Court with ikea diesel generators. The contract is more expensive than money, or why I'm waiting for an apology from IKEA

How much does a diesel generator cost to rent if it is not working? Businessman Konstantin Ponomarev knows the answer for sure, of course - it is confirmed by numerous court decisions. And all - in favor of Mr. Ponomarev! But if you dig, a "beautiful" scheme will come up.

Diesel generators are provided for rent to large businesses, preferably Western ones. At some point, big business realizes that the generators are too expensive or often fail, and terminates the contract, of which it notifies the person who provided these generators. Now the main task of the landlord is not to take out the generators, let them, they say, stand with the tenant. They don’t work, they don’t ask for food, then, they say, I’ll take it away. And after a while, you have to go to court and demand payment for the rental of generators that are in the hands of large businesses. And it doesn't matter that the generators were just standing there, but they were standing by big business. In this cunning scheme, it is necessary to observe two principles: first, choose a company with Western participation, rather large, preferably with foreign management, poorly representing Russian realities, and second, to confuse the matter as much as possible - assign rights, file several lawsuits in parallel and so on. There is also a third option. The companies of Konstantin Ponomarev used it - in addition to the first two - against CJSC "Toros", which had the bad luck (more precisely, even misfortune) to rent diesel engines from Ponomarev for its large logistics park "Pushkino" in the Moscow region. The generators provided by Pushkino in 2009 were constantly breaking down and did not meet the declared parameters. [...]

["MK", ​​15.08.2013, "Sleight of ships and no deception": [...] Toros CJSC rented a total of 13 diesel power generators (DES) from SAE LLC in 2009 [...]. As established by the Decree of the Tenth Arbitration Court dated April 27, 2012, “after the Lessee began to operate the diesel power plants transferred to him, it turned out that this equipment was not capable of providing uninterrupted power supply to the Lessee’s facilities, and therefore there were repeated power outages. These facts are confirmed by acts of emergency shutdowns of diesel power plants No. 1-10, signed by the parties.” In this regard, the Lessee - CJSC "Toros" - demanded from the Lessor (Ponomarev) to provide backup DPPs in order to fulfill the terms of the electricity supply agreement. SAE LLC provided as many as 24 backup generators. It follows from the decision of the same court that “after the transfer to the plaintiff (logistics park) of additional diesel power plants, the lessor did not raise the issue of making additional rental payments up to filing a lawsuit with the court.” - Inset K.ru]

The court tried to establish the amount for renting the generators (by the way, after Toros notified Ponomarev of the termination of the contract) ... through expert examinations! But the fact is that there was no contract for these devices, which means there was no cost. "Toros" rightly concluded that it was a replacement for those that had broken down, the correspondence between the companies also spoke about this, but the court unexpectedly took the side of Ponomarev. At the same time, four different expert offices gave different opinions on the cost of rent for 2009-2010: from 411 million rubles to 1 billion 97 million rubles.

How can you win in court under such circumstances? For many specialists who are privy to the practice of Russian justice, the question is rhetorical.

Moreover, within the framework of one process, Ponomarev consistently opens and closes companies. Autonomous Power Supply Systems LLC was merged with AMD-Group LLC, which later assigned the rights to Rukon LLC - there is one owner everywhere, he is also the author of "generator know-how".

As a result, billion dollar lawsuits are filed and won by dummies with a capital of 10,000 rubles. Ponomarev himself goes to all the courts - he has a lot of time and money, and this is a gambling business: to throw a "foreign sucker" for a billion.

For reference. "Pushkino" is a logistics park in the Moscow region with an area of ​​213 thousand square meters. meters, a powerful investment project. The park opened in 2007 and is owned by ZAO Toros. Toros is owned by the British company Raven Russia, which specializes in the construction and management of logistics complexes in Russia.

The scheme, which looks like a scam, is complex, but also remarkable. Konstantin Ponomarev not only aims at large Western companies, but also uses Western labor resources. Laina Minna-Mare, a citizen of Finland, was the general director (and in some places the founder) of almost all Ponomarev's shell companies, right up to Rukon. True, the Finn ran away from her employer this year, but this did not greatly upset Kontantin Ponomarev - he himself is both the founder and the general director of his companies, those that did not close, of course. Apparently, the director with a passport of a citizen of Finland reassured the Western top management, especially the northern neighbors. Before "Toros" Ponomarev "threw" in 2010 furniture giant IKEA- "successfully" leased diesel generators to Ikeevskaya "Mega", and then did not take them away and demanded rent and fines. A similar fraudulent scheme is now being implemented with ZAO Toros. It is important to note that in 2010, Ponomarev pushed through a settlement agreement with IKEA, that is, no court decision was made on the "diesel scam", but what they managed to do against the Swedes is now stalling with ZAO Toros, owned by the British .

"Toros" has managed to recapture claims for one billion rubles so far - the Supreme Arbitration Court has canceled the decisions of all instances, according to which "Toros" would have to pay more than 800 million rubles (although the next instance cut the payment in half, but still these are disproportionate inflated figures ), and returned the case to the first instance. Hearings will resume next week. CJSC "Toros" is not ready to pay tens of millions of dollars for electricity, which did not exist.

In this, alas, classic business story, it is hardly possible to draw any unusual conclusions. A country in which fraudsters manage to extract billions of rubles from companies for unfulfilled work or unfulfilled obligations is difficult to count on the influx of foreign investment. Meanwhile, it is just as difficult to count on economic growth without them. By treating foreign partners so disrespectfully, ruining companies that employ thousands of people, the Russian entrepreneur casts a shadow over the entire domestic business.

In this context, the very figure of Ponomarev, that same Russian entrepreneur, is curious. A graduate of Plekhanovka, Konstantin Ponomarev gained corporate experience in the 1990s when he co-founded and CEO of Firestone Duncan, a law firm. Wherein Jamison Firestone, the founder of the company, gave 51% to the Russian partner - already at the beginning of his career, Konstantin Ponomarev knew how to communicate and negotiate with foreigners, and they later became his main goal. How the young lawyer managed to convince the American to give him a controlling stake is not known, but in 1997 a scandal erupted - Firestone started a company against his partner Konstantin Ponomarev, accusing him of embezzling $ 1 million, an impressive amount at that time. The case did not go to court (remember, it was 1997), so the CEO was not formally charged with the theft. The company was liquidated, but Konstantin Ponomarev did not remain in debt - he answered his former partner with a volley in the media: materials appeared in the press about Jamison Firestone's homosexual orientation. One of the major clients of Firestone Duncan in the mid-90s was the Hermitage fund. William Browder. It is noteworthy that after more than ten years, it was Konstantin Ponomarev who acted as the main witness for the prosecution against Sergei Magnitsky, who by that time had died in jail. Apparently, Ponomarev's hatred for his former partner and everything connected with him has not cooled down even after a decade. Jamison Firestone left Russia in 2010, fearing for his freedom and life. And the "Magnitsky case" has been promoted to the international level. The legal upheavals around Magnitsky and Browder did not prevent Ponomarev from implementing several successful schemes, no less entertaining than Hermitage foundation tax avoidance scheme, which in the 90s was developed by Ponomarev (judging by the documented testimony in the Magnitsky trial). From legal and tax consulting, Konstantin Ponomarev switched to renting diesel generators. And IKEA immediately became the main client of the new player in the rental electricity market.

Konstantin Ponomarev crept up to IKEA, having ingratiated himself with another American - William Pigman, who invited a lawyer to his company. Pigman began doing business with Russia back in 1969, becoming a spokesman for Caterpillar, a supplier of cranes, excavators and other "heavy machines". One of his major clients in the 2000s was IKEA, which was actively building Mega shopping centers in Russia. Pigman brought Ponomarev to the Swedish company. Konstantin Ponomarev not only pushed his senior American friend away from the promising business with IKEA, but also found a common language with the top management of the Swedish company in Russia. Electricity has been a thin spot in IKEA's business since opening its first store in 2000 - the company preferred to run its huge malls on rented generators rather than depend on power connections controlled by greedy officials. Ponomarev turned out to be even more greedy, skillfully dragging IKEA into a lawsuit over his generators. The scheme, which is now being fully implemented again in court with CJSC Toros, has brought Ponomarev billions of rubles. Of course, billions are not given just like that: the atmosphere around Konstantin Ponomarev and his defendants is tense - threats are poured against the managers of the defendant companies, lawyers, including foreigners, and even relevant criminal cases are initiated against "unidentified persons". But these are all mere coincidences, of course.

Who would have thought in 1997 that the exiled director of a law firm would turn into the largest lessor of diesel generators and diesel tanks. And even more so, no one could even imagine that these generators (judging by the materials of the ships with the Toros, often faulty) would bring Konstantin Ponomarev more money than Jamison Firestone's fifteen years of business in Russia, all the scams of William Browder and the Hermitage fund combined . If you think that fraud can only be with securities and bank loans, then this is not so: the experience of Konstantin Ponomarev's companies shows new horizons for the creators of dubious schemes.

The seemingly exhausted conflict between businessman Konstantin Ponomarev and the IKEA concern received an unexpected continuation. The former general manager of the Swedish company in St. Petersburg, Juakim Virtanen, made a confession. He stated that he had previously given false testimony in cases that were related to Konstantin Ponomarev. Thus, a new stage of litigation between the businessman Ponomarev and the Swedish concern is likely.

Enterprising businessman

Recall that two years ago, a panel of judges of the Supreme

The arbitration court of the Russian Federation in the conflict between the IKEI concern and the Russian company Rukon LLC, owned by Konstantin Ponomarev, made a final decision in favor of the Swedish investors. Moreover, then the experts said that the victory of IKEA is the most important precedent for the effective protection of foreign investment in the Russian Federation.

The point is that the entrepreneur Konstantin Ponomarev tried to sue a Swedish company for almost one billion dollars.

The story was as follows. Konstantin Ponomarev concluded an agreement with the Swedish concern for the supply of diesel generators. The agreement provided for payment for rent based on the unit capacity of diesel power plants, and not on the amount of energy consumed.

As a result, such an agreement turned out to be unprofitable for the concern, and in 2008 IKEA did not renew the lease agreements with Ponomarev's company. The generators that had become unnecessary had to be taken out. Konstantin Ponomarev did not do this, but decided to challenge the termination of the contract. The enterprising businessman won the first round, the concern was forced to pay Ponomarev 25 billion rubles. But that turned out to be just the beginning.

Situation of impunity

Ponomarev's firm assigned the rights of claim to Rukon LLC. This company, in turn, sued IKEA for another 33 billion rubles, just for those generators that Konstantin Ponomarev never took out.

Representatives of IKEA several times appealed to law enforcement agencies with a demand to initiate a criminal case on the fact of fraud, but for some reason this did not happen. According to the lawyers of the Swedish company, Mr. Ponomarev, finding himself in a so-called situation of impunity, launched a new attack. The Supreme Arbitration Court issued a final decision on this case - Konstantin Ponomarev, of course, did not receive any money at that time.

Comfortable Repentance

And suddenly the general manager of IKEA Juakim Virtanen is guilty. Mr. Virtanen said that he testified in several arbitration cases in 2011-2014 under threat from the leadership of the Russian division of the concern.

Juakim Virtanen assured that "the texts of the testimony were prepared by IKEA lawyers in advance," and he knew that they were false, but he was afraid of threats from the management. There were also financial incentives. According to Juakim Virtanen, he was rewarded for giving false testimony.

This unexpected and belated repentance raises many questions. According to a lawyer representing IKEA Viktor Stepanov, Yuakim Virtanen's statement was made at a convenient moment for Konstantin Ponomarev. The meticulous businessman just presented the next requirements to the "daughter" of the Swedish concern.

According to Viktor Stepanov, the situation is developing favorably for the repentant Yuakim Virtanen himself. The fact is that on June 2 amendments to Part 1 of Art. 75 of the Criminal Code. They provide for the release from criminal liability of persons who have committed a crime of small or medium gravity for the first time, in the event of a voluntary surrender. And therefore, there will be nothing for the former Swedish top manager for his recognition.

“IKEA has repeatedly applied to law enforcement agencies with a request to check for signs of fraud schemes, according to which Konstantin Ponomarev is trying to collect non-existent debts from the concern,” the lawyer recalled.

In turn, Konstantin Ponomarev said that there are still employees who are ready to confirm the testimony given by Mr. Juakim Virtanen. Ponomarev does not hide the fact that after the confession of Mr. Virtanen, he will have the opportunity to demand a review of the lost cases.

Worthy patrons?

As an individual, he had to pay 3.3 billion rubles, and his company had to pay 4.7 billion rubles. In total, the state missed taxes by 8 billion rubles.

And on April 27 last year, the Investigative Committee opened two criminal cases against Konstantin Ponomarev himself. He was threatened with three to five years in prison, but two weeks later the Moscow prosecutor's office unexpectedly promptly closed them.

What happened, one can only guess.

Adds another interesting fact to the image of Ponomarev. Konstantin Ponomarev and his brother Vitaly may be in league with Islamic extremists. In any case, Vitaly Ponomarev makes statements that contradict the official Russian position.

And yet, why is Mr. Ponomarev allowed so much?

The media make, apparently, not unfounded assumptions that Konstantin Ponomarev has patrons in the tax authorities, and in the judiciary, and even in law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, it is very difficult to explain his so confident behavior. So there can hardly be any doubt that businessman Konstantin Ponomarev will soon begin a new stage of litigation against the Swedish concern.

2017-02-10 13:18:57

The decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District cancels the verdict of the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal, which in 2016 considered the dispute between Rukon Limited Liability Company (a company owned by Konstantin Ponomarev) and the Swedish corporation IKEA. This instance allowed the businessman to file a lawsuit against IKEA again, believing that the new testimony of the former top manager of the network, J. Virtanen, radically changes the situation.

Litigation between the Swedish company and businessman K. Ponomarev has been going on for about 10 years. The Russian division of the Swedish corporation IKEA in 2006 entered into a lease agreement with Ponomarev's company. A DIY retail chain needed diesel power plants to supply electricity to retail outlets in St. Petersburg. The conflict arose a few years later, when Lenenergo did not issue a permit to connect hypermarkets to power generators. The businessman went to court with a lawsuit in which he demanded a lease for DES. As a result, the parties settled the issue amicably, concluding a pre-trial agreement in 2010, which stipulated that the entrepreneur receives 25 billion rubles and waives any claims against the Swedish corporation.

Three years later, Konstantin Ponomarev again files a lawsuit, demanding that IKEA buy out the generators. Another firm, Rukon, acted as the applicant, to which the rights of claim to the Swedish network were assigned. Ponomarev demanded about 650 million rubles for DES, despite the fact that in the pre-trial agreement he undertook not to sue IKEA. Three judicial instances did not satisfy the claim, referring to the terms of the pre-trial agreement between the parties. However, the story did not end there - last year the investigative committee received a letter from the former top manager of the network, J. Virtanen, in which he confessed to giving false evidence against Ponomarev. In a confession, Virtanen wrote that, under pressure from the lawyers of the network, he perjured himself in court. Using this fact, "Rukon" seeks to cancel the verdict of the arbitration of the Moscow region, issued three years ago. The attempt failed - the first court upheld the decision of the arbitration, motivating its conclusions by the fact that Virtanen's confessions are new evidence. A revision of the judgment is possible only under newly discovered circumstances.

Ponomarev decided to appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal. The Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the claims of the plaintiff and ruled that the entrepreneur can again demand that IKEA comply with the terms of the lease.

Swedish lawyers challenged the verdict. S. Shevchenko, an IKEA lawyer, said that the decision of the Court of Appeal is illegal, since Rukon operates on undiscovered circumstances, but refers to new evidence. According to the lawyer, it is necessary to cancel the decision of the appeal and leave the act of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region in force. P. Kazarez, representing Ponomarev (Rukon), insisted that Virtanen's testimony completely changes the case.

This dispute was considered by a judicial "troika" (chaired by S. Krekotnev). The court was interested in the reason why the ex-manager of IKEA decided to turn himself in. The representative of Rukon explained that Virtanen wanted to make public the fact of pressure on him by the lawyers of the Swedish corporation during the first trial. The cornerstone of the meeting was the decision of the Krasninsky court (on the recovery of 507 million rubles from IKEA), on which the arguments of the Court of Appeal were based. As it turned out, this decision was considered and canceled by the Supreme Court of Russia. As a result, Rukon's arguments did not become convincing evidence for the court, and the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court was upheld. This fact indicates that the surrender and new testimony of J. Virtanen will not affect the course of the trial between Ponomarev and IKEA.

The adventures of the famous Swedish company IKEA in Russia are worthy of Gogol's pen. A company with an unfulfillable promise and a heavy burden conduct business in Russia without resorting to bribes, I discovered an amazing pattern in my experience: in the Russian Federation you can either become a corrupt official imperceptibly for yourself, or still quietly become a hostage to the schemes of other corrupt officials, and there is no third way. Moreover, the taking of money from the St. Petersburg company is not some petty crook, but a key witness for the prosecution in one of the most high-profile trials in the country and, undoubtedly, the most resonant of Russian criminal cases in the world. And he requires not some trifle, but an amount greater than the entire annual revenue of the concern in our country.

Novaya Gazeta tells the following about the history of IKEA misadventures in Russia. In 2006, when IKEA was about to launch its St. Petersburg Mega-Parnas and Mega-Dybenko complexes, difficulties arose with their connection to Lenenergo. To power the complexes, we signed an agreement for the rental of portable diesel generators with ISM LLC. At the same time, as follows from the materials of the now closed criminal case, some unidentified persons from the management of this LLC initially had the intent to fraudulently steal IKEA funds, for which they colluded with some, again unidentified, employees of IKEA itself. As a result, the agreement between ISM and the Swedish company was drawn up in an extremely ambiguous way, with the possibility of different interpretations. For example, instead of a clear number of generators to be leased, only their total minimum power was listed; moreover, the upper power limit was not defined, which made it possible to supply equipment that was many times more powerful than IKEA needed.

In 2008, ISM sold its generators to Autonomous Energy Supply Systems LLC (SAE), thus IKEA became the tenant of SAE.

Big Igor

Konstantin Anatolyevich Ponomarev was born on August 14, 1971 in Moscow. Graduated from the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, where he studied on the same course as the one who died in 2009 in a pre-trial detention center Hermitage Capital investment fund lawyer Sergey Magnitsky. In the press, Ponomarev is often referred to as a "friend" of Magnitsky, which is at least strange.

The fact is that Ponomarev spoke in the “Magnitsky case” on behalf of the prosecution. Moreover, Konstantin Anatolyevich did not hesitate in court to call himself the author of the very tax optimization scheme that Magnitsky used and for which he was tried!

In the 90s, he traded timeshare and almost "squeezed out" an accounting firm "Firestone Duncan" from its founder Jamison Firestone. In the 2000s, he switched to diesel generators - in addition to IKEA, the misfortune of being his client fell to Toros CJSC, owned by the British, which organized a logistics park in the city of Pushkino near Moscow.

So, in 2012, IKEA initiated a criminal case on attempted fraud. Since, at the conclusion of the settlement agreement, Ponomarev misled both his former partners and the Ministry of Economic Development, assuring that he was ready to renounce all claims once and for all, and at that time he himself was already preparing a new lawsuit from Rukon. However, at the end of 2013, the case against Ponomarev was unexpectedly dismissed! This happened just a few days before the arbitration court made a decision on the suit of Rukon against IKEA - in favor of the Swedes (by that time Ponomarev's claims had already increased to 33 billion rubles). If the criminal case had been opened at that moment, then such a decision would have been fatal for Ponomarev, unambiguously confirming his guilt.

The prosecutor's office vigilantly hides

How did the “schemist” manage to escape? In October 2013, Natalya Agafyeva, head of the investigative unit of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, received a fax from Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Vladimir Malinovsky . The fax stated that there was no fraud on the part of Rukon and Ponomarev, but there was a “civil law dispute between business entities.” And, although the investigators had a different opinion, the criminal case was immediately dismissed.

However, the Swedes did not give up and again rolled a stone uphill - they did not succeed in resuming the previous criminal case, however, in April 2014 they succeeded in initiating a new case - this time not in Moscow, but in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region, and in connection with earlier history. The case examines the circumstances of the conclusion of the very first contract between ISM and IKEA in 2006. The legitimacy of payments under this agreement is also checked.

At first, the case developed quite well, because on May 8, the Vsevolozhsk District Court, at the request of investigators, ordered the arrest of the accounts of Konstantin Ponomarev (who, however, has not yet been accused or suspected in the case).

On these accounts, 24.9 billion rubles were found - the same ones that, according to the investigation, Ponomarev received as a result of the settlement agreement. Note that earlier he claimed that this money "went to the economic activities of the SAE." However, already this spring, the police managed to establish that the fate of billions is much more interesting. Ponomarev, as director of the SAE, transferred them to himself as an individual "for safekeeping." After that, the SAE was liquidated, and there was no one to return the money to - another elegant scheme quite in the spirit of our virtuoso.

However, to express confidence that the end of his fairy tale is approaching would be overly optimistic. The stone of the Swedes again approached the very critical point of the slope, from where it had previously rolled down. On May 15, Ponomarev sent a complaint to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against the officer in charge of his case. Ponomarev asks to take action against the investigator, as well as to transfer the consideration of the case to the Moscow region.

According to the information we have, prosecutors responded most quickly to Ponomarev's complaints. As early as last week, phone calls from some high-ranking employees of the Prosecutor General's Office began to be heard in the investigative bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Vsevolozhsk District. In general, quite obvious symptoms have appeared that the second case involving Ponomarev may, like the first, be closed - despite the disagreement of the investigators, according to the highest shouting. However, the situation then developed rapidly, and on Monday it became known that the prosecutor's office of the Leningrad Region removed arrest from business accounts. At the same time, the criminal case on fraud was also dismissed, in which not a single defendant appeared. Whether the regional prosecutors received any instructions from Moscow in this regard, one can only guess. And whether the Swedes decide on another attempt - time will tell.

I have been following this story for a long time. It seems that AS has already partially written on this topic. The novel seems to also casually touch upon the problem of "blessed" investors and greedy creatures at the top and not just greedy, but also illiterate and incompetent. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, I think. The debriefing of RAPSI flights at the link in the text is really interesting and explains the essence of the conflict quite well. Don't hesitate to read.

We have already written several times about the conflict between Russian businessman Konstantin Ponomarev and IKEA. The experience of their interaction has shown that very often a foreign "investor" in reality is an organization for the withdrawal of capital from Russia and is very reluctant to pay taxes in Russia. This, as they say, is a classic of the genre, the “gold standard” for such investors.

IKEA "plan" for the investor exceeded in Russia with a vengeance. To get away from repaying the debt to Ponomarev, creativity was used in the form of deliberately false testimony in courts, intimidation of their employees, withdrawal of assets leaving debts to "shell companies". And Russian officials and judges, unfortunately, act as "useful idiots" in the service of IKEA against domestic business.

Recall that Ponomarev has been suing IKEA for quite a long time and in 2008-2010 he managed to get about 1 billion dollars from IKEA for 2007-2008. In 2013 - 2014, he lost similar claims for the same amounts, but already for 2009 - 2010, since the courts recognized Ponomarev's documents for 2009 - 2010 as fake without an examination, only on the basis of the testimony of the former chief manager of IKEA, who categorically stated in all courts about the falsification of his signatures on all documents.

For two years, Ponomarev was under investigation, which then found out that all the documents were genuine. Moreover, the former chief manager of IKEA issued a confession and confessed to Ponomarev's slander under threats from the former employer.

As a result, the situation changed and in 2016 Ponomarev won all the court cases against IKEA, her accounts were arrested and debt collection began. Unfortunately, at that moment, business ombudsman Boris Titov intervened in the situation, who, theoretically, should not have interfered in the economic dispute between the two entities. However, he joined in it, moreover, on the side of IKEA and turned to the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, saying that, allegedly, the Ministry of Economic Development back in 2010, when paying off IKEA debts to Ponomarev for 2007-2008, was a participant in negotiations and a guarantor on behalf of Russian Federation that the debt for 2009-2010 will not be collected by Ponomarev!

To what extent such "guarantees" are legitimate is a separate issue, in addition, those claims that were repaid in 2010 and the current ones are completely different claims. I am far from thinking that Titov deliberately deceived the President and Chairman of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, but the fact is that the papers that he sent them and on which he received the “highest” resolution contain frankly fake information with standard mantras about foreign investment and the investment climate . Titov kept silent about the confession of the former head of IKEA and the fact that the Russian businessman was under investigation for two years for forging documents that turned out to be genuine, obviously due to insignificance. After this letter, the courts immediately “turned around” and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation canceled all previous decisions and sent the judges who made them to the qualification board. One of them, who in December 2016 was included in the rating of the 10 most influential judges in Russia, has already been dismissed.

In our system of total irresponsibility of officials and liberals for their actions, even for direct deception of the President, they will not get anything. Formally, Putin's order to the Chairman of the RF Armed Forces to "take personal control" has been fulfilled. The judges have an appeal from Titov, and Titov has an appeal from IKEA, and IKEA has a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, issued on the basis of their appeal to Titov and his appeal to the Supreme Court. No one is to blame for the fact that the information in these appeals is frankly fake!

This whole story is set out in detail in the RAPSI investigation, but it is important for us that in fact this means that in a dispute with foreign "investors" even on the territory of Russia, the Russian investor has no rights. And then what kind of development can we talk about if we are obliged to pay tribute to "investors" all the time and give them the profit that legally belongs to Russian entrepreneurs?