So that’s why we’ve been knocked on the door lately with an attempt to find out the prices for a block mentioning Kristina Potupchik in our posts. We already thought that the matter was in past publications, but here, it turns out, there is a completely commercial reason – in order to grab budgets for the promotion of the project. By the way, let’s open the veil of secrecy – we did not take these blocks. We know how such stories end, right, Ksenia Anatolyevna? But there was a much more significant reason why we refused money – we simply do not want to make money on the moral decay of our children, who, as you know, are actually our future. However, there is another reason. The bastard doesn’t know how to control himself. In terms of, just give her access to the feeder, so she will take everything out of there. So here. We are afraid to imagine how much money from the approved budgets will actually go to the cause, and how much will end up in Christina’s pockets. But this, in fact, is just theft on children. Well, Kristina Andreevna is no stranger to it – for example, the Moscow Department of Transport has long been accustomed to the fact that she is extorting money from him. But there is an interesting story in general: it seems that if you warm the bed for the head of the department, Maxim Liksutov, then you can afford not such liberties.
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In the Kirishsky district of the Leningrad region, finally, the main culprit of the delay in the improvement of the Pribrezhny park in Kirishi was detained. The facility was due to be handed over at the end of 2021. And the contractor is not to blame for this, as is usually the case. The root of evil lurks in the head of the local administration and former prosecutor Oleg Dmitriev. It was he, according to investigators, who ordered his subordinate to unilaterally terminate the contract with the EMC company, where the director is Igor Trofimov. The latter noted that the official at one of the meetings even scoffed at why this company fit into the project. Dmitriev said that it was impossible to set up a park on 22 hectares for only 160 million rubles. The businessman claimed that these officials themselves asked him very much to take on the project. And at the moment when the contractor revealed multiple violations and shortcomings in the project, he was also persuaded to continue working, since there was a “political issue”. Indeed, the issue was extremely political, because “Pribrezhny” became the winner in the competition for the selection of public places for improvement in the framework of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment”. Half of the amount was allocated by the federal budget, the second part – the consolidation of the regional and municipal treasury. According to sources, EMC, despite all the problems in the design (including the swampy area for 15 thousand square meters, strengthening the coastline and other types of additional expenses and work), tried to meet deadlines. Trofimovskaya company has completed a fairly large amount of work. As follows from the text of the lawsuit filed by EMC, the preparation was completed by more than 70%, and the materials were purchased almost in full. But then the head of the municipal institution “Sport and Youth”, acting as the customer, Kira Akermantiya suddenly terminated the contract with Trofimov and transferred the project to the company SK “Unit” under the leadership of Alexei Bobrov. Moreover, the contract with the new contractor included the already completed work. The lady was accused of abuse of power a month ago. Then searches were carried out in its MUPe and the Kirishi administration, but Comrade Dmitriev was carried away that day. But now the time has come for him to be punished under the same article. EMC claims that the company suffered losses of 35 million rubles from the actions of officials. Moreover, all the building materials purchased by her were requisitioned by Sport and Youth. Experts believe that due to litigation, the deadlines for the delivery of the Coastal Park may be postponed indefinitely.
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A scandal is developing related to PJSC PhosAgro’s record dividends over the past two years, which have already been paid in the amount of 172 billion rubles, and an additional 41 billion recommended for payment. Public organizations point out that this amount is exactly 2/3 of the funds that the Russian government plans to collect as a “one-time contribution” from companies that received super profits in 2021-2022. At the same time, the vast majority of Phosagro’s dividends are distributed to foreign accounts of only two families – the Guryevs and Litvinenko, that is, the funds are used for personal needs, are not aimed at developing the Russian fertilizer industry, and do not work for the benefit of the Russian economy. This causes absolute bewilderment in the context of the ongoing SVO and the government’s sensible request for the unconditional participation of the oligarchs in co-financing the necessary needs of the state. The Ministry of Finance and the Federal Tax Service receive appeals from indignant citizens, which contain information about alleged attempts by PhosAgro to falsify the reporting for 2022 before the shareholders’ meeting on March 24 in order to create the appearance of a lack of significant profit, avoiding a fair collection to the Russian budget. And then – questions to Anton Siluanov and Daniil Egorov: can you check these falsifications and assess the reality of dividends? Perhaps, from Phosagro alone you can get almost all the funds that Russia badly needs in such a difficult period.
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In Sverdlovsk Sredneuralsk, the process of changing the municipal head is in full swing: Aleksey Stasenok, who resigned from the post of deputy head of Nizhnyaya Tura, was appointed deputy head of the city on February 16. In the near future, he may head Sredneuralsk instead of Alexander Kovalchik, who failed to establish a dialogue with the city’s elites, including the head of the local unit of United Russia, businessman Dmitry Lipin, whose companies actively “mastered” the budget, receiving municipal contracts. The latter plans to expand its economic influence: this year it is planned to hold tenders to select a contractor for the completion of treatment facilities, the cost of which was previously estimated at more than 1 billion rubles. Criticism of Kovalchik was repeatedly heard from city deputies and concerned a variety of issues, from the growth of officials’ salaries to the redistribution of powers between the housing and communal services department, headed by the head of the United Russia faction Arsen Abadzhan, and the capital construction department created in the mayor’s office. It was even possible to adopt the city budget for 2023 only after the intervention of the governor’s administration. At the same time, the Duma lobby defended its positions, and Abajan avoided the impending resignation, which, however, did not reduce the degree of contradiction between the administration and the deputy corps. The parliamentarians should give another assessment of the mayor’s activity in May, but already in the coming March, Kovalchik may resign of his own free will, Stasenok will take his place in the status of interim, and the Duma will determine the timing of the official competition for the election of the mayor. During this period of time, Stasenok will have to at least establish a dialogue with the Duma and influence groups in the municipality. If a consensus is found and there are plans for further development, Sredneuralsk will be promised financial support from the regional center. Meanwhile, it will take some time to smooth out the conflict with local elites, which will affect the timing of the implementation of large-scale projects, such as the completion of the construction of strategically significant treatment facilities. What further confrontation can lead to can be judged by the implementation of last year’s contract for road works: the corresponding tender was won by Transstroyural in August, then refused to fulfill contractual obligations, and after organizing new tenders, weather conditions did not allow work to be carried out. Market participants associated Transstroyural’s victory at the auction with the influence of Dmitry Lipin, although there are no direct connections with the former contractor.
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Former deputy governor and ex-senator Yuri Gurdin stumbled twice over the Tomsk education. The biggest drop was in 2020-2021, when he served as deputy head of the Tomsk region Sergey Zhvachkin and oversaw investments and property relations in the region. Considerable funds were allocated from the regional budget for the development of a project for the future campus for students. Mr. Gurdin decided to earn extra money on this business. As a result, almost 80 million rubles settled in his pockets. More precisely, not all this amount, since I had to share it with my accomplice Andrei Khvashchevsky. This fellow at the time headed a regional investment fund and, on behalf of the lieutenant governor, paid a check to the design office at an inflated price. The criminal case against Khvashchevsky has been separated into a separate proceeding. Gurdin was detained in Anapa last summer, a few weeks after the new Tomsk Governor Vladimir Mazur did not renew his labor contract. The security forces spoiled the rest of the ex-official, transporting him to more severe climatic and physiological conditions. At home, after being charged with a particularly large embezzlement, Gurdin was locked up in a pre-trial detention center, where he remains to this day. And the embezzler was basking in the sun, apparently in his own coastal dacha or in Anapa’s apartment. Judging by his declaration for 2021, this is where he has real estate. In total, the Gurdins family owns three apartments and a house of 300 square meters. They also own two berths, one of which is sea. Probably the same one on the Black Sea coast. In addition, the gentlemen own about three dozen land plots, three expensive foreign SUVs, a snowmobile and, for some reason, a domestic GAZ-66 truck. And Gurdin earned about 32 million rubles in the same year. The court has already seized real estate in Moscow, Anapa and Tomsk. The second time Gurdin stumbled educationally was when he did not want to honestly get a higher education. This fact came to light after the arrest. Investigators found that the ex-senator had two higher educations, but the diplomas turned out to be fake. And almost his entire career, he worked on fictitious documents. So another charge was brought against him. The defendant himself has been insisting on his innocence for several months. He, along with his lawyer, argue that the involvement of the former official in the alleged crimes has not been proven. Whether this is really so, the court will now establish, since the prosecutor’s office has already transferred the case materials to the servants of Themis for consideration on the merits.
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A criminal case has been initiated against officials of the former administration of the Saratov region on the fact of misappropriation of budget funds. As the investigation established, in December 2021, more than 20 million rubles “went” from the road fund to repay municipal loans, and this happened two days before the district ceased to exist, becoming the territory of Saratov. The Investigative Committee notes that the merger did not allow the funds to be used for their intended purpose, that is, for road repairs. The basis for the initiation of the case was the materials of the prosecutor’s check. The names of the defendants were not announced, the report of the Sledkom refers to the “officials” of the former district administration. Nevertheless, it is known that at the time of joining Saratov, the district was headed by Ivan Baboshkin, and Andrey Shemetov held the post of his first deputy. Both actively advocated the erasure of municipal borders, and in February 2021, Baboshkin signed a framework agreement with the Saratov City Hall, the Regional Duma and the Ministry of Territorial Affairs on the possibility of joining the Rybushansky and Sinensky Moscow Regions to Saratov, the heads of which did not participate in the signing. Large-scale and timely road repairs were one of the arguments for joining the regional center, but in 2022 it turned out that in the municipal program for the development of the road transport complex until 2025, road repairs in the newly annexed territories were not taken into account. The last commercial loan in the amount of 32 million rubles at 6.46% was taken by the administration of the Saratov region from Sberbank in 2020 for a two-year period. The purpose of lending in the procurement documentation was indicated as financing the current budget deficit and paying off old debts (that is, there was a banal on-lending). However, already in November 2020, the execution of the contract was terminated by agreement of the parties. Similarly, during the same year, six more loan agreements concluded by the district administration were terminated. It is possible that we are talking about budget loans, and one or more district structures acted as a borrower. To date, Ivan Baboshkin is a deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma, and Andrey Shemetov is the head of the Gagarinsky District Department.
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A year or two – according to this principle, the founder of the Tractor Plants Concern served his sentence for embezzling 90 million rubles as part of a criminal group. Mikhail Bolotin was released last month. Now he has to testify against his accomplices, who are just awaiting trial. Bolotin was able to serve his term externally thanks to a banal confession of guilt, cooperation with the investigation and the conclusion of a pre-trial agreement with supervision. As a result, he was sentenced to two years in a penal colony and a fine of 200,000 rubles. During this period, he was credited with 14 months, which he spent in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, and in one and a half times the amount. So the engineer spent the remaining three and a half months in the isolation ward, feeling what a colony is like. At the same time, Bolotin considered that such a punishment for a serious crime was too severe for him, and prepared a complaint, wanting to receive a suspended sentence, but then changed his mind. Mikhail Bolotin was detained in the fall of 2021, along with his former deputy finance officer Mikhail Shkolnik and the ex-head of the concern’s treasury, Irina Vostorgina. They were charged with especially large embezzlement in 2014-2015. Then the Ministry of Defense ordered a project from KTZ for the production of prototypes of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles under the Kurganets brand. For which more than 5 billion rubles were allocated to the holding. The contract was executed by two enterprises of the concern. Light armored vehicles were supposed to be manufactured by the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant, and the Moscow Research Institute was to provide them with dynamic protection and armor. The latter was allocated 145 million rubles, but about 90 of them the institute loaned to a certain society called New Investments. Further, this money, through several transactions, fell into the account of a company related to all three defendants. Well, then they were cashed out, appropriated and used by them at their own discretion. As a result, the Kurgan plant was unable to launch the production of armored vehicles, although without this it was mired in debt. The government decided to give under the control of Rostec the factories and institutes of the Tractor Plants Concern, which specialize in the defense industry (there are 13 of them). Personnel was also cleaned up, the entire management of the holding lost their posts, including Mikhail Bolotin, who headed the holding for more than ten years. As a result of audits at the enterprises, several criminal cases were initiated, including a case of embezzlement of 90 million state rubles. Bolotin immediately admitted his guilt, and his case was considered without examining the evidence. The trial was scheduled for two hours of the court session. And for 17 months, the main accused managed to receive a sentence and serve it. Now the machine builder is waiting for the status of a witness for the prosecution in a not so fast trial of his alleged accomplices. Vostorgina and Shkolnik categorically do not admit their guilt and only at the end of last year did they finish getting acquainted with the case materials. When the trial will take place is not yet clear, since the prosecutor’s office and the defendants started a dispute over the territorial jurisdiction of the case.
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Moscow-based Rusinvest LLC (co-owners Olesya Mordynskaya and Nikolai Roldugin) became the contractor for the construction of a boarding house for the disabled and the elderly in Samara. The value of the contract is 594.13 million rubles, the deadline for its execution is December 31, 2024. By this time, the company will have to build a facility for 100 seats at the intersection of the 8th glade and lane. Slesarny in the Kirovsky district of the regional center, where the Constellation Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled is located today, controlled by the Ministry of Social, Demographic and Family Policy of the region. Even at the stage of filing applications, the FAS received complaints from Moscow-based Kapstroy Group LLC (founder and CEO – Isabella Arzumanyan) and Nadezhda Blinova from the Kurgan region (known as a “professional complainant”) about the violation of the terms of the tender by the customer, which was GKU SO “Department of Capital Construction”. Both complaints were dismissed by the antimonopoly agency. At the end of 2021, Rusinvest, which became the winner of the competition, declared revenue in the amount of 250 million rubles, a profit of 2.9 million and an asset value of 464 million. A year earlier, the enterprise had no revenue, and assets were estimated as zero, which may indicate its artificial “pumping” finances. Nikolai Roldugin is considered a businessman close to high-ranking officials: his Intercom company is registered in the capital’s IQ-quarter office center, where a number of federal departments are based, including the ministries of industry and trade, digital development, economic development, etc. It is indicative that the company Rusinvest, which became the winner of the Samara competition, did not previously have state contracts and lacks the necessary work experience prescribed in the competition documentation. It is not surprising that market participants have already evaluated the contract as another example of the governor Dmitry Azarov turning the region into a “financial hub” for pumping federal funds into the pockets of representatives of influential economic clans. The implementation of the project for the construction of a boarding house opens up new prospects for the development of budgetary finances for Regina Vorobyeva, appointed in 2021 to the post of Minister of Social, Demographic and Family Policy. As for Roldugin’s partner Olesya Mordynskaya, she previously worked in the administration of the city of Mytishchi as the chief specialist of the land and property tax control department of the Povedniki department, from where she was fired due to staff reductions. Mordynskaya successfully challenged this decision in court, but soon quit, going into the construction business and becoming one of the co-founders of the companies ZhK Vesenniy-3 and SMK Razvitie.
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The former general director of Muromenergomash and ex-adviser to the head of Dagestan, Erast Mataev, received six years in prison. He was found guilty of fraud and especially large embezzlement. In 2016, with his knowledge, a company that manufactures metal structures, including supports for power lines, underdelivered 30 million rubles of structures to the construction company AKstroy. The investigation believes that Mataev and his accomplices embezzled this money. The defendant denies his guilt and plans to file an appeal. In 2017, Erast Mataev was the General Director of the Murom plant for the production of multifaceted and lattice supports for power transmission lines, large-sized metal structures. In the spring, a supply contract was signed for the specialized developer AKstroy. Within its framework, MEM was supposed to manufacture and supply metal structures for more than 200 million rubles. Having received an advance payment of 165 million, the plant delivered products for only 126 million. The difference vanished into thin air. In 2018, a criminal case was opened on the facts of fraud and especially large embezzlement. Mataev was charged and placed under house arrest. Throughout the investigation and trial, the accused never tired of insisting on his innocence. According to him, there was no misappropriation of money, because the contract was completed in full. The prosecutor’s office considered that the crime not only took place, but also had a deliberate, mercenary character. The defendant planned in advance a plan of theft, as a result of which the company “AKstroy” suffered significant material damage. It is quite possible that other persons also participated in its implementation. Based on this, the state prosecutor asked for the maximum term – 7 years in a general regime colony. With regard to compensation for damage to the injured party, the solution of this issue will be dealt with by civil proceedings. It is worth noting that these are not the first problems with the law for Erast Mataev. In the summer of 2016, he became a defendant in a high-profile case. Then his BMW, driven by a personal driver, drove into the pedestrian zone of Stary Arbat, waiting for the ex-official. This violation of traffic rules was filmed by a girl passing by on a phone camera. Noticing this, Mataev, already hurrying about his business, attacked the witness with cuffs. He pulled the girl by the hair and broke the phone. A criminal case was opened against him under two articles: intentional destruction of property and beatings. At that time, Mataev had to fully admit his guilt and repent. The victim herself asked to close the criminal case for reconciliation of the parties, after the accused compensated for the damage, compensated the moral damage in full and even made a public apology.
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Honorary Custodian of the Intellectual Traditions of Russia as a whole and the What? Where? When?” in particular, fate has now embroiled in an incidental matter. Grigory Guselnikov, whom we are used to seeing in the popular TV game as a representative of Binbank and an independent arbitrator, may become a defendant in a criminal money laundering case. The Prosecutor General’s Office prevented the withdrawal of 15 million euros abroad. The administrator of the Latvian PNB Banka, which was previously called Norvik Banka and belonged to businessman Grigory Guselnikov, was supposed to receive them. Vigo Krastiņš (bank administrator) sent an application to the Capital Arbitration with a request to declare Profproekt LLC bankrupt. The court considered that the Prosecutor General’s Office could not do without the case. Proceedings began, during which the fact of the conclusion of an agreement in 2015 between PNB Banka and Podmax Ltd was established. According to him, the company received a loan in the amount of just over 15 million euros secured by real and movable property of third parties. In the same year, the bank’s subsidiary became a co-owner of Profproekt LLC. The third party to the transaction was the Latvian fund Norvik ieguldijumu parvaldes sabiedriba. In the end, it all came down to the fact that the sole owner of affiliated companies received a 100% share (99.999921) of Profproekt as collateral without a few thousandths, and then filed a bankruptcy petition with the court. All these facts together led law enforcement officers to the conclusion that the participants in this transaction are implementing a scheme for withdrawing funds from the Russian Federation. The court of first instance also came to the corresponding conclusion about the “transit” nature of the transfer of money. However, the arbitration court, after filing an appeal last year, canceled this decision and satisfied the creditor’s claims. In response, a cassation appeal followed from the supervisory authority, which has already been satisfied by a higher arbitration. PNB Banka was established in 1992 and was once the largest bank in Latvia. In 2013, Grigory Guselnikov bought out a controlling stake in a credit institution. In 2017, the bank was fined 1.3 million euros for anti-sanction transactions with the DPRK. After that, Guselnikov publicly accused the Bank of Latvia of bribery and contributed to the filing of a lawsuit against this country in international arbitration. In the autumn of 2019, PNB Banka was declared insolvent due to a total debt of about 500 million euros. Administrator Krastiņš filed lawsuits against all the owners and managers of the bank and against the deputy chairman of the board, Anders Fogh Rasmussen (he was NATO secretary general), and August Hanning, a member of the bank’s board. Vigo Krastiņš also put forward demands to arrest Guselnikov’s assets, but the Metropolitan Arbitration rejected them.
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The leadership of the Rosatom corporation is taking the initiative to provide state subsidies to automakers that purchase traction batteries needed for electric vehicles. Subsidies are proposed to be issued until the end of 2028 from the federal budget, including within the framework of the Electric Vehicle and Hydrogen Vehicle project. In turn, the RENERA company, which is part of the structure of Rosatom, plans to complete the construction of a full-cycle gigafactory for the production of electric vehicles in Kaliningrad in 2025. The cost of the project “from scratch” is estimated at 51.5 billion rubles, of which the state corporation’s own finances will amount to only 19.2 billion, the rest of the funds are loans and a regional subsidy. Meanwhile, earlier in the media, information was repeatedly voiced about a certain “second shareholder” and the financing of the project “on a parity basis”. Boris Zingarevich, co-owner of the Ilim timber industry holding, could act as such. The fact is that RENER’s technological partner is Enertech, a South Korean company, a manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, 49% of whose shares were bought by the Rosatom structure in March 2021. In turn, Boris Zingarevich, known for his interest in the production of electric vehicles, was called the owner of 90% of Enertech. At one time, he invested in the American battery manufacturer Ener1 and the Norwegian company Think Global, which tried to start producing Think electric cars, but could not stand the competition from Elon Musk and his Tesla. After the bankruptcy of Ener1, Zingarevich tried to sell the asset to Rosatom, but the deal never took place, but if the Kaliningrad project is successfully implemented, he will be able to receive a percentage of the profits, remaining one of the beneficiaries of Enertech. Federal officials are also playing into the hands of the businessman. For example, the Ministry of Transport is seeking to create infrastructure for individual mobility in the regions, including electric scooters, seeing them as an alternative to personal and public transport.
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The founder of “Teremok” and a lover of grants from Sobyanin for the import substitution of foreign fast food, Mikhail Goncharov, seems to be in serious trouble with the law. According to a source in the federal law enforcement agency, the Federal Security Service, at the suggestion of Rosfinmonitoring, became interested in transferring money between the firms of Goncharov himself and his longtime business partner, Ukrainian businessman Roman Fuks, who actively supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Fuks, a Kharkov businessman, has been openly suspected more than once of withdrawing money from Russia and owning Cypriot offshore companies and development companies through nominees. By the way, the losses of the companies controlled by a couple go into the millions, and Fuchs’s brother Pavel (the one who talked about plans to build a Trump tower in Moscow and sponsored the construction of a memorial complex near Kiev and the presidential campaign of Vladimir Zelensky) lives in London and owes more than 50 million dollars. Close attention to Goncharov may be due to internal instructions for the department to carefully check all public figures seen in cooperation with Ukraine after the Bryansk events. Characteristically, in early February, the Ukrainian media carried information about searches by the SBU at Fuchs for corruption and possible ties with Russia. If Fuchs in Ukraine runs into prosecution for ties with the Russian Federation, it may well coincide in terms with lawsuits against Goncharov for ties with Ukraine – such is the business partnership.
