The Kemerovo region has again found itself at the center of a brewing scandal, which is making local authorities quite nervous. It is no secret to anyone in the region that, starting in 2018, Governor Sergei Tsivilev has been promoting a project to develop the Sheregesh tourism cluster, within which it is planned to invest billions of rubles in the construction of the airport and the communications surrounding it. Since the end of 2021, this news has been a reason for PR for regional and federal officials, as an agreement was finally reached with the investor company Novaport, controlled by the international corporation AEON of oligarch Roman Trotsenko. Details at Rucriminal.info.
Initially, Trotsenko stated that Novaport is ready to finance the design of the runway using its own funds, which will subsequently be an object of federal property, and therefore funds for their construction, reconstruction and design are usually allocated from the federal budget. In October 2022, Kemerovo International Airport named after Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov LLC (part of the Novaport INVEST group of companies) announced a tender for the development of an airport construction project in Sheregesh. The initial cost of the contract was 401 million rubles; during the auction it decreased to 336.4 million. The winner of the tender was Moscow-based Spectrum-Holding LLC.
It is worth noting that last year Trotsenko became the hero of a scandal after a “leaked” conversation between him and Nikolai Matushevsky, where they openly condemned Putin’s policies, and therefore his further course of development of Novaport projects becomes unpredictable.
In fact, the Trotsenko corporation, which operates in Ukraine, Germany, Holland, and Kazakhstan, buys assets at a deep discount in order not to develop them, but to pump out the remaining resources from them. This is evidenced not only by the depressing state of airports in the same Minvody and Stavropol, but also by the fact that Roman Trotsenko intends to invest 80 billion rubles in the UAE air harbor. The airport in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah is considered promising, since the country's first casino should appear here.
Also from reliable sources, Trotsenko tried to obtain subsidies for the reconstruction of his existing airports from the state, for which, by attracting Spectrum-Holding LLC, he is developing beautiful multi-billion dollar projects for the Mineralnye Vody International Airport (2019–2020) and the Stavropol International Airport (2019–2021). The state of these airports is not much of a secret, which creates favorable conditions for attempts to obtain government subsidies, which he so needs to develop his business abroad.
Everything is aggravated by the attention to this project from Putin, who, following a meeting with members of the Russian government held on August 16, 2023, gave instructions to begin implementation of measures for the construction of airfield facilities at Sheregesh Airport no later than 2025. Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin and Sergey Evgenievich Tsivilev were appointed responsible persons with interim reports until June 15, 2024 and February 15, 2025.
According to the source of Rucriminal.info, taking into account Trotsenko’s change of focus from business development in Russia to investing in foreign assets, not even the engineering and geological surveys necessary to begin design work were completed during the year, as evidenced by photographs of the areas where construction is planned airport.
At the same time, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, planned to complete the design of the airport in 2023 and even begin its construction at the end of 2023 and at the beginning of 2024. Investments in the construction of the terminal complex were preliminary estimated at 8 billion rubles, the runway - from 6.5 billion to 8 billion rubles. The final cost will be determined after completion of the design work.
It is noteworthy that Kemerovo International Airport named after Alexey Arkhipovich Leonov LLC, which has an encumbrance in the form of pledge agreement No. 7506-ZD-1 dated 07/15/2020, concludes another pledge agreement No. 7506-Z-1 on 08/05/2022 to secure production equipment . This is a consequence of Roman Trotsenko’s policy of actively siphoning funds from controlled enterprises.
In December 2023, Spectrum-Holding LLC was suspended from carrying out design work with the subsequent transfer of all materials to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise GPI and the Research Institute of Civil Aviation "Aeroproekt". This decision is supposedly a guarantee of advance payment for construction work at the expense of public funds, which Roman Trotsenko is not averse to using for the implementation of other projects. Given the delayed deadlines, the implementation of this scheme may not attract the attention of law enforcement officers at all.
All that remains is to wait for another high-profile event that will overshadow the previously hyped “cutting” of funds by the Kuzbass Administration for the purchase and installation of a New Year’s tree in the regional center.
To be continued
Roman Trushkin
Source: www.rucriminal.info
