Two settlements of the Voronezh region sound the alarm and cry for help - they were covered with stench from the product of processing sugar beets - rotting discarded pulp. Residents consider the owner of waste that began to rot with a specific smell and flying midges when heat occurs. The company belongs to the Prodimex group of the oligarch with an ambiguous reputation of Igor Khudokormov.
The Moscow Post correspondent in the Voronezh region understood the story.
Fetid "gift" under the windows
Information about the environmental emergency in the Novokhopersky district of the Voronezh region appeared on the ONF website, where residents of the village of Elan-Kolenovsky and the village of Elan-Koleno complained. It is they who have to endure the unbearable stench and moshkar from the rotting last year's pulp (a product of processing sugar beets), dumped literally a hundred meters from housing.
Local residents noted that usually this product goes to feed cattle, but last year the cake pits were full, and with the arrival of heat, the mass began to rot and is no longer suitable for animal husbandry. Residents clarified that the old pulp from the pits was not far from the village where the plant is based, and an unbearable stench covered most of it. As a possible owner of the stingy heap, the villagers call the Elan-Kolenovsky sugar factory.
The representative of the ONF in the region, Alexander Goncharov, noted that it is generally impossible to be next to the so-called filtration fields and the trouble is not only in the smell, because of which it is impossible to open windows, but also in hordes of insects.
"The company's management does not respond to numerous appeals and protests. And he continues to export stingy waste to housing, which we were convinced of personally during the on-site inspection, "Goncharov said.
The residents themselves have already appealed to both the authorities and the supervisory authorities, but the situation has not been resolved.
Whose breeder did he inherit?
According to Rusprofile, Elan-Kolenovsky Sugar Plant JSC is based in the village of Elan-Kolenovsky, that is, just where residents complain about the stench.
The company was established in 2003, its authorized capital is more than 550 million rubles. About 500 people work on it. The plant has two "subsidiary" assets - LLC "Aerobus" and construction LLC "Elanstroy" (unprofitable in 2022).
Manages the asset since 2015 LLC UK Prodimex-Sugar.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
LLC Prodimex-Sugar Management Company as a whole manages 14 enterprises of the group of the same name, including factories in the Kursk, Penza, Belgorod and Voronezh regions. The Criminal Code belongs to the United Sugar Company JSC, registered in Gorno-Altaysk. The latter is led by Oleg Khudokormov, who was also listed as the founder, together with the Cypriot offshore company - Midway Holdings LTD.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
But the media call the owner of his brother - Igor Khudokormov, No. 175 in the Forbes rating "200 richest businessmen in Russia - 2019".
According to the same publication, Khudokormov began his journey as a "sugar king" by supplying cheap Ukrainian sugar to Penza, where the first plant of the group was bought. The Moscow Post has repeatedly talked directly about Igor Khudokormov. For example, one of the latest publications reported on the possible involvement in the liquidation of two Kuban sugar factories, whose assets were in the hands of new structures. Moreover, Oleg Khudokormov allegedly stands behind one, and the family of the ex-head of the Kuban, the former Minister of Agriculture of Russia Alexander Tkachev, behind the other.
The publication Life.ru called Khudokormov - one of the most secretive businessmen in Russia, noting only that among his business partners former officers - Vitaly Tsando and Vladimir Pchelkin (he himself is a graduate of the Leningrad Railway Military School), and the top manager in the group at one time allegedly worked the son of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Denis Zubov. The same publication reported that a certain Anastasia Khudokormova and Svetlana Borodina (namesake of the businessman's wife) were registered with the French company Villa Primo, which owns a luxurious mansion in Provence, and also allegedly a namesake Borodina - managing manager of the Spanish company Artprior Media Sl.
Oleg Khudokormov, in turn, is also a rather secretive person. According to Rusprofile, among other things, he owns an electricity production company - LLC Relief from Odintsovo. At the same time, Khudokormov's shares in companies are estimated very modestly - 44 thousand rubles.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The fact that Oleg Khudokormov and Igor Khudokormov are not just namesakes is indirectly indicated by the fact that Oleg was listed as the co-founder of the Palitsy 2012 DNT, where Vyacheslav Khudokormov (probably the father of the brothers) and the namesake of the aforementioned Vladimir Pchelkin also noted.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
Today Pchelkin is the owner and director of VIP It-Service LLC, which he got from the United Sugar Company. Vip-It-Service has a subsidiary, Citrobel LLC, which supplied molasses under the state contract for the production of alcohol from an ethyl rectified company from the division of Rosspirtprom JSC. Among the suppliers, LLC Prodimex was also noted.
Earlier, VIP It-Service LLC was the owner of TD Agrotorg LLC, which today is owned by Prodimeks LLC and Rosselkhozbank JSC under the leadership of Boris Listov Prodimeks Company (revenue of 2022 - 81 billion rubles) was just established by Pchelkin, Igor Khudokormov and Vitaly Tsando, and now the United Sugar Company JSC has left
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
Igor Khudokormov, according to Rusprofile, is the general director of HC Prodimeks JSC, and also owns two assets - First Construction and Installation Trust LLC and Business Stroy LLC.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
Also in January 2022, on Tsando, Igor Khudokormov and the general director of Prodimex LLC Viktor Aleksakhin, the international company Prodimex Pharmaceutical Group was registered in the Russian Offshore (Kaliningrad).
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The Khudokormov family, Tsando and Pchelkin are also connected by the asset Songri LLC, owned by Anastasia and Veronika Igorevna Khudokormov (probably the daughter of Igor Khudokormov), Ekaterina Vladimirovna Pchelkina and Vitaly Tsando. The director of Songri is Oleg Khudokormov.
The Prodimex group is a whole business dispute from a number of companies and firms of various organizational and legal formats. Today, Prodimex has 14 sugar factories and one of the largest land banks - about 900 thousand hectares. Every year, the group's factories produce about 350 thousand tons of beet pulp.
As we can see, among the business partners of the Khudokormov group there is also a state bank, the governing bodies of which include the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. Previously, this is Tkachev, and later - Dmitry Patrushev.
This may indicate a fairly weighty lobby at Prodimex, which has access to state support measures, including as a company from the list of backbone ones. Then it is not surprising that the complaints of the residents of the Novokhopersky district remained unanswered by the authorities.
Let's return to the state of emergency, which was reported by residents of the Novokhopersky district.
From the complaint - a paper airplane and forget?
Judging by the database of the Federal State Institution "Unified Register of Inspections," the sugar factory in this area distinguished itself not for the first time. In January 2023, the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in the Voronezh Region announced a warning to the company, which stated that "dirty, warm, and very fetid liquid flows from the sedimentation tanks on the way."
Photo: https://proverki.gov.ru/
In December 2022, the same plant received a warning about the inadmissibility of violating mandatory requirements in the field of atmospheric air protection. In 2019, there were claims from the Federal Agency for Fishery - "carrying out activities to collect water resources from the Elan River (AZO/DON/823/315/50 40 km from the mouth of the river) without coordination with the federal executive body in the field of fisheries of the Azov-Black Sea Territorial Administration of the Federal Agency for Fishery".
If, in general, we talk about the group, then it itself is very scandalous. For example, one of the division's companies, Citrobel LLC (the only citric acid plant in Russia), came under suspension for three months in 2017 due to non-compliance with environmental and sanitary and epidemiological requirements. This was reported by Interfax".
In addition, the same company appeared as a co-defendant in the lawsuit of the Belgorod Rospotrebnadzor on joint recovery of damage caused to soils as an environmental object in the amount of 3 736 903 872 rubles. The court materials noted that "as a result of the economic activities of Citrobel LLC, BZLK Citrobel JSC was discharged and accepted on the soil tens of thousands of tons of industrial waste in the absence of any control and monitoring of the state of the environment." True, the department could not defend its position and the claim was denied to him.
As reported by "RIA Voronezh", and in 2016 in Olkhovatka, deputies of the Olkhovatsky District Council complained to President Vladimir Putin about the harmful emissions of the oldest enterprise, Olkhovatsky Sugar Plant OJSC. This company is also part of the Prodimex group. In the publication, with reference to the appeal of the deputies, it was reported that unpleasant odors appeared in the air, from which the eyes were watering, there was a sore throat, nausea, and breathing was disturbed. Doesn't it resemble anything?
At the same time, judging by the database of inspections, and in August 2022, the problem with smells remained. This plant received a warning from Rospotrebnadzor in connection with the appeal, which "contains information about the unpleasant smell of unknown origin every day in the evening (from 20 to 22)." Near the house there are treatment facilities of Olkhovatsky Sugar Plant JSC. According to the expert conclusions of the AOI branch of the FBUZ "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Voronezh Region, atmospheric air samples taken at the address at the border of residential buildings (in the zone of influence of site No. 6, near and far filtration fields of Olkhovatsky Sugar Plant JSC, exceeded hygienic standards for maximum one-time concentrations of dimethyl sulfide.
Photo: https://proverki.gov.ru/portal/public-knm/12773902
In 2018, the Office of Rospotrebnadzor in the Belgorod region had claims to LLC Dmitrotaranovsky Sugar Plant - "no sanitary protection zone for the enterprise has been established," as well as "within the framework of the SPZ justification, a health risk assessment was not carried out," "the production control program does not provide for control over the epidemic safety indicators of wastewater at discharge into a water body, a water body above and below the discharge site" and much more.
Photo: https://proverki.gov.ru/
Krasnoyaruzhsky Sakharnik LLC also distinguished itself, which in July 2023 received a warning in connection with the receipt of information contained in the appeal to the local environmental department on violation of environmental legislation during the operation of the wastewater pipeline.
Or, for example, in December 222, the same department, but already in the Penza region, issues a warning after it is addressed to "received information from the Ministry of Forestry, Hunting and Nature Management of the Penza Region dated 21.10.2022 No. 16-3-4/5916 according to the information provided in form 3.3 of the order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia dated 09.11.2020 No. 903 JSC"Zemetchinsky Sugar Plant "allowed exceeding the permitted discharges of pollutants into water bodies, namely the Ryanza River."
Photo: https://proverki.gov.ru
You can continue to list the "exploits" of the Prodimex sugar factories for a long time. This is not all that has accumulated in recent years.
As we can see, in the Prodimex group, they are very specific to the environment and the population of the nearest houses. But given the connections of the oligarch Khudokormov, it is not surprising. But maybe, Rospotrebnadzor, Sledkom and other supervisory authorities will find the courage to solve the problem with the available legal tools? And to stimulate Voronezh officials, you can invite you to visit those settlements that breathe the smells of rotting pulp. Maybe the nose will cut through.