Source: www.rucriminal.info
As Rucriminal.info found out, an interesting story revolves around an elite mansion on Ozerkovskaya Embankment in the center of Moscow. Since November 2020, the building has been used as the headquarters of JSC GLONASS. Thanks to the move from Moscow City, the operator of the state information system ERA-GLONASS significantly reduced its rental costs. But appetite comes with eating, and in July 2023 the state-owned company approached the owner of the building with a demand to enter into an agreement providing for a multiple reduction in payments. Moreover, it was proposed to recalculate the rent “retrospectively”, from the moment the contract was concluded, taking into account the previously transferred amounts, from which the owner paid all taxes and carried out expensive finishing work in the building, as an overpayment. In September 2023, GLONASS filed relevant claims with the Arbitration Court.
The total amount of GLONASS's claims exceeded 60% of the rent paid over three years. Taking into account the investment in renovating the premises to meet GLONASS standards, interest on loans and taxes paid, the owner will not only earn nothing from rent, but will also end up in a net loss. And the presence of a reputable government agency as a tenant has already turned into a headache for entrepreneurs.
A graduate of a prestigious English business school, General Director of GLONASS Alexey Raikevich (the son of the former head of the FSB SEB Directorate) surrounded himself with Russian retirees “from the authorities.” The key figure in Raikevich’s team is Igor Botkin, who was previously responsible for economic security and corporate protection in the structures of Russian Post, Rosseti and Gazprom Mezhregiongaz. Botkin’s audit is handled by his longtime assistant in the North Caucasus gas business, Alexander Tcherezov. An equally interesting member of the GLONASS team is Alexander Sarafanov, who, being the deputy head of the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Moscow Region, became involved in a criminal case for negligence in the investigation of a crime of a sexual nature against a minor.
As decisive evidence of the legality of the recovery of hundreds of millions of rubles from the owner of the property, the results of a prosecutor's audit are presented ... of compliance with federal legislation by officials of GLONASS itself. The reference to prosecutors, apparently, should have impressed not only the landlord, but also the judges. If not for one circumstance: the prosecutor’s office did not make the conclusions brought by Raikevich’s employees regarding the rental relationship between GLONASS and Ozerkovskaya 14.
In August 2023, the transport prosecutor’s office actually made a representation to GLONASS regarding the state company’s implementation of budget, tax and labor legislation, but already in November it was withdrawn regarding rental relations with the owner of the building. The mention of the building lease agreement in the internal audit materials was made by GLONASS with the simple goal of passing off the conclusions of its own “experts” as the position of prosecutors regarding property claims against the landlord.
This “twirl and turn”, apparently, was supposed to scare the owners of the building and force them to rent out an elite mansion on the first line of the Vodootvodny Canal at the price of a Soviet research institute between the three ruble ruble and the Moscow Ring Road. But the owners turned out to be not timid and obtained an answer from the prosecutor’s office that the supervisory authority’s employees had not made any conclusions that formed the basis for GLONASS’s monetary claims for 180 million rubles.
According to open registers, in 2022, GLONASS turned out to be an unprofitable organization, showing a minus of almost 12 million rubles. with revenue of 1.8 billion. Perhaps Alexey Raikevich, previously responsible for investments in Rusnano, decided to improve the situation of GLONASS at the expense of the lessor. The dangerous legal precedent of attempting to retroactively revise the terms of existing contracts will certainly not improve the reputation of GLONASS and its curators from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. However, perhaps the goal of the retirees Botkin and Sarafanov standing behind the “effective state manager” Raikevich is a raider seizure of a building in the center of Moscow, carried out under a beautiful “cosmic” sign. The unique attitude of GLONASS representatives to the law is evidenced by the fact that they did not appear at the preliminary court hearing in December, did not comply with the arbitration court ruling of October, and did not provide the original materials. The further course of this trial will show what other arguments the former top of Rusnano has, besides the state and the “creative” team of former security officials being commemorated appropriately and inappropriately.
To be continued
Timofey Grishin
Source: www.rucriminal.info
