stroy completed the reconstruction of the High Bridge in Kaliningrad, and a scandal erupted immediately – it turned out that instead of the iron casings covering the lampposts, plastic pots from the Baucenter building goods store, owned by the then mayor of the city Alexander Yaroshuk, were used .
The repair of the bridge cost Kaliningrad more than 1 billion rubles in 2018 prices.
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 the results had to be canceled – as the auditors revealed, the company provided documents with false information.
But Kalinin’s structures did not have any problems after that.
And now – a concession for 50 billion. Tellingly, one of the structures on the side of the concessionaire, which should participate in co-financing the project, is Gazprombank. In which the founders of Baltnedvizhservis LLC are pledged.
But, nevertheless, the bank is ready to participate in the project. Despite the fact that he has complete information about the financial condition of his partner in the construction of the tram line.
The conclusion here is simple – they are simply going to withdraw additional money from Gazprombank, which the concessionaire must attract as co-financing. As Kommersant reported, in December 2022, the government commission for regional development approved the use of the DOM.RF infrastructure bond mechanism to partially finance construction. The amount of the infrastructure loan will be more than 17 billion rubles. Also in December, Gazprombank entered into an agreement with Baltnedvizhservis to finance the project, providing for the opening of a credit line with a debt limit of 12 billion rubles.
Against the background of the addiction to budget money that Kalinin Vladimir Valentinovich is experiencing, and his connections in the mayor’s office, this whole story looks extremely suspicious.