Source: www.rucriminal.info

The winners in the category “Commercial infrastructure of residential complexes” in the XXI Annual Moscow Commercial Real Estate Awards 2024 were the blocks of the scandalous residential complex “Symbol”, built by the company “Donstroy”, owned by VTB Bank.

Various media outlets have repeatedly written about the scandals in this residential complex, so it is not surprising that it was the “Symbol” objects that became the winners in the nomination. Construction bonuses in most cases are bought by developers, and the capabilities and connections of the banker of the head of VTB Andrei Kostin allow this to be done in order to remove the negative trail of “Symbol”. Details at Rucriminal.info.

The residential complex was built on the site of the former Serp i Molot plant, which raised the question of the environmental safety of the facility. The workers also came across an old cemetery; some buildings of the “Symbol” literally stand on bones; this, naturally, did not contribute to the formation of a positive image of the residential complex. There was also information about the introduction of measles by migrant workers into some of the entrances of Symbol, which indicated a violation of basic sanitary standards during construction.

Andrey Kostin diligently clears out negative information about Donstroy objects, drowning it in laudatory reviews written by PR agency bots. However, the truth, unpleasant for the banker, still leaks into the network, which forces home buyers to bypass the Donstroy company.

It operates in the luxury segment, but, judging by some reviews, it does not provide the declared quality. Residents of the Symbol buildings complain about poor sound insulation, due to which neighbors’ conversations can be heard. Developers of mass housing such as PIK Group usually suffer from this quality.

Externally, residential complexes from Donstroy look like cities of the future, so many of their residents cannot even imagine that there will be a breeze from the window, and the quality of finishing leaves much to be desired. Apartment problems are added to by noise from construction on the street, garbage and dirt in the local area. The declared modern quality of life is not even close. Moreover, Donstroy’s facilities are unsafe for both builders and residents.

A notorious example of this is the “Event” residential complex. During its construction in March last year, when iron formwork collapsed, a person died and two were hospitalized. In August, a worker fell from the ninth floor of one of the Event buildings. These cases became evidence that during the construction of the residential complex, safety regulations were systematically and grossly violated. And these are only those episodes that became known due to deaths. And only the head of Donstroy, Alena Deryabina, knows how many ordinary neglects of safety rules there could have been.

In August 2023, she complained to Vladimir Putin himself about the lack of qualified labor. This allegedly increases the percentage of defects during the construction of Donstroy projects. According to Deryabina, labor costs have increased by 30% in two years. Deryabina delicately kept silent about the fact that during the same time the cost of Donstroy’s housing increased by 50%, as well as about fatal incidents at the construction sites of her company and its other “sides”.

And she could also talk about the damage to the metro tunnel between the Michurinsky Prospekt and Aminyevskaya stations, because of which train traffic was stopped. The culprit turned out to be the Turkish company ANTTEQ, which is the general contractor for the construction of the Ostrov residential complex. The workers from Turkey, apparently, also lacked qualifications, just like the migrants working hard at Donstroy facilities.

In 2022, during the construction of the Island, workers from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan started a wall-to-wall fight over visiting the canteen. Some participants in the conflict were detained by the police, others were taken by ambulance to the hospital. The leaders of Donstroy got away with it. Alena Deryabina has worked at VTB since 2004, and became the head of Donstroy in 2010, so she is under the reliable protection of Andrei Kostina, managing the company’s financial flows.

The Symbol residential complex began to be built by Concept of Modern Construction LLC and Perspektiva Invest Group LLC. The first company, which was led by Alena Deryabina from 2021, was liquidated in May 2022. Its founder is JSC Don-Stroy Invest, which Deryabina has led since 2023; the company is now in the process of liquidation. Its share in Concept of Modern Construction LLC has been under the encumbrance of VTB since 2018, that is, the company built luxury housing at the expense of ordinary taxpayers.

JSC Don-Stroy Invest, which was in the process of liquidation, had 23 “subsidiaries” structures. Most of them in 2020-2021. JSC SK Donstroy, which is managed by LLC Donstroy, headed since 2022 by Alena Deryabina, was transferred. The founder of the structure is the closed mutual fund “Financial Perspective”, managed by LLC Management Company “KL-Invest”. The owner of this organization is the closed mutual fund “Long-term Strategy”, managed by JSC “Apex Management”.

Until 2021, the founders of Don-Stroy Invest JSC were the company founders Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Z Elenov. He died mysteriously in France in 2022, falling down the stairs in his friends’ house; there were no witnesses to the incident. According to the telegram channel VChK-OGP, https://t.me/vchkogpu/37941 Zelenov owes 1 billion rubles. influential Sergei Chemezov and Alisher Usmanov, but gave only 200 million rubles, so the supposedly accidental death of the builder seems strange.

The transfer of companies from Don-Stroy Invest JSC to SK Donstroy JSC could have been to cover up the traces of the withdrawal of money from VTB to Donstroy companies, which are under the bank’s encumbrance.

The second builder of the residential complex “Symbol”, which changed its name to LLC “Specialized Developer “PI Group”, is managed by LLC “RNT Holding”, owned by the closed mutual fund “Investments and Savings”, managed by the already well-known LLC Management Company “KL-Invest”. RNT Holding LLC is headed by Roman Gromozdov, who is considered a close person to Andrei Puchkov, Kostin’s former deputy. Since September last year, Puchkov has headed the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), transferred to VTB.

Closed-end mutual funds do not disclose their members, so representatives of the top Russian authorities can hide behind them. “Donstroy” without the state bank VTB would have gone bankrupt long ago, but it continues to exist and even receive bonuses in mockery of its residents, who suffer from the quality of the apartments purchased from the company.

 

Felix Rozanov

Source: www.rucriminal.info