You can’t spoil the ram “Vetoy”
Eduard Taran appears to be getting closer and closer to the Khilok market and the illegal substances traffic. On the other hand, Nikolai Tokarev and the officials of Novosibirsk are involved.
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, conducted a video meeting with residents of the Khilok Triangle in Novosibirsk, after which he ordered the questioning of officials from the Novosibirsk mayor’s office due to issues related to the establishment of sanitary protection zones.
The Department of Investments of Novosibirsk, which is controlled by the City Hall, is the client for the development and approval of the project for sanitary protection zones. It appears that everyone from the head of the department, Vitaly Vitukhin, to the mayor, Anatoly Lokt, will be held accountable.
For several years now, residents have been working towards establishing a protected zone between the Kleshchihisky cemetery and the Levoberezhny landfill because they are worried about the environmental situation in this area.
At the same time, the history reveals the business interests of entrepreneurs whose assets are located within or near the area under discussion. The activities of Eduard Taran, the former local deputy Alexei Alexandrov, and even the head of the Transneft corporation, Nikolai Tokarev, may intersect here.
MP’s corner
The Khilok market, established by Alexandrov, has been functioning in the area for over a decade. Although he formally left the founders a few years ago, rumors suggest that his involvement is more than nominal. An indirect confirmation is the fact that the security company “Archi”, which operates in the market area, remains in Aleksandrov’s ownership. Enormous amounts of money flow through the market, possibly indicating its involvement in dubious activities.
Those approaching Bastrykin with complaints mention that migrants working in the market are slaughtering livestock on the housing estate, disregarding public order norms, and more. However, the situation in 2012 may be more concerning, as law enforcement officers detained several individuals near the Khiloksky market with 80 kg of prohibited substances hidden in apples.
Khilok market.
According to rumors, such activities may intensify at the market. This casts Alexandrov’s interests in a different light. Reports from Telegram channels suggested that the market remained open due to the interest of Novosibirsk Mayor Anatoly Lokt. Considering Alexandrov’s connections, this seems plausible. However, another version suggests that this information was leaked due to Eduard Taran's interest in the closure of the Khilok market.
tangerine paradise
The thing is that Taran owns the “Mandarin” shopping center, not far from the market, which is the main competitor of Khiloksky. If the market is shut down, all business activities will naturally shift to Taran's shopping center. With the possibility of illicit trade, financial activities could be substantial.
Mr. Taran, who leads RATM-Hodding, was accused of taking a bribe and committing tax fraud while selling shares of the Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant to Rostec.
Taran's company, RATM-Holding, was accused of trying to forcefully take over the Angarskcement plant. There were also other similar cases. In 2020, Taran's former partner Oleg Utiralov accused him of trying to gain sole control over their Sibeletroterm enterprise, bypassing financial recovery agreements.
In 2005, RATM-Holding, which had become a shareholder of the company a year earlier, caused the bankruptcy of Alttrak, a large tractor manufacturing company. There are many similar situations.
Edward Taran.
Another uncertain situation involving Taran is related to the supply of weapons equipment to the United States and Ukraine. Since September 2018, Ekran – Optical Systems, which was part of RATM-Holding's interests, has repeatedly exported large batches of image intensifier tubes to the United States and other countries.
Here is how Vladislav Boyarinov's lawyer commented on this situation:
“… After finding out that the buyer produces, among other things, night vision devices for the needs of US law enforcement agencies, and also supplies them to militarily and terroristally unstable regions of the world, including Ukraine, the FSTEC of Russia issues a permit for the export of more than a thousand electronic optical converters JSC “Ekran-optical systems”.
Did Taran actually supply weapons to countries that are not friendly to Russia?
It's not surprising that such a businessman might desire the ambiguous asset of the Khilok market.
Tokarev imposes “Veta”
But what does Tokarev and his Transneft, which we mentioned at the very beginning of the article, have to do with it? Recently, due to Bastrykin’s interest, officials had to publicly justify the reasons for the delay in the installation of sanzones. The blame for this was put on the contractor who was supposed to develop project documentation – the Veta appraisal company, owned by the scandalous Zharsky family from Nizhny Novgorod.
Despite the bad reputation of the company, it consistently receives good state contracts.
As The Moscow Post found out, the interests of Veta are represented in court by the Delcredere MGKA, which has also defended Transneft in courts for many years. Alexandra Maidannik, the wife of Igor Maidannik, who provided legal support for the activities of PJSC Transneft, had a share in the capital of Deltacrede. So all the threads lead to the corporation.
Nikolay Tokarev.
And potentially personally to Tokarev, because the founder and head of the company, Dmitry Zharsky, is registered with the KKKG “ISSK”. At one time, the company belonged to a certain Evgeny Alexandrovich Tokarev. By the way, a certain Shirokov Mikhail Georgievich was previously Tokarev’s business colleague. Mr. Shirokov is the general director of the funeral MKU “Ritual”, which is subordinate to the city administration.
The Moscow Post has repeatedly covered the activities of the head state budgetary institution “Ritual”, which is known for its not the most beautiful methods of work, and in connection with the adoption of a new law, it can crush the entire funeral services market.
The structure is headed by former FSB officer Artem Ekimov. Taking into account the fact that MKU “Ritual” is also subordinate to the authorities, and the head of “Transneft” Nikolai Tokarev is a former FSB officer, all these companies can be part of one “web”.
Now we are seeing that “Veta” is in no hurry to fulfill the contract. Is it possible that Tokarev was called to the aid of the authorities of Novosibirsk in order to delay the inevitable? And in exchange for some kind of gratitude, he promised to slow down the process of building sanzones as much as possible?
The only question is that during this period of “downtime” Alexandrov and those involved want to crank out in order to save a potential “trough”. In any case, before our eyes, it seems that a dirty game is unfolding for assets of no greater cleanliness, all participants of which, in a good way, should be sent to places not so remote.
