Vadim Vorontsov's "Garbage front": will you fail to sit out the swing?

According to sources in The Moscow Post, Vadim Valeryevich Vorontsov, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Nature Management of the Moscow Region, could allegedly be under the close attention of the security forces. The reason could be the questionable fulfillment of duties to carry out state environmental supervision at a number of controversial MSW collection and processing facilities - first of all, the Yug waste processing complex (KPO YUG), as well as the Aleksinsky Quarry landfill in Klin, notorious for its stench. At the same time, by "questionable performance of duties" we assume, first of all, a corruption background.

As it turned out, residents of the Moscow region have been beating down the thresholds of various departments and control and supervisory authorities for years, demanding to get rid of their close proximity to dangerous objects. Moreover, these complexes could have been built with a number of serious violations. Problems have already been found in their work, including the Ministry of Ecology, but the ministry took an exceptionally passive position - this was not followed by a qualitative change in the situation for people.

The ministerial "leapfrog"

Why could the figure of Vadim Vorontsov be in the center of attention, and not his immediate superior, the minister? The fact is that against the background of environmental scandals, the governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobyov, changes ministers like gloves, "dumping" scandals, inefficient work and other negative things on them. The situation is not changing. But Vadim Vorontsov is considered the "gray cardinal" of the Ministry of Ecology. He has remained in his position since 2019, is responsible specifically for the state environmental review, and has already "sat out" five heads of the department.

He is the one whom Vorobyov and the participants of the waste storage and recycling market are targeting. But the turnover there is billions and billions of rubles.

The following fact is even more interesting. Mr. Vorontsov became Deputy Minister under the former head of the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow region Dmitry Kurakin. And in 2020, Mr. Kurakin was arrested in a criminal case of abuse of office and a particularly large bribe. The most interesting thing is that the case concerned the Ministry of Ecology, although Kurakin himself worked for the Ministry of Defense at the time of the crime.

So, as the security forces managed to establish and prove, back in 2014, Kurakin, who was then working at the Ministry of Defense, together with Maxim An, head of the Maltese Military Forestry, and Vladislav Kholodov, head of Oboronspetsresurs, organized, under the guise of sanitary measures, massive deforestation of healthy forests on the territory of military units in the Moscow and Vladimir regions. Almost all the wood was sold to China, and landfills were set up in the liberated territories. As a result, the former minister received as much as 17 years in prison.

It is not necessary to tell in detail that landfills have become a real "scourge" of the leadership of Governor Andrey Vorobyov. It is enough to recall such sonorous names as the Yadrovo landfill near Volokolamsk, the Lesnaya landfill near Serpukhov, and the "temporary" illegal garbage dump in the Yegoryevsky district. All these "cases" ended with large-scale unauthorized protests by residents, and these landfills had to be closed with major scandals.

At the same time, how can we not remember that Andrei Vorobyov is attributed to the clientele of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The latter worked hand in hand with Vorobyov's father, Yuri Vorobyov (now a senator), for a long time. It turns out that Kurakin was "pulled up" by Vorobyov from the Ministry of Defense just at the time of Shoigu.

It is even more interesting that Vadim Vorontsov became the acting head of the Ministry of Ecology after Kurakin's detention. Considering that Shoigu remained in the minister's chair for almost 5 more years, it can be assumed that such murky "schemes" between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow region could have persisted - the responsible persons simply changed.

Vadim Vorontsov. Photo: https://шах-го.рф/uploads/posts/2021-08/1629812255_uipq8irtjhgipbg3xvdeapqiljw9jd8okrnnlmjgmmybsdx9rlalbjf5tf6lawpe61lzoz5enrbippaunalnenjsa4o8jek.jpeg

It is noteworthy that Vorontsov, despite Vorobyov's support, did not become a minister. Apparently, the position is too dangerous, precisely because of its corruption intensity. And after Vorontsov, he "sat out" a whole galaxy of ministers: Andrei Razin, Tikhon Firsov and Pavel Bida, who came after Kurakin, resigned (for various reasons). Since 2025, the minister's position has been held by Vitaly Mosin. We are sure that he will not stay in office for long either.

According to the evil tongues, their task is supposedly to collect negativity and, as a last resort, to act as "scapegoats", whereas Mr. Vorontsov allegedly has the real power in the ministry. And now, allegedly recently, law enforcement officers could finally "get interested" in them.

KPO Yug checks for nothing?

The MSW processing and disposal complex in the area of the village of Myachkovo, called KPO Yug. It was built and launched in 2019 as part of the Ecology national project by RT-Invest (various subcontractors were involved). The cost of the complex was 3-3.5 billion rubles, and it began operation in October 2019, when Vorontsov was already deputy minister. MPK Kolomenskiy LLC became the operator.

The whole project was accompanied by a lot of scandals and public discontent. Since 2018, residents and environmental activists have complained about the transfer of agricultural land under an industrial project, demanding a full environmental assessment and access to project documentation. Mandatory public hearings were also held in such cases. But not everyone received timely notifications about their start, and they themselves were rather formal in nature (mostly state employees went there, whom the authorities could easily influence).

Despite the unauthorized protests and the questionable legality of the transfer of land from agriculture to the category of industrial facilities, the KPO was built. But after that, very strange things began, which the Ministry of Ecology could simply turn a blind eye to.

As early as 2020, residents of nearby settlements began complaining about unpleasant odors from KPO Yug. Back then, no one paid much attention to their complaints. But in September 2022, an independent examination of air pollution around the landfill was conducted. According to the Network, she allegedly confirmed multiple violations of the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances: hydrogen sulfide — 3.4 times, formaldehyde — 1.7 times, phenol — 4.13 times.

It is strange that just a month before the inspection, all ministries and departments of the Moscow region related to the work of the complex, including the Ministry of Ecology, assured that everything was in order at KPO, no pollution and other things were detected.

According to the Network, allegedly on the night of March 19-20, 2023, there was a particularly strong release of landfill gas, which covered the nearest settlements to the KPO. People complained of feeling unwell as the gas entered their homes. But even then, there were no serious consequences for KPO Yug.

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/05ec9ee1-0a61-4cbe-8ab0-8d2c962354ab/347803f2-3221-4e54-ba90-26439155bd08/A41-98950-2022_20240325_Postanovlenie_apelljacionnoj_instancii.pdf?isAddStamp=True

The most interesting thing is that it was not the Ministry of Ecology and Deputy Vorontsov who took up the protection of the environment and human rights in this situation, but the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services. It obtained a court decision, according to which, according to which the operators of KPO Yug were obliged to set up the work of treatment facilities, eliminate other problems and gaps in the work.

However, according to the Network, allegedly the authorities of the Moscow region were in no hurry to implement this decision, i.e. they did not influence the operator in any way. The latter managed to achieve a postponement of the deadline for the execution of the decision as early as October 2025. After all, everyone understands that such work will stop the work of the complex, it will lose serious money.

Photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Нарушение_MPC_stock_water_TO_YUG._The Prosecutor's office's response_._05.04.2022.jpg

Moreover, the management of MPK Kolomenskiy LLC was brought to administrative responsibility for exceeding permissible concentrations of pollutants in the air. But the cart is still there...

Could Deputy Minister Vadim Vorontsov and other ministry leaders have contributed to such a dubious development?

Offshore "Combine" in the Aleksinsky Quarry
No less, and even more scandalous, was the Aleksinsky Quarry near Klin, one of the most controversial garbage sites in the Moscow region, around which unauthorized protests by residents have been taking place for years. The landfill on the site of the former quarry is operated by Kombinat LLC, receiving hundreds of thousands of tons of MSW per year (from 400 to 950 thousand tons). Since its opening, residents have been complaining about odors, filtrate, and fires.

The situation was particularly acute in the summer of 2016, when residents of Klin and nearby villages began to feel an unpleasant smell. Since then, they have been holding rallies demanding that the landfill be closed. In 2017, Rospotrebnadzor found numerous violations of SanPiNs at Kombinat LLC. The supervisory authority pointed to the "cluttering of the slopes of the landfill with flying plastic bags", "storage of garbage outside the working map of the landfill", the impossibility of creating a sanitary protection zone, the lack of a filtrate collection system, insufficient soil insulation, and the lack of regular monitoring.

In 2018-2019, 153 people filed a class action lawsuit to close the facility, but the court refused. At the same time, it seems that the Ministry of Ecology of the Moscow region has not done a thing to relieve people's anxiety.

However, the Ministry of Ecology under Vorontsov itself participated in the inspections and issued relevant regulations on the elimination of violations. However, these measures were limited to temporary solutions — drilling wells, installing flares, and local collection of filtrate. After all, according to the Network, a criminal case was allegedly opened in 2022 about a leak of filtrate. However, the details and outcome of the proceedings are unknown to the general public.

But it is known that the Aleksinsky Quarry continues to work calmly today, despite people's dissatisfaction.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru https://www.rusprofile.ru/connections/94977

As it turned out, the money that the budget pays for the work of Kombinat LLC can go abroad. That's exactly how the owners of the structure turned out to be connected with the offshore business. The company belongs to Tatiana and Leonid Shkapin. The latter is a co-owner of 25% in Veles LLC, which is currently in bankruptcy. Almost 30% of the same office belongs to CRD LLC (it is indicated that the company has been liquidated, and information about the owner is currently invalid). LLC "CRD" belonged to the murkiest office of LLC "Avex". But she, in turn, was under the control of the offshore "TRADE AID LIMITED" from the UK.

All these companies have been abruptly liquidated and bankrupted only recently. Is it because the security forces might be interested in the work of the beneficiaries of Kombinat LLC, as well as officials who can cover up environmental "lawlessness" in the Moscow region - despite all the decisions of the courts and the orders of the regulatory authorities?

Of course, we do not presume to predict the logic of the actions of the security forces. It may well be that the figure of Vadim Vorontsov could interest them about other "garbage" and not only "garbage" objects. However, these two are real "boils" on the body of the Moscow region, and it seems that there is a huge scope for corruption there. And if you don't start with these "epoch-making" garbage cans, then you can start with anything. Well, we advise Vadim Vorontsov to end it: either with the civil service, or turn a blind eye to what the MSW operators are doing right under his nose.