In December 2015, the supervisory board of the state corporation Rostec decided that the asset collection phase of the holding was completed and the time had come for an active growth phase. The Board adopted a strategy to increase annual revenue from $25 billion to $78 billion by 2025 (average annual growth of 11%). To implement ambitious plans, investments are needed, and counting on Western investors under sanctions is pointless, so cooperation with Russian partners, especially with proven ones, such as Vitaly Maschitsky, is becoming very important for Rostec.

White-stone Buryatia

On a sunny day on October 4, 2012, two Mi-8 helicopters landed at the Medvezhiy site of the Kavoktinsky jade deposit in the Republic of Buryatia. Without waiting for the propellers to stop, about three dozen people in camouflage and with Kalashnikov assault rifles jumped out of the cars. Armed soldiers cordoned off the site, and the frightened employees were herded into a workers' settlement and locked in a hut. Jade mining in Medvezhye, 800 km from Ulan-Ude, was carried out by the Evenki community “Dylacha”; its leaders were quickly explained that investigative measures in the case of the theft of a valuable ornamental stone were being carried out by operatives of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs from Moscow with the support of local security forces. At the same time, searches were carried out in the office and warehouses of Dylachi in Ulan-Ude, documents, electronic media and the jade itself were confiscated. At the Medvezhiy site, the security forces were accompanied by the chief geologist of the Russian Jade Company, Andrei Khokhlov. “If you find a good piece in the river, the price can be up to $15,000 per kg,” he explained, pointing to a pile of white jade in the Dylachi warehouse.

Buryatia contains more than 90% of Russian jade reserves; the Evenki community worked under a 20-year license, obtained in 1997, at the Kavoktinskoye deposit with the most valuable white jade. Seven companies were engaged in stone mining in 2012; all mined jade was exported to China. Often the documents indicated reduced prices. The concept for the development of the jade industry of the Republic of Buryatia for 2009–2011 stated that when exporting jade, companies declare a price of $6–10 per kg, while the actual price fluctuates greatly - from $60 to $1000, depending on the quality of the stone. The total sales volume of Buryat jade was estimated at 16 billion rubles per year with the potential for a twofold increase every two years.

“These two mountains along the banks of the Kavokta River consist almost entirely of stone,” Khokhlov explained, showing the hills surrounding the working village of Medvezhye. Having learned the cost of the stone, the security forces who helped the workers load the jade into helicopters became much more careful. Under the pretext of seizing material evidence in a theft case, according to estimates from the leadership of the Dylacha community, about 1,000 tons of white jade worth hundreds of millions of dollars were removed from their warehouses in Medvezhye and Ulan-Ude; the stone eventually ended up in the warehouses of the Russian Jade Company. . The general director of this company was the former head of the FSB Directorate for Buryatia, Valery Khalanov, and the co-owners were two Cypriot offshore companies, one Panamanian offshore company and the state corporation Russian Technologies (now Rostec) with a share of 24.9%.

The Evenki community “Dylacha” was accused of mining jade outside its area and a criminal case was opened against unidentified persons for the theft of 20 tons of jade worth 600 million rubles. “From the very beginning it was clear that this case would not end in anything,” says lawyer Ayur Dubdanov, who represented the interests of Dylachi. “They harassed everyone for a long time, but no one was put on the wanted list, no one was charged. The main task was to remove the already mined jade from the warehouses.” What about the Evenki community? The founders of Dylachi, brother and sister Andrei and Tatyana Turakin, fled abroad, communicated with lawyers only by phone through intermediaries and constantly changed their defense strategy, and in the end they pulled away altogether. “It feels like we somehow came to an agreement with them,” says Dubdanov.

On October 10, 2012, the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, sent an appeal to Vladimir Putin, in which he spoke about the results of the operation carried out in Buryatia and the general situation with jade mining in Russia.

“In Buryatia in 2011, 1,150 tons were legally mined, of which 850 tons were exported to China. The basis of the Russian jade industry is the reserves and resources located on the territory of the Republic of Buryatia,” Chemezov wrote. “Unfortunately, at present, illegal, predatory extraction of raw materials is being carried out at jade stone deposits in Buryatia, illegal methods of sale with subsequent smuggling of the mineral to China are widespread.” The letter also provides an estimate of the annual volume of jade illegally exported to China - 700 tons. Chemezov proposed developing and implementing measures to decriminalize the jade industry and asked to give appropriate instructions to the Prosecutor General's Office, the FSB, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Federal Customs Service of Russia. Putin agreed with the proposals. In 2014, 91 criminal cases were opened regarding the illegal export of stone (in 2013 - 82 cases).

In May 2015, a jade processing factory opened in Ulan-Ude; it receives stone from the Transbaikal Mining Enterprise (ZGRP), this company received a license to develop the Kavoktinskoye deposit. A gray-haired 60-year-old man in a formal suit inspected the new enterprise. “A year and a half ago, Transbaikal Mining Enterprise LLC was created, I am the chairman of the board of directors,” the guest from Moscow introduced himself and immediately clarified: “The enterprise was created with the participation of the state corporation Rostec.”

This was Vitaly Maschitsky, president and founder of Vi Holding and chairman of the board of directors of Vimetco, through which he controls the Chinese aluminum producer Henan Zhongfu Industry Co and the Romanian Alro. The Irkutsk-born entrepreneur made his capital in the 1990s through timber and oil transactions; in 2016, Forbes estimated his fortune at $500 million. Maschitsky and Chemezov have known each other for more than 40 years. The head of Rostec calls Maschitsky an “effective partner.”

In 2013, Rostec's share in the Transbaikal Mining Enterprise was 51%. In the middle of the next year, it dropped to 25.5%, the place of registration of the company changed from Irkutsk to Ulan-Ude, and the form of ownership changed from LLC to JSC. According to SPARK-Interfax, the Forb law firm from Moscow owns 73.5% of ZGRP, but Forb co-owner Vahan Gevorkyan conveyed through his secretary that this stake has already been sold, without naming the buyer. “There are 15 companies working with jade, ZGRP is one of them. There are private investors in it, we know them,” says Vitaly Maschitsky in an interview with Forbes. “I don’t have any capital stake in this company yet.”

Another 1% of ZGRP is owned by the company’s general director, Alexander Voronkov. Until 2009, he headed the forestry company Sibmix International from Irkutsk; Maschitsky was one of its founders. In the Irkutsk region, he is known as a very authoritative person, capable of solving the most complex problems. “When we acquired assets in the Irkutsk region, it was necessary to establish good contact with the local administration, I was told that it was better to contact Vitaly Lvovich. He introduced me to the governor, and we immediately began to communicate constructively with him,” says Timofey Kurgin, managing partner of the Russian Forest Group. - He did it for free. Vitaly Lvovich is an integral and far-sighted person, he can talk to anyone, clearly explaining his position.”

Shareholders invested 1.5 billion rubles in the deposit and jade processing factory. “We built an ultra-modern village, prefabricated timber houses instead of shacks, a gym, billiards, a consumer services center, a bathhouse, and purchased modern equipment. We built a modern factory for processing jade on an industrial scale,” says Maschitsky. The entrepreneur knows nothing about the problems and departure abroad of former subsoil users of the Kavoktinskoye field: “Everything happened to them before I arrived.”

The entrepreneur considers all talk about the fabulous cost of jade to be a legend. He says that, according to the state balance sheet, as of January 1, 2014, the yield of high-quality jade is only 14.7%, including 10.8% for ornamental jade and 3.9% for jewelry. “This 3.9% can cost $3,000 or $10,000, and everything else costs disproportionately less,” Maschitsky assures.

According to SPARK-Interfax, the revenue of the Transbaikal Mining Enterprise in 2014 amounted to 276 million rubles, the net loss was 77 million rubles. “We need to not only mine jade, but also process it, create our own national jade industry and promote the finished product to the Chinese markets,” Maschitsky said during a visit to Ulan-Ude. The idea is not new. “The Evenki community also tried to process jade, but it was pointless - for the Chinese this stone is sacred, they will only buy products from it made by Chinese craftsmen in China,” says Pavel Sulyandziga, Chairman of the Board of the International Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East "Batani".

Maschitsky says that the jade processing factory employs Chinese specialists, from whom Russian apprentices study. The entrepreneur is still deciding on his own participation in the jade business: “I am still considering my interests in this direction; they are much broader, taking into account our presence in China - we have processing facilities and factories there. But these are just plans for now.”

Yantar in development

On April 28, 2012, the board of the Accounts Chamber of Russia discussed the results of the audit of the Kaliningrad Amber Plant. More than 90% of the world's proven reserves of amber are concentrated in the Kaliningrad region, auditors noted, the plant is the only organization that has a license for its extraction, but the enterprise's share in exports does not exceed 16%, the main volumes of amber are exported using gray schemes through intermediaries. The Accounts Chamber spoke about the results of the audit in a letter to the President of Russia and in appeals to the Prosecutor General's Office and the FSB of Russia, and in the summer of 2012 a criminal case was opened against Kaliningrad businessman Viktor Bogdan, whose companies were the main buyers and sellers of the amber plant's products.

Bogdan and his partners were accused of attempting to illegally recover VAT for 350 million rubles in amber export operations. During the investigation, 69 tons of amber worth several tens of billions of rubles were seized and stored. Bogdan fled to Poland. In 2014, he was detained by Polish law enforcement agencies, and in November 2015, the Polish Ministry of Justice decided not to extradite him to Russia. In March 2015, a case was opened in Kaliningrad regarding the theft of amber seized from Bogdan. According to law enforcement agencies, out of 69 tons of amber seized from Bogdan’s companies, more than 5 tons were stolen. As stated in the press release of the Investigative Committee for the Kaliningrad Region, “the attackers stole an expensive stone, replacing it with fine-grained amber, waste and trimmings.” Bogdan's lawyers claim that much more was stolen.

What about the amber plant? In February 2013, at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Property Management Agency were instructed to find a strategic investor for the amber industry. Five months later, Mikhail Zatsepin, a native of the USSR KGB, became the head of the Kaliningrad Amber Combine, in agreement with the Ministry of Finance and Rostec.

By decree of the President, the State Unitary Enterprise "Kaliningrad Amber Plant" was transformed into an OJSC in January 2014 and transferred to Rostec. With the extraction of 290 tons of raw amber, the plant's revenue in 2013 was about 900 million rubles, net profit was about 43 million rubles. In March 2015, a meeting was held between the plant’s management and the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Nikolai Tsukanov. Together with Zatsepin, Vitaly Maschitsky, the new chairman of the board of directors of the Kaliningrad Amber Plant, also came to the meeting. “Sergey Chemezov called me, we have known each other and been friends since childhood, he said that there is such a task, it is difficult,” Vitaly Maschitsky explains his appearance in the amber industry. - I help the state, I was invited as a specialist in industry and market. I studied the issue and agreed, I decided that everything could be solved. In a couple of years you won’t recognize either the plant or the industry.”

Maschitsky called establishing market prices for amber one of the main tasks. “For many years, the main problem of the plant, which at that time was a federal state-owned enterprise, was its prices, which were four to five times lower than market prices,” explains the entrepreneur. “This difference flowed into certain pockets; the company did not receive a penny of investment.”

In the fall of 2015, the Kaliningrad Amber Plant held its first open auction, during which the starting price for amber soared 6.5 times to 140,000 rubles per kilogram. And, focusing on the auction, the plant formed new selling prices. “We found some entrepreneur who bought 5 kg of amber at exorbitant prices, and the prices of the entire plant with a production of 300 tons are based on this,” marvels the head of the Darwin jewelry studio, Vyacheslav Darvin. “At these prices, no one needs amber. The black market is full of offers, but they will sell amber according to the European standard, and at the plant you will get it along with the garbage,” says another entrepreneur who worked with the plant.

According to the government of the Kaliningrad region, in 2015, 150 enterprises were engaged in the processing and sale of amber in the region. With the arrival of Rostec at the plant, many of them had problems with legal raw materials, which even led to rallies. “None of the market participants knew what would happen, so there was a rush at the first auction. We tested the market price and showed that it is several times different from the prices that were previously at the plant. And the market participants themselves raised the price, can we be offended by the market?” - Vitaly Maschitsky is surprised.

In January 2016, the St. Petersburg Exchange held the second amber auction. 224 lots were put up for auction, but only 21 lots were sold for a total amount of 16 million rubles; 15 kg were purchased by the Yantarny Dom company for 1.67 million rubles (price of 1 kg - 111,333 rubles). The owner of the Amber House is Dmitry Rodin, he also owns 40% of the Russian Jade Company registered in Buryatia; Rostec is no longer among its shareholders.

According to Darwin, local entrepreneurs are talking about large purchases of equipment for sorting and polishing amber, and about the upcoming change of partners of the amber factory. “Everything is heading towards the fact that sooner or later the plant will become private,” he believes. - Three private licenses have already been issued for exploration and geological exploration with subsequent extraction of amber. There will be a precedent for private amber mining, then why does the state need a plant?”

Will Vitaly Maschitsky participate in the privatization of the Kaliningrad Amber Plant? “I’ll probably participate if it happens, but I don’t think so,” the entrepreneur replies. “On a general basis, of course, but if I know more about this business and can work better, I think I will have certain advantages in terms of experience rather than other preferences.”

The revenue of the Kaliningrad Amber Plant in 2015 increased from 1 billion rubles to 1.3 billion, net profit - from 8 million rubles to 130 million rubles. “The situation at the plant was completely criminal. The President handed it over to Rostec and set the task of making the market transparent, says Vasily Brovko, director of communications and strategic research at Rostec. - Now there are auctions, and the market determines the cost of raw materials. We dealt with problems that are 20 years old. Vitaly Maschitsky rebuilt everything as a manager.”

Now the management of the plant is looking, according to Mashchitsky, “for legal market mechanisms on how, on the one hand, to achieve market price formation, and on the other hand, to provide amber to all domestic and especially Kaliningrad processors at reasonable prices.” The plant organized the sorting of amber according to international standards, attracted specialists from Lithuania and China, who advise it on creating a classifier of amber and organizing its processing using modern technologies. Only sorted amber will now be supplied to auctions; it has been decided to move from test sales of small lots to wholesale sales. At the first auctions, only three tons were put up for auction; now 80% of the production volume will be auctioned, with an even supply throughout the year. “We think that wholesale prices will give access to amber to domestic processors,” says Maschitsky.

If the new sales strategy for 2016 is implemented, then, according to the forecast, it will increase the plant’s revenue to 5 billion rubles, profit will increase to 2 billion rubles against 230 million in 2015.

Production volume at the plant increased from 244 tons to 313 tons in 2015. Judging by customs statistics, the new leadership failed to increase the legal export of amber. According to the Federal Customs Service, in 2013 Russia exported $46 million worth of amber, in 2014 - $39 million. In 2015, $32 million worth of amber was exported, if we take into account the auction price of 111,333 rubles per 1 kg, it will be only 18 tons.

According to the International Trade Center, the volume of the global amber market in 2014 amounted to $1.3 billion. In April 2016, Rostec management announced that the general director of the Kaliningrad Amber Plant, Mikhail Zatsepin, wrote a letter of resignation for family reasons.

But not only this resignation will add more work to Maschitsky. The Kaliningrad Amber Plant owns the Malyshevskoye deposit in the Sverdlovsk region, where beryllium, emeralds and other minerals were mined in Soviet times. “We are already working on it, but we have been left with a lot of problems as a legacy, ranging from disputed ownership rights to fixed assets and structures that were used by the plant under a lease agreement, to the actual extraction of beryllium at this deposit and its processing,” says Maschitsky. - There is currently weak demand for beryllium, and the ore at our deposit has a low metal content. We are thinking about what to do, perhaps something with emeralds and their processing.”

CKS continues to fight waste in the Chelyabinsk region. The company can receive 20 million rubles from the budget. Is she supported by Rostec head Sergei Chemezov?

The Utility Service Center (CSC) company is fighting for the place of the regional waste management operator in Chelyabinsk. And at the same time - with garbage. A correspondent reported this. The question is stark: either the CCS will operate at the market, or the mayor’s office will take care of garbage collection. Wasn't the garbage collapse in Chelyabinsk provoked to redistribute the market? Could Sergei Chemezov be behind this?

The head of Rostec has been showing interest in waste for a long time. Its subsidiary RT-Invest plans to build 4 waste plants in the Moscow region and one in Tatarstan. It is possible that the Chelyabinsk region also interested Sergei Chemezov. Fortunately, the occasion turned up. After the closure of the Chelyabinsk landfill, a garbage collapse occurred in the region.

For some reason, local operators began to boycott garbage collection. But the Magnitogorsk company TsKS appeared on the market and decided to solve the problem.

The authorities promised to do this before October 1, but apparently the company overestimated its strength. On October 2, the garbage collapse spread to Magnitogorsk, from which CKS had to transfer part of the garbage trucks to Chelyabinsk.

The governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Boris Dubrovsky, ordered the allocation of another 20 million rubles from the regional budget to combat garbage. How many of them can CKS get?

And isn't the governor somehow connected to her? Dubrovsky came to the post of governor precisely from Magnitogorsk, where he worked for 5 years as sales director of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works.

The Chelyabinsk Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (UFAS) decided to restore order in the local garbage market. The regional waste disposal operator, the Public Service Center (CSC) from the city of Magnitogorsk, was targeted by antimonopoly officials. This was reported by the Documents and Facts correspondent. The FAS fears that the CCS may abuse its dominant position in the market when distributing waste after the closure of the Chelyabinsk landfill. Federal legislation will oblige entrepreneurs to enter into contracts with subcontractors of the Magnitogorsk company under a new procedure. The losses for the CFB in this case will be very obvious.

Either the money goes directly to you, or it will flow to some subcontractors. How did a modest LLC from Magnitogorsk manage to take over the garbage market in such a huge region as the Southern Urals?

Are his landfills floating away from Gevorkyan?

Let's see what kind of CKS this is. Almost the sole owner of the company with a share of 99 percent is Amarant JSC. It, in turn, is completely under the complete control of the FORB company.

It remains to be asked who is the actual king of Chelyabinsk garbage dumps.

Owners of Forb

75% of the company belongs to a certain Vahan Gevorkyan. This can be seen on the Rusprofile website. What is this entrepreneur known for? And in his baggage there are quite a few bright things.

Jade business

This concerns the case of the largest jade deposit in the Republic of Buryatia. For many years, the Buryat community “Dylacha” had the right to extract the mineral. For whatever reasons, the story is rather murky.

But officially, the right to develop it seems to have passed to the Rostec corporation. The combination “like” is not used here to connect words. It turned out that the state corporation transferred the right to develop the deposit to the Transbaikal Mining Company (ZGK).

It was a structural division of Rostec. Then ZGK increased its authorized capital from 10 thousand rubles to 100 million. Then it turned out that Rostec owns only 25 percent of the shares.

The remaining 75 percent belongs to the already mentioned company - the Forb company. It was rumored that the head of the state corporation, Sergei Chemezov, for some reason ceded (most likely not for free) the jade possessions of Buryatia.

And, it seems, they were saying that Gevorkyan may have been the initiator of the selection of a license from the Dylacha community. And then, with the help of armed masked men, he allegedly threw the management and all the workers out into the street. The gazeta-n1 portal spoke about this.

In addition, Mr. Gevorkyan, who, in fact, owns Buryat jade, is the owner or co-owner of a number of companies. For example, he has a stake in one of the Russian banks - BTA-Kazan. By the way, last year the Bank of Russia took measures to prevent bankruptcy and restore the solvency of this bank, the regulator’s press service reported.

Mr. Gevorkyan is also involved in the operators of the all-Russian lottery Gosloto, who are now also not doing well financially and legally.

Dubious lottery

In some incomprehensible way, Vahan Gevorkyan began to almost single-handedly control the lottery business. At first the lottery was called Gosloto, then it was transformed into Stoloto. The Stoloto company occupies more than 90% of the Russian lottery market. Monopolist. All the most famous draws go to the cash desk of this company.

Her slogans are painfully simple: “They win with us” and “State lotteries.” But few people know that a private company operates under the state brand. Our hero, entrepreneur Vahan Gevorkyan.

There are numerous scandals associated with lotteries. As a rule, this applies to cases where those who won a large sum were simply not paid. The latest case is the story of a pensioner from Voronezh, Natalya Vlasova. She allegedly won as much as 500 million rubles.

However, she never received the money. Due to her age, she did not go to court. How many more such winners are left with nothing? Meanwhile, Gevorkyan has incredible profits.

Vahan Gevorkyan thinking about new projects?

According to the official financial statements for 2016, the Stoloto trading house made a profit of 10 billion rubles, and a net profit of 560 million rubles. But what share of the remaining more than 9 billion rubles. went to the maintenance of the structure itself - unknown. This alignment was given by the publication “Karelian News”.

English teacher?

The businessman also made his mark in the capital of the Urals. Allegedly, under the patronage of Great Britain, a private institution was opened in Yekaterinburg under the catchy name “London School of Business and Finance.”

Its stated goal was to prepare Russian schoolchildren to study in the United Kingdom. A considerable amount of money was collected from parents for tuition – more than 1 million rubles. It seems like they were trained. However, no one received the promised high school diplomas.

The scammers disappeared with the money they received. Among the initiators of the training were even supposedly British diplomats. But that's not what's interesting. One of the founders was supposedly a man named Vahan Gevorkyan.

They say he is a businessman. Whether he is or not is difficult to say. But knowing Gevorkyan’s dubious entrepreneurial acumen, one can assume anything. And with Chelyabinsk landfills, a businessman can get into trouble. And perhaps not only into a puddle.

Did the general director of Prominvest Management Company Boris Savelyev steal 70 million rubles? They were allocated to clarify an application that did not need it. Was businessman Vahan Gevorkyan behind Savelyev?

Boris Savelyev, general director of Prominvest Management Company, was charged with embezzlement in the amount of 70 million rubles. This was reported by a correspondent for The Moscow Post. The money was allocated to clarify the application to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf to expand the territory of the Russian Federation in the Arctic by 1.2 million square meters. km.

Submitted in 2015, the application did not require any clarification. Considering that the case file contains documents containing state secrets, the case may be classified as a state crime. Could the businessman behind Savelyev, Vahan Gevorkyan, be blamed for this?

Gevorkyan, apparently, is a gambler, because he owns the Stoloto lottery, which is a monopolist on the Russian market - 90% belongs to it. And the lottery itself belongs to TK Center JSC, the founder of which is Vahan Gevorkyan’s Forb CJSC. How did he manage to grab such a tidbit of the Russian “scam”? Why would Gevorkyan have such luck?

In 2012, two mysterious lottery transactions occurred in the gaming market. An unknown Toksana Holding bought it from Sberbank for 1.9 billion rubles. “Sportloto”, and the unknown company “Nero” CJSC entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Sports to hold “Gosloto” until 2020. The only owner of “Nero” was “Forb”.

It was in 2012 that Vitaly Mutko, who is now the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of construction, became the Minister of Sports. The organizers of lotteries in Russia are the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports. In 2012, the position of Minister of Finance was held by Anton Siluanov, who is now also Deputy Prime Minister. Is the entire lottery business in the country really supervised by two deputy prime ministers? But what relation can Vahan Gevorkyan have to them?

Rumor has it that the beneficiary of the lottery companies was Armen Sarkisyan, married to the daughter of the former vice-mayor of Moscow Joseph Ordzhonikidze, who until 2007 oversaw the gambling and hotel business in Moscow. Ordzhonikidze worked in the government since 1990. Could he have been connected with criminal structures at that troubled time? Is it possible that Vahan Gevorkyan is one of their representatives?

In 2013, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov ordered the development of a new law banning private lotteries, which was supposed to come into force in 2014. The reasoning noted that the lottery market in Russia was wild and criminalized. Instead of an income of 10 billion rubles. the budget received 1 billion rubles. I wonder how much Igor Shuvalov could get from the gambling business tycoons for clearing the market? And does Shuvalov have anything to do with him now?

Igor Shuvalov can “protect” the gambling business in Russia?

In 2016, the created JSC State Sports Lotteries already earned 22.9 billion rubles. versus RUB 3.8 billion in 2013. This company was the largest operator of state lotteries. Sportloto earned 194 billion rubles in 2016. And all the lotteries were distributed by the Stoloto trading house, which earned 10.4 billion rubles in the same year. It was renamed in May of this year to TK Center JSC. All three companies are located at the same address - in Avilon Plaza. And are allegedly controlled by Armen Sarkesyan. However, they all belong to Forb CJSC.

So who is the real owner of the gambling business in Russia, who runs state lotteries? It is possible that Armen Sarkesyan is just a screen, and the real owners may be representatives of criminal structures. This is, of course, difficult to prove. However, for example, it is no secret that in America the gambling business has always been run by the mafia. Why should it be different in Russia?

In 2016 alone, lotteries brought in more than 30 billion rubles. in year. I wonder how many of them went to the Ministry of Transport and Economics? And could Igor Shuvalov, who at that time apparently oversaw the gambling business, have some kind of share? And how can we call the organizers of a business in which the interests of government officials and possibly representatives of the criminal world could be intertwined?

If we assume Vahan Gevorkyan’s connection with high-ranking officials, then the story of the clarification of the application appears in a completely different light. Perhaps one of the officials gave Gevorkyan a tip on this topic. Like, you can make 70 million rubles from scratch. The application did not need any clarification. Gevorkyan himself did not show off, but he left traces of his connection with Saveyev. And if investigators are interested in this story, they will easily find them.

Management Company "Prominvest" was liquidated on April 20, and Management Company "Gazinvest" - on July 9. Someone was clearly covering their tracks. Will they lead to Vahan Gevorkyan? And from him, perhaps, to high-ranking officials. From whom else could Gevorkyan receive information related to state secrets? In this situation, it is no longer necessary to wait for the police to visit you, but for intelligence officers. So this time Gevorkyan clearly played the wrong lotto.

Gevorkyan's trash loss?

It is probably not difficult to guess which circles representatives may hold points where state lottery machines are located, which, however, are not much different from ordinary slot machines. There are such points in every city. Therefore, is it any wonder that the Utility Service Center (CKS) company from Magnitogorsk suddenly took a dominant position in the waste distribution market of the Chelyabinsk region. It’s strange, but the garbage business, like the gambling business, is run by representatives of criminal structures all over the world. Apparently money has no smell.

The traces here also led to Gevorkyan. Yes, he’s just kind of omnipresent! The Chelyabinsk OFAS became interested in the activities of the CCS, which decided to restore order in the market after the closure of the Chelyabinsk landfill. Is it possible that Gevorkyan may also be involved in the garbage business in alliance with regional officials?

For example, there is a very clear connection between the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Boris Dubrovsky, and Magnitogorsk, where Dubrovsky worked for 5 years as the sales director of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Oddly enough, criminal circles have always gravitated towards metal. Although this, of course, does not prove Dubrovsky’s connection with Gevorkyan.

Jade redistribution?

In 2012, the Public Chamber of Russia discussed a conflict with the Evenki family and clan community “Dylacha”, which mined jade in Buryatia. Over the course of a year, she had 120 checks that revealed nothing. And this gave reason to think that someone wanted to seize the prey.

Soon the community was accused of mining jade on a site other than its own. After which a criminal case was initiated against unidentified persons. However, this was enough for the community leaders to flee abroad. Apparently, in order not to suddenly turn into established persons. Wasn't this a classic "raider" takeover?

In 2013, the Transbaikal Mining Company (ZGK) entered the market, 51% of which belongs to Rostec, and 48% to ZAO Granit. Could Sergei Chemezov’s state corporation really be involved in a possible “squeeze” of the enterprise?

Could Sergei Chemezov appoint Gevorkyan as “supervisor”?

Subsequently, ZGK increased its authorized capital from 10 thousand rubles. up to 100 million rubles and Rostec retained only 25.5% of the company, and 73.5% went to Granit CJSC, whose owner turned out to be Forb CJSC. Why did the state corporation and the all-powerful Sergei Chemezov give up their share? And why does the owner of lotteries and the garbage business need jade mining, a business with which he - Gevrokyan hardly knows what to do.

26.12.2016 Extraction and sale of Buryat jade/Rostec

Alexander Voronkov never sought to “make money” from jade. A lawyer by training, he graduated from Irkutsk State University. He worked in government agencies and then succeeded in the forestry and construction business. But when the leadership of the Rostec state corporation received an offer to head the Trans-Baikal Mining Enterprise (ZGRP), he agreed to take on a new business. And the motives for choosing his candidacy are quite obvious. A lawyer with experience as a successful entrepreneur was needed for the position of General Director, so that the activities of the new enterprise, which was created as a locomotive for the decriminalization of the jade industry, would combine profit making with strict compliance with the law

Our conversation with Alexander Voronkov began with how the majority of the population’s ideas about jade correspond to reality

“Society has developed peculiar myths based on rumors and not very deep publications in the media,” Alexander Sergeevich is sure. Myth one: jade is very easy to mine, it literally lies under your feet. Drive the excavator and load it into the dump truck.

What about loading jade, what about money... This is not so. Industrial production requires a full range of expensive works: geological exploration, stripping, blasting, sorting, loading, reclamation. After Dylacha, just to bring the quarry into compliance with technical and safety standards, it was necessary to move 900 thousand cubic meters of rock! Plus the design and maintenance of a rotational camp. All this in the conditions of the northern taiga, where organizing the delivery of fuel, equipment, components, and food is not easy and is not cheap. Mining alluvial jade in river beds is easier.

But you need to understand that there is also not just a group of people walking around looking for jade.

The rock is scooped out of the riverbed by excavators and then sorted. Imagine what happens to the river! I saw the consequences of the work of such “diggers”; it is a terrible sight and huge environmental damage. We strive to comply with all requirements, including environmental ones.

- Let's figure it out. Legal jade mining has actually increased in the past two years. This is the result of the decriminalization of the industry, the general efforts of government authorities, law enforcement agencies, customs, and subsoil users. But I don’t think the supply of jade on the market has increased that much. Rather, what had previously gone into shadow circulation began to be mined and sold officially.

The practice of jade mining at the largest Kavoktinskoye deposit has changed.

Previously, Dylacha extracted only high-quality jade. We extract the entire volume of mineral resources, as required by law and the terms of the license agreement. This also affects the overall production rate. But it is high-quality jade that sells well, accounting for an average of 12–13 percent of the total production volume. The rest needs enrichment. It needs to be sawn apart, removing everything unnecessary and leaving what can be sold. This is done by our subcontractors - the Oriental Way factory. From what previously remained in the ground, in the taiga, they make a marketable product. This is a fundamentally new, truly economic approach to the extraction and processing of jade.

– Many today are asking the question: did Buryatia win or lose as a result of the fact that ZGRP replaced Dylache?

– Huge investments have been made in the development of the jade industry in Buryatia. As I already said, the quarry at Kavokta had to be put in order, the rotation camp was rebuilt, modern heavy machinery and production equipment were purchased.

The total amount of investments exceeded two billion rubles. Therefore, we received our first profit in 2015. It covered the costs associated with the establishment of the enterprise. At the end of the outgoing year, we expect the first taxable profit, from which contributions to the budget will be made. This is a significant milestone for us - we are starting to work to the advantage of ourselves and Buryatia. After all, we purposefully “registered” the GRRP in the republic. The vast majority of our employees are residents of Buryatia.

– ZGRP invests significant funds in geological exploration. Were you able to ensure an increase in the balance reserves of jade? How long will they last?

– We invested more than 150 million rubles in geological exploration. This is not operational exploration, but a complete and multi-stage complex of search operations. From the development of a project for geological study of a subsoil site and search routes to the creation of an environmental monitoring project. Field surveys are followed by desk checks of their results.

More than 900 tons of new jade reserves were added to the state balance sheet.

– Is there, in your opinion, the possibility and sense of organizing a free supply of jade? Let's imagine this situation. A law-abiding citizen, fisherman or hunter, discovered a pellet or block of jade. What should he do? Throw a valuable stone in the taiga or hand it over to a licensed subsoil user?

– I have already said that jade, contrary to popular beliefs about it, does not just lie under your feet.

Its search by a “law-abiding citizen” can result in negative consequences in the form of destruction of river beds or banal theft on the site of one subsoil user for the purpose of renting it to another. There are many “little things” in which, as we know, the devil lies. These are, first of all, tax issues. A taiga dweller will not register as an individual entrepreneur and take on the burden of annual payments in order to hand over one stone.

It is also unprofitable for the subsoil user to act as a tax agent for him. Planning is important in the work of any enterprise. How much jade the free laborers will hand over during the season (tons or nothing), you can’t tell from the coffee grounds. There is no unified system for grading jade. With gold everything is clear, but here each stone is assessed individually. The taiga man brought it and demands one amount, and the expert names another. And then what? Take it by force, because according to the law, the jade still belongs to the licensed subsoil user? This is a very controversial, socially risky topic. Of course, it is possible to talk about free income in the jade industry, but in a practical sense it is clearly premature. The main thing now is to change the attitude of a certain part of the local population towards jade, which has been formed over the years, as an object of illegal mining and enrichment.

- Do they steal?

- No, they don’t steal from us now.

– Why did Rostec reduce its share in the capital of ZGRP? Will the state corporation continue to participate in its activities or will it completely leave the jade business?

– Rostec’s mission was to give impetus to the decriminalization and development of the jade industry by combining the efforts of the authorities, law enforcement agencies and subsoil users.

Without the participation of the state corporation, resolving many issues at the state level would simply be impossible. As for Rostec and ZGRP. For further development of the enterprise, it is necessary to attract large investments. But these should not be government injections, especially in today’s conditions.

Private investment is needed, and the state corporation has created the conditions for a large private investor to come into the business. This is a normal economic process and a competent management decision.