From Stroybat to Marat: Khusnullin's ambitions lead to the prime minister's chair?

President Vladimir Putin may soon visit the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he will take part in the opening of the fourth section of the M12 highway (Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan) in Arzamas. And at the same time, he will congratulate the winner of the governor's elections, which will be held this weekend.

The current head Gleb Nikitin has the greatest chances. At the same time, Nikitin himself has recently been recorded in the client of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who has gained tremendous hardware weight. Apparently, the ambitions of Marat Shakirzyanovich go above the current position - later he can push Mikhail Mishustin and become Prime Minister.

In the meantime, Khusnullin accumulates resources and places loyal people at key positions in the Russian regions. Details in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Too often, companies that may be related to Khusnullin began to win large contracts in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The fourth section of the M12 was built by the Avtoban DSK company. The key beneficiary and leader is Alexey Andreev. The contract value is over 30 billion rubles.

Note that the timing of the construction of the highway was delayed, and the Accounts Chamber had questions about the purchase of land. Auditors found signs of corruption violations in the actions of Avtodor (customer), which is supervised by Khusnullin in the Government. Then a "hole" of 130 billion rubles was discovered in the budget of state-owned companies.

Rumor has it that Andreev may be close to Marat Husnullin. Previously, he worked as the head of the Department of Road Construction and Design Methodology of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, was a member of the Government's offices, and later greatly praised Marat Shakirzyanovich before Vladimir Putin.

It was after Khusnullin became vice-mayor of Moscow that Andreeva's Avtoban began to receive huge government contracts, including the construction of federal highways. Their total volume exceeded 181 billion rubles. In addition, Andreev is a former deputy of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a native of the Tyumen Matryoshka - just like Sergei Sobyanin, the former chief of Marat Khusnullin.

Many scandals were associated with Andreev, as The Moscow Post previously wrote about. Then we assumed that Sergei Sobyanin could provide him with patronage. Now Khusnullin bypassed his boss in many positions. Among others, he took over the entire topic of the construction of the metro in Russia and Moscow in particular, with huge injections from the budget.

And he often went to the Nizhny Novgorod region, where, it seems, he worked well with Gleb Nikitin. One of the first visits of Khusnullin as Deputy Prime Minister in the summer of 2020 took place in Nizhny Novgorod.

Marat Khusnullin and Gleb Nikitin. Photo: Government of the Nizhny Novgorod region

Then he almost immediately agreed with Nikitin on the location of the very Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan highway in the region. Subsequently, this row received Andreev's Autobahn. And in May 2023, Khusnullin praised Nikitin before the President for the implementation of infrastructure projects.

According to rumors, Khusnullin and Nikitin can be friends at all. Given the high chances of Nikitin's re-election, the Deputy Prime Minister is clearly betting on him in future hardware conflicts already at the federal level.

"Make friends" with the Turks

Other companies that may be close to Khusnullin are also "courting" the region. In March 2023, the government of the subject concluded an agreement with Monotoek Stroy LLC for the construction of an IT building for Nizhny Novgorod State University. The cost is 41 billion rubles. This is one of the largest, image projects of Governor Nikitin.

Monotoek Stroy is 50% owned by Amethyst Group LLC, a third of which is owned by Marat Khafizov. From 2017 to 2020, Khafizov headed Moskapstroy JSC, the former structure of the Moscow government, one of the key customers of the capital's mayor's office with government contracts of 27 billion rubles as a supplier and 7.3 billion as a customer.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

By the way, it was under Khusnullin that Moskapstroy was divided. In 2011, Moskapstroy-TN was allocated from it, owned by Leonid Monosov. The latter is an ex-employee of the mayor's office and the former vice-president of AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov. Could Khusnullin, thanks to this, enlist the support of the oligarch?

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Subsequently, Moskapstroy bought the Mosinzhstroy State Unitary Enterprise, in which by that time many fellow countrymen and colleagues of Khusnullin had worked in the government of Tatarstan. In addition, two other founders of Amethyst Group LLC, Rustam and Ruslan Salimshin, are also associated with Khusnullin.

Another co-owner of Monotek is also interesting - the Turkish company TEKNIKON YAPI ANONYMOUS SHIRKETI. Under Husnullin, the Turks generally strengthened their positions in the Russian construction market. You can recall the company ANTTEQ, which was engaged in the construction of infrastructure for meters in Moscow on a subcontract from one of the construction companies. All the emergency at the facility ended, as previously told The Moscow Post.

Blanket over yourself

Khusnullin continues to arrange his people in other regions. In the Smolensk region, the new acting head of the subject, Vasily Anokhin, was in the past his deputy secretariat, and recently, before his appointment, he headed the department of regional development of the Government apparatus, i.e. he worked directly with the Deputy Prime Minister himself.

The department was created at the direction of Khusnullin, Anokhin became its first head. State programs for the development of Crimea, the Caucasus, the Arctic, infrastructure megaprojects passed through this unit.

We must not forget that the Minister of Construction of the Russian Federation Irek Fayzullin is a longtime ally and colleague of Marat Shakirzyanovich. In Tatarstan, under Khusnullin, he was the deputy minister of construction, the chief architect of the Republic and the general director of the State Unitary Enterprise Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt (the company was supervised by Khusnullin).

At the same time, the sharp "rise" of Khusnullin's hardware capabilities was observed not since 2020, when he received new powers, but in 2022 - just after the pandemic, for the patronage over the solution of the problems of which Mikhail Mishustin and Sergei Sobyanin competed. Both lost, and Khusnullin intensified.

Just in 2022, Vladislav Zhdanov became the head of Roskadastre. Since 2021, he headed the Federal Cadastral Chamber of Rosreestr. The chairman of the supervisory board of Roskadastra is Marat Khusnullin.

At the same time, the composition of the supervisory board was approved, which, in addition to Khusnullin, included the head of Rosreestr Oleg Skufinsky, the managing director of ДОМ.РФ Anatoly Azizov and the head of the State Duma Committee on Property Relations Sergei Gavrilov. Can they also be part of the client of the Deputy Prime Minister? The network writes that the head of the Federal Property Management Agency Vadim Yakovenko seems to be a person who is personally loyal to Khusnullin.

Thus, Khusnullin accumulated enormous powers that his former chief Sergei Sobyanin did not and did not have. He, too, is believed to like to arrange faithful people in the regions and government agencies.

It is also interesting how Khusnullin uses his powers. His next initiative concerns the seizure of land from federal state institutions - without coordination with relevant ministries. I.e. he "pulls the blanket over himself."

Photo: https ://t.me/maydecree/5907

The procedure for expropriation of unused real estate (or conditionally unused) will be carried out by the Federal Property Management Agency, which is going to be given expanded powers. Husnullin spied on the withdrawal mechanism at Mutko - "DOM.RF" is already engaged in the search, registration and sale of attractive land plots.

They also remember other initiatives of Khusnullin, which would suit the Prime Minister much more. Among others, Marat Shakirzyanovich proposed scaling the housing renovation program in Moscow throughout the country. A more resonant statement is Khusnullin's opinion on the need to reduce the number of regions of the Russian Federation by enlarging them. As a rule, not even the Prime Minister speaks out about such things in our country, but the President.

All this testifies to one thing - Marat Khusnullin has huge ambitions that clearly go beyond the deputy prime minister's chair. Therefore, Mishustin should be worried. As for Sergei Sobyanin, he is rapidly losing his chances of taking the post of head of government. And it seems he may soon come to terms with the fact that he was bypassed by his own protégé.