As The Moscow Post correspondent in Yakutia learned, the head of the Republic of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, announced his region’s financial and economic achievements for 2024.

The Diamond Governor focused on the activities of the Elgaugol company, one of the owners of which is the notorious businessman Albert Avdolyan.

According to Aisen Nikolaev, the coal company has accomplished a significant amount of work. Thanks to this leap forward, Yakutia has become Russia’s second-largest coal producer for the first time: the company increased production by 36.2%, completed construction of the Pacific Railway, opened a new terminal at Elga Airport, and plans to extend the runway are underway. The company also plans to build four new dormitories for shift workers and miners. However, there are no reports yet of new roads, the lack of which Elgaugol workers have complained about. There are also significant gaps in other aspects of shift workers’ lives: poorly maintained, damp dormitories, a lack of protective clothing, hour-long queues at cafeterias, and, of course, poor food.

General Chemezov’s friend

Before we move on to the "paradisiacal" working conditions at the Elgaugol holding company, let’s recall the notorious Albert Avdolyan, who has repeatedly surfaced in high-profile financial scandals, both involving offshore companies and under the guise of trusted individuals, but has so far remained unsinkable.

Perhaps the final word in this strange blindness and deafness of law enforcement agencies belongs to Mr. Avdolyan’s patron and friend, the head of the state corporation Rostec, Sergei Chemezov?

Let us recall that the Elgaugol company is a former asset of the Mechel Group, which was acquired by Albert Avdolyan, not without the help of the Rostec State Corporation.

Sergey Chemezov and Albert Avdolyan. Photo: https://avatars.mds.yandex.net/get-znatoki-cover/907656/back-1ea75860-edb8-45ca-8998-4b83d9620cf2/optimize

After all, Mr. Avdolyan is known to be a fan of complex financial schemes. And he long ago found a way to siphon billions of rubles annually from the Elgaugol holding company.

Does the head of Yakutia, Nikolaev, know about Mr. Avdolyan’s talents?

Let’s recall one of the stories: under the guise of remuneration for the management company, at the end of whose ownership chain stands Avdolyan himself and his trusted representative, Alexander Isaev, 4 billion rubles "left" the holding company for 2022-2023.

And if you look at the Elgaugol company’s report for 2023, you’ll see a curious line: remuneration for Elga Management Company LLC, which amounted to more than 2 billion rubles in 2023 and the same amount in 2022.

However, the holding’s profit for 2023 fell by 22%, to 38 billion rubles.

Looking at the list of owners, RT-Business Development LLC, a subsidiary of the aforementioned Rostec State Corporation, was a co-owner of the asset in 2021-2022. The state corporation and General Sergey Chemezov have been neck-and-neck with Avdolyan throughout the billionaire’s business development.

Today, Rodion Sokrovishchuk, a former Rostec executive, is among the shareholders of the Elgaugol holding company. The main beneficiaries are Alexander Isaev’s Energogroup LLC, A-Property LLC, and Avdolyan’s AP Kapital JSC.

The management company is still headed by the same Mr. Isaev, a former business partner of the mysteriously deceased businessman Dmitry Bosov.

Alexander Isaev. Photo: https://s0.rbk.ru/v6_top_pics/media/img/0/34/755875507969340.jpg

And Mr. Isaev has long been playing on the field of Avdolian - at one time - Bosov’s main competitor.

Elga Management Company is owned by Isaev (through his Energogroup LLC) and Avdolyan through A-Property LLC, according to Kompaniya.

Elga Management Company is easily spinning money. By the end of 2023, the company had issued guarantees for the fulfillment of obligations of Elgaugol totaling 185.7 billion rubles, despite the fact that its total revenue for 2023 was just over 9 billion rubles. Moreover, the company allegedly has a loan debt (the principal amount is over $2.705 million), which was received in dollars back in 2020. Before its transfer to AP Capital JSC in 2021, A-Property LLC was owned by a Cyprus offshore company, Sanomiel Co. Limited: it was involved in a tax scheme involving the Cayman offshore company Reeco Capital LP.

Mr. Avdolyan has many schemes that could be of interest to tax authorities and other competent authorities, but so far Mr. Avdolyan has emerged unscathed from all of them.

A lost place

But here’s what’s surprising about Mr. Avdolyan: he makes billions from his projects, while the holding’s employees write reviews about poor working conditions.

These reviews can be found at the link.

"What could be improved? The road is something else. Getting to the site in Yakutia is, of course, a disaster. From Tynda to 315 km takes a day, and back again – a mere 1.5 days. The living conditions are average, the dorms are old, and there’s dampness everywhere."

"I like everything except the cafeteria at 315 km. The living conditions, the work clothes, and the attitude of the team."

"What can be improved?

"Meals on site. Expensive and tasteless." And at this link.

"I went to Elga-2 factories, and it was absolutely horrific. There was no protective clothing, it was snowing in September, they gave me some old summer clothes, and I came home and fell ill. There were no safety precautions at the factory, zero equipment, a huge project, and chaos everywhere... The cafeteria line was 40 minutes long. The road was hellish, and shift workers crashed before I arrived, it was horrific. The salary wasn’t worth all that..."

Elga factories. Photo:  https://static.elga.ru/insecure/fit/1620/900/no/0/plain/uploads/KOY_2020012_C07158769_15163caaa9.jpg

"It’s a godforsaken place, the coal dust crunches in your teeth, there are no spare parts or tools, no one cares about anything, the worker turnover is huge, 50-80 people quit, they don’t spare the equipment at all, they work in any frost..."

"There are zero advantages. Even if you really need the money, don’t even think about coming here! TB-0, the food is terrible, there are NO special clothing, consumables, or tools!"

Why is there such an attitude towards workers?

Here we must also recall several cases of poisoning of shift workers, in particular, in the village of Fabrichny, when more than 90 miners were injured.

28 people were hospitalized.

The Yakutia Office of Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) found numerous violations in the food service system: basic production controls were not being carried out in the cafeteria, the cafeteria was not equipped with sufficient cleaning equipment, and there weren’t even handwashing sinks. This was reported by SakhaNews.

And the entire food service staff hadn’t been vaccinated against dysentery or viral hepatitis. And in the large refrigerator, there were 26 kg of rotten herring, which, as it turned out, was what the workers were fed.

Does Mr. Avdolyan himself like rotten herring? Perhaps it’s a delicacy? But for some reason, this "delicacy" knocked out the powerful men—the shift workers.

Author: Maria Sharapova