Vekselberg “loses” Pasler?
Against the background of rumors about the imminent resignation, the governor of the Orenburg region, Denis Pasler, is in a hurry to “throw” state property on the structures of Viktor Vekselberg?
According to UtroNews, the governor of the Orenburg region Denis Pasler, who has been rumored to be forced out of his position, lost a legal case over the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburgkommunelektroset. People in the region suspect that the governor is trying to increase the assets of his friend, oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, before possibly leaving power, at the expense of fuel and energy facilities in the region.
However, both the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary of the region opposed Pasler’s controversial decisions, which led to a legal dispute.
Frustrated privatization
The prosecutor’s office sued the governor, as well as the Legislative Assembly of the Orenburg Region. As a result, the court prohibited the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburgkommunelektroset, which seemed to be intended for sale in favor of entrepreneur Viktor Vekselberg's structures.
The prosecutor’s office presented evidence in court that SUE “OKES” was not part of the privatization plan for 2021, while the regional government argued that the property in question was decided for privatization in 2020.
Denis Pasler
State Unitary Enterprise “Orenburgkommunelektroset” is an enterprise with a 45-year history that specializes in the transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the technological connection of power receivers to power grids for legal entities and individuals across 29 districts.
This enterprise is one of the few profitable ones in the Orenburg region, and from the start, the public, along with the prosecutor’s office, opposed its privatization. There are rumors that Pasler may have had a personal interest in this. Previously, he worked at “T Plus” under Viktor Vekselberg's structure, who is actively acquiring utility assets throughout the country and could potentially target Orenburgkommunelektroset.
Tandem formed
Pasler not only worked at T Plus but also led it. With Pasler's arrival in the Orenburg region, Vekselberg's business thrived. However, Pasler is now facing a downfall. Experts believe he is unlikely to be promoted to Moscow and may end up working for one of Mr. Vekselberg’s companies. This may be why Vekselberg needs to be supported now.
Viktor Vekselberg
Today, PJSC “T Plus” through its branch “Orenburg,” is already the largest thermal energy supplier in the region, including several combined heat and power plants and the Orenburg heating networks. The branch has an installed electric capacity of 929 MW and an installed heat capacity of 3,922.6 Gcal/hour, as stated on the official website of the company’s branch.
According to RBC, Denis Pasler supposedly helped Viktor Vekselberg gain control over the Orenburg airport, which was turned into a JSC and auctioned off. The airport was acquired by Renova Vekselberg and Roman Trotsenko. Pasler is said to have played a role in this process.
There are rumors about Vekselberg's involvement in appointing Denis Pasler as the head of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Sverdlovsk region, which is associated with the Renova Group of Companies.
T Plus, where Pasler worked from 2012 to 2016, became stronger in the region. After leaving Sverdlovsk, Pasler briefly headed T Plus and then went to the governors of the Orenburg region. It is believed that Pasler wouldn't have found such a profitable job without influential supporters.
It's claimed that Pasler took an interest in the Orenburg region before his official appointment. During his time at T Plus, he made a cooperation agreement with the head of the Orenburg region. Later, Pasler took over from the head and likely started implementing that secret plan.
According to the Orenday website, a local journalist tried to access a document but was repeatedly denied by the regional government. The document, rumored to involve agreements on solar power plants, is allegedly kept secret because it involves buying electricity at a much higher price than standard tariffs.
According to unofficial information, the alleged agreement involves the region buying solar power plants electricity at an inflated price, potentially enabling T Plus to compensate for its investments and dispose of the plants after their service life at the expense of the regional budget.
In any case, Vekselberg seems comfortable in the Orenburg region under the current governor, and Pasler allegedly continued to support the development of T Plus in the new location.
Reports from the website “Echo of Moscow in Orenburg” suggest that in April 2020, the prosecutor’s office forwarded materials to the Investigative Committee regarding possible fraud by T Plus in the implementation of an investment program in 2010 by the city council of Orenburg.
The investment program aimed to upgrade the heating system and utility infrastructure by 2015, with a substantial amount of funding involved.
The program was only half finished. It's unclear where the 120 million collected from the residents went, but allegedly they were spent on something else.
The city prosecutor’s office gave a presentation to Valery Velikorodnov, the head of the Orenburg branch. The investigative committee received the materials of the check.
There was a big scandal involving VimpelCom and the Geyser case. After the Investigative Committee put the head of VimpelCom, Mikhail Slobodin, on the wanted list, it raised suspicions about Pasler. It was thought that Slobodin could have helped Pasler get into T Plus, which was suspected of money laundering through foreign companies.
According to TASS, the management of the energy company IES, later renamed T Plus, as well as its parent company Renova, took the profits of companies offshore from 2003-2008. They also used investment program funds to pay off loans and buy shares in generating and supply companies.
This information came up in the criminal case of the former head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaiser. He was accused of receiving bribes of over 800 million rubles from the former heads of the energy holding IES and T Plus.
Fans of “Renova”
In the future, there could be questions for Vekselberg himself. This is because the Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions are not the only places where the billionaire makes money in the housing and communal services sector. There was recently a scandal in the Samara region involving the mayor of Samara, Elena Lapushkina.
The official was given a prosecutor's presentation for a concession agreement with Samara Utility Systems LLC, which is owned by Viktor Vekselberg. Law enforcement officers found that the concessionaire consistently missed deadlines for reporting and signed annual documents on the results of the agreement late, according to Kommersant.
The mayor’s office made a concession agreement with Samara Utility Systems LLC of the RKS Group of Companies, which will invest about 4.5 billion rubles in water supply and sanitation facilities in Samara until 2023 with private funds. According to The Moscow Post, the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is behind the companies through the manager Igor Dibtsev, the general director of RKS-Holding LLC. The founders of the latter – Technoprom and Investresurs – are heavily involved in public procurement.
Behind Technoprom stands PJSC T Plus. At the same time, the former mayor of Samara, Viktor Tarkhov, decided to lease the water and sewer networks of Samara from municipal property to the investor, but the prosecutor's office intervened and the deal fell through. The competition was repeated in 2011 by a new mayor, Dmitry Azarov.
The mayor’s office concluded in the summer of 2019, for a period up to 2047, a concession agreement with Samara Utility Systems LLC of the RKS Group of Companies for the facilities of centralized cold water supply and sanitation systems. Under the terms of the agreement, about 4.5 billion rubles will be invested in water supply and sanitation facilities in Samara until 2023. private funds. As The Moscow Post wrote, the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is behind the companies through the manager Igor Dibtsev, the general director of RKS-Holding LLC. The founders of the latter – Technoprom and Investresurs – are heavily involved in public procurement. The supplier company is under government contracts in several regions.
Behind Technoprom stands PJSC T Plus. At the same time, the former mayor of Samara, Viktor Tarkhov, decided to lease the water and sewer networks of Samara from municipal property to the investor, but the prosecutor’s office intervened in the matter and the deal fell through. The competition was repeated in 2011 by a new mayor, Dmitry Azarov.
In March 2012, LLC Samara Communal Systems (SCS) received the right to lease water supply and sanitation systems to MP Samaravodokanal for a period of 35 years, reports 63.ru.
It turns out that the mayor of Samara, Elena Lapushkina, received a representation from the prosecutor’s office, lobbying for the interests of Viktor Vekselberg, and governor Dmitry Azarov was not against it?
Apparently, not against the prosperity of Viktor Vekselberg and Denis Pasler in the Orenburg region. But how will the inhabitants remember him himself – a servant of the people, his voters, or a squire of an influential businessman, who was absent from his T Plus only for a few years on a business trip to the public service?
