Against the Oboronservis’s grandiose background, the St Petersburg pipe case looks, of course, faded. Nevertheless, at the time this is the main and the most resonant corruption scandal for the Northern capital.

Several St. Petersburg officials managed to gain good money using this tube thing. They were caught while doing it and now are under investigation. However, the great Nekrasov wrote for a reason – precisely about St. Petersburg, “But an example does not teach anyone”.

Let us remind that the pipe fraud scheme did not impress with originality. It was an ordinary cashing and acquiring of budget money under the pretext of performing government orders. The scammers using their controlled companies and fake quality certificates of factories-manufacturers supplied pipes and mounted pipes, which didn’t comply with the requirements of the RF GOST standards. The money received from the budget was transferred to the contractor. The rest was up to the cashing technology. The swindlers managed to build 600 miles of substandard pipes in general. The budget suffered a loss of 3 billion rubles.

The Energy and Engineering Committee of the city administration, “Customer directorate on construction and capital overhaul of engineering and energy complex objects”, and some private business structures came to the attention of the investigation. Several people led by the former chairman of the Committee Vladislav Petrov were arrested. A criminal case under the Art. “Fraud in especially large size” was initiated. Meticulous Moscow investigators did not fail to even open the substandard pipes, so that the evidence was weightier. It had worked out.

No matter where the joyful sound of the corruption scandal leads, one can definitely say that St. Petersburg citizens have got 600 kilometers of defective energy communications in the winter season. How much money is required for the repair and replacement, when it will be done? No one can exactly answer. The same goes for future expenses. But we can say with confidence: Moscow investigators can get more cases in St. Petersburg. There are too many sign of that. Other companies are waiting their turns. Those which are engaged in the same business in the city now famous for its broken pipes.

Respecting the presumption of innocence and claiming nothing categorically, however we will try not to be unfounded. Moreover, any media shouldn’t keep silence, when outraged readers address it and write to share their opinions. In this particular case, they were outraged by what they saw on the 2nd Upper Lane in St. Petersburg industrial Parnas area.

In these places, there is one of the production areas of Dvigatel plant. The company works for the Ministry of Defense (no matter how confusing it may sound today ...), produces equipment for the Navy. It has a custodial status, which, of course, does not allow any commercial use of the territory by other companies. The defensive value assumes the priority of funding and allows to do without business relations with tenants.

However, the territory of ​​Dvigatel still be rented -by several companies, which are, however, actually united into one system. These are Kyugas LLC and Bogatyr LLC. The first produces insulated pipes and components for heating systems. The second sells these products. The common denominator for them is created not only by the commercial chain, but also their accountability to one individual - a former general director of the company once known as Rustrubprom - Yury Kozhevnikov.

The businesses of these institutions have recently moved to the Leningrad region, where, by the way, utility accidents are not less common than in St. Petersburg. It happens not least because of the poor quality of delivered pipes. This quality is difficult to even imagine: who could take under control the production process at security objects and which still are not controlled by the administration of the object? This position provides the company with literally a phantom status. But if someone has an excessive interest, the security character shows itself instantly – the qualified guards prevent such claims instantly. The very fact of Kyugas and Bogatyr’s (as well as affiliated with them SMU-27) being on the Dvigatel’s territory is not advertised, to put it softly. The issues of this character, as our interlocutors say, do not meet any understanding.

However, the companies of Kozhevnikov work. Their dubious, if not to say – explosive, goods are literally under the feet of inhabitants of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. Each step is a risk. But who knows that a badly worn out main pipe was replaced with a similar one when repairing? It was just slightly polished in Kozhevnikov’s company.

Such a situation has already put St. Petersburg authorities in one line with the previous leadership of the Ministry of Defense. It is dubious honor. Is it what the Dvigatel administration seeks when letting dubious tenants to its territory? Is it necessary to wait for another Moscow brigade while there are enough of St. Petersburg forces here? Even the law enforcement officials can still not be called for. The problem can be solved relatively painlessly. If there is a will, St Petersburg pipes will be pipes and not trash. And St. Petersburg winter will be winter and not a universal communal catastrophe.