| Centrists ask the Prosecutor General's Office to leave the communists without an investor The State Duma yesterday turned to the Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Ustinov with a request to conduct an audit of the activities of the Rosagropromstroy corporation, which is headed by one of the leaders and main sponsor of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Viktor Vidmanov (pictured) . The initiative for the appeal was taken by the Duma Security Committee. Committee members referred to the results of an audit by the Accounts Chamber, which allegedly caught the corporation misusing federal budget funds.
Actually, interest in Mr. Vidmanov and the corporation he heads arises every four years with the approaching elections to the State Duma. Traditionally, Mr. Vidmanov has been accused of embezzlement and misuse of funds. This time, however, to the number of alleged crimes - apparently to complete the picture - the centrists added the alleged communication of the head of Rosagropromstroy with the omnipresent Boris Berezovsky. “There is also a direct connection with personalities such as Berezovsky,” said security committee member Gennady Gudkov (People’s Deputy group), speaking in the State Duma with a report on the resolution.
In a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Mr. Gudkov stated exactly this: “Yes, this is an attack on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, but, unfortunately, justified.” And he noted that the audit of Rosagropromstroy began last year - with its subsidiary in Penza, the director of which is now facing a criminal case. “Money was pumped through Penza and returned to the corporation, its traces became entangled. When an investigation into this case began, the leader of the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov called the regional leadership and asked them to release everything on the brakes, but this did not happen,” said Gudkov.
Representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation called the resolution slander and an attempt to discredit political competitors in the elections (the authors of the document are members of United Russia and the People's Party). The coordinator of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, Sergei Reshulsky, in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, noted that Rosagropromstroy had already been checked “so many times” and “if this were true, Vidmanov would have already handed over the bunks to Khodorkovsky.”
“This is a provocative action that has been inflated to such proportions in order to discredit the Communist Party, to say: you see, all parties are scoundrels, so you better choose the scoundrels from the scoundrels - United Russia,” said Sergei Reshulsky. - Now it turns out that Vidmanov almost financed all the terrorists. What stupidity!
It should be noted that, despite all the rumors and scandals, the special services have never singled out a personal criminal case against the company or Mr. Vidmanov himself. Large construction projects, as is known, by definition are fertile ground for a variety of frauds - from inflating prices for building materials to banal theft. And given the scale of this corporation, its history and intimate relations with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the absence of such cases can be explained either by the inhuman honesty of Mr. Vidmanov, or by the secret love of law enforcement officers for communist ideas.
The history of Rosagropromstroy began back in the perestroika years. In the late 80s, the company emerged from the Soviet rural construction system and became one of the largest in the Russian construction industry. Considering that its divisions cover almost all regions of the country, Rosagropromstroy, by definition, is considered one of the main candidates for contractors for major government construction projects in recent years.
The first time the inspection authorities became interested in Rosagropromstroy was after the first Chechen campaign. In 1995-1996, he was one of the main “restorers” of the Chechen economy. In total, the government then allocated about 700 billion “old” rubles for these purposes (at the then exchange rate - about $150 million). There was a lot of talk in the late 1990s about how much of this money was stolen. However, that story has happily sunk into oblivion, since after the departure of federal forces from Chechnya, and even more so after the resumption of hostilities there, it became basically impossible to verify anything. In 1996, however, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of the work on the “first” restoration of Chechnya and even spoke about violations. In particular, auditors said that for some objects the estimates were overestimated by up to 30%. The materials were transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office, but that was all.
In 2001, Rosagropromstroy was abandoned by Gosstroy (and without a tender, so as not to waste time) to restore Yakutsk, which was destroyed by the spring flood. As a result of that epic, the prosecutor's office opened more than a hundred criminal cases, but they concerned only local officials and businessmen. On the whole, the authorities were satisfied with Mr. Vidmanov’s company.
And in April of this year, the State Duma sent a request to the Accounts Chamber for a new inspection of Rosagropromstroy for the implementation of the target program “Your Home” (for the construction of houses for rural residents). About 1 billion rubles were allocated from the budget for this program in 1998-2001, and the authors of the request asked to find out how the corporation used this money. As far as is known, Mr. Stepashin’s subordinates have already completed the inspection, but its results have not yet been announced. However, Mr. Vidmanov himself claims that out of 450 million rubles allocated from the federal budget to Rosagropromstroy, the Accounts Chamber recognized only 2 million as being used for other purposes.
Nevertheless, the audit of the Accounts Chamber became the informational reason for the Security Committee to contact the Prosecutor General's Office. The text of the resolution, signed by members of the committee, suggests that “part of these funds was used to finance the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and part was simply stolen.”
After the appeal of the security committee was adopted by 241 votes, the communists promised to sue not only the authors of the resolution, but also all the deputies who voted “for”. According to Sergei Reshulsky, lawyers of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation have been considering the issue of litigation since Monday, when the Security Committee decided to recommend a resolution against Rosagropromstroy for adoption. Ksenia VERETENNIKOVA, Alexander BARINOV, Vladimir ShPAK |
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