Ship's day: those responsible for fuel oil spill do not help with cleanup efforts
The owners of the tankers that provoked the fuel oil spill in the Black Sea are not taking any part in the liquidation of its consequences, volunteers told Izvestia. Now all the work is being carried out at the expense of the federal and local budgets and concerned citizens, confirmed representatives of the authorities. At the same time, the owners of the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 are businessmen with a very ambiguous reputation, a recent investigation by Izvestia showed. They have been accused of non-payment of taxes, suspended from government procurement, and their former partners accuse them of possible embezzlement. Receiving contracts worth billions of rubles, they transport oil products on worn-out vessels. On January 23, Vladimir Putin ordered a complete audit of Russia's tanker fleet. What responsibility should be borne by the owners of tankers, whether they will eliminate the damage from the emergency - in the material "Izvestia".
Revision of the tanker fleet
At a meeting with members of the Government on January 23, Vladimir Putin gave several instructions related to the spill of fuel oil in the Kerch Strait.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with members of the Russian government via videoconference
-It is necessary to conduct a comprehensive audit of the regulatory framework governing the sea and river transportation of oil and petroleum products, violations of navigation rules and safety of navigation, to check the state of the tanker fleet, - said the head of state.
The President's instruction came against the background of active cleaning of the Black Sea coast. They involve more than 5 thousand people, 680 units of equipment and 28 watercraft, collected more than 170 thousand tons of contaminated sand and soil, reported Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev at the meeting.
Both official structures and numerous volunteers are actively involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident. However, the owners of the tankers , whose wreck caused the ecological disaster,have not yet been involved in the elimination of large-scale pollution - neither by their personal presence nor by financing the work .
Volunteers collecting fuel oil
- They are not involved in the cleanup. They are now probably thinking how to protect themselves in the courts and from the claims that are now flying to them, - said "Izvestia" organizer and head of the volunteer headquarters located in Anapa "Burgazskaya Spit. Reinforcement" and "Heat" Stanislav Krantz.
Who owns the wrecked tankers?
On January 23, Izvestia released an investigation concerning the owners of the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239. It turned out that these businessmen were accused of non-payment of taxes, they were suspended from government procurement for non-compliance with the requirements, and their former partners accuse them of possible embezzlement.
Thus, the owner of the tanker Volgoneft-212 is the company Kama Shipping, which belongs to Viktor Selkov and his two sons - Konstantin and Alexander. They come from the structures of businessman Mikhail Antonov. This is the owner of the Bulgaria motor ship, which sank tragically in 2011 (122 people died).
Motor ship "Bulgaria"
In the 90s, Viktor Selkov worked as the financial director of Kamsky River Shipping Company, which belonged to Antonov and on the balance sheet of which was the Bulgaria. In 1998, the business owners were claimed by the local FSB authorities because of the withdrawal of foreign currency proceeds abroad.
- While working in our structure, Victor Selkov and his son were found guilty of receiving kickbacks and stealing promissory notes of our company worth many millions of rubles. This was his start-up capital in their family business," Mikhail Antonov wrote in response to Izvestia's request to talk about his longtime partner. - Their companies are on the black list, with which we do not work.
Having already organized their business, the Selkov family has repeatedly fallen into the zone of interest of law enforcement and control bodies. In December 2019, the economic security department of the Perm Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a seizure of documents in the office of Kama Shipping.
In September 2021, the Federal Tax Service filed claims against them for 23.4 million rubles for non-payment of VAT - the businessmen used gray schemes of tax refunds with the help of preferential deductions, the court found. And they were secured by fictitious transactions that took place only on paper. Among the vessels mentioned in the fictitious shipments was the sunken tanker Volgoneft-212.
"Volgoneft-212 before the accident
It turned out that the company did not comply with the requirements of the Ministry of Transport for transportation of dangerous goods (diesel fuel and gasoline), and tankers were often overloaded. But Kama Shipping was fined only 400 thousand rubles for this.
The Selkovs did not suffer any tangible punishment in any case. As, by the way, Mikhail Antonov was not punished for the Bulgaria disaster, although his ship sailed on its last voyage with four holes in the hull, a poorly trained crew and a non-functioning diesel generator.
Another tanker, the Volgoneft-239, is owned by CJSC Volgatransneft. Its ultimate beneficiary is most likely businessman Igor Shavva, Izvestiya's investigation showed.
Volgoneft-239 tanker running aground
Shavva also owns another transportation company, Volgatranservice. In 2014, it won a tender to transport Rosneft's oil products to Kerch for 2 billion rubles. But the company was no longer allowed to participate in the next tender in 2016.
"In connection with the identified non-compliance with the selection criteria established in the procurement documentation," - follows from the documents on the portal of public procurement.
Nevertheless, today Volgatransneft, affiliated with Volgatranservice, continues to transport dangerous goods through the Kerch Strait and the Black Sea on vessels 50 years old or more.
Igor Shavva has many assets. He owns a whole block of business real estate between Rubtsovskaya Embankment and Bakuninskaya Street in Moscow, Valeria LLC - a manufacturer of underwear for women, and as of the end of 2023 he was the main beneficiary of the investment company DVM-Invest CJSC.
Owners' liability
The conversation about the responsibility of ship owners should be conducted on two planes, experts believe. The first is compensation for ecological and economic damage. The second is criminal prosecution if their involvement in the disaster is proved. According to the current legislation, the captain of a ship cannot not go on a voyage if he receives such an instruction - he has no right to refuse.
- According to the law, captains, even seeing a potentially dangerous situation, cannot, for example, cancel the departure of the ship or change the route, - stated the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing Alexander Aksyonenko.
In a situation when navigation for vessels of this class is closed (and in the Kerch Strait it lasts from April to November), only the owning company can give an order to go to sea, the only question is which of its representatives does it.
Kerch Strait
So far, the claims against the owners sound only in the first plane. On January 13, the Prosecutor's Office and the Morspassluzhba filed lawsuits against Kama Shipping, Kamatransoil and Volgatransneft. Before that, the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Alexander Kozlov said that the owners would take responsibility for lifting and utilization of the tankers.
- The owners of the companies should be fully responsible for what happened," Alexander Aksyonenko believes. - To date, the damage is estimated at 33 billion rubles. And so far it is covered by federal and municipal budgets, as well as at the expense of concerned citizens and companies. Naturally, the real culprits will have to cover all losses and restore nature.
Sergey Likhachev, former Minister of Ecology of the Chelyabinsk Region, reminded thatthere are precedents of such damage recovery, including very serious ones.
- In Norilsk a few years ago, there was an incident that resulted in fuel leaking into the adjacent territories and Bezymyannyi Creek. The culprit company paid a lot of money. In the case of the Kerch Strait eco-catastrophe, the owner is also at fault, he must pay money as compensation for the damage caused and be held liable," the expert believes.
The unnamed lake where the jet fuel got into the lake
The second plane, in which claims can be brought against the owners, is criminal. So far, two tanker captains remain the only ones arrested in the criminal case of the shipwreck. However, this does not cancel the likelihood of criminal prosecution of representatives of the firms - business owners.
- I am convinced that the owners of the tankers should be primarily responsible for the wreck," said criminal defense lawyer Maxim Kalinov. - I believe it was they who could allow the tankers to go to sea in unsuitable weather conditions. They also, apparently, poorly maintained these vessels.
According to the expert, the problem should be put in a broader perspective - in any such emergencies we cannot limit ourselves to punishing the "shooters".
- Otherwise, we see what it leads to," Maxim Kalinov continued. - Judging by a recent Izvestia article, the owners of one of the tankers used to work in the company that owned the Bulgaria. After that great tragedy, the owners were not punished either. I am convinced that if in such cases all those involved, including unscrupulous owners, were held responsible, the whole incident in the Kerch Strait would not have happened.
How the law may change
At a meeting with members of the government, Vladimir Putin also announced the need to revise the regulatory framework governing maritime and river transportation of oil and oil products.
And in the State Duma they announced that they have already prepared initiatives that could improve the situation.
- As far as I know, draft laws have already been submitted to the Parliament to give ship captains and port managers the right to independently assess the condition of ships going to the open sea. In this case, their responsibility will be directly spelled out in the new laws and it will be possible to talk about it. In the future it may help to avoid similar disasters that occurred at the end of last year. So, potentially it is not a bad idea, because the captain, who sees a real problem, will be able to report about it in advance, warning the higher management, - said Alexander Aksyonenko.
According to him, a regulation of actions in case of such emergencies will be created. In this case, it will be possible to trace the sequence of decision-making and personalize responsibility step by step.
