The police were called

Criminal cases have been initiated against companies from the structure of RAO UES

Yesterday the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia criticized the reform of the Russian electric power industry. Over the past six months, the police have carried out “comprehensive measures to ensure the security of the country’s electrical grid complex,” the DEB press release says, and opened five criminal cases totaling about 1 billion rubles. Almost all of them indicate the use of schemes by energy companies to unlawfully inflate the base for calculating tariffs. The Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs concludes that after the liquidation of RAO UES of Russia on July 1 of this year, the number of crimes in the electric power industry may increase. Therefore, “appropriate proactive measures are being taken.” In particular, within the structure of the Economic Security Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “a specialized unit has already been created and is functioning, the task of which is to decriminalize the electric power industry, and economic security units in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are aimed at this,” the press release says.

RAO, in turn, responded to the police press release with a statement that spoke about the transparency of energy companies and their working conditions. And experts are confident that the press release of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is nothing more than a way of putting pressure on the state on RAO UES in connection with the conflict between the energy holding and Rosneft. The oil company is trying to restore Tomskenergo as a vertically integrated company and own a blocking stake in it (see Vremya Novostey, February 19) , because the 5% of TGK-11, which it turned into as a result of the reform, is cheaper.

Rosneft is now waging a massive attack on energy companies in the Moscow Arbitration Court. She filed four lawsuits demanding that the decisions of the meetings of shareholders of Tomskenergo and Kubanenergo regarding the division of these companies into business components (generation, networks and sales) be declared illegal. The fact is that the state-owned company acquired energy assets last summer, as if “to supplement” the core assets of YUKOS, and then, as is believed, received instructions from the Kremlin not to interfere with energy sector reform. YUKOS (and then its bankruptcy manager Eduard Rebgun) interfered with this process: after all, it bought up blocking stakes in regional energy systems, which were then divided by type of activity, and at the same time it was proposed to combine the generating component into TGCs. As a result, the blocking share of YUKOS was greatly “eroded,” which he did not want to put up with. Rosneft, for the first time after purchasing the bankrupt company, had no time for energy, and it did not want to violate the Kremlin’s instructions.

However, now, when the company urgently needs money, and borrowing on foreign markets is very, very expensive, it would be logical for Rosneft to sell non-core assets, but it is one thing to sell a blocking stake in a vertically integrated company, thanks to which you can at least somehow participate in its management, and something completely different - 5% in TGC. And even if you don’t sell it, but leave the electric power industry in its structure as a business, then Rosneft would like to have leverage over energy companies, which the 5% stake, of course, does not allow. For this purpose, the oil workers began an attack on RAO structures. According to experts, their chances are slim, but at least raising the issue at the highest government level that one of the largest state-owned companies has lost money as a result of the energy reform is quite realistic. Considering that Rosneft and the country's law enforcement agencies are believed to be controlled from the same center, it is quite possible to assume that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has become closely involved in the electric power industry not at all of its own free will.

At the same time, energy workers say there are quite a lot of violations in this industry, it’s just not customary to talk about them, and it’s completely difficult to convict anyone, given the fact that high technologies are quite difficult to understand. In yesterday's press release, the Department of the Interior's Department of Economic Security talks about only two cases. One of them is in the Vologda region, it was initiated on November 21 last year. The point is that the management of one of the energy companies (according to Vremya Novostey, Vologdaenergo) entered into an agreement with a certain company for the supply of gas to power plants, and in the agreement indicated that it was reducing the volume of gas purchased at the state price by 50 million cubic meters per year. In reality, the press release says, there was no reduction in gas supplies at the state price. But the documents submitted to the regional energy commission stated that more coal began to be consumed (which is many times more expensive than gas), on the basis of which a higher electricity tariff was set. As a result, the energy sector managed to illegally obtain 175 million rubles. Apparently, this offense was committed quite a long time ago, since Vologdaenergo has not owned generating assets for about three years. Anatoly Chubais, by the way, met with Vologda Governor Vyacheslav Pozgalev on Tuesday and promised quite serious investments in the region’s energy sector, signing a corresponding cooperation agreement.

The second case, which the police decided to report, concerns one of the companies in the Ryazan region (according to the newspaper, we are talking about the Ryazan State District Power Plant). “Materials have been sent to the Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor’s Office of the Ryazan Region to initiate a criminal case on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) and Part 1 of Art. 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official powers) against the managers of one of the companies and an official of the Federal Tariff Service,” says the press release of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a result of their collusion and the provision of deliberately false information, funds in the amount of about 276 million rubles were unlawfully included in the tariffs. As a result, the tariff for part of the population of the Ryazan region was overestimated by 5-10%.

RAO tried to justify itself in its response statement. It believes that “the creation, based on a package of laws on the reform of the electric power industry and decrees of the Russian government, of energy companies specializing in specific types of activities (production, transmission, dispatch and sale of electricity) has made their business transparent and much more controllable.” On the issue of gas supplies to power plants at state prices, the energy holding indicates that “it has repeatedly raised the issue with regulatory authorities about the need to fix the volumes and conditions of supplies at the legislative level, but this complex problem has not yet been resolved.” But work in this direction is underway. “In particular,” RAO said in a statement, “last year, for the first time, a campaign was carried out to conclude long-term contracts for the supply of limited and above-limit gas. Regarding the supply of limited gas, five-year contracts were signed between all generating companies of RAO UES of Russia and supplying organizations of Gazprom, fixing volumes and a formula for calculating the price of blue fuel. Now there is a campaign to conclude long-term contracts for the supply of above-limit gas. Also, the Mezhregiongaz electronic trading platform is currently operating, where generating companies can purchase gas at market prices if it is possible to pump it in this direction.”

So, the energy holding summarizes, “RAO UES of Russia cannot agree with the conclusions made by the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia based on the results of comprehensive measures that “in connection with the reform of RAO UES of Russia, the number of economic and tax crimes in this area may increase.”

But the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it seems, is now not ready to insist on this wording; it only calls on citizens to more actively complain about cases of violation of their rights by energy workers. So the situation only looks like a reminder that the police are not asleep, and RAO says that it is only grateful to them for this. Bye. Apparently, a lot depends on how the conflict between Rosneft and energy workers develops.

Nikolay GORELOV, Ekaterina KARACHEVA