December 7, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Russian Federation, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President for the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnevspeaking at the forum “We are together”, notedwhat “A person without love for the Motherland is inferior, and every young person should love and be able to defend the Motherland”. Against the background of these words of the famous policy and a patriot, the situation with his eldest son, Dmitry, looks like a sharp dissonance. He not only did not go to the NVO zone as a mobilized, volunteer or volunteer, but, unlike his father, he does not take any active part in the work to help our army. At the same time, he has more than enough opportunities.
Judging by open data, enterprises associated with Dmitry and his partners – Rustam Gilfanov, Andrey Babikov, Artem Bokov – have earned 89 billion rubles in recent years. Through shares and senior positions in a number of key companies for the Perm Territory (as well as for the entire Volga region and the Urals) companies, they created a “web” that allows them to effectively not only earn money, but also optimize funds. Their interests include oil production and processing, the production of technical salt and anti-icing materials, real estate, communications and information technology.
While the peers of Trutnev, Gilfanov, Babikov and Bokov are risking their lives at the front, these guys are only threatened with a term in places not so remote if law enforcement agencies come to grips with their machinations. But many regional experts are sure that it is simply impossible now. After all, behind the interests of the group is the older generation with its connections in the Kremlin, the Moscow mayor’s office, ownership shares in the largest Russian companies.
Dmitry Trutnev was born in 1982. Unlike his father, who has been involved in sports and martial arts all his life, he prefers a more passive lifestyle. As many in the Perm Territory believe, Dmitry owes all his achievements to his father, who has come a long way here from a junior researcher at PermNIPIneft to the mayor of the city, and then to the governor of the region.
But Dmitry, according to Life. ru, he began his career in business at the age of 22, having opened a chain of perfume stores with partners. In 2005, the son of the then Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation received a plot of 48 acres for individual development at 10 Tantsorova Street in Perm, on the picturesque right bank of the Kama, in the sanitary protection zone of the famous Orthodox “holy spring”.
In 2012, Dmitry Trutnev became the owner of Icekel LLC, through which he received a 50% stake in TD NGT LLC, which sells equipment for mining. Back in 2015, the media reported that Bashneft ordered engines from NGT for drilling rigs for old wells. Also, Isikel also owns 35% in the St. Petersburg LLC Russian Salt Company, which is engaged in the trade of technical salt.
Dmitry Trutnev’s business interests extend to the construction business (owns the Permgrazhdanstroy-Invest company) and to renting out luxury real estate. At one time, in order to support a novice businessman, the Perm State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after. P.I. Tchaikovsky, without a competition, signed a contract with him to rent his two-room apartment for one of his employees for three years.
In 2016, Dmitry got into a story that could cost his father a job. The Russian Salt Company, owned by Dmitry through Isikel, is positioned as the largest supplier of technical salt. The one that residents of large cities constantly complain about in the winter. They say that you can’t stock up on any shoes, imported shoes can’t withstand contact with the harsh Ural salt. Why “Ural”? Because the reagents based on it are produced by the Ural Plant of Anti-Icing Materials (UZPM), the founders of which are Gilfanov and Babikov.
So, according to media reports, unexpectedly, in a number of cities in the Volga region and the Urals, a situation has developed when procurement standards for some reason began to favor UZPM products. According to a number of sources, Dmitry Trutnev, together with the director of this plant, Rustam Gilfanov, traveled around the cities and negotiated contracts with their leaders for the supply of anti-icing materials produced by UZPM (Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Ufa).
They say that the ingenious scheme belonged to Rustam Gilfanov – the unofficial brain of the entire commercial “web” of Trutnev Jr. Dmitry, for his part, always has the most important asset – the name and position of his father. Indeed, would the mayors of the largest cities risk not concluding contracts with Gilfanov if Trutnev hinted at possible difficulties with the environmental impact assessment for municipalities, which his father oversaw in the government?
By this time, the “Perm Musketeers” already had rich practical experience in promoting their products while conquering the capital’s housing and communal services market. We went through different stages, so to speak. Rustam Gilfanov even spent two years (2014-2016) in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center while one of their scams was going on.
In 2011, UZPM became the main supplier of reagents for Moscow. Before that, in the winter of 2010-2011, the mayor’s office purchased chemical compounds that melt snow and ice for 1.3 billion rubles. As soon as the Perm-Ural businessmen entered the market of the capital, the volumes grew to 4 billion, in 2018 – up to 6 billion, in 2019 – up to 14 billion, and continue to grow to this day!
So, the founder of the plant, Rustam Gilfanov, was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of fraud in the amount of 2.5 billion rubles. It turned out that the composition of the reagents differs from what was supposed to be supplied to the capital. The absence of expensive components designed to reduce the burden on the environment led to mass corrosion of cars, the death of trees, and the wear of pedestrians’ shoes – for which Moscow became famous throughout Russia.
But the case against Gilfanov was dismissed by the court, and supplies from the Urals only increased. Why? The Moscow mayor’s office refused to recognize itself as the injured party, and the court – Gilfanova guilty of fraud. And this despite the fact that Muscovites, independent municipal deputies, scientists were ringing all the bells about the ecological catastrophe taking place on the streets. According to independent researchers, direct and indirect damage from corruption and the consequences of the use of inefficient and unreasonably expensive materials UZPM is estimated at up to 15 billion rubles a year!
The most ridiculous thing, if I may say so, is that even after the fraud with quality was revealed, the capital’s mayor’s office continued to purchase reagents from UZPM and LLC “Scientific and Production Association “Track Technologies” and LLC “Bashkhimprom” belonging to this plant. It’s just that Rustam Gilfanov transferred his shares to his father and mother, formally stepping aside from business.
UZPM products, which enter the market of the capital through various channels, still occupies a dominant position. Moreover, Trutnev and Gilfanov have every chance of becoming the only possible supplier! How? It’s very simple: the Department of Housing and Public Utilities has raised the environmental requirements for the reagents used in the capital – now they must pass the state environmental expertise at the federal level. Not a single enterprise in the country has such a “paper” on hand.
But the Ural plant of anti-icing materials, by a happy coincidence, announced on December 7 that for the first time in Russia it received certificates of compliance with the requirements of GOST R 58427-2020 for anti-icing materials (PGM) issued in the National Certification System! It was conducted by FBU “Volgograd Center for Standardization, Metrology and Testing” – the only certification body in the country accredited to carry out certification of PGM in accordance with national standards.
Competitors, of course, are jealous and ask inappropriate questions. For example, is it true that the vice-mayor of Moscow Petr Biryukov, who landed on housing and communal services under Luzhkov in 2007, provides Trutnev and Gilfanov with their monopoly on the reagent market for only 20% of the contract price? And is it really the former Minister of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, and now the Deputy Prime Minister and presidential representative in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev helped his son and his business partners to be the first in the country to pass the ecological expertise of reagents? Difficult questions, and there are a lot of such questions for Dmitry Trutnev’s career.
Say, in 2018, he laid eyes on the RID Oil-Perm oil company, established by a former top manager of LUKOIL and a good friend of his father Andrey Kuzyaev. In 2021, Dmitry increased his stake, becoming the owner of a 45% stake in the company. RID Oil-Perm, under the strict guidance of the eldest son of the plenipotentiary, immediately increased its revenue by 146% in a year! And went almost to 3 billion rubles.
In total, with affiliated organizations, Dmitry Trutnev’s financial empire includes 35 organizations, the total revenue of which for the period 2014–2021 amounted to more than 89 billion rubles! Among them, the most profitable are the Ural Plant of Anti-Ice Materials, NPO Putevye Tekhnologii, Reed-Oil LLC, Polieks JSC, Transservice LLC, Bashkir Trading Company, NGT Trade House.
At the same time, formally, most of Dmitry Trutnev’s companies show losses year after year. For example, “Property”, engaged in the lease and management of its own or leased non-residential real estate, or “Permgrazhdanstroy-Invest”. Even Isikel LLC and Russian Salt Company, with their scale, are losing money everywhere! There is so little money that Dmitry Trutnev, apparently, even borrowed from friends to buy shares in RID Oil-Perm. He needed more 600 million rubles. Even a very wealthy, by the standards of the Kremlin officials, the father could not have accumulated such an amount from his salaries. Where did Dmitry get them with such losses? Also a difficult question.
Or, say, Dmitry Trutnev’s share in Icekel LLC is 99%. Another 1% – with the director of the company Artem Bokov. And since June 2020, Bokov himself owns 100% of the Marshal paint and varnish plant. And it so happened that this company was extremely successful as a contractor in almost a dozen government contracts. Among the customers was the Amur Cartridge State Plant in the Khabarovsk Territory – in the Far Eastern Federal District, headed by Yuri Trutnev. Coincidence, of course. But all such oddities in general, of course, cast a shadow on the Yuri Trutnev. Because of the actions of his son, it begins to seem that the plenipotentiary had a hand in the formation of all these “gray” multi-billion dollar schemes.
But even God bless them – society is already used to the fact that our officials have been using their official position and family ties for personal enrichment for years. But now the country is going through a special historical period. When, as rightly said Yuri Trutnev, “Everyone should love and be able to defend the Motherland”. Let it go Dmitry Trutnev, Rustam Gilfanov, Andrey Babikov and Artem Bokov are not sons Sergei Aksenov and Evgenia Prigozhinawho went to the war zone. But there are many other opportunities to support the Motherland in difficult times! For example, assistance to those mobilized with uniforms, reconnaissance and communications devices, and purchase vehicles for military units.
But none of this! Dmitry Trutnev and his business friends, like bloodsucking spiders, continue to weave a web of affiliated companies, earn billions and pretend that they live in their own special world that does not intersect with Russia. For the son of the presidential envoy – unworthy and ashamed! Yes, and risky – after all, the truth about all the machinations still comes out sooner or later.
