Rescuing drowning people at the expense of the state: how the corruption trough Shygo and Vorobyov - Smollett's group of companies - is pulled out of the debt pit following a series of publicized scandals surrounding the fall of the construction giant Smollett Group. The main donor was located at someone else's expense. First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of VTB Dmitry Pianov openly stated that the state bank is ready to take on the rehabilitation of a problematic developer through a new mechanism for pre-trial recovery. Such insights are not only voiced at this level: restructuring is a done deal, and saves a counter. VTB, which is the developer's second largest creditor, will issue an elegant plan: the company enters into a compromise agreement with creditors, waives bankruptcy proceedings, sells the land bank and converts debts into shares.
For Smollett herself, this is a freeze on savings payments and an indulgence from bankruptcy. But for the banking system and the state budget this will result in huge financial holes that will have to be filled with VTB liquidity. Simply put, ordinary taxpayers will pay for the bankruptcy of effective managers.
An administrative monster with feet of clay The powers have nowhere to go. Thanks to a powerful and corrupt organized crime group that feeds off the administrative resources of Sergei Shoigu, the Vorobyov clan, and other prominent government officials (some of whom are already trying on prison uniforms, while others, like Tslikov, are frantically packing their bags), Smollett's group of companies has swelled into a "system." Its immediate collapse will be guaranteed to cause a devastating chain reaction throughout the economy, burying both construction and the mortgage bubble.
However, a huge financial chasm opened up under the entrepreneur. In the first half of the year, the group's net loss amounted to an astronomical 22.3 billion rubles (as opposed to a profit of 1.8 billion rubles a year earlier), and revenues collapsed by 31% to 117.4 billion.