Against the backdrop of a criminal case against the former management of Bashspirt, rumors about the imminent privatization of the enterprise, one of the largest taxpayers in Bashkiria, intensified. Since August last year, “Bashspirt” has been headed by one of the closest confidants of the head of the region, Radiy Khabirov, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic Raif Abdrakhimov.
It seems that his task is to prepare “Bashspirt” for transfer to the “right hands”. The sale itself, in fact, has already begun – in the fall of 2022, Bashspirt parted ways with a network of branded stores where its products were sold.
As a result, the asset may pass into the hands of people close to the team of Khabirov himself. Apparently, he is tired of managing the region and being under fire of criticism over and over again, and on his “political pension” “Bashspirt” can bring colossal profits.
The correspondent of The Moscow Post in Bashkiria understood the situation.
Bashspirt is one of the largest alcohol producers in Russia. It was created in 2000 by merging all the profile enterprises of the republic. As stated on the manufacturer’s website, the holding includes several factories in Ufa, Bulgakovo, Sterlitamak, Belebey and Birsk. The founder of the enterprise is the Ministry of Land Property of the Republic.
Operation “privatization”
Talk that it can be “privatized”, and in favor of Khabirov’s people, has been going on for a long time. Back in 2019, the head of the Administration of the Head of Bashkiria, Alexander Sidyakin, at a meeting with journalists, said that the authorities of the region had no plans to privatize Bashspirt, as well as the airport and a number of other assets.
However, in the same 2019, Mr. Sidyakin himself “suddenly” headed the Board of Directors of the enterprise. The entire management team of Bashspirt has also changed: Rauf Nugumanov, a former vice-premier known for signing the deal to merge Soda and Caustic, became the new CEO, resulting in JSC Bashkir Soda Company (BSK).
Subsequently, we recall, BSK was privatized in favor of controversial businessmen from JSC “Regional Fund”, JSC “Bashkir Chemistry” and LLC Trading House “Bashkir Chemistry”. As a result, the privatization was declared illegal, and BSC shares were returned to the state. And who knows, this would have happened if it were not for the scandal on Mount Kushtau, which, like the whole situation with the BSC, was described in detail by The Moscow Post.
Surprisingly, neither Nugumanov nor other people from the team of Radiy Khabirov suffered any punishment for this. Now Nugumanov, who at the suggestion of Khabirov led “Bashspirt” for several years, could be under investigation.
In mid-February 2022, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the grounds of abuse of power, fraud, embezzlement or embezzlement at Bashspirt JSC. Writes about this “Kommersant”.
According to investigators, in 2019-2020, Bashspirt officials, in violation of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition,” concluded more than 4,000 contracts for the purchase of goods and services with single suppliers. At the same time, the cost of contracts was allegedly overpriced.
Billions on paper
What is meant is difficult to understand. In total, Bashspirt acted as a supplier for 2.1 billion rubles and a customer for 63 billion rubles. In the case of the supplier, everything is clear – almost all 2 billion rubles went towards his own trading house “Bashspirt”. But with orders everything is more interesting.
It turned out that in recent months, Bashspirt has been purchasing goods and services from unknown contractors, and for hundreds of millions of rubles. It is not clear why the counterparties are hidden, although in general, MDM-Flex LLC occupies the first place in terms of purchases, the main activity of which is indicated as “Other types of printing activities.” He supplied the enterprise with a self-adhesive label for hundreds of millions of rubles.
Bashspirt paid a total of 1.6 billion rubles to this company. It turned out that this is the key state counterparty LLC, whose revenue in 2021 amounted to almost 420 million rubles.
Among Bashspirt’s contracts, a recent contract with an unknown counterparty for the purchase of the right to use the Trademark attracts special attention. The contract value is 538 million rubles. Moreover, the State Procurement website indicates that the contract was placed back in 2015, and updated in 2023.
It turns out that Bashspirt annually pays hundreds of millions of rubles for the use of trademarks? According to the publication “Prufy.ru”, since 2019, 1.25 billion rubles have been spent for these purposes. Among other things, 284 million rubles for the right to use the White Nettle sign.
The rights to this brand belong to the Moscow company “Status-Pro”, owned by Alexei Zimin, a dentist by profession. In his own words, the sketch of the White Nettle brand sticker cost him 20,000 rubles. All this suggests that money can simply be withdrawn from the enterprise.
A separate subject of interest of the investigators was the rent of a historic building in the center of Ufa, where the Bashspirta brand store under the Tantana brand was located. It turned out that the new owner of the building, Albert Zaripov, bought it from the previous owner for 20.6 million rubles, while Bashspirt paid him a rent of 203 million rubles.
Trade House “Bashspirt” is a subsidiary of “Bashspirt”, which is engaged in sales of finished products. In fact, from the costs of the company – perhaps the lease of premises and the payment of wages. As a result, over the course of several years, Bashspirt Trading House was brought to a loss of 202 million rubles, with an asset value of 525 million rubles. It is not surprising if 203 million rubles could be paid for the rent of the flagship store alone.
According to the publication “Prufy.ru”, “Albert Zaripov turned out to be the owner of the building on Ufimskoye Highway, where the aforementioned trading house was previously located. At the same time, Zaripov is closely connected with a well-known businessman, Ufa City Council deputy Artur Khazigaleev, who was in the circle of influence of Alexander Sidyakin.
It is very likely that trading house “Bashspirt”, as one of the main assets of “Bashspirt”, could be tried to bring to such a state in order to sell it to the “right hands” in the future. At the same time, Bashspirt stores have been closing for the past few months (more than 30 outlets have already suffered such a fate), their property is simply taken to warehouses.
However, not all. The sale has really started. At the end of December 2022, Bashspirt sold office and warehouse premises with an area of more than 8 thousand square meters. m. at the address: Ufa, Oktyabrsky district, st. Ufimskoe shosse, 38/1 in favor of IP Chanysheva Elvira Maratovna. The amount of the transaction was not called.
According to the authors of the Telegram channel Case for Kurai, she is allegedly close to the officials of the Khabirov administration, and previously acted as a backup-spoiler for Lily Chanysheva, a representative of the non-systemic opposition, in the elections to the Ufa City Council.
It turns out that the assets and property of “Bashspirt” are already quietly alienated in favor of Khabirov’s team?
Own Abdrakhimov closer to the body
Returning to Rauf Nugumanov, it is not clear whether he has any procedural status in the criminal case. But he is no longer the CEO of the company. Apparently, when “it smelled of fried”, he asked to resign. His place was taken by another person from Khabirov’s team – Ural Farvazov, the former head of the control department in the administration of the head of Bashkiria.
Rumor has it that instead of fulfilling the orders of the authorities of the region, Farvazov allegedly began to “dig” who profited from the enterprise, and after a few months, in August 2022, he was replaced by a person even closer to Khabirov, the then Deputy Prime Minister Raif Abdrakhimov.
He worked with Khabirov in the Krasnogorsk administration. Its likely task may be to prepare “Bashspirt” for privatization, and the first thing that can happen is the sale of the “inefficient” Trade House “Bashspirt”. It was Abdrakhimov who signed the order to sell the premises to IP Chanysheva.
In the government, Abdrakhimov oversaw construction and housing and communal services. He was appointed by Prime Minister Andrey Nazarov, another close associate of Radiy Khabirov, who previously acted as a key beneficiary of the Granel development group.
After Khabirov came to power, the Granel Group of Companies began to receive huge government contracts, the green light was on everywhere. Nazarov himself is more than a scandalous person. The Moscow Post wrote about his affairs more than once.
It is Nazarov who can guide Khabirov in the matter of the possible implementation of Bashspirt. And although no one has yet directly announced privatization, potential applicants for the purchase of some of the company’s assets are also named. According to the authors of the Telegram-channel “Case for Kurai”, allegedly these are the Russian Standard Group of Companies of Rustam Tariko and Beluga Group of Alexander Mechetin.
There is no confirmation of this information. In addition, it is doubtful that Tariko, with all his debts, will decide to get into this story. Nevertheless, some of the assets may indeed be sold to them in order to leave the purely production assets of Bashspirt.
This can be done to reduce the price of the main enterprise, for which the future buyer will then be able to pay Khabirov’s team “in another way.” Apparently, Khabirov is tired of leading the region, so it’s time to look into the glass with “Bashspirt”, at the bottom of which hundreds of millions of rubles are waiting for “privatizers”.
