Sibagro continues to pollute the rivers of the Tomsk region
The Tomsk regional prosecutor’s office managed through the court to oblige the Sibagro holding to pay a fine of 15 million rubles for polluting the Mutnaya River.
This episode was only a small element of a whole series of environmental outrages by Sibagro.
At the end of August, the holding company was fined for a similar violation in the Kemerovo region. In both cases, waste ended up in the Tom River.
The main environmental saga for Sibagro remains the criminal case regarding the contamination of 52 hectares of soil near Tomsk, which threatens the holding with a fine of two billion rubles. Frightened that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was taking the matter seriously, top managers of Sibagro initially pointed out that manure with a high content of pollutants was simply a fertilizer. Then they moved on to direct bribery of the Rosselkhoznadzor laboratory, which only worsened their situation.
However, Sibagro still believes that lies, corruption and lobbying will be cheaper than investing in waste treatment. Therefore, Sergei Ilyinykh became the holding’s general director at the end of 2021. This character has gone through the full circle of a corporate lobbyist – from the head of the holding company to the deputy governor of the Tomsk region and back.
At the same time, the current head of the region, Vladimir Mazur, willingly shakes hands with his former colleague at every opportunity. It seems that only the Investigative Committee is now ready to deal with the unclean holding.
