The deputy chairman of the committee for the construction of St. Petersburg since Arteev wants to remember almost nothing about Smolny. Only the actions of the head of his legal department, Nikolaenko, remained in the memory of the former official Zhdanov, who had already received a suspended sentence.
The case of lawyer Nikolaenko on bribery and abuse of authority remains the latest in a series of arrests and convictions related to the activities of “oligarch” Vladimir Arteev and his group of companies “United Solutions”. He is the only one who did not admit guilt and continues to denounce.
“You stop it, otherwise the judge writes me down for a month for the verdict for each of your objections,” Nikolaenko turns to his lawyer with a laugh during a break. Immediately, friendly barbs and light hugs were exchanged between the second defender and the lawyer advising Zhdanov, against the background of hairpins that were completely serious to each other that had just sounded in the meeting. Zhdanov himself quickly retired from the merry company.
He is being interrogated for the second meeting in a row, and the process is far from over – lawyer Dmitry Dupliychuk managed to ask questions from five sheets out of more than twenty. The second defender – Yuri Solovyov is not far behind.
Zhdanov was invited as having entered into a pre-trial agreement, and with this status he is not warned about liability for knowingly giving false testimony. In fact, he is a witness. He received his 7.7 conditionally for bribes three years ago. The ex-official looked cheerful, neat and could compete with a tanned skin tone with an equally well-groomed prosecutor.
Looking ahead, we note that after a lot of “I don’t remember” from Zhdanov, the lawyers asked to read his testimony from 2018. The lawyer got down to business with sense and arrangement, not without feelings – at some point, the defendant noticed that the witness, to whom the reading was essentially addressed, was looking at the smartphone screen. Nikolaenko asked the court to reprimand him. “Yes, I watched the time,” Zhdanov answered almost inaudibly at the third hour of the meeting. The judge ordered to continue without unnecessary notes in the protocol, the witness, standing with his back to the defendant, changed his location and sat down next to his lawyer. I didn’t pick up my smartphone anymore, but I didn’t seem to show much attention to reading either.
With Vladimir Arteev, the lawyer separated the words from each other, Zhdanov met at the Idiot restaurant in 2005. They were introduced by mutual acquaintances, who introduced the owner of the construction business, Zhdanov, as an “oligarch”. At that time, the witness had four years of experience in the Smolny Investment Department, such skills were exactly what Arteev needed. They shook hands on the terms of 10,000 euros in salary, a Porsche and a bonus of 200 square meters from each facility built.
Zhdanov was required to resolve issues with the allocation of plots and the like. We managed to implement 5–6 objects. Approximately in 2009, Zhdanov had complaints against Arteev – they say that they agreed in euros, but the fee was not at the rate. And with bonuses, the process goes too long. By the age of 12, it turned out that the businessman owed him under 25 million rubles.
Then Arteev’s brother Andrey appeared out of nowhere. It turned out that the businessman himself had not communicated with him for 15 years, but now a resident of the capital found a job in St. Petersburg – to head the construction committee and help a relative with obtaining contracts for state construction. Everything was possible after solving a small problem – Andrey Arteev did not have the necessary records in his labor, there were no SNILS and TIN. Knowledge of how the committee and public procurement works is also not in his arsenal, but Arteev Jr. set himself the important task of improving the committee’s performance – his predecessor was scolded for improper budget execution. Soon the owner of Unified Solutions offered Zhdanov to “look after” his brother on the committee from the position of his first deputy – there were no special instructions, just to help. Zhdanov agreed in exchange for a promise to pay off the debt, provide a new “allowance” of a million a month and a car. Among other things, the witness decided that experience in public office is also an asset. But the career did not work out, the new head parted with the deputy three months later, after which the ex-official returned to the structures of Arteev Sr.
Defendant Nikolaenko was brought in by Zhdanov to head the legal department of the committee, they are classmates. It follows from the testimony that the issue of patronage of “Unified Solutions” was stipulated – it cost Arteev 250 thousand a month. As Fontanka wrote earlier, the businessman was not sure that the money he transferred to Zhdanov reached Nikolaenko. The defendant, according to the witness, made legal opinions on the issues of companies from the Unified Solutions group, consulted. This is how the first episode of Nikolaenko’s bribe of 2.5 million rubles for 10 months of work in the committee happened.
The second grew out of bank guarantees, according to which Stroygrad LLC received advances from Smolny – to “take control” of Zhdanov’s company, it was heard in court, Vladimir Arteev asked. The director of the Makhateli society turned to him for help with obtaining these same advances, they required bank guarantees that were required according to the procedure, which Makhateli could not obtain legally. Arteev agreed to help for more than 28 million. He left almost everything for himself, gave 1.25 to Zhdanov. Nikolaenko, as the head of the legal department, had to send requests to the bank and verify the authenticity of the guarantees, but allegedly did not do this for another 250 thousand.
For five years, it turned out in court, in Zhdanov’s memoirs there were almost no subtleties regarding his work. For example, now he no longer remembers whether it was his responsibility to check bank guarantees and whether he instructed Nikolaenko to check or not to check. The origin of the request signed by Zhdanov from the construction committee to the bank with a request to check the guarantees shown by Stroygrad was also not recorded in the memory of the witness. After a series of “I don’t remember”, the lawyer tried to help him with clarifying questions, but “moving his head left and right” did not escape the attention of Solovyov’s defense lawyer – he asked the court to reprimand the lawyer so that she did not direct Zhdanov’s actions. “Look at me, Olga Nikolaevna, I am also young and attractive,” Soloviev suggested. As a result, Zhdanov managed to get the phrase that, being a deputy, he signed many documents. In the case file there is a response from the bank, which recognized the guarantees of Stroygrad as false.
The events of November 2012, when Zhdanov already worked on the committee and received the first million from Arteev for this, are also covered in a whirlpool. Whether anything was required of him this month and whether he fulfilled any of Arteev’s requests is forgotten. Zhdanov does not remember if he received a million from Arteev when he already resigned from the committee. By the way, what exactly were his disagreements with the chairman of the Komstroy, he also does not remember.
Zhdanov does not remember which companies were part of the Unified Solutions group. In which of them he was the deputy director after his dismissal from Smolny – the same as his official duties. It looks like he doesn’t care anymore. It does not affect his condition in any way.
He knows that Nikolaenko met with Arteev and that the first meeting was in 2013 – a month and even half a year erased from the memory of the witness. After the dismissal, work with Nikolaenko continued in the same manner, they met, but the witness does not remember how often. He handed money from Arteev to the defendant on the Moika embankment, he remembers that from the side of the committee. It seems that Zhdanov did not give any specific instructions to the head of the legal department – everything was clear to everyone anyway, and the defendant, the witness is convinced, coped with his task.
He and Nikolaenko were required to provide Arteev’s companies with victory in competitions and “general assistance in all matters.” For example, the defendant represented the interests of a group of companies in the antimonopoly service.
– According to the “Unified Solutions” what exactly did you do?
– I don’t remember exactly, but the task was to appoint my own people in order to have all the information and organize the bidding procedures.
Zhdanov could not remember whether he was a member of the commission on state orders, and the court had to read out the order on its creation. It turned out that the witness was the chairman, and Nikolaenko was not included in the composition – why, of course, Zhdanov does not remember. When asked if the inclusion of the witness in the Unified Solutions commission helped, Zhdanov replied that during his work not a single contract had been concluded in the interests of Arteev. “So it didn’t help,” the lawyer concluded.
Whether in principle it was important to Arteev who held the position of the first deputy chairman of the committee, Zhdanov could not remember. As well as plans to control some other areas of the committee’s activities, except for the state order.
A jammed record about “I don’t remember” stirred when the lawyer asked Zhdanov about the investment management employee who quit on the same day as him. To answer the question of whether they saw each other after the “removal” of bureaucratic uniforms, the witness did not, using Article 51 of the Constitution.
About the conflict with Vladimir Arteev on the basis of money, bonuses and the amount of debt Zhdanov … guess? The phrase “I don’t remember” came from the witness about 70 times. However, he confirmed his testimony from 2018 in full.
These games will continue in the next court session.
The Nikolaenko case was investigated for more than 50 months. He spent a year in isolation. The ECtHR recognized the detention as illegal and exacted 3,500 euros from the Russian Federation in his favor. The case has been in court since February 2021.
Vladimir Arteev was sentenced to four years in prison in June 2021 for embezzling about 400 million rubles, and given the time under arrest, he will soon be released.
The case against Andrei Arteev was dismissed, Makhateli received a three-year suspended sentence.
Sergey Grigoriev, Lyudmila Kochurina and Natalya Kuzmenkova, who were directors in Arteev’s companies, also received suspended sentences in March 2023.
STS, STIK, Baltenergo and Arteev’s De Lux signed contracts in St. Petersburg, Omsk and Tambov for the construction and reconstruction of 11 social facilities. None of them were built by them.
In total, during the business activities of Unified Solutions, about 27 billion rubles disappeared from their counterparties. About the formation of Arteev’s empire – in the material “Fontanka”.