At the end of last year Protection of the Blessed Virgin Church in Nevsky Forest Park was solemnly consecrated in the presence of the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir and high-ranking guests; that is a truly good example of the reconstruction of ancient church architecture.

Now it has appeared that the initiators of the construction used false documents to obtain the selected lands for the construction of the church.

The operation became possible in an easy state of mind of the former head of the Federal Property Agency of the Leningrad region Mikhail Blinov, thanks to whom the fund "Pokrovsky” gained the Nevsky Forest Park for free use for 49 years together with the ascension of St. Sophia Cathedral. The treaty was drawn up in three - St. Sophia Cathedral was represented by its rector Father Gennady (Zverev).

In March 2005, the territorial department of the Rosimushestvo (Federal Property Agency) of the Leningrad region transferred to the land of the Nevsky Forest Park to the Regional Charitable Fund "Pokrovsky”. By the time the part of the transferred territory had already been leased to a private entrepreneur Armen Kazaryan for building a cafe "Yakor" there.

But Rosimushchestvo did not act as a landlord for Kazarian, it was the Federal State Institution “Kirovsky forestry reservation” under the Ministry of Federal Natural Resources which did so - as that time there was no doubt that all the 600 acres of Nevsky park were forest estate, and not the lands of specially protected areas.

Armen Kazarian successfully challenged in court a lease agreement for the land between the ill-fated "Pokrovsky” and Rosimushestvo - judge at the bar stated: Rosimushchestvo had no right to dispose of the lands of forest fund.

The former head of the Leningrad Regional Department of the Rosimushestvo Mikhail Blinov responded positively: the Nevsky Forest Park was passed from Federal State Institution “Kirovsky forestry reservation" to Rosimushchestvo: as this land was called the forest estate by mistake, while in fact it was a specially protected area. You don’t believe me? See Leningrad Executive Committee decision № 660 of July 20, 1972. This solution proved to be a forgery.

Supposedly it sets the boundaries of a certain cultural heritage site "Ensemble of Zinoviev estate” located in the Nevsky park area, which makes this land a specially protected area (indeed there is such a facility, however it was excluded from the list of historical and cultural monuments of federal significance by presidential decree in1997).

The fake solution was executed on a typewriter in accordance with style of documents that period of time, so that the representatives of the Fund "Pokrovsky" could use it confidently and effectively in a forgery trial. The Central State Archive of St. Petersburg, however, informed the court of appeal about the rigging – some different things were stated in the decision № 660 by the Leningrad Executive Committee - but it did not have impact on anything - the new court found additional reasons to take a decision in favor of "Pokrovsky".

Then Mikhail Blinov handed to "Pokrovsky 600 hectares of land on the banks of the Neva for gratuitous use for 49 years, and the cafe “Yakor” was to be demolished – that was a summary of many lawsuits that had passed in between the entrepreneur Kazaryan, representatives of "Pokrovsky”, and the Rosimushchestvo.

The law enforcement agencies reacted then: an investigator of the Economic Crimes Department under Directorate of Internal Affairs for the Central District of St. Petersburg, lieutenant Boyko stated a crime under the Article 327 of the Criminal Code (forgery, manufacture and sale of forged documents "). However, the criminal case was dismissed due to the lapse of time.

The fund "Pokrovsky” enlisted the support of the church and became engaged in obtaining the land – on a charitable purpose, of course. Most probably the Fund "Pokrovsky" would get nothing without that demonstrative use of the church as "a signboard".

Thus, to what extent does the newly built temple belong to the Russian Orthodox Church?

First, after the completion of construction works the temple building was not transferred to the balance of the St. Petersburg diocese. Secondly, management of the fund "Pokrovsky” put aside the diocese, according to Father Gennady, and then assumed control of the parish of the Protection Church. In this connection a question arises: is it proper to call the building in Nevsky Forest Park executed in the tradition of church architecture, as a church?

However, there was still a thread connecting this building with the Russian Orthodox Church. That was a priest directed to the Church for ministering – according to the order of the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg and Ladoga Vladimir, the church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin was attributed to Saint Sophia Cathedral for the construction period.

- Like any church, the Protection Church was built on donations from the religious persons. Members of the Parish Council of St. Sophia Cathedral took part in fundraising mainly, told us Archpriest Gennady Zverev, dean of St. Sophia Cathedral.

When asked to describe a current situation of Protection Church, Father Gennady responded associatively. We have the Constitutional Court, he said. There is a temple where the process of ministering is conducted. Imagine this: Chairman of the Constitutional Court organizes trade in the temple and at the same time comes with a jug to collect donations ostensibly for the church, ignoring the prior; that is the kind of situation developing today in the Protection Church ...

BORIS NIKOLAEVICH JUNIOR

There is a Muscovite among the founders of "Pokrovsky" - Director of the Institute for Economic Strategies (INES), a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy of Russia - Boris Kuzyk. The story of the 600 hectares of Nevsky Forest Park is the first time journalists in our region became interested in Boris Kuzyk over the last few years. The previous story related to him ended with a grand scandal.

According to the site INES, Boris Kuzyk held senior positions in the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, and the Presidential Administration of Russia. As it was written by the press, he was an assistant to Boris Yeltsin on military-technical cooperation. In the Kremlin's family they called Kuzyk as a namesake of the President: Boris Nikolaevich junior.

According to press reports, in the spring of 1998 Kuzyk came in holding "Interros" and headed a newly created OOO "New programs and concepts" ("NPC"), where the "Interros" invested its assets. A little later, "NPC" acquired from Interros half of its own shares, and Kuzyk became the owner of a half share in the "NPC". In late 2001, it became known that the head of "Interros" Vladimir Potanin lost the second half of "NPC", through which he had controlled the shipbuilding plant "Severnaya Verf" and North-Western Shipping Company. According to press reports, most likely, the share of Interros was acquired by Kuzyk personally. It was reported that shares of the Shipping Company had been registered on "National Aviation Company (" NAC ").

In St. Petersburg the interests of Boris Kuzyk revealed in connection with North-Western Shipping Company. He invited the St. Petersburg group "Union- Optim. Technology Investments" ("SOTI"), a management company headed by Andrei Guskov - to manage the Shipping Company. Initially, the relationship between Kuzyk and Guskov were unclouded. But the main shareholder of the "North-Western Shipping Company" had other problems.

“Severnaya Verf”, part of the holding "NPC" received a contract on building two destroyers for China, which was to bring 1.4 billion dollars. But at easy state of mind of the head of the pro-presidential faction "Edinstvo" Vladimir Pekhtin, "Severnaya Verf" was charged that it had owed the federal budget about 603 million dollars after the sale of two destroyers to China. The Petersburg Arbitration Court "assigned" the debt to the wharf.

"North-Western Shipping Company" had almost pulled out of Boris Kuzyk. In August 2002 the head of" SOTI "Andrei Guskov obtained the chair of General Director of “NWS". As the press reported, the decision was taken by the vote at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting that occurred under ambiguous circumstances. The courts began to receive complaints against "NWS" and "NAC" allegedly by three minority shareholders of the Shipping Company. According to the plaintiffs, a controlling stake in “NWS» had been concentrated in the company "NAC" with a number of violations. In fact, it turned out that two of the complainants had no intention to sue, once they simply sold their shares to "NWS" and signed on some forms. In the court the interests of plaintiffs were represented by proxies. Yet in September 2002, a controlling stake in “NWS " was arrested. There are assumptions in the media that people who stood for the plaintiffs sought for hard interim measures: the arrest of a controlling stake of "NAC" took over its right to vote at shipping shareholders' meetings and to interfere anyhow in its affairs.

“Kommersant” wrote that the holding company "NPC" ruled a number of enterprises of engineering, aircraft and electronic industries. Boris Kuzyk turned to Mezhprombank(it is included in the "United Industrial Corporation" of the senator Sergey Pugachev) for the funds to purchase shares of defense companies. In return the bank received 50 % stake in “NPC”. The parties agreed that Mezhprombank was to exchange the 50-percent stake in "NPC" on shares of the companies that the holding had owned. As a result, "NPC" sold "North-Western Shipping Company". Division of spheres of influence between Mezhprombank and "NPC" ended in 2004, when the holding company sold “Severnaya Verf”.