The event, which became the “star” of the program of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), caused a strong reaction – it is called the “scam of the century” and compared with the projects of Ostap Bender.
Official information says that on June 15, Philip Kirkorov, one of the founders of Construction Solutions LLC, and Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of the Leningrad Region, signed an agreement on the construction of the Zvezda shopping and entertainment complex in Novosaratovka, Leningrad Region. The document was also signed by the second founder of Construction Solutions LLC, entrepreneur Mikhail Barakin.
The agreement provides for the construction of a shopping and entertainment complex in Novosaratovka, Vsevolozhsk District, in the area of Utkina Zavod. The declared area of the object is 10-14 thousand square meters. m., the planned investment is more than 1.7 billion rubles, they plan to complete the construction in 14 months, in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Why did such an agreement cause such a strong reaction and why is this project called an outright scam? And one of the signatories of the agreement – Mikhail Barakin – a swindler and follower of Ostap Bender? He is indeed a very colorful personality and deserves close attention, but let’s start, perhaps, with official data.
So, we know that the parties to the agreement are two legal entities – the government of the Leningrad Region and Construction Solutions LLC. Everything is clear with the government – this is a state structure and Governor Drozdenko did not exceed his powers by signing the document. On behalf of Construction Solutions LLC, the agreements were signed by Kirkorov and Barakin. However, a search in the registers gives us several dozen firms with the name Building Solutions LLC, and none of them contain the names of Barakin and Kirkorov.
Mikhail Barakin, according to the registry data, is involved in only two legal entities – StroyTrans LLC and Petroleum Invest LLC, both inactive:
The same register tells us that Philip Kirkorov is an individual entrepreneur and the founder of five organizations, none of which even resembles the name Construction Solutions LLC:
But then a logical question arises – what kind of document was signed by Governor Drozdenko and Kirkorov with Barakin? What the hell is even going on?
We were prompted by the speech of Kirkorov, who talked about the prospects for construction – the name of the famous St. Petersburg businessman Dmitry Kononov sounded in it. And it is he who is the founder of Construction Solutions LLC:
There are some doubts about the authorized capital of this LLC, which is going to build a huge facility worth almost two billion – 10,000 rubles as soon as possible. But at least they finally figured out with whom the governor made an agreement.
Dmitry Kononov is a well-known entrepreneur in the region, the founder of almost two dozen different firms, and his father, Nikolai Kononov, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin, practiced judo with trainer Anatoly Rakhlin.
But all this does not clarify the story with the signatures – in what capacity did Kirkorov and Barakin sign the agreement on behalf of Construction Solutions LLC? After all, they have absolutely nothing to do with this legal entity. Even if they put their signatures on a legally verified document, the price for it is less than toilet paper, they are not authorized to sign documents from Construction Solutions LLC, since they have no relation to this company.
The whole thing doesn’t smell very good. However, let’s go further. According to an extract from Rosreestr, the owners of the land plot in Novosaratovka, in addition to Philip Kirkorov (20%), are also Dmitry Kononov (40%) and Mikhail Barakin (40%). It is on this land that they are allegedly going to build the declared shopping and entertainment center. It seems that changing the purpose of the site will not be a problem, but the data on the composition of the owners of the site in no way clarify the procedure for signing an agreement with the governor. These lands are not included in the authorized capital of Construction Solutions LLC, and, again, neither Kirkorov nor Barakin are persons authorized to sign an agreement on the part of this company.
So, apparently, the media, who said that what happened at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is a grandiose scam, is not so wrong.
More precisely, one hundred percent right. Especially considering the figure of one of the signatories of this incomprehensible “document” – Mikhail Barakin.
Although he is called “the youngest St. Petersburg billionaire,” Mikhail Barakin cannot document his fortune. External gloss – expensive cars, branded clothes and accessories – he has. But where these “billions” come from is unclear. Therefore, as already mentioned, two firms to which he was related in the past are closed due to bankruptcy. Barakin has no visible sources of existence.
But, more importantly, St. Petersburg businessmen, who have heard about Mikhail Barakin, frankly say that he is “naked” and call him a swindler. Barakin surfaced in St. Petersburg in 2016 out of nowhere. During this period, many publications began to appear in the St. Petersburg edition of Fontanka, in which he was presented as a billionaire and owner of luxury cars. The publication called him the richest young Petersburger. According to him, at the age of 15, Barakin became the founder of the Governor’s Television magazine, which was distributed in Smolny, for which he interviewed influential politicians, including Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev.
These materials attracted the attention of journalists, who did not find any confirmation of this information, as well as traces of at least one interview that the “journalist” Barakin allegedly took from VIPs.
Barakin himself at various times appeared in the chronicles on a Rolls-Royce Phantom for 40 million rubles with a lion cub in his arms, then he promised the Dagestan zoo $ 2 million and two leopards, after which he disappeared from sight. It is also known that at one time Barakin traveled in a car with a special coloring of the Russian Emergencies Ministry. The car was issued to the company “Glavspetsstroy” LLC.
But the most scandalous story was connected with the dispute between the Pulkovsky Meridian construction company and a “young billionaire”. According to the businessman, Barakin offered to “solve the company’s problems” that arose during the construction of a residential complex for 24 million rubles. The Dobrov on Air program conducted its own investigation into the activities of the mystical businessman Mikhail Barakin in 2017. It is noteworthy that at that time all his close associates unanimously assured journalists that Barakin “had no money”, all his property was rented, and his employees could receive a salary only through persuasion and threats of responsibility.
After this and other investigations, Barakin disappeared from view for some time. Although the scandalous materials in the press had no visible consequences for him. At least in the legal field.
Where the young swindler spent these five years is not known for certain. But, if the information that he owns the site on which they are going to build the Zvezda shopping center is correct, then he obviously has not disappeared from the St. Petersburg business environment. Because the surname of Barakin now pops up next to the surname of Kononov. It is not known how the relationship between Kononov and Barakin is built, therefore we will not guess.
But this whole story with the signed agreement on the construction of a shopping and entertainment complex looks extremely cloudy. And, although many media in their materials draw analogies with Ostap Bender, this is more like another hero of the novel “The Golden Calf” – Alexander Ivanovich Koreiko, who similarly “built” a power plant in a distant mountainous republic (perhaps even in Dagestan, where Barakin already built a zoo.
As for show business star Philip Kirkorov, this story brings to mind very sad memories of his colleague from the nineties, Zhenya Belousov, who was in a similar way dragged into a scam with the release of vodka. It ended for the singer then very, very sadly.
Well, it’s not at all clear what the governor of the Leningrad region Drozdenko was looking at when he was waving this “investment agreement”.