The tourist trail leads to budgets

Deputy Aleksey Chernyak is once again trying to push through a bill that will bring profit to his family business. The head of the Crimea Aksyonov – only for?

Aleksey Chernyak, representative of the State Duma Committee for Tourism Development, presented a bill on tourist tax. The document assumes that every traveling Russian will be required to pay 100 rubles a day to the treasury for hotel accommodation.

The proceeds are proposed to be directed to the development of the tourism industry. In fact, the money can go into the pockets of officials and the structures they feed. The correspondent understood the story The Moscow Post in Crimea.

Wealthy Patriot

Mr. Chernyak, who presented the bill, which, according to him, will save the State Duma from constant revision of this part of the legislation, is a very interesting person. Until 2014, he was a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur. Awarded with a mass of regalia issued by the Ukrainian government.

After the geopolitical situation changed and Crimea was reunited with Russia, Chernyak also “migrated” to the new reality. Since then, he has not only supported the Russian statehood, but also publicly speaks extremely impartially about his former “breadwinners”.

“Zelensky should learn three words: “criminal”, “court” and “prison” – this is how the article “Radio Sputnik” begins, in which the parliamentarian talks without stinting on expressions about what a bad president of Ukraine is and how he will pay for all the inflicted on Russia damage.

Sharply criticizing a country unfriendly to Russia, Chernyak seems to be trying to present himself as a patriot more than he is. Many believe that this may be hiding a banal attempt to please the government, to be closer to it (and at the same time to the budget).

Similar thoughts are evoked by his statements about a complete ban on YouTube in spite of “Western partners” and outrageous appeals to politicians from different countries with calls, for example, to come to the Crimea and visit the site of the Greek village of Lucky, burned by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War.

According to Krym.Realii (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), in 2019 Chernyak purchased a brand new luxury car Bently Continental GT. The market value at that time varied somewhere in the range of 20-21 million rubles. At the same time, Chernyak’s annual income statement indicates that he earned a little more than two million rubles in a year.

Information about an expensive acquisition is confirmed by a declaration from the Declarator website https://declarator.org/office/6531?active-tab=document-56300&section_id=773400#section773400

If the Russian state allows him to make such expensive acquisitions, despite the fact that the salary of a citizen does not seem to allow this, the nature of the sudden outbreak of love for Russia becomes clear.

lucky

Perhaps Chernyak wants to make a similar gift to one of his friends or relatives. So he decided to earn some extra money on the so-called “resort fee”? Fortunately, the region is provided with tourism. And there is even a close company through which it will be possible to withdraw state millions.

Being already a Russian citizen, Mr. Chernyak became the founder of a company with the sonorous name “Noble Assembly of Crimea”. The company, in turn, from 2016 to April 2022 was the owner of the Cultural Heritage of Crimea fund. The latter in the same period owned LLC “Cultural Heritage A.S. Popov, which is the founder of the tour operator City Tour Pass.

The organization is now headed by Nikita Kalintsev, the same one who was the founder of the Crimean Cultural Heritage Foundation. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

We won’t be surprised if this particular office later becomes the very operator that will collect bribes from tourists and “give” it to the state for the development of the industry.

On the father-in-law of the parliamentarian Oleg Kharkhan, Elegans-Tour LLC is registered, which is also engaged in tourism activities. The company was founded in 2017. It is possible that she, including or single-handedly, will take part in the “collection of tribute.”

Same old story

After all, a story similar to the one described above in Chernyak’s biography has already happened. In 2014, the Crimean State Council adopted the scandalous law “On Resorts, Natural Medical Resources and Medical and Health Areas”. Since then, certain companies have been given the authority to assess the quality of services of accommodation facilities (sanatoriums, hotels, mini-boarding houses, and so on), ski slopes and beaches. The companies themselves have to pay for this.

To date, it is impossible to avoid certification by law if you want to calmly continue your work. Otherwise – a fine of 50 thousand rubles or a certain percentage of annual revenue.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

The goal on paper is to ensure the safety of tourists. In fact, it is possible – direct and undisguised lobbying for the business interests of Mr. Chernyak, who participated in the group moving the law.

Let’s explain – Chernyshev joined the commission, which was supposed to approve or reject the applications of companies wishing to carry out accreditation. The first allowed enterprise was “Crimea-Resort-Standard” under the leadership of a certain Yuri Trifonov.

According to FederalPress.Krym, the latter is Chernyak’s assistant. “He (Chernyak) appointed Trifonov as deputy director of the former state enterprise Krymstandartmetrologiya, which later became the Crimean Scientific and Production Center for Standardization, Metrology and Certification,” the journalists report.

Family business under Aksyonov’s “wing”?

Moreover, the office of Krym-Kurort-Standart is located at the same address (Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, Zhukovsky St., 25) as the office of Chernyak’s father-in-law, Oleg Kharkhan, a former deputy of the city council of Simferopol. And Trifonov previously worked as a deputy general director at the Crimean Center for Conformity Conformity Confirmation Krym-Expertiza LLC, now the company is headed by Chernyak’s mother-in-law Oksana Kharkhan. The company also provides services in the field of certification.

She earned more than 700 million rubles on government contracts. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

The mother-in-law was also issued a certification LLC Krymavtotest. It was a supplier in 54 government contracts for a total of 12 million rubles. The firm renders services of checkup of cars in the Crimea. The largest customers are institutions subordinate to the Republic. At the same time, judging by the “torn” revenue of the enterprise, money can be withdrawn from the company.

Previously, Kharkhan worked at ANO “KRC” Forensic Expertise “. The company has been operating since 2015 and is the recipient of government contracts worth almost 650 million rubles.

The parliamentarian himself, of course, denies any connection between the bill and lobbying for the business interests of his family. But such a “log in the eye” is difficult not to notice.

Returning to the most sensational bill, we note that at that time not only the tourism industry, forced to pay for the service imposed on them, was “pressed”, but also ordinary citizens. Since the adoption of the document, some of the beaches have become closed – now they are private areas of hotels.

Social activists raised a storm of indignation and knocked on the very head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, who responded in words, but in fact nothing has changed in this regard. This suggests that Aksyonov himself could also get his profits from the activities of a “patriotic” subordinate.

This is indirectly indicated, among other things, by the fact that Chernyak does not hesitate to indicate expensive purchases in his declarations. Everyone knows about the business registered in the name of relatives, as they also know that a number of companies of the wife, mother-in-law and father-in-law receive big government contracts, including thanks to the bill adopted several years ago. But no one sees either a conflict of interest or open lobbying of the family business by Chernyak.

Now the Russians are at risk of getting into a situation where we will still have to pay extra for having saved up money to get out of our apartment once a year. And where will these funds go? Is it not in the pockets of the authors of the initiative?