The preparatory phase of the construction of a bridge across the Pur River in Yamal has begun. Attempted murder and raider seizure as measures to increase investment attractiveness
For more than a dozen years, residents of the Urengoy settlement and the Tazovsky district have been dreaming of a bridge over the Pur River. The time has come for dreams to come true. On the banks of the river started preparatory work... The specialists of Geoprojektiziskaniya LLC need to carefully study all the data of the coast. There is a lot of work, the design of the bridge will depend on the information collected. The complex engineering surveys of the works include: topographic survey of the banks of the Pur river, creation of a digital terrain model, geological research with well drilling and sampling to determine the bearing capacity of the soil, the study of engineering-geological, geocryological and hydrological conditions, hydrometeorological, environmental surveys, etc.
The municipal architect, workers of the land department, resource-supplying organizations also do not sit idle, all forces are involved in making the Urengoy dream come true. It is assumed that the preparatory work will be completed in April this year. The investment project is estimated at three billion rubles - approximately the same amount will cost the construction of a one and a half-kilometer bridge across the Pur River. The new bridge will connect Urengoy and Korotchaevo. In the future, the united settlements will become a major transport hub, where the final station of the under construction will be concentrated. railroad"Northern latitudinal route" Salekhard - Nadym - Korotchaevo, 2 river ports, an airport and facilities of the Zapolyarye-Purpe oil pipeline. The Purovsky bridge will be built within the framework of an agreement that was signed in 2015 between AK Transneft, the governors of Yamal, Yugra and the plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Urals Federal District.
To design the bridge, specialists are actively studying two sections: the first - where the ice crossing is located, the second - where the pontoon-bridge crossings are installed. However, for residents, these 3 kilometers do not matter, the main thing is that there is a bridge!
From raider takeover to assassination attempt. What is happening at the crossing of the Pur River, and why entrepreneurs write letters to Prime Minister Medvedev and collect signatures.
Yamal businessman Fidan Khairetdinov, director of the Magistral company, which owns a pontoon ferry on the Pur River, appealed to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev with a request for protection from raiders. Oleg Sitnikov, the owner of the Yamal oil company Rosneftegaz, has written an appeal to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and is collecting signatures for maintaining the crossing. What's really going on and why the country's richest region is abuzz with the scandal over the modest Pur River crossing.
Dmitry Kobylkin himself approved the construction
The history of the crossing began in 2002, when the former governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Yuri Neelov signed an order to provide Rosneftegaz with a businessman Oleg Sitnikov site for the construction of a pontoon ferry. Six months later, the choice of the exact construction site was agreed Dmitry Kobylkin, now the governor of the region, and then still the first deputy head of the administration of the Purovsky district. As stated in the document with his signature: “Considering the state importance of the development of the oil and gas complex of the Russian Federation and the absence of other acceptable options<…>agree on the act of choice. "
Apparently, nine years later, the pontoon crossing and the development of the oil and gas complex became not so important for the new governor.
Or perhaps the fact is that Rosneftegaz since 2011 it has been under the scrutiny of the Yamal raiders. The company, for all the time of its existence, checked over a thousand times tax authorities and the police, and Sitnikov himself survived assassination attempt.
The entrepreneur connects it just with the crossing, or rather with plans to build a stationary bridge across the Pur River. New project was presented to the governor Kobylkin, who approved it, but the plans were not destined to come true. After the presentation of the project to the governor, the businessman himself almost became a victim of the killer.
“Striking blows (with a knife - ed.), The killer would say:“ Don't build a bridge, ”" - in his interview with PASMI.
Faced with such powerful pressure, the entrepreneur was forced to abandon the idea of building a bridge and, after a while, cede his crossing. company "Magistral".
A few years later, another attempt to capture followed, now at the Magistral. In 2016, the licensing of this area of activity was canceled, and now the companies had to buy out the right to transport at an auction. In August 2016, the Department of Natural Resources Regulation of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug held a tender in which six companies took part, including Magistral.
According to the results of the auction, the state should have received only 961 rubles from Purdorspetsstroy, although one of the participating companies was ready to offer 50 million rubles
But after the start of the auction, it turned out that five out of six companies did not provide an enterprise card, although there was no such document in the requirements. Formally, the auction was declared invalid, but the department still decided to sign an agreement with "Purdorspetsstroy", the only company that, by some miracle, found out about a key document that was not even on the list of required documentation.
According to the results of the auction, the state should have received from Purdorspetsstroy in total 961 ruble, although one of the participating companies was ready to offer 50 million rubles.
The difference is 50 thousand times, between the cost of the auction and the possible profit of the state, apparently, did not embarrass the department, and only the intervention of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, which wrote about this auction, helped to cancel the results of the transaction.
But a few weeks ago, a new scandal erupted in Yamal over the ill-fated crossing of the Pur River. It all started with the fact that employees of the company "YamburgTransService", which owns a ferry a hundred meters from the floating bridge "Highways", under the protection of the police, they installed prohibitive signs at the exits to the crossing, and later completely blocked the road with concrete blocks. On this fact, a statement was filed with the police. The scandal came out on federal level when the TV channel REN published a report from the scene.
Local media responded with a series of publications about the illegality of the installation of pontoons, the danger for drivers, comments from officials accusing the company that owns the ferry of all deadly sins.
Penalize drivers and block the road
Media reports, the actions of the authorities and the situation with the crossing raise many questions about whose interests the authorities are acting in.
Why, in his submission, the acting deputy head of the OGIBDD of the Purovsky district Major Kabaev refers to a court order to demolish the floating bridge Rosneftegaz although on this moment owns the bridge "Highway"? Why is it stated in the same decree that the ferry is located at 254 kilometers the Pur river, while the “Magistral” crossing is located on 252.3 kilometers? By the way, the representatives of the Magistral company asked these questions to the police officers, but the policemen answered shortly: "With these questions, please contact Salekhard, not us." And why are police officers blocking the congresses, if the enforcement proceedings on dismantling were suspended by the decision of the bailiffs from July 17?
Or why in the local press and social networks right now, materials began to appear, which speak of the absolute illegality of this crossing, and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug declares about unauthorized construction. After all, if it is absolutely illegal and was built without permission, then the question arises where the authorities were looking at all these 15 years?
According to the latest information, the method of work of the traffic police has changed. They let cars into the crossing, and on the other side of it they stop drivers and fine them under any pretext.
And is it really "absolutely" illegal if, prior to all attempts to seize the crossing, Rosneftegaz held a water use license. Upon receipt of which, the placement of the floating bridge was agreed, the conclusion of the fishery expertise and a dozen more approvals from the regulatory authorities on dozens of sheets were received.
At the same time, the second ferry, which belongs to the company YamburgTransservice, located a hundred meters from the floating bridge, continues to operate. But to fully replace the crossing "Highways" it cannot - its carrying capacity is much lower, in addition, it reversible, while the "Magistral" crossing from two-way traffic... Already 11 companies turned to the authorities with a request to facilitate an early resolution of the situation, referring to the impossibility of passing heavy equipment weighing more 60 tons and missed deadlines (letters are at the disposal of the editorial office).
According to the latest data, the method of work of the traffic police has changed. They let cars into the crossing, and on the other side of it they stop drivers and fine them under any pretext. And the average Yamal truck driver will always have a reason for a fine. Yes, the police act absolutely legally, but for some reason they only catch drivers at the “Magistrala” crossing, near the neighboring YamburgTransservice There are no traffic inspectors, apparently, they are not interested in drivers there at all ..
Attempted murder and raider seizure as measures to increase investment attractiveness
"All creative projects born on the Yamal land are supported by clear and long-term rules for business", - with these words he addresses Governor Dmitry Kobylkin to entrepreneurs on official portal dedicated to investing in Yamalo-Nenets District.
Support for entrepreneurship and investment attractiveness of the region is one of the favorite topics for Yamal officials. The authorities create funds, give interviews to local media outlets, publish beautiful statistics, technically keeping silent about inconvenient numbers and indicators in order to.
Despite the fact that they talk about supporting business and attracting investment in the most high level, in the region, an entrepreneur or investor, if he is not associated with someone in power, has to face such problems as corruption, raider takeovers, outright crime.
One businessman, who wanted not only to extract oil, but also to invest in the region, was almost killed, the case of the assassination attempt was never completed, and the bridge needed to develop the region's infrastructure was not built. The second entrepreneur found himself under the most severe pressure from raiders who operate through the prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the media.
But the regional authorities, which should be interested in a favorable investment climate, cannot or are in no hurry to help entrepreneurs in solving their problems legally.
Maybe for this you need to be close to the governor Kobylkin, as is the case with the energy monopolists, who received ownership of Salekhard fish factory... Or at least be friends with Nurlan Kobdrashev, deputy head of the Yamalo-Nenets administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, as the entrepreneurs believe, is connected with the raiders trying to seize the Purovskaya ferry.
Bridge over the Pur. Outcomes
Now the Yamal authorities are looking for an investor to build a bridge across the Pur River. Governor Dmitry Kobylkin held a number of meetings with potential investors and offered to sign a concession agreement for 6 billion rubles for construction on the principles of public-private partnership. A likely contractor could be a company "Mostostroy-11", a large construction company that has been successfully working with the YNAO administration... According to some reports, this company worked closely with District Attorney Alexander Gerasimenko to whom "Mostostroy-11" built a manor in an elite village on Black river near Tyumen.
That is, the development of investment attractiveness and effective management of the region, according to the version of the governor Dmitry Kobylkin, looks like this: do everything possible so that the local entrepreneur does not build a bridge for his own money, which will significantly improve the infrastructure, then squeeze out another businessman, at the same time paralyzing the traffic, and then find an affiliate company, which will also allocate budget funds for the construction of a new bridge. With this approach, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug will soon turn from the richest into the middle peasant.
Crossing the Pur River near the Urengoy village is possible only for money. The state never built a bridge to the largest gas fields in Yamal. But two crossings were established by a private business. The pontoons were thrown across the river by Yamburgtransservice LLC. A bridge of eight barges was built by the Rosneftegaz Corporation. But on August 21, the barges were hijacked. The pontoon ferry thus became a monopolist. Hundreds of officials and security officials of the region, deputies of the regional and State Duma and the country's largest gas producers were involved in the history of the liquidation of a rival bridge.
On August 21, at about nine in the morning, on the 252th kilometer of the Pur River, two dozen Yamal police officers blocked the approaches to the barge bridge. Soon the bailiffs also pulled up with an order to liquidate it. As it turned out, the order concerned not a bridge made of barges, but a pontoon crossing two kilometers upstream of the river, and even belonging to another legal entity.
Under the cover of the police and bailiffs, tugs chartered by Yamburgtransservice LLC cut the connecting devices and dragged the barges in an unknown direction. The workers and guards were kindly warned by the police that an attempt to stop the hijacking of ships would be regarded as resistance to the authorities. The owner's representative with a power of attorney, who entered into negotiations with the security forces, was handcuffed. As early as August 21, the district administration put the water site up for auction. And the bridge was finally dismantled on 25 August.
The destruction of the crossing was preceded by the blockade of the entrances to the crossing, which began on July 10. On the highway leading to Stary Urengoy, a sign was installed prohibiting turning to the crossing. Truckers and local motorists have found a way around the ban. They passed under the sign, paid a fine and crossed the bridge. Then they put concrete slabs at the exit and poured a pile of sand onto the roadway. Local motorists asked to see a permit for excavation work, but they never saw it.
Bridge
The history of the bridge began in 2002, when the idea of its construction was supported by the former governor Yuri Neelov. In 2003, the current governor Dmitry Kobylkin, then still an official of the Purovsky district administration, agreed on the choice of Rosneftegaz land plot for the construction of the crossing. At first it was made a pontoon.
So they worked next to each other, competing for a daily flow of three thousand cars, two pontoon ferries. The balance was disturbed in 2011. The Arbitration Court of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug ruled to dismantle the Rosneftegaz Corporation pontoon bridge at the 254th kilometer of the Pur River.
The corporation complied with the decision of the court and in 2014 launched a bridge from barges. The owner of the company, Oleg Sitnikov, believes that it was precisely because of the start of construction in September 2013 that an attempt was made on his life. The businessman then received twenty-one stab wounds, lost three liters of blood, spent several days in intensive care, but survived. This crime has not yet been solved, the investigation was suspended thirty-one times. At the very first interrogation, Sitnikov told how the criminal who attacked him, striking blows, repeated the words “Stop building the bridge” more than once. However, the Interior Ministry does not want to hear the version about the connection between the assassination attempt and the construction of a bridge across the Pur.
The barge bridge calmly withstood tractors carrying equipment weighing more than 200 tons, and the pontoon ferry lifts 20, and in case of special measures it can pass a heavy load of 60 tons. Movement on the barge bridge is two-way, and on the pontoon ferry - reverse. The road transportation market was divided - the owners of cars and small trucks used the services of Yamburgtransservice, and the owners of heavy trucks - Rosneftegaz.
Another advantage of the barge bridge is that it can be operated almost all year round. Pontoons already at the end of September, when the first ice appears on the Pur River, they have to be pulled ashore. When on October 21, 2016, near the village of Urengoy, a helicopter with shift workers crashed and 19 people died, rescuers' equipment, cars of investigators, experts, commissions could be transported to the right bank only via a barge bridge: the weather was not flying.
Liechtenstein trail
The current pontoon competitor was built by Gazprom's subsidiary, Gazprom Dobycha Yamburg, and sold to the private company Yamburgtransservice (107 more companies are registered in the same room with it). Initially, its founders were Sergei Polevikov (he was a member of the board of directors of Yamal Airlines with the governor), a business partner of billionaire Alexander Zabarsky (their joint project Mostostroy-12 received billions of dollars in orders from the regional budget), and Amaryl Akciengesellschaft, registered in Liechtenstein. The Liechtenstein company withdrew from the founders several years ago.
The beneficiaries of the Amaryl Aktiengesellschaft company, apparently, have maintained friendly relations with the Yamal gas workers. In any case, when in September 2015 the general director of OOO Gazprom dobycha Yamburg (according to the version of the response of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, not the traffic police, but this company installed a sign prohibiting turning on the bridge and a solid line) Oleg Arno ran for the legislative meeting of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, one of the sponsors of his election campaign was the "daughter" of the Liechtenstein company - Birbol Group LLC.
All actions to demolish the barge bridge are explained by the execution of the 2011 court decision. But on the eve of the demolition, the bailiffs themselves recorded - the pontoon crossing of Rosneftegaz at the 254th kilometer was demolished, and the pontoons themselves were gathering dust on the shore. The bridge from the Rosneftegaz Corporation barges is located at the 252th kilometer of the river. And there are no court decisions on it.
A couple of months before the demolition, a massive information attack on the corporation and its founder Oleg Sitnikov began in the media. This can be explained by the personnel specifics of the Purovsky district. The daughter of the former vice-governor of Yamal Anatoly Ostryagin, whom the current governor called his “teacher in politics”, Elena, through the Rusinvest company, has a share in Purdorspetsstroy LLC. She is organizing the 254 km crossing over the Pur. It turns out that after the liquidation of the Rosneftegaz Corporation bridge, the profit from the crossing goes to people close to the governor. Why didn't the Sitnikov corporation enter the circle of the elite? He believes that due to the conflict with the district prosecutor Alexander Gerasimenko (Novaya's article about his joint fishing trip with the governor in the reserve Kobylkin announced an initiative of Sitnikov).
Victims
Since February 2017, Rosneft has been using the services of a barge bridge to ferry cargo of 100 tons or more to the right bank of the Pura. Rosneft delivered an electric transformer to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Cargo weight - 116 tons. Together with the tractor with the transformer installed - 160 tons. This cargo can be transported to the right bank of the Pur River only by the barge bridge, which was what they were going to do on August 21. On this day, the bridge was dismantled.
In addition to Rosneft, many medium and small transport companies in the region that specialize in oversized cargo were affected. These companies and more than 1,000 local residents filed applications with the Russian presidential administration, the Prosecutor General's Office, the TFR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB about the arbitrariness of the Yamal security officials who took part in the liquidation of the barge bridge.
Novaya is following the development of events.
The authorities did not build a new ferry, so it is not known how the residents will receive food.
To bookmarks
Pontoon bridge. Photo from the site "Novye Izvestia"
Residents of the village of Urengoy in Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region were cut off from civilization - the authorities dismantled the last bridge across the Pur River, which connected locality with the Korotchaevo microdistrict in Novy Urengoy. The first, barge floating bridge, was dismantled back in August.
The barge bridge allowed transporting goods over 100 tons; it also had two lanes for transport and one for pedestrians. It was built by the Rosneftegaz corporation. On August 21-23, the bailiffs gathered to dismantle it. Local authorities, that the bridge was erected illegally and for more than 10 years worked without permits, it was considered life-threatening. The courts went on for several years, but the owners of the ferry refused to dismantle it, and the bailiffs intervened in the matter.
Aleksandr Klimenko, an activist of the initiative group of residents of the Urengoy settlement, told Novye Izvestia that the arbitration court found the dismantling of the bridge illegal. At the same time, the court's decision concerned only the removal of the arrest from the barges - the owners of the ferry can take the barges, but they will not be able to use them - they have no legal grounds for this.
Dismantled barge bridge over the Pur River. Photo from the site of "Novaya Gazeta"
The authorities stated that everyday life The Urengoy people will not change, since at that time they were connected with the "mainland" by another, pontoon, crossing. But on October 16, she was also removed.
The pontoon ferry was dismantled due to weather conditions- it is always taken apart in winter. There was only one lane for cars, there was no path for pedestrians, and local residents were forced to move from one bank to another, sometimes knee-deep in water and next to trucks.
The crossing was over 20 years old and in disrepair. Once every few weeks on the emergency bridge - on September 16, the pontoons uncoupled and one of the cars fell down. Then a two-year-old child suffered, he received abrasions and cuts. On October 1, due to another rupture of the pontoons, one of the trucks lost its cargo - it was carrying food and goods from “ big land”, The trailer sank.
