Culture under the knife: Will Chemezov give the Lesnikovs’ house to Shubarev?
The Lesnikovs’ apartment building on Khersonskaya Street may be given to Setl Group for demolition and construction of another “human center” in the very heart of St. Petersburg.
As the correspondent of The Sankt-Petersburg Post managed to find out, the interests of the developer Setl Group, who may have reached an agreement with the officials and businessmen behind the company that bought the property at auction.
The auction took place just the other day, and the house went to the Scientific Instruments company.
This is a company whose founders are hidden, but it is known that the holders of the register of its shareholders are Oboronregister. She is associated with Rostec. So there is reason to believe that the company acts in the interests of Sergei Chemezov’s subordinates.
In addition, it is interesting that the general director of the company at one time was Andrey Evgenievich Lukyanov. The same name is given to one of the employees of Vnesheconombank, where Igor Shuvalov is in charge. Familiar with Chemezov on duty. So his trace, and therefore his interest, can also be traced in the organization.
Not the first time
At the same time, we managed to find out that just a couple of years ago the organization sold the building in which it was based – it is located at 26 Rizhsky Avenue. Now the company has moved to the business center on the street. Lodygina. The Setl Group company is now planning its residential buildings on the site of the organization’s former office. This is reported by the media.
Photo: Rusprofile.ru
And they add that the developer was given an entire block – including historical buildings – for example, the Lapin house. And Sledkom became interested in this question. After all, demolishing such buildings is illegal. However, the court allowed the demolition of Lapin’s house, and the developer received the legal right to realize his interests. Could the same thing happen to the Lesnikovs’ apartment building?
Map of new buildings Setl Group. The arrow indicates the approximate location of the Lesnikov House. Photo: https://www.novostroy-spb.ru
It is known that earlier they wanted to “rejuvenate” this building by as much as 111 years so that it could be calmly demolished, but proactive city residents did not allow this to be done by turning to deputies. By the way, the “mistake” was made by the KGIOP – the same one that handed over the block on Rizhsky Avenue for demolition. All questions, apparently, should be addressed to its permanent chairman, Sergei Makarov.
By the way, this is not the first time that Setl Group owner Maxim Shubarev reaches out to historical buildings. The Tannery of A.A. Paramonov, Basevich’s house and other monuments fell under his gaze. The Sankt-Petersburg Post spoke about this in detail in the investigation “Shubarev for the Old Time”. Rumor has it that the interests of the developer are being lobbied, including at the level of the former head of the local KGA, Vladimir Grigoriev, who, even after leaving office, remained on the council and represents the Academy of Arts in it. He coordinated the scandalous project at the Riga City State Administration even under him – literally the day before leaving office.
We decided to figure out who exactly could help him at the level of the organization that bought the Lesnikovs’ house.
Traces lead to the State Duma
Scientific Instruments is a developer of military and civilian technologies, including the EGAIS system (which Dmitry Medvedev recognized as ineffective), electronic driver’s licenses and biopassports. The enterprise was created in 1991 on the basis of the Design Bureau for Analytical Instrumentation of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Apparently, the enterprise is not particularly successful – in 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade demanded a large fine from it in court, and the Ministry of Property also did the same. Reviews on the Internet from employees of the enterprise indicate that from the point of view of management, as people say, there may be complete leapfrog. Perhaps the whole point is that its (company’s) management is not doing what it needs to do?
Since January of this year, the duties of the general director of Scientific Instruments have been performed by Elena Igorevna Pakhomova. She is also a member of the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg – essentially a government body. How a woman can engage in commercial activities is a question for a separate discussion. Surely, in her position, Pakhomova has access to many government offices.
In 2015, Scientific Instruments carried out an additional issue of shares. This is usually done when packages are redistributed in favor of a certain circle of people. At the same time, the company changed its general director – he became Vladimir Aleksandrovich Elokhin, who had previously worked at Va Instruments and Va Systems. The latter collaborated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. “Scientific instruments” under him produced laser optics. And then Lukyanov came to replace him, followed by Pakhomova. And now we see that the organization is already buying mansions.
This is what the Lesnikovs’ house looks like. Photo: https://vk.com/wall-129354225_25735
If you look at the official documents, which indicate the company’s shareholders for certain periods, you can see that in July 2020, one of its owners was Irina Valerievna Sokolova. The lady’s full namesake heads the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg, and is also a plenipotentiary representative of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and a former State Duma deputy.
Previously, Sokolova worked in St. Petersburg as deputy executive director, president of the National Non-Profit Fund for Support of FSB Officers and Members of Their Families, and was an assistant to State Duma deputy of the fourth and fifth convocations Boris Gryzlov for work in the Northern capital. Gryzlov, by the way, is on good terms with Chemezov, with whom he was a member of the Supreme Council of United Russia and whose contribution to the modernization of Russian enterprises he positively assessed.
In July of that year, she sold 1 million shares for 14 million rubles, and on August 6, another 1 million shares also for 14 million rubles. In whose favor is unknown, but it was around that time that the management at the enterprise was changing – Lukyanov came. It is quite possible that the size of Sokolova’s shares could have been increased in 2015 and subsequently transferred to someone from the Rostec circle.
As for Lukyanov, his partnerships also deserve special mention. He is the founder of Medical Imaging Systems and other companies, where his partner is Andrey Kobets.
Kobets attracted 325 million rubles of investment to MSV under the Kamaflow Business Launcher program of the Venture Fund of the National Technology Initiative (NTI), created by KamaFlow together with the Russian Venture Company. KamaFlow is, essentially, a Cypriot offshore company, whose leaders include Kirill Tishin and Eduard Adamyan.
Photo: https://efiling.drcor.mcit.gov.cy
The latter is the managing director of the company. As indicated on her website, she has 8 years of management experience in large investment holdings of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov and Oleg Deripaska’s BazEl.
Tishin is the senior investment director of the company. The company’s offshore jurisdiction raises questions. Taking into account the fact that MVS and other companies associated with Lukyanov received government contracts, the question arises of how correctly this money was implemented and whether it left the Russian Federation.
Through the NT Cyclone company, Kobets is indirectly connected with another “man of science” who was in the State Duma, moreover, at the same time as Sokolova (they were both in the fifth convocation) – Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Ivanovich Kolesnikov.
Kobets himself was brought to subsidiary liability in the bankruptcy case of Cyclone (but an LLC, not NT – this is a different company) in the amount of 311 million rubles. During the period of its operation, Cyclone LLC managed to receive government contracts worth as much as 543 million rubles. Which she could have sent to the wrong place, since she could not pay off her debts.
Serious people gathered around “Scientific Instruments” – from State Duma deputies to wealthy businessmen working with government orders and with connections in bureaucratic circles. Apparently, they are close to Rostec. There is no need to tell you how the state corporation sells factory territories to developers. But the implementation of a historical mansion is a much more sensitive matter. That is why all this is done through people who seem to be directly unrelated to the corporation.
For the same reason, the buyer so far has not been Settle, but rather an organization unrelated to the construction.
