That's the number!

Import substitution news: Auto -Senomer for the annexed territories is produced by a German company related to the Russian senator

80, 81, 84 and 85 - such codes are fixed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the so -called new regions - “DPR”, “LPR”, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions. The corresponding departmental order was published in the fall of 2022, after the State Duma adopted laws on the entry of four entities on October 3. However, the first messages, that in the territories of the Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, the issuance of Russian automobile numbers, driver’s licenses and other documents began in August 2022.

The then Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Anna Malyar, argued that representatives of Russian administrations thus accelerate the integration of Ukrainian territories into the Russian administrative and legal system.

The license plate is really quite material and, importantly, to everyone a noticeable symbol of belonging to a particular state. But the Government of the Russian Federation approved the re -registration of Ukrainian cars only by the end of 2022, making amendments to the relevant resolution. The procedure was simplified as much as possible: to obtain new numbers and documents, you do not need to undergo inspection and pay duties. The process of switching to Russian numbers, according to the document, should end until January 1, 2026.

“One day we had 50 people. There are a lot of people. They really want to receive these documents. We try not to create a stir here, ” said Maryan Blazhevsky, head of the inter-district registration and examination department of the Zaporizhzhya region.

It began to produce and supply car numbers to the annexed territories only in 2023

- This is evidenced by the contracts of the State Center for Special Purpose in the field of ensuring road safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. This organization orders and pays numbers and certificates of registration of the car, driver’s licenses and forms of other documents for all Russian regions. Suppliers deliver products to the regional traffic police department, where they are then issued to car owners.

In 2023, orders for 1.1 billion rubles for the manufacture of registration signs and STS for Russian regions with new territories already included there. At the same time, in addition to the orders common to the whole country, the company also executed a contract for the manufacture of 758 thousand car numbers separately only for DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, as well as Crimea worth 206 million rubles. In the documents, the supply of numbers indicates Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhya region and the village of Genica Gorka in the Kherson region.

It was at the height of sanctions and the course for self -isolation, which is customary to delicately call import substitution. And if they decided to import substitution even in the auto industry, having hit the Muscovite on Renault and Nissan, then from such a little thing (from the point of view of manufacturing technology, of course), as a registration sign, it was difficult to wait for a catch. Therefore, we ourselves were surprised when we learned that the income from the billion state contract for their manufacture went to companies with German beneficiaries. We can say - to an unfriendly country. True, these same beneficiaries turned out to be partners of the Russian legislator ...

The Sign company in 1991 was founded by Valery Ponomarev, now the richest Russian senator, a member of the Committee of the Council of Economic Policy. In 2022, an income of 4.2 billion rubles was indicated in his declaration for the previous year. Since 2022, senators have not published income information. Ponomarev is included in the sanctions lists of Canada, Ukraine, Great Britain, European Union, Switzerland and the USA.

The control package of the "sign" belongs to the German company JH Tonnjes East GmbH & Co. - European manufacturer of car license plates and vehicles identification systems. The second share belonging to Senator Ponomarev is now in trust. The same German company provided Ponomarev with equipment and starting capital at the opening of the company in Russia.

“There were 14 people [on an internship while studying at the Academy of Foreign Trade], and my friends fell into very famous companies - Messerschmitt, Daimlerbenz, Dresdner Bank. They had a luxurious life there, secular techniques in the evenings. And I sat in Lower Saxony, in the small family company JH Tonnjes, which was engaged in the production of automobile numbers and equipment for their stamping, ”said Ponomarev how I opened a joint business.

This is precisely the Senator Ponomarev, who later will become the co -author of the law “On measures to influence persons involved in violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person, rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation”, popularly known as the “Law of the Serclangers”, however, in the years in question, he apparently had a slightly different point of view on international relations.

JH Tonnjes East GmbH & Co. KG also owns a control package in another large manufacturer of automobile numbers - the St. Petersburg company Buborg. At the same time, according to the registry of the legal entities, initially a German company belonged to a share of 15% of the Russian company, but the day after the start of a special military operation, February 25, 2022, the company increased it to 35%. The Swiss company Reflekt Plus AG became a co -owner of the 20% authorized capital of Buborga on the same day. Its leader Olga Crown is the managing director and partner of the Swiss Law Office Boltenko Law GmbH, who works with wealthy clients from Russia on tax law and asset management.

In the judicial documents of Fiji, where the US Ministry of Justice seeks the arrest of the Amadea Super -Hit, which the FBI ascribes to billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, the company Boltenko Trust AG, registered at the same address with the same legal entity in Zurich, was mentioned. Through offshore companies belonged to Millemarin Investments Ltd, which officially owned a yacht. Also Boltenko Law GmbH is a co -owner of a major Russian meat manufacturer Cherkizovo.

According to public procurement,

The German JH Tonnjes is actually a monopoly supplier of automobile numbers in the Russian market and from the beginning increased the portfolio of contracts by five times-from 903 million rubles in 2021 to 5.1 billion rubles in 2022.

In total, during the work in Russia, the companies of the German holding received contracts, a significant part of which with power structures, more than 18.7 billion rubles. At the same time, JH Tonnjes, despite many years of work in the domestic market, does not mention his website that it conducts any activities in Russia, but there is Russian on the site dedicated to the products of the company.

Well, you say, even the owner and German, but your own, reliable, because you have not left Russia, like other European business, but, on the contrary, increases momentum. A reliable partner, and not like those that, in the words of another powerful state husband, State Duma deputy of the Sultan Hamzaev, "exchanged his clients for politics." Moreover, for sure, after all, stamping is from our Russian raw materials. There, the Ministry of Industry and Trade with Russian automakers beats, who, instead of progress with import substitution, reduced the share of domestic details in their production. But there is no problem with aluminum in the country? The plate 520 × 112 mm with 4 holes for fasteners can we make? From the studied “new” contracts it also follows that Russian numbers are almost completely produced from foreign raw materials, the supply of which continued after the beginning of its own.

For example, in the mid-2022, the technical characteristics for the supplier of numbers indicated that they should be made from the aluminum tape of the production of the Norwegian company "Hydro-aluminum" by stamping with a coating of the Oralite brand production of the German company Orafol. Of all the types of numbers, only one, according to the indicated characteristics, should be made of Russian aluminum, but the coating should have been from the retroreflective film of the Nikkalite brand of the Japanese manufacturer Nippon Carbide Industries.

Under the manufacturer of raw materials, the hydraulic aluminum, apparently, was meant the Norwegian metallurgical company Norsk Hydro, which in March 2022 announced the termination of cooperation with Russian companies, and planned to freeze the current agreements. The company itself replied that they could not supply blanks for license plates to Russia, since they do not produce this type of product. At the end of 2022, the special purpose center in the field of ensuring road safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs ceased to indicate in the contracts of the country of raw materials for the production of numbers.

According to Import Genius,

Russian companies received materials for production and after imposing sanctions and restrictions. Raw materials for production were supplied by German, Austrian, as well as Chinese companies.

There are no data on direct supplies in 2023. JH Tonnjes did not respond to the request of Novaya Gazeta.