Why did the official exchange the post for the career of a rock singer (and how it really happened) & nbsp. More money, less roads

Photo: mintrans.ru, Vedomosti / Maxim Stulov

Alan Lushnikov sat in the vacated chair of the Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia

He was appointed to this position by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The corresponding order was published on the official website of the Russian government.

Appoint Lushnikov Alan Valeryevich as Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, the document says.

According to Vedomosti, the new deputy minister graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a degree in jurisprudence. In 2006-2008, he worked as deputy head of Roszheldor and dealt with, among other things, issues related to the reform of railway transport. From February to August 2008, he served as the head of the department. Later he became the "right hand" of the Minister of Transport, who was then Igor Levitin. After the latter's transfer to the presidential apparatus, Lushnikov became an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees the transport industry. He was responsible for transport issues - railway, ports and air.

Recall that Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn announced his resignation on February 7. On the same day, the President of the country Vladimir Putin. Lead the republic with the prefix and. O. it will be until the September elections.

The official from his youth is fond of music and managed to visit the soloist of several bands in St. Petersburg

Alan Lushnikov

Kirill Kukhmar/TASS

Moscow. September 21. website - Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Alan Lushnikov will leave this post.

"I'm leaving. The decision is made by the Prime Minister. He has not yet adopted it, but it has been proposed for approval. We made this decision together with the Minister of Transport," the official told reporters on Friday. He did not name the terms of leaving the current post, making it clear that they do not depend on him.

Speaking about his future plans, Lushnikov said that he "will sing." The official from his youth is fond of music. He was a soloist of several musical groups in St. Petersburg. He currently sings in the group CtrlBAND.

Lushnikov at the beginning of 2017 replaced Aleksey Tsydenov as Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation (now he is the governor of Buryatia). In 2006-2008 the official worked as deputy head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport of the Russian Federation. In 2008, he briefly served as acting head of the department.

Later he was an assistant to the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin. After the latter's transfer to the office of the President of the Russian Federation, Lushnikov became an assistant to Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversaw the topic of transport in the rank of Deputy Prime Minister and headed the board of directors of Russian Railways, although he did not enter the new government, becoming co-chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation.

Rumors about Lushnikov's departure from the post of deputy minister in charge of the development of the railway industry appeared in early summer, after Yevgeny Ditrikh was appointed to the post of head of the Ministry of Transport (replaced Maxim Sokolov). Prior to this, at the suggestion of Dietrich, his deputy was removed from the board of directors of Russian Railways.

At the same time, the railway market was discussing a number of candidates for the post of profile deputy. According to one of Interfax's interlocutors, at least four people were interviewed by Dietrich. Among them is the former head of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services (Gosstroy) of the Russian Federation Vladimir Tokarev. One of the interlocutors of the agency claimed at the end of August that the head of the Ministry of Transport had already submitted proposals to the government, and the other - that the candidacy of the ex-Gosstroy official had already been agreed at the level of the government of the Russian Federation.

However, two other sources had different information: one of them said that Tokarev's candidacy was "not approved", and the second - that the appointment was "unlikely". Meanwhile, the ex-official with the railway industry was familiar in the past. In 2004-2006 he worked as deputy head of the directorate for economics and budgeting at JSC Vagonremmash (a subsidiary of Russian Railways). In 2006, he became deputy head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport of the Russian Federation. At the end of 2008, he moved to the position of Deputy Minister of Regional Development of the Russian Federation. In the spring of 2012, in connection with the resignation of Viktor Basargin (the current head of Rostransnadzor), he acted as head of the Ministry of Regional Development.

At the same time, according to two sources of the agency, Andrey Starkov, Deputy General Director of Russian Railways (in charge of corporate governance and property management), also appeared among the applicants. At the same time, another interlocutor said that the top manager also "did not pass the test."

Take a normal chord! the guitarist says to the keyboardist.

Normal?

Well, take the triad! You see, everything falls into place.

What should lie here and why a minute before that everything sounded “wrong”, the uninitiated person is not very clear. But the musicians are already playing the same melody again - something can be done better again. And so - five times in a row. “Do you know the secret of professionalism in any field? - Alan Lushnikov tells me. “A person becomes a professional when he does something ten thousand times.”

Lushnikov is not yet a professional in music, a couple of thousand repetitions are still missing. As a child, he sang in the choir and went to music school, but went to study as a lawyer. Although he was still engaged in music: in 1999, while still living in St. Petersburg, he joined the blues group, which was gathered by friends. They played at festivals and in clubs, even recorded in Andrei Tropillo's studio - the one where "Aquarium" and "Zoo" were written in the 80s. But ten years later they broke up - "for a number of reasons," as Alan says evasively. In general, he is very restrained in his wording - a valuable quality for an official. And he entered the civil service in 2006. He started as deputy head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport, later worked with Arkady Dvorkovich (then - Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation). He received awards, became Deputy Minister of Transport, and then "dropped everything and went to sing in a rock band." At least that's what they decided on social networks after media reports. “Handsome,” some rejoiced. “We are all human,” others noted philosophically. And the truth is: either downshifting 80 lvl, or the fulfillment of the dream of half the teenagers on the planet.

Lushnikov himself says that this is neither one nor the other. “I resigned from the post of deputy minister. Sometimes you need to change jobs. Point, he explains. - I do music because I like it. Dot. There is no causal relationship here." According to him, he actually changed one hobby for another: music is a hobby for him, but so is his former job. “Otherwise, there would be no point in doing this.”

Announcing to reporters about his plans to retire, Lushnikov said: "I will sing." He admits that he did not expect such a commotion. “I thought: this is how it happens - just two words!” That evening, his CtrlBand team had a concert. “And there, one respected person, after reading the news, joked: listen, it turns out that you are going to work in a rock band! Lushnikov says. - And one good friend said: "Well, you blew up the industry."

In fact, Alan did not seriously plan to “blow up the industry”, or even just return to music seriously. Just last year, he decided to give his wife a birthday present - to arrange a concert. Gathered musicians - already, of course, not those with whom he once played in St. Petersburg. The concert was a success (“My wife said“ thank you, ”Lushnikov modestly explains), and after it the team could not leave. “Unfortunately, I can't do something halfway,” says the former official. - And when we got together, rehearsed and played, it was a pity to throw it all away. We decided: let's record four songs. And then - let's do another concert ... "So the gift to his wife turned out to be controversial: the husband, already disappearing at work in the ministry, began to disappear also at rehearsals. But after his resignation, he made up for everything. “I used to not always be able to come in the evening on time to put the children to bed,” he says (and there are three children in his family). “Now, thank God, it works.”

What else (inaccessible to the minister) can an aspiring rock singer do? At the rehearsal, while the musicians are playing solos, Lushnikov habitually answers someone on two smartphones at the same time. But at the microphone is in jeans and a T-shirt. “I love wearing jeans. But I also love costumes, - says Alan. “It wasn’t like I threw the suit out the window and said: that’s it, I won’t wear it again.”

CtrlBand plays blues and rock'n'roll, they write their own music. One of the songs - "Annabel Lee" - was written to the verses of Edgar Allan Poe: Lushnikov loves him. They sing only in English, which, by the way, is not very popular with some commentators on YouTube. But, as Alan says, "blues music itself is English-language." Although in Russian, he, perhaps, will also someday sing: “I have one idea, but I have to live to see it.”

About his new "job" Alan says: "Of course, I'm relaxing, but this is not downshifting. This is a new challenge." He is sure that after some time he will return to the profession of a lawyer: “I will not be able to leave the industry.” Maybe that's why he was not afraid to part with a high position (and a stable income). Or maybe because I am sure: "Any stability is an illusion."

An illusion, not an illusion, but CtrlBand is rehearsing steadily. Playing the same song over and over in an hour.

Perhaps there are few more successful lobbyists in Russia than the former Minister of Transport Igor Levitin. Almost all issues in which he was interested were resolved at the state level in his favor. True, if the majority of Russian lobbyists are trying to create favorable conditions for the entire industry, and, as a result, for themselves, then in the case of Levitin, this is not so: here the benefits of business structures close to the ex-official were in the first place, and the transport industry was lagging behind. By European standards, this has remained. It is no coincidence that Levitin was nicknamed the "Minister of Disasters": it is difficult to recall such a number of tragic incidents as under him. Here is the ship "Bulgaria" that drowned on the Volga, dragging 122 people to the bottom, and the Tu-154 plane flying from Anapa to St. Petersburg that crashed near Donetsk - then 170 people died. And the fall of the Yak-42 near Yaroslavl, which took 43 souls to the next world. 45 victims were during the fall of the Tu-134 near Petrozavodsk, 125 - at the Irkutsk airport, when the Airbus-310 caught fire. And also - the terrorist attack at the Domodedovo airport and the explosion of the Nevsky Express, which happened, among other things, due to poor security. In total, Levitin's tenure as Minister of Transport cost the lives of more than 700 people. Not every surgeon, even an inept one, has such a graveyard of his own.

But against this background, it is hard not to notice the rains of money pouring on companies considered close to the ex-minister. When in 2004 Igor Levitin headed the Ministry of Transport, he disciplined transferred all his shares in business structures to relatives and friends. Those established new companies, they merged with old ones, resold, repurchased, shares were confused, recorded on Cyprus offshore companies, and now, without a special request from the investigating authorities, it is impossible to establish who their ultimate beneficiary is. Although experts have no doubt that this face is well known to them, and it is like two drops of water similar to Levitin's.

However, he was openly engaged in business: for seven years, the minister, in violation of the law "On Government", was the chairman of the Board of Directors of Sheremetyevo International Airport and Aeroflot, as well as a member of the board of directors of the United Aircraft Corporation.

Strange coincidences soon began. For example, before Levitin joined the government, the Severstaltrans company, in which he worked, earned 10 million rubles a year, then immediately after taking the ministerial chair - 25 million. Revenue growth of 150 percent in just one year is fantastic for any business. State orders also went to other firms close to the minister in a powerful multibillion-dollar flow: the Ministry of Transport and the Rosavtodor controlled by him generously gave contracts to firms controlled by friends and relatives of the minister. Here and "Dormashinvest", affiliated with "Staltechinvest", which Levitin established with his daughter, and "Passenger Service", and "Mostotrest" and dozens of other companies. In Mostotrest, for example, according to SPARK-Interfax, the state transferred almost 80 billion rubles in just five years.

More money, less roads

What about the industry? If in 2000, long before Levitin was appointed minister, Rosavtodor built almost eight thousand kilometers of roads, spending about 56 billion rubles on this, then in 2010 the budget manager already had 280 billion at his disposal, but built ... only two thousand kilometers . Experts estimated: in ten years, the cost of materials and work has increased by about three times. But even taking into account this fact, the efficiency of spending public funds has decreased by 5-6 times. Apparently, this is what corruption looks like from the outside. Moreover, this suspicion is not unfounded. For example, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of the construction of a section of the Moscow-Petersburg highway in the Tver region. And found an overstatement of the budget by 6.6 billion rubles. Moreover, this profit went to the Mostotrest company, where 31.5 percent of the shares belong to the beneficiaries of the N-trans holding - this is the name after the rebranding was given to Severstaltrans, in which Levitin worked before joining the government. Laying a scandalous track, going through the Khimki forest, the North-West Concession Company is engaged, where 50 percent of the shares are owned by the owners of the same N-trans. And in general with this road - some scandals. Here are the beatings of the defenders of the Khimki Forest, and the collapse that fettered the current Moscow-Petersburg highway in 2006: then a multi-kilometer traffic jam became the reason for approving the project for the construction of a new toll road. But an audit by the Prosecutor General's Office found that the cause of the crisis on the highway was the wrong actions of the Moscow government and Rosavtodor. That is, apparently, the cork was created artificially.

Port disassembly

In general, N-trans today is one of the largest players in the transport market. The holding deals with literally everything: from roads to cargo transportation. And in St. Petersburg he has a diamond at all: there he is a monopolist in the market of stevedoring services. After all, 83 percent of container traffic passes through the Global Ports company controlled by N-trans. Plus, she has her own terminals in Estonia and Finland. Russian importers have long had complaints about it because of extortionate prices that are constantly growing uncontrollably: if now the cost of loading and unloading containers is still comparable to world prices, then the company pulls three skins for moving through the port area. According to the Hermes Guild, transporting a container several hundred meters to the customs checkpoint costs such a sum that the cost of service doubles. If the load needs to be weighed, then it is tripled. And if the customs officers decide to conduct a full inspection of the container, then the costs increase by almost four times. At the same time, in most foreign ports, all these procedures are free. So it turns out that cargo handling in the Big Port of St. Petersburg becomes unprofitable. Entrepreneurs have already applied to the court and filed complaints with the Antimonopoly Service, but these cases are still under consideration.

Is it any wonder that the rise of Global Ports also happened during the "ministerial term" of Igor Levitin. At the same time, the positions of the notorious “authoritative businessman” in St. Petersburg also strengthened. Ilya Traber, who for many years was the king and god in the port of St. Petersburg. The Spanish press refers to him under the nickname "Antiquarian" and connects him with the Tambov criminal gang. Not only did the Seaport remain under his control, but people close to Traber suddenly occupied high government posts: the former director of the Port Fleet, Anatoly Savkin, headed the St. Petersburg branch of Rosmorport, and the former employee of Traber Igor Rusu- first, the Ust-Luga company, and then he became the deputy head of Rosrechmorflot.

It is only natural that Levitinsky Global Ports would like to continue to maintain its global dominance. But this runs counter to the plans of the country's leadership to develop Russian maritime transport. And whose interests prevailed - the state or the former Minister of Transport? Judge for yourself. The project of the largest port in Ust-Luga was supposed to be a breakthrough: numerous berths and terminals were planned there, plus a huge industrial zone, which was supposed to process raw materials brought by sea on the spot. True, all this made sense only with good transport infrastructure: now the only road from St. Petersburg leads to Ust-Luga. And very narrow. So the plans included the construction of a route that would bring cargo to Novgorod and further inland. But for all the time that Levitin was the Minister of Transport, this highway never appeared. And without it, they don’t want to appear in the industrial zone, and the port itself loses its meaning, so the project, although developing, is far from being at the pace we would like.

Soon another potential competitor emerged for Global Ports. A sea channel is now being laid to it from the dam, and berths are being built on the shore. With transport provision, investors resolved the issue themselves, since the railway tracks and the Ring Road are nearby. And then the attack on the project began from the other side: financial. After all, it is planned to spend about 60 billion rubles on the construction of the port, of which 15 billion are budgetary: they were allocated by Rosmorport. They are trying to take them away. And, although Levitin had already left the ministry, it seems that he did not stop lobbying his interests: the government received the conclusion of the Council of Consumers at Rosmoport, which recommended stopping the financing of the port.

Where ears grow from this conclusion, it became clear when in July the Anonymous International organization posted on the Web the Internet correspondence of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Arkady Dvorkovich with his assistant Alan Lushnikov. Once Lushnikov worked in the Ministry of Transport, and also an assistant - with Minister Igor Levitin. So there are old service connections, which this time should have served one task: to slow down, and ideally to bury a competing project. Lushnikov lists five construction projects that it would be nice to deprive of state support. And shortly after that, the opinion of the Consumer Council appeared. Of course, hackers from Anonymous International cannot be brought to court to prove the authenticity of correspondence posted on the Internet. Yes, and their methods of work are not perfect. But so far, this underground organization has not been convicted of forging letters, only of making them public. So, most likely, the correspondence is genuine, especially since two of Dvorkovich's addressees have already identified their letters. Which once again makes you take off your hat to the lobbying talent of Igor Levitin: even after leaving the ministerial post, he sacredly watches over the interests of business structures close to him.

Sergei Rezannikov

photo: mintrans.ru / Alan Lushnikov on the left

Alan Lushnikov changed his job in the federal department to a career as a musician

Deputy head of the Ministry of Transport of Russia Alan Lushnikov, who replaced the current head of Buryatia Alexei Tsydenov, told reporters that he was resigning.

We made this decision together with the Minister of Transport, - RBC quotes him.

When asked about his future plans, Lushnikov said: “I will sing!” As it turned out, the official was fond of music from his youth and performed with various bands, and now he is the lead singer of the rock band Ctrl Band. Her first concert in the new line-up took place at the end of April, reminds RBC.

video: ren.tv

The Deputy Minister of Transport noted that he could not yet name the exact date of his dismissal, since the decision on his resignation would be made by the Prime Minister.

Recall that Alan Lushnikov came to the federal Ministry of Transport to replace Alexei Tsydenov in February 2017. The corresponding order was then signed by the head of the Cabinet Dmitry Medvedev.

Lushnikov graduated from St. Petersburg State University with a degree in jurisprudence. In 2006-2008, he worked as deputy head of Roszheldor and dealt with, among other things, issues related to the reform of railway transport. From February to August 2008, he served as head of the department. Later he became the "right hand" of the Minister of Transport, who was then Igor Levitin. After the latter's transfer to the presidential apparatus, Lushnikov became an assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who oversees the transport industry. He was responsible for transport issues - railway, ports and air.