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- Scum — into society: how the enterprises of the ex-head of Mordovia harm the environment
Scum — into society: how the enterprises of the ex-head of Mordovia harm the environment
Two enterprises that are connected with the family of the former head of Mordovia, Nikolai Merkushkin, were suspected of environmental pollution. They dumped untreated wastewater into a field and into the Insar River — exceeding the maximum permissible concentrations of harmful substances was recorded there, the Ministry of Forestry of Mordovia told Izvestia and confirmed by Rosprirodnadzor. This is not the only case when enterprises belonging to the Nikolai Merkushkin family clan harm the environment. In April and May, fish died en masse as a result of dangerous emissions in the Alatyr River. The ecological disaster has affected two regions where it flows at once — Mordovia and Chuvashia. Who and how pollutes the nature of the two neighboring republics — in the material of Izvestia.
Industrial waste — into the river
The Ministry of Forestry of Mordovia suspected the Obrochensky meat processing plant and the Romodanovosakhar enterprise of violating environmental legislation. Both enterprises are connected with relatives of the former governor of the republic Nikolay Merkushkin.
On May 26, an inspection was carried out at the meat processing plant, which revealed the fact of wastewater discharge onto filtration field maps, the republican Ministry of Forestry reported in response to a request from Izvestia. An administrative penalty was imposed on the company under the article of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation on "non-compliance with environmental requirements."
"The guilty official and the legal representative of the legal entity have been notified of the need to appear in order to be present during the preparation of the protocol on an administrative offense," the department said.
Now the Ministry of Forestry continues to inspect the enterprise at the request of the prosecutor's office.
Local resident Naim Nugaev lives next door with his children and grandchildren.
— They slaughter animals. And it's all g**** there, flowing into the river," he emotionally told Izvestia.
The second plant affiliated with Nikolai Merkushkin, Romodanovosakhar— stands just 700 meters from the Insar River. A pipe stretches through a swampy area that emits a specific pungent odor. Presumably, the enterprise also discharges untreated wastewater into Insar, the Ministry of Forestry of Mordovia noted.
"On May 14, 2025, as part of the inspection, an inspection of the official wastewater discharge site of Romodanovosakhar LLC was carried out. The discharge of presumably untreated wastewater into the Insar River was recorded. The wastewater had a specific pungent odor of sewage, a cloudy color. The lack of necessary cleaning is obvious," it said in response to a request from Izvestia.
On May 23, specialists from the Mordovian branch of the Center for Laboratory Analysis and Technical Measurements in the Volga Federal District took water samples at four points of the Insar River. The study showed that the maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants were exceeded. The level of damage caused is still being determined.
"As part of the inspection, violations of the requirements of legislation in the field of environmental protection and water legislation of the Russian Federation were revealed," the Ministry of Forestry summed up.
The enterprises themselves refused to communicate with Izvestia correspondents. One of the employees of the Obrochensk meat processing plant rushed at our film crew, trying to damage the equipment. The company's director, Vladimir Nuzhnov, was not in his office. Alexander Atlasov, CEO of Romodanovosakhara, also escaped from our correspondents.
Which rivers were affected
At the request of Izvestia, the Rosprirodnadzor for the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Republic of Mordovia reported that, based on the results of field surveys, it was established that the Tatar-Velen-Ley and Insar rivers, which flow into the Alatyr River, affect the water quality in it.
"On May 13, 2025, it was recorded that the natural water in the Tatar-Velen-Ley River at its confluence with the Alatyr River is cloudy gray in color and has a putrid odor characteristic of sewage. There are also excess concentrations of harmful substances in the water — iron, manganese, copper, strontium, phosphate ion and others," the response says.
The water in the Insara River at its confluence with the Alatyr River also has a "faint putrid odor." And the indicators of pollutants — iron, manganese, copper, petroleum products and strontium — according to the results of sample testing are even higher than in Tatarstan.
During the second examination on May 29, it was recorded that the water in the Tatar Valley was black in color and had "an extraneous putrid odor characteristic of sewage." The maximum concentrations of almost a dozen harmful substances have been exceeded.
In the Alatyr River, at the place where the Insar flows into it, the water turned out to be red-brown in color, and the concentration of manganese and strontium here is higher than in the place where the Tatar-Velen-Leya flows into the Alatyr.
The ministry noted that "Romodanovosakhar LLC is the largest enterprise discharging wastewater into the Insar River." However, it was suggested to refrain from making final conclusions until the inspections were completed.
This is not the first case of contamination of the river by Romodanovosakhara. In February 2025, the arbitration court of Mordovia decided to recover 1.3 million rubles from the company in favor of Rosprirodnadzor.
Romodanovosakhar responded to Izvestia's request that "the sugar beet processing season is over, all equipment has been stopped and mothballed, and the company has no emissions or discharges."
"The inspection has not been completed at the moment, the results of the inspection have not been reviewed, and charges of violating environmental legislation have not been filed," the response says.
Who owns the businesses
The beneficiary of Romodanovosakhar LLC is Alexander Nikolaevich Merkushkin, the son of Nikolai Merkushkin, according to the SPARK database. The company was registered in April 2005. Revenue for 2024 amounted to 12 billion rubles, net profit – 1.3 billion rubles. Alexander Merkushkin owns 64% of the company's shares.
Vladimir Nuzhnov, General Director of the Obrochensky meat processing plant, runs another enterprise in Mordovia, Agropromservice LLC, whose beneficiary is also Alexander Merkushkin.
In 2021, Agropromservice was a co-owner of Obrochensky. Further, and up to the present, the meat processing plant has not disclosed information about its co-owners. Over the past five years, the plant has been a defendant in court cases totaling 1.6 billion rubles.
The Obrochensky meat processing plant was registered in July 2014. By the end of 2024, the company was unprofitable — it lost 30 million rubles in profit and 313 million rubles in net assets.
What other enterprises are involved in dangerous discharges
Izvestia had previously reported that the Kemlyansky distillery, owned by Nikolai Merkushkin's relatives, pollutes the Alatyr River (which flows in Mordovia, Chuvashia and the Nizhny Novgorod Region).
In April of this year, hazardous waste has already led to the mass death of fish in Mordovia. And in May, pollution spread along the river, and fish began to die in Chuvashia. 150 km of the coastal line of Alatyr, that is, half of the river, were in the disaster zone. This entire stretch of the river was littered with dead fish in the spring, Izvestia wrote.
According to Rosprirodnadzor data for the Nizhny Novgorod Region and the Republic of Mordovia, the Ichalkovsky cheese factory also discharges into the Tatar Valley. Like Kemlyansky, it is located in Mordovia and belongs to Nikolai Merkushkin's relatives.
Inspections are currently underway at Ichalkovsky, and the Ministry of Forestry plans to send their results to the prosecutor's office "in order to determine administrative measures."
"The level of damage caused will be determined as the laboratory analysis of all selected samples is completed," the agency said in a response to Izvestia.
The supervisory authorities are conducting an inspection on the fact of fish poisoning in the Alatyr, Insar and Tatar-Velen-Ley Rivers, Olga Godyaeva, deputy head of the Department of State Environmental Supervision and Environmental Protection of the Ministry of Forestry of Mordovia, told Izvestia.
On June 10, experts took the third sample of water from the rivers.
"Samples are taken at the discharge site, upstream and downstream," the specialist explained. — This is necessary in order to comprehensively assess the potential damage caused to the river. These are unscheduled events that the agency conducts upon violation of environmental legislation.
The main sources of pollution of small rivers are industrial facilities, housing and communal services and agriculture, Alexander Zakondyrin, Director of the All—Russian Research Institute of Ecology, explained to Izvestia.
"These are anthropogenic factors that exist in any large agglomeration, in large and even small towns," he stressed. — Small rivers with a length of up to 200 km are a fairly large volume of water. For example, a huge number of rivers flow into the Volga. They form the water balance of this object. And it is not enough to take measures to rehabilitate and clean up the Volga River itself. We should also look at small rivers.
According to him, there is a chemical composition of the river, that is, a certain concentration of certain substances. And at the expense of enterprises or farms, additional pollutants appear that need to be cleaned.
"This can only be solved by modernizing all these facilities and their sewage treatment plants," the expert believes.
As Alexander Zakondyrin pointed out, sanitary standards are clearly spelled out in the legislation — they indicate the permissible concentrations of certain substances in water bodies. The main indicator of bad water is the absence of fish.
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