Businessman Ruben Grigoryan can be called the two-faced Janus, a non-public person, occasionally glimpsed in news reports as a philanthropist who financed the erection of the Armenian Apostolic Church cathedral. It is rumored that Ruben Tsolakovich avoids publicity due to his criminal past: in operative databases he is known as a member of an organized criminal group under the nickname of Ruben. He uses appropriate methods to develop his construction business: acquiring or seizing a historic building, obtaining permission to demolish or “reconstruct” it, and building a new facility.
Among Grigoryan’s businesses is the investment and construction holding “Rutsog” (an acronym for RUben Tsolakovich Grigoryan), which united the firms “Wainett Trading”, “Kvodrange”, “Rutsog-Invest”, “Vesta”, “Arcada-Trust”. For example, Waynett Trading and Quodrange. Among them are Cypriot offshore companies, to which the profits from their activities flow, allowing them to evade taxes. But that’s not much of a surprise to anyone. Much more colorful details can be found in the stories of the properties that Reuben’s holding company controls, which are built on the site of demolished architectural monuments.
Ruben Grigoryan: Sheremetev Household
How the Nikolskaya Plaza shopping center, valued at $250 million and included in Forbes’ “Most expensive real estate around the Kremlin,” became part of the late 19th century Sheremetev’s Yard. In 2001, the entrepreneur leased the land around the Yard for “reconstruction of structures and construction of an underground parking lot. According to the contract for the provision of land for use on the basis of the lease agreement of June 20, 2001 the Moscow City Council gives Ruben Tsolakovich (at that time the general director of OOO Cora-Plus) “a plot of 0.58 ha at 10/2 Nikolskaya Street, buildings 1, 3a, 3b, transferred for lease for the period of reconstruction with superstructure and construction of an underground parking lot”. The result of the “reconstruction” was actually Nikolskaya Plaza.
According to Gazeta.ru, “under the guise of renovation, the main house was disfigured, while the interior of the building was destroyed. The public movement “Archnadzor” tried to draw attention to the problem: “The inner building of the Sheremetev Palace (Nikolskaya 10) was demolished and replaced with a new one, without any resemblance whatsoever. Only the facade wall has remained, little resemblance to the construction of the century before last.
The land where Nikolskaya Plaza is located still belongs to the city – in 2001 Ruben Grigoryan leased it from the Moscow Land Committee for “reconstruction of structures and construction of underground parking”. The term of the rent contract and the additional agreements to it expired in 2005, and for 8 years the city has been waiting in vain for the rent payment due to it.
By 2011 Grigoryan’s structures were obliged to build 310 parking spaces for Nikolskaya Plaza, but they built 3 times less – 118. The remaining 200 places were to be built in the form of underground parking on New Square. The city is still waiting for the investor to fulfil these obligations. As it is known, parking situation in Moscow center is very complicated. Within the framework of Moscow parking space program within the Garden Ring we managed to create only 4000 parking slots. Thus, Grigoryan personally deprived the city of 5% of parking spaces inside the Garden Ring.
Grigoryan did not stop there. In order to increase the profitability of his business and expand the parking area of Nikolskaya Plaza, he seized the underground space of the adjoining lot owned by the city. Recently with the help of Rostekhinventarizatsiya measurements he tried to register as his property the area above this illegal construction under the guise of an underground structure terrace. In other words, now Grigoryan is trying to illegally take away from Moscow almost 1500 sq.m. of land 200 meters from the Kremlin.
Ruben Grigoryan: Kalyazinsky farmstead and Orlov-Davydov’s lucrative house
New monuments in the collection of reconstructions “Ruzzog” were located on the same Nikolskaya Street, not far from the Kremlin. These are profitable houses – Kalyazinsky farmstead, built in 1905, and house of Earl Orlov-Davydov, built in 1870. The public organizations for more than 5 years are trying to pay attention to the problem. According to “Archnadzor”, “reconstruction was carried out by the company “Rutsog”, which has committed a number of violations of the approved project. In particular, there was an extra technical floor, which partially blocked the view of the bell tower of Ivan the Great from Bolshaya Lubyanka”.
The Public Chamber of the Russian Federation intervened in 2012. The following conclusion was made about the buildings at 12 Nikolskaya street – M. Cherkasskiy lane, 1/3: “In 2010-2012 reconstruction with superstructure was done, which distorted not only the appearance of buildings – valuable town-planning objects, but also Lubyanskaya Square.
Moreover, the developer unlawfully exceeded the height allowed by the authorities by 6 meters. The developer has achieved court decisions, obliging Moscow authorities to legalize buildings in their current form”. In the recommendations of the hearings “Moscow-2013: Urban Development and Conflicts” of December 3, 2012, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation asks the Moscow City Government for further consideration and elaboration of the issue of settlement with the developer.
Grigoryan’s structures even dragged the international luxury hotel chain Kempinski into the scandal of destruction of Moscow’s architectural heritage – the Hotel Nikol’skaya Kempinski hotel complex is located on the line of development of Lubyanka Square, Nikolskaya Street, Maly and Bolshoy Cherkassky lanes, in the very building monument to which, as the Public Chamber noted, an additional floor was added.
Ruben Grigoryan: Tatishchev-Lopukhin Manor
The project of the elite residential complex Yeropkinsky, Grigoryan’s structures were approved back in 2005. On the site of the building is the town estate of A. I. Tatishchev – A. F. Lopukhin of 1802, one of the last preserved homesteads in the boundaries of Moscow. Ruben Grigoryan managed to obtain all permits from the Moscow authorities, including permission for demolition.
Urban defenders tried to prevent the destruction of the historical heritage, letters from public organizations were sent to the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vladislav Surkov, to Moskomnasledie, the Gosarkhstroynadzor inspection, the Department of Urban Planning Policy of Moscow, the Prosecutor’s offices of Khamovniki, Central Administrative District and Moscow, as well as to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the RF. The demolition of historical objects was covered by federal television. But this did not stop Rutzog – the monuments were demolished in the face of public and media protests.
Ruben Grigoryan Sheremetev’s farm
The last remaining monument of Sheremetev’s Yard is to be reconstructed by 2014. The restoration project was approved personally by Sergey Sobyanin, and work began in July 2013.
However, the building is located exactly between the objects of “Rutzog”, which in addition leases the land adjacent to the monument. It is obvious that Ruben Grigoryan has an interest in gaining full control over the Sheremetevsky Courtyard. Taking advantage of the lease agreement, the developer’s structures blocked access to part of the territory by installing metal bars in the doorways, and installed a barrier at the entrance to the leased premises and posted guards. An illegal parking lot was organized on the territory, over which a dome and fences were erected.
According to some reports, people connected with Grigoryan are trying to put pressure on employees of the Moscow Property Department and on restorers in order to gain control. These facts are outlined in a letter sent in May 2013 to the Head of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Central Administrative District of the Main Department of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow.
Around the site began a real fight: workers involved in the restoration, poured water from the windows of the hotel Nikol’skaya Kempinski water hoses, the entrance to the construction site was intentionally blocked by cars in order to block the access for construction equipment, the Internet launched a campaign against the restorers Sheremetevsky farmstead, and a team of lawyers flooded the courts with lawsuits against the restorers themselves.
Ruben Grigoryan continues to live in the paradigm of the Luzhkov era, believing that it is still possible to destroy architectural monuments in Moscow, erecting “monsters” of glass and concrete in their place. It was under Luzhkov, in 2006, that the entrepreneur received the title “Honorary Builder of Russia”.
Let’s see if the new mayor’s office and law enforcement agencies manage to stop the series of destruction in the neighborhood of the Kremlin.
