Another scandal flares up around Rosseti, this time in the Kursk region. Whether it will affect the rating of Governor Roman Starovoit, time will tell, but the fact that, to put it mildly, “strange” events are taking place at life support facilities in the border with Ukraine, it seems that none of the Kursk authorities do not care.
Lawsuits over electricity
The sole recipient of funds for the service of transmission of electrical energy to all grid organizations in the Kursk region (the so-called “boiler holder”) is PJSC “Rosseti Center” represented by the branch “Kurskenergo”. Upon receipt of funds from the supplier of last resort, which is JSC AtomEnergoSbyt, it is obliged to pay for the services of related grid organizations, including JSC Kursk Electric Networks. But over the past two years, PJSC Rosseti Center, having received funds in full, keeps them on its accounts, paying for electricity transmission services with a significant delay and not in full.
Currently, the claims of Kursk Electric Networks JSC against Rosseti Center PJSC in the amount of more than 266 million rubles are under consideration in arbitration courts. (266842372.26 rubles)
This year, this energy monster, the heir to RAO UES, has an unforgettable Anatoly Chubais, about 165 million rubles were won in court. And in total, as of the beginning of July, the total amount of debt is more than 440 million rubles.
For the sake of objectivity, it can be shown that JSC “Kursk Electric Networks”, which is the defendant in 17 cases currently under consideration, has been sued in the amount of just over 3.3 million rubles, and to be precise, then for 3319438.74 rubles. As they say, feel the difference.
But the most interesting thing is that, having delved into history, one can easily calculate that from 2016 to 2021, only about 7.5 million rubles were collected from Rosseti Center PJSC.
What happened over the past year and a half such that non-payments to the Kursk power engineers suddenly began to amount to hundreds of millions of rubles?
And what happened, probably, is what is happening in the vastness of our entire vast country after the appointment of the head of Rosseti Andrey Ryuminson-in-law of a Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. According to The Moscow Post,the state corporation Rosseti has been “stumbling” for many years over ineffective leadership, which seems to be much more concerned with personal enrichment than solving state problems“.
The situation is simple. While the “Kursk Electric Networks” were in a collapsed state, they, by and large, were not needed by anyone. As soon as their capitalization reached a fairly decent level, in terms of regional scale, people immediately appeared who wanted to take them into their own hands.
Indeed, why pay a lot of money to “someone else’s uncle” if you can make sure that they go into your own pocket. The saying “all the money in the family” is vividly confirmed by letters from the branch of PJSC “Rosseti Center” “Kurskenergo” signed by its director Sergei Demidov addressed to the shareholders of JSC Kursk Electric Networks, in which the intentions of Rosseti are stated in black and white, and the categorical wording shows that they do not intend to take into account anyone’s opinions. Moreover, this is happening under the direct supervision of the General Director of PJSC Rosseti Center Igor Makovsky. The same one who, when he was the head of Yantarenergo in Kaliningrad, according to the NIA news agency, “given all major contracts for the performance of certain works to affiliated companies”, under whose management the electric networks of the cities of Izhevsk and Votkinsk in Udmurtia, JSC “Voronezh Gorelektroset” in Voronezh, JSC “TGES” in Tula and others.
They really don’t care about other people’s opinions. “Taking into account that the Joint Stock Company “Kursk Electric Networks” is the second largest electric grid company in the Kursk region, PJSC “Rosseti Center”, within the framework of the above tasks, is interested in establishing control over its activities by acquiring a 100% stake in the Company‘, the letter says. I must say that now 50% plus one share belongs to the municipality “City of Kursk”, and the rest – to private investors.
What are these “tasks mentioned above”?
The media reported what order was established in the corporation under the leadership of Ryumin in the publication “Tangled in the Nets”. It depicts the “arts” of the figures of “Rosseti” in the Tyumen region and the Far East, the North Caucasus and the North-West region. And everywhere there is corruption, embezzlement, abuse and, finally, arrests and sentences have begun. Moreover, the amounts imputed to the defendants described in this article are often many times greater than the debts of Rosseti Center PJSC cited above to the Kursk people. For example, the former head of IDGC of the North Caucasus Magomed Kaitov 340 million rubles were stolen, and in total he is charged with fraud in the amount of almost 3.5 billion rubles, not counting charges of creating a criminal community.
But, of course, these ulcers of society have nothing to do with the “specified tasks”, but they are formulated quite decently – “ensuring high standards of quality and reliability of energy supply to consumers, ensuring the energy security of the regions of the Russian Federation through the introduction of uniform principles of operational and technological management, uniform requirements technical and operational policy”.
“Ensuring energy security” under fire
We were prompted to turn to this topic not by monetary numbers and clarification of the circumstances, who owes whom and why does not pay, but the current situation in the border regions of the Kursk region. The latest shelling from the territory of Ukraine is carried out at life support facilities, at production facilities of electrical networks and power supply, in particular, recorded in the village of Tyotkino, Glushkovsky district and its surroundings. Photos of damage are regularly uploaded in his telegram channel by the Governor of the Kursk region Roman Starovoit.
According to the technical service of the Kursk Electric Networks, as a result of the shelling in the village of Tetkino, the following lines were damaged and restored: 10kV overhead line feeder 359, 0.4kV overhead line from TP-14 per. Krestyansky, VL 0.4 from TP-13 st. Komsomolskaya, VL 0.4 from TP-18 st. Kalinina, VL 0.4 from TP-11 st. Lenin, VL0.4 from TP-7 the territory of the distillery. The case of a new transformer TMG-11 with a power of 250 kW was pierced, 2 new supports were destroyed. Seven double-glazed windows were also broken. The estimated estimate for the restoration of damaged structures is about two million rubles.
In these truly front-line conditions, “ensuring energy security,” which they write about in their “ultimatum” to the majority shareholders of Rosseti, looks, in fact, a mockery of electricity consumers, and even the authorities of the Kursk region. The authorities, with whose tacit consent, nothing more than a raider seizure is carried out. After all, due to constant non-payments by Rosseti Center PJSC, Kursk Electric Networks does not have the opportunity to form sufficient reserves of consumables. Work on the restoration of damaged facilities is being carried out in the most difficult conditions, there is no necessary equipment, logistics, transport interactions are disrupted. Moreover, the funds received with a significant delay are barely enough to pay wages to the employees of the enterprise.
As for the “consolidation of power grid assets” mentioned in the cited letter, Kommersant suggested six months ago that this would not end well, since monopolization would only lead to an increase in tariffs.
The ostrich position of the authorities
Rosseti, apparently, is trying to ensure that the Kursk Electric Networks have ongoing financial difficulties. This is also quite understandable. Intending to “buy”, and in fact, “squeeze out”, blocks of shares from the majority shareholders, Rosseti needs to bring the price down to a minimum, showing that the company whose shareholders these majority shareholders are, as they say, is “breathing its last” and is better now for their shares to receive “at least a tuft of wool from a black sheep”, than in the future to be “at a broken trough”. In general, “you have three rubles – and do not deny yourself anything.” May readers forgive us for the abundance of Russian folk sayings, however, they reveal the essence of the events in the best possible way. Further, for sure, in the direction of the “intractable” there will be threats by fiscal and punitive authorities, elementary bribery of partners, and the like, because nothing new is happening in these circumstances, everything is as old as the world.
What are the authorities of the city and the region doing in these conditions? And nothing! Although “Kursk Electric Networks” have written a bunch of letters, which are available in the editorial office, to all instances, they have not yet received any more or less intelligible answer. Meanwhile, power engineers do not need anything supernatural. If the authorities are already afraid of quarreling with such a giant as Rosseti, it may be worth considering and resolving the issue of urgently changing the tariff model and the scheme of settlement and contractual relations, providing for the direct receipt by Kursk Electric Networks of funds for the electricity transmission service, directly from the guaranteeing supplier AtomEnergoSbyt. This is entirely within the competence of the governor and the regional government.
The authorities should think about one more thing, the author of “Version” believes Sergey Kokorin. In the period 2006-2022, the profit of Kursk Electric Networks was directed exclusively to the development of the enterprise, which did not cause any complaints from the shareholders. As a result, the depreciation rate of the power grid facilities of the city of Kursk decreased from 80% in 2006 to 40.04% this year. The amount of taxes paid to the regional budget of the Kursk region and the city of Kursk over the past three years is about 120 million rubles. annually, and the amount of tax payments to the federal budget is approaching half a billion rubles. If Rosseti becomes the owner of the Kursk Electric Networks, neither the regional government and its governor, nor the city authorities will be able to fully influence economic issues, including in terms of profit distribution that affects the pace of modernization of electrical networks, acceptance for service ownerless electric power facilities, providing material assistance to budgetary organizations of Kursk. Yes, and the amount of tax payments, of course, will decrease sharply. The sad experience of the negative consequences of the transfer of management of strategic housing and communal services to legal entities located in other subjects of the federation, which brings a constant “headache” to the authorities and residents of Kursk, already exists.