FSO business empire. Destruction and cleansing. Partners from the FSO and FSB

Having attracted attention since his arrest in March 2016, the case is drawing to a close. It’s not every day that billionaires, albeit ruble holders, are arrested in Russia. The Basmanny Court of Moscow must put an end to it. According to all legal canons, the consideration of materials in court should have been taken over by judges from Kingisepp, but the Prosecutor General's Office petitioned to transfer the process to another place. The prosecution does not trust the judges of the Leningrad region, believing that on “their” territory Mikhalchenko and his henchmen can put pressure on them and there will simply not be a fair verdict.

The defendants began to get acquainted with the materials in June last year. A conflict with determining the place of the court decision led to the fact that the defendant Mikhalchenko was transported back and forth between Moscow and St. Petersburg all summer. Now his only neighbor in the barred dock is Boris Korevsky, the head of the security service of the Forum holding, of which Mikhalchenko is still a co-owner. The rest of those involved in the smuggling of expensive alcohol across Russian borders managed to resolve their issue a little earlier.

The first to leave their company was St. Petersburg sommelier Anatoly Mishchenko, who, according to the criminal scheme, was supposed to treat visitors to elite “leftist” alcohol in his restaurants. Then Anatoly Kindzersky, co-owner of another “gear” of the criminal plan of the Contrail Logistics North-West company, faltered. He made a deal with the investigation, fully admitted his guilt, asked to single him out from the general list of suspects in the crime and to consider the charges brought against him in a special manner. His complaisance guaranteed him a fairly mild punishment. Kindzersky received a suspended sentence of 5 years and paid a fine of 1.6 million rubles.

Ilya Pichko, the owner of the South-Eastern Company, while formally remaining a defendant, long ago paid the state the money he stole. He was released from custody on bail of 10 million rubles in the summer of 2016, but will never hear a sentence. Pichko disappeared from the sight of his family and friends on December 8, 2017. Three days later, his lifeless body was found in a roadside ditch near St. Petersburg.

It turned out that the death of the person involved in the criminal case was in no way connected with him. It’s just that a businessman decided to update the interior of his home and ordered the production of a new kitchen set, paying 120 thousand rubles. Upon receipt, the customer did not like the quality and accuracy of the order. The furniture assembler did not find any other arguments in the dispute than to strangle the picky client and throw the body out of town. All the circumstances of the murder were almost instantly clarified by St. Petersburg detective professionals. The killer was arrested literally without delay.

In general, the profession of furniture assemblers in Russia is becoming one of the most dangerous for wealthy people. At the end of the 90s, in a similar situation, but already in Moscow, the boyfriend of the famous Russian figure skater Maria Butyrskaya was killed. Rich bourgeoisie, chasing exclusive furniture, must take into account the emerging trend and try to talk to the proletarians in a cultural manner.

Alcohol smuggling

Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who initially denied any guilt, gradually softened his position, having to agree with part of the charges brought against him. Like the steadfast tin soldier, only Boris Korevsky continues to hold the line. He is a former cop who served in the Department of Economic Crimes of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, so he knows better than anyone the correct line of behavior when communicating with his former colleagues. He is not going to supplement the evidence base with his own handwritten testimony.

The indictment states that in 2014, Dmitry Mikhalchenko created from the already mentioned Korevsky, Kindzersky, Pichko and Mishchenko. By that time, the head of the Forum holding had a fortune of 13.6 billion rubles, which allowed him to take 71st place on the list of Russian billionaires. The result of the smuggling campaign was damage caused to the state, estimated at 30 million euros.

Expensive alcohol was purchased in Germany - whiskey, wine and tequila and grappa, still exotic for Russia. The cargo was placed in twenty-ton sea containers, but in the accompanying documents it was not designated as alcohol, but was renamed construction sealant. A simple forgery made it possible to avoid high customs duties. After customs clearance, alcohol was distributed to restaurants and bars in St. Petersburg.

The FSB was able to figure out the combination. In March 2016, refrigerated containers delivered from Hamburg were seized in the port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic. The next batch consisted of 4.5 million bottles, valued at 67.5 million rubles. In it, investigators from the Committee found several packages of Courvoiser cognac 1912 worth 500 thousand rubles for each bottle. The organizers of the smuggling almost immediately found themselves in custody.

Not wanting to sit on his bunk, Kindzersky offered the security forces a bribe of $40 thousand for his release. The offer did not go through. The arrested person had to tell everything for free, but honestly. The arrest of the billionaire and his henchmen caused a chain reaction of resignations in local law enforcement agencies. Mikhalchenko took care of the “roof” in a timely manner, but the scale of the fraud turned out to be such that it attracted the attention of security officials from the central departments. As the case unfolded, investigators found out that the leader of the organized crime group had business ties with the head of Directorate “K” of the FSB of Russia, Viktor Voronin. Now he already bears the prefix “ex” to his position.

The corruption octopus created by the businessman rightly aroused concern from the prosecutor's office, which began to insist on moving the hearings to Moscow. In addition to the unspoken pressure on the judges, prosecutors were concerned about the protection of their main witness ─ Kindzersky, who was very inconvenient to be transported with security to the small building of the Kingisepp court. Providing witness protection was not an ordinary precaution. Kindzersky, who had already received a suspended sentence, repeatedly complained that he and his relatives received threats from unknown persons before the start of the trial.

Baltstroy - latest news

The arrest of the head of the Forum holding marked a series of failures in the main construction business. In parallel with the smuggling case, an investigation is underway into financial irregularities during the restoration of the Izborsk fortress, in the Pskov region. The work was carried out by Forum’s construction divisions, which, according to preliminary data, pocketed about 200 million rubles. Mikhalchenko’s construction contracts are handled by the Baltstroy company. Two years ago, she easily won the tender for the reconstruction of Sennaya Square in St. Petersburg.

Mikhalchenko has been in jail for a year and a half. During this time, the work has not advanced one step. In the end, the administration of the Northern capital decided to transfer the execution of the municipal order to another contractor. Baltstroy lost 1.2 billion rubles. Restoration work at the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent worth 110 million rubles and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory disappeared from the company’s portfolio of orders. The musicians had a fatter piece of the pie ─ 1.4 billion rubles, with 500 million already spent. The Novodevichy Convent in Moscow also refused the services of Mikhalchenko’s companies. The billionaire's surname now terrifies everyone. In order to avoid possible lengthy checks and accusations of a corruption conspiracy with a scandalous businessman, people flee from contacts with Baltstroy like the plague in the Middle Ages.

Mikhalchenko’s connections with the leadership of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Atex under the Federal Security Service of Russia are now being carefully studied. In March 2017, the head of the company, Andrei Kaminov, who previously had close business contacts with Forum, and his deputy Stanislav Kuehner were detained. They are accused of financial abuse during the construction of the presidential residence in Novo-Ogarevo. Stanislav Kuehner came to Atex directly from Balststroy, where he headed the tender commission. It is with his person that the wave of victories at competitions that occurred in 2011 is associated.

The construction business, which brought Mikhalchenko billions, is desperately trying to save the billionaire’s second partner, another co-founder of the Forum holding, retired FSB lieutenant general Nikolai Negodov, from complete destruction. There is only one large order left in the company’s order portfolio - the construction of a container terminal in the port of Bronka, again near St. Petersburg.

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The accused of smuggling admitted to illegally importing 2.9 thousand bottles of alcohol worth 61.12 million rubles for his “personal collection.”

Alexey Sokovnin

The criminal case of Dmitry Mikhalchenko, the head of the Forum security service Boris Korevsky, who was previously the deputy head of the UBEP GUVD of St. Petersburg, as well as the general director of the South-Eastern trading company Ilya Pichko and sommelier Alexei Mishchenko was initially supposed to be considered in the Kingisepp City Court of the Leningrad Region, but the Prosecutor General's Office succeeded change its territorial jurisdiction. At the same time, the Supreme Court actually expressed no confidence not only in the judges of the Leningrad region, but also in the heads of regional law enforcement agencies.

State prosecutor Vera Pashkovskaya told the court that in 2014, Dmitry Mikhalchenko created an organized criminal group for smuggling (Part 3 of Article 202.2 of the Criminal Code) of elite alcoholic products from the UK, France and Italy. While visiting these countries on the instructions of his boss, Alexey Mishchenko purchased exclusive types of alcohol, including Courvoisier cognac from 1912, which costs about 500 thousand rubles. per bottle. At the port of Hamburg, the alcohol was packed into two sea containers. Then the members of the organized crime group prepared documents according to which the containers contained construction sealant produced in China. The cargo was supposed to arrive at the port of Ust-Luga to the South-Eastern Trading Company and, thanks to the connections of the alleged smugglers in the Federal Customs Service, it was cleared through customs according to a simplified procedure. In February 2016, when the containers were imported into Russia, their contents were worth $55 thousand on paper, from which fees of just over 1 million rubles had to be paid. However, FSB officers, having opened the containers, found in them 2.9 thousand bottles of cognac, wine, gin, whiskey and champagne, which were valued by experts at 61.12 million rubles.

["RBC Newspaper", November 29, 2017, "Mikhalchenko depressurized": To transport products across the border, Mikhalchenko wanted to involve the ULS Global group of companies Igor Khavronov (he was arrested in April 2017 in another case), as well as broker Dmitry Pushilin (according to SPARK-Interfax is a co-owner of 12 companies). But they refused.
Then Mikhalchenko brought Anatoly Kindzersky, managing director of Contrail Logistics North-West, into the group. Its structure was not an authorized economic operator, so the group used Ilya Pichko’s South-Eastern Trading Company as a nominal declarant. By providing false documents for this, Pichko became an accomplice of smugglers, the state prosecution believes. - Insert K.ru]

Having learned about the arrest of the containers, Mr. Mikhalchenko, according to the Investigative Committee, tried to release them with the help of the head of the Federal Security Service of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Alexander Rodionov, the head of the “K” department of the economic security service of the FSB, Viktor Voronin (he was dismissed after the scandal), as well as the former head of the St. Petersburg traffic police department Sergei Bugrov, but he was unable to resolve the issue. Then Boris Korevsky tried to buy the containers for $40 thousand. The corresponding amount was allocated by another member of the group - the owner of the company "Contrail Logistics North-West" Anatoly Kindzersky (specially sentenced to five years probation). However, having received the money, Mr. Korevsky was unable to do anything and eventually kept it for himself, for which he was additionally accused by the Investigative Committee of especially large-scale fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code).

Dmitry Mikhalchenko, speaking in court, said that he did not create any criminal group and was not involved in smuggling. The containers contained alcohol for his collection, which he had been collecting for many years. “When the containers were stuck at customs, I tried to achieve their release through non-procedural means,” the defendant noted, adding that he admits to this violation and repents. According to Mr. Mikhalchenko, if the charge is reclassified to a lighter one, Part 2 of Art. 202.2 of the Criminal Code, he is also ready to obey and “go to a special order.” However, in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused can file relevant petitions during the investigation or preliminary hearings of the case, and not when it is already being considered on the merits.

Mr. Mikhalchenko said that he compensated part of the alleged damage in the amount of 18 million rubles. The head of the Forum wanted to give detailed testimony on the case, which he had printed on a stack of sheets. But as soon as he read the phrase that he returned from Ukraine to Russia in 2000, the state prosecutor interrupted him, saying that now she was not ready to interrogate the main defendant.

Defendants Pichko and Mishchenko admitted guilt, saying that they wanted to speak after the witnesses. Boris Korevsky flatly denied his involvement in smuggling and fraud.

The trial of the St. Petersburg oligarch Mikhalchenko has already begun. But with the start of the meetings, questions arose not even about the future fate of the businessman, but about whether he was now an oligarch at all and whether he was one?

Unintentional remorse

The trial in the case of Dmitry Mikhalchenko, which began in the Basmanny Court of Moscow, started with a surprise. The defendants' defense was preparing for sharp turns and for the aggressive position of the state prosecution, but no one was prepared for what happened at the first hearing. According to sources, nothing foreshadowed the businessman’s speech; at the first meeting it was planned to discuss the procedure for presenting evidence by the prosecution, establish the identities of the accused and disperse until the next meeting.

Dmitry Mikhalchenko's direct speech took everyone by surprise. Including the judge and the defense of the oligarch himself. And the billionaire said exactly the following: I am not the organizer of smuggling. I contributed to its disclosure,” he said. The businessman also said that he partially admits his guilt and asked for forgiveness from those to whom he caused trouble and trouble “with his rash actions.”

Dmitry Mikhalchenko in court

At this point, the judge interrupted his speech, since he did not expect to hear confessions so early, before completing all the necessary formalities of the first hearing. Further, at the end of the meeting, Alexey Mishchenko (partially) and Ilya Pichko (fully) also admitted their guilt. Only Boris Korevsky still refused to confess.

Boris Korevsky

To say that with his unexpected confessions, Dmitry Mikhalchenko confused all the cards for his defense position is to say nothing. According to some reports, the lawyers planned a partial confession of guilt, but a little later. The defendant's impromptu came as a complete surprise. However, as sources say, the relationship between the oligarch and the defense is very peculiar. As we have already written, the entire team of Dmitry Mikhalchenko does not have a general picture of the situation. Only Mikhalchenko himself has it. In any case, it should be understood now that these confessions were not accidental, not under the influence of an emotional state. The events taking place around Dmitry Mikhalchenko led to this, and they are only partially connected with the process.

Our
reference

The defendants in the smuggling case were detained in March 2016. According to law enforcement agencies, the general director of the St. Petersburg company Forum, Mikhalchenko, is the organizer of the smuggling of expensive wines and other elite drinks. The products were purchased in EU stores, assembled in the port of the German city of Hamburg and transported to Russia in containers under the guise of sealant. Today it is known that Dmitry Mikhalchenko has already compensated the damage caused to the state in the amount of 18 million rubles.

Ten Little Indians

In fact, the words of Dmitry Mikhalchenko that he “contributed” to the disclosure of the activities of a criminal group involved in smuggling only confirm the conclusions of our sources that the case of well-known brokers Igor Khavronov, Alexey Marchukov, Boris Avakyan and high-ranking law enforcement officials loyal to them - this is Mikhalchenko’s “answer” to Khavronov’s testimony against him.

Igor Khavronov (broker being escorted out of the courthouse after arrest)

Now the oligarch wants only one thing - not to go as a “locomotive” on other cases, for which the investigative authorities can find materials in large quantities. It’s no secret that throughout 2017, criminal cases somehow related to smuggling in the North-West poured in like a cornucopia. And major figures in customs and stevedoring commerce are disappearing, like the 10 little black boys from Agatha Christie’s novel of the same name.

But, according to our sources, today behind the confessional testimony of “Governor 24” there is already a banal fear of repeating the fate of his St. Petersburg predecessor Vladimir Kumarin-Barsukov.

Because of such a sad prospect, the businessman backed down. “If the charge is reclassified and an organized group is excluded, I am ready to fully admit guilt and ask for a special procedure,” he said in the Basmanny Court. This is an actual invitation for the investigation to have lengthy conversations.

It is also no secret that initially the criminal case was considered by Mikhalchenko’s team as an attack on his favorite brainchild - the port of Bronka. But as we know, today the port no longer belongs to the billionaire - it went to the family of the former head of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Evgeny Murov.

Our
reference

The necessary investments for the functioning of the Bronka port were estimated at 118 billion rubles. To date, the port's total investments are estimated at 60 billion rubles, of which private - 43.7 billion rubles, public - 15.9.

Picked and tattered

In parallel with the amazing confessions of Dmitry Mikhalchenko, information appeared in the media that today the businessman is actually a beggar. It was reported, for example, that another brainchild of the oligarch, the Unified Document Center, now also belongs to the Murov family through Evgeny Murov’s wife Lyudmila. She also unexpectedly ended up with a share of Izmeron LLC, another asset of Dima Krikun. And she now owns half of the Phoenix company (Bronka port), and also, according to Sobesednik, Mikhalchenko’s luxurious dacha in the village of Ovsyany became her property.

Our
reference

Dmitry Mikhalchenko's fortune is estimated at 18 billion rubles. The assets of his main brainchild, the Forum holding, concern different areas. Among them are the Unified Document Center, the Kirov Spinning and Thread Mill, Bronka Port, management of retail real estate at train stations, elite restaurants Buddha-Bar Saint Petersburg, IL Lago dei Cigni, Tse Fung, branded clothing stores, the Izmeron plant (one of the main equipment suppliers for Gazprom) and the Baltstroy company - the No. 1 player in the restoration services market.

Now, in fact, the oligarch and his family have almost nothing left of their former assets. Experts evaluate this information differently, and opinions, as usual, are divided. Some say that this is a smart move, others - that this is a cruel payment, and others - that the oligarch, in principle, could have had nothing.

Version one. The rescue.

Independent experts, immediately after the billionaire’s arrest, predicted not problems with the holding’s business as a whole, but the onset of bad times for each of the company’s businesses. Evgeny Murov, in fact, was the high patron of Dima Krikun and oversaw both the Bronka port and the Unified Document Center. The latter, as we already wrote, the oligarch actually begged from Murov for the Bronka port project. The transfer of assets into the reliable hands of the ex-silovik, whose position has been shaken since his resignation, looks like a completely reasonable move, but few will dare to encroach on him even now. After all, if the series of criminal cases against “Governor 24” continues, the seizure of property and its confiscation cannot be ruled out. But since the oligarch had not yet been convicted in any case, the assets could only be saved by transferring them to a trusted person.

Former head of the FSO Evgeny Murov

Version two. Term fee.

According to another opinion, the former oligarch was simply robbed. Since the situation was quite stalemate and with unknown consequences, Mikhalchenko had to part with his assets in order not to go to prison for life. After all, rumors about the sale of Bronka circulated back in the summer of 2017. And then suddenly information appeared that no one seemed to be demanding the port from the entrepreneur anymore. Some believe that most of the assets became a kind of payment for help and for the troubles that the Murov family received in connection with the criminal prosecution of the oligarch. It's no secret that Evgeny Murov owes his resignation precisely to this circumstance.

Evgeniy Murov's wife Lyudmila Murova

Version three. Deputy Chairman.

The story of the rise of Dmitry Mikhalchenko is based on connections in law enforcement agencies. And the fact that the oligarch was promoting the security “roof” in business circles and covering up the shadow business of the security forces has long been an open secret. In this regard, some sources believe that the lion’s share of the business registered in Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s name might not actually belong to him. That is, the Bronka port and the Unified Document Center (as we know, stuffed from top to bottom with wiretapping equipment), as well as other assets, could have belonged to the Murov family from the very beginning. Only officially they could not appear anywhere, due to the high position held by Evgeniy Murov. Now that he is retired, and clouds have gathered around the business headed by Dmitry Mikhalchenko, it’s simply time to put everything in its place and take back what is due. The role of the oligarch himself in this story is very unenviable. He may go down in history as the next vice-chairman of the Pound, which, as you know, “always sat.”

Petr Sarukhanov / “Novaya”

At noon on March 15, the head of the St. Petersburg holding company Forum, Dmitry Mikhalchenko, as usual, was in his office on Pechatniki Street. From the table, double-headed eagles looked at him, which were decorated with telephone special communication devices (PATS, ATS-1, ATS-2), connecting his office with the offices of high government chiefs and heads of special services. Mikhalchenko affectionately called these telephone “turntables” “pianos”, realizing that by pressing one or another “key” the music that he needed could sound. And yet, he rarely used them for their intended purpose; rather, he needed them in order to impress his guests.

When he was about to receive another petitioner, his mobile phone rang - ​his main “musical instrument”, which he used much more often. From the receiver came the concerned voice of a junior business partner, co-owner of the construction company BaltStroy, Dmitry Sergeev, who complained about the traffic police crew who stopped him on the way to Pulkovo. Sergeev did not understand why the inspectors demanded that he get out of the car, despite the presence of a special FSO (Federal Security Service) ticket on the windshield, prohibiting stopping and inspecting the car and its driver.

Dmitry Mikhalchenko resolutely dialed the phone number of the former head of the St. Petersburg traffic police department, Sergei Bugrov, to whom he expressed everything he thought about his former subordinates. “Sergeev must fly to Monaco today!” - the businessman snapped and began calling his partner back. But Dmitry Sergeev could not answer the call even if he wanted to - a few minutes earlier, the FSB special forces that appeared from behind the inspectors, without paying attention to the FSO paraphernalia, knocked out the windshield of the car and extracted the frightened driver.

At approximately 17.00 on the same day, when the head of the Forum holding had already put the whole of St. Petersburg and even the operational department of the FSO on its ears, employees of the central office of the FSB entered his office and announced to Dmitry Mikhalchenko that he had been detained. By that time, the businessman already knew that in addition to Sergeev, the FSB had detained on suspicion of embezzlement of budget funds the manager of BaltStroy, Alexander Kochenov, as well as officials of the Ministry of Culture: Deputy Minister Grigory Pirumov, head of the department Boris Mazo and director of Tsentrrestovratsiya Oleg Ivanov.

At the end of many hours of searches, Sergeev and Kochenov were escorted to Moscow. Dmitry Mikhalchenko was taken to the St. Petersburg FSB office on Liteiny Prospekt, where his path to big money once began. His escort was delayed due to the lack of a direct order from the head of Directorate “K” of the SEB FSB, Viktor Voronin, whose unit formally provided operational support for the case under investigation.

Towards the evening, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, whose deputy Pirumov was already in the status of a suspect, gave a short comment to RIA Novosti: “This is a real shock for us. We are working with the investigation and will provide all the necessary assistance. The official position will be formulated in the very near future.” According to a former high-ranking official of the Ministry of Culture, Medinsky looked so confused for the first time in his entire service: “His phones were silent - no one called, no one answered. Nobody understood anything."

According to a source in the FSB, the lack of information about the circumstances of the investigation and the full list of persons involved was due to the fact that pressure was exerted on the investigative department and operational units of the FSB in connection with the detention of Mikhalchenko: “Calls were received from the FSO to the leadership of the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional System and the Directorate.” K "SEB FSB, which collected and implemented operational information."

In the evening, Dmitry Mikhalchenko left Liteiny. Unlike Minister Medinsky, he tried to remain calm. According to an acquaintance of Mikhalchenko, this was facilitated by strong alcohol and the support of his comrades, thanks to which the panicked confusion gradually grew into self-confidence. The next day, in an interview with Fontanka, Dmitry Mikhalchenko said that he spent the entire day in Moscow at a meeting with Deputy Minister of Transport Viktor Olersky, where the development of the Bronka port, which belonged to him, was discussed, and learned about his own detention from the media. When asked by a Fontanka correspondent about connections in the security forces, Mikhalchenko replied: “Did someone hide it? Just remember that I almost grew up with them. And what? And someone has many friends among singers, but he doesn’t sing in opera.”

“This interview cost him dearly. Dima knew that it was his connections in the authorities that helped him remain free, but did not understand that this freedom was temporary. Instead of flying out of the country, he flew to Moscow to deal with those who caused him such trouble,” recalls an acquaintance of the businessman. (Mikhalchenko did not answer Novaya’s questions now.)

Shortly before departure, Mikhalchenko instructed the head of the security service of the Forum holding, Boris Korevsky, to prepare a certificate about the deputy head of the Internal Security Directorate of the FSB, Oleg Feoktistov, whom he considered the main source of the threat.

Mikhalchenko, according to a source in the FSB, turned out to be well informed: “Only a few knew that Feoktistov was involved in him. Who told him is a big question.” Mikhalchenko took the dossier on the powerful FSB general with him during his visit to Moscow on March 25.

Shortly before this, the FSB border service received a request to place a businessman under guard control - in case the head of the Forum holding wants to fly abroad from Pulkovo. But he did not even think about running away, although he had received such recommendations the day before.

When Dmitry Mikhalchenko landed at Sheremetyevo, impressive surveillance was already awaiting him. Two dozen experienced FSB officers and involved crews from the operational search department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs quietly escorted the entrepreneur to the Ukraine Hotel, and then to a number of government institutions.

According to a source in the FSB, in Moscow Mikhalchenko planned to meet with the then director of the FSO, Evgeny Murov, and the speaker of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, but only managed to meet with the head of the FMS, Konstantin Romodanovsky, upon leaving whom he was detained and taken to the Investigative Committee in Tekhnichesky Lane. This time he was not released - on the evening of the same day, the Basmanny District Court granted the petition of senior investigator Sergei Novikov, who in February opened a criminal case on the smuggling of alcoholic beverages to Russia.

When Mikhalchenko was detained, a certificate was found in Mikhalchenko’s briefcase for the deputy head of the FSB Internal Security Service Oleg Feoktistov.

“Mikhalchenko did not quite understand what was happening. Oleg Feoktistov is, of course, one of the leading operatives. But we must understand that all his high-profile operations are orders from above,” says our source in the FSB.

Roof in uniform

Dmitry Mikhalchenko returned to St. Petersburg in 1999. For the last few years, while waiting for his conscription age to expire, he was forced to stay in Kyiv, where he worked as a sales representative for the Velikoluksky Meat Processing Plant and could only dream of big money. His hometown, where Mikhalchenko settled in his wife’s modest apartment on Komendantsky Avenue, did not change much during his absence - the consequences of default were added to the continuous struggle of criminal groups, which left traces of shootouts on the streets.

Mikhalchenko was looking for his place in this chaos and almost immediately pulled out a lucky ticket - professional St. Petersburg athlete-bodybuilder Yuri Presnov, who appreciated the sharp mind and business acumen of the young man, introduced him to the then first deputy head of the St. Petersburg FSB department, Nikolai Negodov. A high-ranking general, he oversaw city transport and was looking for a smart financier who could improve the situation at the stations for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

“Dima was jumping with happiness. Getting under the roof of the FSB is already a great success. And he was actually lucky enough to become the official representative of the generals,” recalls an acquaintance of the entrepreneur.

Mikhalchenko was placed in a regional public fund for support of the FSB and the SVR, which was outwardly designed to serve as a source of assistance for veterans, but in reality was a connection between big business and the security forces. Its donors were the largest companies in St. Petersburg, and the funds raised were used, among other things, for logistical support for St. Petersburg security officers. The foundation was located in a building adjacent to the FSB Directorate in St. Petersburg, which only emphasized the closeness of its leadership to the intelligence services.

The fund was headed by FSB pensioner Vladimir Rukinov, who was respected for his ability to manage the feast and his closeness (including proximity to the dacha) to the then head of the St. Petersburg department, Evgeny Murov, who was one of the first to receive an invitation from the newly elected President Vladimir Putin to move to the Kremlin and take the post of head of the Federal Service security

Mikhalchenko, according to a former employee of the St. Petersburg FSB department, almost immediately aroused sympathy among ordinary employees - “he repaired dilapidated toilets and landscaped the dining room.” The management of Liteiny also liked him, on whose instructions he developed and successfully implemented in 2003 the concept of reconstructing the stations.

“Under his leadership, the stations have been transformed, they have become modern and convenient - this is a fact,” says Mikhalchenko’s acquaintance.

The Oktyabrskaya Railway soon transferred the retail space at the station for long-term lease to commercial companies associated with the fund. Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who headed the “Administration of Affairs” foundation created by the foundation, was entrusted with implementing them on the market.

Negotiations on the leasing of commercial space were conducted by the new “department manager” of the security officers in the imperial pavilion of the Vitebsk station, from where Emperor Nicholas II and his family once walked onto the platform. By that time, Mikhalchenko was already using a car with a special signal and telephone communication devices, which were available only to Smolny officials and the heads of the departments of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office.

The “turntables,” which fit perfectly into the interior of the office, on the walls of which hung portraits of the new president and pennants of various security services, provided a secure communication channel with Liteiny and served as an argument in negotiations with potential tenants.

The latter, as the interlocutor recalls, according to Mikhalchenko’s plan, should have felt in this office as if at a reception, “and not bargain, but agree to the proposed conditions.”

“When Dima announced that the “entrance ticket” to the station would cost each tenant 50 thousand dollars, we twisted our finger at our temples. Vova Kheifetz (classmate and former business partner of Mikhalchenko -​ A.S.) , to whom Dima invited to participate, I remember, ridiculed him. When they heard this at Liteiny, everyone was stunned - no one needs an empty station that does not bring in money. But Dima insisted, on his own responsibility. A few months later, all the premises were already filled. How did he do it? Talent, damn it,” recalls Mikhalchenko’s acquaintance with admiration.

According to him, the millions collected then in favor of the security forces fund greatly changed Mikhalchenko’s position at Liteiny. “Imagine that in a couple of months a bank clerk becomes a member of the board of directors with voting rights,” says the interlocutor and recalls how Mikhalchenko, who received the “right to vote,” literally immediately created the Forum company and began searching for profitable projects for his senior partners.

Forum members

In 2004, the Forum company acquired its first major asset - the Spinning and Thread Mill named after. Kirov (PNK) on Krasnogo Tekstilshchik Street. The huge property complex of PNK occupied an entire block and was of interest to many St. Petersburg businessmen, which ultimately led to the murder (a year earlier) of the plant’s director, Alexei Bondarenko. In an interview with Forbes, Dmitry Mikhalchenko said that Bondarenko’s widow turned to him for help: “The owners themselves asked to buy shares from them, the transaction took place at the market price.”

This is confirmed by Mikhalchenko’s acquaintances, however, with two amendments: the wife of the murdered director was offered to sell the shares by “employees of the St. Petersburg FSB department,” and the cost of the transaction was less than $1.5 million. “I would not say that this price corresponded to the market - ​quarters are usually more expensive,” says a businessman’s acquaintance.

However, as the interlocutor notes, this does not negate the successful reengineering of business processes at the plant: “It should be noted that Dima was a good businessman who saw opportunities to make money in everything. PNK cannot simply be closed - ​the enterprise was considered strategic, so Dima decided to optimize production, reducing the area and part of the workforce, and began to fight for sales markets. He repeatedly met with Taimuraz Balloev, the main supplier of military uniforms, and tried to convince him to buy threads from PNK.”

After Balloev refused, Dmitry Mikhalchenko agreed to change the state standard in the technical documents of the Ministry of Defense, which placed large government orders for the purchase of uniforms. Mikhalchenko’s connections in the FSO helped change GOST in the Ministry of Defense, says an acquaintance of the entrepreneur and confirms a former Forum employee. According to a source in the operational department of the FSO, Dmitry Mikhalchenko received access to the director’s office thanks to the wife of the director of the special service, Lyudmila Murova: “He was on Lyudmila Anatolyevna’s “tray”, fulfilling her little whims in every possible way. This attention is worth a lot, especially when it comes to Grandfather’s wife” ( that’s what FSO officers called Evgeny Murov among themselves -​ A.S.).

Two years after the acquisition of the plant, Dmitry Mikhalchenko was approached by the shareholders of the neighboring Izmeron plant for the production of equipment for gas industry enterprises. As in the case of PNK, Mikhalchenko’s help was required by the owners of Izmeron out of fear for their lives, since four murders were committed at the enterprise. “Can you guess the reason why you turned to Dima?” - the interlocutor asks sarcastically and immediately answers: “Of course, the FSB suggested it. The deal to purchase shares for $2 million had not yet been completed, and as part of the criminal case of murder, all the performers and customers had already been detained. Although it is probably impossible to say that this would not have happened without the deal. But the investigation progressed more intensively thanks to signals from Liteiny - this is a fact.”

For the new enterprise, Mikhalchenko purchased the latest Western equipment and set up the production of domestic gas drilling rigs, which then began to be purchased by Gazprom structures and its contractors for the development of the Bovanenkovskoye field. “The equipment was already inexpensive compared to its Western counterparts, but the exchange rate difference that arose then made it cheaper, which allowed us to increase sales volumes,” recalls the former manager of Izmeron.

Following this, Dmitry Mikhalchenko began searching for tenants for the space vacated and renovated at the spinning and thread mill. 75 thousand sq. meters, according to the businessman, should have been filled within several years, but the achievement of this goal was hampered by the fall in demand for commercial rent in the private sector.

Then Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s junior business partner Vladimir Kheifets proposed a revolutionary idea - to fill the space with budgetary institutions.

According to Mikhalchenko’s former subordinate, this is how the Unified Document Center (UDC) project was born: “The legal center on Vosstaniya Square was taken as the basis, where since the early 90s everyone was gathered in one place: lawyers, notaries, doctors, insurers. Yes, they were located in the city center, but our scale was different. Including communications."

After the opening of the ECD in 2009, St. Petersburg residents were able to receive government services in one place from various territorial departments of federal authorities (UFTS, UFMS, Rosreestr, UGIBDD, etc.).

“According to an entrepreneur familiar with Mikhalchenko, attracting new tenants was made possible by dialogues with Evgeny Murov and Valentina Matvienko, who at that time served as governor of St. Petersburg. “Dima initially priced it out - the rental cost did not exceed 1,000 rubles per sq. m. meter per month, and the tax office actually sat down successfully - for 500 rubles. But this also generated about 90 million rubles monthly. And at the end of the lease agreements, he planned to raise the rates,” says the interlocutor.

According to him, the ECD project for the first time changed Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s attitude towards his partners: “Vova Kheifets did a lot, and Dima gave him a share of ​5%. That’s where we parted ways.”

However, the growing entrepreneur did not experience a shortage of people - by that time, within the framework of the Forum holding company, not only ECD, Izmeron and PNK, but also the construction company BaltStroy had merged.

Dmitry Sergeev, who at that time was engaged in the supply of furniture and renovation of residential properties, approached Dmitry Mikhalchenko with an offer to purchase Balt-Stroy. Like many of Mikhalchenko’s purchases, this one also turned out to be associated with human death, however, after the transfer of shares - in 2010, the former owner of BaltStroy, Pavel Sinelnikov, shot himself.

According to the former top manager of the Forum holding, BaltStroy was acquired for two reasons: firstly, the company had a license to carry out work in the field of restoration of cultural heritage sites and architectural monuments, and secondly, it was already working in the market, which made it possible to calmly apply for auctions of budgetary institutions. “And it was planned to use the budget first of all. Dima [Mikhalchenko] then told Sergeev: take the company - I’ll fill it,” says the interlocutor.

By that time, 50% of the shares in the Forum holding company went to General Negodov, who left the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosmorport, where he worked as a director after resigning from the state security agencies. According to the former manager of Forum, its co-owner appeared in the holding extremely rarely. “There are people who worked for us, but they don’t even know what Nikolai Dmitrievich [Negodov] looks like. He hardly attended meetings, and when he did, he was quiet. In general, he looked like Dima’s curator,” the interlocutor laughs and recalls that only once did Negodov come into contact with someone: “At some drinking party, he let people approach him. They began to ask him: “Why don’t you show up?” He answered with a smile: “Why? “I’m here to keep an eye on him,” and nodded towards Dima.”

In whose interests Negodov was supposed to keep an eye on Dmitry Mikhalchenko, neither his subordinates, nor his partners, nor his outside acquaintances had any doubts. By that time, the already liberated head of the holding behaved in such a way that only the lazy in St. Petersburg did not gossip about his connections at the top of the FSO.

Master of life

After the launch of the UCD, the holding’s employees moved to a renovated office.

As in the imperial pavilion, in the new office Vladimir Putin looked at the businessman from the portrait (although during the shift change, the businessman ordered the portrait of Dmitry Medvedev to be hung, but then, however, he removed it). There have been more “turntables” since working at the station - ​to them were added “Special Contact”, which at that time was possessed only by a few civil servants of the highest rank. Despite the fact that they were all connected to the line by FSO employees, the phones still served as props for Dmitry Mikhalchenko.

“He could grab a turntable and shout into an empty receiver at some high-ranking official. And then with pleasure he caught the amazed glances of the guests,” laughs a major St. Petersburg businessman: “He did it for the sake of his image, so that the person who came out of his office would tell everyone about the new owner of the city.”

Local media wrote that Mikhalchenko had become the absolute owner of the city. At one time, the head of the Forum holding company even acquired the nickname Governor of 24 Hours - in contrast to the criminal authority Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin, who had been arrested by that time, and was nicknamed the night governor of St. Petersburg.

“Dima enjoyed the fact that people in the city started talking about him. This was worrying - after all, they wrote about him that he was connected with contract killings, and contract killings, in turn, were connected with the special services. It was not enough to be a friend of the killer... But instead of denials, he only created new rumors. Few people know, but Dima even came up with the nickname Governor 24 Hours himself and promoted it to the masses,” recalls friend Mikhalchenko.

A source in the FSB says that during inquiries regarding Mikhalchenko, operatives, studying the St. Petersburg press, did not hide their surprise: “He was associated with both organized crime and law enforcement agencies. This is something unique - ​authority is everywhere.”

Since 2010, Dmitry Mikhalchenko, according to his friends, almost collected orders from his partners and officials for special FSO coupons and even gave them locked secret service mobile phones. “As a result, all these phones were abandoned in the office and forgotten about,” says one of them.

Dmitry Mikhalchenko behaved emotionally with his subordinates, periodically turning to shouting: “The only censored words are interjections. All Forum employees were at such meetings every day - three-story swearing, insults and even threats,” says the ex-manager of the holding and adds that “this would be normal if it weren’t for feudal habits towards women.”

Dmitry Mikhalchenko, apparently, really treated the weaker sex in a very unusual way: kneeling secretaries put expensive patent leather shoes on him and put in eye drops, and waitresses in the best restaurants in St. Petersburg fought for the right to serve his table.

Corporate vacations of the Forum holding were constantly visited by domestic stars of the first magnitude, on whose invitations Dmitry Mikhalchenko, according to his friends, spent up to several hundred thousand dollars - “not because they cost so much, but so that everyone knew about it” .

“One day Grigory Leps arrived. We prepared to listen to the artist’s famous hits, but as a result, Dima himself sang about the glass of vodka on the table until the morning. And Leps was important as part of the interior,” says a businessman familiar with the head of the holding.

Mikhalchenko, who gradually began to be ranked among the richest people in St. Petersburg, appeared with each new project, but turned into a pathology in 2011, when he actually became a billionaire. Then, according to several of his acquaintances and an employee of the FSO operational department, Dmitry Mikhalchenko managed to convince director Evgeny Murov to make one of the special service enterprises the exclusive general contractor for construction and restoration at sites for the president of the country.

Presidential foreman

“Mikhalchenko once came with an idea: let’s create a single company within the [FSO] service and do work for the president. We’ll build what’s needed, ​we’ll repair what’s needed,” says a source in the FSO.

The interlocutor does not specify when exactly this happened, but back in 2008, Andrei Kaminov, an employee of the holding company Forum, was appointed acting director to the FSUE ATEKS subordinate to the FSO.

“When Andryusha Kaminov came to the holding, he was a normal boy from an intelligent family. Dima trained him to the point of being reasonable, sometimes resorting to direct insults. But for Andrey it was a good school, in the end they even became related - Dima became his child’s godfather,” recalls a former employee of the holding.

However, despite the appointment, FSUE "ATEKS" did not implement large construction projects, being mainly engaged in the technical maintenance of protected objects and performing simple work on the reconstruction of auxiliary buildings and premises. But in mid-2011, according to an acquaintance of Mikhalchenko, after returning from Moscow again, the head of the Forum holding announced that “the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “ATEKS” had been decided to be revived and given the functions of a general contractor for the construction and restoration of important objects.”

Dmitry Mikhalchenko, according to his interlocutor, planned to make money through subcontracts: “The FSO structure itself had to determine who would become its contractor - ​without bidding, bypassing the regulations on government procurement. This is where the big money looms.”

By that time, Dmitry Mikhalchenko seemed to be ready to begin big work: a so-called group of construction companies (GSK) appeared within the holding, which, in addition to BaltStroy, included Stroyfasad, StroyKomplekt, RemStroy, SpetsStroy "etc. Stanislav Kuner, who worked as construction director at BaltStroy, became Andrei Kaminov's deputy.

In August 2011, ATEX concluded the first major government contract with the Security Service (SO) of the FSO in the Caucasus, which was led by FSO Lieutenant General Gennady Lopyrev for many years. “Gena felt good there. He clicked his heels when the president arrived, and burst into a smile when he affectionately called him Gena,” says a former employee of the Presidential Administration.

The general contracting agreement worth 858 million rubles envisaged the construction of a complex of facilities at the Bocharov Ruchey presidential residence in Sochi. After some time, StroyKomplekt LLC received a contract for the reconstruction of the main presidential house in the residence.

Control over the progress of work and settlements with a group of subcontractors, according to the former top manager of the Forum company, was carried out personally by Dmitry Sergeev and Mikhalchenko.

“They once told with a laugh how one day the Medvedev couple came to the residence. Svetlana Vladimirovna personally supervised the process,” says the interlocutor and recalls the “fateful dispute” that arose between the partners at that time: “Sergeev, referring to valuable instructions from the FSO, argued that these are political projects - ​you cannot make money from them. Mikhalchenko objected: any project is a business.”

Subsequently, FSUE "ATEKS" will receive from (SO) FSO in the Caucasus many more large contracts and will transfer all volumes to subcontractors from GSK "Forum". Among them will be the construction of the presidential residence in Novo-Ogarevo worth 5.7 billion rubles.

A source in the FSO says that Kaminov “in principle has proven himself to be a decent person,” but notes the weakness of his character: “Sometimes Mikhalchenko demonstratively commanded this young man. Sometimes it’s too ostentatious.”

Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s attitude towards Andrei Kaminov as a subordinate was more than once noticed by an acquaintance of the businessman: “In a short time, Andrei acquired a large number of connections - ​politicians, officials... But internally he was weak, remained under the influence of Dima. A person who is, essentially, in the civil service should not show such cowardice.”

Another acquaintance of Mikhalchenko explains that the head of the Forum holding company “kept Kaminov with promises of a beautiful life”: “He told him that Andrei was involved everywhere - in the ECD, in construction, everywhere. Andrei seemed to be inspired by this and forced to endure. And when in May 2014, Dima, surrounded by respected people, began to say that he was seeking the appointment of Kaminov to the post of head of the Presidential Administration instead of the retired Vladimir Kozhin, Andrei completely melted.”

In 2015, New Times magazine wrote about the contract work of FSUE ATEKS at presidential facilities. The publication explained that as part of the divorce proceedings between Stanislav Kuehner and his wife, materials were presented to the court indicating abuses by the management of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise. Dmitry Sergeev then said in an interview with New Times: “We have been working with ATEKS for five to seven years. We win competitions under Federal Law 223. I believe that we have no violations.”

Ironically, around the same time, the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow was considering a claim for division of property against Andrei Kaminov on the part of his wife. During the legal battle, Kaminov presented documents to the court that indicate that, in parallel with his work at the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, he was employed as an adviser to one of the deputy directors of the Federal Security Service (the number of his service ID is known to the editors) and at the same time opened personal accounts in the Latvian banks Norvic Banka and Baltikums .

A source in the operational department of the FSO clarifies that the story around FSUE ATEKS became “one of the most shameful pages of the service”: “Newspapers wrote about this frank cabal, it was creepy. And this despite the fact that not all ATEX contracts, due to the secret status of the facilities under construction, were reflected [by the federal treasury] in the register [of government contracts].”

However, soon after Mikhalchenko’s team began working on the construction of the Bocharov Ruchey residence, the Ministry of Culture drew attention to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise ATEKS and BaltStroy. But the conclusion of contracts with the Ministry of Culture, according to a former high-ranking official of the department, is due not only to the image of “presidential contractors”: “Evgeny Alekseevich [Murov] in 2012 called Vladimir Rostislavovich [Medinsky] and said: “These are proven people, they have worked well at our facilities , work together, everything is agreed upon.” The fact of this conversation is confirmed by a source in the operational management of the FSO.

By that time, the construction company BaltStroy, which was part of Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s holding, already had experience working with the Ministry of Culture, receiving small contracts for restoration. “This happened under the former minister Avdeev and without calls,” says the former top manager of the Forum holding and admits that all work with the Ministry of Culture was organized by Dmitry Sergeev through the “chief restoration specialist” Marat Oganesyan.

Since 2010, Oganesyan worked in the Ministry of Culture as the head of the Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration, and then headed the North-Western Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration (NRD).

In the period 2012-2013, SZD paid BaltStroy about 1.2 billion rubles as part of the state contract for the restoration of the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater. However, even after moving to work in the administration of St. Petersburg in March 2013, Marat Oganesyan retained influence on processes in the Ministry of Culture: “He is probably the most famous person in the restoration market. Without him, no Mikhalchenkos or Sergeevs could have made the price they needed,” says our source.

In addition to contracts with the Ministry of Culture, GSK Forum received significant funds in the regions: it built and repaired transport interchanges in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, carried out construction and reconstruction work in Murmansk, and restored monuments in the Vologda region.

Dmitry Mikhalchenko, according to his friend, met with the heads of these entities in person: “As a rule, this happened on public platforms. Svadikom Potomsky ( Governor of the Oryol region. — ​A. S.) Dima, for example, reached an agreement during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in the summer of 2015. He had doubts about how to manage the budget for the 450th anniversary of the Eagle, so Dima immediately suggested - let's do it together! Any other person like that would have been sent, but Dima built presidential facilities, allegedly on friendly terms with the director of the FSO - how can you refuse?”

In the fall of 2015, government agencies of the Oryol region concluded government contracts with BaltStroy and Dormet for the construction of highways and the Oka River embankment for a total amount of about 1 billion rubles.

According to the Federal Treasury, in total, in the period 2010-2015, the structures that were part of the Forum State Insurance Company received about 105 billion rubles from the federal and regional budgets.

"Bronka"

In April 2014, BaltStroy entered into an unusual contract agreement - for approximately 10.8 billion rubles, the Forum holding structure undertook to build an approach channel to the Bronka multifunctional sea transhipment complex. The customer of the work was the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Rosmorport", which was previously headed by the co-owner of the holding, retired FSB General Nikolai Negodov.

However, this time Dmitry Mikhalchenko acted not just as a construction contractor: several years earlier, the general director of the Baltic Transport Systems company, Alexey Shukletsov, approached the businessman with a proposal to purchase land plots with accompanying infrastructure and create his own port.

According to Mikhalchenko’s acquaintance, Shukletsov’s appeal is “the result of Negodov’s subtle game”: “Everyone around Dima understood that this was Nikolai Dmitrievich’s project. Dima understood too. But Negodov is a cunning fox, it’s not for nothing that he served for so many years, he tried to interest Dima at the expense of outsiders.”

At first, Mikhalchenko, according to the holding’s former top manager, was skeptical about the idea of ​​building a port and did not expect to spend money on it, but after Bronka was included in the Federal Target Program “Development of the Russian Transport System until 2020” (in December 2012 ) caught fire:

“The answer lies in his ambition. He increasingly began to fly to Moscow for various kinds of meetings. This was no longer the same Dima who was let in at the bell - he became a federal-level businessman who was invited. And he did not spare the money he earned on construction sites for this.”

“All Negodov needed was to force Dima to invest all his money in the port,” says a businessman familiar with Mikhalchenko.

As a result, in the period 2012-2014, part of the holding’s free money, as well as commercial loans taken as collateral for the property complex of the spinning and thread mill, the Izmeron plant and the ECD, were used for the construction of berths. According to a businessman familiar with Mikhalchenko, in order to receive loans, the head of the Forum holding and his wife even had to sign a personal guarantee with the banks: “With this project, he put himself on the brink of bankruptcy.”

With the onset of the 2014 crisis and the imposition of sanctions, the volume of cargo transportation, according to the North-West Customs Administration (NWCU) of the Federal Customs Service (FCS), fell by half, and therefore the construction of the Bronka port was in fact suspended.

But Dmitry Mikhalchenko, according to his friends, could no longer be stopped - “he began to demand to earn more money from the construction and restoration of objects.” But the worst thing, explains the former top manager of the Forum holding, is that with the start of construction of the port, Dmitry Mikhalchenko completely exposed the “bottlenecks in business”: “Listen, well, we were engaged in the development of government orders. How can you give an interview to Forbes after this, which then sends inquiries to the director of the FSO? It was dangerous - he always walked on thin ice, but now the likelihood of falling under it increased.”

In 2014-2015, Dmitry Mikhalchenko held the largest number of meetings with federal officials: he discussed issues of increasing rental rates for the tax office in the UCD with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, proposed UCD projects to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and the head of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov, petitioned for one of the customs brokers before the head of the Federal Customs Service Andrey Belyaninov.

Becoming an all-powerful businessman, Mikhalchenko could not get rid of the main human weakness - the love of strong alcohol. According to an acquaintance of Mikhalchenko, every entertaining evening always ended with his frivolous telephone conversations, during which he distributed a variety of characteristics to high-ranking government officials: he promised to deal with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and rudely discussed the shortcomings of the head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. According to a source in the FSB, reports of Mikhalchenko’s telephone conversations “contained direct threats to civil servants.”

At the same time, as Mikhalchenko’s acquaintances note, cases arose in which such self-confidence “seemed at least illogical.”

“One day Dima came to Belyaninov to ask for a “green corridor” for a broker. He wanted Belyaninov to instruct NWTU and Kingisepp customs to freely pass and clear their cargo. Belyaninov didn’t even listen to him: “Who are you, boy? Well, let’s go... out of here!” - An acquaintance retells Mikhalchenko’s story with a laugh.

According to an entrepreneur familiar with Belyaninov, the head of the Federal Customs Service received Mikhalchenko twice at the request of Evgeny Murov.

“He was used to communicating with businessmen in St. Petersburg and tried to transfer it to the offices of federal officials. They constantly told him: “Dima, come to your senses, what are you doing?” - Another friend of Mikhalchenko says emotionally and recalls his 2015 meeting with Vnesheconombank President Vladimir Dmitriev, which he calls “fatal”: “Dima came to Dmitriev to ask for a loan for the Bronka.” Dmitriev, assessing the collateral, doubted. But Dima had no doubts: “Tell me, why don’t you give a loan? Do you know who my share is?” — and pointed to the portrait hanging above his interlocutor’s head. Dmitriev was dumbfounded. For some reason, Dima was amused when he told it.”

Most of the information obtained as part of the PTP (wiretapping of telephone conversations), according to a source in the FSB, at that time was reported personally to FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and the head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov.

“Usually, when it comes to discipline, we can say to each other: calm down your boy. But since no one stopped him, it means they were sentenced,” says a senior official of the presidential administration.

Arrests

Deputy Head of the FSB Internal Security Service Oleg Feoktistov sent another resolution to the Moscow City Court on wiretapping telephone conversations and removing information from Dmitry Mikhalchenko’s technical communication channels in September 2015. Operatives of two divisions of the FSB - the Department of Internal Security, as well as the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism - had been listening to the businessman's phone for a year, but only the day before the general received an order from the department's leadership to prepare materials for initiating a criminal case.

All offices in Dmitry Mikhalchenko's holding were also bugged by security officers, and this did not require the involvement of additional technical resources of Lubyanka - ​the operatives gained access to the means of objective control installed back in 2010 at the direction of the head of the Forum holding himself.

According to a source in the FSB, during the final stage of Mikhalchenko’s development, his negotiations were established regarding the implementation of the project for the construction of an energy bridge to Crimea within the framework of a government contract worth 47 billion rubles, concluded between the Ministry of Energy and a subsidiary of FGC UES - JSC Center for Engineering and Construction Management of the UES "

“In October 2015, the UES CIUS began work, and by the end of the year, a little more than 8 billion rubles had been received. The money should have been spent on the supply of equipment and construction works ( construction and installation works. — ​A. S.). Mikhalchenko discussed Goncharov and Zaragatsky.” According to an entrepreneur familiar with Mikhalchenko, the then deputy chairman of the board of FGC UES, Valery Goncharov, the head of the Forum holding company did not like him, but he “appreciated” Zaragatsky because he helped him get a job as deputy chairman after the position of head of the government apparatus of the Legislative Assembly.”

But, according to a source in the FSB, they did not investigate Mikhalchenko for involvement in the theft of funds for the construction of the energy bridge: the first political project after the annexation of the peninsula should not have ended in criminal cases.

In January 2016, Dmitry Mikhalchenko himself presented an alternative to the security forces, declaring his desire to replenish the stocks of the Buddha Bar restaurant he owned with a batch of collection wines and cognac. To do this, according to a businessman familiar with Mikhalchenko, the head of the Forum holding usually turned to numerous customs brokers who “considered it an honor to bring something to Dmitry Pavlovich.”

However, over the past six months, St. Petersburg has been rocked by scandals related to the import of expensive goods across customs borders using false declarations: a plane with smartphones was detained in Pulkovo, and consignments of branded clothing were arrested in the port of Ust-Luga. Market participants, who usually complied with Mikhalchenko’s every whim, this time refused. But the billionaire, according to a friend, was not stopped even by calls to wait: “When they told him that now was not the right time for such tricks, he answered in a typical way: everyone can’t, but I can.”

On behalf of Mikhalchenko, the head of the security service of the Forum holding, Boris Korevsky, met with the actual owner of Contrail Logistic North-West LLC, Anatoly Kindzersky - at that time one of the largest carriers in the region (his company imported about one and a half thousand containers). Kindzersky, according to market participants, was known mainly due to the presence of a high-ranking relative in Rosneft and connections in the Federal Customs Service, which allowed his company to become an authorized economic operator with the right to file a customs declaration within a month after the actual import of goods.

Kindzersky, according to a source in the FSB, initially rejected the request, but was seduced by the promise of becoming the main broker of the Bronka port after the commissioning of all its capacities.

On March 25, employees of the FSB Internal Security Service detained Anatoly Kindzersky, the director of the South-Eastern Trading Company Ilya Pichko, the head of the security service of the Forum holding, Boris Korevsky and Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who was recruited by him, on suspicion of smuggling alcohol: shipments of expensive wine and cognac were imported into the port of Ust-Luga under the guise of construction sealant.

Shortly after Mikhalchenko’s arrest, the then head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, according to a source in the administration, made a remark to Yevgeny Murov during a Security Council meeting. “Why do you, Evgeny Alekseevich, keep such scoundrels around you?” - our interlocutor quotes him as saying.

In May, the director of the FSO, who had been with the president from the first days of his work, left the service and was subsequently appointed chairman of the board of directors of Transneft.

Since then, serious changes have occurred in government bodies that interacted with Dmitry Mikhalchenko in one way or another: the head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, lost his position, and Andrei Belyaninov left the Federal Customs Service as a result of a high-profile search.

The rest were less fortunate: Deputy Chairman of the Board of FGC UES Valery Goncharov, while trying to fly abroad, was detained by employees of the FSB Internal Security Service on suspicion of embezzling funds during the supply of equipment, Marat Oganesyan went to jail on suspicion of embezzlement of funds during the construction of the Zenit Arena, FSO General Gennady Lopyrev (North Caucasus Department) was taken into custody on charges of receiving a large bribe, Andrei Kaminov and Stanislav Kuner were detained on suspicion of organizing a criminal community.

According to a source in the FSB, Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who once opposed himself to the authority of Vladimir Kumarin, seems to be destined for his fate - to sit forever. In particular, operatives of the 6th Internal Security Service of the FSB, accompanying his criminal case, are already checking government contracts for dredging work in the Bronka port.

In addition, a source in the FSB promises new arrests and resignations - the top manager of FGC UES (where, by the way, the chairman of the board is ​Murov Jr.), as well as officials of the Murmansk and Oryol regions are next.

New operational accounting cases are opened, intelligence reports are flying, businessmen and officials who are temporarily at large give the necessary testimony, and in-cell investigations are carried out in relation to obstinate prisoners.

The law enforcement machine works uninterruptedly, not sparing yesterday’s billionaires with special coupons and “turntables,” nor generals, nor deputy ministers, nor top managers of state-owned companies. However, behind the wheel of this car are the key players in the general redistribution.