Billions from dust: oligarch Altushkin digs another dangerous quarry while the authorities are silent

Near Orenburg, a confrontation is developing between the population and industrialists who are digging a quarry close to residential buildings.

According to the correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Orenburg region, in the village of Aschebutak, near Orenburg, a real drama is being played out. A few hundred meters from the houses, the entrepreneurs, in agreement with the local authorities, are planning to dig a quarry for the extraction of ore. The work permit was issued to two JSCs – Ormet and Russian Copper Company.

Residents of the village strongly opposed the construction of a quarry. They have already applied to all instances at the local government level, up to the governor Denis Pasler and the regional prosecutor Ruslan Medvedev, and also wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

We live like on a volcano

The villagers fear that the consequences of the appearance of a quarry near their village will be clouds of dust, as well as a constant roar, all this will turn their quiet place into a noisy production, under which the ground is shaking. According to those living in Ashchebutak, in the 60s the village was constantly covered by sandstorms, and they were able to cope with this only by planting trees. The development of a quarry can provoke a repetition of the situation of half a century ago.

According to the entrepreneurs, it is expected that wastewater from the quarry will evaporate in a reservoir pond specially designed for this purpose. Only now, from the point of view of local residents, there are important omissions here: in the immediate vicinity of the pond there is a reservoir that flows into the Ob River, which, in turn, flows into the Dnieper. Thus pollution of both reservoirs will be inevitable.

At the same time, local authorities sing a familiar song – supposedly nothing will happen without the consent of the residents, public hearings will be held on this issue, etc. At the same time, of course, no one is invited to the hearings. People become aware of their results after the event. Residents are also prohibited from organizing meetings on this occasion. When the regional authorities became aware of the intention of the villagers to gather to discuss this issue, a warning letter was promptly sent to the Ashebutak residents through the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs, in which they were explicitly declared criminally liable for violating the ban on holding meetings. As always, the pandemic came in handy – the perfect reason to ban the will of the people.

A letter of warning about the ban on holding a meeting was sent to Ashebutak residents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Orenburg Region

However, the villagers managed to get out – they did hold a meeting, but under the guise of a subbotnik organized for the purpose of clearing snow, they also attracted the attention of journalists. After the story received wide publicity, the authorities had to respond to the situation. Now it was no longer possible to sit back and think that everything would settle down like sand on the houses of the Ashebutak people after the quarry was developed.

Ashebutak residents came out to clean the snow after the authorities forbade gathering for an unauthorized rally

The prosecutor of the region Ruslan Medvedev himself came to a meeting with the residents, who, following the results of communication with them, instructed to check the legality of quarrying in the indicated area, taking into account the proximity to residential buildings.

Meeting of the Prosecutor of the Orenburg Region Ruslan Medvedev with the residents of the village of Ashchebutak

So far, the site on which the quarry is planned to be located is in the status of land allotted for haymaking and grazing and, according to residents, belongs to the daughter of the former head of the Dombarovsky district, Valery Shvindt, who was dismissed from his post after a scandal with a large family, which illegally robbed the children. RIA Novosti reported this in detail.

Territory of the future quarry

The law is not written for oligarchs

Who so liked this piece of land next to a small village in the Orenburg region? All leads to a certain Igor Altushkin, a billionaire who founded the Russian Copper Company and owns 80% of its shares through a foreign company, Tilia Holdings Limited.

Igor Altushkin

JSC “Ormet” is also one of the enterprises affiliated to Altushkin. Among the founders of this company are also two foreign organizations, which, in addition to Altushkin, are also associated with the head of Rosneft himself, Igor Sechin. Allegedly, his son-in-law Timerbulat Karimov has assets there. An interesting fact is that the Ormet company has one state contract for 663 thousand rubles with the government of the Orenburg region, its subject is transport services with the provision of a crew. To clarify: the company is also engaged in the development of ore.

All this leads to thoughts about the “roof” of the company in the government, or vice versa, the total control of the top by Altushkin. Such a theory is indirectly confirmed by the fact that municipal deputies spoke out against the construction of the ill-fated quarry at a time when the government, represented by Governor Denis Pasler, does not show signs of life.

By the way, Pasler has recently been almost under the hood of the special services – searches are taking place in the head units of the ministries under his control. There is talk of the governor’s imminent resignation. Who will replace him is still an open question. Whoever it is, there are big doubts that he will not fall under the rudder of businessmen in the region. Their level, apparently, is many times higher than the level of any regional henchman.

Denis Pasler

This is not the first time Altushkin appears in the media in the role of a sort of “Conon-destroyer”: the “Russian Copper Company” has previously caused enormous damage to the environment and the lives of the villagers. Take, for example, the story that happened with the Dzhusinsky mine in the Adamovsky district. The Moscow Post has previously covered this situation.

Until 2025, it is planned to develop a quarry, but the locals are already complaining about the constant vibrations in the soil, because of which the local school is falling apart, they also blame the increased mortality from oncology. Meanwhile, the owners of the deposit, it seems, are only thinking about how to earn extra money – they began to develop a quarry in depth, because it is more profitable this way, you can not limit yourself to what is on the surface.

Residents of the surrounding villages are sure: when the development period expires, they will be left with a huge dust crater at their side and no one but them will want to eliminate the damage caused by Altushkin.

There is still hope

As recently as yesterday, a video appeared on the Ural news portal, which clearly demonstrates what remains in the Yasnensky urban district near the village of Rassvet, as the consequences of the activities of Altushkin and others like him at the site of the former quarry “Badger Log”, which was under development by “RMK”. The same can happen with Ashchebutak.

True, there is still a faint hope for salvation: firstly, the villagers managed to cause a public outcry, and secondly, the location of the village plays a big role – it is located on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan. And now close attention is being paid to the situation in the border regions against the backdrop of ongoing protests. Is there a need for a hotbed of instability that could give rise to unnecessary resonance in Kazakhstan?