Participants in the high-profile case about changing the stadium at the depot in Tula again declared the expediency of the deal

At the next meeting, the chairman of the government of the Tula region was summoned as a witness

At the next court session in the case of the exchange of the Arsenal stadium at the depot of the MCP Tulgorelektrotrans, which took place in Tula on September 5, five witnesses were heard. Tatyana Silaeva, deputy chairman of the Committee for Property and Land Relations of the City Administration, is in the dock. She is charged with abuse of official powers, which allegedly led the ITUC to losses in the amount of 204 million 701 thousand 667 rubles.

Recall that we are talking about changing the territory of the tram depot, located in Tula on Oboronnaya Street, to the Arsenal stadium.

The first speaker at today’s meeting was Ekaterina Ivanova, who from 2017 to 2021 held the position of an internal control specialist at the enterprise. The witness said that she did not know the details of the exchange transaction. At the time of her arrival, the organization had already concluded a lease agreement for a depot on Oboronnaya Street to accommodate a bus depot. She did not check these documents. By the time of dismissal from the PCR, the bus depot had already been moved to Novomoskovskoye Highway.

The public prosecutor saw a discrepancy with Ivanova’s previous testimony given by her at the first trial. Earlier, the witness said that she was familiar with the details of the lease agreements, in particular, with information about a significant increase in the amount of rent. The witness said that she negotiated one of the leases in 2017.

The next witness was Yevgeny Avilov, who served as head of the city administration from 2012 to 2019. According to him, in the summer of 2014, the governor of the Tula region held a meeting where the task was set to work out a mechanism for transferring the Arsenal stadium, which is considered an important object of sports infrastructure for the region, to municipal ownership.

According to the witness, the relevant decision was agreed upon by December of the same year. Avilov emphasized that the signing of the agreement would be impossible if there were objections from one of the parties. On behalf of MCP “Tulgorelektrotrans”, the document was signed by Valery Semakovich, who at that time held the post of head of the enterprise.

PCR Legal Counsel Vladimir Ryndin, who was also summoned to the trial as a witness, found out about the swap deal in the summer of 2015. Personally, he did not check the documents either for the deal or for the subsequent lease of the depot at Oboronnaya. Ryndin did not provide details, but expressed confidence that the lease agreements should have been agreed upon with the city administration. The witness also said that the management did not instruct him to work out the issue of contesting the barter agreement.

The former head of the internal control department of the MCP “Tulgorelectrotrans” Vitaly Demin found out about the barter agreement only after seeing the documentation on rent payments at the depot on Oboronnaya. According to the witness, a search was underway for a new suitable facility to accommodate the MCP bus depot. For this purpose, the specialist visited the object on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street, received by the enterprise under an exchange agreement, but it was found unsuitable. The witness also believes that the conclusion of the lease agreement did not affect the activities of the PCR in any way.

But Vladimir Pozdin, the former chief engineer of the organization, considers the exchange agreement inappropriate, since the Arsenal stadium and the facility on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street, received on the balance sheet of the MCP, could not be used for its direct activities. The facility, located on Oboronnaya Street, according to him, was fully operational. The site on Zheleznodorozhnaya Street was not suitable for accommodating a bus depot; for a short time it was used by the PCR as a warehouse for sleepers.

As previously repeatedly reported by witnesses, at the moment the bus fleet of the MCP “Tulgorelektrotrans” is located on the Novomoskovsk highway. “I have been to both sites – on Oboronnaya and Novomoskovsk highways. The second, new one, is much more suitable for accommodating the bus fleet,” Ivanova says. “The territory on the Novomoskovsk highway, where the depot moved after the exchange, is completely satisfied with the MCP.” Earlier, at one of the meetings, the current head of the PCR Alexei Marushkin noted: “Yes, we have a new cost item for renting a park, but at Oboronnaya we would also have a new cost item – only for major repairs.”

Note that the next meeting will be held on October 7. Valery Sherin, chairman of the government of the Tula region, was summoned to him as a witness.