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Company 20 trust. In the shadow of "apartment affairs"

How and by whom were the billions stolen from the Twentieth Trust Corporation? Who are Gennady Petrov and Vladimir Kumarin, what do they have to do with the Ozero cooperative? About this conversation with Andrei Zykov, a retired lieutenant colonel of justice, a former senior investigator for special important matters department for the investigation of crimes in the field of corruption and economics of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the North-Western Federal District. This year marks 15 years since the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation closed criminal case No. 144128, which at one time received the loud name "Putin's case."

Andrei Zykov was part of the investigation team that conducted this case until the moment when Vladimir Putin became president of the Russian Federation, after which it was immediately terminated, and the investigators were told that a criminal case could not be conducted against the president. Tells:

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– The American journalist Paul Khlebnikov once asked himself the question: how could Russia turn from a world superpower into a poor country? The answer to this question is given by the materials of the criminal case No. 144128. There is a tradition in Russia: if there are suspicions that some officials are involved in corruption crimes, then it is very rare to see that criminal cases have been initiated against them. Cases are mainly initiated "on the fact of theft from somewhere." And such a semi-anonymous case was a criminal case initiated on the fact of embezzlement of budgetary funds committed by the leadership of the Twentieth Trust Corporation.

This corporation was founded on October 20, 1992, emerged as a joint-stock company and turned from a state-owned company into a completely private enterprise. When we, the investigators, began to study what this JSC was doing, we came to the conclusion that this corporation was created not in order to build or produce something, but in order to be able to steal with its help. Naturally, the leadership of this joint-stock company could kidnap with impunity only if it had support from the top officials of Leningrad-Petersburg, who were supposed to support this corporation.

Investigators were told that a criminal case could not be opened against the president

- How did the Twentieth Trust corporation function, what kind of people carried out this functioning?

– To correctly answer this question, it is necessary to say about who should be involved in criminal liability in this criminal case. If we consider episodes of embezzlement of budgetary funds, then these thefts are backed by very specific officials who gave appropriate orders, exercised control over their implementation, gave full carte blanche to the management of this corporation to embezzle precisely budgetary funds and turned a blind eye to all these crimes. Now there is article 210 in the criminal code. It implies punishment for organizing a criminal community. And I believe that this article should have been applied to the leadership of the mayor's office of St. Petersburg and to the leadership of the Twentieth Trust Corporation. (Radio Liberty emphasizes that there was no court decision in this case.)

The leadership of this joint-stock company could kidnap with impunity only if it had support from the top officials of Leningrad-Petersburg

Scheme of theft Money was dictated by the conditions that prevailed in those years in Russia. 1992 is the year when Corporation Twentieth Trust JSC was formed. In 1992, there was a wild devaluation, the fall of the ruble. In March of this year, 36 deaths from starvation were recorded in St. Petersburg. caused by the collapse of the ruble and galloping inflation. wages, in connection with which social tension began to grow in society. The government began to look for a way out of this situation, and in April-July 1992, a number of declarations of the Council of People's Deputies of the RSFSR and a decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On supporting economic reform and normalizing payment and settlement relations in the national economy" were adopted. Within the framework of these government decrees, such a financial body as the Office of federal treasury in the Russian Federation, and branches of this Office in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. In St. Petersburg, Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Karetin was appointed head of such a branch. Prior to that, he worked as deputy chairman of the finance committee of the administration of St. Petersburg, which was headed by Alexei Kudrin. What was Vyacheslav Karetin responsible for? Due to the fact that a crisis of non-payments arose, huge funds were issued from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to support enterprises so that they could pay each other. Enormous money came to St. Petersburg. Here, by order of the mayor, a special commission was created, which included 15 people, including Dmitry Filippov, who headed the State tax office Petersburg, blown up in 1998 in his own entrance.

- Was Vladimir Putin a member of this commission?

More than 60% of all funds allocated from federal budget Petersburg for state enterprises, it went to the Twentieth Trust Corporation

– No. Both Sobchak and Putin ordered the creation of this commission. And it was headed by Dmitry Sergeev, the first deputy of Anatoly Sobchak. The money received from the federal budget was intended to support state-owned enterprises, so that state-owned enterprises could pay each other. This money was not intended for private joint-stock companies, which was JSC "Corporation" Twentieth Trust ". However, when we began to investigate what these federal funds were spent on, it turned out that more than 60% of all funds allocated from the federal budget to St. Petersburg for state-owned enterprises, it went to the Twentieth Trust corporation.The rest of the money, less than 40%, was distributed among the federal enterprises of St. Petersburg.What kind of money is this?

Over 22 billion were simply stolen. The corporation transferred this money to different countries: to Spain, Finland, Canada, USA

Vasily Vasilyevich Kabachinov, chief controller-auditor of the Control and Auditing Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg (on November 30, 1999, he tragically burned down at his dacha, while he was known for his sober lifestyle), found out that of those 23 billion rubles that were "poured" into JSC "Corporation" Twentieth Trust ", about 1 billion rubles were spent on the needs of the city. The rest, more than 22 billion, were simply stolen. The corporation transferred this money to different countries: to Spain, Finland, Canada, the USA. Money were translated under various justifications, under various pretexts: under marketing researches which nobody carried out, under various dubbed works, some of which were carried out by various St. Petersburg enterprises for pennies. Mason". They were allegedly paid such amounts that were ten times higher than those paid by the corporation for that silt and other types of work. This is how the theft happened. And with this stolen money, cottages were built in the same Spain for the same Vladimir Putin, Anatoly Sobchak and a number of other officials of the St. Petersburg mayor's office.

– Are Russian businessman Gennady Petrov, who gained international fame in Spain, and criminal authority Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), nicknamed in St. Petersburg as the “night governor”, involved in the Twentieth Trust case?

– Gennady Petrov does not appear in the criminal case No. 144128. Neither the name of Petrov, nor the name of Kumarin are heard specifically for the episodes. But if you look at Vladimir Putin's entourage and find out whether people from this entourage communicated with Petrov and Kumarin, then the answer will certainly be positive: they did. How can this be proven? We are already accustomed to such a phrase as "the Ozero cooperative." And we know that these are eight people who created this cooperative in 1996, that this cooperative was headed by Vladimir Smirnov. And who is Mr. Smirnov? This is the head of CJSC Peterburgskaya Fuel Company "(PTK). The PTK was organized by the mayor's office of St. Petersburg in 1994. Vladimir Smirnov was the director of the PTK, and Vladimir Kumarin (Barsukov) was his deputy. Is there a connection with the so-called Tambov criminal group? It seems to be. Have you seen Mr. Kumarin (Barsukov) in the "Ozero" cooperative? We saw, and very often - with the same Vladimir Smirnov. In addition, there are facts confirming that initially the Lake cooperative was guarded by security structures that were directly subordinate to Vladimir Kumarin (Barsukov).

With this stolen money, cottages were built in the same Spain for the same Vladimir Putin, Anatoly Sobchak and a number of other officials of the St. Petersburg mayor's office

Now about Gennady Petrov. It must be understood that the Ozero cooperative exists not only in the Priozersky district Leningrad region. The same cooperative with the same participants was created even earlier on Vasilyevsky Island. In the printout of the list of those who were members of the Ozero cooperative in the Priozersky district, we will see eight names. Each of these people had a residence permit in St. Petersburg.

Let's see, for example, where the current president of JSC Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin was registered, where Andrei Fursenko was registered, where the brothers Yuri and Mikhail Kovalchuk (all members of the Ozero cooperative) were registered. It turns out that these persons were registered on Nalichnaya Street, 55. In this house, Yuri Kovalchuk owned two apartments - No. 34 and No. 44; Andrei Fursenko owned apartment No. 43; his brother Sergei Fursenko - apartments No. 47 and No. 48; another member of the Ozero cooperative, Vladimir Yakunin, owned apartments No. 159 and No. 160 in this house; Viktor Myachin, Director of Rossiya Bank, apartments No. 45, No. 46, No. 47 and No. 173. Also in this house, in apartment No. 29, a citizen N.F. Artemyeva, Chief Accountant Corporation "Twentieth Trust". And who built this house? Baltic Construction Company (BSC). And BSC is the "pearl" in the "crown" of Gennady Petrov. This is the answer to the question: did Gennady Petrov have anything to do with criminal case No. 144128. In practice, he was directly related to Vladimir Putin's inner circle. The fact that five people from the Ozero cooperative lived in the same house, which was built by Gennady Petrov's company, is a vivid example of such multifaceted cooperation.

- Is the criminal case No. 144128 closed in 2000 the only criminal case on corruption of officials in the government of Anatoly Sobchak and people from his circle?

And in March 1992, people in St. Petersburg were dying of hunger.

– The same criminal case can be recalled only one: the case of the firm "Renaissance". If we talk about materials that traced the criminal, in my opinion, the line of behavior of Vladimir Putin, then it is probably worth recalling the famous report by Marina Salier, prepared in March 1992. She inspected the activities of Vladimir Putin as chairman of the foreign relations committee of the St. Petersburg mayor's office and found that the "food for raw materials" program implemented by the city administration was a failure, a lot of money was stolen. The contracts were concluded by Vladimir Putin and his team in such a way that it was impossible to bring them to court. Sometimes there were no dates in the contracts, sometimes there was no concept of "penalties" ... It is obvious that the court would have returned these contracts back. Marina Salier said that about 100 million US dollars were stolen by Vladimir Putin's team. This is 1992. And now remember: who was part of this team? It included Alexei Miller, it included economic adviser to Anatoly Sobchak Dmitry Medvedev. The future president of Russia wrote his Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Anatoly Sobchak, also a specialist in civil law. And this company of lawyers: Sobchak, Medvedev, Putin - suddenly turned out to be completely legally bankrupt! The contracts were drawn up by them and their subordinates in such a way that they were legally null and void. And in March 1992, people in St. Petersburg were dying of hunger.

Banker Pyotr Aven was involved in these crimes. There, in particular, there was a question: where did 997 tons of pure aluminum disappear, where did it evaporate? The question still remains unanswered, as well as the question: where did the money received for this metal disappear to?

Where did 997 tons of pure aluminum and the money received for this metal go?

The next element is criminal activity, for which, in my opinion, the entire leadership of the St. Petersburg mayor's office should have been imprisoned, was the so-called Anna Evglevskaya case against the Renaissance company, which she headed. This lady, who graduated from a culinary college, surprisingly showed herself in trade as a petty thief, for which she was expelled from her job from the store. She created a construction company and began to build a house on Ryleeva Street. And then, in this house No. 3, the niece of Anatoly Sobchak, and the chief architect of St. Petersburg Oleg Kharchenko, and many other people from Vladimir Putin's entourage suddenly get apartments.

– One of the most active investigators in your team was Oleg Kalinichenko. He collected a large dossier on Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office, and other officials. Some time after the "Putin case" was closed, Oleg Kalinichenko went to a monastery. What happened to his large archive? Did you get some of the materials from it?

– Oleg Kalinichenko is an operative from the 2nd department of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region (practically it was an anti-corruption department, and the development of employees of the St. Petersburg mayor's office was directly his responsibility). He had collected information on literally all the people from Vladimir Putin's entourage. For example, I asked him: "Oleg, what is known from Fursenko, from Kovalchuk?" A minute later, he brought me certificates for each, in which it was reported about who was involved in what, with whom he communicates from a criminal environment, etc.

About what happened to the archive of Oleg Kalinichenko, you should probably ask him himself. Will he talk about it? Obviously not. Oleg went to the monastery, and now he has other worries, other things to do. He is not interested in our worldly concerns. However, I have preserved some of the certificates that he gave me. For example, our media wrote a lot about Vladimir Vladimirovich Kiselev, the organizer of the White Nights festival. About two years ago, he held another fundraising campaign, where Vladimir Putin played some song on the piano. True, where did the money go from this charity event, which was conducted by Kiselev, again remained unknown.

Kiselev V. V. is engaged in extorting money from entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses of the city to support the election campaign of Mayor Sobchak

Here I have preserved Oleg Kalinichenko's certificate for this person. I quote: "Help on V. V. Kiselev. Assistant to the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak is Kiselev Vladimir Vladimirovich. He is also the "right hand" of Gennady Petrov - the authority of the organized criminal group Malyshev (author's note: "we are talking about 1996") Kiselev V.V. is engaged in extorting money from entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized businesses of the city to support the election campaign of Mayor Sobchak. This is done as follows. There is a Fund for Supporting the 2004 Olympic Games, where entrepreneurs are forced to transfer money, currency in the amount of 50,000 by a certain date dollars from each. If the entrepreneur does not meet the deadline, then he is obliged to transfer approximately twice the amount. At the same time, forceful methods of pressure are used, up to physical violence. Subscriber phone numbers are used (the list of telephones is indicated). Kiselev V. V. personally calls the entrepreneur and demands the transfer of the specified amount within the time specified by him.In case of refusal, he threatens physical reprisal. In necessary cases, being an active member of Malyshev's organized criminal group, he resolves the issues of the arrival of a "team" to extort money. On April 18, 1996, a meeting of entrepreneurs will be held, organized under the threat of reprisals by Kiselev, which, according to sources, will take place in the "Club 2004", at which the First Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Economic Relations Vladimir Putin is expected to speak on fundraising to the fund to support the candidacy of Anatoly Sobchak in the upcoming elections "...

– You accuse Vladimir Putin and other people from his entourage of corruption. You do not admit that you can be sued for defamation?

The court may not agree with the investigator. But does this mean that the investigator is wrong? Maybe the judge is wrong?

– I am an investigator. The investigator is entitled to his own opinions. When the investigator investigates a criminal case, he makes an idea: whether he has enough materials to bring charges against this or that person on the fact of committing a crime by this person. The court may not agree with the investigator. A criminal case heard in court may end in an acquittal. But does this mean that the investigator is wrong? Maybe the judge is wrong? Everyone has their own vision. For one, the vision can be supported by some ideals, a conviction in the need to fight crime. For another, the vision may be reinforced by a command shout, perhaps some kind of bribe. Here, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov says about the case of Marina Salie, that it has been considered many times, that there is nothing in this case. And since no criminal case was initiated based on the materials of Marina Salye, it means that there was no crime in the cases of Vladimir Vladimirovich?

The well-being of the prosecutor of St. Petersburg gives an answer to the question why criminal cases were not initiated against Putin and people from his entourage

However, let's see who was then the prosecutor of St. Petersburg? Vladimir Ivanovich Eremenko And where did Vladimir Ivanovich suddenly get a mansion in Repino near the mansion of the head of the Twentieth Trust corporation Sergei Nikeshin? How much does it cost? At that time - about 400,000 dollars. Where does the city prosecutor get such a sum from? And how many apartments did the city prosecutor receive on Nevsky Prospekt, in other districts? From whom? How? This well-being of the prosecutor of St. Petersburg, in my opinion, gives an answer to the question why criminal cases were not initiated against Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich and people from his entourage.

– 15 years have passed since the closure of case No. 144128. Is it worth bringing up the old? After all, even if we again begin to investigate the facts set forth in this case, it will turn out that this is pointless, since the statute of limitations for criminal liability has expired?

The team that was selected and tested on the thefts of the period 1992-1996, and now remains surrounded by Vladimir Putin

– There is such a thing as the legalization of stolen funds. This is a continuing crime. The money that was stolen in 1992, 1995, 1996 is somehow on the accounts somewhere, that is, the stolen funds have been legalized. Nevertheless, I believe that in relation to the persons who lead the country, legislators should, on reflection, amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For these individuals, if it is proven that they are criminals, there should be no statute of limitations for prosecution, because the people who are at the head of the state must be crystal clear and honest. If they are not like that, then they have no right to govern the state. I think as soon as Putin ceases to be the president of the country, such amendments will be made to both the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and it will become possible to bring them to criminal liability.

– While working in a team of investigators, did you try to bring these officials and Vladimir Putin to criminal liability?

– In any case, we honestly investigated these cases. And the fact that we "dug up" in this criminal case, in my opinion, testifies to the guilt of both Putin himself and many other officials from his entourage.

– Can the Twentieth Trust criminal case be considered as a kind of corruption model, tested first in St. Petersburg, and then spread to the whole of Russia?

– Certainly, because the 1992 thefts showed that these kidnappers were very vulnerable. When such firms are created by persons with criminal inclinations, when such legally insignificant contracts are signed and drawn up, there is a reason to deprive the officials involved in this of their posts. After all, Marina Salie made an appeal to deprive Vladimir Putin of his position, and the Leningrad City Council supported her. In order to be able to commit theft quite freely in the future, without risk, it was necessary to criminalize everything around, that is, it was necessary to select a team for oneself. And the team that was selected and tested in the period 1992-1996, and now remains surrounded by Vladimir Putin. The same Kudrin, the same Kozhin, the same Kruchinin, the same Vyazalov and others. All the environment that was, is still around him. And they get medals...

In the shadow of "apartment affairs"

At the beginning of 1996, in the city on the Neva, the now legendary "apartment" business of the mayor of St. Petersburg began to actively unwind.

Back in May 1995, operatives of the 2nd department (fight against corruption) of the UBEP of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg came across a certain Mrs. Evglevskaya, who headed the Renaissance construction company. It turned out that she gave away elite apartments to local officials, receiving lucrative contracts and soft loans in return.

Information about the rampant corruption of the fathers of the "Northern Palmyra", which Evglevskaya shared with the operas, turned out to be so serious that in December 1995 an unprecedented joint order of two Russian power ministers appeared - M. Barsukov and A. Kulikov and Prosecutor General Yu. Skuratov who joined them " On the creation of an interdepartmental operational-investigative group to investigate the fact of taking bribes officials City Hall of St. Petersburg.

This group was headed by Leonid Proshkin, deputy head of the investigative department of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, one of the most famous Russian "importants", which indicated the seriousness of the Kremlin's intentions to deal with St. Petersburg corrupt officials. In less than a year of work, the investigative team released several dozen volumes of criminal case No. 18 / 238278-95, the materials of which clearly proved the corruption of the employees of the St. Petersburg mayor's office.

Around the same time, another criminal case was initiated in the city by the investigative committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the same 2nd department of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg - No. 144128 - against the "court" construction organization St. Petersburg mayor's office - the corporation "Twentieth Trust" (very similar, by the way, in terms of working methods with the Kremlin's "Mabetex", only the scale is not the same). High-ranking officials of the St. Petersburg administration also figured in it. However, unlike the “apartment” that thundered throughout the country, this new “construction” business was not advertised in any way. Information about the progress of his investigation was virtually non-existent. Today it is difficult to say why this happened. Most likely because Putin's name did not tell anyone until the middle of last year.

It is only later that the investigators will come to the conclusion that case No. 144128 in its scale and significance can surpass many high-profile cases of the oligarchs. It is only later that avaricious information will appear that one of the main defendants here is Vladimir Putin. And if among themselves the investigators called the case of apartment frauds the “Sobchak case”, then they will dub the investigation into the activities of the Twentieth Trust corporation only as the “Putin case”. It is only later that the understanding will come that the once ordinary criminal case can become the main political bomb of Russia.

One way or another, nothing was known about criminal case No. 144128 for several years. Who knows whether today's publication would have taken place at all if, in the course of a journalistic investigation, we had not been lucky enough to find the holy of holies of this case - an act of checking the activities of the Twentieth Trust by specialists from the KRU of the Ministry of Finance, a document that the special services tried to hide from prying eyes in the first place. By the way, there are several versions of this document, we have the most complete one.

Sudden Crash

From December 12, 1996 to April 7, 1997, on behalf of the UBEP of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, the local control and audit department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation audited certain issues of the financial and economic activities of the Twentieth Trust construction corporation for 1993-1996. The permanent head of the organization during this period was a certain Sergei Nikeshin - concurrently a deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly (ZAKS) and deputy chairman of its budget commission.

October 20, 1992 can rightly be considered the birthday of the above-named corporation, when it was registered in the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office, headed by Vladimir Putin.

The builders had a lot of plans. For example, according to the charter, the main activity of the Twentieth Trust was "construction, reconstruction and repair of industrial facilities and buildings for housing, domestic and cultural purposes in Russia and abroad."

It is difficult to say how Mr. Nikeshin fascinated the St. Petersburg mayors, but since that time budget freebies have only rained down on the corporation's accounts, like from a cornucopia. Sometimes it even seemed that as soon as the city had an extra penny, it was immediately sent to the Twentieth Trust under the guise of various loans, loans, funds from reserve budget funds ...

In total, on the personal instructions of the mayor of St. Petersburg Sobchak and his deputies Putin, Kudrin (now Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation), Manevich (shot dead by a hitman in 1998), Twentieth Trust received soft loans and loans worth more than 23 billion rubles. In fact, about 1 billion rubles were spent for the needs of the city under the state order - the auditors came to such a disappointing conclusion. The rest of the budgetary funds were spent partly on the purchase of real estate for high-ranking St. Petersburg officials both in Russia and abroad, partly simply plundered (St. Petersburg and Moscow operatives came to this conclusion, initiating a criminal case against the Twentieth Trust).

However, first things first.

The act drawn up by the controllers-auditors was a complete revelation even for worldly-wise lawyers. Egregious facts of squandering public money(each of which deserves the closest attention from law enforcement agencies) fit on 52 sheets of the document. Actually, this act served as the foundation for the entire criminal case No. 144128.

Here are just the most interesting episodes contained in it.

Where does the lad get Spanish sadness

In November 1995, on the personal order of Vladimir Putin, 415 million rubles (over $200,000) were allocated from the city budget to the Twentieth Trust for the reconstruction of an Orthodox nunnery in Israel. The Gornensky Monastery was built in Jerusalem at the end of the 19th century and was famous for its icon painting and gold embroidery workshops far beyond the borders of Palestine.

Everything would be fine, but no full-scale reconstruction was carried out. More precisely, two dozen Russian builders went to Israel (all of them are known to law enforcement agencies), but the amount of their work was scanty and expenses, together with travel expenses and salaries, amounted to no more than 20 thousand dollars.

According to the report of state auditors, they could not find any acts on the repair and reconstruction of the monastery.

On the other hand, we managed to find a very curious letter sent on October 21, 1995 by the President of the Twentieth Trust to the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Vladimir Putin.

In it, Mr. Nikeshin thanks "respected Vladimir Vladimirovich" for the financial assistance provided in the 1994-1995 years. repair and restoration work in Jerusalem. After complaining a little about the lack of funds, the head of the corporation ends his message with the following words: "I earnestly ask you to provide us with financial assistance to continue these works from the mayor's contingency fund."

Above - Putin's resolution: "Agreed".

The special charm of this document lies in two things. Firstly, Nikeshin not only asks the first vice-mayor for money, but even tells him where it is better to borrow it from. Secondly, it turns out that budgetary support for the pseudo-reconstruction of the Gornensky Monastery was provided back in 1994 (which, by the way, was not reflected in the KRU inspection report).

Hence the conclusion: "Twentieth Trust" has previously received public money, and without any formalization of the proper documents!

It's hard to say now how much taxpayers' money was pumped into the fake project. As well as it is difficult to say where they ended up as a result.

However, the operational-investigative team leading this case has every reason to believe that the “monastic” money, among other budgetary funds, was converted by the corporation and sent to accounts in Spanish banks, from where it was then partially spent on the purchase of two 32-apartment apartment buildings. hotels. Thus, with the active assistance of the top officials of the northern capital, the Twentieth Trust acquired a luxurious hotel complex with the exotic name La Palama in the picturesque Spanish town of Torrevieja. Only for its design and estimate documentation, Nikeshin Corporation paid almost half a million dollars.

Wait a little, rest and you

But the "Spanish epic" of St. Petersburg merchants does not end there. Almost simultaneously with the construction of the hotel, the Twentieth Trust began buying up land on the Iberian Peninsula for the construction of private mansions. Apparently, the need for foreign currency in connection with this was so acute that from 1993 to 1995, Nikeshin, with the permission of the interested officials of the St. 12.5 million Spanish pesetas...

And work began to boil. During the investigation, more than 40 workers of various construction specialties were identified who traveled to Spain and took part in the decoration of the hotel bought by the Twentieth Trust, as well as in the decoration of private villas built there. However, all real estate, as it should be, was issued to nominees. Today it is almost impossible to say with certainty where whose mansions are. But according to rumors that were actively circulating in the corridors of the St. Petersburg Belyaev, when he accused the first vice-mayor of secretly acquiring overseas real estate).

But in any case, the vice-mayor was well aware of the attempts of the "Twentieth Trust" at the expense of St. Petersburg taxpayers to conquer the heights of the European hotel business. And this despite the fact that no foreign hotel, according to the credentials, was registered with the corporation.

It was to Putin in his letter dated February 9, 1996 that Mr. Nikeshin offered to organize a vacation for veterans of the Great Patriotic War and other poor citizens.

By order of the mayor's office No. 529-r dated May 23, 1996, such a vacation was organized. All expenses, of course, took over the municipal budget. Yes, here's the problem. As it turned out, instead of the usual $600 (the average price of a twelve-day tour to Spain), each ticket cost the treasury nearly $2,000. And among the poor veterans, in some mysterious way, turned out to be the owner of all the budgetary funds of the city, the head of the federal treasury for St. Petersburg, V. Karetin, and the entire leadership of the Twentieth Trust, along with their families ...

Audit findings

It's time to return from the sunny south to the northern borders of our homeland. Here, the merry guys from the Twentieth Trust played tricks no less.

At the end of 1993, the corporation received a preferential loan from the city budget in the amount of 2.5 billion rubles for the construction of a modern business center "Peter the Great" in St. Petersburg. Petitioned for the allocation of these funds to the "Twentieth Trust" - "as an exception" - all the same Vladimir Putin. Moreover, the money was allocated “as an exception” at only 6% per annum (at that time, the average interest rate on loans and advances in Russia reached 200% per annum). As collateral for this loan and other budget loans, the corporation presented 55 cars of various models (mostly foreign cars).

Years have passed. At the time of the check by KRU specialists of the trust's activities, the results turned out to be deplorable: the construction project was not implemented, the money received from the municipal budget disappeared, out of 55 Nissans and Mercedes, only 22 were available ...

And there were also transfers of fabulous sums to Western companies for the provision of mythical "marketing services", the annual receipt by the shareholders of the "Twentieth Trust" of solid dividends, although the corporation did not show any profit in the reporting documents, dubious real estate transactions together with Lenvest LLC, the transfer of currency to foreign bills allegedly for the preparatory events of the festival "White Nights of St. Petersburg", for the purchase of Finnish collapsible houses and many other episodes...

Let us quote the conclusions reached by the chief controller-auditor of the KRU of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg V. Kabachinov following the results of the audit:
“The corporation, being a commercial firm, received loans from the city budget and funds from special funds on favorable terms, did not return them, and sent the funds received to commercial banks to deposit accounts, transferred to various foreign companies for purposes not related to the main activity, made other unreasonable expenses ...

As of January 1, 1997, the corporation's debt to the city budget is 28 billion 455 million 700 thousand rubles ... "

"Bath Story"

Almost immediately after state auditors raided the Twentieth Trust, the corporation urgently began its own bankruptcy procedure. Today, the once prosperous firm is firmly on its side. All bank accounts, including foreign currency, have a zero balance. The probability that the city money will ever return to the St. Petersburg treasury is also zero.

As for former first vice-mayor of St. Petersburg, he may not even remember Sergey Nikeshin and his corporation. Although...

The operatives with whom we had a chance to communicate assured us that Putin's contacts with the Twentieth Trust were preserved even after Vladimir Vladimirovich moved to Moscow.

The fact is that the once modest official, and now about. Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region has a dacha with a plot of about one hectare. A solid two-story house with a complex of outbuildings is located right on the shore of the picturesque lake Komsomolskoye. In 1997, there was a fire here due to a faulty electrical wiring in the sauna. High-class specialists from Finland were called to restore the exemplary economy, which cost the victim 300,000 Finnish marks (about 60,000 dollars).

So, the investigation has every reason to believe that the construction of the bathhouse was financed exclusively from the funds of the Twentieth Trust.

Moreover, in the spring of 1998, the administration of the Priozersky district received a secret cipher message from Moscow with an order to destroy all documentation confirming the Putin family's ownership of the complex of dacha buildings. But, apparently, it was not possible to “dissolve” all the documents, and therefore, as a result, presidential candidate Putin included this “compromising” dacha building in his declaration.

An interesting detail: on the site of today's Putin's estate, there used to be 7-10 private residential buildings. The locals were very unhappy when they were forced to "clear the area" on the coast. However, some of them were nevertheless resettled, and the most rebellious were built nearby small shield houses. The operatives again assume that all the issues related to the resettlement of harmful summer residents to new places were dealt with by the same corporation familiar to us, which requires a detailed check.

"Deeds" with many unknowns

As we were assured by knowledgeable people in St. Petersburg, the attempt to "clean up" the office of the administration of the Priozersky district was far from the only one. When Putin was head of the FSB, his people scoured the whole of St. Petersburg for the seizure of any materials compromising Putin. They were especially interested in the documents on the privatization of the Astoria and Pribaltiyskaya hotels, as well as all the papers signed by Putin regarding the functioning of the Leningrad naval base, which, curiously, from 1992 to 1996 had no customs or border service, although hundreds of thousands of tons of export civilian cargo passed through this transshipment point (the famous chicken legs, for example, spread throughout Russia from here). How much not only the city budget of St. Petersburg, but also the federal state treasury lost from such lack of control, history is still silent.

As far as we know, now the people of the current director of the FSB, Patrushev, are active in Spain, looking for everyone who knows anything at all about the activities of the Twentieth Trust corporation on Spanish soil and possesses any documentation on this matter.

Today, even the fearless St. Petersburg operas, which participated in the investigation of the Twentieth Trust, Russian Video, and Renaissance cases, constantly start talking about security guarantees for their relatives and friends.

P.S.
The investigation in criminal case No. 144128, oddly enough, continues. Most likely because its main defendant wants to know more about the "excavations" of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The usual tactics of a professional intelligence officer. However, the operational-investigative team is simply required by law to return the seized and squandered budget money. After all, Vladimir Vladimirovich himself wrote in his program article “Russia at the Turn of the Millennium”: “The shadow economy is everywhere. But if in developed countries its share does not exceed 15-20 percent, in our country this indicator reaches 40-60 percent. To solve this painful problem, along with strengthening the activities of law enforcement agencies, it is necessary to tighten license, tax, currency and export controls.

Financial and Construction Corporation "Twentieth Trust"

"Story"

The Twentieth Trust Corporation can be called the most successful Russian business project of the 20th century. Hardly any other company in the world can boast such an impressive career growth of its founding fathers and their assistants. Among them: the president of the country, the first vice-premier of the government, the minister of finance, the director of the largest defense institute, the former head of the federal agency, and so on. Fifteenth Anniversary of the Twentieth Trust Corporation The New The Times notes together with its creators, who now occupy high Kremlin and ministerial offices.

"And from Moscow to the British Seas"

XX Trust is a corporation registered on October 20, 1992 in the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg City Hall, which was then headed by Vladimir Putin. Sergei Nikeshin, deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and deputy chairman of its budget commission, became the president of the corporation.

Further, "XX Trust" becomes "court" construction company, which received, not without Putin's mediation, soft loans and loans for 23 billion rubles of the city budget, of which, according to the KRU auditors, only 1 billion went to the needs of the city.

According to Russian media, in November 1995, on the personal order of Vladimir Putin, more than 200 thousand dollars were allocated from the budget of the city of St. Petersburg to XX Trust for the reconstruction of an Orthodox convent in Israel. This money, being at the "XX Trust", went to buy land plots and real estate in Spain. And "XX Trust" in the town of Torrevieja got a hotel complex "La Palama". All these data were reflected in the criminal case No. 144128 initiated by the 2nd department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg. Actually, this is where the knowledge of Russian journalists and law enforcement officers ends.

But the Spaniards can supplement these data. According to Spanish journalists who have their own sources in the local intelligence services, as well as an informant in the Russian Ministry of Finance, from 1993 to 1995, Anatoly Sobchak's team "stole" 22.5 million dollars from St. Petersburg.
link: http://expertmus.livejournal.com/80939.html

PUTIN'S CASE

According to the report of state auditors, they could not find any acts on the repair and reconstruction of the monastery. On the other hand, we managed to find a very curious letter sent on October 21, 1995 by the President of the Twentieth Trust to the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of St. Petersburg, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Vladimir Putin.

Above - Putin's resolution: "Agreed".

Hence the conclusion: "Twentieth Trust" has previously received public money, and without any formalization of the proper documents!
link: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/society/11232.html

Criminal cases in which Vladimir Putin was mentioned explain personnel policy president.

This was confirmed by the infamous criminal case No. 144128 of the Twentieth Trust Corporation. We are returning to him because we managed to get closed investigative documents. No one has reported about them before. They mention Vladimir Putin, Alexei Kudrin (now Russian Finance Minister) and at least ten other people who now have offices in the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Central Bank, Vneshtorgbank, the presidential administration, or are part of United Russia. In general, this criminal case is a real reference book of the current authorities of the Russian Federation.
link: http://www.compromat.ru/page_17495.htm

"KGB Colonel Putin let Peter around the world"

The materials of investigations into the activities of the head of the FAC Vladimir Putin in the 1990s concerned not only the work of the Twentieth Trust corporation. AT different time scandals arose around the name of the future president related to the illegal acquisition of a dacha near St. Petersburg, fraud in the field of housing, theft of budget money allocated for the purchase of food.

The case with the disappearance of government quotas for the purchase of food abroad by the city administration caused the greatest resonance. In a report prepared in 1992 by a group of deputies headed by Marina Salie and Yuri Gladkov, quite unambiguous conclusions were made: “The FAC of the St. incompetence of the leadership of the FAC of the St. Petersburg mayor's office in resolving the issues entrusted to them.

The document ends with recommendations to other deputies of the legislative assembly to transfer the collected materials to the prosecutor's office and remove Vladimir Putin from his post. But in 1992, the deputies failed to remove Putin. The mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, openly patronized him and did not give offense to his assistant.
link: http://www.compromat.ru/page_20903.htm

Criminal cases as a reference book "Who is who in Putin's power"

3n/n73n-s01.shtml
Novaya Gazeta No. 73, October 3, 2005
CRIMINAL CASES WHICH MENTIONED VLADIMIR PUTIN EXPLAIN THE PRESIDENT'S PERSONNEL POLICY
They can be used as a guide to the current authorities of the Russian Federation
Roman SHLEINOV, 03.10.2005

Meeting with Western political scientists, analysts and journalists recently, President Vladimir Putin laughed at a rather abstract question about corruption in the Kremlin. And this is not surprising. Nobody asked him about specific cases. And there are many of them. We have compiled a list, you can call it "Antiforbes": the first persons of the Russian Federation and the criminal cases in connection with which they were mentioned. A simple comparison showed that the president of the Russian Federation is the one who was most often mentioned in connection with criminal cases.

The president's cheerful laughter in response to a question about corruption is understandable: the Russian law enforcement officers who started anti-corruption proceedings against Putin had no prospects. But for the defendants in these proceedings, on the contrary, everything went well. So the power vertical is synthesized not only from state security officers, colleagues in the German residency and neighbors in the country, who now sit in key positions. Criminal cases mentioning the current president have also become a resource for the formation of the state elite.

This was confirmed by the infamous criminal case No. 144128 of the Twentieth Trust Corporation.

We are returning to him because we managed to get closed investigative documents. No one has reported about them before. They mention Vladimir Putin, Alexei Kudrin (now Russian Finance Minister) and at least ten other people who now have offices in the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Central Bank, Vneshtorgbank, the presidential administration, or are part of United Russia. In general, this criminal case is a real reference book of the current authorities of the Russian Federation.

Help "New"
The financial and construction corporation "Twentieth Trust" appeared in St. Petersburg in 1992. We paid attention to it more than once (“Novaya Gazeta” No. 11 (D) and 46 for 2000). The corporation's activity consisted in the construction, reconstruction and repair of facilities in Russia and abroad. On October 20, 1992, the certificate of its registration was signed by Vladimir Putin, then chairman of the Committee for External Relations of the St. Petersburg Mayor's Office. And the head of the corporation was Sergei Nikeshin (deputy and deputy chairman of the budget commission of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly).

In 1993, from the city budget and a special off-budget fund(allocated by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation) to the private corporation Twentieth Trust, which had at least 27 subsidiaries, transferred 3 billion 906 million non-denominated rubles (approximately $4.5 million) in the form of loans and credits. According to unofficial data, the total amount was 23 billion rubles (about $28 million). The money was not returned. On February 4, 1999, a criminal case No. 144128 was initiated against the leaders of the corporation, which grew into one of the most high-profile anti-corruption cases with the mention of Vladimir Putin and other Petersburgers from his entourage.

Money from the Twentieth Trust corporation flowed to eight countries of the world, but mainly to Spain and Finland through a foreign currency account in the German Dresdner Bank. In Spain, two apartment hotels of the La Paloma tourist complex were built in the resort town of Torrevieja. There is also a restaurant there. And in another picturesque place - Rojales (Quesada) - the villa "Dona Pepa" was bought (with an area of 203 sq. M plus 1000 sq. M of land). The corporation also ordered the study of real estate markets in European countries and California (USA).

It just so happened that those who were lucky enough to be in a criminal case with the current Russian president went up with him, or at least for many years turned out to be irreplaceable, permanent workers. It is important that the case is not isolated, but a coincidence suggests a trend.

We have already reported on another scandalous criminal case on money laundering, which is being investigated in Germany (Novaya Gazeta No. 18). At the center of the scandal was a shareholder of the company SPAG (St. Petersburg Society of Real Estate and Equity). The field of activity is the same as that of the Twentieth Trust - real estate and investments. Vladimir Putin was called a "consultant" of the SPAG. Other "consultants" and partners of the firm - Putin's colleagues from the St. Petersburg mayor's office and just acquaintances - subsequently shared his career success (see the list: "Mentioned in connection with the SPAG company ...").

The history of SPAG in Russia has not been investigated. The criminal case of the "Twentieth Trust" very quickly ceased. The senior detective of the anti-corruption department in St. Petersburg, Oleg Kalinichenko, who initiated the proceedings, was forced to leave the service and went to the monastery.

And now more about those who remained in the world.

We analyzed documents from criminal case No. 144128: three acts of the Control and Auditing Department of the Ministry of Finance, a plan of investigative actions, letters, expert opinions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and reports on some business trips of the defendants. As a result, a cash flow diagram was drawn up (accurate to the ruble, dollar, Spanish peseta and Finnish mark). As well as a list of officials who were mentioned in the documents. They were supposed to be interrogated, they were responsible for allocating funds, on the contrary, they received money or were noted in other ways with the corporation.

The list is extremely interesting. It is enough to look where all these people work now.

The materials of criminal case No. 144128 mentioned

Vladimir Putin, now President of the Russian Federation; Alexey Kudrin, Minister of Finance; Vladimir Kiselev, head of the State Unitary Enterprise "Kremlin" of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; Nadezhda Savolainen, Deputy Director of the Administrative Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation; Vyacheslav Karetin, head of the Federal Treasury Department for St. Petersburg, awarded the Order of Honor by decree of President Putin in 2001; Dmitry Pankin, Deputy Director of the Department of International Financial Relations, Public Debt and State Financial Assets of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, on June 28, 2005, Prime Minister Fradkov appointed him Deputy Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the Council of the Interstate Bank; Jeanette Crolley, advisor to the manager of OJSC Vneshtorgbank (99.9% from the government of the Russian Federation); Nadezhda Savinskaya, Head of the Main Department of the Central Bank of Russia for St. Petersburg; Sergei Nikeshin, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly (ZAKS) of St. Petersburg, member of the United Russia faction.

Let's take a closer look at each character.

What connects Putin with the "Twentieth Trust"

The fact that Vladimir Putin signed the certificate of registration of the Twentieth Trust Corporation does not mean anything. Those were his duties. The fact that he was seen in Torrevieja, a resort town in Spain, where the corporation had apartment hotels, we have already reported (Novaya Gazeta, No. 46, 2000). But this is only verbal evidence. In general, God bless them, with Spanish trips, this is a well-known thing.

But no one reported how Putin and the head of the Twentieth Trust corporation, Nikeshin, flew to Finland, where the corporation (only according to the cash transactions available in the criminal case) withdrew more than one and a half million dollars. In the same case, we found documents about Vladimir Putin's trip to Finland. He traveled as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and deputy mayor of St. Petersburg.

On January 30, 1994, at 4:50 p.m., Vladimir Putin flew to Helsinki on a Finnair flight. Sergei Nikeshin, the head of the Twentieth Trust, also went there (we have at our disposal a copy of the receipt for Putin's payment for his round-trip air ticket dated January 27, 1994, as well as copies of Nikeshin's tickets, who preferred the same class).

Arriving in Finland, Nikeshin and Putin stayed at the five-star Hotel Strand Inter-Continental Helsinki in the center of the old city overlooking the Gulf of Helsinki and the harbour. Vladimir Putin took number 442, Sergei Nikeshin - number 436.

All this became known to us from copies of hotel bills, which should also be present in the case file. Under the paid invoice for 2340.00 Finnish marks, issued to the future president, and at that time to St. Petersburg official Vladimir Putin, for some reason there was the signature of the head of the Twentieth Trust corporation, Sergei Nikeshin. And the amount was withdrawn from the American Express card.

And one more detail. In the case file, we managed to find an “Expenditure cash warrant” with the following text: “Give Putin V.V. 1,160 dollars. Reason: business trip to Finland for 3 days 30.01. - 01.02.94. . Received. Signature". I bet that this cash warrant did not belong to the St. Petersburg mayor's office. In addition, Putin took tickets more expensive.

The same case file contains papers about the flight to Finland of another official of the St. Petersburg administration, Oleg Kharchenko, chairman of the Committee for Construction and Architecture. Around the same time, he flew Finnair again to Helsinki. And his business trip, oddly enough, was also paid for by the private corporation "Twentieth Trust" (we have a copy of the report with the accountant's signature).

What prompted these trips? What issues were resolved in the winter at the beginning of 1994 in Finland? And why did a private corporation pay for the officials of the St. Petersburg mayor's office? In search of answers, it must be taken into account that by December 1993, the corporation had received about 4.5 million dollars from the city budget and the off-budget fund. And Vladimir Putin, in charge of foreign relations, could not have been unaware of this. Starting from 1993, according to the investigation, at least 1 million 459 thousand dollars and 1 million 45 thousand 100 Finnish marks were pulled from the corporation's accounts to 11 Finnish companies (see diagram). So, I think, “to give Putin V.V. $1,160” (as stated on the pay slip) and taking him to Finland, putting him up in a five-star hotel overlooking the bay, was a no-brainer.

Putin in the act of auditors

Once again, Vladimir Putin is mentioned in the materials of the criminal case in the 52-page act of the financial audit of the corporation's activities. The act was signed by five controllers-auditors of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg. We are talking about the allocation of money to the corporation under a plausible pretext to organize the rest of St. Petersburg veterans in Spain:

“The General Director of OJSC“ Twentieth Trust ”Nikeshin S.N. a letter No. 73 dated 09.02.96 was sent to the address of the acting mayor Putin V.V. with a commercial proposal for the organization of recreation for participants in the Great Patriotic War and veterans of labor in Spain on the basis of the apartment hotel (“La Paloma”) commissioned in 1995 in Torrevieja. V.V. Putin issued Decree No. 529-r dated May 23, 1996 “On the organization of recreation for veterans of the Great Patriotic War of St. Petersburg in Spain”, which instructed: The Committee for Economics and Finance to provide funding for this event.”

Such a "commercial offer" simply could not be refused. The total contract amount was 4.0 billion non-denominated rubles (approximately $800,000). Further, the auditors said: “In violation of the agreement, the list of people going on vacation to Spain includes citizens who are not related to either veterans of the Second World War or to the number of scientists and artists. Head of the Department of the Federal Treasury Karetin V.N. with two family members, the chairman of the board of directors of OJSC "Twentieth Trust" Kamaletdinov R. with two family members, the head of UNR-10 Voronoy A. with three family members, the vice-president of OJSC "Corporation Twentieth Trust" Moloshnikov G.S. ".

Vyacheslav Karetin is still the head of the Federal Treasury Department of the RF Ministry of Finance for St. Petersburg. According to another audit by the Control and Auditing Department of the Ministry of Finance, Karetin was just responsible for the period when the Twentieth Trust corporations transferred another 1 billion 980 million non-denominated rubles with change. Around the same time, as noted in the document, salaries were delayed by up to 36 days in the city.

In July 2001, President Vladimir Putin awarded Karetin the Order of Honor.

Other persons involved

Other officials mentioned in the materials of the criminal case are no less representative.

Alexei Kudrin (now Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation) headed the Finance Committee of the administration of St. Petersburg. Dimitri Pankin and Jeannette Crolley were Vice Chairs. Nadezhda Savolainen - chief accountant of the committee. In this capacity, they appeared in the act of the inspection carried out on behalf of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (dated October 5, 1999). The auditor of the KRU of the Ministry of Finance looked at what loans (loans) were provided by the Finance Committee of the St. Petersburg mayor's office to the Twentieth Trust corporation.

Strange was the fact that credits were granted at all. The investigative papers clearly stated: “From the materials of the case, it is seen that the Corporation, being joint stock company without the state's share in the statutory fund, in violation of the Government Decree and Central Bank The Russian Federation received loans on favorable terms, did not return them, and sent the funds received to commercial banks, transferred them to various foreign firms, and made other unreasonable expenses.

Nevertheless, according to the act of audit, Alexei Kudrin signed agreements with the president of the corporation, Nikeshin, on the provision of loans. And the chief accountant of the Committee of Finance, Nadezhda Savolainen, and the deputy chairman of the committee, Dmitry Pankin and Jeanette Crolly, put their signatures on payment orders for which money was allocated. In this simple way, a private corporation received public funds equal to approximately $4.5 million. At the same time, houses and architectural monuments were destroyed in St. Petersburg, enterprises stood idle and did not pay salaries to state employees.

All the listed people from the list, as you can see, did not remain on the sidelines of the civil service. With the rise of Vladimir Putin, Alexei Kudrin became finance minister. Nadezhda Savolainen managed to work both as the head of a department at RAO UES and as a deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Federal Treasury. And in the end, she became deputy director of the administrative department of the Ministry of Finance. Dmitry Pankin is also in the Ministry of Finance, responsible for international financial relations, public debt and public financial assets. Quite recently, Prime Minister Fradkov appointed him also the deputy plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation on the board of the Interstate Bank. Jeanette Crolli has been an adviser to the manager of Vneshtorgbank until recently.

I think that the fact that they are mentioned in the Twentieth Trust criminal case, along with the current president of the Russian Federation, only benefited them.

For example, on October 11, 1999, the head of the Main Department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for Moscow received a request (No. 17 / sch-8005) from the investigating authorities in criminal case No. 144128 to check personal accounts and rented bank cells of Kudrin A.L. and Kudrina V.O. But the investigation was not allowed to check the Kudrins. By a letter from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the request was canceled with the wording “data of Kudrin A.A. and Kudrina V.O. the investigator indicated erroneously, since they are not related to the case under investigation.”

Further down the list. According to the “Plan of investigative actions and operational-search measures in criminal case No. 144128”, approved on July 27, 1999, Nadezhda Savinskaya, the head of the main department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg, and Sergey Belyaev were to be interrogated. They were members of the lending committee. Sergei Belyaev is a famous person. In 1991, he headed the St. Petersburg City Property Management Committee, in 1995 he headed the State Property Committee, and became Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government.

And he was also mentioned in connection with another infamous Putin case. Belyaev and Putin were named as members of the Supervisory Board of SPAG in an advertising brochure published on behalf of the company in 1992. SPAG was often talked about in connection with the German investigation on suspicion of money laundering against one of the founders and shareholders (New No. 18).

Meanwhile, the multi-page act of revision, which we have quoted more than once, did not bypass the Kremlin either. The auditors noted: “The Twentieth Trust Corporation entered into an unnumbered agreement dated January 25, 1994 (signed by S.N. Nikeshin) with the General Representative of the Association “White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg” in Los Angeles (V.V. Kiselev ) about marketing research and joint activities for the organization and holding of the international festival of arts in St. Petersburg in 1994.

Under this agreement, the Corporation (which had no unused profits and other sources of funds) committed to provide financing in the amount of $250,000. . In total, 173 thousand dollars were transferred.” Vladimir Kiselyov, who tried to entertain Peter from Los Angeles, needs no introduction. He is now the head of the State Unitary Enterprise "Kremlin" of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.

Indirectly, the act of revision also affected other, even more famous statesmen. As the auditors noted, in December 1993, the City Property Management Committee (KUGI) of the St. Petersburg administration transferred the Twentieth Trust corporation for repair and reconstruction of the building (Vladimirsky, 19). The corporation managed to pay the "contractor" $470,000 without auditing the authenticity of his documents. Real capital investments, according to auditors, were an order of magnitude less. And the money went to firms in Germany, Finland and the USA. Under an agreement with the KUGI, the corporation had to transfer to the city at least 1,000 sq. m. meters of living space. The auditors stated that this obligation has not been fulfilled. But "Kugi did not present any claims to the Corporation for the unfulfilled terms of the contract." That is, he did not demand any money, or apartments, or other satisfaction.

In 1994 - 1997, the director of the real estate department, the first deputy chairman of the KUGI was German Gref - the current head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.

The auditors also found one curious posting concerning, oddly enough, the elections. That is, the corporation also financed election campaigns: “Under an agreement with CJSC Premier dated September 22, 1994, and an act of acceptance and delivery of work, 73,998.8 thousand rubles were paid for commercials on the topic “Elections”. There were many elections during that period. In the spring of 1994 - to the Legislative Assembly, in December 1995 - to the State Duma. And in 1995 - 1996, Putin and Kudrin led the campaign headquarters of Anatoly Sobchak.

But here it is not even the elections themselves that are important, but the organization that was paid money for commercials. AOZT "Premier-SV" was a very close partner famous company Video International. And she became famous for the fact that in 1991 she was created by Mikhail Lesin - later the Minister of Press of the Russian Federation, deputy director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.

Now Mikhail Lesin is an adviser to President Vladimir Putin, also, we recall, noted in the act of auditors and in a criminal case. Lesin prepares analytical, reference, informational materials and recommendations for the president on the development of the media.

Money flow scheme

Most of the money, judging by the materials of the criminal case, came from the Twentieth Trust Corporation through Finland and Germany. Even the Spanish firm and the Irish offshore had bank accounts in Helsinki. The currency account from which the money of the corporation came was in the German Dresdner Bank. However, we are already accustomed to the long-standing German business ties of Russian high-ranking officials. But why Finland? Why were there most of the firms that received money from the corporation? And why exactly did the head of the Twentieth Trust and Putin himself go there?

Our experts put forward a curious, albeit theoretical, suggestion. If you move money through banks, financial transactions can be traced even after many years. In addition, St. Petersburg residents were strangers at the celebration of the life of Moscow laundries. What to do? There is a very simple way: it is impossible to track what was carried across the border in a suitcase. So, Finland, bordering Russia, could become a kind of quiet and calm distribution center, from where the cash would be transported already to other countries of the world. We emphasize: this is just an assumption, but there is a rational grain in it.

Who will plant them, they are monuments?

Of course, criminal case No. 144128 was terminated. Here is what Andrey Zykov, a former senior investigator of the Investigation Department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, the head of one of the groups in the investigation of the criminal case of the Twentieth Trust Corporation, later - a senior investigator for especially important cases of the department for investigating crimes in the field of corruption and the economy, says about this Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, now retired:

When a man from Moscow was sent to us in November 1999, we realized that the criminal case would be dropped. They knew that they had dug very deep, and there was even an interest in understanding: how are they going to cover up all this? When they tried to press us, we found more and more evidence. As part of the investigation, international requests were sent to Spain. Requests were prepared for the USA, Canada, Israel and Finland. But the case was closed, and we were not allowed to send them.

I personally saw five versions of the decision to terminate this criminal case (it was intensively edited). And all of them completely did not correspond to the materials that we managed to collect. But the case was nevertheless buried on August 30, 2000 with the knowledge of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.

This case was initiated on the basis of materials provided by the senior detective of the anti-corruption department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, Oleg Kalinichenko. It was he who insisted that serious work be started on his materials. After the case was closed, given that other high-profile criminal cases were initiated based on Oleg’s materials (in particular, the Sobchak case), he was put under very serious pressure. In the summer of 2001, he called me and said that he had to quit. And then he disappeared. It was only from his mother that I learned that he had gone to a monastery. I went to him. He has a modern cell with a telephone. We spoke. He said that he was tired of all this: the materials in which such names sound are still doomed, so he erased all the information in his computer about those who are now in Moscow and does not want to talk about this topic anymore.

Apparently, the unifying and organizing force in the form of criminal cases and some mutual secret knowledge about each other in the Russian leadership is quite large. Of course, it is unlikely that this force can contribute to the emergence in Russia of an independent prosecutor's office or court necessary for sustainable development business and economy. But this situation has already generated a national idea. It has become ideologically correct to shout that Western prosecutors are harming Russia when they try to understand where the millions of dollars in the accounts of its officials came from.

And another phenomenon. Small-scale people have become Russian top managers. At first, they were not connected at all by blood, not by billions of dollars, and not even by deeds, but by deeds. And one could evaluate this positively - after all, the level of mutual obligations is not the same: how can the joint collection of “little things” bring them together for the rest of your life? It turns out it can. And this trifle, oddly enough, created a new state elite for us.

P.S. We sent inquiries to a number of officials mentioned in the material. They did not comment on the situation.

“Case of XX Trust”, or “Case of Putin”, or Case No. 144128

In 1999, the Department for the Investigation of Organized Crime of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region initiated criminal case No. 144128 on suspicion of the leaders of the Twentieth Trust corporation of embezzling funds on a large scale.

Investigator Andrey Zubov, who was entrusted with the investigation, suggests that the case “…was initiated, since then no one expected that such high-ranking persons would be suspects. They thought that a small fry would be involved in the case ... ”(1).

Perhaps the investigator simply did not realize that the St. Petersburg ill-wishers of Sobchak, Putin and Kudrin from the entourage of Governor Yakovlev, who knew perfectly well what names the investigation would come up with if they "dig", could well have initiated the investigation.

The main defendant in the case was a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Sergei Nikeshin, the founder and chairman of the board of directors of the corporation. Corporation "Twentieth Trust" (since 1995 - "Construction and Financial Corporation "Twentieth Trust"), which arose in 1992 as a rental company on the basis of one of the state construction trusts. The corporation became widely known in the early 90s for large-scale ambitious projects that remained not only unrealized, but also not started. The most famous of these projects is the construction of a skyscraper - the Peter the Great Tower business center, 133 meters high, on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. The decision to build the Tower was made by the mayor of St. Petersburg A. Sobchak in 1992, by the order of the mayor, a building site was allocated. total cost the project was estimated at 120-130 million dollars, the completion of construction was planned in 1996. In 1996, an inspection of the KRU of the Ministry of Finance revealed facts of violations of the law when allocating budget funds to the corporation and during their development. There were a number of litigations, but Nikeshin's company evaded responsibility by creating subsidiary, which is not the successor of the Twentieth Trust and is not liable for its debts. By the end of 1997, the debt of the Twentieth Trust was estimated at 100 billion rubles. The case involved not only the deputy Nikeshin, but also a number of officials (2).

One of these officials was former chairman Committee on Foreign Relations (FAC) of the St. Petersburg City Hall, Vladimir Putin, who on October 20, 1992 signed the certificate of registration of the Twentieth Trust corporation and further patronized this company.

At the end of 1993, a loan of 2.5 billion rubles was issued from the corporation's budget for the construction of the Peter the Great business center in St. Petersburg. It was V. Putin who petitioned for the allocation of money - "as an exception" - at only 6% per annum (then the annual rate on loans and advances reached 200%). As collateral for this loan and other loans from the budget, the corporation presented 55 cars (mostly foreign cars).

In November 1995, at Putin's direction, another 415 million rubles (more than $200,000) were allocated from the St. Petersburg budget to Twentieth Trust for the reconstruction of the Gornensky Monastery in Israel. About 20 Russian builders went to Israel.

Subsequently, state auditors did not find any acts on the repair and reconstruction of the monastery. However, a letter was found sent on October 21, 1995 by Nikeshin, in which the president of the Twentieth Trust thanked First Vice Mayor Putin for financial assistance in the 1994–1995 years. repair and restoration work in Jerusalem and asks Putin for financial assistance for their continuation from the mayor's contingency fund (on the letter - Putin's resolution: "Agreed" (3).

Even before the criminal investigation of 1999-2000, from December 12, 1996 to April 7, 1997, the Control and Auditing Department (KRU) of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg conducted an audit of the activities of the Twentieth Trust in 1993-1996.

In addition to the Peter the Great Tower, KRU was interested in payments from the Twentieth Trust for the "preparatory activities" of the White Nights of St. Petersburg festival (headed by Vasily Kiselev), marketing services» Western companies, as well as joint real estate transactions with Lenvest LLC (owner Vladimir Kolovay).

The chief controller-auditor of KRU Vasily Kabachinov came to the conclusion:

“The corporation, being a commercial firm, received loans from the city budget and funds from special funds on favorable terms, did not return them, and sent the funds received to commercial banks to deposit accounts, transferred to various foreign companies for purposes not related to the main activity, produced and other unreasonable expenses...

... As of January 1, 1997, the corporation's debt to the city budget is 28 billion 455 million 700 thousand rubles ... ”Out of 55 foreign cars, only 22 (4) were found.

The Twentieth Trust transferred funds through the currency account of St. Petersburg Dresdner Bank, beloved by Putin, which headed former employee Stasi Marias Warnig. Funds were transferred primarily to Finland and Spain. In the Spanish resort town of Torrevieja, two apartment hotels of the La Paloma tourist complex were built. In the city of Quesada, the villa "Dona Pepa" was purchased (area of 203 sq. m with a plot of 1000 sq. m). Commissioned by the Twentieth Trust, a "research on real estate markets" was conducted in Europe and California (5).

In the fall of 1995, Vladimir Putin arrived in Torrevieja for the first time, together with Nikeshin's assistant Pyotr Andrushevich.

Since then, he has come to Spain more than once - including, already when he was the director of the FSB, he met in 1999 at the resort of Sotogrando with Boris Berezovsky (6).

According to the Spanish press, between 1996 and 2000, Putin visited the Torrevieja region in Spain 37 times. “Apparently, he went to his mansion,” suggests investigator Andrei Zubov. - At the same time, Putin crossed the border on fake passports. Spain knew this, but also knew who he was (then Putin was already the director of the FSB). Scandals international level were not needed" (7).

Case No. 144128, opened in June 1999, two months before Putin's appointment as prime minister, was officially closed already under President Putin, on August 31, 2000. Investigator Andrei Zykov was soon retired. The most active opera from Zykov's team, Oleg Kalinichenko, was fired from the police in 2001 and two months later took the monastic vows. The financial controller-auditor, Vasily Kabachinov, who was in charge of the XX Trust in 1996-97, died in 1999 for an unknown reason, leaving a widow and two children in a difficult financial situation (which is relatively rare for the heirs of financial department officials). The Governor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev, took care of the fate of the widow and children, signing a special order 125-r dated February 7, 2000, by which he appointed “to the wife of Kabachinov Vasily Vasilyevich Itsich Irena Borislavovna from January 1, 2000, a monthly payment of 10 minimum wages in addition to the pension received for loss of a breadwinner."

According to The New Times magazine, Dmitry Medvedev had a certain relationship with Nikeshin and XX Trust Corporation. “A source who wished to remain anonymous told The New Times that it was Medvedev who carried out Vladimir Putin’s orders to transfer funds to various construction projects.

In those days, they say, the head of the corporation, Sergei Nikeshin, could easily call the future president of Russia and inform him of the need to transfer the amount of several million dollars to restore an Orthodox church in Greece. Medvedev controlled this transfer. Nothing is known about the fate of this money. Money left through the famous bank "Russia" of the Kovalchuk brothers. The bank's office was located on the ground floor of Smolny, and, according to sources for The New Times, investors who turned to Vladimir Putin could get approval for their project only on one condition: everything had to be carried out through Rossiya Bank. (eight).

Notes

1) Oleg Mukhin. Interview. Andrey Zykov, former investigator for particularly important cases: We were told that no criminal case was being conducted against the president // ZAKS. ru, September 6, 2011. http://www.zaks.ru/new/archive/view/83713 http://www.anticompromat. org/putin/XXtrest04zykov.html

2) Tatyana Drabkina. St. Petersburg in March 1999. / / Political monitoring of the Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies (IGPI), 1999, March.

5) Roman Shleynoe. Criminal cases in which Vladimir Putin was mentioned explain the personnel policy of the President. They can be used as a directory of the current authorities of the Russian Federation. // Novaya Gazeta, No. 73 of October 3, 2005.

6) Anton Ivanitsky. Operation XX Trust. Why did V.V. Putin illegally visit Spain?//Novaya Gazeta 11.09.2000.

7) Oleg Mukhin. Interview. Andrey Zykov, former investigator for particularly important cases: We were told that no criminal case was being conducted against the president // ZAKS. ru, September 6, 2011. http:// www.zaks.ru/new/archive/view/83713 http://www.anticompromat. org/putin/XXtrest04zykov.html

8) Vitaly Kamyshev, Andrey Kolesnikov. President of the Albany Federation. Who is Mr Medvedev? //The New Times, No. 15, May 21, 2007; Ilya Barabanov. Chicks of Petrov's nest. //"The New Times" No. 18/43, 11.06.2007.

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15 years ago, the Twentieth Trust corporation was established in St. Petersburg. On October 20, 1992, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee (FAC) of the City Hall, Vladimir Putin, signed the certificate of registration of the corporation. The company was headed by Sergei Nikeshin, who currently sits in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and represents United Russia.

In 1999, in connection with the activities of the corporation, criminal case No. 144128 was opened, which was closed on August 30, 2000 (after Vladimir Putin came to the Kremlin). Soon one of the investigators who worked on the case of the corporation, Oleg Kalinichenko, went to the monastery. Another, Andrey Zykov, was retired.

As the investigation managed to find out then, in 1993 alone, about $4.5 million went to the corporation’s accounts from the city budget, as well as from a special off-budget fund created by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. According to data that investigators failed to prove, the laundered amounts amounted to tens of millions of dollars. On the case of the "Twentieth Trust" and involvement in financial fraud companies of representatives of the current Russian leadership in the early 2000s wrote Novaya Gazeta. She reported that the corporation, which was officially involved in the construction, reconstruction and repair of facilities in Russia and abroad, was unjustifiably allocated large loans by the St. The response to the post was silence.

Dacha, apartment, - disappeared - budgets

The materials of investigations into the activities of the head of the FAC Vladimir Putin in the 1990s concerned not only the work of the Twentieth Trust corporation. At various times, scandals arose around the name of the future president related to the illegal acquisition of a dacha near St. Petersburg, fraud in the housing sector, and theft of budget money allocated for the purchase of food. The case with the disappearance of government quotas for the purchase of food abroad by the city administration caused the greatest resonance. In a report prepared in 1992 by a group of deputies headed by Marina Salye and Yuri Gladkov, quite unambiguous conclusions were drawn: “The FAC of the St. a well-founded conclusion about the incompetence of the leadership of the FAC of the St. Petersburg mayor's office in resolving the issues entrusted to them. The document ends with recommendations to other deputies of the legislative assembly to transfer the collected materials to the prosecutor's office and remove Vladimir Putin from his post. But in 1992, the deputies failed to remove Putin. The mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, openly patronized him and did not give offense to his assistant.

From the materials of the criminal case given to The New Times by Andrey Zykov, a former senior investigator of the Investigation Department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, the head of one of the groups in the investigation of the criminal case of the Twentieth Trust Corporation, who was retired after case No. 144128 was closed:

“About Putin, sources said that he currently works in the St. Petersburg mayor's office, is the head of the committee on foreign economic relations. He is usually busy at work throughout the day, leaving home around 8:00 and returning at various evening hours. Where and how he spends his free time is unknown. For trips to and from work, he uses a foreign-made company car with a driver. During his stay at the verification address, Putin has established himself as a calm, secretive person. He communicates with the residents of the house only as necessary, when meeting with them he confines himself to greetings, enters into conversations reluctantly, answers questions in monosyllables, and does not talk about himself. He did not develop friendly, trusting relationships with anyone around him. Unauthorized persons rarely visit the verification address. In the apartment they are from 1 to 4 hours. Sources suggest that these people are either Putin's colleagues at work or related to him by occupation. Their installation data is unknown. Financially, the family of the person being checked is provided at a good level. Before moving into the apartment, an expensive repair was made in it, imported furniture was brought in ... "

"Outsiders" - in ministerial - offices

Many officials who were related to the Twentieth Trust Corporation made rapid careers. The New Times has already written about one of them (see No. 15 of May 21) associated with First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who was involved in serious financial flows controlled by the foreign relations committee. A source who wished to remain anonymous told The New Times that it was Medvedev who carried out Vladimir Putin's instructions to transfer funds to various construction projects. In those days, they say, the head of the corporation, Sergei Nikeshin, could easily call the future president of Russia and inform him of the need to transfer the amount of several million dollars to restore an Orthodox church in Greece. Medvedev controlled this transfer. Nothing is known about the fate of this money. Money left through the famous bank "Russia" of the Kovalchuk brothers. The bank's office was located on the first floor of Smolny, and, according to sources for The New Times, investors who turned to Vladimir Putin could get approval for their project only on one condition: everything had to be carried out through the Rossiya bank.

The list of VIPs involved in the affairs of the corporation does not end there. Under the documents on the allocation of loans to the "Twentieth Trust" from the mayor's office, there is the signature of the current Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, who then headed the finance committee of the administration of St. Petersburg. As follows from the materials of the criminal case, the corporation received loans on favorable terms, and transferred the funds received to the accounts of various foreign companies. Together with Kudrin, his deputy Dmitry Pankin, who in those early years put his signature on payment orders for which money was allocated, also moved to Moscow for promotion. At the moment, Pankin is still working in conjunction with Kudrin, holding the post of director of the department of international financial relations, public debt and state financial assets of the RF Ministry of Finance.

Rapid careers were made not only by Kudrin's subordinates, but also by employees of Putin's committee on foreign relations. The statutory documents of the Twentieth Trust Construction and Financial Corporation, which are at the disposal of The New Times, bear the seals of the FAC. The charter of the corporation was registered by the head of the registration department of the FAC Albert Stepanov. Having moved to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin did not forget about this colleague either. At the moment, Stepanov is in charge of the Department of Finance and is a member of the Standing Committee of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. Director of the Registration Chamber of the St. Petersburg City Hall Sergey Movchan, who in 1996 re-registered founding documents Corporation, until recently led the Federal Registration Service. In April 2007, however, Vladimir Putin dismissed Movchan. According to information in a number of media, Movchan should become the first (that is, chief) auditor of the Accounts Chamber, but so far the official has not received a new appointment.

The leaders of the corporation were less fortunate. With the exception of Nikeshin, who sits in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, traces of most of the members of the leadership are lost. Yevgeny Yurkevich, who in 1993 was a member of the leadership of the Twentieth Trust, chose to leave the business, concentrating on a scientific career. Now Yurkevich is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, candidate of technical sciences, a member of the International Academy of Informatization and Forecasting. Vladimir Gaidei, who was on the board of the trust, after Vladimir Putin came to the presidency in June 2000, became deputy chairman of the finance committee of the administration of St. Petersburg, and is currently the first deputy chairman of the housing committee. Directly in the construction industry, only one of the leaders of the Twentieth Trust remained. At one time, the corporation became famous for its promise to build the Tower of Peter the Great on Vasilevsky Island, which was supposed to be the first skyscraper in St. Petersburg, more than a decade ahead of the scandal flaring up today around the construction of the Gazprom City tower in the city. Nothing remains of that project now, except for a fence around an empty construction site and memories of the missing two and a half billion rubles allocated from the city budget.

But that construction cannot be considered stopped. One of the leaders of the Twentieth Trust, Ravil Kamaletdinov, is now building "elite residential complexes", being the director of economics and business processes of the RBI holding. On the company's official website in the "Golden Thoughts" section, the visitor can read a quote by Friedrich W.-I. Schelling: "Architecture is frozen music." But if little is known about frozen music, then all participants in the Twentieth Trust operation know perfectly well how and in whose accounts the allocated budget funds freeze.