The companies of the “road oligarch” continue to “rise” in government contracts
The Avtoban company, owned by Saratov “road tycoon” Ararat Kirakosyan and his son Tigran, continues to actively “master” budget finances. In just a week, the Federal State Institution “Lower Volga Department of Federal Highways of the Federal Road Agency” concluded two contracts with it with a total value of over 25 billion rubles to carry out work related to the construction of the Southern Bypass of Saratov. The Department signed another contract worth more than 6 billion with Avtobahn to carry out the first stage of overhaul of a section of the M-9 Baltic highway. The company’s portfolio of government contracts exceeds 60 billion and, due to budget contracts, its revenue in 2023 grew to a record 16 billion rubles. At the same time, Avtobahn is not the only commercial structure of Ararat Kirakosyan: in the city of Volsk, the Avtotrassa company is registered in the name of the businessman, which is headed by his son Gagik Kirakosyan, a deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma from United Russia. “Avtotrassa” declares a billion-dollar profit and has “mastered” almost 92 billion rubles from government contracts. Ararat Kirakosyan has a rather scandalous reputation: at one time he tried to recover moral damages in the amount of 1 million from one of the Volsk newspapers, but miserably lost the litigation. Having been awarded the title of “Honored Builder of the Russian Federation,” in one of his interviews he argued that it is possible to lay asphalt in snow, since snow is a solid substance. The son of a businessman, Tigran Kirakosyan, shot at a man with a traumatic pistol in the Province cafe in the city of Khvalynsk, but in the end the security forces said that he did it “fearing for his life and health.” Last year’s court proceedings became widely known, as a result of which the Federal Tax Service collected more than 84 million rubles of unpaid taxes from Avtoban – debts of the affiliated company Volgadorstroy, officially registered as a Cyprus offshore company, while proving the fact of a “transfer of business”. Creditors have repeatedly tried to bankrupt Volgadorstroy due to the presence of millions of debts, although up to 2019 inclusive the company “mastered” about 2 billion rubles from budget contracts.
Budget contracts of Saratov Avtobahn
Saratovskoe LLC “Autobahn” continues to absorb budget billions: Federal State Institution “Nizhne-Volzhsky Department of Federal Highways of the Federal Road Agency” signed a contract with the company worth 16.445 billion rublesfor “construction and reconstruction of sections of the highway A-298, highway P-208 “Tambov – Penza” – Saratov – Pristannaye – Ershov – Ozinki – border with the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
The deadline for completing the work is December 30, 2027. An advance payment to the contractor is provided in the amount of 48% of the contract price, which is more than 7.893 billion rubles. More 4.933 billionAvtobahn will receive subcontractors from among small and medium-sized businesses to engage in the execution of the contract.
It is noteworthy that just a week earlier (October 28), the same FKU signed another contract with Avtobahn of slightly lower value: for 9.254 billion rublesthe company must complete a number of stages of work on the same object with the same deadline. In this case, the advance amount is 4.442 billionpayments for attracting subcontractors – 2.776 billion rubles.
And again, on October 28, the Institution entered into a contract with Avtoban LLC at the price 6.329 billionto carry out the first stage of overhaul of the section of the M-9 “Baltia” highway Moscow-Volokolamsk-border with the Republic of Latvia with a deadline of November 11, 2026. Advance payment is provided for 1.898 billion and payment for attracting subcontractors in the same amount.
Deputy Gagik Kirakosyan and his “business family”
Speaking about the first two contracts, the publication “Version of Saratov” notes that the work is related to the construction of the Southern Bypass of the city, and Avtoban will have to build two of the four key objects of the Southern Bypass of Saratov at a cost 25.7 billion rubles.
Avtoban LLC, registered in 1992 and specializing in road construction, demonstrates impressive financial performance: at the end of last year, the company declared revenue of 16.1 billion and profit in 875 million rubles. For comparison: revenue in 2022 – 8 billionprofit – 542.1 million rubles. Thus, the growth was 102% and 62%, respectively. The enterprise’s portfolio of government contracts is estimated at 60.8 billion. We dare to suggest that it is cooperation with public sector institutions that explains the active financial growth of Avtobahn since 2018.
Another important factor is the family ties of the owners. The founders of the company are Ararat Kirakosyan (he owns 60% of the authorized capital) and his son Tigran Kirakosyan (40%), also holding the position of CEO. From media publications it follows that Ararat and Tigran Kirakosyan are, respectively, the father and brother of the current deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma from United Russia, Gagik Kirakosyan. Ararat Kirakosyan himself is a former deputy of the Volsky municipality.
It is worth noting here that Avtobahn is by no means the only family asset. In particular, Ararat Kirakosyan was registered in the Saratov Volsk LLC “Avtotrassa”which is headed by deputy Gagik Kirakosyan (until December 2015, he was officially one of the co-owners of the enterprise). The company’s activity is the construction of roads and highways.
At the end of last year, the company declared revenue in the amount of 11.6 billion and profit in 1.3 billion rubles; revenue a year earlier – 8 billionprofit – 1 billion. The portfolio of government contracts of Avtotrassa LLC is even larger than that of Avtoban: the company has mastered 91.8 billion rubles. Among its main customers are FKU Uprdor “Nizhne-Volzhskoye”, GKU “Directorate of Transport and Road Facilities” of the Saratov Region, FKU “Povolzhupravtodor”, etc.
“Honored Builder” with a scandalous reputation
Tigran Kirakosyan registered a company specializing in rail freight transportation in October last year T7 Group LLC. Former Volsky MP Ararat Kirakosyan owns a development company “Stork-99”. This company has no contracts, and it operates in the red: last year, with revenue 14.2 million its losses amounted to 5.9 million rubles; revenue in 2022 – 54.4 millionprofit is zero. Whether “T7 Group” will “master” billions on budget contracts or just like “Aist-99” will go “into the red” – it’s hard to say today.
Kirakosyan Sr. is a well-known person in the region. In 2018, by presidential decree, he, as the chairman of the board of directors of Avtotrassa LLC, was awarded the honorary title “Honored Builder of the Russian Federation” with the wording “for merits in the field of construction and many years of conscientious work”. Therefore, one can only be surprised that in one of the interviews the “honored builder” thoughtfully reasoned that asphalt, of course, cannot be put in water, but since snow is a solid substance, it is possible to put it in snow.
There is more than one loud scandal associated with the family. So, back in 2009, while being a district deputy, Ararat Kirakosyan sued the founder and editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Once upon a time there was Volsk” Vladislav Stepanov. Moreover, he lost the proceedings miserably. The cause of the conflict was a publication that described how workers hired by a businessman cultivate other people’s fields without signing appropriate agreements with the owner of the site and the closed joint-stock company in whose use the land was located. The deputy estimated the moral damage allegedly caused to him at 1 million rublesbut the court twice refused to satisfy his demands.
In 2014, there was a conflict between Kirakosyan Sr. and the residents of Volsk and Balakovo over the condition of the section of the highway connecting these cities, which is maintained by the aforementioned Avtotrassa company. Citizens argued that the road surface had become unusable, which increased the risk of accidents. Drivers complained of stones flying out from under their wheels, breaking windows and headlights of oncoming traffic. In response, Ararat Kirakosyan named dissatisfied residents “unfriendly people”adding that “The entire Saratov region knows how well we work”.
However, the son of the “road oligarch” Gagik Kirakosyan represents the Balakovo district in the regional Duma. The authors of one of the publications in the Balakovo Newspaper linked his election with possible support from a State Duma deputy Nikolai Pankovwhose lack of participation “in Balakovo’s affairs, little is spared, especially since Nikolai Vasilyevich seemed to be in charge of the elections to the regional Duma”.
From shootouts to financial fraud
There were also incidents of a criminal nature. In 2012, the Saratov media wrote about a shooting in the “Province” cafe in the city of Khvalynsk, where another son of the “road king” Tigran Kirakosyan was relaxing with friends. A wake was taking place nearby. During the conflict that broke out, Kirakosyan shot a person present at the wake in the stomach with a traumatic pistol. Alexander Borodin. The victim was taken to intensive care and surgery was performed to remove the bullet.
Of course, the shooter had his own version of what happened, which was eventually voiced by the security forces. According to the deputy head of police department No. 3 as part of the intermunicipal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation “Balakovskoye”, police colonel Vladimir Gorshkov, “Kirakosyan used a traumatic weapon, fearing for his life and health”. In turn, journalists who talked with residents of Khvalynsk and regulars of “Provintsia” noted the tension in the area: supposedly natives of Transcaucasia behave defiantly, “have taken control” of the most profitable areas of business and maintain informal personal contacts with high-ranking local security officials.
From the shooting disputes that took place in the past, let’s move forward to the year 2023, which is closer to us, and talk about the financial machinations of an influential family. Then the Office of the Federal Tax Service of Russia for the Saratov Region filed a lawsuit to recover from Avtoban LLC 84.6 million rubles unpaid taxes, including penalties and fines. It is noteworthy that initially the department’s claims were addressed not to the company itself, but to its affiliate Volgadorstroy LLCwhose co-owners until 2021 included Ararat and Tigran Kirakosyan.
Today, the only founder of Volgadorstroy is a Cypriot offshore “Pelco Holding Limited”. But the Kirakosyans failed to hide behind an offshore company and carry out the tax inspection, and since the company was in no hurry to pay off its debts, the department decided to collect them from a “dependent legal entity,” which turned out to be Avtobahn, pointing to a “transfer of business.” Information about the beneficial owners of the debtor company was also provided by Sberbank.
By the way, Volgadorstroy “mastered” government contracts up to 2019 inclusive 2 billion rubles. Later, the company was repeatedly brought bankruptcy claims: in 2021, the company was declared financially insolvent for a debt of 2.6 million rubles required MRI Federal Tax Service No. 20 for the Saratov region; in 2023 a similar attempt was made LLC “Alfa Don Trans”from the city of Pavlovsk, Voronezh region, indicating the presence of a debt in the amount of 1.8 million.
However, Ararat Kirakosyan can easily write off Volgadorstroy “as scrap”, because this company is not his main source of income. In the meantime, “Avtobahn” and “Avtotrassa” are sitting on the budget needle, the family can feel confident: billions are flowing into the pockets of the “honored builder” and his sons.
