The Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have uncovered a stunning corruption case. Residents of Taganrog were left without trolleybuses, forced to use commercial minibuses owned by local deputies. A criminal case was even opened, but they are currently trying to hush it up.
Trolleybuses have not been running in Taganrog for three years. In 2022, trolleybus service was suspended under the pretext of reconstructing traction substations. Moreover, as it later turned out, the city administration claimed that trolleybus lines also needed to be replaced, costing 8 billion rubles. Residents were initially told that trolleybuses would be returned in five months, but the deadline has been continually postponed. At one point, trams were reinstated in the city (also after reconstruction), and it was discovered that the traction substations were in good working order. They were installed back in 2023; they are brand new. However, trolleybus service has still not been restored. Instead, for three years now, city residents have been forced to use dozens of commercial buses and minibuses owned by Taganrog City Duma deputies.
In the spring of 2024, when the trolleybuses had not been running for two years, residents appealed to Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. Their complaints were subsequently pursued, and a criminal case was even opened. A large investigative task force consisting of seven investigators, led by Deputy Head of Department Alexander Trufanov, was created to investigate the case.
The investigation also uncovered other corruption crimes committed by former and current Taganrog city administration officials. It was also established that completely suspending trolleybus service throughout the city during the reconstruction of the traction substations was unnecessary, as there is a dynamic connection—temporary connections between sectional sections, meaning the network is divided into sections.
Restoring trolleybus service would require approximately one month and 10 million rubles. Simple maintenance would need to be carried out and cables would need to be connected to the traction substations.
Then, the head of the city administration, Svetlana Kambulova, presented investigators with an expert study conducted by the Rostov Center for Forensic Expertise, which justified the officials' actions.
It quickly became clear that the study was completely false. Specifically, the Ministry of Justice stated that the regulations cited by the "experts" never existed in Russia.
Meanwhile, 600,000 rubles were siphoned off from the city budget for this fake study.
The most interesting thing happened later, when all of these employees of the Rostov Center for Forensic Expertise, the authors of the fake study—Goryachkin, Shapovalov, Matveenko, and Persiyanov—were questioned. The "experts" completely retracted their conclusions about the supposedly worn-out trolleybus lines and substation. They told the investigators that they had not considered the expert study's questions and that they knew nothing and understood nothing about the issues raised.
Another fake document was also discovered. In 2023, Taganrog city administration officials prepared a "technical report dated June 3, 2023, No. 1/KST." It was prepared on behalf of Stroyservis LLC. This report claimed that all trolleybus lines required replacement. However, during questioning, the author of this technical report claimed he had neither prepared nor signed the document.
All these years, Svetlana Kambulova has continued to talk about the allegedly complete loss of trolleybus lines and the 8 billion rubles needed to restore trolleybus service in Taganrog.
The investigation commissioned its own expert analysis, which revealed that the new traction substations are 4.5 times more powerful than the old ones. They are currently being used at only 15% of their capacity. And to restart trolleybus service in the city, maintenance on the lines will cost 10 million rubles.
The case was headed toward Kambulovla filing charges, but he gained influential supporters for the mayor. Most of the investigators were transferred to other departments, and Ivkov took over the investigative team. For the past five months, he has been arguing that the case must be closed. He is deterred by the fact that the investigation was launched after Bastrykin's personal intervention. However, experience shows that this doesn't deter regional investigators for very long.
The actions of the city leadership show that they feel strong support. Kambulova's deputy, Oleg Shekhovtsov, has stated outright that he plans to reduce the number of Taganrog tram routes. The city administration has also amended the Taganrog General Plan to reduce the city's trolleybus network to two routes. This means that even if trolleybuses are forced to operate, they will be a bare minimum. Use the deputy minibuses.
