Will Nail Zalakov bring Chistopolye to the top agrarians through the State Council of Tatarstan?
The new composition of the State Council of Tatarstan will not include Albert Khusnullin: the son of Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin refused to participate in the elections scheduled for December 1 in the Chistopol single-mandate constituency, which had not previously taken place due to the fact that Khusnullin Jr. remained the only candidate here. His competitors, under various pretexts, withdrew their candidacies before the September single voting day, and the media explained this “unanimity” by persistent “recommendations” from “senior comrades” from the republican leadership. Despite the fact that Albert Khusnullin previously won the primaries of United Russia in the Chistopol district, in the December elections the candidate from the party in power will not be officially presented: political scientists call a potential winner a self-nominated candidate associated with the Khusnullin family, Nail Zalakov, a former deputy minister of agriculture of Tatarstan, who currently holds the post of general director of the Chistopolye Holding Company, the main business asset of 29-year-old Albert Khusnullin. Thus, through the State Council, Zalakov will have to lobby the interests of Chistopol, which has set as its goal not only to become the largest agricultural holding in the region, but also to enter the agricultural markets of other constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin can help solve this problem, but in the meantime, a number of holding companies are declaring multimillion-dollar losses. But agricultural business is not the only area of Khusnullin Jr.’s commercial interests. He also owns the real estate firms TSI-Realt and Clarus, the latter leasing premises to the republican State Unitary Enterprise Tatlizing. Part of the profits of Albert Khusnullin’s companies can be transferred to offshore accounts affiliated with his sister Alina Kireeva and her husband Evgeny Kireev, the son of the general director of the Novorossiysk commercial seaport Sergei Kireev, who is close to the management of Transneft. In particular, Alina Kireeva is associated with the Fortress Group company, which unites about 30 offshore structures and at one time bought a villa near Paris worth more than 2 million euros.
The Parliament of Tatarstan will remain without Khusnullin
Albert Khusnullin– son of the Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullina – refused to participate in the elections of deputies of the State Council of Tatarstan in the Chistopol single-mandate constituency, scheduled for December 1: this became known after the completion of the procedure for nominating candidates for the republican parliament. According to information on the website of the regional Central Election Commission, there are four on the list of those wishing to compete for a deputy mandate: Olga Isaeva (SRPZP), Andrey Kharin (LDPR), Albert Galyauw (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) and self-nominated Nail Zalakov.
Chairman of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Tatarstan Andrey Kondratyev named the final list “a good indicator of activity”for the midterm elections. However, the first thing that catches your eye is the absence of a nominee from “United Russia”. It is worth recalling here that in the elections held on a single voting day on September 8, United Russia should have been represented by Albert Khusnullinwho won the internal party primaries in the Chistopol district.
But the elections did not take place in this district. The fact is that in the end Khusnullin Jr. remained the only candidate, since his potential rivals “were eliminated” one after another: the communist Yusupyan Akhmetshin and self-nominated Dmitry Novikov lost their candidate status even before registration; liberal democrat Artem Sashin withdrew from the elections, citing a change of residence, party representative “New People” Ramil Gabdulvaliev – for a busy work schedule. Olga Isaeva, already mentioned above, initially refrained from commenting, and later explained her refusal to participate due to her health and family problems.
The mass withdrawal of candidates, which led to the postponement of elections in a separate district, was considered by a number of Tatarstan media to be an extraordinary event. There was an opinion that the last three candidates withdrew from the election race after the persistent “recommendation” of “senior comrades” from the leadership of the republic. In this case, Tatarstan officials did Marat Khusnullin’s son (and the Deputy Prime Minister himself) a disservice. Unless, of course, someone’s cunning combinations previously included “giving a ride” to a 29-year-old businessman with political ambitions past the deputy seat.
Is Nail Zalakov lobbying for the interests of the family?
Be that as it may, Albert Khusnullin will not be in the new composition of the State Council. According to one of the Kommersant experts, he himself could refuse to participate in the elections “due to the desire to focus on my business projects”. In this case, there will be someone to lobby for these projects at the regional level. The fact is that the aforementioned self-nominated Nail Zalakovwho until recently held the post of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of Tatarstan, today heads Holding company “Chistopolye”whose sole owner since December 2020 is Khusnullin Jr.
Chistopolye, the main asset of Albert Khusnullin, presents itself online as one of the largest agricultural holdings in the region, specializing in crop and livestock production, uniting 12 agricultural enterprises with about 2,500 employees, including farmland with a total area of more than 120 thousand hectares, three elevators for grain storage, seven meat and dairy farms and our own fleet of special equipment from the world’s leading manufacturers (John Deere, AMAZONE, Krone, Horsch, etc.).
The holding does not hide its “ambitious goals” not only to become “leaders in its industry” on the territory of the republic, but also to enter the markets of other constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Apparently, Nail Zalakov, if elected to the State Council, will have to further “promote” Chistopol in Tatarstan, and on a federal scale will Khusnullin Sr. assist his son?
In the meantime, the holding can hardly boast of financial indicators: at the end of 2023, JSC Holding Company Chistopolye declared revenue in the amount 330.2 million rublesand profit in 3.5 million(a year earlier with revenue of 175.5 million the company’s losses amounted to 40.2 million rubles). At the same time, the value of the holding’s net assets is estimated at minus 41 million. Meanwhile, back in 2021, Kommersant experts emphasized that Tatarstan represents“a rather closed region where the agricultural land market is poorly developed”giving an estimate of the cost of Chistopolya crop farms in a fairly wide range: from 660 million to 1.1 billion rubles.
In turn, the Business Vector publication noted: the ground for creating a holding company could have begun to be prepared back in 2019, when it was created Agrofirm “Chistopolskaya”de jure not connected in any way with the Khusnullin family. Then Albert Khusnullin announced himself as its investor. An interesting point: two of the three elevators went to Chistopol as a result of an initiative initiated by the state bank VTB bankruptcy JSC “VAMIN Tatarstan”– another once large agricultural holding, whose debts to creditors amounted to billions.
In fact, the course of bankruptcy was controlled by JSC “Tatagroleasing”owned by the government of Tatarstan and bought out the main debts of VAMIN, thus consolidating claims in the amount of more than 8 billion rubles. Considering the degree of influence of Marat Khusnullin in the republic, perhaps he contributed to the transfer of a certain part of the bankrupt’s assets to his son’s business?
Are Chistopol’s structures going into the red?
In total, JSC Holding Company Chistopolye is the founder of more than three dozen commercial structures, some of which clearly have serious financial problems. For example, engaged in the production of prepared feed LLC “Elevator Teke Tau” at the end of last year with revenue of 584.7 million rubles went into negative territory 6 million. Specializing in grain trading Cleanfield LLC for the same period declared revenue in 4.3 billionand losses in the amount 210 million rubles. Part of the holding structure mentioned above Agrofirm “Chistopolskaya” reported revenue in 1.1 billion and losses in 309.2 million rubles.
Other examples can be given, but we think these are quite enough to understand: in Mr. Khusnullin Jr.’s agricultural business, everything is not as smooth as he would like. True, there are other areas in the commercial activities of the son of a government official. In particular, he owns a real estate agency registered in Kazan in 2021 “TSI-Realt”. Here the financial situation is diametrically opposite: in 2023, with revenue 98.8 millionthe company’s profit was 36.5 million rubles (revenue a year earlier – 55.1 millionprofit- 27.1 million rubles).
Real estate management is carried out by a company established in 2014 LLC “Clarus”which at the end of last year declared solid revenue in 108.7 millionand a meager profit of 123 thousand rubles(a year earlier revenue – 91.4 millionprofit – 225 thousand rubles). “Clarus”, in turn, is the main owner of the hunting farm“Kama Coast”whose last year’s revenue was almost 8 million rubleslosses – 2.7 million(revenue in 2022 – 8 millionlosses– 1.7 million).
Note that back in 2018 State Unitary Enterprise “Tatlizing”signed a contract with the Clarus company worth more than 2.3 million rublesfor the rental of premises, according to the website of the Unified Information System in the field of procurement, is still in the process of execution. It turns out that one of the companies of the deputy prime minister’s son is still “feeding” from the finances of a state institution?
Offshore schemes of the Kireev spouses
A few words should be said about another member of the influential family – the daughter of Marat Khusnullin Alina Kireeva. Back in 2021, the Regnum agency, with reference to a scandalous investigation by an international journalistic consortium, called “Pandora’s archive”wrote about the share that belonged to her namesake in JSC Hotel Chistopola third of which was issued on Roza Khusnullina – mother of a government official.
Alina’s husband Evgeniy Kireev – son of the current CEO Novorossiysk sea trade port (PJSC NCSP) Sergei Kireev. The latter is considered a person close to management “Transneft” and since December 2018, at the same time, heads a company “registered” in Novorossiysk“Transneft-Terminal”.
Several publications in the Nasha Versiya publication talked about connections between Kireev Sr. and Transneft top managers with Cyprus and Panamanian offshore structures, into whose accounts the oil giant’s finances could be transferred. At least two Cypriot companies are associated with Evgeny Kireev – “Whole Village Food” AndHematite Holdings Limited. With Alina Kireeva, things are much more interesting.
The fact is that in 2016, Mrs. Kireeva (or her full namesake) took part in the marathon race held in Limassol as a representative of the company“Fortress Group”uniting about 30 offshore structures. One of them is Stamukha Shipping Limited – appeared in the story of the purchase of a 30-meter yacht from a private individual, which was resold a few days laterJSC Fleet NCSP and allegedly intended for the personal use of top managers of the port.
As for Fortress Group, it once bought from a former banker Yuri Milyukovreal estate agency “SCILares” with a luxury villa worth more than 2 million euroslocated 20 kilometers from Paris. For us, this whole offshore topic is interesting in the context of the possible transfer abroad of the finances of not only Transneft, but also the business structures of the Khusnullin family, in particular, those declaring multimillion-dollar losses of the Chistopol companies. Moreover, the upcoming election of Nail Zalakov as a deputy of the Tatarstan parliament will open new prospects for the agricultural holding.
