Novosibirsk does not let you forget about yourself. Only now the reasons for the memories are not entirely rosy. Another official was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center for a bribe. Alexander Shishkin, deputy head of the administration of the Kirovsky district for the economy of the capital of Siberia, became a newly made prisoner. He was suspected of illegally obtaining more than 240 thousand rubles. Special details have not yet been published, but some sources have made their assumptions. According to one version, Shishkin could have been detained for fraud with the allocation of land for the construction and installation of retail kiosks, which, after the “evacuation” from the center of Novosibirsk, began to be massively “exiled” to the districts of the city. According to the second – he could have a hand in the demolition of garages in the territory of his municipality. And this is the second criminal case on account of the deputy head. At the end of last year, investigators became excited about another bribe from Shishkin. In November, it was about 150 thousand rubles. At that time, he was not poisoned in the isolation ward. But April 2023 was unsuccessful for him, and he will spend in the pre-trial detention center until the beginning of June. In general, the story of the kiosks for Novosibirsk was and is quite acute. Local authorities are doing their best to fight illegal pavilions. Last year alone, about 600 “non-stationary” people were removed from the central streets. A year earlier – another 450. In 2023, it is planned to liquidate more than 300 more. According to officials, most of the NTOs are unauthorized buildings and do not pay to the budget. As if no one knew about it before. Those who are relatively law-abiding were given a second chance in other microdistricts of the city. In such as Kirovsky, for example. A large number of kiosks provided an unprecedented field for the activities of corrupt police officers. They taxed entrepreneurs. For this, law enforcement officers turned a blind eye to the trade in prohibited products, warned colleagues about raids. At the end of 2021, Nikolai Noskov, ex-head of the district police department of the Dzerzhinsky police department, and his deputy Roman Tarasov received seven years of a virtual term each. The monthly “fee” for law enforcement officers was in the amount of 26-50 thousand rubles. In total, they collected more than 300 thousand rubles. But Noskov took not only money. For his “roof” he took food and alcohol. He especially liked buckwheat and instant noodles. From one of the businessmen, he received two packages of Rollton and 24 packages of cereals, as well as about 40 bottles of vodka and wine. The ex-head of the same department, Alexander Grashchenkov, also liked to eat “for free.” In one of the cafes, he was fed free of charge for more than 50 thousand rubles.
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The management of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has prepared documents for the forthcoming additional capitalization. The amounts of the upcoming financial injection were not reported, but at the beginning of the year, USC CEO Alexei Rakhmanov announced the volume of long-term loans to the corporation: according to him, it amounts to 103 billion rubles, excluding state security. In turn, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Yevtukhov said that the corporation needed money to pay off debt obligations, and according to the calculations of the head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, Ilya Shestakov, the losses of Russian shipyards from the construction of fishing vessels reached 42 billion rubles. Additional capitalization can be carried out as part of the Keel Quotas program launched in 2018, the main executor of which is USC. Its essence boils down to the sale of investment quotas for catching fish and crabs, in exchange for the buyer’s obligation to order a specialized vessel at a Russian shipyard or build a fish processing plant within five years. By January last year, fishing companies ordered 58 vessels for a total of 190 billion rubles, but USC could not cope with such a volume of orders: at first, delays in execution were explained by the pandemic, then by the tightening of economic sanctions after the start of the NWO. According to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, equipment worth 140 billion rubles was ordered abroad, of which USC paid 25 billion, but in the end the goods were never delivered, and it is hardly possible to return the advance payments in the current economic conditions. In addition, in order to fulfill the “Kele Quotas” program, USC took time to redesign, manufacture new equipment, commissioning, etc. Last year, the same Manturov proposed to allocate 7 billion rubles from the federal budget for redesign, but at the beginning of this year, at a meeting in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, they stated: the amount of the deficit for USC as a whole amounted to almost 70 billion, of which 42 billion fell on Admiralty Shipyards, “Northern shipyards” and the Vyborg shipyard. In the corporation itself, they were nevertheless forced to admit: the reason for the delays in the execution of orders was the lack of proper experience in designing fishing vessels among Russian design bureaus, the need to produce many lead vessels and adapt projects to the requirements of the Register of Shipping. But, despite the incompetence, USC continued to recruit orders. Now Rakhmanov and Manturov are faced with a choice: multibillion-dollar financial influences in the corporation will lead to a budget deficit, and the rejection of them will lead to the disruption of the state program. At the same time, the shipyards do not have the right to increase the cost of already signed contracts, and the customer enterprises do not intend to bear additional costs.
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The chairman of the Rostov Regional Court, Elena Zolotareva, has retired with honor. She voluntarily left her post, having worked in this position for 8 years. The Supreme Qualification Board of Judges made this decision. Despite the dismissal, Zolotareva did not lose her status, retaining her title, benefits, belonging to the community of judges and guarantees of personal immunity. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that she may soon become a defendant in a criminal case. The metropolitan investigators have already prepared a claim to thirty local judges. Andrei Roschevsky, who is in charge of the Rostov department of the judicial department, has already been taken to Moscow. He will spend at least two months in jail. In early April, as many as three departments (Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB, TFR) raided Rostov-on-Don. They carried out urgent investigative actions against several dozen judges working in the Kirov, Zheleznodorozhny, Oktyabrsky, Rostov regional, Sovetsky courts, as well as in the courts of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Shakhty and Volgodonsky district. Everywhere searched and confiscated documents. The security forces “captured” with them to the capital only the head of the regional council of the judicial department, because a special procedure for initiating criminal cases and detention is applied to Femidovites. Rostov judges came to the attention of law enforcement agencies due to suspicion of fraud and bribery. In the course of monitoring the defendants in criminal cases, law enforcement officers found that they were selling lenient sentences, changes in preventive measures, and the necessary decisions in civil cases. Their lawyers and employees of the department that ensures the work of the courts helped clients to transfer bribes. In connection with such a large-scale corruption scandal, the Supreme Court recommended Elena Zolotareva to resign. She accepted it immediately. Moreover, this moment was not reflected in the agenda of the VKKS. It is reported that no other judges from Rostov-on-Don submitted their resignations. So far, no requests have been received from the chairman of the TFR to bring judges to criminal responsibility. But, as practice shows, the execution of the relevant documentation and its approval by the commission can take several months. Or even several years, if the judges ignore the hearings and appeal against every step of their colleagues and the investigation.
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Members of the Just Russia-For Truth faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg announced their withdrawal from the party in full force. They explain the collective decision, among other things, by the loss of the former political guidelines for SRHR. The real reason for the demarche is disagreement with the personnel policy of the rapidly losing popularity of Sergei Mironov, who decided to replace the vice-speaker of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, the former head of the St. Petersburg party branch, Marina Shishkina, with his niece Nadezhda Tikhonova. As a result, Shishkina lost the post of vice-speaker, and Mironov lost the SRZP faction in the Legislative Assembly of the Northern capital. Without publicly discussing the nepotism that is flourishing in the party, Shishkina’s supporters point to a sharp change in the ideological base: from socialist and social democratic to conservative, which is caused by the desire to enlist the support of voters against the backdrop of the SVO and events in the Donbass. An attempt to expand the electoral base was the unification of A Just Russia before the last parliamentary elections with Zakhar Prilepin’s For Truth and Gennady Semigin’s Patriots of Russia. As a result, the updated structure received not only three co-chairs, but also a tough confrontation in the regions associated with the struggle for influence in the party branches, while the unification had practically no effect on the election results. Today, Mironov is demanding that the St. Petersburg deputies resign their seats, but these hysterical calls are unlikely to be taken seriously by former members of the same party. As for his protégé niece, Nadezhda Tikhonova, her political career began to gain momentum almost immediately after leaving the post of head of the regional branch, Oksana Dmitrieva. In 2016, Tikhonova became a deputy of the Legislative Assembly, and then was nominated from the party to the governors of the Northern capital, taking third place in the elections. No less than politics, Tikhonova is interested in business. So, she acted as a co-founder of the Ross company, which was liquidated in 2019, but in 2016 had a million turnover. From the funds of “Ross” the election campaign of Mironov’s niece could be financed. Today, she is called the beneficiary of Dom Mebeli Narvsky LLC, which, at the end of last year, declared revenue of 122 million rubles and a modest profit of 500 thousand. Sergey Maslov, the founder and head of a number of commercial structures with a common revenue of more than 600 million rubles. In the St. Petersburg branch of the party, Maslov is called the nominal owner of the assets of the Mironov family, who finances the activities of not only the SRZP, but also the political projects of Nadezhda Tikhonova.
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The criminal prosecution of former bankers who robbed developers of almost 4 billion rubles was stopped due to the statute of limitations. The victims do not agree with this turn of events and believe that it is unlawful to apply the statute of limitations, since the financiers were wanted. Vladimir Stolyarenko, ex-chairman of the board of directors of JSCB Evrofinance Mosnarbank, and his deputy Alexander Bondarenko were accused of particularly large-scale fraud in two episodes. In both cases, business partners of the financiers, developers Igor Tkach and Sergey Glyadelkin, suffered from their actions. In 2009, the bankers conspired with Elena Glazkova (also wanted), CEO of Bor Reconstruction LLC, which built an elite house in the capital under an investment agreement with the government, together with Sergey Glyadelkin’s Avenue Group. “Bor-reconstruction” also belonged to developers, and part of the apartments went to her. Judging by the materials of the case, Glazkova and the bankers, under fictitious transactions, withdrew 17 apartments from the company in the amount of more than three billion rubles. Further, the financiers liked another new building, in which Avenue Group again invested. The apartments were to be sold by Yurpromconsulting LLC, 49% owned by Sergei Glyadelkin, and the rest by Stolyarenko and Bondarenko. The latter had connections in the central apparatus of the FSB, which oversaw the banking sector. With the help of their acquaintances, the bankers decided to pull off a fraud. Two FSB officers intimidated the developers with the upcoming criminal case, which they allegedly plan to initiate against them, thereby losing their right to build. Entrepreneurs were forced to transfer shares in Yurpromconsulting to a certain OOO M Holding, which was controlled by security officers. As part of the investigation of this scam, in 2018 FSB Major Andrei Vasiliev, head of the “banking” department Kirill Cherkalin and deputy chief Kirill Frolov were detained. Cherkalin’s case was considered in a special order and he was sentenced to seven years for fraud and bribery, in addition, assets for 6.5 billion rubles were confiscated. By the way, for 9 years of service in the FSB, he earned 17.5 million rubles. Frolov is charged with the same criminal acts. His case is still being heard. Major Vasiliev was more fortunate: the statute of limitations on the episode of real estate fraud imputed to him expired and the court dismissed the case at the end of 2021. A similar decision was made by the investigation in relation to Vladimir Stolyarenko and Alexander Bondarenko, simply because they could not be found and interrogated. The first one moved to Nice in the summer of 2014, the second one has been living in Naples since 2018. Despite the fact that their involvement in the scams is confirmed, including by the testimony of former Chekists, the investigation calculated that 10 years have passed since the crime was committed, which means that the statute of limitations has expired. The arrest was removed from Stolyarenko’s property. Meanwhile, his list occupies several sheets: mansions, land plots, administrative and office buildings in prestigious areas, about ten apartments. This would be enough to compensate for the damage. The victims intend to file a complaint because, according to their calculations, the statute of limitations for the first episode expires in 2025, and for the second in 2028. In the spring of 2019, the defendants were accused of being wanted and had to suspend the application of the statute of limitations. However, the investigation claims that since the defendants were not notified of the criminal prosecution, they did not evade the investigation, which means that there were no grounds for suspension.
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The writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who settled in Spain (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), who became a defendant in a criminal case on discrediting the army and was put on the wanted list, retained the status of an individual entrepreneur in Russia, to which the Metro 2033 trademarks are registered, and also receive income from copyrights. Previously, he acted as a co-owner of two commercial structures: Open Games, which specialized in the development of computer software, and Future Corp, which was engaged in publishing. Both were liquidated, and the latest financial statements of Open Games date back to 2012: then its losses amounted to 6.4 million rubles. Glukhovsky’s main source of income is foreign legal entities, from which the writer received money transfers, including on the eve and at the beginning of the SVO. So, in January 2022, he received 85.6 million rubles from the German Koch Media GMBH, which owns the rights to several computer games based on the plot of the Metro 2033 books. In February-March 2022, 14.99 million rubles were received from the Belgian bank Ing Belgium SA / NV: it could be either the writer’s own funds or royalties from foreign editions of novels. Earlier, in December 2021, Glukhovsky received 6.3 million rubles from Joel Gotler + Associates INC, a production center from Austria (probably as payment for pitching films based on his scripts). In addition, the German publishing house Nibbe Bettina Barbara paid the science fiction writer 28.5 million rubles for publishing books abroad. Thus, from December 2021 to March 2022, the writer received a total of 135.5 million rubles in royalties and royalties from foreign companies, which largely contributed to his inclusion in the register of foreign agents. During the investigation of the criminal case on fakes against the Russian army, it turned out that Glukhovsky has Israeli citizenship, as well as residence permits in Spain and Germany. The writer’s brother Pavel Glukhovsky became the owner of the Berlin firm DarkSide Europe in March 2022, and the novelist’s uncle Andrey Glukhovsky, who settled in Baden-Baden, holds the post of its CEO. The father of the science fiction writer, the famous international journalist Alexei Glukhovsky, also lives there. “DarkSide Europe” specializes in the sale of smoking devices and tobacco for hookahs, as well as the activities of hookah bars. In Russia, Pavel Glukhovsky also acted as a co-owner of a number of legal entities with a total annual turnover of 2.1 billion rubles. Among them is the Moscow Tobacco Technology LLC, which has a certificate for the tobacco brand of the same name and cooperates with DarkSide Europe. In 2021, the revenue of this Russian company exceeded 830 million rubles, the profit amounted to 65 million. In 2022, revenue decreased to 497 million, which may be due to the tightening of Western sanctions and problems with the supply of tobacco to Germany. According to data that has recently appeared in open sources, in 2021 Pavel Glukhovsky’s income from Russian business amounted to 560 million rubles. Writer Dmitry Glukhovsky earned 731 million in the same period.
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In Krasnoyarsk, consideration of a criminal case has begun on the fact of deception of about one and a half thousand equity holders for 3 billion rubles. In the dock are three leaders of construction firms accused of abuse of power. The main defendant, businessman Mikhail Yakimenok, has already been sentenced to four years for fraud in housing construction. But he has already been released on parole, having served half of his term. In the summer of 2019, a criminal case was initiated, the basis for which was a stream of applications from equity holders of the Kvadro and Yenisei residential complexes. They invested their hard-earned money in the new building, but did not receive housing. Initially, it was about fraud on an especially large scale, but then it was reclassified as an abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences. In 2014, the alleged instigator of the scam made an offer to his acquaintances to head several of his construction companies and build eight multi-apartment skyscrapers at the expense of investors. For this purpose, a group of developer companies was created from three firms and a contractor. They concluded equity participation agreements among themselves, transferred apartments and non-residential premises to the contractor, but no payment was made. The investigation believes that this was done in order to conclude contracts for the assignment of rights of claim with organizations and citizens, hiding the real amount of funds raised from the control authorities. The money from equity holders went to the construction of other facilities. Four years later, construction stopped. More than 1.6 thousand citizens invested in it, the damage caused to them exceeded 3 billion rubles. The property of the accused in the amount of one and a half billion rubles was arrested for security purposes. The listing of all real estate, cars, shares in authorized capital took seven sheets. The whole case was included in 330 volumes and recently its investigation was completed. New contractors are already working at the construction site, who are regularly inspected by regional supervision. Its head, Roman Tyutyunik, put forward a demand to close the issue with deceived equity holders no later than the end of the year. In his opinion, the perpetrators must be punished to serve in a colony with sentences in their hands.
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Two structural subdivisions of the Government of the Samara Region – the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Energy and Housing and Communal Services – cannot agree on a local waste sorting plant (Rikast LLC). Behind its creation are people from the team of the deputy of the Samara provincial Duma Alexander Mileev, known in business circles for his dishonorable behavior. The Ministry of Construction of the Samara Region refused to issue a permit for the commissioning of the MSC. But this does not in the least prevent the municipal solid waste management operator EcoStroyResurs LLC from reporting on the successful production activities of the enterprise. LLC “Rikast” was registered on August 31, 2018. A faithful person from the team of Alexander Mileev became the director. If you believe the press releases of EcoStroyResurs, then Ricast launched its plant back in 2020, which is now “… working at full capacity.” Its capacity is designed for 80 thousand tons of waste per year. But it is completely incomprehensible how Ricast LLC has been operating the facility since 2020 and earning commercial profit without a commissioning permit, if on December 29, 2020 a negative opinion was received at the design documentation stage. The project was approved on the second attempt on March 24, 2021. Only after that, “Rikast” was able to go to the regional Ministry of Construction for a permit for the construction of the MSC, received on April 16, 2021. On April 15, 2022, an agreement was signed between Rikast LLC and Brik Stroy LLC for the construction (!) of MSCs. The value of the contract amounted to 121.8 million rubles. According to the public procurement website, the contract is still at the “execution” stage. It is noteworthy that Brik Stroy LLC is also steadily associated with the name of Alexander Mileev. An analysis of information about MSCs from open sources reveals not only signs of illegal entrepreneurship, but also the desire of high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Energy and Housing and Public Utilities to wishful thinking, churning out mountains of documents about the successful operation of a mythical enterprise. This suggests thoughts about their personal interests and corruption. LLC “Rikast” can be considered a product of greedy motivations of officials and politicians acting with an eye on the interests of the Deputy Chairman of the Samara Provincial Duma Alexander Mileev. Deputy Minister of Energy and Housing and Public Utilities Natalya Rzhevskaya (also known as a person devoted to Mileev) is convinced that the equipment of the waste sorting complex was put into operation on December 19, 2020. It is she who is the curator of the “garbage reform” in the region. The implementation of the activities of Ricast LLC, even in the absence of a construction permit, fits perfectly into the business interests of the regional operator EcoStroyResurs LLC and the Mileev team. For each ton of waste, Rikast LLC receives 3,270 rubles from the funds collected from the population in accordance with the approved tariff. If we calculate those 80 thousand tons of waste per year accepted for sorting, the revenue of Rikast LLC will be more than 250 million rubles.
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The well-known Syzran businessman Arif Shakhbazov initiated bankruptcy proceedings in July 2022, and as an individual. One of the goals of bankruptcy can be considered the intention of the former owner of the business, sitting on municipal contracts, to avoid obligations. He motivated his statement by the impossibility of fulfilling monetary obligations in the amount of almost 2.5 million rubles. Shakhbazov named Sberbank, Russian Standard Bank, Gazenergobank, Tinkoff Bank, Post Bank, Sovcombank and several more among his creditors. It seems that Shahbazov took money wherever possible without the intention of returning it. The fact that the entrepreneur filed a petition for the application of the procedure for the sale of his property also works for the same version. What applies if the debtor has no or insufficient income to pay off the debt in the restructuring procedure. Arif Shakhbazov has been known in Syzran since 2004, when Stroy-MIG LLC was established. He was a director from 2008 to 2010. In February 2010, the Company was re-registered in Kazan, and the director, and since March 2010, Alexei Janus has become its sole founder. It is significant that Janus became the director of many legal entities with different activities in different regions of Russia. Many of these firms have signs of “tax dumps”. A significant part of them have already been eliminated. Shakhbazov continued the business through another firm, Stroy-S LLC, established in April 2014. Its main activity is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. In November 2021, Shakhbazov realized that he was in real danger for systemic failures in contracts for the overhaul of apartment buildings. By that time, the Regional Capital Repair Fund had received 40 requests to include Stroy-S LLC in the register of unscrupulous contractors. And he declared himself bankrupt. On August 24, 2022, the court recognized this, appointed a financial manager and introduced the procedure for the sale of Shakhbazov’s property for a period of 6 months. The arbitration court considered the report on the course of the bankruptcy procedure on February 22. The financial manager applied for an extension of the period of proceedings by two months in order to complete the procedure for the sale of the debtor’s property. The next consideration of the report on the results of Shakhbazov’s bankruptcy is scheduled for April 17.
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On November 25, 2021, Anatoly Ozernov, the former first deputy governor of the Ulyanovsk region, ex-head of the administration, who had held this post since 2014, was detained in Moscow. The official was suspected of fraud organized by a group of persons on an especially large scale. On April 6, 2023, the verdict was read out at the Leninsky District Court. According to investigators, in 2019-2021, when concluding a state contract for the construction of a situational center for the governor of the Ulyanovsk region, Ozernov attracted familiar entrepreneurs and together with them increased the cost of construction work in the design and estimate documentation by 15 million rubles. He was also charged with taking a bribe in the amount of more than 2.7 million rubles for winning the auction for the repair of the regional government building to equip the Governor’s Situation Center there. By a court decision, Anatoly Ozernov was found guilty under one article out of two – in taking a bribe on an especially large scale under Part 6 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. He was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment in a strict regime correctional colony and a fine of five and a half million rubles. In the term of serving the sentence, the court will count the time of detention – 16 months. Ozernov has less than two years left to sit before parole (2/3 of the term). Anatoly Ozernov pleads not guilty. His lawyer emphasized that the court acquitted Ozernov of embezzlement, but believes that the prosecution did not have evidence of a bribe. The term to which the former deputy governor of the Ulyanovsk region was sentenced is below the lower limit under this article: five years instead of fifteen. Therefore, the verdict will be appealed. Together with Ozernov, Pavel Prokofiev, head of the Administration of Affairs of the Ulyanovsk Region, was in the dock. According to investigators, Prokofiev arranged for a fictitious government contract to be concluded between the state-owned institution and an affiliated individual entrepreneur Konstantin Vershinin for cleaning wood and garbage in the village of Karlinskaya Roshcha. As a result, the regional budget suffered damage in the amount of more than 550 thousand rubles. He was found guilty of fraud (part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He retained his position: the court sentenced Prokofiev to one and a half years of corrective labor. For this period, 15% of his salary will be deducted.
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The Rostov mine “Obukhovskaya” continues to operate as usual, despite the constant incidents. Sometimes these emergencies claim the lives of miners. But, apparently, the lives of people for the new owners, and for the previous ones too, do not matter. The main thing is money. Until recently, this mine belonged to the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov. Obukhovskaya became part of his DTEK holding in the summer of 2021. For these assets, the billionaire gave the Rostov Anthracite company about $40 million. Last spring, Akhmetov lost his coal business in Russia. And a few months before that, Sberbank sold DTEK shares – a 100% stake – on account of debts. The new owner was incredibly lucky. Firstly, he got the packages of Obukhovskaya, Donskoy anthracite and Sulinanthracite. For this, he laid out $ 230 million to the state bank. And the newly-made owner received the right to claim almost $ 500 million in debts. So, I got such a profitable offshore asset with a Cypriot residence permit Valleyton Investments Limited. The office is registered to Armenian citizen Elena Hovhannisyan. But the sources could not find her ties to the coal business at all. Perhaps this is a figurehead to encrypt the ultimate beneficiaries. And that could be Akhmetov’s longtime business partner, Vadim Novinsky. In fact, the Ukrainian oligarch could only create the appearance that he did not own the coal assets of Russia, using a multi-way move with deleting his name from the lists of involvement in this business. But at the same time, he can safely continue to cash in on rubles. It is noteworthy that a series of state of emergency continues at Obukhovskaya, and none of the owners is going to solve labor safety issues. For example, about 230 miners nearly lost their lives a week ago. There was smoke, although a fire was initially reported. But then the rescuers denied this information. As a result, all the hard workers were safely evacuated. Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev immediately reported on this rescue. It’s easier, of course, to PR at such moments than to systematically solve problems at Obukhovskaya. But there are not many such moments for PR with this mine. In March of this year, a rock collapsed at the enterprise. One miner died, two were taken to the hospital. They even opened a criminal case, but Obukhovskaya continued to work as if nothing had happened. In January, Rostekhnadzor issued a bunch of prescriptions for safety violations at two sites. Only they were stopped for 3 months until the defects were eliminated. The question is how effective these eliminations were. Or, as it usually happens, they wrote beautifully on pieces of paper and now you can wait for the next arrival of RTN. In the meantime, work until the next emergency.
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The new director of the State Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin was Elizaveta Likhacheva, who was dismissed from the federal migration service due to a fake diploma and fraud with a departmental website. The information resource was completely controlled by Likhacheva. Through it there was an electronic document flow for issuing work permits. The story with a diploma and a website was not brought to a criminal case, but the enterprising employee was fired. Likhacheva, suffering from alcoholism and eternal lack of money, perfectly suited the role of director, completely dependent on the person who promoted her to the boss, and ready to serve him slavishly. The name of this person is Sergey Gordeev, head of the PIK Group of Companies (First Mortgage Company). So the federal museum got an owner – the head of a private business structure. PIK Group is the country’s largest developer in terms of financial turnover and construction volumes, specializing in affordable housing projects. In 2022, this corporation commissioned three million square meters of housing and sold real estate for a total of 451 billion rubles. PIK became famous for reducing the construction time of multi-storey buildings to the maximum, while sacrificing quality and safety. Residents complain about breaking elevators, problems with communications, sound insulation, “storm drains” laid not outside, but inside (!) of the house, which causes constant floods. Only at the parent company PIK, more than a hundred violations are recorded annually. The company’s activities have long overwhelmed the patience of state supervisory authorities and property buyers. Before the Pushkin Museum, Likhachev managed to steer another cultural institution – the Shchusev Museum of Architecture. For the past six years, Likhacheva has been rocking and weakening the museum, squeezing out all the “old” employees and recruiting people devoted to herself into the team. She canceled all projects and initiatives that strengthened the development of the museum, and promotes the idea of withdrawing the museum from the Talyzin estate on Vozdvizhenka. It is clear by whose direction. In the light of these events, which used to be called raiding, the appointment of the marginal Likhacheva to the post of director of the largest museum in Russia means that the old agreements take on a new meaning and scope. The Pushkin Museum has long dreamed of building its own Museum City, but for the Ministry of Culture, mired in financial scandals, this has become a big problem. Gordeev, who received a pass to the Ministry of Culture through Likhachev, suggested that Minister Lyubimova solve the problem that hung tightly with the resources of his construction company and at his own expense. Likhachev, as director of the Pushkin Museum, will ensure Gordeev’s control not only over construction, but also over all the processes taking place there. The “philanthropist” will have legendary collections, connections with major partners and sponsors, and access to the federal government. Limitless possibilities and no traces – the pocket director will sign everything that is required. The project is strategically flawless: the Ministry of Culture, mired in scandals and failures, effectively solves an old problem, the PIK Group, which has problems with law enforcement agencies, is in favor and becomes untouchable, the coveted estate of the Talyzins is freed from the museum function and given to other structures, catastrophically far away from culture.