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- What tarnished: the prosecutor's office had claims against the owners of Volgoneft-212 back in 2019
What tarnished: the prosecutor's office had claims against the owners of Volgoneft-212 back in 2019
In the summer of 2019, the company-owner of the tanker Volgoneft-212 violated maritime legislation in the transportation of dangerous goods, Izvestia found out. Now the investigation has transferred to experts technical information about the ships that crashed in the Kerch Strait in December 2024. It is about tankers undergoing routine maintenance, said a source close to the investigation. He did not rule out that the IC may have questions for the shipowners. So far, only the captains of the vessels have been charged with violating the rules of safety and operation of maritime transportation. On who else may be involved in the case of black sea pollution with fuel oil, - in the material "Izvestia".
What the investigation knows
Investigators handed over to experts all the technical information on the vessels "Volgoneft-212" and "Volgoneft-239", wrecked in the Kerch Strait, in particular, on their maintenance work, a source familiar with the case told "Izvestia".
- Several technical examinations have been appointed, including examination of the level of wear and tear of the vessels' hulls. It is quite possible that questions will be asked of the ship owners, " the source told Izvestia.
According to the investigators' version, on December 15, under stormy weather conditions the tankers under the control of captains Vasily Smirnov and Leonid Volegov were substantially damaged and sank, resulting in the spillage of fuel oil into the Black Sea. Thus, experts, referring to satellite data, noted that about 3,000 tons of fuel oil had fallen into the sea.
December 18 , charges were brought against the captains of the ships, reported the Investigative Committee. A criminal case was opened against them under the article on violation of the rules of safety and operation of maritime transport. And on December 19, the court chose a measure of restraint for the captain of the tanker "Volgoneft-212" Leonid Volegov in the form of detention. The captain of "Volgoneft-239" Vasily Smirnov was sent under house arrest.
According to the IC of Crimea and Sevastopol, the tanker "Volgoneft-212" was checked for suitability for transportation of dangerous goods in July 2024. It is not reported how the inspection ended, but in November of the same year, the vessels freely left their ports to the port of "Kavkaz", emphasized the IC.
At the same time, the prosecutor's office had claims against the owners of Volgoneft-212 LLC Kama Shipping back in 2019, it follows from open source data. It was about violations of maritime legislation, in particular, in the transportation of dangerous goods. So, in 2019, the Motovilikhinsky district court of Perm fined the firm 400 thousand rubles for the fact that from May 1 to July 23, 2019 the company transported dangerous cargo "without a special permit for the right <...> to transport dangerous goods by sea".
According to the SPARK database, Kama Shipping LLC was registered in February 2016, its owners are Larisa Frolova and Konstantin Selkov. The company's revenue in 2023 amounted to 228 million rubles (51 million rubles less than a year earlier), the loss amounted to 14 million rubles.
In addition, the organization took part in five government purchases totaling more than 39 million rubles. Among them is a contract for the supply of diesel and marine fuel for the needs of the administration of the Kama basin of inland waterways for 18.9 million rubles. The customer is the Federal Budget Institution "Kamvodput Administration".
"Kama Shipping" has a license for transportation by inland waterway and sea transport of dangerous goods, follows from the data on the website of Rostransnadzor. The document was issued to the company in 2016, and it is valid indefinitely.
The company was a defendant in more than 12 arbitration cases. Most often - for non-fulfillment of obligations under contracts. Also in 2020, the tax authorities had claims against Kama Shipping - according to the fiscal authority, the company failed to pay 15 million rubles to the budget, as follows from the decision of the 17th Arbitration Court of Appeal.
In addition to the sunken tanker, the company has another one - "Prikamye", manufactured in 1966. The Rostov Central Design and Construction Bureau "Stapel" developed the justification for the possibility of operating this vessel. It also issued a justification for the expansion of the Volgoneft-212 sailing area. The carrier of both vessels, authorized by Kama Shipping, is the Samara firm Staxel.
Both the carrier and representatives of the design bureau denied their involvement in the accident when talking to Izvestia.
Izvestia correspondent visited the Perm office of Kama Shipping LLC, but the head and co-founder of the company Konstantin Selkov refused to comment.
- I have a ban on giving out interviews from the investigator ," he said.
What violations have been revealed in the companies that own tankers?
The grounded tanker Volgoneft-239 (owned by CJSC Volgotransneft) has "suspended documents," according to the website of the Russian Classification Society. This document may be a certificate of the vessel's operability, suggested Vladislav Balatsky, an independent expert and navigator, in a conversation with Izvestia.
Volgoneft-239 tanker that ran aground
- These certificates have an expiration date," he explained. - It happens that the term expires and the certificate has not been renewed in time. Such a tanker is sometimes arrested.
According to SPARK, Volgatransneft has been on the market for 15 years. In 2023, the company had 55 employees. Since 2015, eight inspections have been initiated against the company. In 2018, Rostrud revealed nine violations at the company, the following year - two more. In 2023, the organization went into a serious loss of 61.4 million rubles.
The company was a defendant in 44 arbitration court cases totaling 71.3 million rubles. Most of them are related to non-fulfillment of obligations under contracts of transportation, supply of goods and compensation for services. Volgatransneft also has three perpetual licenses permitting transportation of cargo by water transport.
In December 2024, the 12th Arbitration Court of Appeal fined Volgatransneft 100,000 rubles for violating the requirements of technical regulations. And in 2020 the company was held administratively liable for carrying out business activities in the field of transport without a license. Also in 2016 and 2019, Volgatransneft was involved in labor disputes to recover unpaid wages to employees.
How much is a tanker worth
"Izvestia" decided to conduct an experiment - to buy a tanker "Volgoneft", similar in type to the wrecked vessels. The announcement of the sale was put up on an online platform. It turned out that the vessel was also in the Kerch Strait during the storm, but survived. Now the company is in a hurry to sell it - for 80 million rubles.
- This tanker was nearby 15 kilometers away. And now we have been writing off the prosecutor's office all week simply because we were at sea on those dates, " the Samara office of the shipping company told Izvestia.
Judging by the certificate of title for the tanker, it was built in Bulgaria 47 years ago, and seven years ago its maximum service life expired. The owners warn: to pass all inspections and obtain authorization documents, they will have to pay extra.
- Because the vessels are generally old, a lot of metal has to be changed. One plug will cost 50-100 million rubles, and it needs to be renewed every five years," said a company representative.
Who will be responsible for the fuel oil spill
The process of vessel operation depends not only on the captain, but also on its owners - it is they who dispose of this property, believes lawyer Vladimir Shelupakhin.
- To bring the tanker owners to criminal responsibility it is necessary to establish a causal link between their specific actions and the accident itself, " he said. - But it should be realized that there might not be such a connection.
Evgeny Tonkiy, managing partner of the Tonkiy and Partners law firm, agrees with him. According to him, in addition to the owners, managers of the organization - director or general director - may also be held liable.
The damaged tanker Volgoneft-239
- Improper maintenance of tankers or allowing them to operate in a defective technical condition may be grounds for liability," the lawyer said.
The shipowner is obliged to control the readiness of the vessel for sailing, the captain in this chain is only an executor, says Vladimir Maltsev, chairman of the All-Russian Fleet Support Movement (FSM).
- The owner prepares a list of documents for the vessel, sends them to the maritime register and obtains an operating permit," he says. - Perhaps not the chief manager, but representatives of the shipowner are in contact with the port and the captain on a mandatory basis. The shipowner is involved in any case - he knows what the cargo will be, concludes contracts for its transportation.
Also in the context of the responsibility of the management staff the statutory documentation and distribution of duties will be important, explained Oleg Cherkasov, a leading lawyer of the European Legal Service.
- If prosecuted, the owners could be charged with abuse of authority, fraud, pollution of the marine environment and violation of water transportation safety rules, " he said. - The latter article carries up to five years in prison if one person is killed.
Situation on the ground
The Russian Transport Ministry said on January 10 that a fuel spill was detected from the stern of the grounded tanker Volganeft-239 in Krasnodar's Taman with an area of 2,800 square meters.
- It (the slick) will be promptly localized with the help of booms and then removed from the sea surface with biosorbent, - added in the department. - Five vessels, as well as coastal rescue service with equipment and special machinery have been sent to the area. Underwater aft part of the tanker is additionally examined by divers.
In Crimea, 16.28 km of coastline were polluted after the fuel oil spill, as reported on January 11 in the republic's Emergency Situations Ministry. The ministry specified that the issue concerns Kerch, Yevpatoria, Yalta, Sakskyy, Chernomorskyy and Leninskyy districts, as well as the island of Tuzla.
On January 12, on the instructions of the President, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Alexander Kurenkov created a federal operational headquarters to eliminate the consequences of the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea. He arrived in Anapa with representatives of this headquarters to personally monitor the progress of work on site. The Minister specified that in the next 24 hours specialists will be laying a road to "Volgoneft-239".
The head of the ministry said that the most difficult situation is now near the port of Taman, where fuel oil from "Volgoneft-239" continues to flow into the sea. According to him, it is necessary to pump out fuel from the aft part of the vessel as soon as possible.
- At present it is impossible to carry out welding works while the fuel oil is close to the side of the tanker. Therefore, it is necessary to clear the way for diving crews with welding equipment by all means," he added.
The Head of Krasnodar Region Veniamin Kondratiev reported in his Telegram channel that specialists of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Morspassluzhba" are installing duplicate booms - in addition to those that are already in place.
-Emergency Situations Ministry employees manually collect small fractions of fuel oil, and with the help of heavy machinery remove large oil stains from the sea. The main task is to continue laying a temporary road to the tanker's stern in order to collect all the fuel oil that has leaked out so far as soon as possible, " the governor added.
The Ministry of Transportation said that the area where the fuel oil spill occurred was also visited by the head of the ministry Roman Starovoit. The ministry noted that the previous day specialists of Morspassluzhba identified and neutralized oil product stains on the area of about 1.3 thousand square meters with sorbent.
At a meeting with members of the government on January 9, President Vladimir Putin said that the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea is "one of the most serious challenges in the field of ecology, which we have faced over the past year.
- Everything that is being done to minimize the damage is clearly insufficient," said the head of state. - There are a lot of problems here: technical, financial and technological. We need to collect all this now, analyze and systematize it.
Volunteers, who daily remove oil products from the Black Sea beach, note that tanker owners do not participate in the liquidation of the consequences of the fuel oil spill.
- There are no beach owners either, we clean up everything ourselves," Yuri Grigorievich, a volunteer of retirement age, told Izvestia.
In addition, employees of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology began testing a new method of cleaning Anapa beaches from fuel oil, told "Izvestia" volunteer Alexei Pankratov. According to him, the method is based on the use of polypropylene nets. They are placed along the shoreline in areas of active water movement. The nets effectively collect fuel oil particles while leaving the sand untouched.
- We remove the net at intervals of once every 40 minutes because the big spots have come in now. There are times when we need to shoot even more frequently. And when the water is relatively clean, the net is removed about once every two hours, - said Alexei Pankratov.
Vladimir Kalyaev, the developer of the new method of fuel oil collection, noted that polyethylene and polypropylene nets have a similar structure to fuel oil. They have hydrophilicity and bind on themselves tiny particles right in cold water, leaving shells, stones and sand clean.
