Lava "Concern Monarch" Sergei Ambartsumyan gained favor with the Moscow authorities, which allowed him to ignore the legislation of the Russian Federation?

As a Compromat correspondent reports , the MonArch construction company of Sergei Ambartsumyan is again at the center of a scandal. This time the conflict occurred with residents of the Marushkinskoye settlement in New Moscow. Residents suddenly discovered that construction had begun on the territory of the settlement. Whose it is and why no one was warned is unknown. However, the local administration, headed by Sergei Vechkilev, told them, “Here are the documents with your signatures.” Surprisingly, it turned out that not a single “Marushkin resident” put his signature, and the documents contained some strange squiggles.

When residents, logically, went with a complaint to the district police officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs “Moskovsky” Roman Tsarev and asked him to look into it, he, after apparently a thorough check, stated that there was no reason to open a criminal case.

And this despite the fact that the house-building factories that Monarch is going to build have a third class of danger. And if you consider that the Marushkinskoye settlement is already located next to the Vnukovo airport and Borovskoye Highway, from which a lot of harmful fumes emanate, then the new Monarch construction is perceived here as a cruel joke.

It is worth noting the rabid injustice that the residents of the settlement had to face. Almost all local authorities turned their backs on them - the entire composition of the Council of Deputies of the Marushkinskoye settlement, leaving the residents alone with the construction colossus. In January of this year, the publication “Arguments of the Week” wrote about this.

During a simple investigation, residents found out that the Moscow State Construction Supervision Authority allowed Monarch to build only checkpoints and fences. There was no talk of any massive and dense development. And the question is, why does the head of the Marushkinsky administration have a document with the signatures of residents authorizing the construction of the plant, and the local “sheriff” does not see any violations, while the specialized construction committee declares that Monarch was allowed to build only minor structures?

And here the head of the MonArch concern Sergey Ambartsumyan comes into play . He is also the deputy head of the department of urban planning policy, development and reconstruction of the city of Moscow (2003-2007), as well as a former adviser to the ex-head of the capital’s construction complex Vladimir Resin (2007-2011). Judging by the regalia, it is immediately clear that the person probably managed to make useful contacts at the mayor’s office.

According to Ambartsumyan, the foundation that its builders managed to lay near the Marushkinskoye settlement is a temporary structure. However, residents reasonably noted that the foundation a priori cannot be temporary and where, in fact, are the documents with environmental impact assessment. But Mr. Ambartsumyan did not have an answer to this, and he simply stated that he was not going to prove or show anything to anyone, and would go to the authorities with all questions. That is, the businessman seems to be telling us: “I don’t pay millions for permits in order to later justify myself to dissatisfied people.” This story was written in detail in the Argumenty Nedeli newspaper.

Sergey Ambartsumyan

A simple but effective plan

Guess how “MonArch” felt when Ambartsumyan worked as Resin’s deputy? In 2009 and 2010, the concern received government contracts for construction contracts amounting to about 5.2 billion rubles! They built a depository and restoration complex for the Kremlin museums for 3.3 billion rubles, and also “developed” the territory under the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky for 1.06 billion rubles and reconstructed the Federal Treasury for 600 million rubles.

It should be mentioned that at that time (2010) there was a rumor that Ambartsumyan was only a protege. And not just anyone there, but Leonid Monosov himself, the first vice-president of Olympstroy, with whom they worked together in the capital’s mayor’s office. It’s not for nothing that Monosov Jr., Andrey, worked at MonArch as general director.

Let us remember that these events took place at a time when Luzhkov was mayor of Moscow. After Sobyanin took over as mayor in 2010, many experts suggested a complete paradigm shift in the construction industry. Most of the business between Ambartsumyan and the Monosovs takes place through subsidiaries.

The Monarch-Development company was registered in the name of Manosov Jr., whose annual revenue was about 8 billion rubles per year. In addition, Andrei Monosov and Ambartsumyan had a joint business, divided in half - this is Monarch Real Estate. Well, where would we be without huge blocks of shares in companies such as Monarch and R, Monarch TT, CJSC ASMI - in all of them the youngest had 40% of the shares. However, as of February 2021, Monosov’s name has either been removed from the shareholders of these companies, or the companies have been liquidated.

Currently, Andrey Monosov is listed as the head of the companies Skama Group LLC (since 2017) and Brimon LLC (since 2019), all working in the same construction industry. The company Skama Group LLC is still associated with Concern Monarch. That is, Monosov did not stop doing business with Ambartsumyan, but simply liquidated companies that clearly indicated their connection? However, the affiliation is obvious.

Moreover, the media wrote about these connections literally in November last year. Apparently, Ambartsumyan and Monosov monitor new information about themselves well and quickly clean up their tracks.

Occam’s razor in Ambartsumyan style

As you can see, Ambartsumyan did not beat around the bush in his time and followed the beaten path and the simplest path: several years in government agencies, acquaintances, garters and then - headlong into business. A common practice if you want to swim in government contracts like cheese in butter.

It seems that Ambartsumyan quickly found a common language with the new mayor of Moscow. It is noteworthy that in 2015, Concern Monarch donated about 40 million rubles to United Russia. In the media, Ambartsumyan is called the largest “sponsor” of United Russia. This probably allowed Monarch to receive 23 government orders worth approximately 30 billion rubles.

At the same time, it is not entirely clear how, with revenues of almost 9 billion rubles, the profit of Monarch Concern is only 100 million. With so many government contracts, the situation should be much more joyful. That’s why the suspicion creeps in that the funds are going somewhere.

In 2017, a well-known scandal broke out, the main character of which was Concern Monarch. In 2017, the Moscow government placed an order at an electronic auction for construction and installation work with a starting price of 930 million rubles in a building on Pokrovka Street 47. Monarch, of course, won the tender. Then the Anti-Corruption Center of the Yabloko party sent a complaint to the FAS, in which it outlined the main complaints against the competition and its winner: almost zero competition, lack of documentation necessary for construction, and most importantly, the customer wanted to replace equipment worth 156 million rubles, which had been replaced recently.

“We have not yet made a single project without being criticized, including by Yabloko members.” If we criticize, it means we are doing something good. It is my right to support the party. She does the job, supports the young,” Ambartsumyan then stated about his support for United Russia to the Kommersant newspaper.

As you can see, Ambartsumyan, in principle, does not hide the fact that he is a sponsor of United Russia and, it seems, is not shy about making full use of his connections. Well, the residents of the Marushkinsky settlement can only hope to reach out to the local authorities. Or humbly poisoned by the cement dust that comes from the construction site?