Where Nikolaev is driving

The Republic of Chuvashia has received a new contractor for the removal of municipal solid waste from several large municipalities at once. They became the company LLC “Ekovoz”, registered in the capital of the subject of Cheboksary. The amount of the contract with the regoperator International Exhibition Complex “Ecocenter” is almost 300 million rubles.

At the same time, there was no competition at the auction – it is not clear on what grounds the purchase was made from a single supplier. And the company “Ekovoz” itself appeared on the market a little over a year ago, almost exactly with the consolidation of the new governor, former State Duma deputy Oleg Nikolaev, in the region.

It is not clear where this structure will get experience in the removal of MSW in a year, and for some such gingerbread it almost immediately received a large contract for almost 300 million rubles, while competitors in the market have been forced to prove their worth for years, being content with much more modest ” slices of the pie.”

What else good happened during the two years of Nikolaev’s leadership – in the material of The Moscow Post correspondent in Chuvashia.

Who is taking whom where?

Ekovoz LLC was indeed registered only in March 2021 – that is, about six months after it finally became clear that in the coming years the former driver, ex-State Duma deputy from A Just Russia will “steer” the Republic of Chuvashia.

The main activity of the structure is the maintenance and repair of vehicles. The founder is a little-known entrepreneur Alexei Semenov.

At the same time, even under the previous governor, Ignatiev, the dubious company MVK Ecocenter LLC became a regional operator in 2018. At the end of 2021, it received a loss of 47 million rubles, with an asset value of minus 133 million rubles.

The capitalization of the MSW recycling operator was rapidly declining under both Ignatiev and Nikolaev. Can money be withdrawn from the company? A photo: Rusprofile.en

The founders are Elena Shumilova (95%) and Viktor Lagunovsky (5%). The management company of the organization is LLC “Business Management Center”. The owner of this company is also Lagunovskiy.

Until 2020, Viktor Lagunovsky headed Settlement Center LLC, which accepts payments for kindergartens and housing and communal services in Cheboksary. Apparently, he was “warmed up” under Ignatiev. Today, the LLC is liquidated with zero revenue and asset value and only two employees, leading to the conclusion that it was most likely a scam company.

It can be assumed that the municipal waste management operator was close to the late Mikhail Ignatiev. But if so, Nikolaev not only did not correct his mistakes, but calmly left the company “on streams”. Now with a new subcontractor for 300 million rubles, which was chosen without serious competition.

At the same time, back in 2020, and already after the election of Mr. Nikolaev as the head of the region, it became known that the Ecocenter International Exhibition Complex could suspend its activities due to the low collection of payments.

The decision of the authorities to change the standard for waste accumulation led to the risks of suspending the company’s activities. Because of this, in 2020 there was no planned increase in tariffs for garbage collection. The cost of the service remained almost at the level of 2019.

Since July 1, 2020, the tariffs for the export of municipal solid waste in Chuvashia have increased by 20.8%. It seems that under Nikolaev, payments only continued to grow, because the Ecocenter International Exhibition Center continues to work.

Both the reaper and the reader

Before entering big politics, Nikolaev worked as an installer of reinforced concrete and building structures in PSO “Monolitstroy” (Cheboksary), a driver in LLC “Bodigard”, a security service specialist in JSC “Textilmash”, a construction technician and chief accountant at first in Voskhod-1 LLP, and then Spetssvyazstroy LLC (all in Cheboksary), deputy director at Alza LLC, and many other places. That is, he has a certain life experience, although, judging by his biography, he does not have any more or less serious skills in public administration.

However, they say that he was previously extremely friendly with Anatoly Aksakov, the former head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets. It was thanks to his recommendation that Nikolaev got into the Cabinet of Ministers of the Chuvash Republic at the beginning of the 2000s – this became the springboard for his political career.

In 2011, Oleg Nikolaev first got into the State Duma of the 5th convocation from the regional branch of the Just Russia party, and three years later he put forward his candidacy for the post of head of Chuvashia and for deputies of the Cheboksary City Legislative Assembly of the 6th convocation. However, then the assault on the residence of the president of the (then) republic predictably failed. But in 2016, he won the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the Just Russia party, heading the committee on nationalities in the Lower Parliament, on January 29 he was appointed acting head of the Chuvash Republic, and on February 6 he headed the republican cabinet of ministers.

“No” manager?

At the same time, two years after the leadership of Oleg Nikolaev, some conclusions can be drawn. We have already seen what is happening in public procurement in the area of ​​MSW management. By the way, it was Nikolaev who once owned the initiative to centralize state and municipal procurement in the region. This was written by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Then he justified this as an attempt to defeat corruption. But it seems that so far only fair competition has been won. Nevertheless, the main claim against Nikolaev is not even corruption (still a lot of negativity about it is tied to Ignatiev), but the constantly growing debts of the republic.

It is significant that as of June 1, 2022, the state debt of Chuvashia reached 8.357 billion rubles. The growth by the beginning of the year amounted to 390 million rubles, said the Minister of Finance of the Republic, Mikhail Nozdryakov. He also tried to justify the swollen debt by the planned receipt of infrastructure loan funds from the budget for almost 900 million rubles. This writes “Pravda UrFO”.

In any case, under Nikolaev, the state debt of Chuvashia is almost 7 thousand rubles for each of the 1.2 million inhabitants of the Republic, including infants and the elderly. At the same time, the average salary in Chuvashia only barely reached 40 thousand rubles by the summer of 2022 – these are not yet poor regions of the North Caucasus, but an extremely weak indicator for central Russia.

Why, then, does Nikolaev’s team continue to accumulate debts? And with such debts, they do not care at all about saving the budget, what do we see in the example of choosing a waste transportation contractor, who was chosen through a purchase from a single supplier?

In addition to such facts, there is practically nothing to cling to for two years of Nikolaev’s leadership of the Republic. Everything remained almost the same as under Ignatiev, and even worse, given the economic crisis and falling incomes.

In this regard, Nikolaev’s past scandals are remembered, for example, his work as a leader in the project of PJSC Khanty-Mansiysk Bank Otkritie (KHMB Otkritie).

By the end of 2015, in December, it became known that the international rating agency Moody’s had downgraded the long-term deposit rating of the Khanty-Mansiysk Bank “Opening” in national and foreign currencies to “B2” from “B1”. According to the rating, the “negative” outlook was retained.

Oleg Nikolaev for two years of leadership of the region did not show himself in anything but a few scandals, which makes one wonder if he was “put” in Chuvashia? Photo: krchet.cap.ru

Moody’s drew attention to both the bank’s declining ability to cope with losses, and problems with the financial profile of the credit institution. This was written by the publication “New Look”.

Isn’t the same thing happening today in relation to the whole region? And if so, then it is still not too late for the federal center to pay attention to the situation in Chuvashia.