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A man wearing fake Italian boots became the head of the city of Khimki.

A man wearing fake Italian boots became the head of the city of Khimki.

For seven years, residents have not been able to understand what kind of person Dmitry Voloshin is, and most importantly, what he does as the head of the third largest city in the Moscow region

The authorities of Khimki became famous throughout the country when in January of this year they awarded themselves bonuses in the amount of 25 salaries for “increasing the rating of Khimki and the approval of the governor of the Moscow region.” The heads of departments and departments of the administration claimed amounts from half a million to 2.5 million rubles; the head of the city, Dmitry Voloshin, could become richer by 5 million. Where the servants of the people were going to take the money is a mystery; the city budget of the Khimki District in 2020 was executed with a deficit of about 330-350 million rubles. A scandal broke out and at an extraordinary session of the Khimki Council of Deputies the decision on bonuses was canceled.

The generosity in spending municipal funds by the administration of this urban district is unique for Russia. The Khimki football club is the only professional club in the country that is entirely supported by the city district, which is at least 150 million rubles a year. The city authorities are flatly opening the club to sell it to a private investor, there is no point in speculating why, but apart from the reluctance of officials to lose resources for the development of budget funds, nothing comes to mind.

In 2020, the team acquired a general sponsor, the large construction company PIK, but after several months of cooperation with officials, PIK filed a lawsuit against the Autonomous Institution of the Municipal Formation of the Khimki City District FC Khimki in the Arbitration Court, for some reason demanding the return of 50 million rubles. The head of the Khimki city district, Dmitry Voloshin, did not comment on this remarkable event, since, despite all his loud words, he seems indifferent to football. Officially, since the summer of 2019, Voloshin has headed the Fencing Federation of the Moscow Region, but has not been seen with either a saber or a foil, and Voloshin is also called a fan of clay pigeon shooting. Dmitry Voloshin’s sports preferences are the most clear part of his biography. The head of the Khimki city association is a controversial person not only in his hobbies, but also mysterious in his essence.

Information openness and social orientation have become the hallmark of the Khimki administration under Dmitry Voloshin. Evidence of this is the many photographs of the head of the district on his Instagram, where he is surrounded by people or in noble solitude, but ordinary Khimki residents practically do not see the living mayor. It is theoretically possible to make an appointment, but even those who were lucky enough to get into the Khimki administration building never met their socially oriented mayor. All the townspeople’s pressing questions to Dmitry Voloshin remain unanswered.

Dmitry Voloshin – a man from nowhere

Most of the information from the official biography of the head of Khimki, Dmitry Voloshin, does not look very convincing for a government official of his level. If it weren’t for the scandalous video congratulating veterans at the rally on May 9, 2017, when the mayor behaved strangely at the podium and mixed up his words, after which Voloshin was called the “drunk mayor” throughout the country, there is a temptation to suspect that he is a fictitious person who does not exist in reality.

On the city administration website, Dmitry Voloshin’s biography does not indicate his place of birth. A personal Wikipedia article indicates his place of birth in the now non-existent city of Voroshilovgrad (now Lugansk) in the non-existent country of the USSR. There is no information about Voloshin’s family and parents in Ukraine, where he studied, received education and profession, and may have served in the Ukrainian army. Absolutely nothing is known about him from 1979 to 2002. As if there was no such person, or a person with such a surname.

In 2002, Dmitry Voloshin materialized in Moscow and received Russian citizenship. But when he began his political career 14 years later, a number of media reported that the mayor of Khimki could still be the owner of a Ukrainian passport. To this day, Dmitry Voloshin has not provided any evidence to the contrary.

Be that as it may, the Moscow period of Voloshin’s life is better known than the Ukrainian one. There is even some record of the temporary registration of a person with his passport data in one of the apartments in South Butovo. Some ill-wishers claimed that initially the future mayor of the Moscow region introduced himself in the capital as Mr. Vaganin, but there is no evidence of this.

It is unknown where the head of the Khimki city district now lives. Townspeople talk uncertainly about the mayor’s cottage on Rublyovka, but this is not certain. According to information about income and property published on the city administration website, Dmitry Voloshin with his wife and son are registered in a one-room apartment of 40 square meters. meters, address not specified. Where does the black official car take him and where does he pick him up? HyundaiEquuslicense plate number m083mm90 – another mystery?
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Luxurious car of Dmitry VoloshinLuxurious car of Dmitry Voloshin

From the official biography it can be understood that Dmitry Voloshin has a special and long-standing connection with the Southwestern District of Moscow. In 2005-2010, he studied at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA), and in 2012, he became a Master of Management there. The fact that Dmitry Voloshin has diplomas from the Royal Institution (UK) and Georgetown University (USA), which he received in 2013-2014, does not mean that he has ever appeared within their walls. Distance programs for obtaining diplomas from these respected educational institutions for a certain fee have long existed at RANEPA.

The bureaucratic period in Voloshin’s life chronologically intersects with training, scientific activity and entrepreneurship. From August 2008 to February 2011, he was a prominent specialist in the Department of Housing Policy and Housing Fund of the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow.
Apparently, Dmitry Voloshin doesn’t really like to talk about his business biography. CEvidence was preserved that the person with his passport data was the founder of a number of commercial companies until 2008, the most famous of which is Nazareno Giani LLC.

Shoes “Nazareno Giani” by Dmitry VoloshinShoes “Nazareno Giani” by Dmitry Voloshin

Under this name you can still buy not the most beautiful and high-quality shoes in cheap stores, clothing markets and shopping centers on the outskirts. Sellers, averting their eyes, quietly declare its Italian origin, but no one in Italy knows the Nazareno Giani trademark. Thank God the company has been in Milan for 100 years NazarenoGabrielliwhich produces clothing, shoes and accessories under this brand. According to documents, until recently, the distribution company of the Nazareno Giani brand, unknown to anyone in Italy, was located on Novocheremushkinskaya Street in the South-Western District of Moscow.

Uninvolved swordsman

According to official information, official Dmitry Voloshin is constantly concerned about the well-being of residents of the Khimki urban district, although, judging by the reviews and comments of ordinary people, many of them doubt this.

The most notorious story is the privatization of the bankrupt municipal enterprise of the Khimki urban district “Directorate of the Single Customer of Housing and Communal Services” in favor of the Good City Management Company, formerly known as “ZhilExpert”, where the founder is an offshore company from the British Virgin Islands. A small detail, the director of the liquidated company “ZhilExpert” was Dmitry Alekseevich Kaigorodov. Now this person holds the post of first deputy head of the Khimki administration. In 2018, the company JSC REU No. 7 Khimki and LLC Legenda also appeared in Khimki, in whose favor the housing stock, which was previously served by the municipal DEZ ZhKU, was also inexplicably transferred.

Since Dmitry Voloshin headed the administration of Khimki, the city’s budget became deficit in 2017; to pay salaries, state employees had to take out a loan of half a billion rubles from VTB Bank; in 2018, the situation repeated itself, only the loan amount increased to 600 million rubles. The origin of the budget hole of 476 million was explained by the debts of the Khimki MP DEZ ZHKU to resource supply organizations. By some coincidence, the debt arose during the period when Dmitry Voloshin was the first deputy of the ex-head of Khimki V. Sleptsov and was responsible for housing and communal services. The 2019 budget could have been reduced to almost zero, but the planned income from investment contracts was not received in full.

Competitions and auctions for road repairs and landscaping, endless renovations of the administration building have become a source of wealth for numerous companies affiliated with city administration officials. The lawn in front of the Khimki administration building has been resurfaced three times over the past year. Such concern for the population does not go unnoticed by residents; it is not for nothing that total corruption in Khimki has long become an element of local folklore.

Construction of a gigantic residential complex “Rechnoy” on the banks of the Moscow Canal, development of the Khimki station with the so-called transport hub, which in fact represents about 18 thousand square meters of retail space. Rallies and pickets of defrauded shareholders of the Aviator and Skhodnya Park residential complexes are all the management style and results of Dmitry Voloshin’s activities. But officially there is no problem of defrauded shareholders in Khimki, it has been successfully resolved!

“Digital billboards” according to Dmitry Voloshin“Digital billboards” according to Dmitry Voloshin

Another example of effective management and care for the city was the “digitalization” of outdoor advertising in Khimki. In September 2019, an auction was announced and held for the right to install advertising structures in the urban district: according to the auction documentation, 136 high-tech digital advertising structures. The auction took place, the documents with the winners were signed, but instead of the promised LED panels, residents were left with plywood boards, which were installed by the “right company” – VinEx LLC (Moscow region, Chekhov, Druzhby St., 2A, 010), and the administration The city habitually turns a blind eye to this, leaving all blatant facts of violations without comment.

It is necessary to clarify that no one has ever accused or is accusing Dmitry Voloshin of personal financial interest in resolving any issues of municipal government. On the contrary, we have to talk about his complete non-involvement in the vast majority of socially significant and financially important issues in Khimki. Someone in the city earns billions of rubles a year, and most of these transactions may have a corruption component, but the head of the city district does not pay any attention to this; a salary of 700 thousand rubles a month is almost enough for him. It is no coincidence that in the Regional Management Center (RMC) of the Moscow Region, the city of Khimki is considered one of the most problematic areas, where, due to the peculiarities of local officials, “anything can happen at any moment.” The story of the million-dollar bonuses is further proof of this.

Of course, Dmitry Voloshin is a classic example of a modern Russian politician, that is, a person who has nothing to do with politics, he is a silent executor of certain business processes in an administrative position.

Attempts to find out how Mr. Voloshin, with his dubious past, transformed into the head of the third largest city in the Moscow region, have not had much success so far. Political scientists and experts shrug their shoulders and find it difficult to say anything definite about Dmitry Voloshin. There is only one strange coincidence. “Handing the sword” to Dmitry Voloshin was the head of the Russian Fencing Federation Alexander Yuryevich Mikhailov, an honored employee of the USSR Prosecutor’s Office, a businessman, a member of the Board of Directors of the Kommersant Publishing House and one of the most trusted people around the main shareholder of this publication. It’s curious, but Oleg Shakhov, who served as mayor of Khimki before Voloshin, also managed to be president of the Moscow Region Fencing Federation.

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James “Jim” Walters