Moisey Furshchik called for the information openness of the Russian market of engineering services. The story of how one foreman of Moses a furrier and Vitaly Derbedenev advised half of the country

Interview. Moses Furshchik, Managing Partner of Financial and Organizational Consulting, believes that investors will be interested in single-industry towns, and the resettlement of their residents is an extreme measure.

Moses Alexandrovich, last years the state pays much attention to the problems of cities with single-industry production. Even the term "single town" has been coined. Are these really depressed cities that need state support and business attention?
– The term “single town” itself is rather ambiguous. Due to the historical formation of such settlements around large city-forming enterprises, or a chain of them, very different cities fall under this category in terms of issues, economic and social development. This topic is now extremely popular, but the government runs the risk of getting too carried away with single-industry towns and forgetting about other problematic settlements and even regions. By formal features single-industry towns include the majority of oil towns, which feel great even in times of crisis. For example, Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region in terms of the number of single-industry towns, it ranks second in Russia - about 80% of the population of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug lives in single-industry towns. And compare its economy and social environment with the Republic of Dagestan, which does not include a single single-industry town. Similar examples are the Kamchatka Territory and the Pskov Region. Of course, it is necessary to deal with single-industry towns, but will it not turn out that we will forget other more problematic areas?
What is the distribution of single-industry towns by industry?
– Excluding single-industry settlements, the number of Russian cities with single-industry production is about 200. Of these, about 50 cities are oil and gas industry, about 50 more are formed by metallurgical enterprises, 30 - by the coal industry, 20 - by the electric power industry. And in fact, most of these cities cannot be called problematic. A truly depressed city or region is an entity experiencing persistent problems with its own economy over a long period of 5 years or more. Most of the allegedly problematic single-industry towns faced a temporary recession of one or two years, experiencing temporary difficulties due to the decline in world markets in their industry profile.
It turns out that there are few truly depressive cities in these sectors?
- Basically it is. The exception is a small amount of single-industry towns, where coal enterprises with depleted deposits act as city-forming enterprises. Most of them are located in the Rostov region, part - in the Komi Republic. But, say, for a number of Siberian cities with relatively new deposits, such a problem does not arise at all. It all depends on the degree of development and the cost of deposits. And really problematic cities are formed by uncompetitive machine-building enterprises and specific chemistry. For example, the city of Asbest in Sverdlovsk region with the chemical industry of the same name, which is now becoming unclaimed, and even banned in some foreign markets. A particularly difficult situation is observed in depressed cities with poor ecology. Such a city is not interesting either for living or for investment, it is doomed to gradual extinction. Of the two hundred single-industry towns, only three or four dozen are really depressive. A typical example is Chapaevsk in the Samara region, Baikalsk, formed by a pulp and paper mill, a number of cities on Far East, for example, Dalnegorsk.
And all the inhabitants of these cities need to be urgently relocated?
– In single-industry towns, we see it as a more important task to diversify the economy than to resort to mass resettlement. Resettlement is a very extreme case, sometimes doubtful. In the case of diversification, it is important for the government to create conditions for investors by developing the infrastructure of a single-industry town and the space adjacent to it, for example, by creating conditions for the development of agricultural processing industries. We must be aware that for real diversification of single-industry towns, the state needs to develop new sites for industrial development, since in most cases it is impossible to use old premises and production facilities to create new large enterprises. Most investors will give preference to building in an open field, rather than will be engaged in the reconstruction of dilapidated production areas. And it is important that this is not a point industrial development, but a large organized platform designed for several new enterprises at once. It is desirable that this territory be given the status of a special economic zone at least at the regional level.
How many single-industry towns are now identified by the government as problematic?
- On the this moment a list of 27 most problematic single-industry cities has been announced. Perhaps it will be reduced to 15-20, but so far the list is just that. These single-industry towns are scattered throughout the country. The principles of selection are not entirely clear. It was declared that serious studies were carried out, but their methodology and criteria were not clearly announced to the general public. If you carefully study this list, then it contains not only depressed cities in the classical sense. This also included, for example, Nizhny Tagil (Sverdlovsk region) or Kovdor ( Murmansk region), where the decline in production at the largest enterprises is only short-term. In general, about a third of the list, it seems to me, reflects not so much the scale of city problems as the lobbying level of regional leaders who were able to support their cities at the stage of forming this list. The approach to regions where the number of single-industry towns is large is also obvious. Such subjects of the federation were given the opportunity to participate in several single-industry towns at once. A striking example is the Sverdlovsk region.
This region is even considered a mono-region.
- Despite the clear predominance of metallurgy and mechanical engineering in the Sverdlovsk region, this is a controversial wording. The region's economy is relatively strong and diversified, although it has suffered greatly from the crisis. But even taking into account the crisis phenomena, the region remains at a level above the national average. And in general, cities with a metallurgical profile, in my opinion, are not the first candidates on the list for support. Yes, they really were here. massive layoffs, there was some panic, but this is a temporary phenomenon. Even now the situation in the metallurgical market is improving, the position of the city-forming enterprises is leveling off, their shares are growing. In such cities, local budgets are relatively large, so most problems here can be solved independently. And a part of the metallurgical cities began laying the foundation for diversification even before the crisis. For example, Cherepovets with the Sheksna industrial zone project.
Which single-industry towns, in your opinion, really need support?
- First of all, mechanical engineering, including military-industrial complex enterprises. Also woodworking industry. This industry worldwide operates with low profitability and high economic risks. Mandatory candidates for support are coal towns with declining production. If the city-forming enterprises belong to these industries, then such single-industry towns should be the first in the list. Metallurgy, presented in this list in abundance, and chemical industry, with the exception of unpromising production facilities - this is still the second stage.
Chemical enterprises with unpromising production - what is it?
– A specific industry with its own production, for example, Uralasbest in the Sverdlovsk Region or the mining and chemical company Bor in Primorsky Krai. It is difficult for such enterprises to reorganize, since they are built on specific deposits, and the demand for their products is objectively declining.
And what to do with such cities? Thinking about relocation?
– A lot depends on the location of the single-industry town. If it is unpromising, but is located near a large neighbor, then it may well become a satellite city. Here, for example, entertainment infrastructure can be developed. It is also reasonable to carry out the re-profiling of industry in tandem with a large neighbor.
A more difficult situation is when the problem single-industry town is far from large centers. There is a temptation to relocate its inhabitants, but we must not forget that such a municipality is, in turn, the center for the entire surrounding countryside. There may be a washout of the population from a vast territory, and not just from this city. In addition, forcibly relocate someone will not work. Only the most active part of the population will leave, and the problem will only get worse. The state has already stuffed bumps on this. Settlers were issued housing certificates, enterprising citizens cashed them and returned to their homes. For example, a significant part of the population of Koryakia, having received housing in the center of Russia, returned back, and subsidies are again required for them. The number of job vacancies in megacities is often overestimated, where residents of single-industry towns are going to be redirected. For example, during informal communication with the residents of Samara, it turns out that the local population is already very negative about the idea that a significant part of the population will go to work from Togliatti to them or even move. Samarans, according to them, are already experiencing a shortage of jobs. Therefore, the problem of creating new vacancies in most cases is best solved on the spot. We found confirmation of this in many of our own consulting projects: the estimated cost of resettlement is comparable to the cost of creating a new job. It is better to solve the problem of single-industry towns by improving conditions for investors on the ground. Because if the same money is spent on resettlement housing, the problem of creating a job in a large city will remain open.
It turns out that it is better to reorganize the economy of a single-industry city so as not to lose both the city itself and the adjacent territory, and at the same time not to shift social problems to major centers?
- Of course, the diversification of the economy of a single-industry town also implies the development of the adjacent territory. In a belt of 15–20 kilometers from many single-industry towns, tourism can be developed by creating special recreational zones. Agriculture in a wide range: agro-processing, fish farming and not only, planned depending on climatic zones. This is an excellent recipe for the recovery of many depressed single-industry towns, especially not very large ones.
But if it comes to resettlement, maybe use the once promoted megaprojects?
– Many of them have become rather PR projects of designers and developers. In mega-projects near Moscow, the cost of housing for migrants is too high. For example, in the well-known "A101" we estimated the cost per square meter at the level of 60 thousand rubles. In Yekaterinburg, similar real estate will cost one and a half to two times cheaper. Obviously, it is unprofitable to relocate someone from depressed single-industry towns to mega-projects near Moscow. As for other regions, for example, in the Kemerovo or Sverdlovsk regions, resettlement is economically possible, especially if the state supports citizens with housing certificates. And people don't have to travel that far.
Surely there is also a psychological aspect? A person does not understand where he is going from his familiar place, where he will work, what funds he will use to take out a mortgage, albeit on favorable terms, where his children will study?
– In this regard, we have been working on intermediate options with semi-resettlement in hostels or apartment buildings built with state support in megacities. Although this is possible only for relatively close cities in a belt up to 150 kilometers. A weekend worker may return to a family that does not need to be transported. In a hostel, less square meters are required per person; social infrastructure is not needed. Such a project is about 85% cheaper than multi-family housing. Temporary relocation is less painful - you can properly look around in a new place, find yourself a promising job. Subsequently, you can think about purchasing your own home and moving the family. If the situation in the native monotown improves, there is an opportunity to return back, having solved temporary difficulties with work. The only thing that should not be allowed is for people to stay in such hostels for many years, as was the case in Soviet times. It is necessary to set some kind of horizon, for example, a year.
Profitable houses are still not popular in Russia, business is not interested in building such housing ...
– This is a common theme in civilized countries. But in Russia apartment buildings are not yet developed due to too low profitability. According to world views, the cost of housing in our country is overstated on average, and the rent, on the contrary, is low. As a result, for rental housing projects, we get a yield of about 5-10% per year in rubles. Certainly for Russian business this is a very low figure. Moreover, the calculations are made at current commercial rental rates, but even with such prices, residents of single-industry towns are in no hurry to move into rental housing offered on the market in large cities. This means that it is necessary to further reduce rental rates, and this, in turn, will bring down the profitability of such tenement houses to 3-4% per annum. Only the state can put up with such a low yield. For example, for these purposes, it is able to buy troubled housing from developers at almost cost, solving two problems at once - to create apartment buildings for migrants from single-industry towns and to support the construction industry. For comparison, now the government is planning to give preferential loans to the regions for the development of single-industry towns at the rate of 3-4% per annum in rubles.
Is the problem of housing in single-industry towns connected with the great wear and tear of old buildings?
- In most of them, housing was built in a factory way, and construction was carried out back in the 30-60s of the last century. In the same period, the infrastructure of these settlements also developed. At present, this housing is not attractive for living and has significantly depreciated. Often, as in the same Pikalevo, the housing stock is also located in an environmentally unfavorable production zone. And we, in particular, gave recommendations that in such areas old housing be demolished and new buildings built in an environmentally friendly place.
Is it relevant for single-industry towns to develop and implement affordable housing programs at the federal, regional or municipal level?
– In our opinion, real activity in terms of housing construction is taking place in single-industry towns located next to major centers. There is a real low-rise development here. Moreover, these are not necessarily cottages or townhouses, but also apartment buildings up to three floors. And such areas are really interesting. A number of administrations are instructing consulting companies work out not only residential development, but also the entire infrastructure of towns and cities.
If we talk about more remote problematic single-industry towns, practice shows that they do not have such bad indicators for providing the local population with square meters. In problematic cities, there is a natural outflow of the population, and, theoretically, more meters go to the remaining residents. The provision of the population with square meters here may be even higher than the average for Russia. In the same Pikalevo per person in 2008, on average, there were 25 square meters, and in Russia this figure was 22 square meters. Another thing is that this housing is often of poor quality, and most of the population has low incomes. People are not ready to take out a mortgage to improve their own living conditions in order to move to modern comfortable housing. The problem with the purchase and, accordingly, with the construction of new housing is especially acute in remote cities - there is an extremely low demand for real estate. Therefore, here it is necessary to first solve the problem of increasing the income of the population, and then seriously deal with the topic of improving the housing situation.
Surely, when moving from old dilapidated housing, even to an inexpensive low-rise new building, it will be difficult for residents of remote cities to sell their former home in order to take out a mortgage only for the difference, and not buy housing from scratch?
- Yes, for remote single-industry towns there is indeed a low liquidity of housing. And this has been especially evident in the Far East in recent years. People left there, leaving their former housing for themselves, since it was a pity to sell it for a pittance, and there was no way to rent it to anyone - there was no demand.
Shouldn't the state buy out this problematic housing or change it for certificates?
– It is now more relevant for the state to spend resources on creating jobs in single-industry towns, providing its residents with more economic stability and, as a result, stimulate social development. Thus, the government first of all seeks to effectively solve at least this problem.
And the problem of dilapidated housing in single-industry towns is still open?
- Quite right. But it's wise to decide first economic problems region and increase the income of the population, and then develop the housing and social environment.
But I want to live well now. Are there any exceptions to this rule?
– We have recently developed a scheme for the territorial development of the Boksitogorsk region, which includes the famous Pikalevo. And now our program provides for the demolition of dilapidated housing in unfavorable industrial zones and the development of buildings in more environmentally attractive areas. But for such manipulations, the subject must be sufficiently wealthy with liquid land, such as, for example, the Leningrad Region. I would like to add that the Pikalevo issue, although it has become noisy, is far from being a hopeless single-industry town. And the lands are valued there, unless they are located very close to industrial enterprises.
Has something already been done to reshape single-industry towns, or maybe there is some kind of implemented model?
- The conversion of single-industry towns is similar to the processes that took place in a number of science cities near Moscow, which were originally focused on the military-industrial complex. An example is Fryazino, an “electronic” science city located near Moscow, 25 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. Approximately a third of the population of this city, who did not finally move to Moscow, still works in the capital. Here, without much involvement of the local administration, a natural diversification of production took place, although in general it became less technologically advanced. Due to its proximity to Moscow, a large number of new residential developments have appeared in Fryazino in recent years. The influx of new population compensated for the outflow of local residents to Moscow. Although the total number of jobs in the city has decreased markedly, the population has remained the same. Whether all these processes are considered successful re-profiling of the city is a moot point. But this is an example, albeit spontaneous, but real diversification of the economy of a single municipality. This can happen in many single-industry towns located close to large cities. However, it is desirable to make such processes more systemic and manageable so as not to lose the valuable specifics of single-industry towns for the sake of diversification.
However, it is impossible to do without the participation of local authorities. At least for the settlement of land issues for new housing construction.
- Yes, it is in most of these cities that there are not enough land banks for the construction of industrial zones or areas of mass development. In the same Fryazino, in the form of an integral plot, there are only 8 hectares planned for manufacturing enterprises, but it is impossible to create a serious industrial zone on such an area. There is also not enough space for large-scale residential development. In such cities, it is necessary to change the boundaries, adding new territories at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. This issue is even more complicated for closed administrative-territorial entities (ZATOs), whose borders are almost impossible to change. Here we recommend using the mechanism of "small agglomeration" - involving neighboring territories in a comprehensive project without changing the official boundaries of municipalities. But in any case, the transparency of the land allocation process is important both for investors planning large-scale development and for individual construction.
Can the development of small and medium-sized businesses solve the problem of single-industry towns?
- As for small and medium-sized businesses, in my opinion, its role is now somewhat exaggerated. If a single-industry city is really problematic, then it will not be possible to pull it out only due to the activity of small businesses. Of course, in the West, 50-70% of the population is just employed in this segment. However, upon closer examination, it turns out that about half of small enterprises mainly fulfill orders from nearby large industries. If a city-forming enterprise in a single-industry town is breathing its last, then it cannot act as the center of business clustering. Besides, in Western countries a significant proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises work on Agriculture rather than cities. If we talk about Russia, then on average only 16% of the population is employed in small business, and not at all 50-70%. Why will this share be radically higher in a single-industry city? Thus, to solve the problem of single-industry towns, it is impossible to rely only on small businesses. In my opinion, it is unrealistic to count on attracting at least half of the city's able-bodied population to this sector. An adequate task can be considered, for example, to provide jobs in small and medium-sized businesses for an additional tenth of the population, but hardly much more. And in no case should this be done in opposition to large-scale production. As in the West, small business and large enterprises must work in tandem.
Administrations of single-industry towns help small businesses?
Much is said about this, but little is actually done. Also invisible federal aid small businesses, for which billions of rubles are allocated. I don't know almost any independent small business who has been able to benefit from such financial support.
A more effective mechanism for supporting small businesses should not be the mysterious distribution of money among entrepreneurs, but the construction of business incubators and technology parks. Moreover, it is precisely for them that buildings of old industries can be used, which, according to modern criteria, are not suitable for new large industrial facilities. Such objects have a low cost due to depreciation and low liquidity. It would be possible to let small businesses at very competitive rental rates, creating a synergistic effect.
An interesting example is the idea of ​​creating an IT-technopark in Tolyatti, which is now being actively discussed. There are ideas for technoparks in many other large cities. But in general, a business incubator does not have to be of a technological profile, regional authorities can decide for themselves what kind of business they want to stimulate, and whether, in principle, some kind of specialization is needed in their particular case.
Will money from the Investment Fund of Russia be attracted to single-industry towns, for example, for the construction of housing or infrastructure facilities?
– The government has announced that it is ready to allocate 5-10 billion rubles from the Investment Fund for projects in single-industry towns. But this mainly refers to the creation of infrastructure for industrial facilities. Stimulation of housing construction through this mechanism is not currently considered a priority. A number of officials believe that there are enough funds from specialized government programs, for example, the Housing program. Although, according to formal requirements, nothing prevents the creation of infrastructure for housing construction at the expense of the Investment Fund, but with the only caveat - it must be major projects from 500 million rubles.
Nevertheless, among the projects that were approved for financing from the Investment Fund last year, there are six that are to some extent related to housing construction, although not in single-industry towns. However, now the policy regarding the use of the Investment Fund for housing construction has become even more stringent. If such political problems are removed, then the Investment Fund may turn out to be a good tool both for mass development on the outskirts of large cities, and for projects for the comprehensive reconstruction of their central part. Theoretically, this money may well be used for building for relocation from single-industry towns to regional capitals.
What are the officials of single-industry towns and regions doing to solve the problem and attract investments?
- In fact, everything depends very much on the financial capabilities of the subjects themselves. And if in the same Nizhny Tagil there is a significant regional and municipal budget, then here they really work with investors - they give them benefits, promise investments in infrastructure, and other preferences. There are projects prepared at the regional level with private investors, for example, in the Amur Region. The region is ready to co-finance them, but it can really do this only if it receives support from federal center which is now uncertain. The struggle for large investors and competition between regions is high, and an investor cannot be lured only by benefits or promises to reduce administrative barriers. It is important to provide sites already provided with infrastructure, without which large private funds will not be invested. And how will the secured platform appear? If all this burden is assigned to local budgets, then only the wealthiest municipalities and regions will be able to cope with it. Another option is if there is an opportunity to get federal money for it. So far, such a process has not been launched in single-industry towns, although it is very relevant.
What about the competition system for single-industry towns?
- Now there is a lot of talk about such a distribution of funds for single-industry towns, in which the regions will compete with their projects. All this should stimulate local officials to work out own projects, look for investors and only then go to the tender on a system close to the mechanism of the Investment Fund. In this case, federal money can be actively fought for according to pre-announced rules, and not just wait for some research to show priority lists for support. Such conditions would force everyone to become more active, especially problem regions. At the same time, it should be noted that it would be good to include a wider range of municipalities in such competitive mechanisms, and not just single-industry towns. Otherwise, regions with the highest unemployment rates in Russia - Ingushetia and Dagestan - practically drop out of the process, for example. Our experience of working with the latter on the issues of the Investment Fund shows that it is participation in competitive mechanisms that allows us to show good results even in such problematic regions. In general, the term "single-town" turned out to be too public and redundant. Being carried away by them, you can lose focus on other problem areas. Here it is necessary to maintain a reasonable balance.
How can the tool of special economic zones help solve the problem of single-industry towns?
- Now we can cite the only example of an operating SEZ in a single-industry town - this is Lipetsk, where a successful industrial and production special economic zone operates. But the fact that Lipetsk was considered a single-industry town is more of a classification error caused by the large scale of production of the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works. Other real examples There is no SEZ near problem single-industry towns yet, only plans are being considered. Most bright examples- Tolyatti and Verkhnyaya Salda (Sverdlovsk region), whose administrations are promoting the idea of ​​creating SEZs at the level of the federal government. Perhaps the crisis will help in resolving this issue. On the other hand, it is not at all necessary to wait for mercy from the state. In practice, you can create such a territory at your own regional level. Moreover, most of the tax incentives envisaged for the SEZ or the issues of reducing administrative barriers are decisions that can be made at the regional level. And the region can try to get federal money for the infrastructure of the SEZ from the same Investment Fund of the Russian Federation.
It turns out that it is more important for the municipalities themselves to create transparent administrative relations, tax breaks, deal with land use for new construction? Will these actions be easier and more effective than the creation of SEZs?
- Indeed, there is no point in passively waiting for decisions at the federal level. For example, land use issues can be resolved by the region on its own. No one bothers to give benefits at the regional level either, having created an economic favored zone. And then it is necessary to actively attract investors and try to break through the funds of the Investment Fund for planned, and not abstract projects. In this sense, there is even an example of the single-industry city Kamskiye Polyany (Republic of Tatarstan), which last year received approval to use the Investment Fund's funds to create an industrial park. Another example, albeit not in a single-industry town, where the resources of this fund were attracted for the development of an industrial zone is Ulyanovsk. Billions of rubles of private investors are already working here. The largest of them are SABMiller and Mars, which would not implement their projects without budget investments in infrastructure. And the experience of the same Ulyanovsk makes sense for many to apply in single-industry towns.
To what extent is the experience of the Moscow region applicable to monotowns-satellites, when factories, warehouses, logistics centers, business parks are moved to the region from Moscow, and people from nearby towns serve them? Are there similar examples outside the Moscow region?
– In the Moscow region, the success of such diversification is exaggerated. Not so many industries Moscow brought to the region. Here, rather, two processes were going on - some enterprises in Moscow itself were dying. At the same time, new industries were created in the region, especially in Food Industry. There were simply no large warehouses in Moscow, they were originally built in the region. And if the task was to diversify production in the Moscow region, then it would make sense to create some kind of industrial parks and stimulate the creation of high-tech industries, which has not really been done. There is only the appearance that everything was well planned. The processes took place in a natural way, which was facilitated by the geographical location and the presence of a large regional budget. A somewhat similar situation is developing in the oil single-industry towns, where the situation is developing favorably even without much effort from the municipal and regional authorities. Active and very reasonable position on withdrawal industrial enterprises from Yekaterinburg two or three years ago, the leadership of the Sverdlovsk region designated, but their real results are still quite modest.
Has a crisis intervened, or is the process slow?
– The crisis may even stimulate this process if the regional authorities do not give up. For example, now there are more chances to attract federal money. And in the Samara region, where our company has recently completed the development of the concept of spatial development, we proposed to concentrate in the regional capital on high-tech industries, and to move a significant part of large-scale industry beyond Samara. But in general, this is a long process, and many large cities are just starting to do so, since right now they have begun to experience problems with free space within the city. If the federal government helps to implement these processes, then many of the output industries will be able to get into single-industry towns, solving the problem of creating new jobs.

Reconstruction of the housing stock in the single-industry towns of the Boksitogorsky district of the Leningrad region

Society website with limited liability FOC (Financial and Organizational Consulting) proudly announces: ...the client portfolio of the company includes more than 200 companies and state structures, including Gazprom, RUSNANO, Russian Railways, NK Rosneft, etc. All these whales of the domestic economy turned to FOK and its leader Moses Furshchik for management, strategic and investment consulting. Only that consulting, sometimes, is followed by lawsuits, the site forgot to report.

Now the Department of Internal Affairs of the Western District of the capital has a statement from the International Environmental Fund "Clean Seas", who was not easily pulled to contact the company Moses Furshchik and Vitaly Derbedenev. At the same time, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal in Moscow is considering the fund's claim against LLC "Financial and organizational consulting"(FOC). In our opinion, the essence of the story is as simple as a rake - "Clean Seas" did the work under the State contract № 0098к/03 to carry out research work to finalize the Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Astrakhan region until 2020, but the FOC did not pay for their work. But behind the usual story for our days, there is a whole detective story with mysterious meetings in the subway and forged signatures.

It all started very festively. The Clean Seas Foundation is well known and, most importantly, respected in the Astrakhan Region. Help orphanages, celebration international day of the Caspian in 2015, cleaning up the banks of the Volga, all this was done by ecologists in the region at their own expense, without attracting budget money. Therefore, it is not surprising that when it became known about the tender to finalize the Strategy for Socio-Economic Development, the FOC turned to the Fund for help. The very participation of the Clean Seas in the program served to potential customer quality mark in execution government contract. Company Furshchik won the competition and received a government contract.

Only here with its implementation somehow did not work out. The first version of the work led the administration of the region into a state of shock. The only section to which the region had no claims was environmental. It is not difficult to guess what the Clean Seas specialists prepared for it.

“An alarm signal sounded for us when the FOC received an advance from the government of the Astrakhan region and hid this fact, says the deputy Director General Foundation "Clean Seas" Anna Subbotina .- According to our agreement, they had to transfer one million rubles for the execution of the first stage of work and an advance payment of 720 thousand rubles. The Fund never saw the money. Repeated telephone conversations with Furshchik and his partner Derbedenev did not lead to anything. At first they referred to the fact that the money received by the FOC from the Astrakhan region went to pay for another lawsuit. Then they stopped answering calls altogether..

This is where lawyers get worried. The audit showed that there are a lot of arbitration claims behind the FOK! In addition to the "Clean Seas", there are also district and city administrations, and the Research and design Institute the general plan of Moscow, and others affected by "consulting" in different regions of the country.

“On April 11, 2016, we applied to the FOC with a claim for the fulfillment of obligations under the Agreement,- continues Saturday, -and in response we received a counterclaim to recover from us (!) 3,877,200 rubles ... for the delay in the delivery of the work we performed!”.

Helped good relationship with the area. The fund's employees managed to get their hands on the documents handed over as a result of the execution of the state contract. It was then that it turned out that the signatures of the fund's employees in the report could simply be forged. The certificate of acceptance of the work performed was handed over to the Clean Seas employee for some reason in a hurry, at the metro station. Now Financial and Organizational Consulting claims in court that he did not sign such an act. Although the conclusion of the specialist of the "Center for Forensic Expertise" testifies: “Signature on behalf of Vitaly Alekseevich Derbenev, the image of which is located in the column “From the Customer” in the electrophotographic copy of the Acceptance Certificate for the work performed ... was made by Vitaly Alekseevich Derbedenev himself”.

All these "oddities" forced the "Clean Seas" to turn to law enforcement agencies.

In the meantime, the website of the FOC says that they are ready to do everything. Its experts seem to be capable of solving the problems of single-industry towns, environmental design, transport development and geoinformation technologies. It is not clear where the Nobel Committee or law enforcement agencies are looking. Why are people with such versatile talents still not Nobel laureates, or maybe we should ask ourselves: why are they still at large?

It is very likely that already in the medium term Europe will noticeably diversify gas supplies by increasing the share of imports from the United States. However, American gas is unlikely to dominate Europe. Moses Furshchik, Candidate of Economic Sciences, spoke about this in an exclusive interview with Regions Online.

It should be noted that the day before it became known about the draft law prepared by the Danish government, which allows the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prohibit the construction of a new pipeline in its territorial waters, based on "foreign policy interests and national security issues." This was written by the Danish newspaper Politiken.

Moreover, the Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen expects that new law will be adopted in early 2018. Simultaneously with this news, information appeared that Russia may revise the scheme for financing the gas pipeline due to the imposed sanctions. We discussed the exciting topic of the gas revolution with a candidate of economic sciences Moses Furshchik.

How true is it to assume that the new US sanctions are an attempt to force Europeans to buy expensive American gas?

- Initially, American sanctions were not planned in relation to the task of selling American gas to Europe. They were purely political in nature. However Trump, while maintaining the psychology of a businessman and not being able to significantly influence the sanctions package, he tried to extract at least economic benefits from it. And here the topic of selling American gas turned out to be the most obvious.

What other facts speak in support of your version?

- To confirm the version about the secondary nature of the "gas issue", one can cite the fact that gas production provides less than 1% of US GDP. That is, the industry lobby was hardly capable of initiating and carrying out such a large-scale decision. Moreover, this industry in the United States is not very consolidated - largest company has only 5% of the total gas production in the country.

What are the main disadvantages of Europeans switching to American gas?

— While the main problems are relatively high price and lack of infrastructure for receiving liquefied gas. However, these issues can largely be resolved within 3-5 years. Therefore, it is very likely that already in the medium term, Europe will noticeably diversify its gas supplies by increasing the share of imports from the United States. However, American gas is unlikely to dominate the EU, although it will become a very serious player in this market. Still, the United States is already largest manufacturer gas in the world (more than 21%) and have significant potential to increase production.

What is the EU's response to sanctions?

- It is unlikely that the European Union will apply special retaliatory measures. Still, American sanctions were not imposed against Europe, but against Russia. Therefore, it is more likely that the European Union will simply try to negotiate with the United States on a more lenient application of sanctions against European companies.

What can you say about Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2? What are their differences?

— Nord Stream 1 is a technologically complete project and does not have the capacity to increase throughput. Therefore, its expansion was developed in the format of the construction of a new gas pipeline passing near the already built one. At the same time, Nord Stream 2 was structured into a separate project due to the different composition of shareholders and differences in the resource base. In addition, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 have different entry points to the underwater part from Russia (Vyborg and Ust-Luga).

What is the main difficulty of Nord Stream 2 now?

- Now the main difficulty in the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project is the issue of financing. It is hampered, first of all, by sanctions risks. In addition, a number of Eastern European countries continue to try to block the project through the structures of the European Union. From time to time, discussions also arise on the resource base of the gas pipeline, but this issue is not fundamental if Ukrainian transit simply switches to Nord Stream 2. At the same time, the ambiguous economic efficiency project for "Gazprom" has never been considered as a serious problem.

Thanks for the time.

Interviewed by Ksenia Shiryaeva