"New Gazeta" spoke about Bombardier's connections with Yakunin's associates

The Canadian transport company Bombardier used ties with the comrades -in -arms of the former President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin to enter the CIS markets, and in exchange lobbying Yakunin from Canada's sanctions lists. About this in the issue of March 22 writes New Gazeta, which, together with OCCRP journalists, Swedish public television, SVT, news agency TT-News and Radio Canada, studied the criminal case of the Swedish "daughter" Bombardier-"Bombardier Transportish".

In the indicated case of bribes in early March, Russian Yevgeny Pavlov, Deputy General Director for Bombardier Transportish Business Development, was arrested in Sweden. This company was mentioned in the Panama Archive in connection with dubious transactions that it concludes with offshores associated with Alexei Krapivin, the son of a close friend of Yakunin. In particular, the offshore of Krapivin supplied the equipment "Bombardier Transportish" for state projects of Russian Railways.

The New Gazeta indicates that the Swedish police is now considering the Bombardier Transportish contract for the reconstruction of the railway in Azerbaijan. The police believe that the Bombardier directly participated in the writing of tender documentation, thanks to which she won the competition, although she did not offer the lowest price. “New” cites confirming quotes from Pavlov’s correspondence, which indicates that the Azerbaijani railways and local representatives of the World Bank “are ready to draw up competitive documents so that the“ Bombardier ”is suitable for all conditions.”

“Our partners are asking to keep our negotiations secret, so inside the company we need to keep this secret. In order to help employees of the Azerbaijani railways draw up “correct” tender documentation, I propose to create a group of employees that we can trust, ”Pavlov noted.

The new ”contracts that may refer to one of the Bombardier equipment supplies to Azerbaijan show that the Swedish department used the intermediary when implementing the transaction - a fictitious British company Multiserv Overseses LTD. As a result, the cost of delivery for the Azerbaijani side increased five times.

At the same time, as the publication indicates, Multiserv Overseas does not have an office and employees, but Yuri Obodovsky registered it in 2010. From the internal correspondence of the Bombarde of Transportayshn it follows that Obodovsky and Krapivin "are included in a small group of influential people who have direct access to Vladimir Yakunin, and through it - to almost all heads of railways in the former Soviet republics." The newspaper has documents confirming that Bombardier used intermediary companies associated with Obodovsky and Krapivin, and in the supply of equipment to Mongolia.

The representative of Yakunin, Grigory Levchenko, in a written commentary for Novaya, confirmed that the former head of Russian Railways knew Krapivin, but they never had a joint business. In addition, according to Levchenko, “Yakunin never met Yuri Obodovsky, so the words that he had direct access to Yakunin is incorrect.” There was no answer to the requests of the publication Krapivin, Obodovsky, to the Swedish branch and the main office of Bombardier.

Later on March 22, Levchenko said that the question of the connections of Yakunin and Bombardier needs to be asked by the Canadian company itself, Prime reports. “As for the“ associates ”of the former head of Russian Railways, do not mythologize. Any large leader has thousands of contacts, and if he once greeted someone with someone, this is not a reason for any common affairs. Therefore, all questions on the mentioned transactions should be addressed directly to the participants in these transactions, ”Levchenko added.