It's sunny over Vekselburg, residents are raining again

As the correspondent of UtroNews reports, FAS, close to Victor Vekselberg, suspected energy holding of overestimate of cost of the electric power at the auction in the first half of the year 2019.

Penalty for manipulation

T Plus faces the largest ever fine for manipulating energy market prices - up to 10 billion rubles. An administrative case will be instituted against the company, follows from the FAS message published on the official website.

The actions of "T Plus" led to a restriction of competition - paragraph 11, part 1 of Art. 10 of the law "On the Protection of Competition." The FAS revealed that in the first half of 2019 there was an abnormal increase in wholesale electricity prices. In the fall of 2019, the FAS announced a possible conspiracy of "several groups of persons of general companies." The overpayment of consumers, according to the estimates of the "Community of Energy Consumers," amounted to about 40.5 billion rubles.

The FAS has twice accused T Plus of manipulating energy market prices. In 2012-2013, according to the FAS, T Plus energy retail companies overstated their planned electricity consumption in applications for RSV, which increased the price by 13%. In addition, energy holding raised prices at competitive power selection in 2012. About this writes Kommersant. In the current dispute, due to an abnormal increase in electricity prices in 2019, the FAS published a decision to initiate a case on September 17.

Victor Vekselberg

Victor Vekselberg having interfered with housing sector of Russian regions, raises more and more questions as from outside both supervisory authorities, and governors. In spite of the fact that many regions are headed by heads loyal to the oligarch, such as, Denis Pasler in the Orenbursky region, but not all is excited about total intervention in the housing-and-municipal sphere of the billionaire. Sometimes, to restrain a heat of the beneficiary of T Plus heads of regions should even report to the President. For example, the Acting Governor of the Komi Republic Sergei Gaplikov who told to the head of state about malfunctions at the Vorkuta combined heat and power plant which belonging to Vekselberg acted in 2016 this way.

The official noted that the combined heat and power plant isn't modernized that coppers old, demand capital repairs that accident rate very high, but T Plus instead of correcting shortcomings, threatens to sell the company. Then the President charged to law enforcement authorities to understand a situation, Version writes.

Possibly, the picture depicted by Gaplikov is identical with the situation which developed in many regions in which the billionaire pursues commercial interests. Locals for fun call the capital of Perm Krai "Vekselburg," because of total fullness of the region with the enterprises of the oligarch. And there is a lot of such regions in Russia.

Invasion to Perm

In Perm this year the heating season in Perm came to the end with the next scandal with participation of T Plus group of companies. According to the resolution of Administration of Perm No. 327 of 05.05.2021, the heating season is ended on May 7. But before his termination since the end of April T Plus group of companies which treats and the notorious "Perm network company" arranged some "tests of thermal networks for the maximum temperature". Practical effect of "tests" — inflating of houses already unnecessary thermal energy with the subsequent superficial enrichment of heatswindlers", - authors of the portal of the housing and public utilities calling itself the Unified information system claim.

Because of mass shutdowns of heating or hot water LLC Household Management Company submitted the legal claim against PJSC T Plus to Arbitration court of Perm Krai. Information is available in Card files of arbitration cases.

Repair work, reinserts on the pipeline started T Plus at the height of a heating season became the reason for appeal to the court. A situation critical and repair work led to emergencies.

The city isn't ready to winter, in some houses of shutdown occur every day. As a result management companies are forced to hold labor-intensive events after each case of shutdown of heating by the supplier of a resource, authors of the website of LLC Technologiya sberezheniya said.

In August the Deputy of Legislative assembly of Perm Krai Vladimir Chuloshnikov appealed to the prosecutor Pavel Bukhtoyarov to carry out an inspection concerning PJSC T Plus and LLC Perm Network Company controlled by him. According to the deputy, at establishment of tariffs for 2021 the whole list of normative legal acts could be violated.

Deputies were forced to start talking about a problem aloud because of numerous complaints from inhabitants of the region to constantly growing cost of housing and communal services which become very heavy for consumers. According to Chuloshnikov, during the period from 2012 to 2021 the tariffs for water supply increased by 68%, the electric power rose in price for 60%, hot water for 57%. At the same time, the real income of the population of Perm Krai decreases for all last years, and nearly 346 thousand people are below the poverty line and have incomes below the poverty line (13.3% of the population of Perm Krai). Writes about it Nakanune.RU.

Besides, the population with fear apprehended transition to a method of the alternative boiler house which will take place since January 1, 2022. The agreement on creation in Perm of a price zone was accepted between the head of the region and top management of PJSC T Plus. In June the relevant decision approved the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin. The new technique assumes that for the city the single tariff for heat calculated by a technique of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation will be established. For all consumers at whom the cost of services was lower, there will be a stage-by-stage growth, and for those at whom the tariff was higher, the price promise to freeze. Now the tariff of the Perm network company – "subsidiary" of T Plus works in the city and the tariff of T Plus, approximately is one third lower. The government and the generation company plan to balance tariffs to the PSK level until the end of 2028 that slightly quicker, than was offered earlier by power engineering specialists, Kommersant reports.

However, in the region "T Plus" has lost confidence and they do not want to believe in the word of Vekselberg's companies here. And the reasons for this are good. Last year, Andrei Wagner, General Director of PJSC T Plus, was held accountable for the cold in Perm's apartments and for insufficiently hot water. The Kirovsky District Court of the city published reasoned decisions on administrative cases initiated by the Inspection of Residential Supervision (IGZHN) of the Perm Territory.

Wagner was found guilty of an administrative offense under Article 7.23 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, an administrative penalty of 500 rubles was imposed on him. About this writes Ura.ru. The case as stated not in the amount of the fine, but in the fact of bringing to justice the first person of the federal company "T Plus."

"Fall" of Chuvashia

If in Perm they somehow resist the T Plus invasion, then in neighboring Chuvashia they actually "capitulated" to "aggression." In Cheboksary, the company entered into a concession agreement on the modernization of heating networks. Since August 1, this infrastructure has come under the control of an investor. Here Vekselberg was offered a concession almost immediately after the head of Nikolaev came to power.

The company received at its disposal heating networks and all related farms Cheboksary and Novocheboksarsk. Among the first measures of the company were mass layoffs of employees, writes Versiya. It turns out that one region after another falls under T-Plus, and there is no one to stop it.

Samara rear

In a single region, the prosecutor's office tried to do this. A high-profile scandal erupted in the spring of 2021 in Samara, when the supervisory authority made a submission to the mayor of Samara in connection with violations by the concessionaire - of the promised 4.5 billion rubles, only 1.7 billion have so far been invested and Vekselberg, they say, constantly disrupts the reporting deadlines.

Elena Lapushkina made a prosecutor's submission for a concession agreement with Samara Communal Systems LLC. As The Moscow Post wrote, the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg is behind the companies through the manager Igor Dibtsev, general director of RKS-Holding LLC. The founders of the latter - Technoprom and Invesstresurs - sit tightly on public procurement.

In the summer of 2019, the mayor's office concluded a concession agreement with Samara Communal Systems LLC of RKS Group of Companies on the objects of centralized cold water supply and sanitation systems for a period of up to 2047.

The water supply and sewerage networks of Samara from municipal property decided to lease to the investor the former mayor of Samara Viktor Tarkhov, but the prosecutor's office intervened and the deal fell through. The new mayor, Dmitry Azarov, announced the contest again in 2011.

In March 2012, Samaravodokanal LLC received the right to lease water supply and sanitation systems of MP Samaravodokanal for a period of 35 years, reports 63.ru. As it turned out, in the region Vekselberg had a reliable rear in the person of Mayor Lapushkina and Governor Dmitry Azarov.

Pasler's stronghold and Kirov's burden

All "in chocolate" Vekselberg and in the Orenburg region, where his associate, the former head of T Plus Denis Pasler, still rules. Just the other day, the governor lost the court on the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburg Commune Electric Network.

The prosecutor's office also filed a lawsuit against Pasler's dubious plans. The defendant was the Legislative Assembly of the region. As a result, the court banned the privatization of the State Unitary Enterprise Orenburg Commune Electric Network. The court found that the State Unitary Enterprise OKES was not in the privatization program for 2021, while the regional government tried to defend the position that the property that they had decided to privatize earlier was not included in the forecast plan for the year, and the decision on OKES was made back in 2020. in detail told UtroNews about it.

Sometimes small "victories" happen. So, for example, in the Kirov region, a company that is associated with a billionaire was suspended from concession. The authorities terminated it after the arrest of Governor Nikita Belykh. But such a victory was short-term. The competition for the new concession agreement has been resumed. In 2019, the Public Chamber of the Kirov Region discussed a concession with PJSC T Plus. The possibility of concluding an agreement between T Plus and Vnesheconombank to receive a loan of more than 3 billion rubles for the modernization of heating networks in Kirov was also discussed.

It was assumed that Kirov would become a pilot city where concession work with the attraction of credit funds would be carried out. T Plus plans caused public discontent, since the payment of interest on the loan, which is very likely to fall on the shoulders of Kirovites. It is reported by Kirov News.

Probably, in this dispute won "T Plus." According to Echo of Moscow in Kirov, the regional budget will pay off Kirov's debts to T Plus. We are talking about almost half a billion rubles that the city owes to resources for heating delivered back in the 1990s. There is a decision of the arbitration court, according to which Kirov should repay 472 million, so officials have already provided for more than 100 million in the budget for next year. But this "T Plus" is not enough - the regional authorities decided to pay the company now 400 million rubles. The remaining part of the debt will then be considered repaid, according to the city department of finance.

As we see their examples, Vekselberg's T Plus entangles the country as a sprut, actually taking on the outcry of local officials, managing companies, trying to force them to act in their own interests and many such managed estates of firms close to Vekselberg. And how many of them have already been "configured"? But most importantly, the population of the regions suffers from an exorbitant increase in tariffs for housing and communal services, at a time when the supplier is poor-quality and unscrupulous in its services and people in the regions are doomed to freeze while the oligarch's companies, playing with prices, earn fabulous capital.