Budget schemes of Kopaygorodsky’s team

The Sochi City Assembly adopted in the second reading the budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026. In 2024, the document provides for record revenues of 53.1 billion rubles and expenses of 54.3 billion rubles. The mayor’s office proudly states that in five years the resort’s budget has grown fivefold. In addition, the team included one of the three best Russian mayors Alexey Kopaygorodsky strongly emphasize the increase in tourist flow, which made it possible to transfer more than 5.1 billion rubles. At the same time, Sochi officials prefer not to remember not only the multibillion-dollar investments from the federal and regional budgets, but also the debt burden of the city, which is “patching” financial “holes” by obtaining bank loans. In May last year, local authorities reported the full repayment of municipal debt, which exceeded 2 billion rublesand already last September they entered into a contract to open a non-revolving credit line with the Russian National Commercial Bank, under the terms of which, taking into account interest, they will have to pay more 210 million rubles. It is not surprising that with a deficit budget, the resort administration does not have the funds to lay a water supply system in remote villages, repair roads, or buy apartments for orphans, housing for which is purchased in Krasnodar, where it is cheaper than in Sochi. Meanwhile, Kopaygorodsky’s inner circle includes large developers, in particular, the beneficiary of the Metropolis holding Pavel Nevzorov, whose company is actively developing the Northern Bytkha microdistrict, where the construction of a new school has been postponed due to the danger of landslides. Experts draw the attention of the mayor’s office to the catastrophic shortage of schools and kindergartens in the city, but officials invariably continue to refer to a lack of funding. In the meantime, the city is living on debt, and the mayor’s office is reporting on budget records, Alexey Kopaygorodsky’s team continues to “fever”: following the suspected corruption former chief architect Dmitry Litvinets The head of the administration’s legal department resigned Valeria Vetrova.

Sochi City Hall breaks budget records

At the regular session, deputies of the Sochi City Assembly adopted in the second reading the budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026. According to the official messagesbudget revenues for 2024 are included in the amount 53.1 billion rublesexpenses – 54.3 billion. To be confirmedthat 59.3% of the budget will be allocated to the implementation of large-scale projects, such as the integrated development of the city, construction and reconstruction of water drainage facilities, bank protection and hydraulic structures.

At the regular session, deputies of the Sochi City Assembly adopted in the second reading the budget for 2024 and the planning period 2025-2026

In general, there is no end to the work! It is noteworthy that a little earlier in the Sochi administration emphasized: the dynamics of revenue receipts in the city treasury increased from 10.6 billion in 2019 until 50.8 billion rublesbudgeted for 2024 (this amount was initially there was a talk). That is, taking into account the final figure, the resort budget has grown five times over five years.

Special attention should be paid to the reporting of municipal officials related to the increase in tourist flow. “Currently, 95 thousand people vacation in Sochi at the same time. At the end of the year, the tourist flow will be 7.6 million people, which is almost 6% higher than last year’s figures. This is a record figure for three years. During the New Year and Christmas holidays, we expect to receive 300 thousand guests.”– reported Director of the Department of Resorts, Tourism and Consumer Sector of the City Administration Kirill Yarysh.

According to official data City halls, city organizations of the sanatorium-resort and tourist complex in the past year transferred more than 5.1 billion rubleswhich is 117.5% compared to last year’s figure.

Moscow will help in the implementation of projects

As we can see, the Sochi authorities are demonstrating further economic breakthroughs year after year. Apparently, it’s not in vain that the mayor Alexey Kopaygorodsky recently took over third line in the all-Russian ranking of city heads, prepared by the Center for Information Communications together with the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)! The resort, apparently, is truly blooming, and the well-being of its residents is growing by leaps and bounds.

In fact, you can add a solid “fly in the ointment” to Kopaigorodsky’s budget “honeycomb.” To begin with, the Sochi treasury continues to actively absorb regional finances. And not only. Take at least the following fact. In 2022, the Sochi budget has reached 26.8 billion rubles. Over the same period, funds were raised from the federal and regional budgets subsidies at the rate of 8.2 billion. Last November, Kommersant, citing the press service of the mayor’s office, reported on the allocation to the city in 2023-2024. more 8 billion rubles “to solve socially significant problems.”

Honor of said means planned allocated for the construction of a school for 1,100 places in the Northern Bytkha microdistrict and a block for 400 places on the territory of school No. 18. Expenses for the same objects appear in next year’s budget. Moreover, the school in Bytkha was originally planned to be put into operation this past year along with a new kindergarten for 300 pupils, but in the end the deadlines were postponed.

The official reason of the authorities named “difficult weather conditions and the introduction of a state of emergency”: they say, due to prolonged heavy rains and the onset of landslides, the retaining walls deviated from the design position, as a result of which significant adjustments were required to the existing design and estimate documentation. Last June at City Hall voiced the new construction completion date is September 1, 2024. But the geological conditions remain the same.

School in Bytkha, June 2023

“The landslide in Bytkha has been active for a long time, and during any more or less heavy rain, a clay mass mixed with stones blocks the road and breaks the local water supply networks, the microdistrict is regularly left without water.”– writes online publication “Sochi1.Ru”

Officials want to solve the problem by construction retaining walls during the construction of a kindergarten and school. It is also planned to create a storm drain. But will the stand be covered by another landslide? Note that the project is being implemented, among other things, with funds from the federal budget: back in 2021, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed order allocate for these purposes within the framework of the federal project “Housing” a total of 916 million rubles.

Appeared online informationaccording to which the postponement was followed by an increase in construction costs: the school rose in price by 153 million (before 1.78 billion rubles), kindergarten – on 150.8 million (before 947.3 million rubles). Literally two days at the press service of the regional administration reported about the readiness of the kindergarten by 95% and the completion of construction and installation work by the end of the outgoing year.

Kindergarten, December 2023

However, Sochi residents are asking the authorities uncomfortable questions. The fact is that the preschool is designed for 300 children, and there is a waiting list thousands of kidsincluding those living in fifteen 19-story buildings located nearby Residential complex “Oxygen”, permission the construction of which was granted by the Kopaigorodsky administration, despite the danger of landslide processes.

Holes in Sochi’s budget are being patched with loans

We will talk about the problems of Sochi schools later, but for now let’s return to the record budget. The fact is that the city is sorely lacking the billions earned from tourists. Federal and regional investments do not improve the situation. Therefore, the city leadership has to patch up financial “holes” and eliminate the budget deficit in the only available way – through lending.

So, last September the resort’s mayor’s office held an electronic auction to open a non-revolving credit line in the amount of 186.28 million rubles. The winner of the competition was Russian National Commercial Bank (RNKB), who undertook to lend to the administration at a rate of 13% per annum. In addition to the principal amount of the loan, which must be repaid by the end of November 2024, 24.2 million the municipality will spend on loan servicing.

This method of replenishing the city budget is not something out of the ordinary for Alexey Kopaygorodsky’s team. In August 2020, the mayor’s office “credited” V Sberbank for a much larger amount – 680 million rublesand in September the same year – back 331 million at a rate of 5.65% per annum (17.371 million rubles).

Sochi will raise 331 million rubles from Sberbank. Interfax publication

In September 2021, the Sochi administration again wanted to solve the problem of the budget deficit and repay debt obligations by lendingthis time in size 358.08 million rubles with a rate of 7.5% per annum, but there were no people willing to provide funds to the debtor city. I had to do it again auctionthe results of which Contract agreed to the same RNKBwhose application for participation in the competition was the only one.

Let’s look at some more interesting numbers. By data Kommersant, as of November 1, 2020, the total amount of Sochi’s internal debt on loans received was 1.6 billionthe budget deficit as of December 1 was estimated at 1.05 billion rubles. Then the municipality’s obligations grew like a snowball. But there were still debts to the regional budget: in September 2021, the governor Veniamin Kondratyev announced on debt write-off in the amount of 2.3 billion Sochi, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, as well as the Tbilisi region.

The Sochi authorities finally paid off the municipal debt only in May 2022. How wrote Media, it was about the amount at 2.037 billion rubles. At City Hall emphasizedthat the administration was even able to save 13 million, and in 2023 and 2024. this amount will be 113 million rubles. It sounded optimistic, but, as mentioned above, in September 2023, Kopaygorodsky’s team again fell into debt and the city will have to repay the RNKB loan for the entire next year. And another question is whether you will have to take out another loan for this.

“No money”: orphans from Sochi are resettled in Krasnodar

Against the background of the budget deficit, the Sochi administration’s lack of funds for the implementation of a number of important projects becomes understandable. The reason is simple: with a growing budget, the city simply has no money. In particular, this explained lack of drinking water supply in the villages of Krasnaya Volya and Khleborob, where only process water was supplied, not intended for drinking. Only in August 2021 Adler District Court obliged the mayor’s office “to ensure the implementation and financing of measures for water supply to remote rural settlements”, including them in the municipal infrastructure development program.

Agree that it is one thing to report on the improvement of the city center, and quite another to solve the problems of residents of the outskirts. An indicative story can be called that occurred in October last year, when the regional Office of the FAS canceled the auction to replace paving slabs in the Adler region. Initial price contract 53 million rubles according to the results of the auction I got “Vladimir Door Company”however, the Sochi authorities soon announced their refusal to sign it.

Official cause was “absence of limits on budgetary obligations” and necessity “optimization of city budget funds due to the need to solve priority social problems”. Simply put, the municipality simply did not have the finances. The antimonopoly department considered the claims of the failed contractor justified and gave officials an order to eliminate violations.

But what are paving slabs if a resort with a growing budget does not even have the funds to buy housing for orphans! Because of high prices for resort real estate, it has to be purchased not in Sochi, but in Krasnodar. Last week in the Sochi administration reported about the purchase of 56 apartments in the regional center, emphasizing that they were chosen “taking into account the developed infrastructure and convenient location”.

Alexey Kopaygorodsky handing over the keys

This is not an isolated case. A similar situation took place in 2021, when there were purchased 50 apartments in the Prikubansky intracity district of Krasnodar. “And it turned out to be unimportant for the officials that the young people had already developed some business connections, made friends, and that Sochi was their hometown, to which they were accustomed and attached to their souls. In a rich city with a rich budget, there was no money for the Kuban residents who were offended by their fate. Will they be able to settle down and find work in a foreign city?”– wrote edition “24Krasnodar.ru”.

The most outrageous thing is that the mayor’s office has repeatedly given apartments to orphans obliged courts. According to information On the website of the municipal administration, more than 400 citizens belonging to this category are currently registered as needing to be provided with housing. It turns out that Kopaigorodsky’s team still has more than one trial ahead?

Everything described looks like an outright mockery, if we remember the close connections high-ranking Sochi officials and Alexey Kopaygorodsky himself with a number of large developers. For example, a beneficiary of a development holding “Metropolis” Pavel Nevzorovwho until recently was a member of the municipal Urban Planning Council in the status of public advisor to the mayor.

By the way, the company owned by Nevzorov “Stroygarant-N” at one time she became a participant in a high-profile scandalrelated to obtaining a building permit Residential complex “Northern Bytkha-1” And “Northern Bytkha-2”, in the same microdistrict where landslides regularly occur, and today a new school and kindergarten are being built. And the one mentioned above Residential complex “Oxygen” right here builds another major developer – investment holding “AVA Group” businessman Vahan Harutyunyan. But resolving the issue with the “court developers” on reducing prices for apartments for orphans is not included in Kopaygorodsky’s plans: the common commercial interests of the mayor and construction magnates do not provide for this.

Pavel Nevzorov, Veniamin Kondratiev, Alexey Kopaygorodsky

Lost trials and the “land case”

The relationship between the Sochi leadership and some developers is of a rather specific nature: the administration is losing cases to them in court for hundreds of millions, although they could be used to “patch” holes in the deficit budget. For example, last week the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District upheld the decisions of lower authorities, refused City Hall in recovery 311 million rubles from the company “Matsestarealstroy”engaged in the construction Residential complex “Izmailovsky Park”.

According to the investment agreement signed by the parties agreement, the developer was required to transfer to the municipality 7.2% of the total area of ​​apartments in the residential complex. This condition was not met, and the mayor’s office filed a claim for damages in arbitration. Only during the proceedings It revealedthat violations occurred on the part of the plaintiff himself: the administration not only did not properly fulfill its obligations under the investment agreement and did not provide assistance to the developer, but created obstacles for him in the implementation of the project.

Result: the trial was lost. And not only this one. Thus, in April, the Kuban Arbitration Court denied the Sochi mayor’s office a claim against Alpika LLC almost 640 million rubles – lossescaused by failure to fulfill the obligation to transfer apartments to Residential complex “Arenda-7”. But how was it installedAlpika received the rights to the site where the company had previously been building “Freestyle”, within the framework of the settlement agreement and did not assume any obligations under the investment agreement. The decision made survived in the Fifteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal.

If you wish, you can find other similar examples on the Internet, in connection with which serious doubts arise about the professionalism of lawyers from the legal department of the administration, until recently headed by Valeria Vetrovawho appeared at the mayor’s office together with Kopaygorodsky in 2019 and left for resignation last week.

It would be appropriate to recall here that the resort administration has been in a fever for the second month in a row. It all started with haste layoffs in November, Director of the Department of Construction and Architecture Dmitry Litvinetswhich allegedly occurred after he had searchesrelated to investigation criminal case on illegal distribution of land in the center of Sochi. We were talking about 28 land plots with a total cost more 400 million rublesregistered to dummy persons.

Dmitry Litvinets

If you believe publications online, in the process of investigative actions, a folder with the inscription “Personal control” was seized from Litvinets, containing documents endorsed by Alexey Kopaygorodsky himself and relating to plots de jure provided to civil servants, but in fact assigned corrupt officials, and the scheme involved structures associated with the developer Pavel Nevzorov, already mentioned above. Be that as it may, Dmitry Litvinets said goodbye to his position. Who replaced him Pavel Obertinsky led department for only a few days and also retreated. Now it’s Ms. Vetrova’s turn. Did the security forces also have questions for her?

There are not enough schools, the roads are destroyed, and the city is drowning

It seems that Kopaygorodsky’s team is mainly doing what they love – cutting up expensive resort land. And at the same time the budget. Otherwise, how can we explain that while it is officially declared to be growing year after year, the city is sorely short of money, and the implementation of projects is “slowing down”? For example, a kindergarten on the street. Gagarina, 39, the construction of which was carried out within the framework of the national project “Demography”, instead of August 2021 put into operation only in April 2022. One of the deputy mayors was “responsible” for this, fined… on 10 thousand rubles.

The lack of kindergartens and schools in the resort generally looks catastrophic. By data Director of the Research Institute of Advanced Urban Development Pavel Spirina, announced at a meeting of the city public council, out of 82 settlements in Sochi, there are no kindergartens in 68, the municipality lacks 119 preschool education facilities. The provision of schools is 50%, the city needs 24 more schools. Governor Kondratiev admitted the problem, declared on the need to build 150 social facilities in Sochi.

Let us pay attention to one more important point. In April of this year, the Federal Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov stated: in Russia (*aggressor country) there are no schools where training would be carried out in three shifts. Thus, the president’s order, announced back in 2021, was fulfilled. But this setting does not apply to Sochi. In any case, for three-shift training complain parents of school students in the Chaysovkhoz microdistrict in Adler, where instead of the required 2 thousand lessons visits 2.5 thousand schoolchildren. Officials simply ignore requests from residents to build a new educational institution.

Residents of the village of Lesnoy in the Adler region have another problem: for years they have not been able to achieve repairs a road destroyed by a landslide, travel along which becomes especially dangerous in the winter season. The reasons for the refusal include, among other things, lack of funding. But even where highways are being repaired as part of the national project “Safe Quality Roads,” corruption incidents cannot occur. For example, in the past year a criminal case was opened on the fact theft 144.8 million rubles during the repair of the road to the village of Khartsyz Pervy. The persons involved were officials of the contractor State Unitary Enterprise “Dagomysskoye DRSU”.

But what can we say about the villages, if in Sochi itself the problem of storm sewerage has not been solved for years, periodically making itself felt during heavy rains! For several years in a row, floods in the city were accompanied not only by evacuation, but also death
of people. Last June, the state of Sochi storm drains became the subject of discussions in the State Duma. But the cart, as they say, is still there. Indeed, in addition to chaotic development, the cause of flooding is the load on worn-out utility networks from residential complexes and apartment complexes built by developers close to the mayor’s office, including on land plots intended for individual housing construction or placement of country and garden houses.

Sochi

Although here finances alone cannot solve the problem, whose integral part is the corruption component. In general, with such a budget, which was recently reported to the mayor’s office, the city of Sochi should be a real southern resort oasis, not only its center, but also the villages located within the municipality. But to do this, one of the best Russian mayors and his team would have to abandon their usual working methods. So the numbers will remain on paper, the volume of complaints from residents will grow, and the resort will continue to take out new loans to “patch holes” in the budget due to the insatiable appetites of bureaucrats.