Will the "Arctic Star" Rise?

Is there a problem with Putin's campuses?

Campuses are a key element of the new “Youth and Children” national project. Vladimir Putin sees them as “world-class” campuses, but the reality is far from ideal: deadlines are missed, deals are opaque, contractors are rocked by corporate conflicts. We investigate whether something is wrong with the president’s dream.

A WELL-REHEARSED IMPROVISATION

In 2024, while delivering his election message to the Federal Assembly, the Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed launching a new so-called national project, “Youth and Children.” Then, within the framework of the national project, the federal project “Creating a Network of Modern Campuses” was approved.

According to government plans published beforehand, 25 new campuses are expected to be built in Russia by 2030 under concession agreements. That is, private companies will do the job in exchange for the state granting the businesses a right to earn from the campuses for several years.

The first projects were conceived in the Tomsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in Bashkortostan. Some of them are still under construction, while others have not even begun. In April 2023, 8 more objects were added to the government order, including the “Arctic Star” in the Arkhangelsk region.

The companies selected by the government are often backed by large businesses and state banks which pay for the campuses’ construction.

The selected concessionaires are either directly affiliated with the banks, or their owners’ shares are held as collateral by the same state banks: VEB, Sber, VTB and Gazprombank.

A QUICK START OF A LARGE-SCALE PROJECT

At the initial stage, the construction of the Arkhangelsk region “world-class campus” developed rapidly.

In 2022, the “Arctic Star” LLC was registered in Arkhangelsk. It was founded by the Moscow company “System Concessions.” The main owner of “System Concessions” was another Moscow company “Platforma” (50.1%), associated with AFK “Sistema” of Vladimir Yevtushenkov, a billionaire owning MTS, Ozon, etc.

As already mentioned, in April 2023 the “Arctic Star” received the status of a concessionaire at the federal level, becoming an organization with which federal subjects can conclude concession agreements without any competition.

As early as in June 2023, agreements on the construction of five campuses, including the “Arctic Star,” were signed during the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. On the same day, the Arkhangelsk Region government urgently ordered by “survey method” the conclusion of a concession agreement on building the “Arctic Star.” The full text and agreement details were not disclosed.

According to the officials’ plan, the campus will include two building complexes, a total of 123.8 thousand square meters. The first one will house scientific and educational buildings, a physical education and health building, and a conference center. The second complex will consist of two “hotels” for 4,256 students, scientific and pedagogical staff, and “other persons.”

A CAMPUS FOR A QUARTER OF A MILLION

A month after the agreement was signed, the board of directors of “System Concessions” unexpectedly decided to sell the “Arctic Star” LLC. The company involved in the multi-billion project was valued at only 250 thousand rubles.

The new buyer was “Campus Etalon,” earlier affiliated with the billionaire Yevtushenkov. At the time of the sale, the majority owner of “Campus Etalon” was some Alan Bugulov. After the deal was signed, Yevtushenkov's structures officially retained only a quarter of their share in the project.

The sale led to a corporate conflict and stalled the project. The minority owners of “System Solutions” tried to appeal the sale of the “Arctic Star,” but to no avail.

Judicial experts valued the “Arctic Star,” a project worth billions, at just 143,000 rubles. Along with it, Bugulov's company received concessionaires for campus developers in Bashkortostan and Tyumen Oblast listed in the federal government decree, and a regional concessionaire who is to build a campus in Perm. The multi-billion ruble projects cost the new owner only 1.85 million rubles.

THE PROBLEM LAND

In 2023, regional authorities leased two plots of land to the “Arctic Star” for a period of 18 years. The area on the bank of the Northern Dvina in Arkhangelsk covers almost 67 thousand square meters. According to Rosreestr, there are public utilities on the plots: main water supply networks belonging to the city authorities, and an external water supply network belonging to a private company. In 2024, eight more plots were leased to be used for construction.

A power transmission line (PTL) runs through the sites, imposing significant restrictions on future construction: it is prohibited to build residential and non-residential buildings, except for industrial facilities, under the PTL. And campuses are evidently nothing like an industrial facility.

After that, the project began to stall. Officially, despite loud promises, construction has not yet begun.

In the first months of 2025, regional state media reported that preparatory work would begin at the future site without a building permit.

Two contracts for the development of design and estimate documentation and the execution of work on connecting the future “world-class campus” to the water supply and sanitation system actually appeared on the website of the Unified Information System in the Sphere of Procurement. The cost of these works amounted to 175.8 million rubles.

In Spring 2025, Deputy Chairman of the regional government Dmitry Rozhin said that “the estimated date for receiving a positive conclusion and a construction permit is April this year.” A state expert review approved the construction only at the beginning of July, a week later the city authorities announced the issuance of a construction permit, even though preparatory work and development of a schedule for the execution of construction and installation are still underway.

Whether these problems are related to the corporate conflict that has engulfed the concessionaire or to the fact that there are power lines on the site of the future campus, remains unclear.

THE NEW “ARCTIC STAR” OWNER: FROM PUBLIC SERVICE TO CONCESSIONS

Alan Bugulov who got billion-ruble concessions for next to nothing is known to have worked in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance in the 2010s. Then he moved on to concession projects of one of “Gazprom”’s largest contractors, the “VIS” group.

At the end of 2023, the owner of the “Campus Etalon” concessionaire controlled by Alan Bugulov was renamed “Etalonnye Koncessii” (“Etalon Concessions”). As of 2024, the company managing construction projects in several regions employed only 43 people. According to the Federal Tax Service, no one worked at the “Arctic Star” itself from 2022 to 2024. In 2024, the company moved from Arkhangelsk to Moscow altogether.

It is worth noting that both of Bugulov's deputies for “Etalonnye Koncessii,” Andrei Kiselev and Valery Eremin, are former “Gazprom” employees. The latter was also a co-owner and CEO of “System Concessions” which initially managed the “Arctic Star.”

REGIONAL SUPPORT: DIRECTORS, SALARIES, AND SUBSIDIES

The “Arctic Star” concessionaire is not the only company created for the future campus in the Arkhangelsk region.

In 2024, the regional authorities created an autonomous non-profit organization (ANO) “Directorate of the “Arctic Star” campus.” In 2024, the ANO received 19.8 million rubles from the Arkhangelsk Region reserve fund, of which, however, 17.3 million rubles was spent on supporting the institution’s activities. Only 2.5 million rubles went to “expert and analytical support for the formation of product programs and the campus development program.” The regional budget for 2025 provided for a subsidy for the maintenance of the ANO worth 2.8 million rubles.

In January 2025, another organization associated with the future campus appeared — the “Arctic Star” ANO. Its founder and director Tatyana Nekipelova was until recently associated with regional authorities, heading the department for non-profit organizations’ support in the Governor’s Center of the Arkhangelsk Region, from where she resigned in Spring, 2024.

BILLIONS FOR THE “ARCTIC STAR”

The construction price is estimated at 34 billion rubles, of which 46% will be paid by the federal budget, 21% by the regional budget, and the remaining 33% will come from the concessionaire, the same company “Arctic Star,” which, according to the reports, has no employees. The authorities of the Arkhangelsk region have provided 900 million rubles in subsidies for it in the 2025 budget.

In 2025, the state corporation VEB.RF announced that it would provide a loan of 8 billion rubles for the construction of the Arctic Star. Almost 16 billion are planned to be allocated from the federal budget. By April 2025, the Arkhangelsk Region had already paid a billion for design amd estimate documentation, as well as for connecting the future campus to utility networks. The campus is to be built by 2027.

The example of the “Arctic Star” shows how Putin's ambitions are being dashed by reality. After the war with Ukraine began, the Kremlin raised taxes and failed to cope with inflation. The authorities increasingly say that the country’s economy is on the verge of recession. An ideal time for ambitious construction projects.

Cover photo: Genpro