“Conspiracy” of State Duma deputy Valery Hartung?

State Duma deputy from the Social Revolutionaries Valery Hartung wanted to return direct elections for the mayor of Chelyabinsk, but the Legislative Assembly rejected the bill last week. This story drew attention to the assets of the deputy’s family.

Valery Hartung has been sitting in the State Duma since 1997 and is considered “unsinkable.” Such political “dinosaurs” in the Russian parliament can be counted on one hand. Before the State Duma, Hartung was the general director of the Chelyabinsk Forging and Press Plant (ChKPZ PJSC), which is now headed by the deputy’s son Andrey.

The founders of ChKPZ are not disclosed in open sources, but it is known that as of 2020, 95.44% of the company’s shares belonged to the Hartung family – the deputy himself, his wife, mother and brother.

In 2022, the company received revenue of 15 billion rubles. and profit of 526 million rubles. The total amount of government contracts of PJSC ChKPZ is 1.2 billion rubles. The main customers are Rostec enterprises. But all contracts were concluded before 2021. Possibly related to state defense orders, they are not displayed in open sources.

PJSC “ChKPZ” has 2 managed structures – LLC “Kuznitsa” and “Forge Assets” and 4 subsidiaries. The founder of Kuznitsa LLC is Kuznechnye Assets LLC, it is owned by ChKPZ PJSC and OMG LLC. In 2022, Kuznechnye Assets LLC, with revenue of 334 million rubles. suffered a loss of 7.5 million rubles.

Revenue went up by 100%, and profit went down just as much. Something is clearly wrong with the company.

The founder of OMG LLC is Malakhit JSC, whose share is under the encumbrance of the Moscow Credit Bank (MCB), which is supervised by Igor Sechin’s Rosneft. The owner of Malachite JSC is Pavel Yakovlev. He is the general director of JSC AZ Ural, which previously belonged to the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and since 2020 has been part of the OMG group of Dmitry Strezhnev.

The subsidiaries of PJSC ChKPZ look rather strange. ChZSM LLC (Chelyabinsk Special Machine Building Plant) employs only 1 person, which is clearly not enough for an enterprise with the name “plant”. The company has government contracts worth almost 31 million rubles, but in 2022 it received 0 revenue, a loss of 3.1 million rubles, and negative capital of 135 million rubles. It seems that ChZSM LLC, which has never made a profit, is not a plant, but a technical structure for withdrawing money.

Another subsidiary, UZPT LLC, received 0 revenue, the loss amounted to 21 thousand rubles. Another “daughter” of ChKPZ-Energo LLC with 1 employee on staff, with revenue of 3.9 million rubles. suffered a loss of 1.1 million rubles, the company never had a profit.

Money is most likely withdrawn through the subsidiaries of PJSC ChKPZ. The general director of the enterprise, Andrey Hartung, who is also a co-founder of the subsidiaries of PJSC ChKPZ, will have to be responsible for this.

How does the Hartung family do business?

The deputy’s son also wanted to get into politics, but it didn’t work out, and now he has to take the rap for his dad at his enterprise. Hartung Jr. is the founder of 4 operating organizations, 2 of which are technical subsidiaries of PJSC ChKPZ, mentioned above.

The co-founders of Andrei Hartung in Hartung LLC are Marina Gartung, the wife of a deputy, and Concern Leader LLC, which belongs to her. Marina Hartung is the founder of 9 operating companies, the value of which has been growing since 2019.

Dmitry Gartung, the brother of the deputy, owns Overload LLC with revenue of 138 million rubles. and a profit of 10 million rubles. in 2022. From 2015 to 2022, he was a shareholder of Hartung LLC.

From 2014 to 2019, Valery Gartung also appeared in the family empire as the founder of Amesk-Plus LLC and Amesk LLC.

If Valery Hartung’s shares in these companies were not transferred to trust management, then he violated the law, since State Duma deputies do not have the right to engage in business.

The whole Hartung family is in on the action. Valery Hartung successfully collaborated with former governors of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich and Boris Dubrovsky. Both fled abroad, and Hartung continues to conduct his business under the guise of a State Duma deputy. This “unsinkability” is admirable.

But back in the late 90s, Valery Hartung was suspected of having connections with criminal structures. And not just anyone, but Chelyabinsk prosecutor Alexander Bragin. He had to pay Hartung 1 ruble for moral damage, and already in 2000 Valery Hartung was Vladimir Putin’s confidant in the elections.

Hartung’s patron may be his fellow countryman Viktor Khristenko, who in 1997 served as the representative of the Russian President in the Chelyabinsk region, and from 2008 to 2012 was the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In Russia, all business roads lead to friends of President Vladimir Putin. The Rostec corporation of Sergei Chemezov, whose companies are the main customers of ChKPZ PJSC, has always worked closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The current head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov is Chemezov’s long-time partner in Oboronprom.

With such patrons, Valery Hartung and his business family will be afloat for a long time. Well, as for the possible withdrawal of money from the enterprise – this is what everyone does who is on a short leash with the Russian authorities.