Businessmen Vladimir Avetisyan and Alexander Rosenzvaig may be excommunicated from the gas trough of the Samara province. This will also affect Vyacheslav Akatov, who is called the father-in-law of Governor Dmitry Azarov.
Clouds are gathering over the Samara gas trough. Gazprom is growing dissatisfied with the work of a private intermediary, Srednevolzhskaya Gas Company LLC, where the interests of the family of former Rusnano top manager Vladimir Avetisyan, his business partner Alexander Roznetsvaig and Vyacheslav Akatov, the namesake of Governor Azarov’s father-in-law, are tied.
Gazprom, which expressed dissatisfaction with its relationship with the intermediary back in 2019, again went to court, demanding more than 201 million rubles in damages in the form of the cost of gas lost during transportation and not compensated. A correspondent in the Samara region looked into why fuel “disappears” from pipes and who fills their wallets in the gas region of Russia.
Gas feeder: the first bells
Created on the basis of the gas distribution network of the Soviet trust "Kuibyshevgorgaz", LLC "Srednevolzhskaya Gas Company" (SVGK) is still operating it, collecting fabulous sums from the population of the Samara region for transportation and home gas maintenance of equipment. Directly to the region, fuel goes through the pipes of Gazprom, which represents Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara LLC in the province.
The roots of the conflict between SVGK and Gazprom must be sought back in 2011. Then, Gazprom, in agreement with the regional government, announced plans to build its own gas distribution networks in the region and invest in the development of existing ones, but SVGK was not satisfied with such a feint and it went to the FAS, saying that this project did not take into account its opinion , as the owner of old networks. As a result, the FAS opened an antimonopoly case against the then head of the region Nikolai Merkushkin, Gazprom and Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara. The holding and its division were fined.
In December 2018, another high-profile conflict broke out. The general director of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara LLC Andrey Kislov (who was also a deputy of the Samara provincial Duma) announced that the company was terminating agency agreements with SVGK and its subsidiary, Samaragaz OJSC. He substantiated his statement by the fact that, in his opinion, since 2004, the companies did not quite conscientiously perform the functions of agents for collecting gas payments from consumers (allegedly they did not work well with debts and did not collect 700 million rubles). This gave rise to a loud conflict and confusion among the population, who did not know who to pay for the services.
It was rumored that Kislov had also previously been involved in a group of companies that included SVGK, and this demarche was nothing more than some kind of maneuver, but in reality no one was going to break off relations. As a result, the arbitrations, through which Gazprom’s subsidiary tried to break the contracts, sided with SVGK and the mediator remained at the trough.
Moreover, Governor Dmitry Azarov actually played on the side of the SVGK, declaring that from a certain point the issue became socially significant. In January 2019, he announced that the decision had been made, the parties had reached a compromise: Gazprom Mezhregiongaz would issue gas bills to citizens, and the authorized organization, the Srednevolzhskaya Gas Company, would continue to provide transportation and maintenance.
And what a coincidence - before coming to power, Azarov held the position of general director of Srednevolzhskaya Gas Company LLC (in 2001-2006). In addition, it is possible that his family has not lost interest in the affairs of the SVGK to this day. Vyacheslav Akatov, who was called Azarov’s father-in-law, that is, the father of Ellina Vyacheslavovna Azarova, the governor’s wife, has a small share in the company through a chain of legal entities, which we will discuss later. No one has officially denied this family connection.
Since the conflict in 2019, there have been reshuffles in the leadership of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara itself. Today, the director is a native of St. Petersburg, Mikhail Smirnov, who was elected as a deputy of the provincial Duma.
Meanwhile, the conflict between Gazprom and Samara players has turned into some kind of sluggish legal proceedings since 2019. And this was the case until 2023.
Is the Samara pipe leaking?
This year, Gazprom, represented by its Samara subsidiaries, was puzzled - it supplied only volumes of “blue fuel”, and along the way, as if somewhere a pipe suddenly “leaked”. In the spring of 2023, a claim was sent to arbitration against SVGK for the collection of more than 991.082 million rubles of debt under a fuel supply agreement. The parties had disagreements regarding the method (procedure) for determining actual gas losses. The plaintiff insisted on the need to determine the amount of losses payable by the defendant according to the algorithm laid down in the contract offer (based on “gas imbalance”).
Ultimately, the court rejected the plaintiff’s claims at the end of July 2023, stating that he allegedly did not document the presence of gas losses (in the form of an “imbalance”). The plaintiff was then reminded of the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service for the Samara Region in a case dated 2019, in which the actions (inaction) of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara in presenting unfounded demands for payment for gas losses for 2019 were recognized by the antimonopoly authority as abuse of a dominant position in the form of infringement of the interests of business entities (GRO) and an indefinite circle of consumers (population).
And here’s what’s curious: the lion’s share of claims involving the SVGK are heard by the same Samara arbitration judge, who is also the deputy chairman of the court, Sergei Khmelev. And often verdicts are made in favor of SVGK, as was the case with Gazprom’s claim for almost 1 billion rubles. This gives me some thoughts. Especially considering how famously they brushed off petitions in the dispute between Gazprom and SVGK.
But the history of litigation between the parties does not end there. Today, several legal disputes are being heard in the Samara arbitration court, and in four of them, SVGK demands to force Gazprom’s subsidiary to enter into an agreement for the provision of gas transportation services to the population on the plaintiff’s terms, as well as to resolve disagreements when re-concluding the supply agreement by accepting the terms of SVGK. One dispute has already been considered and as a result, the SVGK refused to force the conclusion of an agreement on its terms, indicating that only the supplier or buyer of gas has the right to force the conclusion of an agreement, while the plaintiff is a gas distribution organization that does not have the right to force the supplier and ( or) the buyer to conclude a gas transportation contract. Three more disputes are to be considered in September.
Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Samara continues to try to recover damages for fuel that evaporated in the pipes. Thus, on September 19, it is planned to consider a claim for recovery of actual damage in the form of the cost of gas lost during transportation and not compensated to the plaintiff in the amount of more than 201.426 million rubles.
All this as a whole may indicate real problems for SVGK or, at a minimum, that according to the old rules it will no longer be possible to fill the bins.
Gas trough of the Samara province and its beneficiaries
Taking into account that the Samara region is one of the most gasified regions of Russia, we are talking about many billions of rubles, which flow like a deep river into the pockets of the beneficiaries of the SVGK. Who are these beneficiaries and why does Azarov advocate for them so much?
Let's start with the fact that SVGK is a favorite contractor of local authorities and over the years of work, over 5 billion rubles have passed through it as a supplier on 2.9 thousand government contracts, and as a customer it has passed through 22 billion on 3.1 thousand government contracts. Taking into account the extensive business scheme, this is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, the subsidiary Samaragaz OJSC was the supplier of about 200 government contracts worth over 144 million rubles and the customer of more than 300 government contracts worth more than 4.6 billion rubles.
At the end of 2022, SVGK's revenue amounted to 7 billion rubles with a net profit of 897 million rubles. Not bad profits, right?
The director of SVGK is Ivan Vladimirovich Avetisyan, the son of Vladimir Avetisyan.
According to Rusprofile, the owners of SVGK are five legal entities: SP-99 LLC (Samaraprom-99) with a share of 84.06%, Baza LLC - 5.94%, Promgazdiagnostika LLC - 5% ( owner - Afanasyeva Valentina Ivanovna, she is also the owner of a share in LLC "UKH "Volgopromgaz"), LLC "Potential" - 2.5%, LLC "Altair" - 2.5%.
In turn, SP-99 is owned 82.91% by Vladimir Evgenievich Avetisyan, the president of the financial and industrial group Volgopromgaz, who, according to open data, has worked in senior positions in Samaratransgaz and Samaraenergo since the 90s. , RAO UES of Russia, and was also deputy chairman of the board of Management Company RUSNANO LLC. In addition, in 2022, the Kommersant newspaper reported that Vladimir Avetisyan, Advisor for Special Assignments to the First Deputy General Director of Rostec, could become a candidate for the presidency of AvtoVAZ. Thus, Avetisyan managed to inherit many state corporations - from Rusnano to Rostec. Also, until 2020, Avetisyan was on the board of directors of AvtoVAZ.
Readers of The Moscow Post are familiar with Avetisyan from a whole series of publications - from the story of a possible friendship with the British royal family to the story of the Samara municipal enterprise Engineering Service.
According to Rusprofile, Avetisyan owns shares in 41 legal entities (worth 1.3 billion rubles), including a whole group of assets from the energy sector, including Samesk LLC, M-Group LLC, El- Transit Plus. Among the co-owners of the last two are Vasily Nikonov, another former top manager of RAO UES of Russia OJSC, Lenenergo OJSC, Rosneft and the former head of the electric power development department of the Russian Ministry of Energy, general director of a large Russian energy asset - Unipro PJSC.
In addition, Alexander Shoylovich Rosenzvaig (10.36%) and Baza LLC of Vladimir Avetisyan and Rosenzvaig (6.73%) have shares in SP-99. It is noteworthy: “Baza” was a contractor for SVGK in two contracts worth more than 150 million rubles, providing rental services for non-residential premises in 2016. Both Baza and separately Avetisyan, together with Gazprom, were listed as co-founders of JSC AKB Gazbank.
Interestingly, the list also included Andrei Kislov, who in 2018 started a legal showdown with the SVGK. Kislov was also connected with Avetisyan by Samaragazavia LLC, Metalist LLC, and Samara Windows LLC with Anna Avetisyan, which speaks in favor of the version that the dispute was only a kind of semblance of a conflict, with the help of which almost personal issues were resolved interactions in the market.
Rosenzweig is another manager of Russian energy assets. Over the years, he worked at RAO UES of Russia OJSC (in the project center for pre-sale preparation and sale of assets), was a member of the governing bodies of Togliatti Energy Sales Company OJSC, IDGC-Volga OJSC, Elektroset OJSC, as well as was the head of the asset of the state corporation Rostec and PJSC Inter RAO - LLC RT-Energotrading. In Rusprofile, Rosenzweig owns shares in 34 legal entities worth 254 million rubles, including LLC UKH Volgopromgaz, LLC Mirex, LLC Specialized Developer Business Center Paritet.
According to the latter (as well as City-Stroy LLC), in addition to the Avetisyans (both son and father), Rosenzvaig’s business partner is Svetlana Malakhova, president of the Samara Fund for Support of Regional Cooperation and Development, in the establishment of which the NFPR participated . Very famous people were involved in the creation of the latter, for example, the governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov.
Most of Rosenzweig's assets are in real estate and construction.
In 2022, Rosenzweig appeared in a scandalous story with the repurposing of one of the oldest cultural centers in Samara, Sovremennik, into a restaurant with a kind of cabaret. This caused discontent among the townspeople.
Returning to the owners of SVGK, we note that Potential LLC, Altair LLC, jointly owning a 5% share, belong to Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Akatov, whom the media called the father-in-law of Governor Dmitry Azarov. Akatov also owns the SMP company, which works in the field of repair of electronic and optical equipment. Co-owner of the asset is Lyudmila Akatova. SMP LLC was a supplier in 79 government contracts worth more than 176 million rubles. At the same time, contracts with state customers were concluded even when Azarov was governor. If the Akatovs are actually relatives of the head of the region, then a completely reasonable question arises: is there a conflict of interest here, as well as their participation in the ownership of SVGK? Let's leave this question to the Investigator.
Now let's move on to the beneficiaries of Samaragaz. Here the main shareholder is the already well-known Baza LLC. As of the end of December 2022, he owned 55.05%. Another 25.5% was held by JSC Gazprom Gazoraspredeleniye.
Interesting fact: many companies associated with SVGK and Samaragaz also act as executors of their contracts. For example, UKH Volgopromgaz LLC carried out 14 contracts worth 454 million rubles. A kind of transfer of funds from one pocket to another.
Thus, the main beneficiaries of SVGK and OJSC Samaragaz are Vladimir Avetisyan, Alexander Rosenzvaig and Vyacheslav Akatov.
How true are the rumors that the above-mentioned gentlemen will finally be weaned from the gas trough, we do not undertake to judge, but the fact remains that Gazprom has already paid close attention to the “blue fuel” disappearing from the pipe for many millions, if not billions, of “blue fuel”. Now it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Sledkom to take up this story. In our opinion, there is every reason for this.
