Splash-anti-terror

The capital's landing stages are preparing for new inspections

The Federal Antimonopoly Service stood up for the landing stages, protecting them from capital officials. The FAS found that the Moscow government, as well as its subordinate structures, in the heat of the struggle for the architectural perfection of the city, violated antimonopoly legislation, in every possible way preventing floating restaurants and offices from carrying out their “economic activities.” However, the owners of the few landing stages remaining in the center of the capital are not particularly delighted after this, at first glance, serious victory of law over administrative resources - they are expecting new inspections from various Moscow inspectorates in the near future.

The conflict between city officials and landing stage owners has been going on since last summer. Floating restaurants and offices that stood peacefully along the embankments suddenly fell into disgrace. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov personally led the fight against these premises, which are difficult for city property services to access, promising to remove them from the Moscow River before navigation is closed. However, the mayor’s team failed to completely rid the city of, as officials put it, “environmental terrorists,” even with the help of ongoing checks, inspections, shutdowns of electricity and sewage systems, as well as demonstration actions when tugboats tore off the tightly moored landing stages from the embankment. After such active actions, which did not bring the expected results, a grueling trench war began: embankment parapets were restored, which were cut through for visitors to enter, and “no parking” signs appeared at floating restaurants and offices.

However, the owners of the landing stages, who did not want to close their establishments in Moscow, turned to the FAS, where it was decided to initiate a case against the Moscow government, the Moscow State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodokanal", the State Unitary Enterprise "Gormost", the traffic police department of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate and the OJSC "Moscow City Electric Grid Company" for violation of the Law “On Protection of Competition”. “We accused Gormost in the courts of dismantling the parapets, Mosenergosbyt of turning off the electricity, Mosvodokanal of turning off the water supply, and almost everywhere the court took our side. But this is useless, so we decided to contact the FAS,” Valery Nikonov, a representative of Center Granat LLC and Alba Intel LLC, which own several landing stages on Frunzenskaya Embankment, told Vremya Novostey.

In order to judge the capital authorities and offended entrepreneurs, a special commission was created in the FAS, which worked for more than a month and recognized that the Moscow government, as well as the Moscow State Unitary Enterprise "Mosvodokanal", the State Unitary Enterprise "Gormost", the traffic police department of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate and OJSC "Moscow City Electric Grid" company" violated part 1 of Art. 15 and art. 16 of the Law “On Protection of Competition”. As stated in a message posted on the official website of the FAS, these capital structures carried out “concerted actions that lead to the elimination of business entities from the commodity market.” In addition, the FAS confirmed that the Moscow government had indeed given instructions to terminate contracts for the placement of watercraft, their connection to utilities, organize the evacuation of landing stages, etc.

In principle, the result of the proceedings in the antimonopoly department was not only this determination, but also the FAS order to city services to stop the identified violations. However, so far, apparently, he has not been seen among city structures accused of violating antimonopoly laws. In any case, citing the absence of this important document, representatives of the services refused to comment to Vremya Novostey on the FAS decision.

In turn, the owners of the landing stages have already stated that they are “very satisfied”, but are waiting for further proceedings. “We are, of course, very glad that they stood up for us. The city authorities have nothing to oppose against the FAS decision. However, they have already promised us that they will appeal it,” said Mr. Nikonov. According to him, new checks from offended officials will soon be expected at the landing stages. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, accusing floating restaurants and offices of “ecological terrorism”, decided to check how they are ready to resist this terrorism. “Today we received an order that the city anti-terrorist commission, which, by the way, is headed by Yuri Luzhkov himself, will come with an inspection. Therefore, it is quite clear what we should expect,” said Valery Nikonov.

Kirill MELNIKOV