Vekselberg “loses” Pasler?
Against the background of rumors about the imminent resignation, the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, is in a hurry to “throw” state property on the structures of Viktor Vekselberg?
As the correspondent of UtroNews reports, the governor of the Orenburg region Denis Pasler, whom the rumors have been trying to dismiss for a week now, lost the court on the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburgkommunelektroset. In the region, they believe that before a possible departure from power, the governor is trying to increase the assets of his friend, oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, at the expense of fuel and energy facilities in the region.
However, both the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary of the region opposed Pasler’s controversial decisions, which became the subject of litigation.
Frustrated privatization
The prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit against the governor. In addition to him, the Legislative Assembly of the Orenburg Region also became a defendant. As a result, the judiciary banned the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburgkommunelektroset. Apparently, the company could be prepared for sale in favor of the structures of entrepreneur Viktor Vekselberg.
The prosecutor’s office obtained a confession in court that SUE “OKES” was not in the privatization program for 2021, while the regional government tried to defend the position that the forecast plan for the year does not include property that was decided to be privatized earlier, and the decision on OKES was adopted back in 2020.
Denis Pasler
State Unitary Enterprise “Orenburgkommunelektroset” is an enterprise with a 45-year history. The company specializes in the transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the technological connection of power receivers of legal entities and individuals to power grids. In total, 29 districts of electric networks are engaged in servicing consumers.
This is one of the few profitable ones in the Orenburg region, therefore, from the very beginning, the public, like the prosecutor’s office, was against the privatization of state property. Rumor has it that Pasler may have had a personal interest in this. Previously, he worked in the structure of “T Plus” Viktor Vekselberg. The latter is actively entering utility assets throughout the country, and could target Orenburgkommunelektroset.
Tandem formed
Pasler not only worked at T Plus, but also headed it. With the advent of Pasler in the Orenburg region, Vekselberg’s business literally flourished. But now Pasler is perceived as a downed pilot. At the same time, experts estimate the chances of going to promotion to Moscow as low. Rather, Pasler will get a job in one of Mr. Vekselberg’s companies. And for this, Vekselberg needs to be “helped” right now?
Viktor Vekselberg
Today PJSC “T Plus” through the branch “Orenburg” is already the largest supplier of thermal energy in the Orenburg region. It includes the Sakmarskaya, Kargalinskaya, Orskaya and Mednogorskaya combined heat and power plants and the Orenburg heating networks. The installed electric capacity of the branch is 929 MW. The installed heat capacity is 3,922.6 Gcal/hour, according to the official website of the company’s branch.
With a light hand Pasler for Vekselberg “cleared the way” to the State Unitary Enterprise “Airport Orenburg”, which last year was reorganized into a JSC, and put up for public auction. Allegedly, these processes were initiated in the interests of Viktor Vekselberg, who is buying up regional airports. In September, confirmation appeared – the airport went to Renova Vekselberg, as well as to his old acquaintance, businessman Roman Trotsenko (Novaport holding). RBC wrote about this.
“Lie down” in Orenburg
Rumor has it that Vekselberg could also be behind the appointment of Denis Pasler as head of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Sverdlovsk region. This region is a real “patrimony” of the Renova Group of Companies.
During the work of Pasler from 2012 to 2016, T Plus finally strengthened in the region, and after leaving Sverdlovsk, Pasler temporarily headed T Plus, and from there again rushed to the governors of the Orenburg region. It is unlikely that Pasler would have been able to find such a profitable job without influential patrons.
Allegedly, Pasler began to look closely at the Orenburg region long before his official appointment. While working at T Plus, he concluded an agreement on social and economic cooperation with the head of the Orenburg region, Yuri Berg, the content of which is hidden with seven seals. Later, Pasler took over from Berg, and probably began to implement that secret plan.
According to the authors of the Orenday website, Vyacheslav Dyundin, allegedly a local journalist, attempted to get acquainted with the document, but the regional government repeatedly denied him this. Allegedly, the reason for the secrecy lies in the fact that the agreement fixes the agreements between the Orenburg region and PJSC T Plus regarding solar power plants in the region, which were actively built several years ago and their number in the region exceeded 10 solar power plants.
Allegedly, the agreement is hidden from prying eyes because the document provides for the purchase of SPP electricity by the region at an inflated cost. According to unofficial information, the alleged price is at least 10 times higher than the established tariffs.
It turns out that at the expense of the regional budget, “T plus” could compensate for its investments in the construction of stations and get rid of them after the expiration of their service life?
In any case, under the current governor, Vekselberg is comfortable in the Orenburg region. At the new location, Pasler allegedly continued to “help develop” T Plus, which by that time already had big troubles in Orenburg.
According to the authors of the website “Echo of Moscow in Orenburg”, allegedly in April 2020, the prosecutor’s office sent materials to the Investigative Committee on possible fraud “T Plus” in the implementation of the investment program, adopted in 2010 by the city council of Orenburg. The implementation was carried out by the Orenburg Heat Generating Company, which later became a branch of T Plus.
It was planned that by 2015 the heating system and utility infrastructure would be upgraded. For these purposes, the tariff for heat was increased. The size of the allowance could be almost 18 rubles per 1 Gcal. That is, in 5 years the company received almost 240 million rubles. The total amount of financing could exceed 2 billion rubles.
However, the program was only half completed. Where did the 120 million collected from the residents go, it remained unclear, allegedly they were spent on “other purposes.”
The city prosecutor’s office made a presentation to the head of the Orenburg branch, Valery Velikorodnov, and the materials of the check were transferred to the investigative committee.
It is impossible not to mention the high-profile scandal around VimpelCom and the Geyser case. Recall that after the Investigative Committee put on the wanted list the head of VimpelCom, Mikhail Slobodin, who was also a member of the board of directors of T Plus, a shadow was cast on Pasler himself. It was believed that Slobodin could help Pasler enter T Plus. T Plus was suspected of money laundering through foreign companies.
As TASS wrote, the management of the energy company IES, later renamed T Plus, as well as its parent company Renova, in 2003-2008. took the profits of companies offshore, and also used the funds of investment programs to pay off loans and buy shares in generating and supply companies.
This became known in the framework of the criminal case of the former head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaiser, who, according to the investigation, received bribes of more than 800 million rubles from the former heads of the energy holding IES and T Plus.
Fans of “Renova”
Surely, over time, questions may arise for Vekselberg himself, given that the Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions are not the only regions in which the billionaire earns in the housing and communal services sector. For example, a scandal recently broke out in the Samara region involving the mayor of Samara, Elena Lapushkina.
The official was issued a prosecutor’s presentation for a concession agreement with Samara Utility Systems LLC, the beneficiary of which is Viktor Vekselberg. Law enforcement officers revealed that the concessionaire systematically violated the deadlines for reporting, as well as the untimely signing of annual documents on the results of the implementation of the agreement, Kommersant reported.
The mayor’s office concluded in the summer of 2019, for a period up to 2047, a concession agreement with Samara Utility Systems LLC of the RKS Group of Companies for the facilities of centralized cold water supply and sanitation systems. Under the terms of the agreement, about 4.5 billion rubles will be invested in water supply and sanitation facilities in Samara until 2023. private funds. As The Moscow Post wrote, the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is behind the companies through the manager Igor Dibtsev, the general director of RKS-Holding LLC. The founders of the latter – Technoprom and Investresurs – are heavily involved in public procurement. The supplier company is under government contracts in several regions.
Behind Technoprom stands PJSC T Plus. At the same time, the former mayor of Samara, Viktor Tarkhov, decided to lease the water and sewer networks of Samara from municipal property to the investor, but the prosecutor’s office intervened in the matter and the deal fell through. The competition was repeated in 2011 by a new mayor, Dmitry Azarov.
In March 2012, LLC Samara Communal Systems (SCS) received the right to lease water supply and sanitation systems to MP Samaravodokanal for a period of 35 years, reports 63.ru.
It turns out that the mayor of Samara, Elena Lapushkina, received a representation from the prosecutor’s office, lobbying for the interests of Viktor Vekselberg, and governor Dmitry Azarov was not against it?
Apparently, not against the prosperity of Viktor Vekselberg and Denis Pasler in the Orenburg region. But how will the inhabitants remember him himself – a servant of the people, his voters, or a squire of an influential businessman, who was absent from his T Plus only for a few years on a business trip to the public service?