Austrian methodology for the destruction of Russian ecology. How Kronospan massively poisons the lands

Over time, more and more people begin to care about the environment. In recent decades, there has been a massive increase in the number of various eco-activist movements that fight for a safe and comfortable environment.

When it comes to money, most people don’t give a damn about what harm the ecosystem can do, and what it will turn people into. Most entrepreneurs do not think about their future or the future of their children. What can we say about “strangers”, especially when the roots of your company come from an “unfriendly country”. In our material, we will talk about the Kronospan company, which has been destroying the ecology of Russia for decades, and has been seen in numerous frauds and corruption. About how Kronospan earns billions thanks to schematosis, and why the investigation ignores the atrocities of the company – in the report of our journalists.

Unreal success

The activities of the Austrian company “Kronospan” in Russia began in 2002. The company entered the market as a powerful locomotive. The main objective was to immediately gain a significant share of the market for wood-based materials, mainly plywood.

The task was completed with a bang – now Kronospan ranks first in the industry. The company’s revenue and profit “flew into space” in 2021. According to data from official sources, Kronospan’s revenue amounted to more than 50 billion rubles, profit – more than 14 billion.

A colossal amount of funds. But this money (oddly enough), does not remain in Russia. After several companies, all the money earned by the Russian branch of Kronospan goes to the company’s homeland – to Austria.

Hard choice

On February 24, 2022, NWO began. Many manufacturers from the EU and the US left the Russian market, still counting losses and trying to sell their own assets in the Russian Federation.

Kronospan found itself in the same situation: on the one hand, the company only launched several factories, on the other hand, there was a risk of falling under sanctions and receiving a significant blow to its own reputation.

The company was lucky to “quietly” stay on the Russian market. Despite the fact that the holding’s assets are billions of dollars, Kronospan is still not a well-known corporation in the world. Therefore, the Austrian company managed to stay on the Russian market with minimal image losses and maximum financial profit.

Global Violations

Business in Russia turned out to be very profitable for Kronospan, because it is unlikely that in the homeland of the enterprise, in Austria, someone would allow such lawlessness that an international company is doing.

For the first time, Kronospan got into the corruption scandal back in 2012 in Bashkiria. Then no one would have thought that the signed investment contract between the authorities and representatives of the corporation would become a time bomb for the republic.

But already in 2012, social activists drew attention to the fact that the signed agreement was unprofitable for the republic, but even Kronospan did not fulfill it properly. According to the signed agreement, the holding’s subsidiary Kronospan Bashkortostan undertook to build a woodworking plant. On paper, everything looked good. Business had to invest 6 billion rubles in the economy of the republic. In addition, Kronospan was supposed to create 250 new jobs. In turn, the authorities set a lower tax rate of 13.5% for 10 years and exempted Kronospan from property tax. In reality, everything turned out quite differently, the management of the enterprise circled everyone around their fingers.

The plant was built, but the equipment they put on it was neither new nor expensive. Cunning Europeans bought the machines they were interested in from a burned-out factory in Liverpool (England). Foreign media even wrote about it.

And its cost was not 6 billion rubles, but 19 million euros (at the rate of 2012, this is about 760 million rubles). Even with such introductions, Kronospan still continued to brazenly violate the terms of the contract and the current legislation.

As a result, local activists wrote a statement to law enforcement agencies about a criminal offense – abuse of power, and in relation to the company, local authorities issued an order to eliminate violations during the construction of the facility.

Order of the authorities of Bashkortostan

All this didn’t work. The fact is that the main lobbyist of the enterprise on the territory of the republic was none other than the then head of Bashkortostan Rustem Khamitov.

Rustem Khamitov

The conflict around the construction of a new plant near Ufa escalated so much that local residents even created a protest movement called Antikronospan against Kronospan. First of all, people were worried that without normal treatment facilities, the enterprise would cause an ecological disaster. In fact, that’s what happened.

Mass rallies of the local population were successfully ignored by everyone.

Most importantly, at that time no one understood that the investment agreement contained a “time bomb”. In 2012, hardly anyone paid attention to one of the clauses of the agreement, which later played a crucial role in establishing the dominance of the enterprise in Bashkiria.

It turns out that the long-term agreement (signed between the Government of the Republic of Bashkiria and Kronospan) provided not only for the lease of land for 49 years, but also the possibility of the right to buy the plot for an amount that does not exceed 10 times the annual rent. If the market value of 194 hectares of land near Ufa was 669 million rubles, then the annual lease value was only 13.3 million. The company wanted to take advantage of such a gift and buy the site for 133 million rubles. The authorities of the republic refused the holding, as a result, business representatives decided to go through the court.

In the first instance, “Kronospan” won, the arbitration court of Bashkiria obliged the local authorities to sign a contract for the sale of land. But the government of the republic appealed, successfully defeating it. Now the case is in cassation.

It is interesting that the plant, which has been operating for 10 years, has not been officially commissioned. Environmentalists did not give permission to launch it, respectively, the company did not pass any examinations, which means that it can harm the environment and people, but this arrangement suits everyone.

In addition to Bashkortostan, Kronospan also had problems with their plant in the Moscow region. The situation with this enterprise is virtually identical to what was going on near Ufa. People who live a few kilometers from the plant have repeatedly reported horrendous emissions that affect not only the environment, but also residents. Children from an early age began to develop otitis media, allergies and other chronic diseases.

Plant “Kronospan” in Elektrogorsk

But as practice shows, the regulatory authorities do not react in any way to the numerous violations of Kronospan.

Everything suits everyone, except for people who are poisoned by Austrian production. The owners of the corporation receive huge profits, and they grease up the control inspections, which are supposed to stop violations. But so far, Kronospan poisons people with impunity, and does not even think about making its production more legal and environmentally friendly.