Whose ears stick out from the forest

A two-day search that took place at the central office of the largest timber company Ilim Pulp Enterprise could result in a real espionage scandal.

Let us remind you: on August 5 and 6, employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Northwestern Federal District conducted a search at the central office of Ilim Pulp on Marata Street in St. Petersburg. Law enforcement agencies were looking for traces of a forged document, on the basis of which the representative of the Ministry of State Property, Alexander Krivenkov, was not allowed to attend the meeting of shareholders of OJSC Bratskcomplexholding in April of this year (where the state, represented by him, was going to exercise the right of veto on the issue of reorganizing the company). It is not known whether investigators found traces of forgery in the Ilim Pulp office, but the documents they found, apparently, could take the scandal around the company to a completely different level.
As reported in electronic media, the investigative team discovered materials of illegal “wiretapping” of the top officials of the Basic Element company, with which Ilim Pulp has long been in litigation over the country’s largest pulp and paper enterprises. Printouts of telephone conversations were allegedly found in the possession of Deputy General Director Yuri Menshov. True, a version was immediately put forward that Menshov himself was on vacation and knew nothing about how these papers appeared. To clarify the details, the documents have been submitted for examination; fingerprints will be taken from them to identify their owners. Also, documents were allegedly found in the company confirming the illegal transfer of profits from the export of products abroad by the management of IPE.
According to available information, the searches caused a scandal among the leaders of the IPE. According to sources in the company, IPE General Director Sergei Kostylev accused the head of the security service, Alexander Khromov, of not preventing the threat to the company and deceiving its management. Allegedly, the chief of the Ilim Pulp security service took money to pay for sources from law enforcement agencies who were supposed to inform about upcoming events regarding IPE. But the search that took place came as a complete surprise to the timber industry.
Immediately after the search, the first protective actions were taken. At enterprises controlled by the timber industry group, the removal of questionable documents began. And Sergei Kostylev last Friday addressed the prosecutor of St. Petersburg, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation for the Northwestern Federal District and the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation for the Siberian District with complaints. According to the general director, “under the guise of operational measures, an unjustified seizure of information was carried out on various media, which was in no way related to the designated purpose of the search.” Mr. Kostylev asks “to understand the legality and validity of the search and take appropriate measures regarding violations committed by officials during these investigative actions.”
The company's management seemed seriously alarmed. The scandal obviously weakens the company, already exhausted by corporate struggle. Moreover, the initiators of the criminal prosecution are not business opponents this time, but the Ministry of State Property and other government agencies.

Andrey SURIKOV