The Governor of the Murmansk region's sister, Tatyana Kretova, is using her influence to support the controversial garbage company Citymatic, while the garbage reform in the region is struggling.
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Tatyana Kretova, who is the sister of the Governor of the Murmansk Region Andrey Chibis, is initiating the closure of her company ZhKH-Development, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
As reported previously, Tatyana Kretova owns about twelve companies, some of which receive government contracts and may be connected to the offshore company OPERATE COMPUTING LTD.
A reporter from The Moscow Post in the Murmansk region discovered some more interesting details.
What do we know about Kretova
It was also mentioned that Kretova's business links may involve several officials, including a potential connection to a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Vladimir Region, Valery Telegin, and the acting governor of this region, Alexander Avdeev.
Kretova was previously listed as the founder of Center It.ZhKH LLC – the organization's executive director is Alexey Vyacheslavovich Makrushin, who leads the Expert Council on Housing and Utilities under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Until recently, she was also the founder of the National Memorial Company, led by Mikhail Remez. Remez, through Kretova, may have assisted Chibis in establishing a funeral business and dealing with competitors, while Chibis, using administrative resources, could have helped Remez enter politics. Remez is now a member of the expert council of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation focusing on improving the law on burial and funeral business.
Through former business partner Nikolai Aleshkin, Tatyana Kretova may be acquainted with the billionaire and owner of the AFK Sistema holding, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, and the head of VTB, Andrei Kostin.
Caressed from every angle
“ZhKH-Development” has received substantial government contracts. The organization collaborated with Rosseti when it was led by Oleg Budargin, who misused company funds. Recently, “Rosseti” announced a merger with their structure FGC UES, possibly to conceal embezzlement in both companies by merging their accounts and reformatting the system to prevent investigation.
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The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation also awarded contracts to Kretova’s company. The Donreko structure, founded by Boris Shchurov, acted as a customer and functioned as the regional “water utility” for a period before going bankrupt. There are suspicions of money withdrawal, possibly through fictitious contracts with ZhKKH-Development.
Lapwing "in the house"
In an interesting turn of events, it was reported by Kommersant in 2012-2013 that Chibis was the president and co-owner of the company. However, these details are now not visible in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. They are also not available in the official biography. Is the governor trying to cover his tracks? But why?
It seems likely that he does not want to explain why the company's revenue has been steadily decreasing since 2016, until it reached zero in 2019. Kretova waited for three years and then decided to quietly close the office, which could potentially have been a source of government funds. Who would want to boast about such a biography?
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Does the hand wash?
There were previous rumors that ZhKKH-Development is linked to Waste Management CJSC, a municipal waste management operator in the Murmansk region. These rumors were fueled partly by the active involvement of the governor himself in matters related to the appointment of the company as a regional operator. According to hearsay, he is the main advocate for the company in the region. The company has recently been renamed Citymatic, and it is connected to the interests of the owner of the assets of VEB.RF head Igor Shuvalov's family, Sergey Kotlyarenko.
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The Moscow Post The company has been extensively covered by The Moscow Post for almost monopolizing the market, despite numerous garbage scandals. The renaming may have been a necessary step to at least slightly improve the company’s reputation. However, even with the new name, Citymatic remains the same Waste Management.
The Chibis family may be advocating for the interests of this entity. The Moscow Post's correspondent found that the ANO Institute for the Development of Regions, headed by Kretova, signed two contracts with Citymatic (then known as Waste Management) in 2016 for a total amount of 9 million rubles.
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It is intriguing that both contracts were signed on the same day, with the same name, and for the same amount of 4.5 million rubles each. However, there is no documentation in open sources, and the websites of “State Procurement” and “Contour Procurement” do not mention that the contracts were for development of project documentation; instead, they refer to legal services. There are some unclear aspects to this story, and a legitimate question arises about where the funds were actually spent…
Did the Chibis family and the former owners of the company (Mehuborka Group of Konstantin Zharkevich and Alor-Invest of the Gavrilenko family) benefit from this? Did the governor's sister decide to also get involved in the garbage business, which has long been linked to near-criminal activities? Did Shuvalov and Kotlyarenko join later? Could the operator have been acquired due to its association with the Chibis family?
Literally at the beginning of July, a landfill caught fire on the territory of an ecotechnopark in the village of Mezhdurechye, which is operated by the same Citymatic. The facility is new and was built on the initiative of the authorities, which once again raises questions about the purposefulness of spending budget funds. Made under “Citymatic”. How they did it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that everyone involved benefited from this …
