Well isn’t that special

Moscow allocates $136.5 million to construction of new police headquarters for anti-riot police regiment

Officials in Moscow have allocated at least 10 billion rubles ($136.5 million) to the construction of a sparkling new headquarters for a special anti-riot police regiment that works primarily with public demonstrations. Meduza discovered multiple large city contracts that first appeared online in public records in April. The new office will be erected at 39 Ryabinovaya Street, but public estate documents identify the compound as a future perfume factory. Meanwhile, satellite images and employment listings tell another story.

The single largest contract in Moscow’s new police project is worth 9.3 billion rubles ($126.8 million). Meduza found another two related deals worth 233 million rubles ($3.2 million) and 95 million rubles ($1.3 million). Connecting the building’s telecommunications will cost several hundred more million rubles.

Moscow’s Construction Department concluded these deals in private and has declined to release detailed documents about the agreements.

Meduza also discovered another building contract located at the same address. This project was recently announced by the same municipal institution that oversees the “My City” beautification program and manages renovations to Moscow’s aging apartment complexes. For this additional work at the Ryabinovaya Street property (mainly repairs to the roads and sidewalks, plus some “small architectural” improvements), the city allocated 9.5 million rubles ($129,435). There’s almost no open-source data available about this project; all we know is that the city hired a company called “Monarch-UKS” as a technical supervisor for buildings constructed by crews working for the Mayor’s Office.

The office at 39 Ryabinovaya Street belongs to Moscow’s Second Special Police Regiment, which operates at public events and mass demonstrations. The websites for both the Moscow Interior Ministry and the police regiment itself display this address. Job listings at HeadHunter for the Second Special Police Regiment, moreover, notify applicants that the office is currently being renovated to include new housing.

Another two sources confirmed to Meduza that the building at 39 Ryabinovaya Street is being constructed for Moscow’s Second Special Police Regiment.

On Russia’s Public Estate Map, 39 Ryabinovaya Street is currently designated as the construction site of an “aromatics factory.” Several years ago, however, satellite footage showed a new fleet of police buses parked in rows at this location. These vehicles are even visible on the Public Estate Map where the site is identified as a perfume plant. More recent images available at Yandex Maps show a major construction project underway at this address.

Story by Ivan Golunov. Translation by Kevin Rothrock.