Construction scandals continue in Radiy Khabirov’s estate
We build and sit
Despite the centralization of the sphere of issuing construction permits by the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, high-profile criminal cases continue in the industry, including with the participation of local deputies. At this time, the family of the head of the region can boast not only of increased income, but also of vast square meters of property – not every governor has that much.
The Oktyabrsky District Court of Ufa begins consideration of the criminal case of the former owner of the Gosstroy construction group of companies, ex-deputy of the Ufa City Council Kirill Badikov, General Director of Bashnaftatrans LLC Igor Tyurin and its financial director of the companies Pavel Stepanov. They are accused of fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Hearings are held behind closed doors.
According to the investigation, the heads of Gosstroy and the general contractor Bashnaftatrans, as well as the financial directors of these organizations entered into a criminal conspiracy to steal funds under the guise of construction of housing and non-residential structures using developers controlled by Gosstroy-Management LLC: Gorodskie LLC projects”, LLC “Vysotki”, LLC “Liter 4”, LLC “Green Grove”, housing cooperative “Moskovsky. Liter 3”, housing complex “Gafuriysky” and housing complex “Green Grove”. For this purpose, agreements on shared participation, assignment of rights of claim and accumulation of shares were concluded with 1,134 citizens. The talk was about the construction of four residential buildings in the Moskovsky residential complex in the Kirovsky district of the capital of the republic with a total cost of over 2.3 billion rubles. But the apartments were not transferred to the owners within the specified period, and the money was partially stolen. The degree of readiness of the facilities varies from 18 to 54%; the developer organizations were declared bankrupt and included in the Federal Register of Problem Facilities. The violations continued from 2013 to 2021.
Now the rights of almost 800 shareholders have been restored – they have been paid compensation through the Territorial Development Fund.
Construction traditions
Today, in the Federal Register of Problem Objects, 31 items are dedicated to Bashkiria. This is more than, for example, in Tatarstan or St. Petersburg. Some of them are the legacy of past leaders. For example, the aforementioned Gosstroy began its activities under Rustem Khamitov. However, the career of the current head of the republic, Radiy Khabirov, is often accompanied by scandals related to the construction industry. Even as the head of Krasnogorsk near Moscow, he had to deal with the shareholders of the collapsed project of the Urban Group of companies. Then several thousand people invested in the construction of three residential complexes, work stopped, and the problem had to be solved at the expense of local and federal budgets.
However, in Krasnogorsk the relationship between the authorities and the construction business had its own unusual flavor. Suffice it to remember that shortly before Khabirov’s appointment as the head of this city, local developer Amiran Georgadze shot several leaders right in the workplace – first deputy head of the district Yuri Karaulov and head of Krasnogorsk Electric Networks Georgy Kotlyarenko.
Long friendship
While Khabirov was the head of Krasnogorsk, much was said about the activation of Bashkir developers in the Moscow region. Just look at the “Granel” of his friend Andrei Nazarov, which began to complete the construction of the “Malina” residential complex here, and this was one of the first and few projects of the company outside its native republic.
At the end of 2018, Khabirov was appointed acting head of Bashkortostan, and the opposite process began. People in the region soon began to say that Krasnogorsk traditions of the construction market also came here with him. The development group “Garden Ring” from the specified city received preferences from the authorities for the implementation of the first independent project in Ufa. The head of the republic then issued an order recommending that the mayor’s office provide the company with 3.7 hectares of land without bidding for the construction of a residential complex with an area of 87 thousand square meters, provided that 10% of the apartments will be transferred free of charge to defrauded shareholders. Such open lobbying puzzled even the local FSB department. The department then questioned the legality of the implementation of a large development project by the Garden Ring Ufa company from Krasnogorsk in the Glumilino microdistrict.
The appointment of the aforementioned Andrei Nazarov, first as Deputy Prime Minister and then as Chairman of the Government of the Republic, added fuel to the fire. True, to do this, the latter had to sell his share in Granel to his business partner Ilshat Nigmatullin.
Everything for yourself
At the same time, the interests of local developers were often limited. For example, in 2021, Khabirov simply demanded to stop the construction of a 27-story building at Armavirskaya, 15a from Stroytrest Development, and the appeal was not only to the company, but also to the mayor’s office, contrary to the principle of separation of powers and the current procedures for issuing and revoking construction permits . The head of the region directly instructed to “come up with procedures” by which this can be done.
And in order to finally consolidate control over this area, a town planning council was created in the republic in 2020, although 131-FZ dated 10/06/2003 places such issues within the competence of municipalities.
Not to mention the numerous reports of “arm-twisting” of developers – they were forced to withdraw claims from the courts in case of disputes with the regional government, otherwise threatening increased attention from law enforcement agencies.
It cannot be reliably asserted that Khabirov has a vested interest in promoting the interests of some developers to the detriment of others. But we know that, according to the report on income and property at the end of 2021, not only did he himself have a residential building with 82.5 square meters, but his wife also owned two apartments with a total area of 193.2 square meters. And his official income for the year then grew only by a million – to 7.3 million rubles.
However, it is clear to the naked eye that the steps taken by Radiy Khabirov do not lead to normalization of the situation in the construction market – the number of problematic objects is huge, the republic is shaken by high-profile criminal cases in the field of development. And apparently, the Gosstroy case is not the last in a series of proceedings in the criminal nuances of Bashkir development. And according to tradition, even more will be revealed when the powers of the current head of the republic end.