As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have learned, a company named N-Systems—linked to the famous "Turbostroitel" Judo Club—secured the largest state contract in St. Petersburg (worth 4.6 billion rubles) for the reconstruction of Tram Depot No. 3 without a competitive tender, as the sole bidder. The club was founded by Anatoly Rakhlin, the coach of both Putin and the Rotenbergs. Currently, the club’s president is his son, Mikhail Rakhlin, while Boris Rotenberg appears among the founders. It is a truly significant venue for Putin’s St. Petersburg associates; notably, Putin himself visited the club in 2019 to present state awards to the athletes and coaches.
For years, N-Systems has been landing lucrative budget contracts; in total, it has signed over 60 state contracts worth 12.2 billion rubles, with 9 billion of that amount awarded in the last year alone. Specific contracts include a 3.25-billion-ruble agreement with the St. Petersburg Metro (GUP "Peterburgsky Metropoliten") to reconstruct the vestibule of the "Park Pobedy" station; a contract to revise restoration documentation for the "E.S. and M.B. Trofimov House" (12.7 million rubles); and a contract to develop documentation for the major overhaul of the "Ploshchad Vosstaniya" metro station (86 million rubles). Additionally, the company signed a contract with the Capital Construction and Reconstruction Fund for design and survey work on a sports facility on Primorsky Highway (75.3 million rubles) and a contract with GUP "Gorelektrotrans" to reconstruct the computer network in a building on... ...at 15 Syzranskaya St., Lit. B for 54 million rubles, etc.
According to pre-war data, 25% stakes in En-Systems were held by Andrey Kucherov, Stanislav Budko, Oleg Troshchiy, and Alexey Osyka—clearly nominal holders; for instance, in the 2000s, Osyka worked as an accountant for Octagon LLC, a company within the same network. Although the company’s founders were removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL) in early 2022, the fact that the associated legal entities are managed by the same directors suggests the list of formal shareholders has likely not changed significantly. The group’s ultimate beneficial owners prefer to remain in the shadows.
Dozens of legal entities are affiliated with En-Systems; the founders and management of these entities change frequently—sometimes several times a year. For example, En-Systems Managing Director Liliya Krentsler (Minderova)—who has worked for the company since 2010—has served as General Director of Petro-Invest LLC, Gromov & Partners, Bagrov Group, DLN-Logistic, Technoresurs, TTK Ecology, Axioma Management Company, Rusmatik, Nevremstroy, and BIR, while simultaneously acting as a founder of these same or related firms: Metra, TsT, Depo, TEO, ASP-Prom, and Byuro 73. Her ex-husband, Alexander Kuzmin—formerly the executive director of En-Systems and a founder of JSC Octagon, TTK Stroy, and Ekoengineering—now heads JSC PB Luch, an En-Systems subsidiary. Luch has secured five government contracts worth half a billion rubles.
The corporate group's operational schemes are revealed in court documents; for instance, En-Systems is currently litigating against Nevremstroy following a tax audit. Liliya Krentsler served as director of Nevremstroy from April to July 2020 and as a founder until August 2020; she was subsequently succeeded by Alexey Osyka, Dmitry Nenyukov, and Igor Dulatov, while the founders' details were removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL) in December 2024. In April 2021, the general contractor En-Systems hired its own affiliate, Nevremstroy, as a subcontractor for work at the Podmoskovnaya station on the Moscow Central Ring—the site of Russia’s most modern rolling-stock depot for the next-generation Lastochka and Sapsan electric trains. En-Systems paid Nevremstroy over 650 million rubles, and everyone was satisfied until the Federal Tax Service (FNS) intervened. The tax audit revealed the companies' affiliation, prompting tax authorities to assess En-Systems for 470 million rubles in back taxes, 257 million in penalties, and a 75-million-ruble fine. The company challenged this decision in court, and that is when things took a bizarre turn. First, at N-Systems’ very first request, the judge imposed interim measures, freezing the Federal Tax Service’s claim pending a final ruling on the dispute—and the outstanding tax arrears ceased to appear in the firm’s profile. Second, N-Systems filed a lawsuit against Nevremstroy to recover damages resulting from the tax authority’s decision (it turned out the contract between the companies contained a clause covering this). Third, court hearings have been repeatedly postponed for various reasons since last year, meaning a final resolution is not even in sight. At the same time, proving a lack of affiliation will be extremely difficult, given that—at the very least—Alexey Osyka was associated with both companies at the time the contract was signed.
Meanwhile, criminal cases involving N-Systems have also emerged; specifically, Liliya Krentsler herself and Dmitry Spodin, a former top manager of the group, are implicated in a case concerning attempted fraud on an especially large scale (Art. 30, Part 3; Art. 159, Part 4 of the Russian Criminal Code). The matter centers on a contract for the major renovation of the Pasteur Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which was signed with another of the group’s companies, LenProfMontazh LLC. The firm inflated the reported volume of work performed and demanded payment from the institute. The court initially remanded Krentsler and Spodin in custody but later eased the restrictive measures against her, opting instead to impose a ban on certain activities. Spodin’s detention, however, was extended earlier this year.
Sending Liliya Krentsler (formerly Minderova), the managing partner of N-Systems, to a detention cell was problematic: she had received an award from Putin and serves on the board of trustees of the Turbostroitel Judo Club, an organization N-Systems has supported since 2018. It is the oldest judo club in St. Petersburg, founded by Anatoly Rakhlin—the coach of Vladimir Putin and the Rotenberg brothers.
To be continued.
