Sale in Kaliningrad style: how local authorities in the West of Russia sell land

It is very easy to become a billionaire in the Kaliningrad region. To do this, it is not necessary to be a relative of the governor, you can be the son of just the head of some district, for example, Zelenogradsky, and then the sea will be knee-deep, and property issues will be resolved, if not the first time, then the second, for sure. Blogger @zergulio, or Sergei Kolyasnikov, conducted an investigation into how the priceless coastal land of tens of hectares is alienated from state property and transferred to construction corporations close to the authorities for a pittance.

The cunning "businessmen" are not particularly encrypted, and all their steps can be traced both on the websites of Russian courts and on the State Service portal.

Journalists described a simple to outrageous scheme of seizing state property, the effectiveness of which is difficult to believe if it had not worked several times already. To do this, you need to build a building on municipal land, of course, with the support of the local administration. Building owners automatically receive the right to purchase the land under them. With the help of the same administration, this right is being exercised, but not only the land under the house is being sold, but also 10 hectares on the coast, 70 meters from the sea. These hectares are divided into smaller plots, and they are already rented out for the construction of residential complexes.

So in Zelenogradsk there was a residential complex "Residence by the Sea". The history of its construction was full of amazing moments.

In 2016, the prosecutor's office caught on and filed a lawsuit against the Zelenograd administration and two owners of a tasty piece of land presented to them by the head of the administration, Sergei Koshev. Both are trusted people and are close to the head. For example, Christina Levina is the daughter of Igor Matyushin, co-founder of the Union of Freight Forwarders of the Kaliningrad Region, currently the largest developer Zelenogradskaya, who has been associated with the Koshev family for many years of business cooperation. At the same time, it was not only about a smaller plot, but about more than 108 hectares of land on the first line of the Baltic coast.

The court ordered the administration to return the land to its ownership. The reason was the fact that the site is located "In the second zone of the sanitary protection district of the federal resort Zelenogradsk, it is limited in circulation and cannot be transferred to private ownership".

The sale price in the contract also impressed the court - the administration of the Zelenograd district was satisfied with only 15% of the cadastral value, that is, with a stroke of the pen, Sergei Koshevoy donated 165 million of state money along with the land.

But the story did not end there. The Kaliningrad Regional Court overturned the decision of the court of first instance and returned all 108 hectares to the new owners. Even the price did not seem suspicious to the judges, because on this huge territory the new owners will also build a "4-hole golf course", a tent camp and venues for events.

Why the Kaliningrad Regional Court made an unreasonable decision is anyone's guess. But in Kaliningrad they say that the experienced administrator Koshevoy has taken over the young governor Anton Alikhanov. Apparently, it was also the fact that Koshevoy's son Nikita worked in the prosecutor's office until 2017, and Koshevoy's son-in-law was a judge of the Leningrad region of Kaliningrad, helped. Whether this is so or not, it is impossible to say for sure, only the prosecutor's office folded its legs and no longer began to challenge the decision of the Kaliningrad court. The press also writes that the blessing of the deal was received with the help of the son of the former Prosecutor General, although this has not been proven.

As a result, on the site with cadastral number 39: 05: 010326: 311 the construction of the largest residential complex is under way with loans issued by the state DOM.RF.

As "Novye Izvestia" wrote, "The project declaration for the construction of the Atlantis residential complex, posted on the official website on April 27, 2020 (according to the Baltiyskiy Parus Group of Companies), indicates that Nikita Sergeevich Koshevoy will co-finance the construction of the Atlantis residential complex. He provided two loans: the first for 4.95 million rubles with a maturity date of November 21, 2020, the second - for 10.55 million rubles - with a maturity date of March 26, 2021”.

This is how these tangled lines converged - it was not in vain that Sergei Koshevoy tried so hard. Now the company of his son Nikita is assimilating state funds and even co-financing - of course, for a share - the construction of the century in Zelenogradsk.

The next point of the journalistic investigation was the land allocated by the Zelenogradsk administration for intercepting parking lots. On a hectare of land, they build a tiny parking lot of 500 square meters, get the entire plot of land, and then build houses again. LLC Rublevka buys a land plot with KN 39: 05: 010201: 683 1.975 million rubles, sells it at a loss for one and a half million to LLC Riviera. That, in turn, sells the site for 15.8 million rubles to the company "Veronica A". However, this will seem like a trifle compared to the cost of apartments built on this piece of land. The smallest 1-room apartment in a building "in a parking lot" with an area of 37 "squares" costs 5 million, five meters more is being sold for 6.35 million. This is a gold mine.

The city prosecutor's office, as in the first case, opened a case and won on the same grounds as before. The administration didn't even argue. Apparently, Sergei Koshevoy knew that the last word was not said. Indeed, the scheme worked. The Kaliningrad court overturned the decision of the Zelenograd court, and that was the end of the case.

This practice continues in Zelenogradsk to this day. The press wrote that now the Zelenograd administration has refused to defend its right to a land plot on Turgenev Street in the city center in a litigation between the land tenant Rublevka LLC and Krants-City, which belongs to the business partner of the son of the head of administration Koshevoy, Nikita. Moreover, the administration did not send the legal response to the statement of claim by Kranz-City LLC. With a high degree of probability, this site will be transferred to the ownership of partner Nikita Koshevoy at a reduced price.

It is difficult to call this "dispute" other than humorous. LLC "Rublevka", LLC "Krants-City" are connected by business and family ties both with the administration of Zelenogradsk, and with LLC "Baltiyskiy Sail", which is now building the largest residential complex in the Kaliningrad region on the coast

Nikita Koshevoy owns 25% of Sails. What is not the business of the Koshev family! Why would the city administration give land, whether it be a golf course with 4 holes or intercepting parking lots, in the end we get residential buildings that are being built and owned by people close to the head of the city Sergey Koshevoy.

All this information has been circulating in the media for a long time. The administration of the Kaliningrad region, the prosecutor's office, the FSB, the Investigative Committee are well aware of what is happening under their noses, Governor Alikhanov constantly works with Koshev not only on administrative matters, but also on party affairs, because both occupy high positions in United Russia, but neither one hair does not fall from the head of Sergei Koshevoy! It would seem that before the elections, the authorities should have opened their eyes to openly criminal schemes in which Sergei and Nikita Koshevs are involved. But everyone prefers to pretend that everything is in order.

Blogger Kalyasnikov has already written an open appeal to the authorities.

He wants the authorities to show political will. It is difficult to attribute all the information with cadastral numbers, court documents and photographs to the malice of ill-wishers. This "schematosis" lasts 10 years, and no one cares about it. “I have no understanding why all this has been going on for almost 10 years and no one is able to stop the chaos. I only know that this should not happen in Russia in 2021. "While the situation is like Gogol's:" Russia is silent, does not give an answer".