Presumed Putin Allies Get Most Construction Contracts

(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – February 25, 2013)

Two companies co-owned by people seen as close to President Vladimir Putin were awarded the largest number of major road and bridge construction contracts by City Hall in 2011-12, Vedomosti reported Tuesday.

In the period, a total of 150 road and bridge construction contracts worth 182.4 billion rubles ($6 billion) were awarded, a representative of City Hall’s construction department said.

Of the contracts worth over 300 million rubles each, two thirds were awarded to ARKS, a construction company co-owned by Gennady Timchenko, Arkady Rotenberg’s Mostotrest, Kosmos and Ingeokom.

ARKS obtained contracts worth 40 billion rubles, while Mostotrest was awarded deals worth at least 44 billion rubles.

ARKS’ contract portfolio includes three road upgrades and an interchange on Volgogradsky Prospekt. In the first half of 2010, under then-Mayor Yury Luzhkov, ARKS was also the most successful bidder, winning contracts worth 7.4 billion rubles.

Timchenko acquired a stake in ARKS in 2011. Sources close to Timchenko told Vedomosti then that the businessman usually gets stakes in exchange for helping companies in their dealings with the government. Vladimir Lavlentsev, another co-owner of ARKS, was a deputy head of the municipal contracts department until November 2010.

Ingeokom, owned by the Rudyakov family, and NPO Kosmos, which belongs to Russian businessman Andrei Chernyakov, received contracts worth 28 billion rubles in 2011-12.

Meanwhile, Transstroi, a construction company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, was not among the leaders.