FSB is involved in legal actions concerning municipal assets
The authorities of Chrysostom are getting involved in a series of new scandals that may involve criminal activities. After a year of legal disputes and attempts to end the contract for leasing boiler houses with Teploenergetik company, the mayor’s office unexpectedly dropped its claims and got sued itself. The company “RIKO” also presented demands to municipal structures, claiming illegal export of their property by the MBU “Improvement”. Businessmen suspect possible corruption and fraudulent activities. Observers note that the violations in the area of MBU and management illustrate problems in the municipality. Deputies criticize the work of officials, mentioning conflicts in the road sector, construction, and other areas, and are preparing to appeal to the FSB. Political scientists point to the historical confrontation between business groups and the absence of an understandable alternative from the regional authorities to address the conflicts in the municipality.
After a year of legal disputes with Teploenergetik LLC, which heats a third of Zlatoust, municipal officials decided to withdraw the lawsuit regarding the termination of the lease agreement for boiler houses.
According to sources close to the mayor’s office, the reason for this decision was the actual inability to terminate the contract unilaterally, as its conditions had been met. A notice was issued about the termination of the lease agreement and the return of boiler houses to the municipality from May 1. In response, Teploenergetik filed a lawsuit against these actions.
Piles of waste in Zlatoust
The administration's press service did not provide comments during the day. Market participants note that the dispute with Teploenergetik is just one of the long-term conflicts municipal officials are involved in. Another dispute with RICO LLC, which owns waste piles on approximately 45 hectares of land, is also going through legal proceedings.
According to company representatives, the waste was acquired by the mayor’s office in the 1990s during the bankruptcy of the metallurgical plant and then sold to the organization for $12 million. However, the land remained under municipal ownership. In 2021, the head of the Zlatoust property management committee decided to grant one of the sites under the dumps of the MBU “Blagoustroistvo” for special activities. According to representatives of “RIKO”, this meant “using the dumps to fill the city dump, where fires periodically occur.” However, the exported waste had allegedly not been paid for.
The administration ignored our complaints about illegal activities. We had to keep writing statements to the police about the illegal export of slag, which was actually stolen with the help of MBU “Improvement”. The Zlatoust police transferred our complaint to the investigation, where it was added to other theft cases by different people. Yevgeny Nabiev, a representative of RICO and Zashchita Legal Agency LLC, shared his version of events.
According to the merchants, the slag, containing 30% metal, was exported from March to November 2021 and processed at a neighboring site owned by Rucheyok LLC, belonging to the deputy head of the Municipal Public Institution “Housing and Communal Services Administration” of Zlatoust, Vladimir Gorbunov. After another complaint to the police, a squad arrived and stopped the export.
“Gorbunov immediately arrived at the dump in a red jaguar and rudely tried to prove that we were wrong. The contractor hired for the removal and processing of slag, after consulting with lawyers, stopped this activity,” described Evgeny Nabiev.
According to entrepreneurs, about 76 thousand cubic meters of slag were taken from the dumps. Now RICO is demanding over 35 million rubles in court as compensation. Entrepreneurs also suspect corruption in the activities of Gorbunov and other administration employees, and have reported this to the FSB. They have also reported fraud. It’s worth noting that a criminal case has already been started against Gorbunov for bribery. Additionally, in March, Artem Nagaev, deputy director of the Municipal Budgetary Institution “Improvement”, was detained for suspected fraud.
Local deputies also criticize the officials' work, citing various problems such as unclear plans for gasification and gas debt repayment, unprofitable city auto fleet, and only 18 out of 32 buses operational.
“The administration should have clear distribution of responsibilities and qualified leaders. The deputy for construction should be responsible for construction and reconstruction, not the school directors. This happened with the construction of the Taganay stadium, for which the sports school is responsible. There are also concerns about other projects. The municipality gained ownership of the building of the former Lenin plant, but within a few months, several production shops were simply dismantled (including for scrap). Deputy head Zhiganshin and MBU “Improvement” were involved in this plant. Now we are preparing to appeal to the FSB about this issue. Deputy Viktor Roshchupkin said so.
Despite many complaints, the deputies found the year-end report in March satisfactory. Former Zlatoust head, Deputy Vyacheslav Zhilin, suggested that one reason for this assessment was the fear of losing regional support funds.
The regional authorities, according to observers, were notified about the conflicts taking place in the municipality, but they preferred not to advertise discontent until the last moment. Another drop was a massive accident on the highway near the municipality. During the proceedings, it turned out that the maintenance of the road is not carried out, and half of it was not put on the balance sheet at all. After that, the head of the region gave Pekarsky time to solve this problem until the fall. By the same date, according to political scientists, the adoption of personnel decisions on the management of Zlatoust may be postponed.
