The arrest of the former vice-governor of the 47th region, Mikhail Moskvin, brought the monocle of the investigation to the “Directorate for the Integrated Development of the Territories of the Leningrad Region”. This structure has raised questions for many years, but only now all sorts of deals are coming to light, firmly tied to nepotism, male friendship and “optimization”. Note that the “carpet arrests” of high officials of the Leningrad region have been going on for six months.
Appointment by old friendship
Former vice-governor of the Leningrad region Mikhail Moskvin was arrested by the Oktyabrsky court of St. Petersburg, as was the former director of the autonomous non-profit organization “Directorate for the Integrated Development of the Territories of the Leningrad Region” (DKRT) Daniil Fedichev, who is also a member of the United Russia regional parliament. The first was detained by the Sledkom. The other gave confessions, including that he had given bribes to the vice-governor. Cash, in envelopes. The investigation quickly became aware that the father of 34-year-old Fedichev and Moskvin were long-term friends for about thirty years. And that it was Moskvin who actively contributed to the appointment of Fedichev Jr. to the prestigious and promising position of the head of the DKRT.
In fact, the activities of this organization caused a natural squint for many. Too stormy, but not transparent work was carried out by employees of the DKRT. And the directorate itself was created in 2017, but for the time being, the investigating authorities did not have, one might say, the main one – the victim. And so he appeared. The formal initiator of the initiation of a criminal case was the current director of the DKRT, Denis Lokot, who wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee of the Leningrad Region, where he asked to bring Fedichev to justice for the damage caused when he was the director. Let’s not guess to what extent this step was taken by Mr. Lokot out of a sense of civic responsibility. There is only information that employees of the Investigative Committee and operatives of the FSB for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region from the Economic Security Service were also looking for victims among developers who interacted with the DKRT. through one company.
“Plus or minus 500 thousand rubles”
This company is called the Regional Agency for Industrial and Civil Construction – RAPGS LLC, and it was she who became the general contractor of the DKRT with the right to sign and transaction. And soon it was sold, as the media write, to structures close to Fedichev Sr., Vadim. And at a reduced price. The Investigative Committee informs: “Daniil Fedichev is suspected of abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences (Part 2 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).”
According to the investigation, Mr. Fedichev “used his powers contrary to the interests of the non-profit organization in which he had managerial functions, and also organized the transfer of management of the subsidiary joint-stock company to his close relative in a subsidiary legal entity”. We are talking about the RAGPS company. “The suspect hid from the Supervisory Board of the Directorate information about the contracts concluded and planned for conclusion between it and the RAGPS in the amount of 446 million rubles. But due to the fact that appraisers during the sale of the company could not fully assess the value of the shares being sold, the sale amount in the contract amounted to only 250 thousand rubles. Later, with the help of nominee managers controlled by him, Daniil Fedichev received the right to sole management of a legal entity, that is, RAGPS. By hiding contractual obligations from the supervisory board, Fedichev caused significant losses in the form of non-receipt of retained earnings of a subsidiary legal entity in the amount of at least 22 million rubles as profit on concluded and ongoing contracts. They, in turn, would have to be spent on the statutory goals of the DKRT – the construction of schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure facilities in the Leningrad Region, ”the regional IC reports.
A little later, a certain Sergey Belyakov became the new general director of the RAGPS, who transferred the money to Fedichev Jr., obtained during the “optimization” of the construction of social facilities, usually in the car. Further, the money was already going to Moskvin, or rather, part of the money. Daniil Vadimovich, in a confession, explained that “he received instructions from Moskvin to organize work with contractors in such a way that there was a possibility of withdrawing money and cashing out. Belyakov should have transferred money with the accumulation of plus or minus 500 thousand rubles.
The scheme, which is not so complicated, worked successfully from spring 2019 to autumn 2021. Mr. Belyakov has already confirmed these data of the investigation with a signature. The source of the Nasha Versiya correspondent in the government of the Leningrad region says: “When the DKRT was created, knowledgeable and experienced people had no doubts that a lining was being established between developers who build social facilities in the region and individual corrupt officials. As far as I know, already in the first months of the directorate’s work, law enforcement agencies received signals from caring people in this area. But the investigation, as then, in 2018, did not seem to have much motivation for investigations. Maybe this is not so, but the evidence was collected scrupulously, slowly. But then it seemed that nepotism and strong male friendship in the Leningrad region reached its climax. After all, in addition to DKRT and RAGPS, there was another dubious structure – Lenoblekspertiza under the patronage of the construction committee of the government of the Leningrad Region.
We will cover this structure shortly.
Best the enemy of the good?
In general, economists and experts in the 47th region say that initially, on paper, the idea of creating the DKRT was positive: construction of social and engineering infrastructure. Also, the structure had to solve other problems that arise on the way to the implementation of complex projects for the development of the territory, including those with equity holders. This was some kind of insurance, but the good idea turned into a corruption scheme, and the investigation has not yet identified all the participants in the criminal chain. The best is the enemy of the good, it happened in the Leningrad region.”
We also note that the specialized Chekists do not particularly hide the fact that the DKRT and Lenoblekspertiza appeared in their area of attention almost immediately, and the basis of vigilance was just the old acquaintances of the current defendants in criminal cases. The same male friendship. Inquiries about it are made quickly. If we take law enforcement officers, it is funny that DKRT and RAGPS were engaged, among other things, in the construction of a police department in Kudrovo. And what? Quite a social object.
But this chain is not all. So, according to the information system “SPARK”, in 2020 the shares of RAGPS, namely 95%, were transferred to JSC “MC Nashe Delo”, the sole owner and director of which is a certain Alexei Grishin. The nominal value of the organization by that time was designated as 9.5 thousand rubles. A few months later, 10% of the share of “Our business” went to the new director, already known to us, Sergei Belyakov. The remaining 5%, which DKRT had until 2021, was transferred to the Nord West Group company, but it is owned and managed again by Alexei Grishin. That is, a certain strange “daughter” appeared, but with familiar “fathers”.
What does this mean? As experts and people in the subject say, in this way, the DKRT and RAGPS were “eroded” in order to reduce audit and other control by the state. However, these organizations were observed by Lenoblekspertiza under the construction committee! That’s just its leader, Yevgeny Bredikhin, recently spent almost half a year in a pre-trial detention center. Now, in March, he was released under house arrest, and he is charged with large-scale embezzlement and three episodes of mediation in the transfer of a bribe. But the main thing is different – everyone in the region knows the close, almost friendly communication between Mr. Bredikhin and, again, Moskvin, the former vice-governor. It was nepotism, strong male friendship that became the “trail” along which the FSB operatives and investigators of the Investigative Committee walked. And they did, apparently.
In prison someone on business, someone on an excursion
And, of course, one cannot but pay attention to the trend – the investigating authorities of the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg (many defendants have a St. Petersburg residence permit, or in criminal cases legal entities have St. Petersburg addresses), as well as police and FSB operatives have recently detained high-ranking officials of the Leningrad Region stop. And the construction industry prevails here. With accompanying. So, at the beginning of the year, Sergey Shalygin, the first deputy chairman of the construction committee of the government of the Leningrad Region, was detained, who was caught red-handed while receiving a bribe of 500 thousand rubles (again, half a million is the norm for one tranche of a bribe in the region?). A certain entrepreneur who transferred the money was counting on receiving construction projects in the region. Shalygin worked in his position for 9 years, by the way. And Konstantin Pankratiev, Shalygin’s immediate supervisor, the head of the Leningrad region’s Komstroy, had suddenly quit shortly before that. As well as Yuri Andreev, head of the fuel and energy complex of the government of the Leningrad Region. After his dismissal, he was arrested.
Also, this year alone, the deputy chairman of the state property management committee, Oleg Zinchenko, was arrested (a bribe), the case of the former head of the department for issuing permits for the construction of Gosstroynadzor Raisa Skuridina went to court, and Roman Kirbabin, the chief specialist of the Gosstroynadzor committee, was under investigation, with 14.5 million rubles found , former deputy chairman of Gosstroynadzor Dmitry Lobanovsky in December 2022 was sentenced to 5 years for a bribe. As it is easy to see, the sanctions concern, first of all, the building block of the government of the Leningrad Region and the people and structures associated with it. And friendship. It is characteristic that the governor of the region Alexander Drozdenko has already promised his subordinates regular “educational excursions” to the pre-trial detention centers for prevention. But is hunting worse than bondage?
