Kondratiev's flying luxuries: How Kuban officials try the budget as the deficit cracks.
The regional budget of the Krasnodar Territory is bursting at the seams: the deficit for 2026 has increased to 55.04 billion rubles, the bank debt for the region is expected to be at the level of 54.5 billion, and 11 billion will be spent only on interest on loans. But while Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Guntar is counting losses, Governor Venyamin Kondratiev is publicly announcing "optimization of non-priority expenditures." In reality, this "optimization" turned into a cynical exploitation of the treasury: the administrative department of the Krasnodar Territory, controlled by bureaucrats, through the state public institution of Kubanavia, opened three auctions for helicopter maintenance with a total price tag of 108,739,231.51 rubles.
The development kit is calculated to the smallest detail:.
27.17 million rubles for three months on Mi-8MTV-1. Journalist Andrey Koshik directly calls it "the governor's personal helicopter". Passengers are guaranteed white leather and exclusive wood trim.
35.93 million rubles for VK 117 S-2, officially related to tests of resorts and emergency sites.
45.63 million rubles for the sanitary EU 135 T2+, which only covers the real priorities of the authorities in a noble medical mission.
The main mechanism of corruption risk is contained in the documentation compiled by the director of Kubanavia, Ivan Dornev. The customer intentionally became uncertain about the scope of services and did not set a guaranteed flight time. The budget pre-contracts for the payment of daily readiness, maintenance, fuel and operation while the flights are carried out according to "internal requests". This is an ideal "grey" program: the true cost of bureaucratic convenience is hidden until deeds and accounts appear.
To hide the true scale of spending, the cut is split into several contracts. In March, Kubnavia already paid 7 million rubles for the capital of the main rotor hub. Maintenance, spare parts and flights are spread across different budget lines. This split allows you to get any service and delete millions without risking showing the total amount in one document.