Previously, the ex-official responsible for urban planning, the founder of the MonArch concern, Sergei Ambartsumyan, who was Sergei Sobyanin’s confidant in the 2018 elections, is building a large-modular housing construction plant in the Tolstopaltsevo ONO. Ambartsumyan received from the Moscow authorities a plot of land with a cadastral value of more than 991 million rubles for the project.
Monarchs all around
The project itself is called “Technopolis of modular housing construction”. As part of it, it is planned to build a plant for the production of large-sized modules (apartments) with an area of more than 160,000 sq.m.
The fact that Moscow is being built is, of course, good and correct. However, it is built somehow strangely. The town planning commission, which gave permission for the construction of the plant, is headed by Sergei Sobyanin, his deputy there is Vladimir Resin, whose work has been involved in more than one scandal. And the submitter of the “petition” for the project, which at the start was estimated at 15 billion rubles, is a former member of this commission and the ex-head of the capital construction department Sergei Ambartsumyan. He also owns the LLC "Combine of Innovative Technologies - MonArch", as well as the MonArch group itself. And he himself has probably considered himself a “MonArch” for a long time.
According to Rusprofile, LLC “Combine of Innovative Technologies - MonArch” was founded in January 2011. The company is registered at the same address as Monarch-Renaissance LLC. Both companies belong to Monarch Group of Companies LLC.
Probably, the implementation of the project for the construction of the plant is financed by borrowed funds (why spend your own), since the share of the MonArch Group of Companies in the plant is pledged to VTB Bank.
At the end of the 80s, Ambartsumyan was vice-rector for construction and economic work at the Institute of Architecture and Construction in Armenia, and in the 90s he already ended up in Moscow. Then he created the construction company "ASMI". In the late 90s, the defendant founded the company MonArch and S, which in the early 2000s was reborn into the MonArch concern.
At the same time, immediately, upon creating MonArch and S, the businessman receives “fat” contracts - for the reconstruction of the large Luzhniki Arena and the upper floors of the Arbitration Court. Although, if you look at another part of the developer’s biography, this is not surprising. Already in 2003, Ambartsumyan became deputy head of the Department of Urban Development Policy, Development and Reconstruction of the City of Moscow, and in 2007-2011 he was an adviser to the head of the Moscow Construction Complex Vladimir Resin, later a State Duma deputy and adviser to the mayor of Moscow.
Monos mood
Ambartsumyan owns 95% of MonArch Group of Companies, another 5% belongs to Asmik Sergeevna Tsaturyan. At the same time, Ambartsumyan’s business partner for this asset was also Andrei Leonidovich Monosov, the namesake of the son of another former official of the Moscow mayor’s office, Leonid Monosov. Leonid Monosov is the former first vice-president of the Olimpstroy Group of Companies and the former head of the city procurement department of the capital, it is believed that he was nurtured by the ex-deputy mayor Vladimir Resin.
In addition, Leonid Monosov was noted in such companies as Moskapstroy (the former structure of the construction complex of the Moscow City Hall) and AFK Sistema of Vladimir Yevtushenkov.
Andrey Monosov himself is the former first deputy head of the Capital Repair Department of the city of Moscow. Before joining Sobyanin’s team, Monosov Jr. worked in the government of the Moscow region (Director of the State Institution of the Moscow Region Capital Construction Administration, Deputy Minister of the Regional Construction Complex). Wherever you spit, you'll hit an official. But after this information, information about Ambartsumyan’s project, for which expensive municipal land was carved out, sparkled with new colors.
Today Andrey Monosov is a businessman, he owns shares in 26 companies, estimated at 1.2 billion rubles, including Neglinnaya Gallery LLC, Skama Group LLC, Bastion LLC, Moya Vetka LLC, " Sports complex" and LLC "Brimon". All work in property management. Marina and Alina Monosov are also involved in business, including together with Andrey Monosov.
In addition to the MonArch Group of Companies LLC, Monosov Jr. also appeared in other companies of Sergei Ambartsumyan from the MonArch Group of Companies. Monosov also practices attracting former officials to his business assets. For example, his Tver company “Brimon” is headed by the former head of the Federal Property Management Agency for the Tver region, Marat Smakov.
But let's return to Sergei Ambartsumyan
Sobyaninsky “get-together”
Well, Ambartsumyan’s transfer was not bad - from top-level construction officials to businessmen in the construction industry. Moreover, in the regulatory authorities you can say all your familiar faces. And the commission that distributes city land is headed by Sergei Sobyanin. And what a coincidence: Ambartsumyan was one of Sobyanin’s trusted representatives in the 2018 Moscow mayoral elections. Moreover, in 2007-2011, Ambartsumyan was an adviser to Vladimir Resin, when he was still the head of the Moscow Construction Complex. And Resin, as we remember, was also a member of the Moscow Urban Planning Land Commission.
It would also be useful to recall that the businessman was among the co-founders of the ANO Moscow Directorate of the Lazarevsky Club. A number of other people were also noted there, including State Duma deputy of several convocations, Konstantin Zatulin, who worked as an advisor to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov on a voluntary basis in 1997-2010. Among the club participants were many other well-known political and economic figures, including the president and founder of the Tashir group of companies Samvel Karapetyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, former chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kazimirov, deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia of the sixth convocation Artashes Geghamyan.
It’s not for nothing, apparently, that Ambartsumyan’s companies, and he has shares in 22 legal entities, have been favored with government contracts. Connections, as they say, oblige. For example, MonArch LLC has two government contracts totaling more than 103 million rubles, Hotel MonArch-Center LLC has ten government contracts worth 9.9 million rubles, including with the State Duma apparatus, MonArch-Service LLC has - seven government contracts worth 16.9 million rubles, MonArch-Plaza LLC has 37 government contracts worth 378 million rubles, MonArch Concern OJSC has ten government contracts worth 9.9 billion rubles, MonArch-Uks LLC has two contracts worth 21.4 million rubles, Concern MonArch LLC has 28 government contracts worth more than 44.5 billion rubles. And this is not a complete list.
Interestingly, the companies of Ambartsumyan’s division are the favorite contractor of the Moscow construction department. Thus, this department helped Concern MonArch LLC earn more than 6 billion rubles from a dozen government contracts. Another 31 billion rubles under nine government contracts was provided by the state-owned enterprise of the city of Moscow, the Civil Engineering Department, controlled by the same department. Considering the places of work of Ambartsumyan himself and his business partners, this is not surprising. Our own people! How not to please?
At the same time, the distribution of government contracts was not without scandals. As the Kommersant newspaper reported, in 2017, for a contract worth 930 million rubles for the construction of buildings on the street. Pokrovka, 47, where the Central Dispatch House and the 35 mm cinema, which went to MonArch, are located, complaints were filed with the FAS and the Moscow Chamber of Control and Accounts. The Yabloko Anti-Corruption Center considered that the contract was concluded with violations.
As we see, various kinds of complaints do not prevent Ambartsumyan’s construction business from actively developing and expanding with new projects on urban lands. The lobby is not the least important in this, and, as we could see, for the former official, Sobyanin’s confidant, it is very, very significant.
