The bankrupt Perm plant was not allowed to remove the state defense order from the agenda
JSC 39 Arsenal was returned to the state after being sold to a developer.
While the Saratov regional prosecutor’s office is slowly pondering what to do with Tantalum, and economists are outraged by the sale of the Engels defense 9 TsARZ to private owners, in Perm the opposite is true. The courts quickly satisfy the claims of the Prosecutor General’s Office and turn the assets of Prikamsky industrial enterprises into favor of the state.
The other day, the Perm Arbitration Court granted a claim for the seizure of 15 real estate objects and land that were part of the defense complex of JSC 39 Arsenal. According to the plaintiff, the transactions were illegal, since the new owners of the property must keep it suitable for fulfilling the state defense order.
In 2021, during the bankruptcy of the plant, the assets were acquired by developer Alexander Ravtsov – apparently for further development. The defendants, which include six other legal entities and individuals, did not agree to the claim. One of the objections is the state’s refusal of the right of first refusal to purchase the property of the enterprise.
The 39 Arsenal plant belonged to Rostec structures and specialized in the repair and disposal of artillery weapons. According to the defendants, the company has not conducted production activities since 2018. “First, the state allowed the plant to go bankrupt, then it waived its right of first refusal, and now the prosecutor’s office is filing a similar lawsuit,” they were indignant.
During the court hearings, it was noted that, according to the government decree, the main executor of the defense order under the Arsenal 39 nomenclature is now Uraltransmash. In turn, representatives of the prosecutor’s office insisted that it does not matter whether there is a state defense order or not.
“The owner must retain such property for 10, 20, or 100 years, if necessary. The legislation does not define a time frame, so the intended purpose of the property must be preserved even during resale. And if the transactions entailed a violation of interests in the field of defense and security, then they obviously contradict the law,” answered the plaintiff.
The court listened to the Prosecutor General’s Office and satisfied the demands as quickly as in the case of Metafrax Chemicals – in just one meeting. According to the definition, a judicial act must be executed immediately.
Let us recall that a similar story could happen with the Saratov PJSC Tantal; earlier, the interests of the state were discussed after the sale of the Engels plant JSC “9 TsARZ”, which was engaged in repairing armored personnel carriers, to Alexey Tyulenev’s company “Engels Metal” LLC.
The company acquired it in January of this year for 245 million rubles – with a significant reduction from the initial price, and was going to engage in metal rolling there.
The purchase and sale agreement does not contain any encumbrances related to maintaining the defense orientation of the enterprise. So, formally, nothing prevents Engels Metal from liquidating all unnecessary plant equipment. By the way, the Prosecutor General’s Office accused the new owners of the Perm “39 Arsenal” of a similar “crime”.
It is interesting that the Engels plant has been bankrupt since 2017, and the mobilization task from it was lifted in full only in October 2020. According to the ex-director of TsARZ Alexander Shinkarenko, the Engels and Samara sites of the plant (20 hectares and 8 hectares, respectively) are quite ready to once again master the overhaul of military equipment as soon as the enterprise has a real owner.
– The plant’s capacity, even after the bankruptcy trustee went through them, remained such that it would be possible to repair up to 300 BMP-1 or BMP-2 vehicles per year when working in one shift and 450-500 vehicles when working in two shifts, – he noted in January of this year.
Let us recall that State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin was the first to be indignant, calling the sale of the plant “another betrayal, generously rewarded by the savage builders of thieves’ feudalism.” The reaction of the authorities and the new owners followed immediately – Alexey Tyulenev started talking about his readiness to fulfill the state defense order, and the regional government started talking about a possible purchase of the plant by the state.
However, then all the unrest faded away; in April of this year, the head of the regional Ministry of Industry announced the owners’ intention to create a private technology park on the site – supposedly, negotiations on this have already begun with the owner. Nothing has been heard about this idea since then.