In troubled waters
The main Russian river has long turned into a cascade of semi-swampy reservoirs. But the example of the Rhine shows that the Volga can still be saved from final transformation into a sewer. For this purpose, several government projects have already been adopted, for which huge amounts of money are allocated. “Our Version” finds out where budget flows go, and what Volga ultimately receives.
The source of the Volga is in the Tver region. Therefore, it is logical to start our investigation from this region. There are several regional projects aimed at improving the condition of the river.
Bankruptcy on Kashinka
The project “Preservation of Unique Water Bodies” involves clearing river beds. The regional authorities decided to start with the left tributary of the Volga – the Kashinka River. Work in its channel near the city of Kashin began in 2018. Since then, according to reports from the regional Ministry of Natural Resources, 33 kilometers of the riverbed have been cleared. To understand the scale of the work carried out, it must be said that three main tributaries of the Volga flow in the Tver region – Mologa (280 kilometers), Ursa (269 kilometers) and Tvertsa (188 kilometers). Kashinka is 128 kilometers long.
There are videos on the Internet showing the progress of work on Kashinka: a machine similar to an excavator stands in a shallow river and scrapes silt from its bottom. At the same time, the banks of a narrow river under the tracks of a heavy vehicle lose their natural appearance and turn into a dirty mess. Whether such work has a positive long-term effect, we will leave it to ecologists to judge and look at the organizational side. In the procurement documents and official reports, we did not find indicators on the volume of bottom sediments in cubic meters – everywhere we are talking about kilometers of cleared riverbed. Thus, we can conclude that the depth and degree of clearing remains on the conscience of the direct performers of the work.
From local media reports it is known that the contract for clearing the Kashinka riverbed was won by Contractor LLC, registered in Belgorod. The company has a very successful name from a conspiracy point of view: finding information about it using Internet search engines is almost impossible. And yet we managed to find out that she participated in tenders for clearing rivers in various regions of the country. Moreover, in financial terms, the activity was carried out on a large scale. The Contractor’s revenue grew year after year and at the end of 2021 reached 3.5 billion rubles. But, as it turned out, the income was not used for future use. With growing revenue, net profit figures collapsed in recent years, and eventually it went bankrupt. In January, the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region appointed a temporary manager to Contractor LLC. The founder of the company is still listed Lyubov Chudakova. Several other legal entities are registered to it, mostly unprofitable ones. All these facts create the impression that the money spent on clearing the river went into someone’s pockets as secretly as possible.
In addition to the Kashinka riverbed, as part of the project “Preservation of Unique Water Bodies” in the Tver Region, the shores and bottom of Lake Seliger are being cleaned (Selizharovka, a tributary of the Volga, flows from Seliger). First, design documentation was developed for this, from which Favorit Special Equipment LLC from the Moscow region earned 6.2 million rubles (founder – Nikolay Lunev). Last summer, alluvial maps were installed on the lake (they will collect silt extracted from the bottom) and a slurry pipeline (pipes through which a mixture of water and soil will move) was built. Judging by messages in local public pages, work on the lake is underway. But we were unable to find their reflection in the documents. There is also not a word about the cost of the project and the contractor on the websites of the government of the Tver region and the regional Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology. It is also impossible to find the results of the relevant tender in public procurement systems. There were traces of news on the Internet that the work would be financed by the Rosvodresursy agency, but for some reason the original message was deleted. Thus, the clearing of Seliger turned into some kind of secret project. “Our Version” will send a request about this to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Tver Region.
On the verge of a foul
One of the state environmental projects, judging by the name, directly concerns the great Russian river: “Improving the Volga,” it says on his passport. As part of the implementation of this project, the program “Improving the ecological condition of the Volga River” for 2019–2024 was implemented in the Tver region. They have already spent 3.5 billion rubles on it. The money went mainly to the reconstruction of treatment facilities in small settlements.
One of the largest projects was the construction of biological treatment facilities in the city of Staritsa. Tver media reports the price of the project as 323.2 million, including 313.4 million from the federal budget. We found several lots for this object in the government procurement system. The order for 268 million went to Ecoconsulting LLC from Odintsovo.
We did not find anything noteworthy about this organization. But the tender for 40 million was received by KS-Energo LLC from Ivanovo. It is unknown whether the budget money was transferred to the contractor in full. But it is clear that the object has not yet been commissioned, but the company has already gone bankrupt. The structures should be completed this year. The readiness level as of January 1 was 36.5%. There is clearly a reason for inspection by the competent authorities.
Another notable project in terms of scale is “Reconstruction of sewerage treatment facilities in the city of Torzhok.” Its cost is 359.27 million rubles, the contractor is ZAO Zenit-Investprom. It is notable for the fact that the name of its founder is hidden from public registers. In 2021, the company showed revenue of 1.4 billion rubles, and net profit amounted to only 6 million. The company is under threat of bankruptcy because it was unable to pay its contractor in the amount of 12 million rubles, and he has already won the lawsuit. The fact that the local press now indicates the completion date of the project is 2024 is alarming, although the work was originally planned to be completed in 2022.
As you can see, even a superficial look at the implementation of environmental projects in the Tver region reveals questions. Is it worth asking after this how budget expenditures made in this way will actually affect the environmental condition of the Volga?
By the way
We assume that this amount was spent by the State Budgetary Institution “LPC-Tverles”. As part of the same program, equipment is being purchased for it; another 83.8 million rubles will be spent on this over six years. State Budgetary Institution “LPC-Tverles” has appeared in crime news in recent years. In 2020, the court sentenced to correctional labor a forester who allocated areas for logging by eye. As a result of the episode that came to court, 1,330 trees were illegally cut down, the damage was estimated at 12.5 million rubles. Around the same time, a forest engineer was accused of forging documents in order to conceal illegal logging. It is difficult to say whether discipline has been restored at LPC-Tverles since then. And if not, can you trust the figures from the reports?
