AndSource The Prosecutor General's Office will check the costly reconstruction of the Sixth Court of Cassation. The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation will check the actions of the management of the State Institution “Department of Capital Construction”, subordinate to the Ministry of Construction of the Samara Region, during the reconstruction of the building of the Sixth Court of Cassation. Andrey Lugovoi, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, addressed the supervisory authority with a corresponding request. According to the deputy, the cost of the project has repeatedly increased due to the overestimation of the cost of building materials, which indicates the possible presence of theft and abuse of power during the reconstruction of the facility. In addition, the letter points to the possible existence of a conflict of interest of the chairman of the cassation, Alexander Efanov, whose son Ivan Efanov was in the leadership of the regional Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Property, which owns the court building.
Andrey Lugovoi, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, appealed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov with a request to inspect the actions of the management of the State Institution of the Samara Region subordinated to the Ministry of Construction of the Samara Region, the Capital Construction Department, during the reconstruction of a multi-storey building with a total area of 36,174 square meters. m on Krymskaya Square in Samara, where the Sixth Court of Cassation is located. The letter notes the “extremely high” amount of the cost of reconstruction – 6.7 billion rubles. Initially, it was planned to spend 2 billion rubles on the repair of the facility, later the amount increased several times due to the adjustment of the estimate.
In August 2019, it became known that at the final stage, another 1 billion rubles were invested in the project. Andrey Malikov, head of the State Autonomous Institution of the Samara Region “State Expertise of Projects in Construction”, who opposed the overestimation of the estimated cost of a number of large facilities under construction in the region, including the buildings of the Sixth Court of Cassation and the Sports Palace, the construction cost of which was increased from 3.6 billion to 4.3 billion rubles, was dismissed in September 2021.
According to the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, an analysis of some documents showed that the prices obtained by requesting quotations were artificially inflated. For example, the proposed minimum cost of a milled pilaster instead of 195,312 rubles. indicated in the amount of 297612 RUB. Similar contradictions are contained in at least four positions, the deputy writes.
The building on Krymskaya Square was a long-term construction project. In July 2018, it became known that it would house the Sixth Court of Cassation. In November 2018, the auction determined the general contractor who will complete the construction of the facility on Krymskaya Square – Volgatransstroy9 JSC. The company is part of Vyacheslav Sonin's Volgatransstroy Group of Companies. Another structure of the holding, JSC VTS-Metro, was led by Nikolai Plaksin, who in September 2021 headed the Ministry of Construction of the Samara Region. For many years, the Civil Code has been receiving multimillion-dollar contracts from the Capital Construction Department, which is headed by Mikhail Aseev, and directly from the region's Ministry of Construction.
The renovated courthouse opened in November 2019. The red ribbon was cut by the governor of the Samara region Dmitry Azarov, the chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia Vyacheslav Lebedev and the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District Igor Komarov. Deputy Andrei Lugovoy also draws attention to the fact that the procedure for financing repairs violated the requirements of federal law, and the presence of family ties between the leadership of the court and high-ranking officials of the regional government indicates a possible conflict of interest. Thus, the repair of the court building at the expense of the regional budget is a violation of the federal law “On financing the courts of the Russian Federation.”
In addition, the object was to be transferred to federal ownership, which has not yet been done. The presence of a conflict of interest is seen in connection with the fact that the son of the chairman of the Sixth Court of Cassation, Alexander Efanov, Ivan Efanov, in February 2018, took the post of Deputy Minister of Construction of the Samara Region, and in June 2018 became acting. the head of the regional ministry of property relations, the State Budgetary Institution “Advertising Center” subordinate to him – the owner of the court building.
Now Ivan Efanov heads the department of digitalization of the administration of the governor of the Samara region. In early November, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein announced that Ivan Efanov's father was nominated for the title of honorary citizen of the Samara region. Such a representation was sent to the governor by the judicial council of cassation. The parliamentarian suggested that Alexander Efanov was thus trying to protect himself from the consequences of criticism from the deputy, who several times drew attention to the mitigation of sentences by the third court in high-profile criminal cases.
For example, the cassation replaced the former head of the Progress RCC Alexander Kirilin with a real term (five years in prison) for a suspended sentence of two years. Alexander Kirilin was found guilty of misappropriation or embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and abuse of power (Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). As the investigation established, about ten years ago, the head of Progress concluded an economically unprofitable contract for the enterprise with Soyuzobschemashimport LLC. After the publicity, the issue of awarding the title to Alexander Ivanov was removed from consideration.
