Nikolaev from the highway: Chuvashia on the highway to nowhere

A series of corruption scandals have broken out in Chuvashia, which could add up to the system and lead to the resignation of the head of the region, Oleg Nikolaev. A few days ago, security forces conducted searches in the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance of the region. The head of the first, Vladimir Osipov, has already resigned. Should Mikhail Nozdryakov, the chief financial officer, get ready?

What do people from the regional head’s team do?

In addition to the ministries, searches were carried out in several companies – Dortech, Dorstar and Yard. Law enforcement officers were interested in road contracts concluded through the operational headquarters to improve the efficiency of using budget funds under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic.

Nikolaev – “press and don’t let go”

All this threatens problems personally for the head of the Republic, Oleg Nikolaev. The latter is known behind his back as a “driver” – before entering the State Duma from A Just Russia, he worked as a driver at Bodyguard LLC. Where does he get the competence to manage the region? Before moving to Cheboksary, he had no real experience of working on the ground.

But he has banking experience. In 2009-2013, the future head of Chuvashia was the manager of the operational office and director of the Cheboksary branch of Mosoblbank. After this, gigantic frauds were revealed in the bank – 116 billion rubles disappeared somewhere. The criminal case was opened in 2014 and developed over several years. But in 2016, Nikolaev became a State Duma deputy and could hardly fear questions from the security forces.

Prior to this, he moved to PJSC Khanty-Mansiysk Bank Otkritie (KhMB Otkritie). By the end of 2015, in December, it became known that the international rating agency Moody’s downgraded the long-term deposit rating of Khanty-Mansiysk Bank Otkritie in national and foreign currencies to “B2” from “B1”. The rating outlook was retained as “negative”.

Moody’s drew attention to both the bank’s declining ability to cope with losses and problems with the financial profile of the credit institution. Those. As soon as Nikolaev arrived, everything fell apart.

Now it’s raining down in Chuvashia, so much so that Oleg Nikolaev himself can fall asleep. However, journalists from the state media in the region are unlikely to offend him – time they criticize those who dare to criticize the team of the head of the region. And earlier, Nikolaev himself tried to subjugate information flows by putting forward an initiative aimed at being able to identify sharp-tongued users of various messengers (the so-called “law on messengers”).

Oleg Nikolaev, instead of working for the benefit of people, prefers to shut the mouths of critics? Photo: http://yalav.ru/images/003/0V0A9096-1400×800.jpg

However, he did not achieve success – the idea initially looked like a failure. But the fact itself is important – if the work is not going well, if your government is being searched for corruption cases, isn’t it better to simply shut the mouths of those who dare to talk about it in the media? Or even “whisper” in the chat, as if in the kitchen in Soviet times.

The roads where they stole

Returning to the story of the searches, we note that Dorstar, which appears in the case, received a large contract for the overhaul of Lapsarsky Proezd at a cost of 700 million rubles. More precisely, as the locals call this “road”, the Lapsar “no-passage”, because it is almost impossible to drive there during muddy times.

The contract was concluded precisely through the operational headquarters, which has the authority to distribute government orders for significant objects without competition. The scope for abuse is enormous. The headquarters includes the heads of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance, and until recently there was also the leadership of the local OFAS (headed by Valery Koteev).

Apparently, in the near future very specific names may appear in the “unidentified” criminal case. Sensing this, Transport Minister Vladimir Osipov resigned. It is unlikely that this was his initiative: the head of the Nikolaev region understands that the “bumps” will inevitably fall on him.

The cartel rules the cartel

“Dostar” was founded in 2020, the authorized capital is only 10 thousand rubles. The structure clearly does not have enough experience for such a large-scale project, which for some reason did not bother the members of the operational headquarters (including Koteev). And only later did the prosecutor’s office get involved – it sent an appeal to the Federal Antimonopoly Service with arguments that it was impossible to conclude this contract. But the structure was only supposed to receive half of the entire contract amount in advance.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service seemed to agree with the arguments of the prosecutor’s office. But why did Koteev give the go-ahead to conclude the contract at one time? The same document from the operational headquarters contains the signatures of the heads of the Ministry of Transport Osipov and the Ministry of Finance Nozdryakov, as well as many other officials. All of them are “flesh from the flesh” of Oleg Nikolaev’s team.Photo: https://zarulem.ws/news.htm?shownews=283324

But the operational headquarters was created “on the sly” of the SVO in order, so to speak, to increase the speed and efficiency of the authorities’ work. It turns out that while the whole country is fighting for its future, in Chuvashia hundreds of millions are being shoved into pockets that are alien to officials?

“Dorstar” belongs to the famous Chuvash “road builder” Vyacheslav Kozlov and his partner Denis Pavlenko. In less than three years, they have accumulated government orders worth 385 million rubles from the Chuvashuprdor State Enterprise of the Ministry of Transport of Chuvashia and the administration of the city of Kanash. Not bad for such a period of time for a little-known company. And this same Dorstar previously distributed subcontracts to the Yard company, owned by the son of the Republican Minister of Transport Artem Ospiov.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

The company employs only two people, the authorized capital is 12.5 thousand rubles. From 2020, i.e. Since Nikolaev came to the post of head of the region, its revenue has grown more than 8 times – from 2.9 to 17 million rubles. Photo: Rusprofile.ru

The third company that interested the security forces, Dortech, looks much more respectable. On the market since 2002, more than 140 employees. The company is owned by Anatoly Volkov and has contracts worth 5.5 billion rubles. The key counterparty is the same “Chuvashuprdor”, controlled by the Ministry of Transport of the republic.

Those. two new companies that came with Nikolaev, and an old road bison. Perhaps there was a “bargaining”, in which the road market was split between people close to officials (Yard) and old players. Does this sound like a “road” cartel?

However, for the region under Nikolaev this is a common thing. In 2021, antimonopoly officers uncovered a conspiracy between Elista LLC (Cheboksary) and DorStroyServis LLC (Novocheboksarsk), which pretended to be a competitive struggle during the tender for road repairs in Novocheboksarsk. This is not the first “puncture” for “DorStroyService” – it previously repaired roads in Kanash (where the aforementioned “Dorstar” was especially active), but then it turned out that the work was carried out poorly.

There is a more recent example – in January 2023, the FAS commission for Chuvashia recognized Stroykom LLC and Dorservis LLC (both with Cheboksary registration) as participants in a cartel conspiracy during four tenders for road repairs. Apparently, the Nikolaev employees were so tired of the agility of Koteev’s employees that the antimonopoly officer was “pulled” closer?

Almost all the funds for these contracts, including the overhaul of Lapsarsky Passage, were allocated within the framework of the national project Safe and High-Quality Roads. Funds for it come from the federal budget. So Nikolaev road workers could put their hand in the pockets of not only the residents of Chuvashia alone, but also of all of Russia.

“Our people” in the area

The go-ahead for the movement of banknotes was given by the head of the Ministry of Finance, Mikhail Pozdnyakov, who probably lost sleep and appetite after the visit of the security forces to his department. Ill-wishers have long been spreading slander against Oleg Nikolaev’s financial block – they say, instead of multiplying funds, they are only engaged in their redistribution to someone unknown and for what purpose.

And this is despite the subject’s public debt, which is not weak for a small Republic. As of mid-2022, it was about 8.3 billion rubles – 7 thousand rubles for each of the 1.2 million residents. And by the end of 2023, it is expected to be at the level of, attention, 17.7 billion rubles. Those. In just one year, the growth has more than doubled. And what next – in 2024 it will exceed 30 billion rubles?

The head of the Ministry of Finance, Mikhail Nozdryakov, worked under the previous head of the region, Mikhail Ignatiev. At one time, his candidacy was stopped by the then Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation, Alexei Kudrin, and, apparently, for good reason. Then Nozdryakov worked in Sevastopol, and returned to the Republic under Nikolaev.

From 2005 to 2010, Nozdryakov worked in the same company with United Russia member Igor Semenov; Nozdryakov was then Semyonov’s boss. After Nozdryakov was included in the government of Chuvashia in February 2020, his business colleague Semenov was hired as the head of the administration of the Ibresinsky district.

In recent years, large government orders from the region for road repairs and maintenance have been received by a certain Vekha LLC. Their total number exceeded 32 million rubles. The total volume, including other municipalities, is over 90 million rubles. At the same time, the company earned a modest 2.4 million rubles in 2022, and the value of its assets was 5.5 million rubles. That is, literally, the price of one used truck.

At the same time, the structure (straightforward classic) has only a few employees with 10 thousand authorized capital. The disproportion is obvious – and could these road workers be connected with the corruption system that came to light during recent searches?

So isn’t it better for Nikolaev to simply silently correct mistakes and work for the benefit of people? Otherwise, he too may be considered a mistake, and not only among the local population, but also in the Presidential Administration. And they can entrust the security forces with corrections.

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