Business involvement: As government official, Shoigu was barred from business involvement. However, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) is considered to be one of the wealthiest and most corrupt agencies, with a system fire safety and emergency prevention financial schemes in place. A multitude of formally state-owned companies were set up that make money in one way or another.

In particular, in 1995, MES set up the State Unitary Air Enterprise (SUAE) primarily tasked with large-scale disaster and catastrophe air emergency response. By 2010, this MES aviation subordinate had up to 45 aircraft consisting of 12 airplane and helicopter types. The air fleet serves businesses and performs other tasks unrelated to cataclysm mitigation. For example, in 2009, an MES-owned MI-26 helicopter transported Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi yacht from Lake Geneva to the Italian Genoa seaport. In 2010, an MES airliner brought home Russian spies who flopped in the US, including Anna Chapman. The same year, Col. Arkady Bubnov (MES Far East Regional Center (FERC) aviation head) was criminally prosecuted for accepting large bribes from businessmen in exchange for assistance with agreements to use MES aviation for business purposes.

A government agency called the “Information Center of the Russian National Integrated Crowded-Area Population Notification and Warning System” was tasked with implementing the MES-supervised OKSION program: “Russian National Integrated Population Notification and Warning System.” OKSION was launched with federal funds as part of a federal target program called “Russian Federation Natural and Industrial Disaster Risk Reduction and Mitigation for the Period Ending 2010.” The program’s budget was 1,825.5 Bln. Rub.

Under OKSION, emergency awareness equipment was installed in 2009-10 in the subways of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. The equipment

Tercommet was developed in 2008 by Telecommunication Technologies and installed in cooperation with Cardo Media LLC.

On January 27, 2011, President Dmitri Medvedev visited Moscow’s Okhotny Ryad subway station and viewed the Tercommet screens installed there, with Minister Sergei Shoigu reporting to Medvedev on this latest transportation safety and security system. A planned 80 LCD screens will be installed in Moscow subway that will help alert passengers in emergency situations. During non-emergency operations, Tercommet will be used for advertising (the Moscow subway advertising market has been estimated at $100 Mln.).

OKSION operator Cardo Media, which installed the displays, is a private company providing printing and outdoor advertising services, including subway advertising. The selection of this particular printing company as supplier of this system, intended as a counterterrorism measure, was controversial. According to SPARK-Interfax, the nominal owner of Cardo Media LLC (established in December 2007), Focus Media NMT (New Media Technologies) LLC, was set up by a Cypriot offshore. Cardo Media will apparently broadcast subway advertising [for profit] using terminals installed at government expense.

According to SPARK-Interfax, Telecommunications Technologies LLC participants are its general director Valery Victorovich Degtyarev and Hurstleigh [sp?] Holding Ltd. Corporation registered on the Caribbean islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Degtyarev was on Rostelecom OJSC, Dalsvyaz OJSC, Tetrasvyaz OJSC, VolgaTelecom OJSC and Centertelecom OJSC boards of directors.

Subway Cardo Media LCD screen terminal installation continues under RF government’s Comprehensive 2011 Public Transportation Safety Program. Bids are being solicited to set up similar systems in subways of St. Petersburg (starting price is 112 Mln. Rub. to install at least 150 units at 14 subway stations) and Kazan (starting price is 75 Mln. Rub. to install at least 80 units at six stations).

A federal government entity called “Civil Defense, Natural and Industrial Disaster Prevention and Fire Safety Government Expert Assessment” assesses city planning documentation and equipment to aid in oil spill prevention. The entity is permitted to engage in business and has branches all over Russia.

This entity licenses fire prevention workshops as well as fire safety equipment installation, repair and maintenance in buildings and other structures. Essentially every construction company needs this type of license. The license is valid for five years, and its formal cost is 1,300 Rub. payable to the government. However, intermediaries charge up to 90,000 – 130,000 Rub. to obtain MES licenses.

A government healthcare facility called the “Russian MES National Center of Emergency and Radiation Medicine” named after A.M. Nikiforov provides for-fee medical services.

The MES-based government entity called “Emercom

Emercom is named as buyer of Iraqi oil in the 2005 report of the Paul Volcker UN committee

A 2000 Accounts Chamber audit of Emercom uncovered numerous violations. Some of the agency’s bylaws provisions violated the RF Civil Code. Also uncovered was the unauthorized use of 175,100 Rub. of federal funds, and the use of 9,601,600 Rub. of non-government funds, in violation of the bylaws and the Federal Law “On non-profit organizations.” Charitable donations received from Rosneft were used for other purposes. In violation of the RF Fiscal Code, Emercom got a 35 Mln. Rub. line of credit, and from oil sale profits and loans to build MES facilities not approved by the 2000 Russian Rescue Worker Training Center Development Program.

MES is constantly hounded by crime and corruption scandals. In 2003, MES security division head Lt. Gen. Vladimir Ganeyev was arrested during the investigation of a case known as “Changelings in Uniform.” Ganeyev had set up a gang involved in criminal protection rackets, bribe extortion, and planting weapons and drugs on [innocent] citizens. Ganeyev then invested the proceeds of crime in foreign real estate by buying apartments in Spain. He was charged with: creating an organized crime group (RF Criminal Code (CC) Art. 210 p. 3); extortion (RF CC Art. 163 p. 3); abuse of office (RF CC Art. 286 p. 3); and illegal trade in precious stones (RF CC Art. 191 p. 1). In 2006, Ganeyev was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in a high-security prison.

MES set up “Russian Rescue Workers Union (Rossoyuzspas),” a Russian national non-profit organization. According to SPARK-Interfax, the Union was established by individuals including: Yuri Vorobiev (former first deputy MES head and Federation Council deputy chairman); Salavat Mingaleyev (MES territorial policy department deputy head); Igor Malyi (head of MES Ivanovsky Government Firefighting Service Institute); Andrei Moskaletz (MES legal department head); Pavel Plat (MES chief military expert); Konstantin Rastegayev (deputy head of MES Centrospas unit, Tuapse branch); Victor Gavrilenko (deputy head of the Central Regional Search and Rescue unit of the Central Regional Center [sic] for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations); Victor Gulevich (head of the Baikal search and rescue unit’s search and rescue service [sic]); Olga Darzhaa (head of MES West Siberian search and rescue unit); Dina Kuznetzova (MES staffer); Vladimir Legoshin (Centrospas deputy head); Evgeny Lineitzev (head of Central Regional Search and rescue unit); Alexander Romanov (head of Centrospas unit); Boris Tilov (head of Elbrus search and rescue service); Alexander Chuprian (deputy MES Minister for emergency situations); Sergei Schetinin (head of MES Northern Ossetia rescue unit); and Alexander Yankov (head of Novosibirsk Region emergency rescue service).

Rossoyuzspas has 76 regional divisions. Its bylaws allow security-related entrepreneurial activity; payment is provided by sponsors. Expensive Rossoyuzspas events are indicative of the agency’s means. For example, with MES support and in honor of MES’ 20^th anniversary, Rossoyuzspas held a “From the Baltic to the White Sea” sailing regatta, with Sergei Shoigu giving the regatta its official start. In January 2010, Rossoyuzspas and its subsidiary took part in several winter snowmobile races at Pirogovskoye reservoir, as confirmed by MES Moscow Regional main administration’s PR department.

In his 2008 interview, First deputy RF MES Minister Ruslan Tzalikov said that the Russian Rescue Workers Union “supports safety-related business development,” and that he believes that “businesses should be interested in getting closer to Rossoyuzspas, and in moving forward together.”

Russian Rescue Workers Union planned to set up training facilities (to be sponsored by municipal, city and industrial entities) as well as special tourism safety business divisions.

Sergei Shoigu is president of the Russian Geographic Society where Marina Ignatova is executive director. Shoigu also chairs Por-Bazhyn Fortress Cultural Foundation’s board of trustees, while Ignatova is the Foundation’s president. Businesswoman Ignatova is a successful developer involved in Moscow and Moscow Region construction. Her projects are sometimes marked by controversy.

Shoigu’s request to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov (involving control over an unoccupied 3,955.8 m² building on central Moscow’s Novaya Ploschad (New Square) may have benefited Ignatova’s business.

In 2005, Shoigu put his Moscow Region Razdory Village home up for sale. According to the press, the property spans 5,300 m² and, in addition to Shoigu’s villa, has a tennis court, hunting lodge, guesthouse, garden with exotic trees and flowers, greenhouse, swimming pool, three-car garage and a small parking lot. Realtors valued Shoigu’s house at $3.7 Mln.

Sergei Shoigu’s 2005 income was 1.2 Mln. Rub.; in 2006 it was 1.7 Mln. Rub., and he owned a 7,434 m² land lot and a 477 m² home. His official 2008 income was 2.709 Mln. Rub., and he purchased another land lot (1.1 ha.) and a 1957 ZIM GAZ 12 automobile. Such a car is worth over €30,000 if in running condition. In 2009, Shoigu’s declared income was 3.299 Mln. Rub.; in 2010 it was 4.416 Mln. Rub. Shoigu’s latest tax return notes (for the first time) that the 1.1 ha. land lot is intended for health and fitness.

The Minister collects cold weapons: swords, daggers, broadswords; Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Samurai swords, and Aztec sacrificial knives. His collection includes historical artifacts, such as an 1860 “For Bravery” honorary dagger.

According to Moskovsky Komsomoletz newspaper, Alexander Minovich (MES Major and SKVM-30000 company owner), allegedly with Gen. Koltunov’s blessing, set up a financial scheme involving mutual offsets involving Lukoil company’s oil and bills of exchange. MES ended up owing Vagit Alekperov’s Lukoil money, and in 1999, an arbitration court ordered MES to pay Lukoil 199 Mln. Rub.

In 2000, Moscow city military prosecutor’s office lost a lawsuit filed on behalf of MES against Lukoil and Minovich’s firm. The claimants had unsuccessfully asked the court to invalidate six agreements and contracts in an attempt to cancel MES debt to Lukoil.

The criminal case against Ivan Koltunov was closed due to amnesty. The former MES Lt. Gen. is now an entrepreneur who founded Runeko LLC, registered at Ilyinka Street 4 – the Gostiny Dvor building.