Waiting for billions: why Pumpyansky is delaying the construction of Universiade-2023 facilities

There is an opinion that FISU inspectors are unlikely to bother the Sinara Group with unpleasant questions.

According to the correspondent MorningNews, an inspection of the International University Sports Federation (FISU) began its work in Yekaterinburg. Specialists should check the readiness of city facilities for the Universiade-2023.

It is known that at the moment, work on seven sites may lag behind the deadlines. And this despite the fact that about 90 billion rubles of budget funds have already been spent on the Universiade-2023. And the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Evgeny Kuyvashev, seems unable to influence the contractors from the Sinara Group, Dmitry Pumpyansky, to move and work more energetically.

Fickle Kuyvashev

Authors of the information site “Vedomosti Ural” they say that a delegation of the International University Sports Federation FISU allegedly arrived in Yekaterinburg. According to the authors of the site, at the end of 2021, work at seven sites was behind schedule. At the same time, there is information that FISU specialists do not intend to visit problematic facilities, but for some reason will limit themselves to checking only those that are already “almost built”. These are the Universiade campus, the Kalininets stadium and the Water Sports Palace.

It is worth recalling that the victory of Yekaterinburg’s bid to host the Universiade-2023 became known in July 2019. After that, the authorities of the Sverdlovsk region decided to change the main site, where sports and related facilities were to appear. If earlier it was planned to deploy a construction site at VIZ (this is the historical name of the village of Verkh-Isetsky Plant), then a new choice was made in favor of a site near the international exhibition center Ekaterinburg Expo. According to the news agency Ura.ru, such a development of events dealt a very serious blow to the business of the former mayor of Yekaterinburg Arkady Chernetsky (led the city in 1992-2010), who had plans in connection with the VIZ site. At the moment, Chernetsky is the first deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk region.

Vladimir Kritsky, the former deputy of Chernetsky in the Yekaterinburg mayor’s office, was the manager of the LSR Group in the Urals and a deputy of the Yekaterinburg Duma, directly involved in the site at VIZ. Thus, the “moving” of the site for the Universiade facilities to the territory of the “Ekaterinburg Expo” is, among other things, a personal defeat for Chernetsky.

Evgeny Kuyvashev

It is also known that the territory near the Ekaterinburg Expo was lobbied by Dmitry Pumpyansky, the owner of the Sinara Group, the chairman of the board of directors of the Pipe Metallurgical Company and the chairman of the board of directors of the Ural football club. The decision of Governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev to opt for Pumpyansky’s idea obviously did not please the competitors. But, apparently, Pumpyanky’s authority was such that Kuyvashev could not refuse him.

The estimate is growing by leaps and bounds

At the moment, financing for the construction of the yet fully unfinished facilities of the Universiade-2023, according to the authors of the Vedomosti Ural website, has already exceeded 90 billion rubles. At the same time, against the backdrop of the desire of the federal center to reduce its share of co-financing, the government of the Sverdlovsk region increased and increased its share, the publication reports. “Octagon”. This is not surprising, given the fact that the customer of the work, the ANO Directorate for the Construction of Universiade 2023 facilities, has passed under the control of Dmitry Pumpyansky.

Danil Znachkov became the head of this structure. According to Oktagon, he previously worked as the general director of Sinara-Development-Project and deputy general director – head of the customer service of Sinara-Development. Danil Znachkov also coordinated Pumpyansky’s major construction project for the reconstruction of the Central Stadium in Yekaterinburg for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Dmitry Pumpyansky

Thus, the amount of 90 billion rubles is by no means the limit. Especially taking into account the fact that the site allocated for the Yekaterinburg Expo and the objects of the Universiade-2023 is located in a swampy area. Previously, experts even declared these territories unsuitable for use and not subject to restoration. In order to build at least something there, it was necessary to remove a layer of peat and sapropel from 1.5 to 5 meters thick and replace it with more than 5 million cubic meters of rocky soil. And also create a complex drainage system. But when it comes to budget financing, it is obvious that nothing is impossible. The main thing is that the estimate should grow at a faster pace.

At the same time, despite the fact that the Sinara Group is a very large budget recipient, Dmitry Pumpyansky’s business allows itself to do rather strange things. As reported earlier The Moscow Post, the Pipe Metallurgical Company once issued a message warning investors about the risks to the economy and the deterioration of the investment climate due to large-scale changes in the state structure of Russia proposed by President Vladimir Putin. .

Kuyvashev can be exchanged

It seems that at some point, Evgeny Kuyvashev began to understand that the seething detail of Dmitry Pumpyansky could bring him, as the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, “under the monastery.” A black cat seemed to run between Kuyvashev and Pumpyansky. Moreover, according to the news agency Ura.ru, difficulties arose not even because of the construction of facilities for the Universiade-2023, but because of other orders in the Sverdlovsk region transferred to the Sinara Group. The government of the region asked Pumpyansky for the failure to meet deadlines, but the contractor, in turn, was also not happy – Pumpyansky was not satisfied with the instability of payment.

As a Ura.ru source recalls, Pumpyansky and Kuyvashev even had a public squabble at the birthday party of Andrey Komarov, the ex-owner of the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant. But a little later, as the same source specified, the conflict was settled. Apparently, the government of the Sverdlovsk region paid off its debts to the football club “Ural”, the chairman of the board of directors of which, we recall, is Pumpyansky. It was about 100 million rubles.

At the same time, UtroNews sources confirmed that Dmitry Pumpyansky is close friends with Alexei Miller, Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom. There are several reasons for this friendship. For example, Gazprom may constantly need the products of the Pipe Metallurgical Company. Football club “Zenit”, sponsored by “Gazprom”, needs such clubs as “Ural”. Indeed, on the one hand, Ural can at the right time create problems for its competitors (for example, the same Spartak), and on the other hand, it may not bother itself too much in matches with Zenit. These are the assumptions.

Alexey Miller

Pumpyansky may need friendship with Miller in order to gain a foothold in the region even more firmly. Perhaps Dmitry Pumpyansky dreams that a native of the Sinara Group, whom he, Pumpyansky, could manage, becomes the governor of the Sverdlovsk region. It is clear that the current governor Kuyvashev does not fit into such a configuration. He can be sent for a “promotion” to Moscow. An ordinary deputy in a federal ministry, for example.

There is something to think about here. The main thing is not to forget about the Universiade…