Sand Baron Alexander Belyaev is back. Duty is calling. In the most direct sense. With money, the “lucky” businessman and deputy of United Russia is tight. finish building microdistrict “Zapovedny” necessary.
And here such an option with easy earnings is tucked up. It remains a little – to get permission to cut down the forest.
The fact that local residents are actively opposed, Belyaev cares little. In his opinion, they reached a “compromise solution”. Apparently, the cries of disagreement and comments on the social network are the joy of local residents from the future sand mining.
What are we talking about?
(Forest between Kaftanchikovo and Takhtamyshevo)
On January 26, 2022, at the Council of Deputies of the Zarechny Settlement, four out of seven officials supported changes to the boundaries of the green zone of the forest area near the village of Kaftanchikovo. To accommodate a sand pit in it.
As early as the summer of 2021, local residents were categorically against the new sand pit on the site of centuries-old pines. They even turned to the governor of the Tomsk region, Sergei Zhvachkin, for help. To intervene and preserve nature. But they received only a reply: “There is no specially protected area there.” And NPO Tomskgeotan LLC (Belyaev’s company) issued a warning about “the inadmissibility of violating mandatory requirements with the adoption of measures to exclude the exploration and production of minerals within the boundaries of the Chernaya Rechka water protection zone.”
The conflict was not resolved. The only thing that has been done is to reduce the area of exploration and sand production. From 350 hectares to 50. However, the plot is still large. And the locals disagree. The last hope remained on the local council of deputies. But here, too, by. The villagers sounded the alarm and turned to the media.
January 31, 2022 residents of the Zarechny settlement (Takhtamyshevo, Kaftanchikovo, Kislovka, Chernaya Rechka) appealed to journalists with a request to cover the topic again. And convey your opinion to the local authorities. The sand baron Alexander Belyaev himself came to the meeting. To “reach a compromise.” And in fact put people before the fact.
So mister Belyaev tried to convince the villagers of the crystal nature of his intentions. He even boasted of a license for the extraction of inert materials five kilometers from the meeting point (the village of Kaftanchikovo).
“Sharashkin office”
Indeed, the company LLC NPO Tomskgeotan, which literally poked the nose of the Tomsk residents into the fact that it is impossible to violate the obligations for the exploration and production of sand in the agreed area, has such a license. The company also has three founders: Alexander Belyaev (25%), Petr Petrov (25%) and Knyagnitskaya Lydia (50%). Familiar faces, right?
The LLC has only one employee – the CEO. He’s weird with finances. The company was registered in 2016. A year later, the company’s income amounted to 0 rubles, net profit – 0. In 2018, income – 0 rubles, net profit – minus four thousand rubles. In 2019, income is again 0 rubles, net profit is 0. In 2020, income is 0 (already stable), net profit is minus two thousand rubles. And no tax payments.
There are also two lawsuits from LLC NPO Ecological Safety. For a total amount of 2.6 million rubles. At first, the company tried to open an economic dispute with Belyaev’s company, and then declare it bankrupt, but the proceedings were stopped.
(In the column income and net profit of LLC NPO Tomskgeotan).
And now the question is, how did companies with one employee and 0 rubles of income issue a license for exploration and production of sand? The answer is simple, connections.
Brief educational program. Where do legs grow from or sandy backstory
The information that sand and loam will be mined in the Kaftanchikovo area for backfilling a land plot on the left bank of the Tom (future interuniversity campus) appeared back in January 2021. Then the case was immediately entrusted to Belyaev. Which is logical. He began his career as a businessman with sand, the quality of which left much to be desired (more details in the investigation Sand dust for “Brest”).
35 billion rubles should be allocated from the budget for the Interuniversity Campus project (Tomsk campus will be a sand castle?). Now imagine that they extract sand using the old cheap methods through acquaintances. We get significant money savings. The rest of the money can be shared. This is probably why all supervisory agencies “check” Belyaev exclusively on paper. The businessman was given a complete carte blanche – deforestation has already begun. Unofficially, of course. No one has yet given permission for the official one. Presumably, the sand baron’s people are cutting down the forest.
Deputy of the Duma of the Tomsk region, member of the United Russia party Alexander Belyaev:
According to the law, I do not need to coordinate a sand pit. These are the lands of the forest fund – federal. But we took the initiative and applied to the Zarechny Council ourselves. When a forest is cut down, for one felled tree, another must be planted. I personally came to the Council with a proposal to plant trees where the inhabitants of the nearest villages would like.
If these are federal lands, why did they change the green boundaries of the site and coordinate them with ordinary rural deputies? Why not sent to the Russian government? Probably because Moscow will not give permission. But the local council does not have such powers.
Therefore, deputy Belyaev, juggling with words, switches his attention from a slippery moment to his “good actions”. Like, look, people, we (officials) are making concessions to you. We want to plant a forest, but you are not happy. In fact, the residents of Zarechny are outraged for a reason. Mr. sandy businessman leaves behind ruins and Martian landscapes.
What are the locals afraid of?
Residents of the village of Kolarova have already complained about the work of the Belyaev quarry. Since 2019, a businessman has been extracting sand there, on the banks of the Kolarovskie Wetlands SPNA. Heavy vehicles travel on the roads every day. Heavy trucks break the roads of the village and make a lot of noise. The forest continues to be cut down, and since the beginning of the quarrying, the water level in the wells of local residents has decreased by 1.5 meters. In a quarry, soil is being developed at a depth of more than eight meters, below the Kolarovsky wetlands. Because of what the monument of nature can disappear. But Belyaev cares little about this. The main thing is money.
This is what the residents of Zarechny are afraid of. People here also use water from their own wells, there is no central water supply in the settlements. When the villagers asked the deputy to show evidence that the quarry would not affect the level of groundwater in any way.
Mister Sand Baron proudly stated, “I am 100% sure. My confidence is based on the data of the expertise of the Ministry of Natural Resources.”
However, he did not say what exact examinations. As he did not share the research data of the Ministry of Natural Resources. After all, you can say anything. And Belyaev is not new to breaking promises (more details in Alexander Belyaev and accomplices: how to lay a paw on gas and the budget).
Therefore, local residents are worried quite justifiably. After all, even to a direct question, at what depth will sand be taken, Belyaev did not answer. But he tried to pacify the citizens, promising them goodies in the form of inert building materials (sand, crushed stone, gravel). But he did not say a word about the felled trees. And for some reason, none of the media representatives asked him about this either.
It becomes obvious that Mr. Deputy decided to leave 50 hectares of forest for himself and his comrades-in-arms. Do not waste good. In general, cutting down forests in the 50-kilometer zone of Tomsk was banned by the former governor of the region, Viktor Kress. The law is still in force and the quarry in Zarechny falls under it.
However, there is a loophole. And as a former lawyer, Belyaev took advantage of her. The ban applies to commercial timber harvesting. The businessman goes to extract sand. Trees just get in the way.
However, nothing prevents him from sawing them and selling them. And share the money. As a result, Belyaev wins budget money, money from the sale of sand and wood. Solid pluses. As for planting new trees, the deputy does not promise anything specific. There are no clear deadlines, as well as the landing site itself. The same thing happened when Belyaev promised someday to recultivate the land near the Larinsky reserve after gold mining (more details in The extraction of despicable metal threatens the Tomsk reserve).
And if they managed to defend the land there (not without the intervention of the president), then the situation with Zarechny is different. Influential people are already at the feeder. And if 35 billion rubles plus 50 hectares of forest have not yet been physically divided, then mentally they have already done it for sure. Therefore, they tried to hush up the hype around the quarry.
Do not agree? extremists
From a reliable source of BABR, it became known that the topic of the quarry in Zarechny is controlled by a certain Marat Valeev. Also, by a happy coincidence, a deputy of the regional Duma. Member of the Just Russia party and current lawyer. Probably, it was he who came up with the “brilliant” idea to politicize the conflict in order to bring it to naught as soon as possible.
Therefore, in his comments to the press, Belyaev accused the opponents of the quarry of wanting to build their own election campaign and promote themselves by slandering him. Actually, during the speech, the businessman again tried to cast a political bait for journalists. But the locals shaved him off: they are just residents and do not earn any points for themselves. And when the villagers said they would resist the construction of a quarry, even if the local authorities allowed it.
The businessman half-jokingly replied: “Are you now declaring that you will go to extremist actions?”
Extremist activities? Seriously? That is, for Mr. Belyaev, the desire to protect his home, water, forest is a commitment to extreme views, which creates a real threat to the state, encroaches on the constitutional rights and freedoms of the country’s citizens, public safety and public order?
Or is this a hint that department “E” may be interested in especially zealous opponents of the quarry? If the latter, then Belyaev really stands behind high-ranking people. And his words can be taken as a threat. By the way, after meeting with the businessman, some villagers received a call from the police and asked: “Who and why organized the rally?” Did you decide to intimidate people? After all, the sand baron could not agree with them. All the more interesting against the background of this information is the post about the “compromise solution” in Belyaev’s Instagram profile.
It is not clear what kind of compromise he is talking about. Apparently, about a compromise with his own conscience. Or in the hope that all the media will take his word for it. True, the businessman decided not to clean or close the comments. Therefore, the inhabitants of Zarechny hastened to tell him their opinion on the situation.
What else can be added? Judging by how everything is spinning around the quarry, people in power are interested in its construction. Therefore, there is a high probability that no one will take into account the opinion of local residents.
And especially zealous opponents will be demonstratively detained, for “prevention”, so to speak. BABR will continue to monitor developments.