The concession agreement between Sevastopol and parking attendants, concluded during the governorship of Dmitry Ovsyannikov, cannot be terminated free of charge. And for some reason the concessionaire does not insist on paying the debt. Wants his name to be forgotten?
Governor
Dmitry Ovsyannikov served as a full-fledged governor of Sevastopol for less than two years. But he, along with his team, formed from his friends from his previous work in Udmurtia and Moscow, was firmly imprinted in the memory of the townspeople. The President of Russia dismissed Ovsyannikov from his post at his request almost four years ago, but the actions of the governor still haunt the federal city.
The colossal money allocated by Moscow was spent with some dashing drive, but without visible effect. For example, the construction of very important treatment facilities for the city was failed: due to the poor quality of the preparation of documents and bureaucratic confusion, the construction came to a standstill, and the 2 billion budget rubles intended for its financing ended up in the accounts of the bursting OFK Bank PJSC without reliable insurance.
After Sevastopol, Ovsyannikov returned to the Ministry of Industry and Trade as a deputy minister. But he didn’t stay there for a long time either: in 2020 he was fired due to a scandal at the Izhevsk airport, where he used foul language. Minister Denis Manturov considered this “unacceptable for anyone, and even more so for a civil servant, even of this level.” United Russia did not forgive him either, the Presidium of the General Council expelled Ovsyannikov from the party on the recommendation of the ethics commission.
All these events in the life of Dmitry Ovsyannikov took place against the backdrop of the massive introduction and tightening of Western sanctions against the Russians.
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European sanctions against Ovsyannikov were introduced in 2017 in connection with actions that “threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.” These included participation in the elections, where he was elected governor of Sevastopol. Ovsyannikov began to actively fight for the removal of sanctions from himself, filed a lawsuit in the EU court of general jurisdiction. Among the arguments that he cited in favor of the decision to lift the sanctions was his resignation from all official positions and the desire to register a company and do business in Cyprus.
Cyprus is valued by Russians not only because of the climate and the fact that Aphrodite (actually Cyprida) appeared from a sea shell on its coast, but also because of the convenience of doing business here. The most interesting thing is that the court heeded the arguments of the unemployed ex-governor. The President of the Court of First Instance of the EU Court, who single-handedly considered the application, first issued a ruling refusing the requested measures. However, on October 26, 2022, the EU court satisfied the claim of Dmitry Ovsyannikov to the EU Council to lift the sanctions.
Concession
Recently, another episode of Dmitry Ovsyannikov’s activity in Sevastopol became public, which ties him specifically to Cyprus. In 2016, when Ovsyannikov was still acting governor, the Sevastopol Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development signed a 12-year concession agreement with VessoLink. Its director Oleg Badera shared his plans with the Sevastopol press: “The main activity of the group of companies is the creation of intelligent control systems …”. For 900 million rubles, she undertook to equip Sevastopol with devices for fixing traffic violations and parking meters. For this, merchants will receive a quarter of the money from fines and parking.
Unwinding the tangle of family ties, you can find out: in addition to the concessionaire company, under the leadership of the Wessolink management company, there is also Citiparking LLC (Moscow, Skolkovo, activities to create and use databases and information resources, average number of 4 people). The authorized capital is 10,000 rubles, the founder is Abatal Investments Limited, (ABATAL INVESTMENTS LIMITED, Nicosia, Cyprus, director Oleg Badera, two other leaders have Russian surnames).
In 2017-2020, five additional agreements were concluded to the original agreement. They increased the fee in favor of parking attendants, and without the consent of the antimonopoly authority. At the same time, most likely, the contractor was replaced, since since 2017, in the press, at the mention of a concession agreement, Vessolinka has mysteriously been replaced by Safe Roads of Sevastopol LLC. The company, registered in 2014 in Inkerman, is a suburb of Sevastopol (profit in 2021 – 131 million rubles, Moscow founder, activities in the field of communications based on wire technologies). Under the terms of the adjusted concession agreement, now Safe Roads of Sevastopol LLC has undertaken to install cameras in Sevastopol to record traffic violations and organize parking spaces, and the city has assumed obligations to pay compensation to the concessionaire LLC for operating and financial costs, including the return bank loan. The concessionaire has a clean biography – no Cyprus, no connection with Ovsyannikov.
Ambush
The Antimonopoly Service (UFAS) of Crimea and Sevastopol suspected that the procedure for choosing a concessionaire was uncompetitive and did not comply with the rules, and the terms of the agreement did not comply with the law. It turned out that the deputies of the Legislative Assembly could not even study the enslaving contract: the Department of Transport categorically refused to provide documents, citing trade secrets. Six months ago, OFAS began to seek the recognition of the agreement as invalid in court.
Because in fact, from the moment the concession agreement was concluded, the terms of the agreement ensured only the interests of the contractor and his beneficiaries. Because of this, the city of Sevastopol was deprived of the opportunity to use the funds received from the funds paid as fines.
In 2022, the next governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, sympathized either with Safe Roads or with the treasury of Sevastopol. He stated: “Unfortunately, it turns out that the termination of the contract carries greater financial risks for us than the continuation of its execution. Although I agree with you, the enslaving contract was originally concluded. In pursuance of the agreement, in 2021 the Sevastopol budget additionally allocated more than 100 million rubles to the concessionaire for the operation of cameras on the roads.
The city has not earned anything, moreover, today its debt to Safe Roads of Sevastopol LLC has exceeded 1 billion 260 million rubles. But the concessionaire, for some reason, refused to pay the debt himself. To completely forget about the Cypriot businessman Ovsyannikov?
