The head of the Sledkom spent the last working week in St. Petersburg. At the International Legal Forum held these days, Doctor of Law was in demand – Bastrykin’s statements instantly occupied top positions in news feeds.
In the early Sunday morning of May 14, Alexander Ivanovich left his house somewhere in the Sea Embankment area and turned right. We will not say exactly where Bastrykin lives, but before the alluvium, where LSR is working, he is less than half an hour away – at a very leisurely, walking pace. The territory of the alluvium is huge, the construction site is guarded around the entire perimeter. The security service responded to the desire of the noble-looking professor to enter the sensitive facility according to the instructions: “It’s not allowed, citizen, leave the security zone.” Then the honored lawyer of Russia showed his service certificate of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. But in response, rudeness sounded: “So what?”
This conversation took place at the beginning of the ninth morning, and already at 11:30 the press service of the UK rolled out “video from the scene” and the official statement:
“Today, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia signed a decree on the initiation of a criminal case and, together with acting. O. Bobkov O.V., head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the city of St. Petersburg, and the investigative team went to the scene, examined it and gave a number of specific instructions.”
The department’s statement does not say that this was Bastrykin’s repeated visit today and that the OMON provided force support for the second time. The guards did not ask the spetsnaz for documents.
The criminal case initiated today under Article 246 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“violation of the rules of environmental protection in the course of work”) is also repeated. The first, a week ago, was canceled by the prosecutor’s office. As part of the case, which has not yet been canceled, but not yet approved by the prosecutor, a “forensic environmental examination is appointed, during which all construction work must be stopped.”
And General Bastrykin instructed to conduct three checks:
in relation to the developer and in relation to the requirements of migration legislation;
in relation to the guards, whether they have exceeded their powers;
in relation to the officials of Smolny, who coordinated the work on alluvium.
At 15:22 it became known that investigators and criminologists from the central apparatus of the department, as well as experts from the forensic center of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, joined the investigation of the criminal case.
The press service of LSR Group (the leading construction holding in the North-West) comments:
– During the implementation of the project to raise elevations in the northern part of Vasilyevsky Island, there were repeated checks by various supervisory authorities, including the Investigative Committee, during which all the necessary documents were provided. The company continues to cooperate with inspectors and act strictly within the legal framework. Recall that before the start of work, all the necessary stages were carried out: a project was developed, public hearings were held and a state environmental review was passed, which issued a positive conclusion. The development of this territory is provided for by the law of St. Petersburg – the General Plan, as well as the draft planning and surveying of the territory.
LSR Group acquired the right to alluvial land in the northern part of Vasilyevsky Island under a sublease agreement from Terra Nova in 2020 for almost 3 billion rubles. From the originally planned 143 hectares, the area of the “northern” alluvium grew up to almost 163 hectares.
In the spring of 2022, the City Planning Council of St. Petersburg considered building concept already taking into account growth. Council members noted: it’s a shame that the iconic and specific place will become, in fact, the second Murino – an exclusively residential area with high-rise buildings. However, the development sketch was approved by 19 votes in favor and 11 against.
Last year, the developer came with the work directly to the site. Currently, work is underway on the engineering preparation of the site for its future development: elevations are being raised and the territory is being stabilized. The planned completion date is 2025, after which the company will begin construction of the planned housing.
Northern alluvium in numbers. The total area of the territory is 162.8 hectares. Planned number of inhabitants: 29 thousand people. The total area of apartments is about 875 thousand square meters.
The project is opposed by local residents who planned organize a referendum on the issue of a moratorium on the development of the island due to the imbalance of housing and social infrastructure in the area. In a new residential area, indeed lacks schools, kindergartens and clinics.
In addition, residents are accustomed to using the sandy shore of the Gulf of Finland as a beach – and demanded to keep it. Vasileostrovtsy regularly organize tea parties as a sign of protest – their number has already exceeded fifty. Also, the islanders complained about the noise at night, and in protest last summer arranged demonstrative overnight stay at the local police station.
In March 2021, the public organization “Saint Petersburg Society of Naturalists” filed an application for registration of a public environmental review (PEE) of the project documentation “Engineering preparation of the territory of land plots for the construction of real estate, engineering and transport infrastructure. Stage 1”.
In October of the same year, the developer received a positive conclusion from the State Ecological Expertise (SEE). In November, after unsuccessful attempts to obtain documentation for the PEE, the company filed a lawsuit in arbitration. According to the authors of the expertise, as a result of the implementation of the alluvium, there will be “a significant negative impact on the environment during the discharge of wastewater.” Now the Kuibyshevsky District Court is considering a case with a demand to cancel the positive conclusion of the state expertise and the order of Rosprirodnadzor on the approval of a positive conclusion on project documentation.
As part of initiated-cancelled-reopened case The Investigative Committee believes that “unidentified persons from among the employees of the LLC Specialized Developer LSR group of companies, including LLC Specialized Developer LSR Prostor, from October 2021 to the present, while performing work in the Vasileostrovskiy District, violated federal legislation by arranging a foundation with sandy soils, erecting a temporary bank protection of a slope type. The described actions, according to the UK, “entail the threat of serious consequences for the environment, expressed in the possibility of dispersion of pollutants, which can lead to harm to public health if the maximum permissible concentrations of hazardous pollutants in the air are exceeded.”
Bastrykin’s personal and unexpected visit to conflicting construction sites in St. Petersburg is a time-tested maneuver. Suffice it to recall his spectacular arrival at the Saltykova mansion, as a result of which the building itself became material evidence in a criminal case: then the developer is also somewhat dumbfounded upiral that everything is in order with his documents, and the prosecutor’s office canceled the case. But just the other day, city defenders won the court on this scandalous “reconstruction”.
Address criminal claims to Smolny for the fact that he nodded to the developers, Bastrykin is also not the first time – what is the matter with regard to the chairman of KGIOP Makarova.
Fontanka.Ru, 09/30/2021, “Andrey Molchanov increased his stake in LSR to 64%”: Head of LSR Group Andrey Molchanov increased his stake in the company from 61% to 64%. This follows from the corporate documents of PJSC. Previously, Molchanov owned 50.3% of the shares directly and 10.6% indirectly. Since September 28, he directly owns 53.1% of the company, indirectly – 11.2%.
As explained in the company, Molchanov increased indirect control over the company not as a result of a direct purchase of shares by him, but indirectly – after the buyback procedure by the LSR group of its shares from the market, which was announced on September 28. He increases his stake in the construction company for the second time in a month. At the beginning of September, the share of shares that he indirectly controls increased from 9.45% to 10.6%.
LSR is one of the largest developers in St. Petersburg. It ranks second in Russia in terms of current construction. The group’s revenue in 2020 under IFRS amounted to 118 billion rubles, net profit – 15 billion. According to SPARK, PJSC LSR Group paid dividends in 2020 for more than 5.1 billion rubles. — Inset K.ru