Source Head of the fuel and energy committee of the Leningrad Region, Yuri Andreev, is not the last “effective manager” that interested the authorities. Over the past few years, three top managers from the fuel and energy region have been arrested in the Leningrad Region at once, which, apparently, is a trend not a coincidence. The last was the head of the fuel and energy committee, Yuri Andreev. Analysts in the 47th region note: this area in the Leningrad region is almost the most thieving in the economy, because heat is hard to calculate, but easy to master.
Tribute from contractors?
Yuri Andreev was detained by the FSB in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, and then arrested by the Oktyabrsky Court of St. Petersburg until at least February 7, 2023. Charge – taking a bribe on an especially large scale – Part 6 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, namely 26 million rubles. According to the investigation, “Andreev instructed the director of the Center for Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency in the Leningrad Region, Pavel Dudkevich, to receive money from contractors that carried out work under the Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency Improvement Program in the Leningrad Region.”
Andreev was arrested in December, but Dudkevich was arrested in October and began to give confessions, actively cooperating with the investigation and FSB operatives. According to the correspondent of Our Version from the fourth service of the “office”, which, in particular, is engaged in combating corruption in government bodies, Dudkevich “was not the first to get into the fuel and energy development, about the facts of bribes and abuse of office in the GKU Center for Energy Saving and improvement of the energy efficiency of the Leningrad region” became known from the complaints of certain entrepreneurs, officials of the districts, whose names will not be announced before the trial.
For now, let's note the following facts: Andreev, unlike Dudkevich, did not admit his guilt; as far as it is known, but not documented, but so far according to insiders, the fact of corrupt negotiations is in the form of an audio recording; the investigation is only gaining momentum, because testimony is taken, in fact, from the victims – employees of the municipalities of the Leningrad region, employees of district administrations.
Money from the bottom up
Now to the specifics. According to investigators, the fraudulent formula was as follows. In the Leningrad Region, a scheme has been operating for several years to install automated individual heating points (AITP) in apartment buildings: the service is provided by commercial enterprises, and contracts with them are concluded by municipalities, management companies and district administrations. Allegedly, in order to get a government contract, it was necessary to “bring it in” to officials and deputies, and they, in turn, sent a percentage up, it turns out, to employees of the Leningrad region government. And not the latest, it turns out.
As the Quartet operatives say, tribute was levied once a year, “and Andreev’s tax was a little more than a quarter of a billion rubles, although this is far from the final amount, the investigation is still in the middle of the road.” There is also a hint here that, perhaps, Yuri Andreev also shared with someone? After all, the program “Energy Saving and Energy Efficiency in the Leningrad Region” is a regional one, and the players involved in it are not only local, but also from St. Petersburg. Moreover, the specific bribe alleged to Andreev concerns only 2019, and only three districts of the 47th region – Gatchinsky, Priozersky and Vsevolozhsky. But we can assume that the scheme concerned the entire region of 17 districts, and how many participants could be in it! For the investigation – no end of work, expanse …
A profitable business
The fuel and energy complex and throughout our cold country is a rather corruption-intensive area, just look at the list of numerous criminal cases. And we can assume that they are excited in very egregious cases. But if we talk specifically about the Leningrad region, then loud arrests in the field of “lukewarm” business are no longer surprising. For example, in August of this, Sergey Kharlashkin, deputy chairman of the local government in the field of transport and fuel and energy complex, was arrested. Article – excess of official powers with causing grave consequences of paragraph “c”, part 2 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As part of this criminal case, another bigwig of regional importance, Vyacheslav Urusov, head of the Transport Construction Directorate, was also taken into custody.
Andrei Gavrilov was under investigation because of possible bribes received in the Boksitogorsk district of the Leningrad region. A year later, law enforcement officers had claims against the vice-governor of the Leningrad Region Oleg Koval, who oversaw the fuel and energy complex and housing and communal services, but this did not result in a criminal case.
St. Petersburg political scientist Vladimir Bolshekov characterizes the latest and not the last criminals in the fuel and energy sector: “It is not called a lukewarm business by chance. There are big opportunities for big theft. Good deal, klondike! In the Leningrad region, unlike St. Petersburg, there is a huge number of private sector houses, and buildings in general, that are not connected to central heating. Accordingly, various schemes are needed to provide heat, and where there are schemes, there is a mycelium for various fraud, which, by the way, is not so easy to prove. Heat consumption, calculations, prices in this market are not fixed, there is a backlash for a significant exaggeration of heat costs. I won’t talk specifically about the criminal cases of the last year – you need to know the materials in detail. I will say that it will not be procedurally difficult for the investigation to work with a bribe – either there is a documented fact of receiving it, or not. But with theft in the heat supply is much more difficult, it requires specialized experts, universal counting systems. And this problem is not of a specific region, but of the whole country.”
An expert in the field of housing and communal services, who asked not to be named, is completely categorical: “Until there are state structures, as in Soviet times, that are responsible for Fuel and energy complex from and to, there will be a niche, a gap for intermediaries, and these are “kickbacks”. Well, inevitably. The task of the state is not just to produce various “gaskets” that only suck money from the population, but to establish a transparent system, when everyone from the outside can see what is being done, by whom, how and for how much.
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