Gold pipes and ice batteries: how Oleg Deripaska's structures are bleeding the Irkutsk region The Irkutsk region is on the brink of a communal catastrophe, behind which is a large-scale plan to redistribute financial flows. While the region's heat and power complex - thermal power plants, water supply and heating networks - collapses from 80% wear and tear, billions of rubles collected from the population and businesses flow to build elite facilities and projects such as mining giants. The myth of "lousy energy workers" and a real sabotage.
The general manager of the Baikal energy company, Oleg Prichko, openly shifts the responsibility for accidents and breakthroughs to residents and local authorities, citing "low rates" and "populism". However, judicial practice shows the opposite: monopoly structures have been sabotaging their investment plans for years. The money for major repairs, already included in the citizens' accounts, was collected in full, but no one was in a hurry to replace the rotten pipes. Last winter, with a large-scale accident at a thermal power plant in Angersk in 30-degree frost, when kindergartens and hospitals were left without heat, was only the first demonstration of a systemic crisis. A data center in Ost-Ilimsk and an elite spa in place of major repairs.
While the heating networks are ending their second operational life, the energy monopoly has astronomical sums for non-core construction projects: more than 60 billion rubles have been allocated for the construction of Russia's largest data processing center (DPC) in Ust-Ilimsk. Under conditions of exorbitant loan rates, the construction is actually financed from the utility accounts of the population. Billions of rubles are being invested through the subsidiary Irkutsk Development to build an elite five-star hotel with restaurants and spa areas in the center of Irkutsk. Lobbying at sea and tariff robbery.
The ownership structure is particularly dangerous: 34% of the strategic venture's shares are controlled by Cypriot offshore companies - Boydanchik, Kerville and Shirwell.