The Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case against the mobile operator MTS, which is part of the circuit of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov. A direct violation was recorded at the end of 2021 against the backdrop of accelerating inflation.
At that time, Rosstat recorded an increase in prices for cellular communications, although earlier operators tried to keep prices unchanged, despite all the crisis phenomena. Writes about it RBC with reference to the official communication of the FAS.
The antimonopoly department considered that MTS raised prices unreasonably. It is known that the increase amounted to an average of 9.5%, it affected more than 28 million subscribers.
MTS explained this event by an increase in its own costs, but could not provide a justification for the increase in tariffs at the request of the FAS. This is what the FAS press release says.
At the same time, MTS, in turn, published a message stating that it intends to provide all the necessary clarifications to the antimonopoly department in the near future. The increase in prices, as follows from the information provided by the press service of MTS, was due to rising inflation, electricity costs, the cost of equipment and its delivery, as well as the need to expand and build new networks and other reasons.
At the same time, MTS representatives clarified that when the tariffs were increased, they informed their customers about these changes “in advance and in the most detailed format.” It looked like this: in mailings about an increase in the cost of tariffs by 60 rubles, subscribers were offered the choice of staying at the current tariff or choosing another one.
By the way, in January of this year, immediately after the increase in MTS tariffs, there were reports in the media about a possible increase in tariffs by other operators, however, apparently, they are not in a hurry to follow the example of MTS.
It should be noted that MTS, controlled by oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov, until recently was not considered a mobile operator with financial problems requiring urgent measures in the form of raising customer service rates. Especially since MTS several years ago entered the structure of AFK “Sistema” Vladimir Yevtushenkov and became a corporate cellular operator for enterprises that are part of the corporation’s perimeter.
Recently, AFK Sistema has shown genuine interest in acquiring the assets of NaturaSiberica. The recent appointment of the former executive director of AFK Sistema Felix Lieb to the post of the new head of the NaturaSiberica group was regarded by experts as an indirect confirmation of the future entry of Sistema into the capital of NaturaSiberica. Wrote about it MorningNews.
Earlier, Vladimir Yevtushenkov was accused of laundering Bashneft shares, appropriated, according to investigators, by the son of the former president of Bashkiria, Ural Rakhimov, and then sold to AFC. Wrote about it “Kommersant”.
The result of the story was the transition of Bashneft under the wing of Rosneft, that is, under the wing of the state. And behind bars was not Yevtushenkov at all, but the former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Alexei Ulyukaev. In fairness, we note that the criminal case against Yevtushenkov was terminated only in 2016, no corpus delicti was found in his actions.