Experts continue to investigate the causes of the crash of the Robinson helicopter near the Uzon volcano and the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka. As a result of the accident, the famous biathlete Igor Malinovsky and his two companions, top managers of large Russian companies, died.

The case of the death of non-poor tourists adds to the negative to the talk that tourism in Kamchatka is mainly of an elitist nature. Whereas the development of tourism in general, including the tourism cluster near the three volcanoes, is stalling under the current head of Kamchatka, Vladimir Solodov.

The correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Kamchatka Territory understood the reasons.

Reserve of corruption

The locals have an opinion that supposedly the reasons are the same as in other areas – corruption and incompetence of officials. But if there is little clarity with the tragedy of Malinovsky and his companions, then in terms of corruption it is easier. Scandals with a bad smell rumble almost every month and affect the possibilities of tourists.

Two weeks ago, on July 15, three employees of the Kronotsky Reserve – Deputy Director for Science and Educational Tourism Roman Korchigin, Head of the Scientific Department Daria Panicheva, Deputy Director for Financial and Legal Support Oksana Terekhova – received court verdicts for embezzlement of almost half a billion budget rubles allocated to the reserve for disposal and removal of hazardous waste from its territory. The BFM.ru publication wrote about the situation.

The court agreed with the conclusions of the investigation, which found that instead of recycling and removing waste accumulated in the last century, the company that won the tender buried everything in the protected area. True, the director of the reserve, in which everything happened, did not live to see the trial, and his subordinates intend to appeal the verdict. At the same time, the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and the governor of the region of Solodov himself intend to support them in this endeavor. Why?

It is possible that gray schemes with waste disposal in the tourist places of Kamchatka continue to work. Therefore, it is more profitable for Solodov and Co. to smooth the corners. The current director of the Kronotsky Reserve, Pyotr Shpilyonok, answering journalists’ questions about where the money went, said bluntly: definitely not into the pockets of the convicts. And in whose then? Those who sit in ministerial offices in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky?

Shpilenok himself has already written a letter of resignation. He clearly does not want to be built into a vicious circle. But the scandal has already paralyzed the work of the reserve: after the announcement of the verdict, tourists were no longer allowed there. Stopped not only excursions, but also scientific research.

Is the Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka “polluted” not without a corruption component? Photo: fotokto.ru

Is it there that it might just be dangerous because of the waste? That’s what the district attorney’s office thinks.

“Rogue Packers”

At the same time, rest in Kamchatka in the eyes of ordinary tourists from the Russian Federation has an elitist connotation. One of the high-profile scandals of recent months is connected with this, when the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kamchatka Territory, appointed by Vladimir Solodov, Alexei Kumarkov, actually humiliated our tourists. He called them “a locust of rogue packers.” He gave such a comment in response to the idea of ​​organizing cheap tours to Kamchatka.

This proposal was made by Vice-President of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry Olga Sanaeva. She estimated the cost of a week-long tour to Kamchatka at 45 thousand rubles, which clearly did not suit the appetites of local officials.

“And another question – and we, the inhabitants of Kamchatka, why do we need it – so that they come to us” cheaply “? What will be the use for the economy and nature of Kamchatka if locusts of roaming bag-bags rush here, huddling for every ruble?” Kumarkov is quoted as saying edition “Tsargrad”.

This is in a country where the average salary in most regions has only recently exceeded a modest 30 thousand rubles. It is difficult to extract an extra corruption “penny” from such “rogues”. Perhaps this is the reason for the “brakes” in the development of tourism in Kamchatka?

Governor Vladimir Solodov, realizing that his subordinate had “blurted out”, hastened to issue a reprimand to Kumarkov. Only the word is not a sparrow, and if a person from his team allows himself to speak out in public like that, what do they say among themselves about poor tourists “off the record”?

Three “Potanin” volcanoes

The events in the Kronotsky Reserve, Kumarkov’s inappropriate comments and the tragedy of Malinovsky’s death in an air accident cannot be considered separately. Including, from what is being done for the development of the so-called. “tourist cluster in the Kamchatka Territory”, which was given to big business.

The creation of the cluster was announced in 2019 at the suggestion of Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Trutnev. Let us briefly recall: until 2027, in Kamchatka, near the three volcanoes Mutnovsky, Vilyuchinsky and Gorely, it is planned to create an “international standard resort and public resort infrastructure” with an investment of almost 40 billion rubles.

For this money, they plan to create a resort with 1,000 hotel rooms near the Goryachaya hill, stretch 17 km of ski slopes and build two cable cars. Another cable car is planned to be laid to the top of the Vilyuchinsky volcano.

A crater will be built near the Mutnovsky volcano and a path will be equipped to the site near the waterfall above the Opasny canyon. Cable car tours will operate all year round – and investors expect to receive over 400,000 Russian and foreign tourists annually.

Of the 40 billion rubles, about 15 billion rubles. Vladimir Potanin’s Interros group and Sergey Bachin’s structures (he is the director of Rosa Khutor LLC) intend to invest in its construction. They are the main stakeholders and partners of the authorities in the implementation of the project.

I have written about both The Moscow Post. Recall what the same Bachin did to Rosa Khutor – you can read about it in the article “Sergey Bachin was moved from the clearing.”

In short, the resort, under his leadership, did not get out of debt, while Sergei Bachin himself had behind him a whole bunch of failed projects in terms of investment. As a result, now the value of the assets of Rosa Khutor LLC is minus 56 billion (!) Rubles.

As for Vladimir Potanin, everyone had the displeasure to be convinced of his attitude to the environment in 2020, when as a result of the spill of oil products at CHPP-3 (part of Potanin’s Norilsk Nickel) near Norilsk, the largest environmental disaster in the modern history of Russia occurred. As a result, the structures of the oligarch had to pay a record fine of 145 billion rubles. But the damage to nature will be much more difficult to overcome.

It is precisely such “responsible” investors who have been given the project to create a tourist cluster. Presumably, not without personal benefit for the team of the same Solodov. Despite the fact that the very idea and approach of Potanin was accepted during the work of the former governor Vladimir Ilyukhin. Could Solodov’s candidacy have been agreed without confidence in the protection of these investments?

A photo: Rusprofile.en

How will it all end? Apparently, the same thing that Rosa Khutor turned into – a good (in general) resort that cannot live without cash injections and has not paid off for almost ten years.

Now, a financial hole has formed in Park Three Volcano LLC (the main legal entity for the implementation of the cluster development project): at the end of 2021, the company received a loss of 241 million rubles with no revenue. We can say that the project has just begun to be implemented, but half of its funding, and even more, comes from the budget.

A photo: Rusprofile.en

The company is 70% owned by MK “Interros Capital” of Mr. Potanin. Less than 1% from the state JSC “Corporation Tourism. RF” to control the implementation. And about 30% belongs to Organic Project LLC, a scandalous investor Sergei Bachin.

A photo: Rusprofile.en

So, if the Three Volcanoes themselves were created in 2019 specifically for the cluster, then Organic Project LLC (behind Bachin in it more than 52%) has been operating since 2007. And if the lack of profits at the Three Volcanoes can be explained by the start of work, then the Organic project at the end of 2021 has a loss of 87 million rubles with zero revenue.

A photo: Rusprofile.en

What can it say? The fact that the company may not conduct real work, and the budget money allocated for the creation of a tourist cluster may fly into the pipe. Or even be tritely removed from Russian jurisdiction.

Needless to say, in this case, all plans to create a tourist cluster in Kamchatka will go to waste? Not to mention the fact that ordinary Russians seem to have to forget about an inexpensive and safe vacation on the peninsula in general.