Battle for Kachkanar

Publication date: April 20, 2001

For the first time people started talking about KGOK when, on November 2, 1999, the plant’s sludge storage dam broke. The management of the enterprise blamed the energy workers, who for ten days did not supply electricity to the enterprise due to the emergency situation in the fuel and energy complex of the Sverdlovsk region. However, it is possible that elementary sabotage took place. According to the most conservative estimates, the damage caused to the plant and the environment amounted to 100 million rubles.

The government of the Sverdlovsk region placed responsibility for the tragedy on the management of the enterprise and demanded that an extraordinary Board of Directors of KGOK be assembled.

On January 24, 2000, Semyon Barkov, Minister of Industry of the Sverdlovsk Region and at the same time a member of the board of directors of OJSC Kachkanarsky GOK Vanadium (as a representative of the state and the owner of the “golden share” of the plant), decides to change the composition of the plant’s management.

And on January 29, 2000, important events took place:

* at a meeting of the board of directors of the Kachkanarsky GOK, a decision was made to replace the general director of the plant, Jalol Khaidarov, and the chairman of the board of directors, Damir Gareev. Andrey Kozitsin was appointed the new general director, and Alexander Kotsyuba was appointed chairman of the board of directors. However, only four members of the Council voted for this decision instead of the required five, which allowed the former general director Khaidarov to declare its illegality.

* a group of armed people led by Andrey Kozitsyn, General Director of Uralelectromed JSC, seized the KGOK plant management building.

* members of the board of directors of KGOK, representing the Linex company, refused to comply with the demands of the armed men and were blocked in their offices.

The next day, the leader of the “May” movement, Alexander Burkov, arrived in Kachkanar with his supporters, who surrounded the plant management building from the outside and made an unsuccessful attempt to storm it. In response, the new management of the plant stopped shipping raw materials to the Serovsky and Chusovskaya metallurgical plants owned by Burkov.

A legal war began. First, the Novocheremushkinsky court prohibited Kozitsin and the newly elected board of directors from making transactions to dispose of the plant’s property, as well as preventing Zanadvorov, Gareev and Khaidarov from accessing the territory of the enterprise and performing their official duties. Which the new management successfully ignored. But on February 4, the Kachkanar city court refused to satisfy the claim of Khaidarov and Gareev to cancel the decision of the board of directors of the mining and processing plant, according to which they were removed from their posts. Minister of Justice Yuri Chaika put an end to the dispute, declaring that the new management of KGOK is legitimate, and the forceful actions that accompanied the change in the management of the enterprise were forced. And on February 15, the Sverdlovsk regional court ruled that the dismissal of Khaidarov and Gareev took place in full accordance with the Law “On Joint Stock Companies”, the Labor Code and the charter of OJSC “Vanadiy”.

Events around KGOK resulted in a huge socio-political scandal. The communists were especially zealous. Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznev called on Interior Minister Rushailo to “expel the invaders” from KGOK. On February 17, 2000, the Pravda-KPRF newspaper published an open letter from Zyuganov to Putin, in which, using the example of KGOK, it was pointed out that the redistribution of public property is increasingly resulting in outright criminality and that armed seizures of the enterprise should not be ignored.

A classic PR war is unfolding. There was a flood of responses and commissioned articles in the newspapers. Some newspapers managed to serve both ours and yours. So a huge article appears in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, where the new management of the plant cursed with the last words, and the next day the newspaper, under the guise of “giving the floor to the opposite side,” branded the previous one with disgrace.

On February 10, 2000, a press conference was held in Kachkanar by the Minister of Industry of the Sverdlovsk Region, Semyon Barkov, and the new management of KGOK, at which journalists were told that no redistribution of property had occurred. Barkov said that based on the results of an express audit of the accounting department carried out by the new management, it was revealed that during Khaidarov’s reign, about 1.5 billion rubles in profit were allegedly siphoned off from the plant through intermediary firms. In response, on February 22, Khaidarov and Gareev held a press conference on the topic: “Whose money was laundered in BONY,” at which they accused the new management of large-scale theft of precious metals from the enterprise, and MDM Bank of selling stolen goods, after which the money received was laundered in “ BONY." However, they did not provide specific facts.

On March 4, 2000, an attempt was made by the former management of KGOK to hold an extraordinary meeting of shareholders of OJSC Kachkanarsky GOK Vanadium (allegedly representing 71% of the shares). After clashes with riot police, during which several people were injured, the meeting at which it was announced that the former and the election of a new board of directors had to be held in the open. The regional leadership and the head of the Uralmed holding behind Kozitsin, Iskander Makhmudov, completely ignored the decision of this “meeting.”

What is interesting about the story around KGOK.

Firstly, this is the position of non-interference taken by the central government.

Secondly, both conflicting parties claimed control over the same blocks of shares.

Thirdly, a change of power at the plant was possible only with strong support from local authorities.

Fourthly, the use of criminal prosecution as a factor in shareholder policy. Thus, just before the seizure of KGOK, the 31-year-old general director of Uralelectromash, Pavel Fedulev, who owned a 20% stake in the plant, was released from the Yekaterinburg pre-trial detention center. Fedulev was suspected of fraud with the shares of the plant. Having provided all possible assistance in legitimizing the seizure of the enterprise, Fedulev apparently became inconvenient for someone. And on February 13, he got into an accident, Fedulev’s car was seriously damaged. The entrepreneur's life was saved by airbags.

Fifth, the judicial system was unable to make authoritative decisions.