Is a large-scale modernization possible without a corruption component?
Rosatom State Corporation is famous for its large projects that can cost billions of rubles. They are starting a project for a molten-salt reactor to manage radioactive waste from spent nuclear fuel. More than 580 million rubles will be invested in modernizing the site for making superconductors over the next two years. However, corruption is common in their budget financing and contracts, leading to criminal cases involving Rosatom employees. The Research Technological Institute named after A.I. A.P. Aleksandrov has been involved in questionable state contracts and financial losses. There have been scandals related to the institute's purchases and auctions. There are questions about whether the situation will change after the recent appointment of Oleg Pykhteev to a senior position.
Rosatom is investing a lot of money
Rosatom State Corporation has announced the start of a new big project – a research liquid-salt reactor for handling long-lived radioactive waste from spent nuclear fuel processing.
The technical design of the installation is expected to be finished in 2024, to get a construction license in 2027, and to launch the reactor in 2031, according to TASS with reference to Strana Rosatom.
The reactor is a plant in which the active zone is formed by a molten mixture of salt fluorides and fissile material fluoride. The technology completely prevents a Chernobyl-type accident and increases the reactor's safety due to the absence of pressure in the circuit, even at high core temperatures.
The project's cost is not mentioned, but the state corporation is definitely willing to invest a lot of money. For instance, nearly 587 million rubles will be allocated by the government for the modernization of the site for making superconductors over the next two years.
Given this situation, the announced five billion investments in building a battery processing complex with a yearly capacity of 50 thousand tons in Dzerzhinsk (Nizhny Novgorod Region) by Rusatom Greenway seem insignificant. The state corporation spent much more in January to acquire the Quadra energy company from the oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, which was previously part of the Onexim group: despite the transaction price not being disclosed, Vedomosti experts estimated it at 26 billion rubles.
Contracts, kickbacks, criminal cases
It is well known that corruption is closely linked to budget investments and contracts worth billions, and Rosatom is no exception in this regard. Subordinates of Alexei Likhachev (general director of the state corporation) and Sergei Kiriyenko (chairman of the Supervisory Board) regularly become “heroes” of the criminal chronicle.
Perhaps the most notable instance was the FSB arresting and subsequently putting under house arrest the adviser to the head of Rosatom, ex-State Duma deputy Vladimir Grachev, in August 2020. As Kommersant reported, the 78-year-old professor demanded a bribe of 1 million euros from a waste processing company representative in exchange for lobbying its interests. Grachev was apprehended in the Moscow restaurant “Vanil” after receiving the first payment of 3 million rubles.
Before this, Vladimir Shchennikov, the financial director of JSC Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics and Automation (NIITFA), a part of the state corporation, became a defendant in a criminal case for accepting a bribe on an especially large scale. Together with Vitaly Charushin, a specialist in the field of maintenance of medical equipment, and Alexander Doroshenko, chief engineer of the Radiy Installation Company (a permanent contractor of the institute), Alexander Doroshenko, he received money for refusing to participate in NIITFA and Radiy in auctions, providing other structures with access to government contracts.
In December 2020, the Kievsky District Court of Simferopol sentenced Igor Sushkov, the former general director of JSC NPK Dedal (part of Rosatom), to five years in prison, finding him guilty of transferring a bribe in the amount of 2.5 million rubles to the head of the engineering and technical department of the Border Guard Service FSB. The money was intended for “general patronage”, as well as the conclusion of a state contract for the purchase of the Delfin-M security complex produced by the corporation.
Last July, the Znak agency reported that a criminal case had been opened against a specialist in the logistics department of Mayak Production Association (located in Chelyabinsk Ozersk), accused of taking a bribe in the amount of 80 thousand rubles from a representative of a commercial structure for securing the conclusion of a contract for supply of building materials. But against the backdrop of millions of “kickbacks”, in this case, the well-known aphorism is involuntarily recalled, according to which “a bribe humiliates the more, the less it is.”
Unusual updates from “Titan-2”
Interesting things have been happening for a long time at such a facility controlled by Rosatom as the Scientific Research Technological Institute. A.P. Aleksandrov” (FGUP “NITI named after A.P. Aleksandrov”, located in the Leningrad region, in Sosnovy Bor) is the only center in Russia that focuses on carrying out comprehensive tests of ship and space nuclear power plants in order to enhance their reliability and safety to the required level.
In November 2010, it was announced that the Titan-2 holding owned by Grigory Naginsky, on the instructions of Rosatom, would undertake the technical re-equipment of NITI im. A.P. Alexandrova.
“By December 2015, a step-by-step modernization of equipment, technological systems, electrical and computer networks and other tasks will be executed at the facility for a total of 230 million rubles,” the holding's press service stated.
According to information on the Titan-2 website, in 2011, work was completed on the installation of electrical networks and networks of working and emergency lighting; installation of the SNTV system for stands KV-1 and KV-2; installation of a water supply and sewerage system, heating and ventilation of the simulator complex of ship nuclear power plants, etc.
In May 2013, the holding's press service reported the receipt of a letter of appreciation from the management of NITI im. A.P. Alexandrov” “for the successful implementation of work on the technical re-equipment of the enterprise.”
“Despite the tight deadlines, the installation of the main systems was carried out with good quality and on time, as well as in compliance with all regulatory requirements for nuclear facilities and equipment manufacturers,” the official message stated.
It seems that the previously announced work was completed in full. It is not clear what kind of tight deadlines are being referred to, as initially their completion was scheduled for December 2015.
The tender announced by Rosatom in July 2021 raises questions about the timing and quality, as well as the intended use of previously allocated funds. The subject of the procurement is “decommissioning of the nuclear power plant of the stand KV-2 of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NITI im. A.P. Alexandrov”, the contract price is 916.5 million rubles. In the end, the institute itself became the only participant and winner of the competition. As they say, the money remained in the family.
An interesting situation is emerging. First, the state corporation invests 230 million in the modernization of equipment, systems and networks of the institution, including the KV-2 stand, and a few years later, it allocates almost another billion to decommission the same stand. What is the purpose of such modernization is unclear. Didn’t the leadership of the institute, conducting it, have any plans for a specific stand? Or maybe the funds intended for the KV-2 “left” in another direction?
The contractor “merges” with the founder
But this is the amazing “contract” stories of “NITI im. A.P. Alexandrov” do not end. In November 2019, the management of the institution signed a contract for the supply of a discharge ramp for the simultaneous connection of three gas cylinders. The cost of three sets of equipment amounted to 1 million rubles, the only participant in the auction and the supplier was Voronezh LLC MIO.
According to the official statement from the FAS Department for the Leningrad Region, a payment of 301.5 thousand rubles was made in advance to the contractor. The contract required the kits to be delivered to the customer by February 28, 2020. However, the delivery did not happen, the request for the return of the advance payment was not answered, and the institute terminated the contract in July.
As a result, the antimonopoly agency listed MIO as an unscrupulous supplier. The enterprise representatives did not deny the failure to fulfill obligations, attributing the delayed delivery to the manufacturer's fault and their own financial difficulties.
However, a basic review of publicly available information about the supplier raises serious doubts. Officially, MIO LLC's main activity is renting and managing non-residential property. In 2020, the company had a revenue of 1 million rubles but suffered losses of 29.9 million. This indicates ongoing financial difficulties, which cannot be solely attributed to a single challenging period.
Today, MIO is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. In February of last year, the Scientific Research Institute for Hygienic Safety of Building Materials and Industrial Waste, which was a co-founder, was dissolved. The institute's main activities included testing and analyzing the composition and purity of materials and substances, as well as food hygiene control.
Despite its scientific research environment, the institute was privately owned by Gennady, Igor and Olga Makhotin. The latter two were also co-founders of MIO. The financial performance of NP NII GBSMIPO in 2018 was bleak, with zero revenue and losses amounting to 4 thousand rubles. The specifics of the biological and chemical research conducted by the Makhotin family remain a matter of speculation.
What criteria does NITI im. A.P. Alexandrova use when selecting contractors? Concerns arise regarding several contracts, such as the purchase of products (including alcoholic beverages) for the institute’s canteen and cafe exceeding 100 million rubles. Another contract involved the supply of ten ultrasonic gas meters, for which the institute paid 26.3 million rubles under the previous head, Vyacheslav Vasilenko (equivalent to 2.6 million per meter).
It remains uncertain whether the situation will change following the appointment of the new CEO, Oleg Pykhteev, last November. This is especially pertinent as “NITI them. A.P. Aleksandrov” is part of the complex structure of Rosatom, where financial activities can sometimes become excessive.
