"Yellow Devil" Strukov and Trembitsky

As it became known to the correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Chelyabinsk region, the billionaire from the Forbes list Konstantin Strukov achieved the resumption of the work of his emergency gold quarries

Mr. Strukov gnashed his teeth for three months in a row: he lost millions due to the suspension of work in the quarries. And Rostekhnadzor lifted the ban on mining at the quarries of Kurasan, Yuzhny Kurasan and Bereznyakovsky. And the Yuzhuralzoloto Group of Companies (SGC) is preparing to launch equipment at three of the four fields. Who helped the billionaire Strukov so much? It turns out that Mr. Strukov had a personal audience with the head of Rostekhnadzor, Alexander Trembitsky, about whose corruption cases only the lazy did not write.

What happens? While the case of the gold miner Strukov is being dealt with by the TFR, is the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the head of Rostekhnadzor Trembitsky pulling a "blanket" from which "gold" coins are rapidly falling out on himself? And the UGK, which poisoned several villages of the Chelyabinsk region with mercury and cyanides - preliminary damage - more than 4 billion rubles - again goes to work?

New "tricks" of SGC

It turns out that the UGK Group of Companies filed a petition for the early termination of administrative punishment, and at a meeting with Mr. Trembitsky, Strukov, having dulled his eyes, admitted omissions in organizing the industrial safety system and assured that all measures would be taken...

As a result, Rostekhnadzor unblocked the work of three gold quarries of Strukov.

But, as they say, trouble came again, from where they did not expect: UGK faced new claims from the Ural Interregional Administration of Rosprirodnadzor. As follows from the unified register of supervisory measures of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, the department revealed the destruction of the fertile soil layer during the construction of the tailing dump of the Bereznyakovskaya gold recovery plant.

Bereznyakovsky quarry of the UGK. Photo: VK

UGK offered to voluntarily pay compensation.

Rosprirodnadzor also refused to issue UGK a comprehensive environmental permit for the development of the Bereznyakovsky quarry: this is where the factory is located. After all, the company did not eliminate the identified violations.

Tons of cyanides

Recall that 3 years ago, Mr. Strukov brought to the Chelyabinsk region a thousand tons of cyanide worth 200 million rubles. And - in fact - stopped agribusiness in the Chelyabinsk region.

Why did billionaire Strukov need so much poison?

Cyanides are needed to produce gold using cheap heap leaching technology. This is an extremely poisonous substance: it causes suffocation.

And it is not the first day that the supervisory authorities have announced massive violations of industrial safety at the mines and mines of the SGC.

But Rostekhnadzor - as it turns out - turns a blind eye to the work of dangerous facilities of the UGK: the company uses cyanide for gold mining.

At the deposits of South Kurasan and West Kurasan, a gold recovery plant has not been built, and only heap leaching sites are equipped. And every year, employees of the SGC die or become crippled in quarries.

The TFR has already opened 2 criminal cases on poisoning people and the death of livestock in the gold mining area near the Kurasan River. This was written "Documents and Facts".

The head of the TFR Bastrykin requested a report on the investigation into the poisoning of residents and livestock in the village of Smirnovsky. The reason for the emergency was the use of water from the territory of the Kurasan gold recovery plant.

Construction of Kurasan factory. Photo: https://pravmin.gov74.ru/files/news_mediafiles/pravmin/59236/cc3e5f521338786519bf04f6132e3d44.jpeg

And there was an emergency leak: chemicals got into the Kurasan River.

Due to a fire in the village of Smirnovsky, water supply was cut off. Then the water supply was organized. The water was brought in a fire truck. Residents noticed that the water that was brought did not freeze even in frosty weather. By evening, people had symptoms of poisoning. 11 residents were hospitalized.

1380 times excess

The real disaster occurred on the Kurasan River in July 2022: cyanides got into the river.

Residents took out dead fish.... But the death of the fish was the reason for checking the environmental prosecutor's office.

During the inspection, it was found that the company was dumping drainage water from the West Kurasan quarry into the river without permission.

Polluted Kurasan River. Photo: https://31tv.ru/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD.jpg

Laboratory analysis of water samples showed that harmful substances are contained in concentrations many times higher than the norms. The standard for the content of copper in water was exceeded 1380 times, zinc - 180 times, mercury - 110, cyanides - 1.4 times. But Strukov then escaped with a fine in... 30 thousand rubles. This was reported by "Уралполит.ру."

And now Strukov's company plans to increase the production of the "yellow devil" by 60% by 2026.

But why is Rostekhnadzor, headed by Trembitsky, against the decisions of the TFR and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation?

Rostekhnadzor: corruption blooms and "smells"

The style of work of Alexander Trembitsky has long been legendary.

He has been in the chair of the head since 2021, and in 2019, when he still held the post of deputy, head of Trembitsky Alexei Aleshin, he was asked to check his subordinate for income from illegal activities.

Alexey Aleshin. Photo: https://www.nadzor-info.ru/media/blog/118220/14612ac69d3c44f9ad5fe1c6474a05f7.jpg

Then the Moscow Monitor published an open letter in which Trembitsky was credited with undeclared land plots in the Kuban. This was reported by "Nebohod-Media."

True, the topic was quickly closed, and soon Mr. Trembitsky was promoted to the head of Rostekhnadzor.

Rostekhnadzor distinguished itself with a corruption scandal involving the chief state inspector of Rostekhnadzor Karelia Georgy He: the inspector tried to get a bribe of 6 million rubles from the Solomensky sawmill company.

Rostekhnadzor of Karelia is part of the structure of the North-West Directorate. Some time ago, this department was headed by Grigory Slabikov, who was accused of embezzling 5.6 billion rubles from construction organizations in St. Petersburg.

Grigory Slabikov. Photo: https://cdn.bfm.ru/news/photopreviewextralarge/2018/05/12/slabikov.jpg

In January 2023, the Basmanny Court of Moscow sentenced Sergei Kulikov, a former Rostekhnadzor inspector, to 6 years in a strict regime colony. He extorted 1.3 million rubles from the leadership of the State Ammunition Test Sites of Russia association.

All these scandals go from year to year under Mr. Trembitsky: the corruption component in the work of the department does not change, so one should not be surprised at the "wise" decision of the head of Rostekhnadzor Trembitsky to launch the dangerous gold careers of billionaire Strukov. But how much does such a "wise" decision cost?