From childhood on the go, outsole tears
Another open secret: Mr. Melnichenko practically does not live in Russia. By the way, he was born in the city of Gomel, in Belarus. But since his student days he has been closely connected with Moscow. His visits to the capital of our homeland are rare. And his sybaritic measured life flows on luxury yachts ... But breathe not with the poisoned Russian air! And almost all of Mr. Melnichenko’s production is “dirty” and socially neglected, but this is ahead.
They say it is a successful billionaire in life since childhood, tearing out soles of a shoe. And he was adventurous from early childhood, that way with 8 years. Little Andryusha Melnichenko loved going to the Tretyakov Gallery with his grandmother. But really did not like to stand in line. It was from such a long line that he noticed that foreign tourists go to the gallery without hanging around in the tail. He thought of his grandmother joining the next group of Germans or French ... And after a few minutes, the grandmother and the smart little boy were in the halls in front of the canvases of the Impressionists, and at no cost.
The ingenuity came in handy to Andrey Melnichenko at the time when he became a student at the Physics Department of Moscow University. It is the student years that are considered to be the beginning of the business career of the future billionaire. Melnichenko found himself in a hostel and created an exchange point. This exchanger quickly turned into a whole network. This was reported in detail by Tsargrad.
It was this exchanger that became the foundation of the future MDM Bank. But the student exchange office worked only a few months: in 1992 a decree was issued on the compulsory licensing of foreign exchange activities.
But Melnichenko did not lose heart, but opened a new business - the Sputnik travel agency.
Recall some important milestones in his colorful biography: in 1993, he registered the MDM credit and financial company. 1993-1997 - Chairman of the Board of Directors and one of the shareholders of MDM. This was reported by Kommersant.
In 1997, Melnichenko bought back all the shares of MDM. And he became his owner.
In 2000, it merged MDM with Converse Bank. In the same year, 2000, together with Sergei Popov, he created a company that formed three joint-stock companies: Eurochem, SUEK, and Pipe Metallurgical Company. And he organized another investment company, namely Rinako.
In 2000, he was 28 years old.
Kovdor: no roads, no maternity hospital, no schools
But now you can get to know the city of Kovdor, which is located in the Murmansk region. This is a forgotten place by God, although in some way it is the patrimony of the oligarch Melnichenko, because the Kovdorsky GOK increases the fortune of a businessman from year to year.
From Kovdor to the nearest Russian settlement - more than 100 km, but to Finland only 20 km. Here, of course, there is a railway. But on this road go only freight cars, with rocks. But there is also the Kovdor highway, old and very broken. This was written by a blogger on the site "Rusmirror".
Kovdor Mining and Processing Plant is a city-forming enterprise. From any window here you can see the huge pipes of the plant: the whole city is in the fields.
Kovdor was once associated with the names of pioneering geologists and mining engineers. Today it is the city of the oligarch Melnichenko.
The budget of Kovdor district is 50% subsidized. The other half are taxes of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as deductions of the mining and processing enterprise.
In recent years, there has been talk about changing the legal address of the mining and processing enterprise, after which payments to the budget may completely cease. The logic of the GOK owners is simple: the plant, which is the property of the EuroChem group, owes nothing to the city and its inhabitants!
The Evrokhim company itself, recall, is Swiss, with a deployment in the city of Zug.
There are many abandoned construction projects in Kovdor: these are houses, hospital buildings, two swimming pools. There are many abandoned slums in Kovdor: the city has no money to demolish dilapidated housing ..
In recent years, a bakery, a dairy, a timber industry enterprise have closed in Kovdor, then a sewing factory has bent down.
Gave the oak state farm that fed the city. Old-timers recall that 20 years ago, Finns from their fabulous country of Suomi came for delicious Kovdor sausages from venison. They took reindeer sausages in boxes. This was written by a blogger on the site "Rusmirror".
Most of these factories and plants since the 80s have been under the tutelage of the Kovdorsky GOK. But since Mr. Melnichenko put his oligarchic five on the plant, the plant has become part of the Eurochem group.
The friendly team of Melnichenko very quickly decided to get rid of everything superfluous in the Arctic town.
Benefit Award
Somehow quietly ceased to show signs of life
Kovdorsk district hospital. This hospital has been optimized. And they joined Monchegorsk hospital. The distance between Kovdor and Monchegorsk is 165 km. The road is in terrible condition. Closed by the hospital. And you have to go to Monchegorsk to give birth. From Kovdor to the hospital in Monchegorsk, a free bus was launched for ... 6 seats. And sign up for this flight in almost a month!
In Kovdor, the local police station was closed. This unit was transferred to the Polar Dawns: it is 120 km along a broken highway.
It is hard to believe that once in Kovdor there was a completely different life: 6 comprehensive schools worked in the city, two sanatoriums - a dispensary, a children's art school.
In 2015, the art school was closed: there were awful bills for heating a children's institution, but in 2016, Mr. Melnichenko received a state award - the Sign "For Good Deeds".
Separately, it should be said about the terrible working conditions at the Melnichenko plant. It is about hazardous work. The management of the mining and processing enterprise requires large refineries from the workers, otherwise the salary is reduced by twenty thousand (and it is so small -50-60 thousand rubles). And refining in places like a quarry or an enrichment plant poses a danger to life. Here, fires, landslides and explosions are not uncommon. And if in the USSR such cases were a rarity, today an emergency occurs regularly: the oligarch Melnichenko saves on the health and lives of his workers, constantly squeezing the maximum profit. In recent years, accidents at the plant occur almost every month.
Workers at the plant are dissatisfied with working conditions. Strikes also happen. Nobody knows anything about what is happening at the plant, about accidents and workers ’performances, outside of Kovdor. Affects the remoteness of the city, and the deaf place where it is located. Kovdor turn into a city of shift workers. And shift workers, as you know, come for a long ruble. They work. Get the money. And they are leaving. The shift workers do not need kindergartens, schools or libraries.This is how a once-living city on a map of the country turns into a bear corner.
Kovdor is already included in the list of single-industry towns with a very difficult socio-economic situation.
But you can read about the achievements of the “other” Kovdor in Forbes: oligarch Andrei Melnichenko is the 8th billionaire of the Russian Federation. And the 88th billionaire of the world.
How can one not love the country in which he graduated from the most prestigious university — Moscow State University and its people — in order to cynically deal with people, with workers at the Kovdor GOK?
Or on the luxurious yacht "A", which the oligarch built in 2008 for $ 300 million - on this boat there is also a helipad, and three swimming pools, several bedrooms - not for gloomy thoughts? But how can the whole city be bled?
No, of course, the oligarch thinks about the plant. Here, in July of this year A large-scale modernization of production took place at the GOK. Over the past 2 years, two major investment projects have been implemented: the mining equipment fleet has been modernized. The plant received seven 240-ton BelAZ dump trucks worth over 1 billion rubles.
All machines are already up and running. But the plant will have to implement another large-scale investment project for the acquisition of mining and transport equipment worth more than 5 billion rubles. This project will allow Kovdorsky GOK to increase the mineral resource base. And increase the volume of finished products - apatite, iron ore and baddeleyite concentrates. This is necessary, of course, in order for Mr. Melnichenko to purchase either a new villa or start building a new yacht. The hole in the boat, the industrial city of Kovdor, is of interest only to him as an object that enhances the personal state of businessman Melnichenko.
In addition, the Kovdor mine is projected to be operational until 2050. Will there be at least one living soul in this dying city?