Ditrich throws road "dust in eyes"

As it became known to the correspondent of The Moscow Post, Head of the Ministry of Transport Evgeny Ditrich has recently spread suspicious activity: goes with checks to cities and towns. And the news from the places - one better than the other. All this is more like a PR campaign for the glory of the Minister. It seems that Ditrich decided to "whiten" his reputation after the scandals around the Central Circular Road (CCR), didn't he?

Recently, the Minister returned from a working trip to Perm, where he inspected the reconstruction of the local airport, which was allocated 506.7 million budget money. Bolshoe Savino began to be reconstructed in May 2018 and should have been completed by December 2019, but something, as usual, went wrong. By the appointed time, the contractor managed to complete only 26% of the work volume.

As RBC wrote, in this regard, the Administration of Civil Airports Federal State Unitary Enterprise issued 9 claims for a total of 72 million rubles. Now the agreement has already been signed with a new contractor, who allegedly fully meets the deadline - the deadline for the project of the first stage of reconstruction is set for October 15. So we are given to understand: soon Ditrich will have a successful case in his portfolio, delivered on time, even though at the second attempt?

Another "plus" in the "box" of the Minister is the Crimean "Tavrida", which he also recently inspected together with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government Marat Khusnullin. As Meridian Sevastopol wrote, here they reported on the success: they say that the readiness of the seventh section of the route is 95%, the builders are doing well, the deadline for the completion of part of the work might even be moved from 2023 to 2022. In general, five-year plan for three years! And a nice line in Ditrich's "portfolio".

Progress has also begun in the construction of the Moscow-Kazan Highway. According to Kommersant, Avtodor has announced tenders for 500 billion rubles for the construction of various sections of the road. The winner of this jackpot will be known on August 28. And, apparently, it will immediately start working: they want to hand the highway over in 2024. If, of course, half a trillion goes where it should…

Does Ditrich "asphalt" the tracks?

But it might not go! As, for example, in the case of the capital's Central Circular Road (CCR). This "pet project" attracts attention with its large appetites: the estimate keeps growing, but the road for some reason does not.

Recently, the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation made a statement that it is necessary to "throw in" another 14.8 billion rubles for construction. But taking into account 2019, the total cost of the project has already increased to almost 316 billion!

There was a scandal with the wood that was cut down. As reported by the auditors in a press release, wood in the amount of 138 million rubles was lost. More precisely, it was withdrawn by third parties. How could it be gone from the "century" road construction site?

"The scam was pulled" already under current Head of Avtodor Andrey Kostyuk, who was appointed to his post by Chairman of the Company's Board Vyacheslav Petushenko at the request of Ditrich. Kostyuk replaced Sergey Kelbakh, who left his position with a scandal - he was accused of abuse of office.

Though the current Head of the Ministry of Transport did not stay away from the scandals associated with the previous Head of Avtodor.

The story of the contract execution by Crocus International, a company controlled by businessman Araz Agalarov is also curious. In 2017, under this agreement, the company was issued a prepayment of 2 billion rubles - in fact, Kelbakh came to the attention of the security forces due to this case. The investigators considered the prepayment to be illegal, as Vedomosti wrote.

During the investigation, it was established that Crocus International received funds totaling 14.6 billion rubles as a prepayment from Avtodor in 2015-2017. But, as it turned out, the money was given not for the construction of the Central Circular Road, but for income in the form of interest on the deposit! This was written in detail by Konkurent.ru. It's just a double bottom matter: and the prepayment could have been issued illegally, so it was not going to be spent on the CCR project at all.

And it may seem that Ditrich is not involved in this case at all. But at that moment, he worked as the First Deputy of former Head of the Ministry of Transport Maxim Sokolov and, by a wonderful coincidence, was engaged in road construction. In fact, he was responsible for the construction of the road.

Ditrich "left traces"

Ditrich generally has a reputation among detractors as a notable "lobbyist" of commercial interests. For example, attention was drawn to the story of the Enekoled company, which by order of the Minister was considered as a possible supplier of lighting equipment for Federal highways.

The Minister has his own interests related to this company, since he "pushes" it? It also became known that he asked to assist the office in participating in the transport exhibition for free.

The Moscow Post then became interested in this story. It turned out that the company was created in 2018, and had a loss of 91 thousand works and employed exactly zero people. And so, in a short time, the company's business has improved. Although it has not added a single employee so far, its profit has grown to 2.5 million rubles, and revenue - to 8.4 million rubles. Did Ditrich himself contribute to this success in the market?

In the context of this story, the results of the current Minister's work as Head of Rostransnadzor are immediately recalled. He spent only one year there in 2015. Maligners then claimed that he appeared in the Supervisory Authority not to work directly, but to "discuss" a couple of questions. Allegedly, he had to establish work within the Department in the interests of Maxim Sokolov, who was then Head of the Ministry of Transport. There was a certain reason why the latter "pushed" him to this position.

And so, having "solved" the problems, Ditrich left Rostransnadzor. And as soon as the door was closed behind him, the security forces immediately knocked on it. As reported of RBC wrote, about ten employees of the Department were suspected of receiving bribes from transport companies. The investigation also targeted people who worked directly with Ditrich - Head of the Moscow Department Igor Vysotsky and Head of the Southern Department of Rostransnadzor Igor Vysotsky.

Surprisingly - another case of bribery, in which Evgeny Ditrich was "highlighted". Well, the Minister should be more careful: maybe the next time it will "touch" him, won't it? Isn't that why he is now so actively promoted in order to "get points"?

Or may all this activity be just an attempt to distract attention from the recent scandal with Ditrich's purchase of luxury housing in Barrin House for 230 million rubles? The new acquisition of the Minister was announced in June this year. Then this story made a noise, because according to documents, the annual income of the Minister is only 3-7 million rubles. A logical question arises: where is the money?

It is noteworthy that the cost of housing is comparable to a brand new Superjet. Other facts from Mr. Ditrich's biography immediately come to mind. For example, at PJSC Aeroflot, he is on the Board of Directors together with Sergey Chemezov, whose Rostec supplies the SSJ-100.

It is noteworthy that after the tragedy with the passenger liner in Sheremetyevo, which took the lives of 41 people, he took care of not ceasing to operate "superjets". Wasn't it for this service that he was "given" funds for an apartment?

So does the Head of the Ministry of Transport feel that the Ministerial chair has shaken behind him? As there are so many scandals around, in which he is accused of participating by malicious people. Is Ditrich now trying to shift the focus of public attention from his "muddy" affairs?