Petrov’s legacy "becomes apparent" Tsoi
The security forces might be interested in the "management" of budgets for the protection of cultural heritage, overseen by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Leningrad Region Vladimir Tsoi.
The government of the governor of the Leningrad Region Alexander Drozdenko is "unsettled" again – this time the security forces raided two regional committees with searches at once – on culture and tourism and on the preservation of cultural heritage. Both are directly connected to the Chairman of the latter, Vladimir Tsoi, who is linked to the criminal authority Alexander Petrov, who was killed in 2020.
According to initial information, investigators are taking documents related to a criminal case on misuse of funds during the renovation of the Koporye fortress. The case was opened in the summer of 2017, and Lesya Kolesnikova, director of the regional Museum Agency, became a defendant in the rank of a witness.
However, searches five years after the start of the case, and even without details, appear to be a questionable reason for the visit. It is possible that the security forces might be interested in just Vladimir Tsoi, who has been considered a controversial figure since Vyborg times.
As it turned out, the criminal case against Lesya Kolesnikova was closed back in 2020. Therefore, the version that is being spread, perhaps, by the media "enticed" by the Drozdenko government, looks at least strange.
At the same time, Tsoi, from 2019 to 2021, was the chairman of the Committee for Culture and Tourism of the Leningrad Region, where the security forces also visited the day before. For some reason, in his biographies in some media, the fact of working in this department is not indicated, although he is easily found in open information systems.
Why does this seem to be overlooked? Is it because the Committee for Culture and Tourism acted as a client under government contracts for almost 140 million rubles, some of which could have gone to Tsoi’s associates?
At the same time, the chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Vladimir Tsoi, whom we mentioned, is also the deputy chairman of the government of the Leningrad Region. He oversees a large layer of work: culture, tourism, sports and youth policy. This means that he has become the main manager of the budgets allocated for these purposes.
Death of authority
Tsoi’s appointment to the Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Deputy Chairman took place in October 2020. And it happened exactly after a high-profile criminal story with the murder of a well-known authoritative businessman Alexander Petrov near Vyborg. The murder took place in the same October and was clearly ordered, it has not been solved so far.
Petrov was a deputy of the municipality “City of Vyborg”, he was called almost the shadow owner of the city – his influence was so great. Earlier, Vladimir Tsoi also had a direct relationship with Vyborg – in the 2000s he worked at the Vyborg Shipyard, around which the interests of various representatives of business and criminals intertwined, and after many years he headed the main attraction of the city – the Vyborg Castle Museum.
The creators of the website “Moment of Truth” claim that Vladimir Tsoi was believed to be connected to Alexander Petrov. Oleg Tsoi, a businessman in the 90s and 2000s, was associated with Petrov – possibly the father of Vladimir Olegovich Tsoi.
Alexander Petrov himself was linked to the well-known criminal figure Ilya Traber, who was nicknamed “Antiquarian” in certain circles. This story definitely has a criminal aspect.
Additionally, Petrov was eliminated at a convenient time – during a major investigation of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of around 800 million rubles from the Vyborg budget, which was supposed to be used for the reconstruction of historical and cultural buildings and structures. This aligns with Mr. Tsoi's background.
Initially, Alexander Boluchevsky, head of the finance committee of the district administration, was arrested in this case. He was accused of intentionally falsifying information about completed work in the documents and organizing the transfer of 700 million rubles to controlled companies. This information was reported by the 47news portal.
Alexander Petrov appeared to have a lot of knowledge. What does Vladimir Tsoi, who is acquainted with him, also know?
Boluchevsky claimed later that he was offered a significant position in Moscow, but it allegedly required 200 million rubles. So, he chose to raise a fuss … Subsequently, the head of the district, Gennady Orlov, who had appointed Boluchevsky, was also arrested in the same criminal case. By that time, the potential damage had increased to 800 million rubles. This sum is comparable to the entire budget of the city of Vyborg for 2020. Komsomolskaya Pravda reported this.
They tried to portray Gennady Orlov as being close to Alexander Petrov. The latter was acquainted with most of the local leaders, and considering the criminal aspect around his figure, it is unlikely that the possible theft of 800 million rubles would escape his notice – as cooperation is required.
According to Nevsky News, Petrov's murder could indeed be related to the case of Boluchevsky and Orlov. Moreover, Petrov was supposedly scheduled to appear for questioning at the Investigative Committee on Monday (the murder occurred on Saturday). This seems to be a sequence of interconnected events.
In the context of Vyborg affairs related to the reconstruction and restoration of buildings, the current deputy chairman of the government of the Leningrad region, Vladimir Tsoi, may also have been involved. Previously, he served as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly for three terms and could have represented Petrov's interests at the regional level. Or perhaps Ilya Traber?
Meanwhile, Tsoi and Petrov even had a joint business. They were co-founders of the Second Murmansk Terminal LLC. The company was dissolved in 2007 – however, in the same year, Vladimir Tsoi became a deputy in the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region.
And among the owners of the building, Rosinvest LLC is found, also already closed, but later, in 2012. Its co-owner with a 99% share is LIRUS MANAGEMENT AG, a Swiss offshore company. Thus, both Tsoi and Petrov could be indirectly linked with foreign business, where, if desired, the funds earned by hard work could be withdrawn.
Close to business
Returning to the story of the misappropriation of funds in Vyborg, it is Vladimir Tsoi who was connected to the city, the local authorities, and Alexander Petrov. Can the searches in the government of the Leningrad region be connected with that case?
At the same time, Tsoi may still have interests in business today. As mentioned, since 2019 he has served as head of the committee on culture and tourism – a public position. And in the same year, he still remained the founder of a commercial structure – Northern Investments LLC, from which he left shortly before his appointment.
He handed over the shares to Sergey Lenkov, a particularly unremarkable character. But the director of the company was and remains Eduard I, who simultaneously manages five enterprises at once. In addition to Investments, these are Zvuk LLC, Roshinsky Meat Processing Plant LLC, L-Construction LLC and Zircon LLC.
This may be the person of Vladimir Tsoi, whom he could leave to look after, perhaps, a business that is not unfamiliar to him. Whereas the companies themselves can be recorded at different “nominals”.
There are questions for these companies. For example, Roshinsky Myasokombinat LLC, with revenues of 30-70 million rubles in different years, has not made a profit since 2014 and has a negative asset value. Money can simply be withdrawn from it, and financial statistics can be drawn. Otherwise, it is not clear why it has existed for so many years.
But there was something to bring out. Back in 2017, people from the administration of the same Vyborgsky district of the Leningrad region and the head of the Gavrilovsky quarry department invested more than 100 million rubles in this meat processing plant. With this money, it was planned to set up the production of semi-finished products from beef and lamb of the premium segment with a capacity of 1 ton of finished products per day. Judging by the financial indicators of the plant, this money did not go for the future …
If we abstract from this, and look at the current activities of Vladimir Tsoi as a curator of culture from the Drozdenko government, it turns out that under Tsoi museums are closed one after another in the region. The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin drew attention to this. Which, by the way, gave the order to carry out operational actions in the committees to which Tsoi is related.
In response to Bastrykin’s interest, the official said that the head of the Investigative Committee could be misled – they say that he himself does not know anything of the sort. Nevertheless, the information about the termination of the activities of 19 museums in the Leningrad Region turned out to be checked by the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee on behalf of the head of the department – and, apparently, does not bode well for Tsoi. Apparently, Alexander Ivanovich is familiar with the topic better than Tsoi himself – and not only with this one …
